Its been a while since I've posted anything, and for that, I apologize. I've been rather distracted by the goings on of life the past week and a half trying to figure out what to do. Let me tell you all what's going on.....
The grandma of the family that I have been living with and working for is getting ready to "semi" retire. This coming April, she has decided that she doesn't want to work as much, and would rather spend her time helping out with the kiddos. As a result, the family has asked me to leave at my convenience in mid April when my visa expires (I was planning on overstaying my visa and being an illegal immigrant... and was kind of excited to call myself one too! haha)
So... It looks like I have about 5 weeks til I'm home.
Hopefully I can find a job... Anyone have any suggestions?!
b.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Non capisco... my first day of Italian class
I had to take a placement test on the first day of my Italian class.
I get to the language school promply at 9am and some people are already taking the placement exam. So I sit down at an open desk and begin taking the exam as well. I thumb through the first few pages and kind of laugh to myself... its all in Italian! I look to my right, and the girl next to me is busy writing down all the answers, she knew everything! The only thing I understand is "name" and "nationality." So I write down the answers and raise my hand. The instructor calls on me and I say, "Ummm... Mi scusi. Non copisco!" Literally translated means, "Ummm... Excuse me. I don't understand," which I'm sure the Italian interpretation is somewhat similar to what we think of a dumb blonde from California sounds like. So... Now I'm a dumb blonde of America. Awesome. People are looking at me funny.
The instructor pulls me into the next room over, just the two of us, and we sit down next to each other at a desk. He does this motion with his hand where he points to his mouth and then points to my mouth, back and forth. OMG!! Does he wanna make out?!?! That's my first thought... but then I realize he just wants to talk. FEWFFF!!!! Then he says, "We do oral." Did he just say what I think he said?! I must have a really dirty mind, because now I'm thinking he wants to do more than make out. Anways, Bre, get your mind out of gutter... Please forgive me, its 9am, I'm tired.
We continue with our "oral" exam which took all of 3 minutes and I see him write on the paper, "Level 1. Beginner." AS IF I NEEDED TO BE PUT THROUGH THIS EMBARASSMENT IN ORDER TO TELL YOU THAT!!!!!!!!! Hello!
So much for my first day of Italian class. I didn't learn anything execpt for the fact that I'm a perv at 9am.
b.
I get to the language school promply at 9am and some people are already taking the placement exam. So I sit down at an open desk and begin taking the exam as well. I thumb through the first few pages and kind of laugh to myself... its all in Italian! I look to my right, and the girl next to me is busy writing down all the answers, she knew everything! The only thing I understand is "name" and "nationality." So I write down the answers and raise my hand. The instructor calls on me and I say, "Ummm... Mi scusi. Non copisco!" Literally translated means, "Ummm... Excuse me. I don't understand," which I'm sure the Italian interpretation is somewhat similar to what we think of a dumb blonde from California sounds like. So... Now I'm a dumb blonde of America. Awesome. People are looking at me funny.
The instructor pulls me into the next room over, just the two of us, and we sit down next to each other at a desk. He does this motion with his hand where he points to his mouth and then points to my mouth, back and forth. OMG!! Does he wanna make out?!?! That's my first thought... but then I realize he just wants to talk. FEWFFF!!!! Then he says, "We do oral." Did he just say what I think he said?! I must have a really dirty mind, because now I'm thinking he wants to do more than make out. Anways, Bre, get your mind out of gutter... Please forgive me, its 9am, I'm tired.
We continue with our "oral" exam which took all of 3 minutes and I see him write on the paper, "Level 1. Beginner." AS IF I NEEDED TO BE PUT THROUGH THIS EMBARASSMENT IN ORDER TO TELL YOU THAT!!!!!!!!! Hello!
So much for my first day of Italian class. I didn't learn anything execpt for the fact that I'm a perv at 9am.
b.
a little ear candy.
For those of you who are like me and like to listen to music while you read...
Nina Simone - I shall be released
enjoy.
Nina Simone - I shall be released
enjoy.
special.
I feel like I can't even write this posting because I'm so excited to tell you all about it! I think I've tried writing the first sentence 3 or 4 times before I decided to just start like this! HAHA
I'm not really sure what else to say, other than my trip was really special. It was one of those trips that, before I even got there I had an amazing time. One of those trips that brings tears to my eyes, and I can't really explain why.
This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of meeting my cousin, Germana, and her husband, Marco, in Torino. Germana's side of the family didn't immigrate to America and they're the only relatives that I know of that are still in Italy. I posted a bunch of pictures from our visit on my facebook page along with little discriptions of everything, so you can kind of get a sense of everything we did together.
The night before I went to Torino I met up with friends and was supposed to just hang out, "have a glass of wine," and go to bed early because I hadn't packed yet and my train left at 11am. PFFFFF!!! Yeah right... A few bottles of wine later, I got home around 3am. I figured I would just get up with the kids, pack, and sleep on the train. I was so gitty and anxious to meet Germana and Marco that I didn't sleep at all, it was a 3 hour train ride.
I got off the train and Germana recognized me immediately. With a huge smile on our faces and open arms, we hugged as if we had known each other our entire lives. We walked back to her incredible apartment in downtown Torino and chatted the whole way. We were greeted by her two dogs, Nouvela and Ortellia. Both of her "babies" were adopted from shelters and have physical problems. Germana has a very nurturing heart and takes care of them with such patients and compassion, all the while with a beautiful smile on her face. Germana and I spent the rest of the day walking around the city and getting acquainted with each other. That night, all three of us (along with one of Marco's best friends AND Nouvela) went to a pizzeria for dinner. The pizza was fantastic, of course!
What an incredible feeling to be loved so much by someone who you've never met, but share a common name, therefore a common ground and a common history. Two completely different worlds brought together by nothing more than "Gastaldi." It was like we had always known each other.
CIAO!
b.
p.s. Marco is a riot!
I'm not really sure what else to say, other than my trip was really special. It was one of those trips that, before I even got there I had an amazing time. One of those trips that brings tears to my eyes, and I can't really explain why.
This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of meeting my cousin, Germana, and her husband, Marco, in Torino. Germana's side of the family didn't immigrate to America and they're the only relatives that I know of that are still in Italy. I posted a bunch of pictures from our visit on my facebook page along with little discriptions of everything, so you can kind of get a sense of everything we did together.
The night before I went to Torino I met up with friends and was supposed to just hang out, "have a glass of wine," and go to bed early because I hadn't packed yet and my train left at 11am. PFFFFF!!! Yeah right... A few bottles of wine later, I got home around 3am. I figured I would just get up with the kids, pack, and sleep on the train. I was so gitty and anxious to meet Germana and Marco that I didn't sleep at all, it was a 3 hour train ride.
I got off the train and Germana recognized me immediately. With a huge smile on our faces and open arms, we hugged as if we had known each other our entire lives. We walked back to her incredible apartment in downtown Torino and chatted the whole way. We were greeted by her two dogs, Nouvela and Ortellia. Both of her "babies" were adopted from shelters and have physical problems. Germana has a very nurturing heart and takes care of them with such patients and compassion, all the while with a beautiful smile on her face. Germana and I spent the rest of the day walking around the city and getting acquainted with each other. That night, all three of us (along with one of Marco's best friends AND Nouvela) went to a pizzeria for dinner. The pizza was fantastic, of course!
What an incredible feeling to be loved so much by someone who you've never met, but share a common name, therefore a common ground and a common history. Two completely different worlds brought together by nothing more than "Gastaldi." It was like we had always known each other.
CIAO!
b.
p.s. Marco is a riot!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
1 month: 3 things I've learned about myself so far....
1.) I'm really bad at asking for help - I'm an independent person, which at times is my greatest strength, but it can also be my greatest weakness. I'm the kind of person that likes to "do it myself." I like being able to figure things out on my own and take care of myself. But Florence is a completely different world from anything I've seen before. There are different ways of doing everything; laundry, getting around town, finding a store. Even simple, everyday activities like making coffee or cooking pasta are totally different! I've discovered that its really hard for me to ask for help even if I really need it! WOW... and its really hard for me to admit that... Did you just see how many times I said "really" in that sentence?! Eeew... ANYWAYS... I'll work on that.
2.) I thrive when I'm active and productive - Growing up, I've always had a lot going on; different extracurriculars, homework, volunteering, dancing, blah blah blah... and for the first time in a really long time, it seems as though my schedule is almost entirely free! Its the strangest feeling not having anything to do... No deadlines or duedates, no appointment, no goals. Its cool not having anything to do, but I've realized that if I don't have anything to do, I DON'T DO ANYTHING!!!! I end up sleeping in and being a lazy butt all day, which is something I totally hate doing! Everybody needs those days where they don't do anything and they hang out in their pj's all day, but not an entire month straight. Don't get me wrong, I've done things... Met some really awesome people, seen some incredible history, eaten some bomb food! But what I've learned about myself, is that when I have more goals and more responsibilty, I really thrive. I feel really good about myself when I do a good job at whatever it is that's expected of me. I can't stress enough how much a love having a packed schedule... It keeps me awake and sharp! Luckily, my Italian class starts next week, I've been working on getting a volunteer position at a local International Children's Theatre, and I joined a gym. SO hopefully this will fill my schedule a bit and I'll feel more productive and energized!
3.) I feel most confident about myself when I'm around the people I care about - When I first began my journey, I never thought about how I was doing this by myself. Then I got here, and I've never felt so alone in my life! I know you're probably thinking to yourself, didn't you just say you like being independent? Yes, I did say that, BUT what I've realized is that even when I'm doing things on my own, I have the most incredible support system on the planet! If something goes wrong or if I need help, there are so many people close by who are more than happy to help me! Everything I do, and everything I've accomplished is BECAUSE of the people who support and believe in me. So, to those people, thank you! Thank you for letting me be a crazy 23 year old who moves to a foreign country by herself! Uhhh... I totally couldn't do it without you!! I love you all!
2.) I thrive when I'm active and productive - Growing up, I've always had a lot going on; different extracurriculars, homework, volunteering, dancing, blah blah blah... and for the first time in a really long time, it seems as though my schedule is almost entirely free! Its the strangest feeling not having anything to do... No deadlines or duedates, no appointment, no goals. Its cool not having anything to do, but I've realized that if I don't have anything to do, I DON'T DO ANYTHING!!!! I end up sleeping in and being a lazy butt all day, which is something I totally hate doing! Everybody needs those days where they don't do anything and they hang out in their pj's all day, but not an entire month straight. Don't get me wrong, I've done things... Met some really awesome people, seen some incredible history, eaten some bomb food! But what I've learned about myself, is that when I have more goals and more responsibilty, I really thrive. I feel really good about myself when I do a good job at whatever it is that's expected of me. I can't stress enough how much a love having a packed schedule... It keeps me awake and sharp! Luckily, my Italian class starts next week, I've been working on getting a volunteer position at a local International Children's Theatre, and I joined a gym. SO hopefully this will fill my schedule a bit and I'll feel more productive and energized!
3.) I feel most confident about myself when I'm around the people I care about - When I first began my journey, I never thought about how I was doing this by myself. Then I got here, and I've never felt so alone in my life! I know you're probably thinking to yourself, didn't you just say you like being independent? Yes, I did say that, BUT what I've realized is that even when I'm doing things on my own, I have the most incredible support system on the planet! If something goes wrong or if I need help, there are so many people close by who are more than happy to help me! Everything I do, and everything I've accomplished is BECAUSE of the people who support and believe in me. So, to those people, thank you! Thank you for letting me be a crazy 23 year old who moves to a foreign country by herself! Uhhh... I totally couldn't do it without you!! I love you all!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Fascims vs. Communism
The other night I was walking home from downtown Florence, my usual route, nothing out of the ordinary. As I'm walking, I notice a large group of people walking towards me waving flags as well as bright flashing lights. At first it seemed to be some kind of parade or something, but as I got closer, I started noticing that people were wearing bandanas over their faces, the flags had the communist symbol on them, and store owners were closing down their shops. I was obviously a little taken back by the situation, but continued on. As I'm walking through this huge crowd, I see news reporters talking into tape recorders and people taking pictures. No one was giving me a hard time, I got a few weird looks, but I just smiled and kept walking!
After I got through this first crowd of people, I realized that the bright flashing lights that I saw earlier were actually police lights. Standing about 20 yards in front of me was a row of police with their plastic sheilds up and batons drawn; they spand the entire width of street, from building to building. I shimmied my way through the "front lines" and was greated by pretty much every cop the state of Tuscany could scrounge up. Police buses, cop cars, fire trucks, and pretty much everything else you can think of littered the streets. When I finally made it to the outter part of the city, the traffic was horrible!!! Cars couldn't go anywhere because the authorities had barracaded all of the interesections. I couldn't get home because of this. It took me about 15 minutes before one of the cops let me through the streets. I wish that I would have taken pictures of the situation, but I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. What is normally a 15 minute walk, took about an hour!
When I got home, I asked my family what was going on... Alessandra explained to me that the police heard there was going to be a manifestation of the Communist and Fascist groups and that there might be a riot. In an attempt dissolve the situation, the police blocked all the roads and increased the number of patrols on the streets. Despite the efforts to prevent this situation, apparently the Communist group somehow managed to form and cause quite a bit of disturbance.
The next day, there wasn't anything in the newspaper about the situation except that it caused traffic. Luckily it wasn't that big of a deal. There is, however, quite a bit of political instability in Italy right now, so there might be more to come. I'll keep you posted!
After I got through this first crowd of people, I realized that the bright flashing lights that I saw earlier were actually police lights. Standing about 20 yards in front of me was a row of police with their plastic sheilds up and batons drawn; they spand the entire width of street, from building to building. I shimmied my way through the "front lines" and was greated by pretty much every cop the state of Tuscany could scrounge up. Police buses, cop cars, fire trucks, and pretty much everything else you can think of littered the streets. When I finally made it to the outter part of the city, the traffic was horrible!!! Cars couldn't go anywhere because the authorities had barracaded all of the interesections. I couldn't get home because of this. It took me about 15 minutes before one of the cops let me through the streets. I wish that I would have taken pictures of the situation, but I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. What is normally a 15 minute walk, took about an hour!
When I got home, I asked my family what was going on... Alessandra explained to me that the police heard there was going to be a manifestation of the Communist and Fascist groups and that there might be a riot. In an attempt dissolve the situation, the police blocked all the roads and increased the number of patrols on the streets. Despite the efforts to prevent this situation, apparently the Communist group somehow managed to form and cause quite a bit of disturbance.
The next day, there wasn't anything in the newspaper about the situation except that it caused traffic. Luckily it wasn't that big of a deal. There is, however, quite a bit of political instability in Italy right now, so there might be more to come. I'll keep you posted!
Monday, February 7, 2011
the crack of europe
We have Nutella in America, but we don't really eat very much of it. You can easily find it at grocery stores right next to all the peanut butter, but again, we just don't ever really think about buying it. And that's a good thing! Its freaking addicting!!!! And its everywhere! Walking down the streets of Florence, there are waffle stands all over, and the topping of choice is Nutella. Big, huge buckets of Nutella. Nothing in Florence comes in "Costco" sizes EXCEPT Nutella! Lisa and Dario have it for breakfast everyday, and when we're out of Nutella, we have cereal with Nutella inside of it!
I had a conversation with Luciano about Nutella, and he told me about a study he read that had to do with people's reactions to different brand names... CocaCola, McDonald's, Volkwagon, Nutella, etc. And Nutella ranked number one world wide. People recognize and trust Nutella over any other brand in the world.
My suggestion to everyone at home... Try it with caution. Its delicious, but be careful, once you start eating it, you might never stop!
international toilets.
We've all read the book "everyone poops," but what we haven't talked about yet is WHERE everybody poops. From my expereinces abroad, almost every culture has a different way of taking care of business. The most memorable experience, however, took place in the Tokyo airport with my mom and sister...
The three of us arrived in Tokyo and just like any other group of girls, the first thing we did when we landed was go to the bathroom. My mom and my sister went into the family bathroom together, while I went into the regular bathroom alone. The only open stall was the very last one, so not knowing any better I ventured back there and let myself in only to find this....
Being the curious, young woman that I am, I started pushing all the buttons... And ladies... This is where the good part of this story begins... The coolest bidet ever! Not only can you change the angle that the water sprays you at, but you can also change the water pressure! AND the best part is... It doesn't stop until you press the stop button. And when you're all done and cleaned off, there's an air dryer.
Captivated by my new best friend, I left the bathroom feeling clean as ever and really anxious to see what my mom and sister thought. Both of them were already done and waiting for me by this time. "Did you guys push all the buttons on the toilet," I asked them. Of course, neither of them had even considered trying it out, so I made them go back to the family bathroom with me so that they, too, could experience what I just discovered.
Steph was the first one to try it, and she handled it like a champ; both angles, all the different pressures, and the dryer. THEN my mom sat down... The second the water hit her she went flying off the toilet and screamed like a little girl. Remember when I told you that the water doesn't stop until you push the STOP button? Well... My sister just happened to be standing right in the line of fire and got completely drenched in toilet water!!! We all left the bathroom histerically laughing... What a way to be welcomed to the Asian continent!
Well... There are bidets here too! Every household has one as well as many restaurants. Here is mine...
She might not be quite as fancy as the ones in the tokyo airport, but she still leaves me feeling fresher than ever!
The three of us arrived in Tokyo and just like any other group of girls, the first thing we did when we landed was go to the bathroom. My mom and my sister went into the family bathroom together, while I went into the regular bathroom alone. The only open stall was the very last one, so not knowing any better I ventured back there and let myself in only to find this....
I took one look at this "asian squat toilet" and immediately started laughing, there was no way I was going to use that. So i waited for a different stall to open up, and little did I know that I was about to sit on the greatest toilet ever invented. At first glace it didn't look any different from the ones we use in the states, but when I sat down the first thing I noticed was that the seats were heated. As I'm going pee, I look down and I see all these buttons that look like this...
Captivated by my new best friend, I left the bathroom feeling clean as ever and really anxious to see what my mom and sister thought. Both of them were already done and waiting for me by this time. "Did you guys push all the buttons on the toilet," I asked them. Of course, neither of them had even considered trying it out, so I made them go back to the family bathroom with me so that they, too, could experience what I just discovered.
Steph was the first one to try it, and she handled it like a champ; both angles, all the different pressures, and the dryer. THEN my mom sat down... The second the water hit her she went flying off the toilet and screamed like a little girl. Remember when I told you that the water doesn't stop until you push the STOP button? Well... My sister just happened to be standing right in the line of fire and got completely drenched in toilet water!!! We all left the bathroom histerically laughing... What a way to be welcomed to the Asian continent!
Well... There are bidets here too! Every household has one as well as many restaurants. Here is mine...
She might not be quite as fancy as the ones in the tokyo airport, but she still leaves me feeling fresher than ever!
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