Just random things.

1. When I told my students that in America we have an orange cheese, called “cheddar”, this cute, little 11-year old shouted out, “Che Schifo!” which means, “How disgusting!” I thought this was pretty funny since I grew up eating cheddar cheese, and never really realized how disgusting it kind of sounds. Now I will never speak badly about good old Kraft mac n’ cheese, or turn away mom’s homemade tacos with cheddar. But I can’t help but seriously wonder now, why is it so orange anyway?

2. Every day when I get off at the metro and walk out of the station to jump on the bus, the bus is quickly zooming by me to the bus stop which is about 200 meters from the metro exit. Everyday, I have to run as fast as possible to catch the bus, which isn’t so pleasant in boots. I have no idea how the timing is planned so perfectly that I have to run for dear life everyday, hoping the bus driver is nice enough to wait. He usually is and I get on the bus panting and out of breath with all the other passengers staring at me like I am some spectacle. Maybe God is secretly telling me I need more cardio.

3. I bought rain boots this weekend, and I love them. They are absolutely necessary these days, as the rain has not let up for months now. Sean and I took them for a test run and went for a walk in the rain. Sean made me walk though every puddle we saw now matter how deep it was. To anyone watching us, he may have looked incredibly unkind and unchivalrous. Little did they know, he was really incredibly jealous that he couldn’t walk through the puddles too and come home with dry socks.

4. I am officially addicted to hot cocoa. There is nothing I love more (except Sean) than ending my day curled up with a girlie book and a cup of cocoa. It is part of my routine. If we are out of milk, I panic, and run out immediately - day or night, rain or shine - to get some more to support my sick habit.

5. I have given up on my unruly 7-year olds. I realized I lost control when I had 2 kids beating each other up, 2 climbing on the mobile chalkboard, 2 standing on top of and jumping from desk to desk, and 1 running around outside the class doors. I talked to my boss today about my situation, and she helped me out by letting me off the hook. I hope whoever takes my place is really mean.

6. I am getting over a minor cold and serious cough, and Sean has been the perfect doctor. I decided to avoid the farmacy altogether since it is such a hassle to get medicine around here. Sean however has cured my brutal cough with his home remedy - lemon, honey and olive oil - and it actually worked. He’s so smart and I have one more reason to love him even more now.

7. I am not trying to sound all righteous or anything, but the smoking situation is out of control here. We can’t walk anywhere without a huge cloud of smoke billowing into our faces. We both come home reeking like we just puffed down a couple packs. The streets are littered with cigarette butts and people really have no consideration for non-smokers, mainly because there aren’t any. Kids start at the age of 12, and it’s really strange to me that no one is aware of the health risks. Like all the olive oil and garlic has canceled out the affects of smoking?

8. I went to meet Sean at his classroom after teaching one day, and there was a group of 16-year-old girls hovering over him telling him how handsome he is and asking him how long we have been together. They all scattered when they saw me. It was cute, and he was definitely flattered. I have to agree with them.

9. My haircut isn’t as bad as I thought....maybe I was being dramatic. Don’t get me wrong, it is not good, but I apparently look exactly the same with my hair in a ponytail. So, long live the ponytail, again.

The haircut.

We teach our students to use the article “the” when there is only one of something. I think I just got “the haircut”...meaning the one and only haircut I will get while here in Italy. Now, I am not one to normally give too much thought to my hair, especially since it is in a ponytail 99.9% of the time. I realize haircuts are necessary, and I usually wait until it is absolutely necessary before I get one. Well, after 5 months, it was time. I love the process of getting a hair cut - from the shampoo scalp massage to the light airy feeling on my head when leaving the salon, and the perfected style that only a professional stylist is capable of achieving. However, this time, was an exception. I went to a salon that falsely advertised that their stylists spoke English. In my broken Italian and a magazine photo in hand of a style similar to the one I wanted, I was confident that I managed to communicate what I needed to the man in charge of cutting my hair. I enjoyed my fabulous shampoo scalp massage and felt pretty good about the place I selected, even though they knew maybe 1 word of English and that one word was “haircut”. The man and I made light conversation, as I pulled out all my basic vocabulary - where I’m from, who I am here with, where I live, etc, etc. Sean has been encouraging this haircut lately, and I think it has more to do with him wanting me to just get out there and speak Italian any chance I can get. Well, he hasn’t seen my hair yet tonight, and I am thinking about telling him this is what I asked for in crystal clear Italian, but then again, I am not a good actress either. So, the man cut about 4 inches off and I thought it looked pretty good and he was finished.... until... he decided to start chopping the front of my hair in these alleged “layers” that turned out to look more like huge steps, if that makes sense. The first chunk, and by chunk I mean handful of hair he chopped to about my chin, I gasped loudly and held my breath for longer than I probably should have. Unable to hide any emotion on my face, or the sweat building on my forehead, the man stopped. We established that this was not exactly what I wanted and that he should maybe just even out the other side and wrap this up. With shaking hands after a near heart attack from my expression, he finished “chunking” or whatever it was he was doing to the other side. I smiled and said “perfecto”, and left the salon, thinking this isn’t anything a rubber band can’t fix, right? So, I immediately put in my famous ponytail only to find that all the hair closest to my face wouldn’t even fit in the pony tail. To make a long story shorter, I look like I have wings - like I could fly away with the hair next to my face. Interesting. Good thing I have hair clips and bobby pins to keep it all back and in order, but that was definitely an experience I would like not to repeat.

Calcio!

Last Sunday night Sean and I went to the Milano-Roma soccer match at Stadio Olimpico, the big stadium here in the city center. This was my first European soccer experience - which was really like no other. We squeezed onto the city bus with a million other Roma fans who were dressed in red and gold to support the team, drinking and chanting the whole way there. When we arrived I was in awe. There were so many people - all rushing into the stadium - there was such excitement, a particular energy - as if you could breath the adrenaline in the air. The first sight we took in of the stadium was also pretty amazing. Sean and I both stopped to stare at the field - so big and green and so surreal - with famous footballers warming up from both teams. As soon as we found our seats I tried looking for Beckham on the field, who was playing with Milano for the first time that night, since he is the most famous, handsome and of course one of the main reasons Sean was able to get me to go to a game. We found him along with Ronaldinho, Kaka, Pato, all big players for Milano, I was able to recognize from watching the games with Sean on TV. The crowd remained enthusiastic through the whole game - there is a strong rivalry between the two teams which made the fans extra rowdy. If you need a play-by-play of the game, you are going to have to ask Sean. All I know is that the guy who scored both goals for Roma is the guy who is known for being the first person in the sport to ever take his pants off when scoring during a previous game. I just remembered seeing this display over and over on the news and that is how I remembered him when Sean told me who was scoring on Sunday. It’s a pretty funny story actually - Mirko Vucinic ripped his pants off and ran around in his white undies after scoring, his new nick name is “strip tease”. And he wasn’t even punished either because there apparently wasn’t any rule against taking your pants off during a game. Now there is though, because of him, so hopefully it doesn’t happen again...although I thought it would be funny if it did. Anytime a goal was scored whichever team it was for the fans, which were 99% male, were out of control - shouting, cheering and setting off fireworks. The game ended in a tie - 2-2, which I was glad for because I just wanted all the fans to be nice. It took us about 2 hours to get home with all the chaos after the game. All in all it was a really fun, entertaining experience.

Roma-Milano Calcio

Al Cinema

Sean and I never went to the movies much when we lived in California, so it’s no surprise that in our 4 months living here, we still hadn’t been out to see a film...until tonight. Sean succeeded in persuading me to change out of sweats so we could go to the small 2 room theater about a block from our apartment. Both movie options were obviously only in Italian. Madagascar 2 seemed like the best choice - since it is targeted toward 5-year olds, we figured I would at least get the gist of what was going on, even if I didn’t understand everything. There were some surprises we encountered during our first movie-going experience. First of all, we were disappointed to find out there was no concession stand at the theater selling popcorn, sodas and candies for movie-goers. We sat down in the theater empty-handed, later to realize that a cute little man about 100-years old with a red vest and red cap walks into the theater carrying a huge tray of treats, similar to the vendors at a baseball game. He had anything you could want - popcorn, water, candy, you name it. I was curious if he had peanuts and crackerjacks on his tray but I don’t think he did. The other surprise was that half way through the movie, the movie stopped for a 10-minute intermission. The guy with the snacks came back into the theater at that time, and people were able to get up to use the bathroom, stretch, or for Sean and me, recap what was going on in the movie, all without interrupting the movie or bothering anyone. Although the theater was old and kind of run-down, the movie screen was perched up on an actual stage, which was odd, I think both of these ideas are pretty genius. I am sure they are old-fashioned, but make perfect sense, and I think should be adopted by the big, fancy American theaters too.

The movie itself was adorable, and I recommend it highly, any age. This movie may already be out on DVD in the US, but if you haven’t seen it, you should. In fact, there wasn’t one child in the whole theater. The story is about a group of jungle animals from the New York zoo who end up in the wild open jungle of Africa. When see this beautiful land for the first time, one character said, “Where are we?” and the another said, “I think we are in San Diego,” as if the beautiful land were the San Diego zoo. Both Sean and I started laughing out loud. The funnier part is that we were the only ones laughing. I don’t think Italians know about the infamous San Diego zoo.

First Day of 2009

Today is the first day of the new year. It’s pouring rain outside and I am sitting comfortably in my sweats, tired from our late new year’s eve. I would give anything for pancakes and watching movies in bed, but both activities would require me to go outside first and that is just not where I want to go right now. Spending the turn of the new year in Rome really made me realize what an amazing thing it is to be here. We didn’t do much during the day yesterday - just our normal walking around Trastevere, grocery shopping and cleaning up. It was a beautiful day, the kind of day where when you stand in the shade you freeze, but you defrost the second you stand in the warm, radiating sun. We walked along the sunny side of the street as much as possible and just enjoyed the normalcy of the day. Then in the evening we headed out to the Colosseum to watch a free concert - where a variety of unknown to me euro artists performed. There were millions of people in the streets from Piazza Venezia all the way to the Colosseum. We walked with the flow of the crowds and finally found an open space big enough for 2 to stop and sit and toast to the new year. All around us was chaos - people were screaming in cheer, drinking and setting off fireworks all over the place. Lucky for us, the place we decided to stop was where a group endlessly set off fireworks all night, making me jump at each incredibly loud noise. Sean of course was fascinated, and wished we had bought some fireworks of our own. I am glad we didn’t. Once midnight hit, the chaos grew - champagne bottles burst open around us drenching us from head to toe, people cheered, embraced loved ones and threw bottles into the air only for them to shatter as they hit the ground. The real fireworks show started and I was mesmerized by the beautiful light display over the Colosseum - one of the oldest standing structures in the world! The crowds around me disappeared for an instant and I was amazed that I was actually standing in that specific place at that time. Last year, I would have never imagined, never dreamed that this would be my life now....and I am thankful that it is.

I have one very important resolution this year and the fact that I am writing it down for anyone to see makes me feel like I really need to achieve this goal for myself. I need to learn Italian - and put an honest effort into it. I am slowly on my way, but I need to really commit myself to it and have the confidence to use it in any situation.

Sean’s resolution is to stop eating candy, but I know that is already out the window since his first words this morning were, “I feel like candy.” And in this moment he is talking about how we should celebrate Befanda - a holiday to celebrate the day the 3 kings brought gifts to baby Jesus. Italians celebrate by putting candy into stockings.