More words in Italian

Navigli—these are the canals that I wrote about last time. There are several here in Milan. I always thought of Venise as the canal city, but Milan certainly has its fair share too. The last Sunday of each month (even August, the month to vacate the city) there is a flea market on the Navigli. JL was visiting from France and we went this weekend. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect. I didn’t find much that I needed, but I did find some adorable alcoves where art galleries and art dealers are hidden away. Lunch on the canal was less than exciting. It was good, but not great. After the market JL and I went to the Duomo. We went inside, but I really need to go with my family historian to fully appreciate the inside. The roof view was something I could appreciate on my own however. After some initial confusion as to how to get to the top, we took the stairs. It ended up not being too long of a walk to the top, very doable and cheaper to boot. The views of the city were impressive, but even better was the view of the Alps in the distance. After some gelato and a stroll down Monte Napoleone to see the couture shops and manhole covers described in the NYT’s 36 hours in Milan (NOT WORTH IT!) we headed home.

Lavatrice—washing machine. I posted on FB that I may have set the world record for washing time at 4.25 hours. Turns out I beat my own record yesterday. 10 hours!!! (OK, I was asleep most of it.) As of now, it is not clear if my washing machine is broken or if I just keep using the settings that must be forwarded by hand. The landlord is going to check tomorrow. She thinks it could be that I just have to wash synthetic materials on the advance-by-hand-cycle and that cotton should keep going on its own.

Pranzo—lunch. This is very important because lunch is a major meal here. Teachers here eat lunch in the cafeteria everyday because it is so worth it. It is nothing, I repeat, nothing, like pranzo in US schools. Tell me when the last time your teachers were treated to Prosecco, Carpaccio, fresh cheese, roasted veggies, stuffed squash leaves, stuffed noodles, fresh fruit, and homemade tarts, and tiramisu? And, oh yeah, I forgot to mention the real lobster (shell and all) linguine. So we don’t eat like that every day, but the food is truly remarkable. Everything is made by hand with fresh food, not from a can or frozen and reheated on site. There are pasta choices every day. Right now, it looks like I will never have to make pasta at home because I get it every single day at lunch. Salads have become my dinner because they are fast and easy and less caloric than my lunches. Teachers are warning me that they gained 10 pounds there first year. However, I have lost weight so far since I walk around 4 miles roundtrip every day. (I think I hold my breath about 5 minutes every walk because of the “fresh” fertilizer being used on the corn fields.) Perhaps when my shipment with my bike is allowed to be delivered and I bike more often, I will see those 10 pounds appear. Right now I’m thinking totally worth it!

Stress-- Another one of those words that is the same and sucks in both languages. I have been working like crazy to get my classroom ready for the first day on September 1. Ugh! What a nightmare. Some of the “disasters” so far: 1) no pencils have arrived. As of Thursday there will be no pencils in the school for our students to use. No one in the office staff has deemed it worthy enough to go to the store to buy 2 packs for every classroom. 2) Our elementary school secretary—and keeper of all lower school information-- is sick this week and our brand new principal cannot answer any questions or lead many meetings until she is back and able to give him the info he needs. I feel terrible for the principal because he must feel even more confused than we do. 3) We have new interactive white boards. This is pretty cool since they promise to fix them if they freeze up like my board did last year. The problem is that we got training that psyched us all up, but they forgot to mention that none of them in ES were hooked up yet. The momentum is quickly draining. In fact, my computer was not even able to be set up until today. I have been scurrying around the school looking for empty computers that will meet my printing needs since I have only one poster for my classroom. On a whim, I shoved it in my suitcase before I left. What luck! Anyway, my computer was hooked up today as was my smartboard. Perhaps I will have a chance to play with it one of these days….

Ciao!

Pre-Trip Anxiety

Ugh! One of the lines I hear quite often is, "You are so brave!" Depending on the day I may reply back that sometimes brave is not brave, but just plain crazy. Today is one of those days.

(This is me pre DC move, feeling brave.)

(This is me in a pre-beach moment of anxiety.)

I just this morning returned from a week at the beach with my family. I have not yet been home for 12 hours, but nevertheless I am a nervous wreck. The gravity of what I am doing has really hit me. I am going to a country where I speak barely 100 words and have no idea where I will be living. At dinner tonight, I quizzed my dad on the numbers and my mom on the alphabet. (Both parents have been taking Italian lessons for over a year, never having planned on having to use it to visit their daughter.) The first five minutes of dinner was me practicing counting to ten repeatedly and then making my parents count with me. The rest of dinner was spent trying to name the items on the table. Too many were unknown to us all so my mom sat with our Italian-English dictionary open through the rest of dinner helping me muddle along. After all of that effort all I can remember is insalata and my first 10 numbers-- except 5, I can't remember that one. It's not enough like French. This is not a good sign for my language skills.

Language aside, I have taken to obsessively strolling the streets of what I think will be my neighborhood on google maps. Luckily, it looks safe, but two things that concern me are a) the distance to the school's neighborhood and b) the grocery stores. Let's start with the aerial view of google maps. My school and possible neighborhood are south of the actual city of Milan. When looking from above, it looks way too far for me to ride everyday on my bike. Perhaps it isn't too far (I can never tell distances on google maps), but I think I'll be riding on a highway. From what I hear of the Italian drivers, this could be my end. I am slow and wobbly so I can just picture swerving into a car to let the cyclists behind me pass and my body sprawled out on the side of the highway (and dying because I can't explain the pain or understand what directions are being given to me). I have 2 (due) bike helmets, just in case.

Food is my second concern. My endless virtual strolling has turned up a soccer field, many apartment buildings, a restaurant, a church, a park, and a gym but not one single market or grocery store. I marvel at how this is possible. What if I can't find the store and can't ask or understand how to get there? What if I accidentally touch the food? Will I get arrested or just scolded? The whole Amanda Knox thing has given me little faith in the Italian judicial system.

Next morning update: I just reread the information the school sent me and it assures me that the ride to the school from my possible neighborhood is a bike path. At least, there will be no swerving into traffic, just other bikers. Whew! I also reread that there is a big grocery store somewhere in the neighborhood. However, my food touching anxiety has doubled; you can get fined for touching food. I'm a toucher so this is not looking good for me. Time to take a break from death and jail worries to go fret over packing all my stuff!