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Published: September 22nd 2006
Ciao, Come Va Ragazzi? (This means hi everyone how are you!!)
As I write this it is Friday afternoon and I am sitting out on the terrace of my apartment with a glass of wine watching the sun setting over the holy cross on top of the mountains of the Amalfi Coast.
Another school week in Italy is over so in total I have been a full time student (studentesa) learning Italian (parlo Italiano) for three weeks (tre settimana).
So is that the extent of my Italian you ask? No, ma parlo poco italiano (I speak a little bit of Italian).
It has taken me a while to think about writing this blog entry as my head has been so full settling into a new country, finding a home, starting school again(and yes it is like real school - there is a real bell and the teacher does really tell you to be quiet if you muck up…lol), meeting new friends, exploring the beautiful Amalfi coast, finding the supermarket, the Tabacchi, the stationer and just generally trying to settle in a new place has taken up most of my energy (oh + trying to learn and communicate
in a different language).
I will start from the beginning of my time in Italy. I have to say the week before I arrived in Italy my stomach was gittery and I was for the first time feeling a little apprehensive about what I was getting myself into. Did I really leave a well paid job, my friends, my family, and my beautiful country to come all the way to the other side of the world to be a student….rahhhhh….I have to say that those thoughts were highly temporary and after day 1 of being in Salerno I have felt great and really have embraced my new lot in life for the moment!
However, and yes there is “a but” my first five days in Italy were tough. It was only yesterday in class did our teacher Titziana as me a question that sent the whole class into laughter. The question was… “Hai fatta un vollo?” ok so I thought about it and the only thing that came out of my mouth was “merde” which basically means shit in Italian. “Per Che” she responded and I said “La Al’Italia ho perso la valigia”. Which basically means that Alitalia
Villa Communale Salerno
Old Italians arguing in the parklost my bags (well temporarily anyways)!
So the first six days I was in Italy whilst trying to settle in I learnt the following; how to hand-wash my one pair of clothes, talk on the phone to crazy customer service people at Al’Italia 3x per day for six days telling me a different story as to where my bags were and trying to find out exactly what I was entitled to from insurance (oh yes I did get to shop eventually so have some nice free clothes!).
Finally after many sleepless nights and forming an inventory of everything I thought was in my bag as I really felt they were lost (luckily I had left some of my winter stuff with Andy) I decided to take matters into my own hands and get back on the train and return to Napoli Airport to see if my stuff was there. Anyways thank god I saw it when I walked into the lost and found area in the airport and my fears were allayed when I opened my bag and can you believe it everything was there (bless! ….adding to the bless count in droves in Italy)…. Mental note: avoid
Alitalia if you can and don’t carry your important documents (birth certificate, degrees etc in your bags)…..
So anyways after I had my things (and wow I had a lot of clothes and stuff after living off nothing for a week) I quickly settled into my new routine, which is as follows.
Get up at about 7.30am, quick shower and some granola for breakfast with Yoghurt and fruit. Pack my school bag, with some fruit, snacks and water and then commence the 3km+ walk to school generally in about 30 degrees (yes it is still bloody hot here) I can go so many different ways and I have witnessed some funny things, topping the list five old arguing in the park using their hands all over the place!
Usually I get to school quite hot but the walk is absolutely worth it. I walk for 3kms along the sea promenade and it is truly a fabulous way to kick off the day.
School starts at 9am and we do lessons until 11.00. The lessons usually kick off with some grammar and then some exercises both writing and speaking and also we ascolti (we listen) to le
musica (Volare my fave song) to mix things up a bit.
Between 11.00 - 11.30 we have our well-deserved café and cornetti break which we really crave to speak a bit of English together and just enjoy the beautiful Salerno sun! 11.30 we are back in class until 1pm and then the school bell rings and just like that we are out the door.
The afternoons have generally consisted of two types of activities depending on the weather. Most of my mates here are Swedes & Germans who absolutely adore the sun so we tend to find a beach somewhere (so far we have been to Paestum, Salerno, Minori, Cetara, and Amalfi ) and have a swim, read books, and chat away. If we don’t do this as a group we sometimes go home for siesta (it is long in the South as it is so hot) between 1.30-4.30pm where everything is closed pretty much and then I make the walk back into town to meet Maria, Sofia, Yohannes, Annette & Nina (now gone back to Germany - Nina we miss you) for our daily cafe date at around 6.30pm.
Hey everyone knows I was never that
keen on café but believe me I am now a café connoisseur (Cam you would love the café here!) and have to say that my favourite is the (as I have been keeping a record of all the café’s I have tried) is an Ice Cappuccino with Amaretta.
Sometimes though as a group we decide that we would like to have gelati instead so we trek to our favourite gelati shop where I generally decide between melon, stracciatella, & pistacio and also enjoy watching people eat gelato in brioche (basically gelato in sweet bread rolls - something very different). Sometimes also we browse through the shops and the small alleyways as the sun is setting behind the city. It is really fun just discovering and ‘spese’ at the local fommggerias, salumerias, & macellerias.
Life is really all about food and cuccina (cooking) in Italy, in the night-time we either go out or have a dinner party with my classmates. We have worked out that we can have a three course meal with carne, insalata, buffalo mozzarella, (a local speciality of Campania), wine & dolce etc all for about max 6-7 euros per head. I have to say this
has been one of the most fabulous experiences about being here in Italy and having time to make a meal and share with many friends, is truly great. I have already cooked two of my Nona’s fabulous recipes (thanks mum for the emails with the recipes) and also was really lucky the other day to meet a guy on the plane who was a chef from Ischia (an island just next to Capri quite close to here) who gave me about another 8 Italian recipes of the local region of Campania.
If we don’t have a dinner party we generally go out to a small local restaurant and fill our stomachs on pizza for 5 euros.
Anyways after school we have taken quite a few field trips along the Amalfi Coast to towns called Amalfi, Cetara, and Minori so far. These afternoons have consisted of relaxing on the beach, walking through the small villages and sometimes just lucking it out to be in town when there is a big festival on which we did in Menori.
On the only weekend I have been here in Italy we spent as a group going to Paestum which is
about one hour from here south where there is a lot of ruins (similar to Pompei and the Herculaneum but smaller). It is a nice town on the sea and I really enjoyed wandering around and playing about with my camera to try and get some good shots. After our time at the ruins we all went to the beach and met a lovely old Italian Nono Giovanni who Sofia and I spoke to in very broken Italian (it was only week 1) and he was so nice he offered to drive the whole five of us back to the train station which was 3kms away in his tiny little Fiat a very funny experience.
Last weekend I had a flight booked to go and see Andy in France so we could sail together in one of the big long distance regatta’s in France for catamarans(150+ boats) called the Duc De Albe.
The day before my flight to Nice I took a train to stay a night with some of my Italian mates in Formia for the Hobie 16 National Championships for Italy. It was really a fun night catching up with Nina, Silvia, Giovanni, Lara, Ciara and
meeting some nice new Italian people who I will catch up with during my time here. We went out to a great bar had some nice cocktails and then Nina and I slept in her little tent. A ferocious storm came in the middle of the night and I was really scared thinking about how in Australia a couple of years ago a few students were killed by a falling tree on their tent in a storm. Coincidentally there was three big eucalypt trees above our tent. I was pleased to see the morning come and my life still with me!
I have to say the French really know how to do regattas in style. You pay your entry fee and breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and a dinner show(yes by the pictures you can tell what type of show it was) is all included in the regatta entry. Andy and I sailed together for the first time and absolutely had a ball, I have never really experienced sailing with my boyfriend but we loved every minute of it and it was kind of romantic in a fun way.
On the Saturday we did the long distance race
to Porqroyells which is the island that we visited about five weeks ago together on the rib just off Hyeres, it was really nice to sail there and then around another island just off to the side. The race took four hours and we had great breeze for the most part. The 5km reach back to Hyeres was absolutely awesome but silly us we capsized about 100m from the finish and went from about 5th to 15th, a bit disappointed but we laughed and laughed about it all the way home. These kind of races we should do more of in Australia they are so much fun. So I am on a campaign to bring back “the reach” and fun regattas!
This week has been rather quiet (mostly) as the body was pretty sore and sorry for itself after crewing mostly for two days and also having far to many drinks and dancing like a silly “polyasker” with Cedric (yes you are a wonderful dancer but don’t drop me again…bless)… on the Saturday night at the regatta.
Last night we had a huge fiesta in Salerno, which is the Festa of St Matteo who is the saint that
looks over Salerno. I think every one of the 150,000 residents in Salerno were on Corso Vitt Emanuele II for the parade at 7pm and then at midnight on a balcony (we were very lucky to meet the right Italians last night as we watched the fireworks from a great apartment up in the sky), on the spiagga (beach) or on the Longomare. I have to say we did enjoy the festivities a bit much and I ended up walking in the door at about 4am and on a school night that was not cool for me today. However it was a fabulous night to be in the city.
This weekend I am on a mission with my mates to climb Mount Vesuvious, visit the Herculaneum, head to Sorrento and perhaps Positano, I will miss going to Sicily but I might go there another time.
My Italian is progressing well but I have to say it is the most difficult thing that I have ever done, three weeks in and we have only learnt the present grammatical structures, and the past structures and for every verb there is five tenses that you need to learn, + the masculine
and feminie and the backward sentence structure is making for a challenging learning experience, I only wish that I was closer to my Nona growing up so I learnt it much earlier.
Anyways in one week I will leave beautiful Salerno and take up three or four more months of study in Genova, which is a similar town to Salerno but up north on the coast and about 6x the size (also about 1.5 hours from Milano by train). I am really excited about it because it means that I will be closer to my family, friends and also Andy…. all by train. I am also really excited because I will be living with only one other person a girl about my age, who is an Italian local. It has been fun living with other students (and a good introduction to Italy) but I think for me to get really good at Italian and get more immersed in the culture the only way is to live with a local.
I also will have one week off from school, as my new school does not start until The 9th of October so I am at the moment trying to
plan where to go for a week or so. There are so many choices and people to see but it looks like I will go to Mallorca to see Cara or to visit my family in Asolo, (or any of my European mates pass on some suggestions to me). So my next report will either be filled with Italian or stories about reuniting with Cara for another girly week!
Until next time
Tutti Bacci
Bella
PS If you would like to look at more pics and a slide show etc my website is also now up
Main Page:
http://web.mac.com/bellaissailing/
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Alicia
non-member comment
Ciao Bella
Well if your break was a little later I'd say come and visit us - in Dubai. We're moving there next week but will be unlikely to be set up in our new place by the 9th. Still keep it in mind for further down the track if you wish. Enjoy your travels