As our first American Holiday abroad approaches we are overcome with the reality of what a truly global world it is. Halloween is not really a holiday here, but you couldn't tell. Grocery stores have orange and black candies on the shelves, and home decoration shops have witches and ghosts in the windows. The only difference is that here, they eat their pumpkins....
As for us, we will be spending the big night out on the town. We have a few colleagues (and ex-TEFL course mates) who live near the Colloseum, and we plan to go out with them and crash at their place for the night. One thing that is working in our favor is that the Italians have All Saints day on November 1st, which means we have the day after Halloween off!! PARTY!
All Saints day is a holiday for Italians to spend in rememberance of their departed friends and family members. They spend the afternoon cleaning the dust off their grave sites and decorating them with flowers. One of my students asked if we had a holiday that was similar to All Saints Day, and when I told him that no, we didn't, he responded, "So, you just forget the dead?" Well, we are American...
As for the rest of you devoted readers, have a safe and happy Halloween, eat lots of candy corn for us, and carve some awesome pumpkins.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
A Brush With the Enemy
So, today I (Allie) received my official welcome to Rome. As I was walking from Termini train station to the Air Force base for my noon lesson I suddenly felt a strange movement of my bag. I turned my head over my right shoulder and what did I see but a 13-year-old punk with his hand on my zipper!
I had seen this kid just a minute before running down the sidewalk, and I had thought it was odd that he wasn't in school at this time on a Friday afternoon. Well, now I was discovering why.
So, nearly as instantly as I registered that this boy was trying to pick-pocket me I reacted. My right hand swung out and whacked him right in the chest. I yelled in his face, "Get the F*** out of here!!" He was rightfully stunned by my reaction, but that only lasted a second. After he recovered he began to glare at me, and then in true Italian fashion he spat in my direction.
Luckily for me, I wasn't hit by the feeble attempt at a backlash, but you bet it made me furious! As I stepped towards him to deliver more English curse words and finish him off with some Jackie Chan Type Shit, he ran off in true cowardly fashion.
As you can imagine, my adrenaline was at its height, and I was shaking and angry for the rest of my walk and for about 10 minutes into my first lesson. As I reflect now I feel proud that I didn't let that little bastard get away with anything, but I also wish I had had some pepper spray with me so at least he would have had some concrete consequence for his action.
I had seen this kid just a minute before running down the sidewalk, and I had thought it was odd that he wasn't in school at this time on a Friday afternoon. Well, now I was discovering why.
So, nearly as instantly as I registered that this boy was trying to pick-pocket me I reacted. My right hand swung out and whacked him right in the chest. I yelled in his face, "Get the F*** out of here!!" He was rightfully stunned by my reaction, but that only lasted a second. After he recovered he began to glare at me, and then in true Italian fashion he spat in my direction.
Luckily for me, I wasn't hit by the feeble attempt at a backlash, but you bet it made me furious! As I stepped towards him to deliver more English curse words and finish him off with some Jackie Chan Type Shit, he ran off in true cowardly fashion.
As you can imagine, my adrenaline was at its height, and I was shaking and angry for the rest of my walk and for about 10 minutes into my first lesson. As I reflect now I feel proud that I didn't let that little bastard get away with anything, but I also wish I had had some pepper spray with me so at least he would have had some concrete consequence for his action.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Ahhh...the Tripe
I can't believe that I forgot to mention how the tripe was at the restaurant! First, why I ordered the tripe. While we were picking grapes, one of Dante's neighbors was raving about how great the tripe was at the wine festival. At this point I decided that it couldn't be all that bad if this guy was talking it up so much. It was served 'alla Romana' meaning in the classic Roman way with some sort of thin red sauce and with Pecorino cheese on the side that you sprinkle on top as you eat. The most interesting dynamic of this plate is that you get the cooked intestines of the sheep and then you top it with cheese produced by the sheep (perhaps the same one!). The plate smelled really good when the server brought it out to us. So I thought I was off to a good start. The sauce was good but the texture of the tripe is like that of a really soft, rubbery chewing gum. You have to chew and chew and chew. I gave Allie a bite and she didn't care for the texture at all plus she had a really good chicken dish in front of her at the time. The flavor of the tripe itself was pretty mild but overall it was good when combined with the sauce and cheese. At this point, I'll have to reserve judment until I can try it again at another restaurant but I will say that I probably won't be buying it from the butcher store to cook at home!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The Latest
It's been somewhat of a crazy week here in Roma. It's hard to believe that the metros crashed, we kind of figured all of those were ran by computers in this day and age. Since the metro line was shut down all of the busses were completely packed and then some. Charles was on a bus where there was a pickpocket and some tourist got robbed of their cell phone and wallet. It was a really crazy thing to be a part of because basically everyone is helpless to do anything for the guy. By the time you notice your wallet is gone, so is the pickpocket. To be honest, it really makes you go "damn, glad it wasn't me" as cold as that may sound.
And now, something not so depressing. Allie and I have just finished another successful week of earning money. It feels great to be close to having a month's worth of earning in our little hands. Please believe we will have a tight grip on that bundle during the bus ride home. We are in the midst of planning some day trips outside of Roma which should be pretty fun and also easy on the pocket. Allie is drastically improving her tennis game everytime we play.
And now, something not so depressing. Allie and I have just finished another successful week of earning money. It feels great to be close to having a month's worth of earning in our little hands. Please believe we will have a tight grip on that bundle during the bus ride home. We are in the midst of planning some day trips outside of Roma which should be pretty fun and also easy on the pocket. Allie is drastically improving her tennis game everytime we play.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Anniversary in Italy
Well, this was a big weekend of celebrations for us. First, and most importantly we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Second, we celebrated that we have successfully completed a three-month stay in Italy. And finally, the fact that we are now officially illegal aliens! Woo hoo!
For our wedding anniversary we went to a nice restaurant here in Zagarolo. We contemplated a trip to Naples for an afternoon of world-famous pizza, but these last two weeks of work have been tiring and we still don't get paid until November, so we decided to lay low. It was a nice dinner, we did the traditional 5 course Italian style meal, and Charles was brave enough to order the Tripe (a Roman specialty made of intestines). All of the food was really good, but not outstanding. We are still looking forward to that moment when we are knocked off our feet by an Italian meal (we probably have to go to Bologna for that).
During dinner we talked about the ups and downs that we have experienced so far in this adventure, and we decided that we feel really good about everything right now. We have good jobs that we actually enjoy, we are making good money, we live in a great place, and there is little that we are stressed about (much different than a month ago). Despite that fact that we are supposed to be on a plane heading out of this country, we feel ok. After all, there are over 2000 Romanian illegal immigrants in Zagarolo alone. Who's going to notice a couple of Americans?
Because of the drop in our stress level we are afraid that our postings may be a bit more boring than those of the previous months, but at least now we can plan some fun adventures to write about. For example, we are thinking about spending Christmas in Paris, so that is in the works, and we still plan to make that trip to Naples for pizza (so Charles can find out if this move was really worth it!).
For our wedding anniversary we went to a nice restaurant here in Zagarolo. We contemplated a trip to Naples for an afternoon of world-famous pizza, but these last two weeks of work have been tiring and we still don't get paid until November, so we decided to lay low. It was a nice dinner, we did the traditional 5 course Italian style meal, and Charles was brave enough to order the Tripe (a Roman specialty made of intestines). All of the food was really good, but not outstanding. We are still looking forward to that moment when we are knocked off our feet by an Italian meal (we probably have to go to Bologna for that).
During dinner we talked about the ups and downs that we have experienced so far in this adventure, and we decided that we feel really good about everything right now. We have good jobs that we actually enjoy, we are making good money, we live in a great place, and there is little that we are stressed about (much different than a month ago). Despite that fact that we are supposed to be on a plane heading out of this country, we feel ok. After all, there are over 2000 Romanian illegal immigrants in Zagarolo alone. Who's going to notice a couple of Americans?
Because of the drop in our stress level we are afraid that our postings may be a bit more boring than those of the previous months, but at least now we can plan some fun adventures to write about. For example, we are thinking about spending Christmas in Paris, so that is in the works, and we still plan to make that trip to Naples for pizza (so Charles can find out if this move was really worth it!).
Friday, October 13, 2006
Winemaker for a Day
I can scratch off another item off my Italy "to do" list. Early Thursday morning we started the Villa Verde grape harvest. We were both really excited to do it but luckily for me all of my lessons cancelled. Not because I'm a bad teacher or anything, it just worked out that way. I hope anyway. Allie had to commute to Rome to be the bread winner of the family while I got to stay at home and be the wine winner (not sure if that's really a phrase).
Once we (four of us) were set up with buckets and scissors we went to work. Let me just say, it's a lot easier to pick up a bottle of ten dollar wine at the grocery store than to make it from scratch! Unfortunately, due to Dante's touring schedule we couldn't pick the grapes until about two weeks after they should have been picked. That means that the grapes were starting to get very sweet. Sweet grapes have an upside and a downside. First the upside, the more sugar present in the grapes equals a higher alcohol percentage. What could be bad about that, right? Well, the downside is that bees of all sorts also really love sweet grapes. So we had to contend with wasps, bumblebees and some type of gigantic bee the likes of which I'd never seen. The bees get inside fo the grape so you have to be careful when reaching to snip off a bunch that you don't grab a bee otherwise you could be in trouble. As history has proved, bees haven't been enough of a threat to stop people from getting wine made so I decided not to be such a wuss and get right in there.
Initially, I was thinking how great it was to be toiling in the dirt, how many thousands of years wine has been making life easier for people and how awesome the wine that I helped make with my own hands was going to taste. Those thoughts were quickly wiped away as I looked at the rows and rows of vines and realized the task that was really at hand. One must pick quite a few grapes in order to make wine. About thirty minutes into the process I'd basically zoned out and was just picking away mindlessly then a sharp pain brought me back to reality. I realized my back was starting to hurt. Damn, so many rows left! But after an hour and a half we took our first load to the "crusher/squeezer" contraption (sorry, nobody really stomps 'em anymore) that removes the stems and squishes the grapes. What oozes down into the giant tank is a mess of the best smelling grape juice, skins, seeds, and the stems that get by. We took a well-deserved but quick coffee break and chatted about the process. Then we went back to the fields and did it all over again; pick the grapes, dump the buckets, fill the garbage cans with grapes, take them to the squisher and press the juice. Break for lunch. Repeat the process a few more times and you're finished. Sort of. Now I know what critics and wine experts mean when they say that the wine is really about the soil the grapes are grown in. What I think they're really talking about is the dirt, the bugs, the bees, and the sweat that all go into that crusher and miraculously come out wine on the other side. Don't worry, the fermentation process kills off all of the bad stuff, I promise.
After you've finished squishing all of the grapes you have to clean up your sticky mess otherwise wasps from all over the county will take up residence over night.
Once you've reached this point your almost done with the laborious part of making wine. Add some sulfites, then some activated yeast to get the fermentation process going more quickly, place a lid on the tank and put your wine, er grape juice to bed. For the next week you have to stir the pot twice a day to bring the bottom to the top to make sure everything ferments evenly, I think.
In the evening we celebrated the grape harvest with a small celebration, we drank some of the house wine from the previous year and enjoyed some good food. It felt great to us that we were able to sit and have dinner with everyone, although we didn't understand most of what was being said. Dante translated the important stuff and in between we tried our best to pick up all the words we could.
What a day, it was very rewarding and it's definitely something I would want to do in the future on a small scale as well. The one bad thing is that I'm so sore today that I can hardly move! Oh well, it's a small price to pay for a years worth of free wine!
Once we (four of us) were set up with buckets and scissors we went to work. Let me just say, it's a lot easier to pick up a bottle of ten dollar wine at the grocery store than to make it from scratch! Unfortunately, due to Dante's touring schedule we couldn't pick the grapes until about two weeks after they should have been picked. That means that the grapes were starting to get very sweet. Sweet grapes have an upside and a downside. First the upside, the more sugar present in the grapes equals a higher alcohol percentage. What could be bad about that, right? Well, the downside is that bees of all sorts also really love sweet grapes. So we had to contend with wasps, bumblebees and some type of gigantic bee the likes of which I'd never seen. The bees get inside fo the grape so you have to be careful when reaching to snip off a bunch that you don't grab a bee otherwise you could be in trouble. As history has proved, bees haven't been enough of a threat to stop people from getting wine made so I decided not to be such a wuss and get right in there.
Initially, I was thinking how great it was to be toiling in the dirt, how many thousands of years wine has been making life easier for people and how awesome the wine that I helped make with my own hands was going to taste. Those thoughts were quickly wiped away as I looked at the rows and rows of vines and realized the task that was really at hand. One must pick quite a few grapes in order to make wine. About thirty minutes into the process I'd basically zoned out and was just picking away mindlessly then a sharp pain brought me back to reality. I realized my back was starting to hurt. Damn, so many rows left! But after an hour and a half we took our first load to the "crusher/squeezer" contraption (sorry, nobody really stomps 'em anymore) that removes the stems and squishes the grapes. What oozes down into the giant tank is a mess of the best smelling grape juice, skins, seeds, and the stems that get by. We took a well-deserved but quick coffee break and chatted about the process. Then we went back to the fields and did it all over again; pick the grapes, dump the buckets, fill the garbage cans with grapes, take them to the squisher and press the juice. Break for lunch. Repeat the process a few more times and you're finished. Sort of. Now I know what critics and wine experts mean when they say that the wine is really about the soil the grapes are grown in. What I think they're really talking about is the dirt, the bugs, the bees, and the sweat that all go into that crusher and miraculously come out wine on the other side. Don't worry, the fermentation process kills off all of the bad stuff, I promise.
After you've finished squishing all of the grapes you have to clean up your sticky mess otherwise wasps from all over the county will take up residence over night.
Once you've reached this point your almost done with the laborious part of making wine. Add some sulfites, then some activated yeast to get the fermentation process going more quickly, place a lid on the tank and put your wine, er grape juice to bed. For the next week you have to stir the pot twice a day to bring the bottom to the top to make sure everything ferments evenly, I think.
In the evening we celebrated the grape harvest with a small celebration, we drank some of the house wine from the previous year and enjoyed some good food. It felt great to us that we were able to sit and have dinner with everyone, although we didn't understand most of what was being said. Dante translated the important stuff and in between we tried our best to pick up all the words we could.
What a day, it was very rewarding and it's definitely something I would want to do in the future on a small scale as well. The one bad thing is that I'm so sore today that I can hardly move! Oh well, it's a small price to pay for a years worth of free wine!
Monday, October 9, 2006
The Weirdest Thing That Could Ever Have Happened
So, they say that it is a small world, but we're convinced that this story takes the cake.
This past Sunday we were strolling through the town on the last day of the grape festival, enjoying the free wine, when all of a sudden Charles noticed a strange shirt in the distance. We often see strange shirts as Italians generally like to wear anything with English words printed on it (a few weeks ago I spotted one that said "ice-cream is my like"), but this one was not an ordinary strange shirt.
As he dragged me towards the woman, I realized she was wearing a sweatshirt very similar to the one I had on; a Central Washington University hoodie! In my only slightly wine-affected mind I couldn't comprehend what my eyes were seeing. We gaped for a few moments until I made Charles go up and ask her where she got that shirt.
As luck would have it, this woman did not speak a lick of English. We tried to show her the similarities between the words on my sweatshirt and her own, but she just laughed and nodded, obviously not undersanding the gravity of the situation. And so we are left without closure on this strangest of occurences...how did this woman come to own a CWU shirt? And why can't we speak Italian well enough to ask her that very question?!
Someone call Robert Stack, this mystery needs solving.
This past Sunday we were strolling through the town on the last day of the grape festival, enjoying the free wine, when all of a sudden Charles noticed a strange shirt in the distance. We often see strange shirts as Italians generally like to wear anything with English words printed on it (a few weeks ago I spotted one that said "ice-cream is my like"), but this one was not an ordinary strange shirt.
As he dragged me towards the woman, I realized she was wearing a sweatshirt very similar to the one I had on; a Central Washington University hoodie! In my only slightly wine-affected mind I couldn't comprehend what my eyes were seeing. We gaped for a few moments until I made Charles go up and ask her where she got that shirt.
As luck would have it, this woman did not speak a lick of English. We tried to show her the similarities between the words on my sweatshirt and her own, but she just laughed and nodded, obviously not undersanding the gravity of the situation. And so we are left without closure on this strangest of occurences...how did this woman come to own a CWU shirt? And why can't we speak Italian well enough to ask her that very question?!
Someone call Robert Stack, this mystery needs solving.
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Settling into a Routine
Sorry for the lack of news lately, it's just that things are finally going really well. No news is good news.
We've just finished up our first full week of work and we're pretty exhausted. Work has been really fun and rewarding (even more so when we get rewarded in cash) so far. During the week we get home any time from 5 to 8:30 and after we cook dinner we're usually so tired that we just head for bed. Pretty lame, right? Well, yeah, but it feels pretty good to be adjusting to this new routine. It hasn't been as hard for me as I thought, considering four months ago my average bedtime was around 3:30 to 4:00 AM.
It feels great to start becoming part of the rhythm of the city, no longer tourists. Well, we still are tourists but now in a different manner. Now we know how the Romans must feel everyday when trying to rush to work with the streets full of gawking tourists who, rightly so, are in no rush at all.
We were planning a trip to Naples for our two-year wedding anniversary on October 15th but I think we may be postponing it until November. In any case, we'll celebrate in style most likely in Rome for the night.
Overall, things are going very well for us, our next project is to buy some books begin studying Italian during our 40 minute train rides. We've learned a lot of vocabulary over the last three months but we are dying to be able to spit out a sentence that doesn't sound like a caveman said it. Plus Allie has to learn Italian so she can go work at the Sicilian Treat shop (pasticceria) so when we come back to America we'll be able to fatten you all up.
We've just finished up our first full week of work and we're pretty exhausted. Work has been really fun and rewarding (even more so when we get rewarded in cash) so far. During the week we get home any time from 5 to 8:30 and after we cook dinner we're usually so tired that we just head for bed. Pretty lame, right? Well, yeah, but it feels pretty good to be adjusting to this new routine. It hasn't been as hard for me as I thought, considering four months ago my average bedtime was around 3:30 to 4:00 AM.
It feels great to start becoming part of the rhythm of the city, no longer tourists. Well, we still are tourists but now in a different manner. Now we know how the Romans must feel everyday when trying to rush to work with the streets full of gawking tourists who, rightly so, are in no rush at all.
We were planning a trip to Naples for our two-year wedding anniversary on October 15th but I think we may be postponing it until November. In any case, we'll celebrate in style most likely in Rome for the night.
Overall, things are going very well for us, our next project is to buy some books begin studying Italian during our 40 minute train rides. We've learned a lot of vocabulary over the last three months but we are dying to be able to spit out a sentence that doesn't sound like a caveman said it. Plus Allie has to learn Italian so she can go work at the Sicilian Treat shop (pasticceria) so when we come back to America we'll be able to fatten you all up.
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