Have
you ever tried going a week without dairy products in a country like
Italy? I have never had more trouble trying to figure out what to eat.
Why was I cutting out dairy products? Simple: the consumption of
dairy products helps with mucus production, and I had a cold (My four years of Music paid off in more ways than one!). My mucus
production did not need any boosting. As a result, the meals I could
eat when I had solo mealtime were cut down to about 1/4 of what they
would normally be. I think the family noticed, because last Sunday the
mother made sure to let me know that I was welcome to anything in the
house, because she didn’t think I was eating enough.
My Italian is slowly but surely improving. I think it helps that I bought un nuovo quaderno strictly for my Italian class, and I have been organizing my notes from my previous quaderno into this one in a way that makes sense for me. Though after Tuesday’s class, I’ve gone from feeling competent to feeling like I’ll be playing catch up for the next seven weeks. Why? They split the class into two parts, so there is now one advanced group and one beginning group. Don’t ask me how this happened, but I got shuffled into the advanced group. I could understand most of what was being said; my vocabulary, though, is still extremely limited. Even with the help of the dictionary, I sometimes don’t know exactly how to express what I want to say. As a result of my unprecedented move, I have homework I get to study up on both the passato prossimo and imperfetto. Luckily the passato prossimo is somewhat similar to the French passé composé, which will end up both helping and messing with my mind ( “J’ai travaillé... no, crap... ho lavorato...” Yeah, that’ll be me).
Thursday I did one of the best things I could: I bought an Italian cookbook. It should help me for when I get back to the states. I know I owe at least 5 people an authentic Italian meal (though, if you’re wanting handmade pasta, you’re going to have to provide me with a pasta roller), so having a reference guide that discusses how to make all these various dishes--the book has pictures of each dish, and they look fantastic--will help a lot. The entire book is in Italian, though, so I’ve been poring over it and the little dictionary I found in the basement of the house and writing notes so I can concentrate on the cooking (though, if I use my Italian often enough with this book, then maybe it won’t go away! ^^). As I was scanning the recipes I realized that I want to come back to Italy sometime in the future to take an Italian cooking class, because how awesome would that be? I also want to do the same thing in France and Greece if the opportunity arises. So I made the decision to incorporate coming back to Italy for a cooking class as a reward for maintaining another goal I’m working on while I’m here. The trick is to not get wrapped up in the rewards and focus on achieving the goal first. See? I’m learning...
The weather changed from being sunny and kind of warm (mid 50s to low 60s F max) to being overcast and down pouring rain on Friday. Yes, I know, just like home. This made me think of an interesting problem: how do Italians dry their clothes in the winter? From what I’ve seen during my first six weeks, most Italian families do not own a conventional dryer like we do in the States; instead, they just hang their clothes out to dry. This presents an entertaining but very real problem for me: see, I was frugal and only brought about 13 days’ worth of clothes, and I’ve had at least 3 shirts go missing, not to mention the fact that most of my socks are in the process of dying (I need to invest in house shoes so bad...). I didn’t think anything of the hanging clothes out to dry when I arrived, but mostly because it was September and still incredibly warm. What with the fact that there is currently snow visible on the mountains near the house, though, this has become a real question. I’m starting to think that the radiators are still around for this express purpose, but with my luck I’d end up setting my clothes on fire...
Saturday I met up with one of the other au pairs in Turin for a drink. We went to the English pub on via Vittorio Emanuel II, then she took me over to via Po to wander around. Turin at night is gorgeous!!! For those who didn't know, Turin was the capital of Italy before Rome, and there's a lot of beautiful buildings and statues that can be seen both during the day and at night. The buildings lit up at night, though, made me think I was in a fairy tale and should have been wearing a ball gown. I’m making the executive decision that on November 10th I’m going to spend the entire Saturday in Turin going to all the museums I can. I’ll make sure I get the camera and take pictures, and I’ll try my best to get--and write--some postcards. If you want a postcard from Italy, either email me or message me privately on whichever social networking site you see this update from with your address, and I’ll do my best to send you one.
I’m going to say this right now, because by next week’s blog it should have already happened. Since my first term of online classes finishes on the 30th, I’m going to take the 31st through the 3rd off and take a break from the Internet. I’ll still write down things in my notebooks that I’ll share at my next blog, but I want to take a small computer break (and besides, all the political postings are starting to make me cry. PLEASE VOTE!!! I won’t endorse one candidate over the other, but you, my wonderful readers, have the chance to elect the next president. Don’t throw this chance away!!). This will give me a chance to go out and wander both Rivalta and Turin and play tourist for a few days.
Oh, and for the next seven days I’m only 8 hours ahead of y’all instead of my usual 9. The rest of the world doesn’t believe it necessary to extend DST. Have a great week, and don’t get hit by Sandy or the tsunami heading towards us!
My Italian is slowly but surely improving. I think it helps that I bought un nuovo quaderno strictly for my Italian class, and I have been organizing my notes from my previous quaderno into this one in a way that makes sense for me. Though after Tuesday’s class, I’ve gone from feeling competent to feeling like I’ll be playing catch up for the next seven weeks. Why? They split the class into two parts, so there is now one advanced group and one beginning group. Don’t ask me how this happened, but I got shuffled into the advanced group. I could understand most of what was being said; my vocabulary, though, is still extremely limited. Even with the help of the dictionary, I sometimes don’t know exactly how to express what I want to say. As a result of my unprecedented move, I have homework I get to study up on both the passato prossimo and imperfetto. Luckily the passato prossimo is somewhat similar to the French passé composé, which will end up both helping and messing with my mind ( “J’ai travaillé... no, crap... ho lavorato...” Yeah, that’ll be me).
Thursday I did one of the best things I could: I bought an Italian cookbook. It should help me for when I get back to the states. I know I owe at least 5 people an authentic Italian meal (though, if you’re wanting handmade pasta, you’re going to have to provide me with a pasta roller), so having a reference guide that discusses how to make all these various dishes--the book has pictures of each dish, and they look fantastic--will help a lot. The entire book is in Italian, though, so I’ve been poring over it and the little dictionary I found in the basement of the house and writing notes so I can concentrate on the cooking (though, if I use my Italian often enough with this book, then maybe it won’t go away! ^^). As I was scanning the recipes I realized that I want to come back to Italy sometime in the future to take an Italian cooking class, because how awesome would that be? I also want to do the same thing in France and Greece if the opportunity arises. So I made the decision to incorporate coming back to Italy for a cooking class as a reward for maintaining another goal I’m working on while I’m here. The trick is to not get wrapped up in the rewards and focus on achieving the goal first. See? I’m learning...
The weather changed from being sunny and kind of warm (mid 50s to low 60s F max) to being overcast and down pouring rain on Friday. Yes, I know, just like home. This made me think of an interesting problem: how do Italians dry their clothes in the winter? From what I’ve seen during my first six weeks, most Italian families do not own a conventional dryer like we do in the States; instead, they just hang their clothes out to dry. This presents an entertaining but very real problem for me: see, I was frugal and only brought about 13 days’ worth of clothes, and I’ve had at least 3 shirts go missing, not to mention the fact that most of my socks are in the process of dying (I need to invest in house shoes so bad...). I didn’t think anything of the hanging clothes out to dry when I arrived, but mostly because it was September and still incredibly warm. What with the fact that there is currently snow visible on the mountains near the house, though, this has become a real question. I’m starting to think that the radiators are still around for this express purpose, but with my luck I’d end up setting my clothes on fire...
Saturday I met up with one of the other au pairs in Turin for a drink. We went to the English pub on via Vittorio Emanuel II, then she took me over to via Po to wander around. Turin at night is gorgeous!!! For those who didn't know, Turin was the capital of Italy before Rome, and there's a lot of beautiful buildings and statues that can be seen both during the day and at night. The buildings lit up at night, though, made me think I was in a fairy tale and should have been wearing a ball gown. I’m making the executive decision that on November 10th I’m going to spend the entire Saturday in Turin going to all the museums I can. I’ll make sure I get the camera and take pictures, and I’ll try my best to get--and write--some postcards. If you want a postcard from Italy, either email me or message me privately on whichever social networking site you see this update from with your address, and I’ll do my best to send you one.
I’m going to say this right now, because by next week’s blog it should have already happened. Since my first term of online classes finishes on the 30th, I’m going to take the 31st through the 3rd off and take a break from the Internet. I’ll still write down things in my notebooks that I’ll share at my next blog, but I want to take a small computer break (and besides, all the political postings are starting to make me cry. PLEASE VOTE!!! I won’t endorse one candidate over the other, but you, my wonderful readers, have the chance to elect the next president. Don’t throw this chance away!!). This will give me a chance to go out and wander both Rivalta and Turin and play tourist for a few days.
Oh, and for the next seven days I’m only 8 hours ahead of y’all instead of my usual 9. The rest of the world doesn’t believe it necessary to extend DST. Have a great week, and don’t get hit by Sandy or the tsunami heading towards us!
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