Another Day in Milano

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Today is rainy in Milano. Kind of humid even though my aunt holds herself and says, "....freddddo".ccllld It's not really. I think some of it is, that it isn't usual weather for here in the autumn. They don't use air conditioning. they like it warm. They acclimate to the warm seasons more than I think the average American does. I guess it would be better for the bank account if we weren't addicted to the warmish coolish temps when we are indoors.....but anyway, it's ok with me either way. I don't dislike cloudy days either. when I told her I liked the cloudy days, the rainy days and the warm sunny days and even snowy days she just looked at me... I taught her the English word "cozy" and it translates to "cosy" in Italiano...cool. she just looked at me like I was a bit off when I said it. oh well. Siria made me breakfast this morning. Ernesto has done it usually. She sat with me and served me their version of caffe latte....it's ok. I drink it because it was made by them. I laughed to myself too because yesterday I had brought out my little container of Nuttella because I was really craving a new flavor on the bread. And Voila! today she gives me the jar of cranberry chutney that i gave her. It was good (thankfully). There is an Italian word for cranberry but I can't remember it. the word was followed by Americana.....😊 she liked it I think. She asked me to describe what we have for 'tonksgivinge" Thanksgiving....she had heard of the dressing some people stuff the turkeys with. she goes kind of dreamy and idealistic when she imagines what Americans eat and wear and have....when i set her straight, she doesn't look hearbroken when I tell her the bitter truth, but I can tell she isn't really sure if I 'm telling her the straight story...she's so fun. Then we talked about the cranberry sauce 'salsa' that I make to go with the turkey, she made a little face to say she and 'most italiani" don't like sweet with meat (sweet with savory)...i told her maybe mio marito (my husband) was more italiani than me😊 She looked up and said tuo marito italiani? Nooooo, danemarka,,,si? Si I said, I just making a joke, I quickly looked up the word for joke, she read it and then broke into to a big smile and said ahhhh ok ...tua italiana, marito danimarke.....smile smile mumble...giggle.... I didn't try to explain that Americans put everything but the kitchen sink on their pizza.......she just smiled and made her own little joke about something....who knows what she said😊

So I had a classe again today and a couple of lights came on. that's a relief when it really does. I just hope it stays that way. I'm trying to make it the last thing i read at night before sleeping because they say we remember what we were thinking about right before sleep....I hope anyway that it's true.

Before I left today a lady came to visit who I think is a person she hires for some reason. She introduced her as her Philopino friend...it's ok, I have noticed that the Italians that I am with, don't worry about "politically correct" language. If a person is _____you fill in the blank, they say it without concern that it may be offensive. I remember one of my daughters saying that people in Central America are kind of like that too. you know if we all didn't have such an out of reality view of ourselves we wouldn't get offended nearly as often. And the judgments about what philopino means or black or tall or fat or whatever.....but on the otherhand there is usually a judgment of some sort behind what they say. Just say Chinese around my cousin, and you get a big face and a long diatribe of why the Chinese aren't good for Italy....

I can understand what she means and I can understand the other side too. She said , 'you know we are not the unitied states, right?' I said 'right!" because they don't have the mission to be the place where the tired, the poor the huddling masses etc etc etc. they are what they are, with no need to please anyone else. But I wonder what the "huddling masses" would say?

This weekend< I think, is my uncle and aunt's 50th anniversary party. I am not sure if we are going somewhere or not. I haven't been able to figure out what's what about this stuff.

I would like to see more of the area, but I know this isn't my mission, much more than seeing sights. I can do that on future trips. This time is famiglia....and I'm sure glad I'm here now that I can talk to my family now and then. Ciao for now, hope all is well there!!

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