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Christmas here is an event that school fully supports (despite the presence of non-christians in the school). Maddy and Gus participated in the school-wide Christmas program where the students sang Christmas songs (usually American classics, but translated into Italian) at the Monterenzio theater (full house) and church in Mercatale (the next town up towards Bologna).
A few weeks back, Gus' teacher asked me on a whim if Gus would like to sing a solo in the program, in fact maybe Maddy, too. After I said, 'sure, maybe,' I heard exactly one thing in the way of follow up- a week ago the same teacher shouted after me, 'I hope you're practicing!' It was a surprise to me when we arrived for the program and the second number was announced, '...including two soloists who's native language is English.' The music instructor paired an adult from her community choir with them. I caught it all on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZGN6RxisFo If you listen carefully, you can hear my Russian friend's surprise (mostly expressed in Italian) at seeing Maddy and Gus front and center.
Here you see Maddy and Gus ready in their red shirts and santa hats, and then on stage at the program.
From the kids' class Christmas party there are pictures of Gus' class and Maddy and her friend Andra eating traditional pandoro, as well as a short video clip of Gus and his class singing some of 'Here comes Santa Claus,' in italian- Gus is the one bouncing in the back...
Auguri di Buon Natale!!!
in boca al lupo is what Italians say when they mean ‘good luck.’ If you are familiar with latin or romance languages you may have already guessed that it literally means, ‘in the mouth of the wolf.’ And to such an image, you cannot merely answer ‘thanks,’ you have to say ‘crepi,’ or ‘that the wolf die.’ It’s not only a violent image (I guess ‘break a leg’ is), it’s also a combative one. We have been wished in boca al lupo, or the less violent, but even more ironic auguri (best wishes) on many occasions- trying to get our codici fiscale (social sercurity numbers), buying a car, getting our permessi di soggiorno (temporary residency), sending packages to the US- in all those circumstances when you’re subject to something greater, something bureaucratic, something Italian.
Now we’ve been waiting for four weeks for telecom italia to reconnect our landlords’ mistakenly disconnected phone line (did I mention that TELECOM ITALIA was who disconnected the line by ACCIDENT in the first place?) so that we can have wifi at home again, and I’m finding this violent and combative image of killing a wolf a satisfying fantasy- a big fat telecom italia wolf. It would be a bloody fight, and I don’t know who would win.
I think they took out our line just before thanksgiving, they said it would be a week, then two, then nothing until December 12th, then not before Saturday the 13th, now on Weds the 17th they re-estimated: not until Dec 27th. I cried hot tears of frustration for an hour at this news. And it’s just our internet, for our neighbors it’s their PHONE LINE, too. Sorry, I just can’t help but think THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN THE U.S.!!!! In the first place it would never take more than a couple of days (maybe a couple of hours) to get the error fixed, and if it went on for any length of time, some kind of reparations would be offered. This is so wrong, so unjust!
I was too frustrated for words at the thought of not being able to skype with family over Christmas. So when I was almost done crying, I got off my duff and stormed out the door for a walk in the hills (we had the first sunny day in many and it was a treat not to be missed despite my nasty mood). As I walked I thought at first how sick I am of feeling this helpless- ‘I have my rights as a customer, you know?!’ and then I realized thoughts like those apply in the US, and not necessarily in our circumstances (ie: using the neighbor’s wireless). And then as I walked some more and I ran into some chickens who were soaking up the sun by the side of the road (free-range style). They looked annoyed with me that I might want to walk through their whole patch of sun, too, making them waddle off into the shade and mud. A little further up I found my spot- the one I like at the top of our road where you can get a great view on a clear day of the south on into Tuscany and the north up to Bologna. I picked my own sunny spot by the side of the road and sat down to soak up the sun. I tried to think of reasons I have for being thankful- this gorgeous, soul-filling view; watching the kids learn so much; a husband who never takes me too seriously, thereby helping me shake bad moods like this; the chance to make new friends; the chance to realize how much we love and appreciate our family and friends at home… And then I thought; what am I so upset about? No internet access? Not skyping family and friends? I can work around those with a little footwork and some old-fashioned substitutes (phone calls instead of skyping, sorry, it will have to do). No, I’m mostly upset about the fact that it SHOULDN’T be like this. But is this situation truly unjust, and worthy of my anguish? Or is that a word that should be saved for really serious occasions?
ps: you might notice that I posted 8 new entries today, I was able to do it at the library about 15 km away in San Lazzaro. I can sneak over there or into Bologna once a week or so, so keep an eye out for multiple posts when you see any thing new.
A few days ago I noticed the tread of the tires peeling off. Not good. What do you expect from a 10 year-old car? We needed new tires and ASAP. How I discovered where to go was a cultural lesson in and of it’s self. My first stop was at basketball practice. Gus’ basketball coach lives right next to a gommista (tire guy). I said, ‘bad day, tread coming off tires, I need new ones… hey, you live next to a gommista, would you recommend him?’ Her reply, ‘no way! I went there once but my tires fell off, could have been killed, the gommista said it must have been someone else playing a trick on me, but my friend who went the same day her wheels almost fell off too. No, I go to the town the road a ways, seems like a fair man.’ The next morning in the school yard with a fellow mamma I asked her where we should go, she said most people around here go to the town down the road, hears he’s the honest type, but she goes to the town up the road. Then we went for coffee, more moms so I asked once again to break the tie- all the moms there agreed: down the road to the honest guy. 98 euros and a half hour later we had great tires. They make a nice Christmas present, don’t you think?
Thanksgiving was a cultural exchange for us this year. We made plans with our friends Lucia and Luciano and their two daughters Giulia and Emma to celebrate at our place on the Saturday after Thankgiving (no Thursday off from work here!). Luciano is a hunter, so he brought the turkey… [OK, so I made that up. I don’t think Turkeys roam free around here since they are native to the Americas, but Luciano came to dinner in his hunting get-up and the photo op was just too compelling ] We tried to make the menu as authentic as possible- Turkey (7.3 kg, just a touch too big for our oven and on special order from the local butcher), stuffing with celery and fresh sage (we had to cube our own tuscan and home-made whole wheat bread, though, no Pepperidge farm bag stuffing), lemon-ginger sweet potatoes (real orange sweet potatoes are not easy to find, had to get them from an asian greengrocer in Bologna), gravy (grandma Krantz’s slurey recipe, I think she’d be proud), corn bread, rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (thanks to an emergency thanksgiving shipment from mom), green beans, pumpkin pie and whipped cream, and ‘frutti di bosco’ crisp (wild berry). Lucia offered to help make the pies the night before, and bring rolls, green beans, wine and a movie for the kids for after dinner. When she asked how she was supposed to prepare the green beans I gave her the whole explanation of Minnesota green bean hot dish before letting her know that anything she wanted to bring was, of course, OK, if not preferable. She confessed she didn’t know where she would find this fabled condensed cream of mushroom soup nor the crispy French fried onions. Instead she brought green beans canned from her garden this summer and thin sliced homemade pancetta (italian un-smoked bacon)- here I’ve posted a few pictures of the kids making little hay bundles of green beans wrapped in pancetta- mmmm! They were good! The kids also made the ubiquitous hand turkeys, transformed into segnalposti (place markers) with shaved down and sliced corks. At dinner we took turns sharing reasons why we’re thankful this year- I think the most agreed upon was ‘new friends.’
Starting Wednesday Nov 5 in the morning and on for days we have been congratulated on our choice of a President. I don't know how much Americans appreciate this, but Europe really looks to the US to set the tone and the pace and most people we have encountered have been disappointed with the last 8 years.
I had a few people tell me they didn't think it mattered much who won between McCain and Obama, since either one would be better than Italy's Silvio Berlusconi (in whose horse stable a man murdered by the Mafia just happen to appear some time back...) Friends also told me that they heard lots about the life of Obama, but all they knew about McCain was french fries (It's a brand like Oreida here).
The day after the election results were announced, I went to the edicola (news stand) at the bottom of the hill for my copy of the historic paper and announced, "I am proud to be an American again!" The shopkeeper laughed and said, "I believe it! Congratulations!"
It don't think it was more than a day after the election and a book from the biggest newspaper in the country was released- I couldn't figure out how they got it on the stands so fast, but then I looked at it (and bought it). It's a nice, full color glossy coffee table collection of all the recent reporting on the election. I suppose they were ready with the whole thing except the cover photo and the forward well in advance. OK- think about this: maybe it's not so far out to imagine USA today or the NY Times putting out a book like this after the election, but can you really imagine that book featuring another country's president?!
It was three days after the election and I was listening to the radio. I thought I heard something about 'young, handsome and tan' but it couldn't be... I still don't have complete faith in my Italian comprehension skills so I wanted to see if there was anything about it in the newspaper. Sure enough, the front page headline was (I'm translating loosely here) BERLUSCONI BLOWS IT, the text began something like this, We all knew it would happen sometime, we just didn't know when. Today the waiting is over and it's a doozy. Berlusconi's first official comments of Obama were, 'What's not to like? He's young, good looking and has a great tan. Of course we can work with him' A famous stand up comedian came out the next night with his hat off and said, "I can't compete with that."
And now we just saw on TV an ad for a new cell phone ring tone- it's 'Born in the USA.' with new Obama lyrics, sung in Italian.
