Third week as an Italian - and loving it :D

Three weeks have gone by so fast and I now really feel like I have a home in Italy. I get up in the mornings, I go to school, I talk to friends, I eat (amazingly) and sleep. I don’t think “Oh wow I’m in Italy” as much as “What books do I need to take to school tomorrow?” which sounds strange but it’s so true. I feel so at home here and of course I think about NZ and my friends and family over there all of the time but it’s so strange how fast something new can become the norm. Now that it is seeming so normal to me it’s hard to know what to write in the blog because it’s hard to realise what’s actually different but luckily I kept a list at the beginning so I’ll post about that and the highlights of this week.

So the highlight of my week would have to be on Thursday when it was my friend from AFS’ birthday. Ida, Jan and I went on the train to Forli where she lives as a surprise and we had dinner and slept there the night. It was so much fun, and great to see another Italian family, and another town. Fran had been worried about what her birthday would be like in Italy since she hasn’t been here long and didn’t know what her host family would do for it but they were all so lovely and made such an effort for her I think she had a great time.

She lives in a family who take people in when they’re in need and that sort of thing. There must have been about 17 people at dinner and they were just family members, and a couple of people from the neighbouring houses which are families doing the same kind of things. The atmosphere at dinner was just the best thing! Everyone was talking and laughing and with so many people, some being really young kids it was so happy and loud and just SO nice. When her cake came out and everyone sung Happy Birthday in Italian it was the best thing ever! Just such an amazing, happy atmosphere!

After dinner we went outside for a bit with the older kids in the family and suddenly a bunch of the girls broke out in the cup song on the outside table and it was really good! I think Italians really like the cup song, I’ve heard about it so much here. After a while they all went to bed and it was just Jan, Fran, Ida and I for the rest of the night. We had so much fun and were up most of the night watching videos, listening to music, talking and some other things that just made it one of the best nights ever. I don’t think I’ve laughed that much since I got here, it was great.

The next day we all had the day of school because Forli isn’t too close to Cesena where Jan, Ida and I go to school. We slept in, had breakfast and then went into Forli. We looked around the market and town, had a coffee and then caught the train into Cesena where we had lunch, gelato and then went to our Italian lesson all together. As I said in the last post I’m terrible at remembering to take photos but I will be better I promise!

Here are some of the differences, or just things that happened which I thought were strange, which I’ve found after the first 3 weeks:

• .       The food is very separate, like we’ll eat one thing, then the next, then the next. We don’t put a whole bunch of different things on the plate at once like we would in NZ. For example; we’ll eat pasta (which never has any veges in it), then something like meat on a new plate, then salad on a new plate, then bread and then fruit.
• .       Oil is added to EVERYTHING! I was starting to think this was just my family but I’ve heard it from everyone else too. First the food is cooked in way more oil than we would use in NZ, then the oil is on the table and it’s added to the meal – no matter what it is. It’s put on the top of an already oil soaked pizza, on SALAD and even on soup! 
• .       There’s always bread with dinner, even at restaurants. Just always.
• .       This is something which there is probably an alternative to in NZ, or just in the English language in general but if you have a conversation with an Italian, even if it’s the shortest conversation ever you hear “Allora, Allora, Aspetta”. Aspetta means “wait” and Allora, according to Google Translate means “then” but whenever I ask someone here they say there isn’t really a translation for it.
• .       This could just be in my town but the traffic lights turn off at 9pm and don’t come back on until morning!
• .       When you greet, or say goodbye to someone here you don’t just choose one thing to say like “Ciao”, or “Arrivederci”, or “Grazie" or whatever, you say “Ciao, Ciao, Arrivederci, A dopo”. Most people use about 4 or 5 phrases straight after the other!
• .       This isn’t really a difference between NZ and Italy, just something I found funny and quite cool. My host sister and I saw a sign in a field and I asked her what it was. It had heaps of writing on it and she read it and told me it was a poem about abortion. She said that when the farmers have done their work and they’re bored, they write poetry and put it in random places for people to read! It’s so cute, and she said they’re normally really bad but this one was quite good.
• .       Last night we went to my host Mum’s friend’s house for dinner and it was kind of chilly so I kept my coat on when we went in. Within the first couple of minutes I was told at least 5 times that I could take my coat off if I wanted, like I was crazy for keeping it on. At the time I thought they were just letting me know in case I didn’t know where I could put it or something, but then I realised that they really wanted me to take it off and it’s rude here to keep it on inside. In NZ people wear their Kathmandu’s like jumpers if it’s a cold day and they’ll wear them for the whole day regardless if they’re inside or out.
•       The timing of everything here is completely different. Dinner is around 8-8:30 then you could be going out with friends at 10ish – even on a week night! Also my host sister does football and she gets home at 10:30 and then sometimes goes out again. Also school here finishes at 1 so you have at least 7 hours before dinner which is like a whole day so there’s so much you can do in the afternoon. I really like the timings because it makes the day seem so much longer but I know I’m going to get so tired.

There’s heaps of other really big differences, but because they don’t seem so big now it’s hard to think of them. There’s also heaps of small differences like stinkbugs are everywhere. I can’t have a shower without having to get rid of at least 3 from the walls but this could just be because there’s a window right above the shower and not so much because I’m in Italy… Also there’s McDonald’s branded tomato sauce in the supermarket!