December 2011 blog

December 2011 Blog

November was month of “settling in” more deeply.    The crazy summer tourist season has been over for a while.  There are still tourists, but now the non-Italians are more likely to be foreign students or Chinese (who for some reason continue to come en mass). The weather has been cooler (but not cold by Montana standards).  The Italians seem to have hunkered down to their work a day worlds and we have followed suit.  We traveled less this month, but did get to spend a weekend with our AFS son Francesco, his wife, Giulia and their 13-month old ”Principessa,”  Irene.  We enjoyed Giulia’s fantastic cooking and got to see the “fauna” (Francesco’s term for the animali roaming the the Milan high end shopping district).

We had a very low-key Thanksgiving.  Sheila found a restaurant catering to American tourists and ex-pats serving a traditional Thanksgiving fare.   Sheila brought a friend from yoga who was a wonderful young American woman studying philosophy here and in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship.

After this period of time in Italy, there is a small amount of “deconstructing” and “reconstructing” of our identities, which seems to be taking place.  Like most people our age, we have long since created the form of our lives from our families, professions and friends.  Here, we are doing the same anew, albeit in a different culture and different undertakings.

Sheila continues to meet several times a week with her conversation exchange friend “Lorenzo” and (while not fluent) can now carry on a limited conversation in Italian for an hour without being exhausted.  Lorenzo, an engineer, is looking for work and has been trying to improve his English skills.  Sheila has edited his English job applications. Sheila continues to study Iyengar Yoga three days a week (in Italian).  She plays tennis one day a week (on wonderful clay courts) with an American woman who is a buyer for Williams/Sonoma.  She is also working one day a week at a local food bank associated with the Florence Episcopal Church.  Most of the volunteers are ex-pats who are married to Italian spouses.  She describes them as an interesting motley crew.   She is contemplating some additional language classes after the New Year.  “Fluency” in a foreign language is turning out to be a nebulous standard measured by an increasing awareness of the extent of the project. Nevertheless she makes steady progress.  

We have discovered that we have different learning styles when it comes to language acquisition.  Sheila is exacting.  She likes to feel like she is using the proper word, verb tense and pronunciation before she opens her mouth.  She is always understood, although she sometimes doesn’t say anything because she isn’t sure of herself.  Joe on the other hand, is likely to wing it.  He is frequently wrong, but never in doubt. Sometimes he comes up with interesting creative phases and at other times leaves the listener with a glazed look on their face.

Sheila has begun to experiment with Italian fashion and is slowly finding her shopping legs.  Tight velveteen pants, red tennis shoes, a few beautiful sweaters, brown walking boots and black knee high boots are some of the purchases, which are being admired on our evening walks. (see photo)  Joe is a slower learner, but due to weight loss (about 12 lbs.) he is seeing a pant size he hasn’t seen since law school. So, he had to buy a few skinnier pants (and why not in black and purple?) 

One of the joys of Joe’s morning walk to school is his seeing Italian parents taking their kids to school, often on the back of their bikes. (see photo).  He has just finished his first trimester at the Florence Academy of Art.  It has been an exhilarating, if humbling experience.  Prior proficiency or achievements in other areas or even age, account for little in the fierce meritocracy of art academia. The brain and hand are slowly adapting to the demands of training (although the ego rebels at every turn). (see photos of some of his latest work).

We are looking forward to our two gorgeous boys coming to Florence for Christmas vacation.   We will go to Bergamo, Italy to be with Francesco’s extended family for Christmas day.  Conner has a job as a ski instructor in Telluride, CO so will have to join us after the New Year.  We are still enjoying our great adventure.

Buon Natale e Felice Nuovo Anno!!!

School Days!

Florence at dusk

Sheila and friend

Trying Italian fashions

Joe's new look!

Milano in front of Duomo

Francesco, Giulia, and Irene

Joe's 2nd charcoal

Joe's 2nd bargue

Florence Academy of Art students at the pub

November, 2011 Blog

  November 6, 2011

Sheila had a fantastic time on an 8-day walking tour of the Langhe area to see the fall colors. This area is in the Piemonte region in the NW part of Italy between Torino and Genova.

It was a group tour organized by La Compagnia Dei Cammini. The group of 15 was primarily Italians. There was a man from France, a father & son born in Switzerland, but living in Italy, and Sheila. It was an area that is rather remote and so there were not many tourists at all. It made for quite the immersion experience for Sheila both with language and culture.

         The group backpacked about ten miles each day, staying in hostels, farmhouses, and inns. The scenery included forests of pine, larch, aspen, farmland, hazelnut orchards, vineyards, and many tiny villages. The hikers enjoyed picking apples, pears, figs, hazelnuts, and walnuts along the way.

         Besides the amazing vistas, the food was incredible. The area is famous for wine, hazelnuts, cheeses, and truffles (a special kind of mushroom). Every night was a feast that lasted 2-3 hours. The group usually stopped “al bar” for a caffe in the morning and afternoon. It was not uncommon for someone to break out in song during the hikes and others to join in with the traditional Italian songs. There were visits to many churches, , a small cheese producer, a vineyard, and a hazelnut processing factory. 

         Sheila and Joe’s dear friend Agostino invited Sheila to come along on this journey. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her. Thanks Ago! 

         Four days later Sheila flew to Zurich, Switzerland for a 4-day intensive yoga therapy workshop. Although most of the participants were locals and spoke German, the training was in English. Doug Keller, the teacher from Washington, DC was very impressive. He is one of the leaders in this new movement of yoga as therapy. Sheila came home inspired and invigorated about her yoga practice. She is planning to do private sessions with some of Joe’s art school classmates (who stand to draw 8-10 hours a day and not surprisingly, have a few aches and pains). Sheila has no travel plans as yet in November!

         Joe continues to be immersed in his art studies.  Like any graduate school, it consumes almost all of his time. However, Sheila has made sure that a couple of evenings in the week and most of the weekend remains family time (at least when she is in town).

         Besides classes in anatomy and art history, the study is all studio time.  It consists of   3 to 6 hours a day of drawing from a live model and about 3 hours a day drawing from master drawings or “barge” drawings.   Basically the training is designed to improve a students ability to accurately see shapes, sizes, angles and values better and be able to draw them with more precision. Once you’ve mastered one exercise another more challenging one is provided. The photos attached are of Joe’s first completed “barge” drawing (the original is on the left) and Joe’s first long pose charcoal drawing.  Joe is having a blast.

         Happy Thanksgiving to all! We miss our family and friends, but continue to enjoy our incredible opportunity of a lifetime.

Sheila e Joe

Translation: Make Love, Not War!

                                 

Settembre 2011

September was a transition month.  We had lots of company; moved from being stark newbies to being slightly more familiar with the language and culture; and started activities, which, began to ground us in our experience here. 

We had several family and friends visit us.  Carol Santa spent a couple days with us before embarking on an amazing equestrian trip through South Tuscany.  Our good Italian friends, Ago and Alice took us on a little gita to Sienna and San Gimignano.  It was wonderful not only for their company, but also because we spoke only Italian (almost) for three days.  They were very patient with us.  But the extended time speaking Italian nudged our brains so that we could start thinking just a little in Italian.

Joe’s sister Kate and husband Monte visited for 5 days in Firenze.  Monte had the great idea of hiring a guide to take us through Chianti for a wine tour (a highlight for sure) and both were game for exploring the city on foot and bike.

We had an evening together with our Kalispell friends Todd and Liz Hammer and Lynn and Colleen St Pierre, who were in the middle of a month tour of Italy.  We also had a weekend visit from our Kalispell friend Lauren Langmead, who is working as a counselor in Vicenza, Italy.  It was good to see familiar faces of our fellow adventurers.

We are thankful for Skype, so we can stay in touch with Quinn and Conner and the rest of the family.  We still have to get Joe’s mom lined out so we can see her face when talking to her.

Sheila found a yoga studio that she likes a lot and feels challenged by.  An internationally known Iyengar teacher runs it.  Of course the classes are all in Italian (and Sanskrit). She will also be attending a yoga therapy workshop in Zurich at the end of the month, so her yoga is an area that seems to be opening up for her.  She continues to do the conversation exchange a few times a week. She is also starting to hit a few tennis balls at some public clay courts not too far away. Playing on clay courts is a real treat because it is far less grueling on her middle-aged joints. It’s another great way to make some friends here.

She will be leaving soon to take a 7-day village-to-village organized hiking tour in Northwest Italy, with a group of Italians, including our friend Ago.  She is looking forward to being immersed in Italian for that length of time, and of course seeing some countryside in an area known for wine and truffles.

Joe is submersed in his art classes at the Florence Academy.  There are about 25 students from all over the world in his first year class.  He is drawing 6 hours a day (from both the live model and “bargue” drawings) and in addition has evening classes three days a week studying anatomy, art history and more drawing.  The students are generally in their 20’s and 30’s although there are several older students too.  Most are either professional artists or have just finished an undergraduate degree in studio art.  Joe has been a little overwhelmed with the prospect of keeping up, but is thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Overall, we are settling in a little bit.  We still aren’t fluent in Italian, but we can get by.  We’ve taken to watching Italian game shows on television.  Our favorites are similar to trivial pursuit knowledge games.  The announcers speak clearly and the games use of new words help our vocabulary.  The food continues to be a highlight for us. The fruits and vegetables are very fresh because they are so local. Even the eggs and poultry taste better than we have ever had. Maybe it is just our Italian imaginations.

September was a perfect combination of warm temperatures in the day and cooler nights.  We miss Montana and our friends, but we are looking forward to a little warmer winter.

Ciao, Joe e Sheila

September

5 September 2011

August was an interesting and challenging month for us.  We experienced some bumps in the road and we closed the “honeymoon” portion of our adventure.   However, after dusting ourselves off and having a great week in Sardinia, we are settling into our fall schedules and are still having a wonderful experience.

We remember when we were “AFS” parents and were told to expect that our foreign exchange student would have more or less a predicable pattern of highs and lows during his stay.  Now, we are experiencing it, but from the perspective of the person adapting to a different culture, language and change of life.

         One challenge has been simply adapting to an urban environment in a culture that has quite a lot of theft. Although there are very few violent crimes here, petty theft is a big problem for this otherwise wonderful culture. Interestingly, well-dressed people who you would not suspect often do some types of theft.  

Sheila had her bike stolen in July and her purse was stolen one night in August, while we were dining. The latter felt awful for Sheila! We were inside a very nice neighborhood restaurant and Sheila had her purse hanging off her chair. Sheila had it in her lap for something shortly before. We were distracted for less than a minute while a group came by our table with two babies in a carriage. The purse was nabbed while we were gawking at the cute babies. It happened that fast! It has been a long and laborious process of replacing house keys, cell phone, credit/debit cards.

All our Italian friends and acquaintances were very sympathetic to our losses.  Most had stories of their own of theft of one kind or another.  Some were of the opinion that the theft problem was a result of foreigners “stranieri” rather than Italians. 

The other challenge has been coming to grips with the fact that despite being  “buoni studenti”, being anywhere near fluent in a few months, is a bit of a pipe dream.  It is true that we probably would make better progress if we were split up and each put separately into Italian families.  Then, we would be forced to speak Italian all the time and could not speak English at all.  But… that ain’t going to happen.

Joe continued with four more weeks at LinguaViva enjoying his Italian studies (he loves being a student).  We took advantage of a couple oshort “gite” offered by the school, to the cities of Lucca and Siena.  Samuele, who was very knowledgeable about history, art and architecture, guided the trips.  Joe got an “A” on his level two test (although not quite as high an “A” as Sheila did, “ma, non importante”).  He is currently reading “ The girl who played with fire” in Italian, albeit with the book in one hand and a dictionary in the other.

While Joe was in school, Sheila started conversation exchanges with local Italians. She meets with Italians who want to learn English.  Generally, speaking one language at a time and usually for about 45 minutes. Longer than that and Sheila says her language skills begin to deteriorate.  She has had a flurry of Italians contacting her through the “conversation exchange” website, to set up exchange dates.  English is an important work asset for Italians so native English speakers who are willing to teach are in demand.  For the last several weeks she has been speaking with “Lorenzo” a recently unemployed engineer who decided to spend his month of august brushing up on his English in anticipation of his job search.  A typical exchange would be a morning walk in the park or maybe a visit to the Mercato Centrale.

We hosted a dinner party one evening for a few “language” friends. Lorenzo came eager to meet a few of the young women from Joe’s language class.   We had a couple women from Brazil and another woman from Slovenia. It was a fun night of mostly Italian, some Portuguese, as well as English (which is the default language).

August was also interesting because it is the month when Italians abandon the city. Feriagosto means holiday august and most Italians take part of, if not the whole month off. They leave the city for the mountains or the sea. Florence was dead. Our favorite little vege/fruit shop, bakery, yoga classes, etc. just stopped for the month.  We were left to fend for ourselves at the places that stayed open for tourists. We did both enjoy how easy it was to get around on the bikes.

After finally getting new credit cards, we left the city when the Italians returned, for five days “of recovery” in the south Sardinia. We took the cheap airline, Ryanair, for the one-hour flight out of Pisa to Cagliari.  We spent most of the time reading books under the beach “ombrello” and swimming.  The area has a feel of Baja Mexico, with a Caribbean Sea (but with more pasta and less tortillas).

On our return, Firenze was once again hopping and we are beginning our fall schedules.  Sheila has signed up for a “yoga therapy” workshop in Zurich, so is trying to get to a lot of local yoga classes and studying anatomy to get tuned up.  She may also take a cooking class and do some volunteer work in the fall.  Joe is starting to draw more in preparation for his art school starting. 

We are also both looking forward to visitors in the next few weeks.

We miss our family and friends, but we sure are having a great time experiencing our new world.  Like everything, it keeps changing.