The best day.

30 Maggio 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nru9ScmOWUM&feature=youtu.be

The last 7 years.

I recently looked for this blog that I started when I was 22 years old, when I was telling my husband Sergio about it, surprised it had not crossed my mind in years. I was thinking about how it was for me when I first moved abroad, finding it difficult to remember why I made this choice in the first place & wanting to read my own younger voice (it was a nice reunion!).

The past seven years have been transformative for me, with life handing me steep learning curves, big surprises & giving me the biggest gift of all – love.

In the past 7 years…

• I have eaten a countless number of pizzas, plates of pastas and I have drank a countless number of glass of wine.
• I have traveled to France, Hungary, Bosnia, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Croatia & Switzerland.
• I have run 6 marathons & 7 half marathons.
• I have moved apartments 6 times.
• I have taken 15 round trips from Rome to Seattle and back (can you imagine how many movies I have watched on planes?).
• I have had 5 Permesso di Soggiornos which is an Italian permit to stay (working on my 6^th & last this October! Hallelujah!).
• I have learned to love love love pasta, and learned to cook it.
• The Permessos mean I have spent, over the course of 7 years, probably weeks, at the Italian post offices & city halls & immigration center.
• The Sonics still are not back in Seattle.
• I still don’t believe in ‘cervicale’ which is a sickness Italians think you get when wind ‘hits’ your neck.
• I have discovered how beautiful my state is.
• The Seahawks won the SUPERBOWL! 2014!!!!!!
• The Seahawks lost the Superbowl :( 2015
• I have developed friendships with people from all ranges of backgrounds, cultures, races & mindsets.
• I have worked at 4 English Schools and 2 UN agencies.
• I still think it’s ok to go in the sea after you eat.
• I started to become a little bit judgmental when people order a cappuccino after dinner.
• I started to talk with my hands.
• I have fallen in love, gotten engaged & gotten married.

crazy fate....

Two years ago when I studied in Rome I was sitting in St. Peters by myself just thinking when this man came up to me and asked if I would read a poem that was about me. He told me that if I liked it, he would sign it and give it to me. I was flattered and loved it and I ended up talking to him for awhile. He was born and raised in Rome and worked as a sales man but on the side he wrote poems, he even had published a book. It was a neat experience and I often think about him when I am in St. Peters. My cousin Keri came to visit me and we were catching each other up on our lives (she was studying in Brig, Switzerland) sitting in St. Peters Square. I told her the story about Vincenzo (the man who wrote the poem for me). As I finished telling her the story he walked right by and sat down next to us. I saw he was writing and I introduced myself to him and he remembered! We ended up talking for awhile and he wrote a poem about Keri and I. It is such a small world...

yesss

On Sunday it was so beautiful and we got a little taste of spring. The weather was so beautiful that we all just sat in the sun, in a park near the colosseum. Ah, it was a perfect day!

On Tuesday I MOVED! I love my new apartment. I am living with a girl from work Shauna who is also from the west coast (Oregon). She is great and we are both so happy to live in a place near work. To me, it could not get more perfect. My old living situation was less than ideal so it is like a palace to me!! :)

More pictures from the park...the sun was going down but that is the colosseum behind me. 

La Vita e BELLA

I am doing well! For the first time since coming to Rome I feel settled and like I am actually LIVING HERE and it feels great!

Missing everyone still!

xoxo

This a picture inside the colosseum in Rome. Kelly, the girl in the red came to Rome just to take the class to get certified to teach English but actually lives and teaches in Korea. It was her last day and she still hadn't been so we all went and made a day of it...(after we saw the colosseum we had a picnic in the grass and drank some delicious vino! :) )

I am slowly but surely starting to feel more comfortable with my situation in Rome. It has been an overwhelming six weeks, stressful and wonderful at the same time, but I would not trade it for anything. I am finally beginning to get more of a grasp on the language. I still have soooo far to go, but it is coming along. I can pick up phrases and words and understand a lot more now than I could a few weeks ago! Teaching has also gotten easier and I think I am improving in that area as well. I have some great students who are so wonderful people and who I have become friends with!

My impression of Italy is worlds away than it was when I was studying here. I have met so many more Italians this time around and have learned a lot more about their culture, politics (a very touchy subject here), and way of life. Many of them can't understand why I have come here to teach English when all the opportunity in the world is in front of me in the United States. It is unfortunate but there is not much opportunity for people to advance in the world force here. I find their lifestyle and approach to relationships with others very appealing though. Dinners last for hours, they can be so helpful and kind, and truly enjoy the company of others, they spend hours walking in parks...la dolce vita. 

An Italian Dinner

My Italian roommates insisted on cooking dinner for a few of my American friends on Saturday night. I assumed some pasta and wine…but they prepared a 3 course meal. Bruscetta, lasagna and then chicken and potatoes. All home made (I had my American friend who can speak fluent Italian tell them I could taste the all the love!). It was such a delicious meal. They are so incredibly hospitable. And all of them are amazing cooks and so inviting. Dinner lasted about three or four hours, la dolce vita! J

It was so nice and so much fun. Since there were a couple of translators at the dinner (my American friend and one of my roommates who can speak English pretty well) a few issues from last week got cleared up for me. For instance: when I moved in I was told Stephania (one of the girls in my room), had a “phantom.” This was their English description of something that Stephania does and I was definitely not clear on what they meant by this…I just sort of laughed and remained confused not really understanding what they were meaning. Well last week in the middle of the night Stephania and Anna (my other roommate) were having a full on conversation at about 3am. I am a light sleeper and was really frustrated by this, especially since I had to get up early for work. I couldn’t say that I was angry because I can’t say it in Italian and they can’t understand English, but after they turned the light on I sat up in bed and gave them a what-are-you-doing-right-now! Kind of look…it turns out that Stephania’s “phantom” is that she talks in her sleep a lot and usually it doesn’t make sense (at this stage of my Italian I would not be able to tell the difference, so to me it sounded like she was trying to have a conversation with Anna). So Stephania’s “phantom” always wakes Anna up and she has to wake Stephania up to tell her to go back to sleep. THAT is what happened, but I just thought that they were being rude! We all had a nice long laugh when we figured out the communication errors.

Some other funny translation/interpretation struggles:

When I was doing the dishes and my roommate Rina insisted on doing them. She wanted to say, “I will wash them.” But said, “Wash me.”

Or when my roommate Stephania was telling me about how she studied Psychology in school and was telling me why she is not yet a Psychologist. She meant to say, “It’s a long road,” but she said, “The street is very wide.”

I am constantly making these same mistakes when I try to speak in Italian, and usually get a lot of laughs as I struggle to ask simple questions to my roommates (it is all in good fun of course). It’s important to remember to have a sense of humor! …I am learning that it is the most important thing to take with you when you travel.

Over all, life is good here in Rome! I have met some really great people and have already had some great times. I am teaching at The New British Center in Rome. The students are all levels ranging from beginner English speakers to advanced English speaker. I have found that I like teaching beginner-intermediate best, but I enjoy all the levels, and have realized that I love teaching. I am still in the process of being trained by the school I am working for and I am ready to feel more comfortable and get into the swing of things.

Still missing everyone, but I am doing great J

“You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart and in your mind, because you do not just live a world, but a world lives in you.” 

So today was my craziest day in Italy yet. My very first day of actually teaching and I have never felt more unprepared for something. I feel qualified and confident, but there were a few reasons why I was hesitant about today: 1. the teachers manual is in Italian (yeahhh), 2. I have not been around 20 4-5 year olds since I was 4-5, 3. I had no idea where the school was (of course, I got lost on my way today), 4. no one at the school I was going to knew English and they didn't know I don't understand Italian well. So, needless to say, I was extremely nervous. The commute for this job is absolutely insane and I will never agree to a job again until I look at a map--but my boss told me to ask the bus driver where to get dropped off. I did, and he told me to get off at a stop no where near the school. So I was literally running with two bags a purse and a backpack to make it to this no where to be found destination on the outskirts of Rome. When I finally arrived in the classroom there were 20 of the cutest little Italian kids I have ever seen sitting in a circle around me and I realized I had absolutely NO IDEA what I was going to do. It was a crazy crazy morning and I somehow made it through. It took a lot of smiling and singing (yes-singing, those poor unfortunate little children are scarred for life!). THEN I had to go and interview over 20 Italians and determine their English level for over a period of 6 hours regarding a prestigious opportunity to work for a business in China (I am not too sure how Carmen, the woman who gave me the teaching job hooked me up with this), but I met a lot of very kind people. Kindness is a common theme among most of the people I have met in Italy. Strangers who help me out on a daily basis for no reason, my roommates who try to help me out and feed me whenever they can, students who I have worked with and smiling faces I see on the streets here everyday. Even in those stressful moments when the bus driver drops me off at the wrong stop, or I get lost, or I am in a classroom feeling completely lost--I am grateful for those around me who have been so kind so far :)

I miss everyone from home though!!