Divertimento

(I apologize for any previous statements I have made, promising that the posts they were attached to would be the longest post I would write---I will be making no more such promises, because apparently the longer I spend in Italy, the more I want to tell about it).

Alright, so my last blog I left off with a promise to tell what the “film night” in Villalta was like…  We watched a French film- the title translates into “The Top Model in My Bed”- and from what I got of it, some rich important guy was trying to woo a model, and his wife found out, so he paid some guy to pretend like he was dating the model (instead of the rich guy) to convince his wife’s spies…. I don’t know.  It was obviously a comedy.  Dinner wasn’t anything spectacular- just this and that- leftovers, pizza things, chips, fruit, etc.  After dinner, we had snacks while watching the movie- we had chips and this good bread that was filled with prosciutto and cheese.

I stayed for most of the movie, then used the comp for a bit, then went to sleep earlier than usual. I was woken up at midnight by some of the girls getting champagne from the shelves that are in my bit of the room (up the spiral staircase).  It was one of the girls’ birthday, so I went with them to her room and we had champagne and cookies, and one of the girls conducted a ceremony- crowning her queen… it was funny.

The next morning I had a long breakfast and chatted with the girls for quite some time.  I mentioned to Begonia (the girl from Spain) that the Italian word for butter is the same as the Spanish word for donkey (burro), and we had a bit of a laugh when I asked her to pass me the donkey. 

At breakfast, I was invited to go with some of the girls to the cinema later that night.  They were going to see a film with a title that translates into “Don’t judge me.”  After breakfast, Begonia told me that she needed to go shopping and asked if I wanted to go with her.  Since I spent money on clothes in Leeds, I made up my mind not to buy anything (but if I found rain boots, I would absolutely buy them, because I’ve been wearing my Toms pretty much every day, and Toms are in the rain.  They say that when it rains in Naples, it rains A LOT.  But on that shopping trip, I discovered that the largest size shoe that any store in Italy sells is a size 40, or occasionally a 41, but I am a size 42(zoinks!).  Does Amazon deliver to Italy? (I asked the girls late if they every buy anything online in Italy, and they said no, never…so that’s not promising.)

So anyway, I agreed to go shopping with Begonia even though I wasn’t going to buy anything, and I’m SO glad I went!! (Also, father, you will be very impressed to hear that I did, in fact, not buy anything.. Proud?)  She showed me so many cool places within walking distance from the Villalta!!  I tried to get pictures, but my camera died after only a couple. I will definitely be going back; it was beautiful.  I saw Piazza Plebiscito, some sweet markets (one with a live octopus and a crab duking it out in a tank- I watched that for a while…I’ve never seen a live octopus), a huge, gorgeous shopping center, cool little coffee shops (which I will try eating at instead of the icky shore-side stands I’ve been trying to eat at after my Italian class…we were right behind the building I have my class in), and some really great clothing stores- some were beautiful, expensive ones (for looking) and some were cool, cheap ones (for if I have money from my grant left over at the end of my trip…). 

The shops played American music, which was nice, but at one point, in one of the nicer shops, the song “Forget You” came on, and it wasn’t edited!!! (Mom, this is one of the songs that they sang on American Idol during Hollywood week, but its original version is never played publicly in America because it has very blatant cussing…but apparently it doesn’t matter if it’s edited when you don’t speak the language that the bad words belong to…)

I’ve decided that anytime one of the girls asks me if I want to go somewhere with her, I will definitely go, even if I don’t feel like it, because it’s really cool being able to see the city with someone who knows what things are, and with the feeling of safety of being with someone else.  Naples is very beautiful, but it’s not a place where I would want to walk around, unveiling its beauty, alone.  Also, I’m excited to now have some things to show Jenn and the Australians when they come!  It was really great walking with Begonia, because whenever I could think of how to say something in Spanish, I would, so there was a lot less explaining to do- and she helped me learn what those words are in Italian… it was good.  So we were able to talk quite a bit and it was fun.  She told me about these cool bar-ish places, somewhere near the Villalta, where you can go and sit and talk with friends, and if you buy something to drink, you get free appetizers!  She told me that a Greek girl that she met in her Italian course said that she wanted to go, so Begonia said I should go with them… she said possibly this Saturday.  She also promised one of the girls we live with that she would make a Spanish meal on Sunday for brunch and asked me if I wanted to come. I’m definitely going to hit that up.

It’s easier to communicate when you’re on a roll and have been talking and translating for a few hours already (kind of like that chatty sort of “high” that you get from being at the career fair or after having an interview when you’ve made an effort to be as talkative as possible- it kind of spills over), so lunch today when Begonia and I got back from shopping was really fun, because I was remembering more Italian words and I was able to hear what they were saying better.  For lunch, the first course was shells with broccoli.  The main course was chicken and roasted potatoes.  And dessert was the best!  For Ludo’s birthday, we had two kinds of cake- one was similar to the cake with wild strawberries that we had for the last birthday, but it also had kiwi and pears on top, and the other was a chocolate mousse layered ice cream cake. Sooooo good.  But that wasn’t all, we had wine too! REALLY good wine!  It was called Brancaia(maybe??), and was a very sweet and delicious red wine. So great.

After lunch, I spent some time talking with my roommates, picked up a fax machine cartridge down the street for Elisabetta, and spent some time in the computer room.  At 8 we left for the movie, and it was great.  After buying our tickets (only 7 euro…that’s better than any place in Missouri fo sho!), we went across the street to the café and bought paninos (a panino is basically any sandwich… most were on ciabatta or sandwich things stuffed into a roll.  There were egg and mozzarella paninos, proscuito and cheese paninos, pizza paninos, etc., etc.)- we bought wurstel paninos! (They were like hot dogs in the middle of a bagel roll (Mrs. Martin, you would have loved them!  They weren’t quite as good as the St. Louis version, though!).  Then we stuffed those into our purses to sneak them into the movie.  The movie was cute (che carino!), and I understood pretty much all of it!  It’s easy with movies, because the scene is set out to make you think something or feel some way (and it’s easier to buy into that when you don’t understand the words, because you have to trust how they’ve set the scene up.  When I watch movies in English, I’m always questioning everything they say and trying to guess the next move, because so many movies that are being made now have twists, and I love calling out a good twist).  Also, the music in the movies helps set a mood (half the songs in the movie were American songs and in English, even though it was an Italian-made movie).  All of these things made the movie really easy to follow (also, the slight over-acting that was in this movie helped.)  It was a comedy, so there wasn’t anything deep that I was missing by not understanding the words.

After the movie, we came back, and I went pretty much straight to bed, after talking with my roommates for a bit (it’s much easier to understand Italian at night, because my brain likes the night a lot better than the morning…given that I’m not exhausted beyond the ability to think.)  And because I went to bed without getting on the computer to blog or email or talk to anyone on skype, as I was laying in bed before I fell asleep, all my thinking was Italian words!  There’s quite a noticeable difference in my thinking and ability to understand the other girls when I’ve been writing or speaking in English recently and when I haven’t been.  Perhaps I should cut ya’ll off…or start blogging in Italian!  But then I would have to learn English all over again..

So, this morning, breakfast was all the same foods as usual, but meals are getting more fun as I am getting closer to the girls and we’re able to talk about more things other than why I’m here, how old I am, how tall I am, if I speak any Italian, and if I have a boyfriend.  Also, they are getting much better at understanding English, I’m getting much better at understanding Italian.  I think understanding people’s personalities helps a lot with understand what they are saying. 

Now I’m sitting in the sitting room typing this, and there is one girl in here playing fancy stuff on the piano and another girl in the other room playing fancy stuff on her violin.  The “ladies” here are so talented! I wonder why they let me in…  Perhaps I’m the entertainment.

Also, I just now discovered the library!! The have all the Harry Potter books!  I’m going to read them to improve my Italian! I’m starting with the 3^rd, because it’s the most familiar to me, since I’ve read it about 10 times.  Dan, you’ll be happy to hear that the entire Lord of the Rings series is here, and those are actually in English!  I may just read them, finally!  I do have a lot to read though…. I have the complete Jane Austen series that I brought with me, as well as the Italian Harry Potter books, Playing for Pizza, and Wild at Heart.

So, now I’ve started the Harry Potter book, and it’s much more frustrating to read than I was expecting, because I love it so much and I just want to be able to understand every little bit of it, and...I don’t know Italian- go figure that it’s frustrating to try to read in a language you don’t know.  I think that I will borrow the copy of Alice in Wonderland that Begonia bought the other day- the entire book has each page in English and Italian (the left page is English, the right Italian…), so that sounds like it would be very helpful to me.  I don’t really want to read the book, because Tim Burton’s version has kind of turned me off of the story… but it’s a classic for a reason.. so, I’m sure it will be good.  Allora, I have more than enough books to keep me busy here for a year, and I have a feeling I will only be able to tackle a couple of them, because there are so many opportunities to go out and experience Italy in real life.  Although, it is extremely nice sitting on the terrace on the roof, with all the sun and the slight breeze off of the ocean, looking out at the mountains and the sea, with beautiful Italian buildings surrounding me, reading a book.  So I will definitely get some reading done- you don’t just get that sort of environment to read in Midwest America, so it would be wrong not to take advantage of it.  I’m not ready to start studying :( .  My days have been more than filled when I haven’t even had anything to do!  When my research and my engineering classes start, the blogs won’t be near as long, I’m sure (which will come as a relief to some. Dan.)

As a side note, I wanted to let you know that I am officially over my jet lag/time-zone-change-lag.  I slept 10 hours last night!  And the three nights before that- 8 hours.  Praise God!

Okay, off I go to read, to check prices on Ryan Air to see when I can meet up with Jenn, to finish my powerpoint about my Life in America (family, I will be sending this to you so that you can remind me about things I have forgotten, so be prepared), to print off a calendar to keep track of when my classes are and when people will be visiting, to research how I want to go about getting a phone over here, and to translate all the stinkin words the teacher of my Italian course used and was not able to explain.

Ciao, ciao!  Arrivedercci!  Amore!  I will write again sometime soon!  Presto!

P.S. I’m going to start adding a postscript about things I miss from the states, so that you all can be happy you have access to them, and don’t have to be so jealous of me and my fabulous life…

Today’s:  Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Movies in English. Barbeque (particularily pulled pork (particularly from Oklahoma Joe’s in KC or Famous Dave’s). Harry Potter in English.