Book Club

We fit 4 adults in a Smart and I was the lucky one to ride in the trunk. 

Thermals in Tuscany

Tuscan Country Side

My book club has officially finished and it was a huge success. Its completion is more bitter than sweet because I looked forward to it every week. It was complete chance that I had chosen The Hunger Games as the read. I chose it because when I read it last year I fell in love with it and I felt that it would be engaging for teens as well as level appropriate linguistically. I had no idea that it was going to turn into this huge sensation in America, but it worked out perfectly. It made all of us even more excited to read the book and at certain points we would hypothesize on how they were going to incorporate certain aspects into the film. After completing the book, we went to see the cinema to see the movie together. It was really fun. 

Cultural Note: When you buy a movie ticket you get an assigned seat. I was surprised being that there isn’t much social order in this country. The popcorn was better than the popcorn in America. 

Highlights: 1. My cooperating teacher asking me which students were participating in my book club. She gasped when I told her and she said that she has seen a drastic improvement in the language skills of those specific students, including their class participation, but she didn’t know how it had happened. I love that my book club was able to help them so much in improving their English skills.  

                    2. Coordinating a meeting between my Italian students and American students from Smithtown High School. My former Italian high school teacher was in Rome with her students on their trip abroad. It was nice to see the two cultures interacting, and I felt like I was truly carrying out the Fulbright aim in promoting intercultural relations.   

                    3. Going to the beach with Natalie. It has been a Saturday event for the past two weeks. The Long Island beaches are nicer though.    

                    4. Going to the thermals in the Tuscan country side. I had forgotten how breathtaking the Tuscan countryside is. However, the whole “communal pool” concept really grossed me out and I was trying to focus on the the landscape instead of all the people I was surrounded by. 

Impara con me! 1. lettino- beach chair (the long kind that you lay on)  

                           2. trapano- drill (as in the tool)

                           3. un insegnante di ruolo- a tenured teacher               

Tracing My Roots

Maranola 

I went to the town my great grandparents came from. No one in my family has been back to that town since they left in 1902. It is a small town in Lazio called Maranola, only a 20 minute bus ride from Formia. It was very easy to reach from Rome. My purpose for the visit wasn’t only to see the land of my ancestors, but to obtain the necessary documentation to apply for dual citizenship. I had been in contact with a man, Pasquale, who works at the commune and we set up an “appointment” for me to go down to pick up the documents...and so my journey begins. He told me over the phone to come in the afternoon. I asked him for a specific time, and he said to come any time in the afternoon because he would be there. In my American mentality, afternoon means anywhere from noon to 4:30PM, so I arrived in the village at 11:30AM. At noon the doors of the commune building were still shut. Lucky for me it was a beautiful day and the village was pretty. Although I was an immediate eye sore and the villagers stared at me as if I were some type of extraterrestrial they were very nice. The village piazza looked over the sea and there were old men sitting in the sun and others reading the paper. There was once caffè and one restaurant. The restaurant is only open in the summer. I started chatting with Fabiana who told me that according to Italians, afternoon starts at 3:30PM and continues from there. When she realized how much time I had to kill she told me to go to the mini market where her brother works and he would tell me things to do in the surrounding area. I roamed the town a little, went to the mini market to introduce myself to Fabiana’s brother (although he already knew who I was by the time I got there), and had a conversation with the town drunk who was probably about 90 years old. I technically wouldn’t even call it a conversation because I had a very hard time understanding him between his accent, his drunken speech, and the fact that he had not one tooth in his mouth. Our encounter consisted of him talking and me just nodding my head and saying “Sì, sì.” However, I did understand the part when he was trying to get me to go back to his house and have a drink with him. That’s when I stopped saying sì. When Pasquale finally arrived I went with him up to his office and he pulled out these huge record books from the 1800s in order to get my great grandparents birth and marriage certificates. It was some pretty crazy stuff. After the paper work he asked me if I knew of any existing family in Maranola and I told him I wasn’t sure. He started thinking of how he could help me locate any remaining family. He went over to the office window, opened it, and called down to the piazza, “Mario, vieni sù!” Mario came up to the office and they were talking about who they might know. Mario then went to the office window and called down to the piazza, “Giuseppe, vieni sù!” Giuseppe came up to the office and there I was: in the middle of three Italian men all helping me try to locate my family. At one point Pasquale got on the phone with his doctor seeing if he was able to help in any way. It turned out that my last ancestor died in the early 2000s and he didn’t have any children. The men all gave me their contact information in case I needed their help for anything else. I didn’t know how to thank them so I offered to buy them a coffee. We went down to the caffé and needless to say, they wouldn’t let me pay. Mario then took me to some of the surrounding towns and showed me the different beaches. It was a really great experience and to top it off, I actually got the documents I went for in the first place.   

Cultural Note: There are many different political parties in Italy, all of which are given money by the government. Instead of the politicians using the money towards an actual cause, they use it for their own personal interests, luxuriantly filling their lives with cars, houses, and other material items. Millions and millions of euros is being wasted in this manner and the government continues to give money to these parties. 

Highlights: 1. Having a completely relaxing rainy Saturday drinking tea, looking through magazines, reading, and renting movies...procrastinating without having anything to procrastinate over. I love this stressless life.   

                   2. Hearing Tanti Auguri being sung from a neighboring home as I lay in bed. It confirms that I’m really in Italy. 

Impara con me! una lanuccia- a fuzzy 

                        fregano i soldi- they steal money