Thank you television for teaching me important stuff…
Bayern looks pretty good tonight…Even though it’s scoreless, and the Juventus keeper is an occasional train robber (he’s a fine keeper, but I’m not aware of his actual train robbing skills – they have yet to be televised).
I’ve noticed when I say that to most of the Italians they wrinkle their nose like I just waved dirty socks in front of them…it’s the same look a kid gives when they are offered spinach (actually I make that face too when offered spinach – tip: just don’t do it)…I’ll assume the face isn’t for me personally becuase they don’t make it until I start speaking. I have to wonder if english sounds to them to be an ‘ugly’ language. The opposite of what english speakers say about French and Italian. The italians speak with so much ‘gusto’ in normal conversation and the english speakers are so sort of reserved, and level speakers except for some of the americans of italian descent who still maintain some of that machismo when they speak…
I have proper internet now…not exactly proper. It’s an internet key…slow, but it works. I’m downloading some more Camille (the frenchie I mentioned the other day) and Lykke Li (swedish- and also good). Give them a listen if you’re inclined. This is me recommending 🙂
Matt and I had a stimulating e-mail conversation about octagons today.
When a young octagon thinks of growing should its only aspiration be to be a stop sign? I said a young octagon should not be limited in his or her (because a young female octagon should not be limited to being an octagonal housewife and octagon birther) occupational choice as an adult octagon. I said there are many choices for a young octagon…in addition to being a stop sign they could aspire to be a chinese checker board or possibly even “the octagon”…surely the U.S. will need a replacement for the pentagon at some point…but then the U.S. being the U.S. they will probably just skip to something like an 18-agon.
The US: Of course I want it super-sized. Stop asking me stupid
questions…
I barely remember Frankfurt. At this point I’m not sure I ever actually lived in the states.
Things I miss about ffm:
Kebabs
(at least ones without chips in them)…and gnoblauch sauce. mmmmm
12 germans saying gesundheit after someone sneezes.
In Italy noone says anything unless the sneeze is extra loud then they’ll say something like ‘pronto’, ‘ciao’ or ‘salute!’…ok it’s a point for itality, but I can still miss the germans.
starbucks…
Last time I went to the states I was really surprised that the people at the starbucks by the old office still remembered me. I expect the same behaviour when I go back to DE. Though I have to say I got waaaay more free drinks at the DE starbucks than I ever got in the states.
I enjoy the italian coffee, but it’s just gone so quick (30 seconds). They do have 1 McDonalds in town (which blows my KFC theory), but no other businesses have learned about super sizing in Italy yet 😉
I hope I don’t need a segue there…Going from tiny coffees to gigantic McDonalds orders. it makes sense to me 🙂 I hate McDonalds. I eat there about once every year or two and never by choice…
H&M/C&A
They have 9 bennetons, 14 sisleys, and 1 carrefour. I don’t know where to shop yet.
Public transport.
Catching #11, #12, #4, #5 at any five minute (or so) interval.
Live Music
Dreikönigskeller, Balalaika, Nachtleben, das Bett.
Clothes taking 3 days to dry
Not here…
The Main…
Ok it’s not the med, but hey….It’s all brown and stuff 😉
Humidity…
Not so much…
Joeys and Mr Pizza
Online food ordering…greating thing ever!!!
The Renaissance….
wait a minute!!!
and my people (yo)…
ok so the list isn’t that big cept for my friends. I guess that’s good. So far most of the Italians are great. I’m enjoying myself. I’ve mastered the very basics of Italian.
Stupid things like
‘hello’
‘how are you’
‘good’
‘me’
‘me?’
‘and you’
‘where is veneto street?’
‘here’
‘there’
‘tractor’
‘doctor’
‘boss’
‘enjoy your meal’
‘wine’
‘beer’
‘I would like’
‘yes’
‘no’
‘what is this’
‘bye’
So as long as someone is willing to follow a sript with me we can have deep conversations…(pretend it’s in Italian).
me: Hello, how are you?
random italian: Good.
me: Where is tractor?
random italian: there
me: no
random italian: here
me: yes
random italian: I would like beer
me: I would like wine, and you?
random italian: I would like beer
me: what is this
random italian: tractor
me: boss
random italian: yes
me: enjoy your meal
random italian: no
me: bye
random italian: bye
I’m obviously obsessed with tractors and beer 🙂
I think I saw that at a drive in with my mom…
The neighbour above me seems to be an interesting sort. As I’ve mentioned I’m staying in a temporary flat until I find a place of my own (btw it’s about 3x bigger than my old place – the living room is about as big as my old flat and in addition to the living room there is a full kitchen with a table, 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms…it’s gigantic and empty feeling)…anyways every saturday morning (sometimes sundays) I hear someone upstairs playing a piano. I’m pretty sure it’s a real piano and not a recording.
The only other thing I know about this person is that she (I assume it’s she) puts on clogs and stomps about above me starting at 7 in the morning <clomp clomp clomp>. Is it really necessary to wear clogs when you’re putting on your makeup <clomp clomp clomp>…oh she says to herself <clomp clomp clomp>…I think I’ll wear this dress <clomp clomp clomp> and this shirt <clomp clomp clomp> no wait…maybe I’ll wear this <clomp clomp clomp> thing <clomp clomp clomp> with <clomp clomp clomp> this <clomp
clomp clomp> thing <clomp clomp clomp>….
Just imagine she’s saying this in italian…I am going to just make the assumption that she’s dutch <clomp clomp clomp>…so many nicknames to choose from. The dutchess <clomp clomp clomp>. Dutchie
<clomp clomp clomp>. The flying Dutchman <clomp clomp clomp>. The frying Dutchman <clomp clomp clomp>. Jean Claude Van Damme <clomp clomp clomp>, Clompy mcClomps a lot…She’s also probably 6″ 4′ and full of muscles <clomp clomp clomp>.
She’s clomping right now <clomp clomp clomp>…
as you can see she only takes 3 steps <clomp clomp clomp> and then
pauses…<clomp clomp clomp>.
Also sorting my music collections and I come across a french chick named Camille (album le File)…again I’m just assuming she’s french cuz she seems to be singing in french…and I really like it. I find that with a lot of the french music I hear. I have no idea if this is pop music or somewhat indie, but I really like it. I also don’t have any idea who I got this album from…maybe 2,0.
btw note to self. I havn’t heard a peep from 2,0…should write him…
Havn’t done much else today…made an exciting trip to the trash cans (everyone gets free trash in Italy…and France too for that matter). The cans are just on the street and free for all…I’m sure the americans consider this socialism (dammit! The government should not intrude in our lives by putting garbage cans in the
streets…or…dammit! I didn’t kill laotians so we could have free rubbish bins!).
…also an exciting trip to Carrefour (the gigantic walmart like monstrosity) with low quality clothing and edible pizzas made fresh daily in the deli).
Watched Gran Torino…which I suprisingly liked…and now I think I head out for a stroll over to the coffee shop and ponder if it’s possible to compare the little coffee shop/tabbachis with the Deutsch trinkhalles…probably not worth the effort…
It occurs to me that the number of keys you have is indicative of
how long one has lived in the same spot (other things I’m sure, but
let’s keep it simple).
After a while you end up with so many keys you aren’t even sure of
what all of them are for.
…and so for the second time in about 3 years I find myself with no keys
of my own (ok, I have a house key for a place that isn’t mine and a
car key of an auto that isn’t mine)…
and with no proper segue at all….
Here’s a tip for the kiddies…when you are in a strange
country get a rough idea of where the major cities are on the
map…so that if the situation occurs where you may have to choose
between….say….Livorgno and Genoa (because the city you’re
actually going to is too small to show up on the major autostrada
interchanges) you choose correctly. There is nothing to really gain
by gambling on a 50/50 in this situation.
so on that note…I went to Florence (Fiorenze) today and in theory
it should be about 1 hour away…however once again (every time I
try to go to Florence) I got lost and it took about 2 hours to get
home…that’s not even counting the rush hour traffic (even on
Sunday) around the airport (my chosen route home in this scenario).
If you take into account the city driving it was about 3 hours
driving home…and this after I pondered taking the train this
morning and decided that 1:40 was just too much time to spend on
it. Have I learned any lessons today…..probably not 😉
3 weeks down. The sun finally came out today after a prolonged absence of about 3 days. It’s been thundering, lightning and raining every day.
The other day it actually was thundering for about 4 or 5 hours. That was a bit unusual to me. In Oregon it might thunder for 20 minutes or so, but this just kept coming. I guess it’s the mountains keeping the weather in (ooh microclimate).
Just had the realization today that many of the words with ‘ct’ in them can be easily translated – change the ‘c’ to ‘t’ and add
an italian sounding suffix (doctor is dottore, fact is facto, director is dirrettore, tractor is trattore). This in conjunction with the -ion words and a lot of the -ck words make my vocabulary expansive (is that expansivo?).
Also figured out that tepido is warm (tepid) while having a latte macchiato at one of the local coffee shops.
This is much easier than Deutsch…I just need to learn the basics (I, me, you, we, they) and some verbs (go, stop, eat, drink) and I’ll be in business….I go eat tractor.
sick of goodbyes...who said what to make us look so sad?
I made it to Pisa yesterday and hung about there for a few hours. I
found a used bookstore that had a few english books. Bought 3 for
10€ so that hopefully will keep me busy for a while. I started on
“the Spirit Wrestlers…and other survivors of the Russian
Century”. From a travel writer who visited the Cossacks and other
‘forgotten’ ethnic and social groups in Russia.
Made it to the tower and it was actually quite more impressive than
I expected. I’ve seen it from afar (train, plane and autostrada),
but upclose you can see it is REALLY leaning. Looks like it’s going
to tip over in a few hours…
I walked a bit much yesterday and now my knee hurts. I’m abiding
though…
I wanted to watch some english footy, but the only place it was on
was in a “bet shop”. A legal sport booky bar thing. All the irish
pubs didn’t open til 7 or 7:30, and were advertising Seria A
(italian league) so I ended up coming back to Massa about 8PM and
just hung out at home watching a movie.
Nice day today. The weather is cooling and there was a bit of a
chill this morning…not a real chill, but an Italian chill I
suppose. I think it must’ve gotten down to 13 or 14°C…brrr 😉
Some colleagues invited me to the local septemberfest the other night. It was the Italians celebrating Oktoberfest…there was oompa looompa music and everything 🙂
They obviously had experience at this as they all brought their own knives to use while eaten the häxan or haxan (I think that’s the german word for it)…it’s a very german meal of a large chunk of pig leg (including the bone), fried with skin on and pretty tasty..but since I didn’t bring my own knife I ordered something else.
tomorrow may go to Pisa to look for english books whilst acting like a tourist. When I get tired of that, I’ll prob stop off somewhere to watch English footy. Should be good games tomorrow.
Also got a bank account this week so hopefully a phone will be forthcoming. It was a pretty good week.
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