Last night I partook in an activity much associated with Italy... wine tasting! We headed over to a little osteria in old Ferrara at 8 pm and sat and ate and didn't leave until 2 am! It was organized and payed for by our program directors and the wine theme for the Evening was Sicily. Apparently, Sicily has a climate quite comparable to California and perfect for producing wine. But until the last 20 years they never really developed the quality wine industry that they have the potential for...lucky for us, now they do! Sommelier Nicola took us through the brief history of wine production and explained how to taste wine to appreciate it with a more trained mind than to just drink it!
First, Appearance. Look at the color of the wine, if it is a white wine, the darker and cloudier the color, the longer it has aged. The opposite is true of red wines which as they age get lighter in color. Next one must look at how quickly the wine settles down after swishing the glass, quicker is better... it shows that the wine is going to have a softer taste on the palate. Like every other aspect of life in Italy, appearance played a big role in lasts night's festivities. From the presentation of the dishes to the pressed white shirt and apron of the cute waiter to everyone dressing up for the occasion. There are many a girl in my program who very deeply identify with Italy's love of image... don't worry, I played my part, I actually showered!
Second, the Bouquet. There are three things to think about when smelling your wine. 1, is it a 'delicate' smell, does it smell appetizing. I know this sounds kind of like a given, but is still important! 2, how long does the aroma stay in your memory, chances are, the more complicated the flavors and the more flavors there are, the longer it will stay with a person. 3, what are the things that you smell. This is slightly subjective, some people will smell different things than others, this idea is true in the taste as well. There are also three things that effect the smell and taste of a wine and they are, what grapes are used and how they are grown, The fermentation process of the wine, and lastly the aging process. As is true with everywhere I go in Italy, there were many a interesting smell in the 'bouquet' of the evening. Sitting next to me was the program avocatto (lawyer) who every once in a while would move and I would get a lovely whiff of BO... then to counter act that the crazy, obnoxious, flirty lady across from him sent out a overly perfumed odor. There was the musty smell of broccoli in the air, one of old socks from the weird cheeses we got in course number 5, not to mention the smell of fish... course 2 was a wild, tasty assortment of shellfish on toasted bread. Plus the building we were housed in has this really comforting smell of old, used, polished wood. That alone is enough to overstimulate the nose without adding trying to identify smells in wines on top of it!
Third, Taste! As with smell, taste can be very subjective. One wine we had last night, a chardonnay reminded me of peaches and white flowers, very fruity, another, a nero d'Avola merlot had the tastes of preserved currents, cinnamon, and a touch of licorice... The one thing that the sommelier did tell us was that the longer the after taste, the better the quality of wine. I tell you, the game of describe that taste is very fun!!
I had a six course meal last night and seven different wines... unfortunately there were many a person in attendance that had too much to drink, and it would have been easy to do! There was SO much wine, but our director had explained at the beginning of the evening that it was a bit of a marathon and not to drink to much of the whites in the beginning because the heavy reds came at the end and could hit you hard if you'd already had plenty to drink. So those of us with a head on our shoulders did absolutely fine! (No, the obnoxious random woman across-ish from me did not so much follow this advice which made her even more obnoxious!!!!) I probably never again will have a 6 hour meal, nor do I necessarily want to, it was so long! But as you can see I learned a lot and I'm definitely glad I got to do it!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sono Stanca
I know, I know, me blogging two days in a row... this is unheard of! I'm just feeling overwhelmed right now, I have really bad contact with everybody, which is horrible, because I need all you all's support and love now more than ever!!! Life here no longer has the 'new and exciting' feeling to it... now its just hard, its school, its across the world, and I still can't speak Italian well enough to really feel comfortable.
I've been wondering why there are only a select few people that I hear from on a regular basis. My roommate pointed out to me that maybe you all think that I am in a new place and the one with an exciting life, why would I have time to here about the old lives of those in Kenai or at PLU... So, this is my plea to you... I want to hear from you! Everything! I care just as much or more now what you are up to! Please, even just a comment on my blog every once in a while or a comment on facebook... I'm not asking for a novel length email, I know how much work that takes!
Love you all!
I've been wondering why there are only a select few people that I hear from on a regular basis. My roommate pointed out to me that maybe you all think that I am in a new place and the one with an exciting life, why would I have time to here about the old lives of those in Kenai or at PLU... So, this is my plea to you... I want to hear from you! Everything! I care just as much or more now what you are up to! Please, even just a comment on my blog every once in a while or a comment on facebook... I'm not asking for a novel length email, I know how much work that takes!
Love you all!
Monday, February 11, 2008
La Bella Figura
Italians are obsessed with image an image that we refer to as 'la bella figura' or 'the beautiful figure'. They constantly are well put together, fashionable, friendly without being overly outgoing, and they never do anything that would make them look foolish or in bad taste...ever. However if you talk to an Italian about la bella figura, they probably wouldn't quite understand what you mean... I've decided their obsession with la bella figura comes directly from their conscious obsession, la brutta figura. In Italy everything is probably done for some image reason, not to appear 'bella' but rather to not appear 'brutta'.
For example: Italians don't work out... they just don't do it, not in public, not the way Americans do. An Italian wouldn't go running for a great workout, to be sweaty is brutta, to have physical exertion show is brutta. On occasion I do see someone running or at the gym, but it hardly ever a woman and whoever it is always still looks great and is wearing a cute little 'workout outfit' of spandex.
Another example: Last month I said that one of the things I had learned was that Italians do not drink in excess, they don't get drunk, its frowned upon. I now realize, there is no ethical or moral reason behind this, but rather, to drink to the point of walking and acting funny is brutta, the image and control is gone. It is brutta to be out of control.
There are of course smaller things that are never done because they are brutta, one never wears short socks and long pants, one never wears sweat pants in public, one never eats mushrooms and cheese together, and the one I personally always break and get stared and pointed at for... one never wears flip flops between the months of October and April!
Of course these judgements are not as harsh on foreigners, it is weird if I break a 'bella figura' rule, but it is horrible and stupid if an Italian does so. The ironic thing to me is that Italians may follow crazy rules and norms when it comes to esthetic, but when it comes to ethics, they believe they are up to interpretation... thats why you find Italians cutting in line, and running red lights. I just think this is so fascinating, probably because it is such a foreign concept to me! I don't do something nice for someone to APPEAR nice, I just want to be nice. I definitely value ethics over esthetics, who am I to judge other people based on their appearance! Maybe what this should be teaching me is, who am I to judge people on anything, even their actions, they could have a perfectly logical reason for doing something like cutting in line, like a cultural imposition!
For example: Italians don't work out... they just don't do it, not in public, not the way Americans do. An Italian wouldn't go running for a great workout, to be sweaty is brutta, to have physical exertion show is brutta. On occasion I do see someone running or at the gym, but it hardly ever a woman and whoever it is always still looks great and is wearing a cute little 'workout outfit' of spandex.
Another example: Last month I said that one of the things I had learned was that Italians do not drink in excess, they don't get drunk, its frowned upon. I now realize, there is no ethical or moral reason behind this, but rather, to drink to the point of walking and acting funny is brutta, the image and control is gone. It is brutta to be out of control.
There are of course smaller things that are never done because they are brutta, one never wears short socks and long pants, one never wears sweat pants in public, one never eats mushrooms and cheese together, and the one I personally always break and get stared and pointed at for... one never wears flip flops between the months of October and April!
Of course these judgements are not as harsh on foreigners, it is weird if I break a 'bella figura' rule, but it is horrible and stupid if an Italian does so. The ironic thing to me is that Italians may follow crazy rules and norms when it comes to esthetic, but when it comes to ethics, they believe they are up to interpretation... thats why you find Italians cutting in line, and running red lights. I just think this is so fascinating, probably because it is such a foreign concept to me! I don't do something nice for someone to APPEAR nice, I just want to be nice. I definitely value ethics over esthetics, who am I to judge other people based on their appearance! Maybe what this should be teaching me is, who am I to judge people on anything, even their actions, they could have a perfectly logical reason for doing something like cutting in line, like a cultural imposition!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Beatles and the Choir
For fat Tuesday most people drink, dance, party... go to Venice. One girl in my program even fell in a canal while she was there! Oh but not me... I had a very irregular end to my carnival.
I recently joined a university community choir with two other girls. After my first evening there Francesco, the director, asked if we wanted to join them the following week in performing. I was the only of the 3 to show up, which was initially nerve racking, but in the long run it was perfect. Without the other girls at my side not only was I more approachable, but I needed to be approached. Everybody took such care of me!!! People would link arms with me to get me to come with them. I am now officially called 'Miss Alaska'. I was wearing knee length shorts, and for me, it was a little chilly, but nothing to complain about. Everybody was shocked, this apparently is scandalous! But I would hear people saying, 'oh remember, she's from Alaska, its hot here for her!' Yeah... its not hot here, but I just love that they all think I'm too hot!
The concert was in a very fun theater in Bologna, 40 minutes from Ferrara. During the concert we sang back up for a band. We sang and danced and clapped all during the concert. It was a good time I just kept laughing, I couldn't help it! The choir sounded...not so good, but because I don't really feel tied to them I didn't care!
Among the many good things to come of the evening were one, that Francesco asked me to sing in the other choir he directs as well... I don't know what kind of choir it is, but maybe its more exclusive than this one, or at least balanced. And two, last night I was walking down the street with a few people and Jacamo from choir recognized me and called out to me! People in town know me! I'm no longer completely a stranger! What a fabulous feeling, I can't even tell you!
I recently joined a university community choir with two other girls. After my first evening there Francesco, the director, asked if we wanted to join them the following week in performing. I was the only of the 3 to show up, which was initially nerve racking, but in the long run it was perfect. Without the other girls at my side not only was I more approachable, but I needed to be approached. Everybody took such care of me!!! People would link arms with me to get me to come with them. I am now officially called 'Miss Alaska'. I was wearing knee length shorts, and for me, it was a little chilly, but nothing to complain about. Everybody was shocked, this apparently is scandalous! But I would hear people saying, 'oh remember, she's from Alaska, its hot here for her!' Yeah... its not hot here, but I just love that they all think I'm too hot!
The concert was in a very fun theater in Bologna, 40 minutes from Ferrara. During the concert we sang back up for a band. We sang and danced and clapped all during the concert. It was a good time I just kept laughing, I couldn't help it! The choir sounded...not so good, but because I don't really feel tied to them I didn't care!
Among the many good things to come of the evening were one, that Francesco asked me to sing in the other choir he directs as well... I don't know what kind of choir it is, but maybe its more exclusive than this one, or at least balanced. And two, last night I was walking down the street with a few people and Jacamo from choir recognized me and called out to me! People in town know me! I'm no longer completely a stranger! What a fabulous feeling, I can't even tell you!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Claudia & Operation Tornare un Amico
Saturday I visited Padua and made a friend (Padua by the way is absolutely amazing and as much as I like Ferrara, I wish I lived in Padua). Her name was Claudia, she was wearing a pink fuzzy bear costume. Claudia was about four years old. I played with her in the streets for about 10-15 minutes. She would 'sneak' up on me and throw confetti all over me and then I would reciprocate... it was such great fun! There was so much confetti everywhere! This is what happens during carnival, the children dress up in costumes and go in town and throw confetti... other stuff happens too, but that is not important quite yet! Needless to say... I got back to my room and found colorful pieces of paper in crazy places you wouldn't think it would still be after 10 hours.
Speaking of friends... its time that I make one besides an American. I have two plans of action. 1. Tomorrow is my first choir practice. I only have it once a week, so I am going to force myself on my fellow choir members. 2. I am generally a study in my room type of person, but I have decided I need to go to the study room in my building to make a friend. I know, you aren't supposed to talk in the study room, but I'm going to strategically place myself so that I can ask somebody for 'help'/if I'm doing my Italian homework right. After they answer my questions it won't be weird to introduce myself. Little will they know that the whole thing had been prepared in my head... Hey whatever I have to do to accomplish Operation Find a Friend.
Speaking of friends... its time that I make one besides an American. I have two plans of action. 1. Tomorrow is my first choir practice. I only have it once a week, so I am going to force myself on my fellow choir members. 2. I am generally a study in my room type of person, but I have decided I need to go to the study room in my building to make a friend. I know, you aren't supposed to talk in the study room, but I'm going to strategically place myself so that I can ask somebody for 'help'/if I'm doing my Italian homework right. After they answer my questions it won't be weird to introduce myself. Little will they know that the whole thing had been prepared in my head... Hey whatever I have to do to accomplish Operation Find a Friend.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Laundry Outfit
Yesterday was crazy. Yesterday everything seemed to go frustratingly. I don't know if I would call it a bad day...just frustrating. I'm going to ignore the fact that I had a midterm, that I worked at school in the lab for 2 hours next to a smelly girl, and that at lunch I had a horrible discussion about my diet... which wouldn't be that bad, I know that it sparks discussion, but the debate was so uninformed and frustrating!!! What you should know about is my doing laundry.
The building I live in has three towers. Each tower is 8-9 stories tall and each floor has 6-7 appartments. That means there are approximately 108 people who share each laundry room. The laundry room is located on floor A (between 1 and 2) along with things like the electrical room...in other words, its creep central. There are pipes everywhere that are always making noises. The laundry room itself only has two washers and one dryer, and when the washers are on the spin cylce water bubbles and seeps up through the drain in the middle of the floor, I know, weird.
So Anne and I decide to do our laundry, and we both brought very limited wardrobes so we needed to wash everything possible. Picture this...I am wearing sweatpants and my down vest zipped all the way up because I'm not wearing a shirt under it, not to mention, my hair looks crazy! Anne looks even better...she is wearing a a sweater on top of a nightgown on top of a lacy slip...yeah, we look great. I wish I had gotten a picture, next time! (The funny thing about this is that I had to run downstairs to the store to get more change and I got hit on more in my laundry outfit then ever! I haven't really experienced it much, but last night the men came out of the woodwork for my laundry outfit!)
Anne says the point of a laundry outfit is that as little people see you as possible...if we were completely successful, we wouldn't even see each other. Lucky for us the machine ate a bunch of our coins so we had to go running around the building to people we know collecting coins. 1 euro here, 50 cents there. Yes, it felt like everybody saw us. Now I looked relatively normal according to american standards, but not italian...Anne just looked ridiculous. Someone did finally comment on it to my great joy!
What made this worse was half way through our evening of laundry excursions, we get a phone call that I answer and the guy says, "Its Andrea, we met in the centro in front of the cathedral. We spoke little english and you live in Darsena 713 blah blah blah." I was so confused and kept saying... "I don't remember, I don't remember this!" I finally told him he had the wrong number and hung up on him. Two minutes later we get a knock on our door and a guy saying, "I'm sorry for the phone call, open the door." Don't worry, we didn't. So then we were all creeped out and we still had to run and take care of our laundry several times. It was bad news.
I didn't get to bed until 1.30 but I ate some double chocolate cookie dough before going to bed so that I wouldn't have nightmares about creepers in the laundry room!!!
The building I live in has three towers. Each tower is 8-9 stories tall and each floor has 6-7 appartments. That means there are approximately 108 people who share each laundry room. The laundry room is located on floor A (between 1 and 2) along with things like the electrical room...in other words, its creep central. There are pipes everywhere that are always making noises. The laundry room itself only has two washers and one dryer, and when the washers are on the spin cylce water bubbles and seeps up through the drain in the middle of the floor, I know, weird.
So Anne and I decide to do our laundry, and we both brought very limited wardrobes so we needed to wash everything possible. Picture this...I am wearing sweatpants and my down vest zipped all the way up because I'm not wearing a shirt under it, not to mention, my hair looks crazy! Anne looks even better...she is wearing a a sweater on top of a nightgown on top of a lacy slip...yeah, we look great. I wish I had gotten a picture, next time! (The funny thing about this is that I had to run downstairs to the store to get more change and I got hit on more in my laundry outfit then ever! I haven't really experienced it much, but last night the men came out of the woodwork for my laundry outfit!)
Anne says the point of a laundry outfit is that as little people see you as possible...if we were completely successful, we wouldn't even see each other. Lucky for us the machine ate a bunch of our coins so we had to go running around the building to people we know collecting coins. 1 euro here, 50 cents there. Yes, it felt like everybody saw us. Now I looked relatively normal according to american standards, but not italian...Anne just looked ridiculous. Someone did finally comment on it to my great joy!
What made this worse was half way through our evening of laundry excursions, we get a phone call that I answer and the guy says, "Its Andrea, we met in the centro in front of the cathedral. We spoke little english and you live in Darsena 713 blah blah blah." I was so confused and kept saying... "I don't remember, I don't remember this!" I finally told him he had the wrong number and hung up on him. Two minutes later we get a knock on our door and a guy saying, "I'm sorry for the phone call, open the door." Don't worry, we didn't. So then we were all creeped out and we still had to run and take care of our laundry several times. It was bad news.
I didn't get to bed until 1.30 but I ate some double chocolate cookie dough before going to bed so that I wouldn't have nightmares about creepers in the laundry room!!!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Non Capisco!!!
I've been in this country now for 10 days and this is the first one that I've had internet. I actually thought about titling this post '10 days without internet' but then maybe everybody would think I was dwelling on this... ok I am. I never realized how much I rely on the internet, not even for email or facebook but for answers to little questions.
I'm a week into my intensive language course and I've learned to count, tell time, and introduce myself. I'm practically fluent! But no, actually I've also learned present tense verbs and the exceptions... very handy. Now I can say 'I don't understand! Do you speak English?' which is 'Non capisco! Parli inglese?'
Non Capisco...its the story of my life. In class I start to think I understand and then I get called on and...oh, non capisco. I ask how much something costs and get chatted at in italian...non capisco. Random boy comes up and says 'I see you standing here and I think to myself, I want to talk to her.' My answer, 'uh...non capisco.' I tell you, its my answer for everything! Either that or non lo so, I don't know.
The social lives of the Italians is something I can understand. The big nights to go out on the town are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. OnTuesday there's this bar(everything here is a bar, restaurants, cafes, bars...its all the same!) that has dress up night and every week is a different theme! How fun is that!? The other thing is that Italians do not drink until they are drunk, they just drink socially. I think this is the best news I've heard! Its highly frowned upon to get really drunk and make a fool of yourself like Americans tend to do. What a relief! Social drinking... something I can very much understand. And social drinking in Italy starts at lunch time! I feel like I have three options of beverages to order when out... Sparkling water, a glass of wine, or an espresso (I literally drink straight shots of espresso these days!)
I may not understand the language yet, but I'm starting to get the hang of the people and the city, and thats the first step. I shouldn't be expecting too much of myself after only 10 days anyway!
I'm a week into my intensive language course and I've learned to count, tell time, and introduce myself. I'm practically fluent! But no, actually I've also learned present tense verbs and the exceptions... very handy. Now I can say 'I don't understand! Do you speak English?' which is 'Non capisco! Parli inglese?'
Non Capisco...its the story of my life. In class I start to think I understand and then I get called on and...oh, non capisco. I ask how much something costs and get chatted at in italian...non capisco. Random boy comes up and says 'I see you standing here and I think to myself, I want to talk to her.' My answer, 'uh...non capisco.' I tell you, its my answer for everything! Either that or non lo so, I don't know.
The social lives of the Italians is something I can understand. The big nights to go out on the town are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. OnTuesday there's this bar(everything here is a bar, restaurants, cafes, bars...its all the same!) that has dress up night and every week is a different theme! How fun is that!? The other thing is that Italians do not drink until they are drunk, they just drink socially. I think this is the best news I've heard! Its highly frowned upon to get really drunk and make a fool of yourself like Americans tend to do. What a relief! Social drinking... something I can very much understand. And social drinking in Italy starts at lunch time! I feel like I have three options of beverages to order when out... Sparkling water, a glass of wine, or an espresso (I literally drink straight shots of espresso these days!)
I may not understand the language yet, but I'm starting to get the hang of the people and the city, and thats the first step. I shouldn't be expecting too much of myself after only 10 days anyway!
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