Finalmente...I photo da Sicilia!

Palermo:











Baucina:



Here's Daniela!! She made us this dolce tipico di Pasqua e era buonissimo...

"You are beautiful."

A few weeks ago, while in one of my 4th grade classes, a girl Noemi, who is already 5'4 and towering over all the boys, called me to her desk. Whispering in english, she said, You...are...beautiful." I blushed because it came out of nowhere, and stammering in Italian I said thank you and that she is beautiful too.

Last week, before the class started, Noemi came up to me with this drawing:



I told her that I don't have a sister and I actually have two brothers, Michele and Antonio, but that I love her drawing anyway. They always forget that my family is Italian and they all loved that my brothers have "traditional italian names." When I spelt my last name for the teacher at one point, the entire class went nuts, all yelling to eachother, "SHE'S ITALIAN!!!!"

From the kids to the old ladies, this country's got a lot of love to give...

The Cassidy Parisi of Siena!!

So, I've seen the one airedale terrier of Siena about four times since I've been here. This past Friday I had my camera and actually was able to snap some pictures of Siena's Cass...

It's always with this the same man chilling on the busy via Banchi di Sopra...


A bit blurry because I was trying to be stealth...

Antonio e Renetina vistano!

Ciao tutti…

Everyday here I’ve been so overwhelmed with the excitement of learning this language and culture, meeting new people, and my projects that I honestly haven’t had time to feel homesick. Of course I miss my family, best friends, Cassidy and Pepe, the Red Dragon and a 24-hour diner, living away in Ithaca has taught me that time flies and these things that I love so much will be waiting for me when I come home again and I should soak up every moment I have everywhere.

Well, with that said, Anthony and Renee were in Siena this weekend and left this morning and now I can honestly say I’m feeling pretty homesick. Friends here who’ve had family visit them said that the day right after people leave is pretty rough but I figured I could fight through it. I’m fine, but seeing my brother just made me realize how much I miss my family and friends, and even if I’m “too busy” to think about it from day to day, it’s still there.

Comunque, I had an amazing time with them…

Friday we went to this really chill restaurant called Le Trumbicche, which has all of about eight tables and is run by two brothers…I think. Well I’ll definitely be back there, so I’ll find out and report to you for sure. They fixed our wobbly tabled, served us a platter of fresh antipasto each, 2 liters of vino rosso, and had the vinyl covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Bob Dylan, among others, on the walls so we were happy by the end of the night.

Saturday we went to Cortona, which is a little Tuscan hill town about an hour south of Siena where Renee studied art for a semester three years ago. We got back to Siena around 10pm and ate at this quaint little restaurant called Nonna Gina. We polished off another bottle of wine and listened to Italian’s sing rockabilly at the pub Barone Rosso, a local favorite here in Siena.

Renee and I on the steps where she used to have lunch everyday...


The view from the hill of Cortona...


Anthony and I...


On Sunday, Rosanna invited us over for dinner. Her son, daughter-in-law and grandaughter came over and even though Renee and Anthony can't speak much Italian, it was really funny to watch everyone try to communicate. After that, the three of us went back into the city.

Inside Siena's Duomo...


The Torre di Mangia...

Un Giovedi strano.

Today was an interesting day. Instead of teaching my lesson on Act IV of the Wizard of Oz to my 4th grade classes, I watched them in a "spectacolo" in their school, which is a church. This childrens' performer, who has gone throughout Europe with this act in several languages, came to teach the kids about road/driving/bike safety but it wasn't the kind of educational demonstration that the U.S. would have. "Paco Paolo" was decked out in costume, with a guitar, accordian, and a huge speaker system that played the songs from his studio album that got the kids (and teachers) hootin' and hollerin' like I've never seen before. He had props like huge steering wheels and tires that, at one point, all the kids got to jump through, and after they were all done, they all started yelling, "Maestre! Maestre! Maestre!" for the teachers to go up and have a turn through the giant tire. I didn't want any part of it, but when the teacher whose class I teach english for, Costanza, came to me and wripped my bags out of my heads and started to take my coat off I really had no choice. I persisted but she is the true Italian here, so of course she won. She exclaimed in the little english she knows, "Viene!!! You are a teacher!! You are a GOOOD teacher!!!" So I lined up with all the teachers and jumped through the tire. My kids, who hadn't seen me all morning, were jumping up and down and clapping when they finally saw me up there. They are just adorable. They have so much energy with everything from their snacks to this silly performer and his huge tire.

I'm running out of time right now, but here are some random pictures for now:

This is where I go to get to class everyday:




This is Rosanna's dog, Sofie:




There's more to come. Tomorrow my brother Anthony and his girlfriend Renee are coming to Siena. I'm so excited!!! We don't have a lot of plans, but I'll post plenty of pictures next week even if it's just of us eating and drinking!

A più tardi, amori!

I'm back!

Well it took a month, but thanks to the amazing inefficiency of Apple Italia, I now have the ONE piece I needed to get my laptop working. Needless to say, I waited patiently and it was good practice in becoming chill like the Italians.

Allora…

So much has happened in one month that it’s kind of ridiculous for me to sum it all up in this entry. I’ll try to do that anyway, and then post more detail of actual events (with pictures!) when I have some more time.

In the past month, I began and completed three weeks of intensive Italian, made homemade spinach ravioli, started teaching English to crazed but well fed 4th and 5th graders, started work at a church, where I’m known as “bambola Americana” (American doll), that runs a clothing bank and soup kitchen, joined a gym, learned that Italy loves Phil Collins, hung out with Davide in Firenze, wasn’t attacked by pigeons in Piazza San Marco in Venezia, ate free samples at the Baci chocolate factory in Perugina, and started regular classes four days a week. They don’t have class on Friday’s in Italy ☺

I teach English to two 4th grade classes and one 5th grade class, an hour each class, once a week. Contemporary Italian society expects that people have an understanding of English but the school system here doesn’t have the funding to hire actual English teachers, so Italian teachers who don’t necessarily speak English are forced to teach the language, relying solely on books. This program is in effect for three years in order to fix this problem, and of course, to increase American students' exposure to Italians, which will in the end benefit my own language skills. 4th grade is doing the Wizard of Oz and 5th grade is doing Scooby Doo, and each week we read through and act out parts of the play and do different exercises to help kids learn the scripts.

On Monday’s and Wednesday’s I work three hours in the morning at the clothing bank a local church. I help organize the daily donations of clothes, shoes, toys, books, and bed sheets, and help show people as they come in throughout the morning to their various needs. Most of the visitors are immigrants from Romania, have moved from southern Italy, or are refugees from Sudan, among other places. It gets pretty intense at times with Italian dialects, Romanian, Spanish, basically everything but English, being shot around by people cramped into the small quarters of this glorified walk in closet. I do a lot of watching, and thankfully most people here have an endless sense of humor and are very patient with me. On Friday’s and Saturday’s I help serve pranzo at noon at their soup kitchen, or mensa. Everyone there is so kind, patient, and fun. They are like a family, just like Loaves in Ithaca, so I love it and am really comfortable there.

The gym I go to is pretty small, it’s just steps away from the university, but all of Siena’s kind go there: groups of high school kids, international students, young couples, and of course, old ladies. But as many of you reading this know, the old Italian lady is not your average senior citizen. The first day, I was on the tredmil next to a woman walking a gentle 3 kilometers/hour. She had her hair and makeup complete, and was decked out in gold clip-on earrings, and a black tiger print scarf to match her blouse, pants, and sneakers. She was staring at me, judging me I'm sure, and at one point yelled something inaudible to me that ended in “…EH?!" I just smiled and kept running, but you gotta love Italian women and their orders.

One Sunday my host mom came out with, “Why don’t you even listen to music!?” I explained to her that I have my iPod and usually listen to music with headphones, and after she called me “very modern,” insisting that headphones aren’t good for my ears and how it’s important to listen to the news in the morning, she whips out this radio and clears a space for it in my room. I’m definitely a fan of the radio home so I was happy to get away from my modern ways and have to turn the dial of this radio circa 1995. I seriously think I’ve heard more Phil Collin’s and Coolio’s “Gangstas Paradise” in the two weeks I’ve had this radio that in twenty years in the U.S. But who can get enough of either, honestly?

In the next few days post about the two professional cooking classes, where I made ravioli, tiramisù and tagliatelli, and my trips so far. And there will be pictures. Promise.

Ciao, amori!

Prima settimana

Ciao tutti…

Sooo, I’m in Italy and è fantistico! First of all, as the great Margason Patricia Chalaylay III has said, everything here is BEAUTIFUL. From the people (young and old!), to the food, to the shoes, to the pets, to the words that flow from everyone’s mouths, I have yet to find an unattractive thing here in Italy.

Continuiamo…

I arrived in Rome after a very smooth 7 and a half hour flight last Thursday morning. I met the group, which consists of a total of 19 students ranging from no knowledge of Italian to 4 years worth. 8 are from Siena College in Albany and the rest from California and random states in the Midwest and New England. The three main program directors, Lavinia, Antonella, and Mike (a native of Colorado who has worked as Internships and Service coordinator for Siena Italian Studies for the past five years after being a student here himself) are incredible individuals. Whether it is making sure we have bus passes or seeing that we have access to the Internet, they have done nothing but answer our endless questions and make us all feel comfortable. They are, again, BEAUTIFUL.

We spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday walking, eating, and drinking our way through Rome. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit the Vatican (I saw it in the distance at night though and it was pretty sick) but I’ll be back. We devoted most of our sightseeing to the ruins in Rome. I really need to work on taking more pictures even though I think the few I do take pretty much suck. I need to find some time to figure out how to post photos, even the sucky ones...

After a three-hour drive north from Rome to Siena, I met my host family, Rosanna, a retired widow, and her little dog, Sofie. Rosanna and Sofie do not speak a word of English. As far as the language is concerned, living with one person has its pros & cons but I am pretty content at this point and getting by. I definitely said that my brothers were 38 and 34 (they are 28 and 24) and for the first few hours I wasn’t sure if her husband died or if he left her for another woman in Florence, but I do what I have to, even if it means talking to her with an Italian dictionary in my hands. I seriously struggle at times and I make a fool out of myself on a regular basis (eh, nothing new…), but she is very patient and generous to me, l’Americana who is butchering her language, and I’m very thankful to her.

On Sunday, her son, his daughter, wife, and her mother came over for a typical Sunday dinner. None of them speak English, except the daughter, Julia, who is 15 and takes English in school but is not very comfortable with it even though she speaks it well. Regardless, they were also very patient with me. Rosanna’s son teaches piano at the conservatory in Siena so we were able to talk about the piano, and the “molto carino” Pursuit of Happiness, which they saw recently.

Even though I will admit to butchering the Italian language, I haven’t even been here a week and I already feel like I’m improving. I am literally immersed in the Italian language and culture as I listen to conversations between Sienese people on the bus, watch Italian game shows, and give commands to dogs in Italian, and I couldn’t think of a better way to learn. I’m constantly experiencing and learning like I have never before in my entire life, and it’s incredible.

Monday was the first day of five hours of Italian language class each day for the next three weeks. After that, we start class (all in Italian) and I’ll begin teaching English at local schools and working at a soup kitchen/clothing bank at a local church as part of the service-learning component.

Allora…

This is only the beginning! I’ll return soon with more pictures of the beauty of Italia. Ciao amici!