Advertisement
Published: October 11th 2004
Monday, October 11, 2004.
* Let’s not believe that just because a week starts out badly, that the rest of the week will follow in the initiator’s footsteps...because if we do, fate has cast an interesting spell this time. Before I skip back to Monday’s events, let me switch time on you and tell you what I’m doing at 8:15 am Tuesday morning, as this is the direct effect of the previously mentioned event. I arrive home from Choir rehearsal at 12:20am. I go to bed, awake at 6:30 to turn on the boiler switch to heat water for the shower. I stumble back to bed, fumble with the alarm clock to set it to 7:30am, and doing all this without arising so much that my body is fully ready to great the day. After a swift but deep visit back to sleep, my eyes open suddenly and I glance at the time-8:30am. My classes begin at 9:15 and I am on the bus at 8:45, which is 5 minutes away. I run to the shower, half naked because I am rushing and not thinking that someone else might be up, and take an incredibly speedy shower-run back to my room,
the morning sky over Firenze
La mattina, bellissima, su Firenze. pull on some clothes, brush my air, apply make-up fit to face a teacher and my peers at 9:15am, and lean down to grab my watch…which says 8:10am 8:10 you say!!! Yes, my god, I am saved, though I am an idiot in the middle of the night changing the time instead of the alarm….!!!! So instead of freaking out that I will not only miss a day of class, but I have some well-needed time to write this all down…a strange happenstance of fate…a half-full, half-empty type of omen.
* Sunday evening I went to a free concert in the cenacolo of Santa Croce. I have been to several of these free events and am more and more impressed of their quality, and am quite happy to partake, even sit through to the end concerts which may be tiring or repetitive…but alas, this one took place in what looked like a huge hall-with a grand frescoe in front of the last supper and Christ on the cross, depicted more symbolically as a tree from his outstretched arms where are curls of the tree enfolding saints. In front of this frescoe, stood 20 people-evenly divided men and women-who were
students of Gregorian chanting. The voices are pure and direct-without tremor or distinction. The groups must produce one sound, without harmony, without seperation. The pieces are short, all in latin, and sung acapella-often with a soloist. Absolutely entrancing and tranquil-as voices echo against the plaster and high-wood ceiling. We are dwarfed in size by this hall, but not in sound.
* Monday’schedule-9:15-11:45 class, 1:30-6:00work (next person comes late, I don’t’ leave until 6:30), 6:45-7:45 voice practice, 9:15-11:30pm choir. I’ve decided to stick with the altos and train my lower register. Now-Monday’s rehearsals take place south of the city in Cerbaia. We drive at night (I am carpooling with several other choir members) and I have little grounding, but what I describe is this: we wound our way up the hills, on snake-like roads for 30 minutes, with the glittering lights of the old city beckoning below. I sat in the middle in the back seat and clung to BOTH headrests in front of me as we wove (the driver could both carry on a cell-phone conversation, a car conversation and drive) through smalls hills and valleys, with Florence out of view, with no straight lines from point A to point B. From what I could tell though, in the thick darkness, was more evidence that beyond the center Florence there is beauty-farms, old villages, new villages, uninhabited forests, small valleys with mysterious new territory. We practice for 2 hours in a community center here-I arrive home at 12:30am….which leads to the next morning’s chaos written previously.
* Tuesday, October 12, 2004. Today at work I complete 3 new telephone contracts alone-da sola. I am proud of myself, and am beginning to adjust to this place-all though I am still defensive and confused about what I’m supposed to know, what I’m supposed to suppose, what I should not assume, what I should I do independently, etc!!! Anyway-at the end of the months we’ll see if they want me to continue. I see new faces every day, and lots of familiar ones-people often ask if I’m from the US and I get to express 30 seconds of my life’s story that lead to “why are you here?”. Then there are the people who come into the store and speak Italian so fast that I cannot understand, and with my poor hearing, or perhaps their dialect, or perhaps the fact that they are not really speaking Italian at all, but they look at me with large, uncompromising eyes as I ask for them to repeat and speak slower…I held an entire conversation in Italian describing the contract of a cell phone rental to a girl that mainly speaks Spanish as her primary language…and she actually GOT it!!! Whooooo!!!
* I was in line for 30 minutes at the bank (this is normal) and I tried to listen to a conversation held between several female customers and the owner of the bank-and from what I could tell there was a robbery at gunpoint on Monday. I have not seen the news about this-but am curious as I have not been able to read the papers to find much local crime being reported here in the city, or in Italy for that matter.
* As I walk the streets, I see many faces that I can imagine are the same faces of medieval italy, or at least the medieval times I know in movies and books. For both men and women, the features are dominating and dark-hair usually dark and thick-eyes wide and beautiful, distinct noises, cheek bones, chin or jaw lines. It is strange to be in a city of such overwhelming material beauty, as well as antique beauty-I wonder how much they talk about the definition of beauty here in Italy with such a history…
* For the past few mornings I’ve been eating breakfast the Italian way-at a bar, standing among a lively morning group with my cappuccino which is not sipped casually, but downed rather fast and with intention, and a croissant filled with crème. This breakfast, actually, tends to help me hold out until an early lunch better than a bowl of cereal in the morning…and how did Kellogs and Nestle get a hold of the Italian market so tightly anyway!!!!
* Thursday morning-downtown commuters in chaos. Buses backed up for 5 blocks, and the drivers are standing on the sidewalk smoking cigarettes. There are police, but they don’t seem to worried, more bothered and curious than eager to resolve whatever the issue is. I get closer to my bus stop, where I see streams of students heading another direction….and then I notice what has got Florence in a state of panic…one truck has tried to turn a corner and not only has miscalculated the angle, but has run into a piece of construction pipe on the second floor level of a building and then stopped in the 4 way intersection of one of the most popular streets in florence. Cars begin turning around if they realize in time the issue ahead, commuters like myself are heading towards another piazza, though I follow in faith not because I am certain I’ll get to my destination any time soon. With streets so small, and the maniacal driving of most Italians whether they be driving trucks, buses, motorinos or tiny bikes, I can’t believe that the this great, moving, energetic city is at a stand-still because of one little truck stuck (just exactly right) in this road-as if the truck moved, the entire building would fall where the two came in contact….like a child over-reacting to a scraped knee and his friends making it worse by standing around and staring at the bloody mess!
* My new nephew was born several days ago. I can’t believe it. He is round and cuddly like a walnut-or so I can only imagine. And I DO imagine!!!
* At work I’m getting the hang of some things-little by little the revered and faithful efforts of Time does it’s work silently and seamlessly…I get to hear lots of accents, observe faces from all over the country, practice holding my tongue, practice my Italian, receive thanks for lending a hand or advice to “stranieri” who are surprised and relieved when they realize I can speak English, TOO! How ironic!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.317s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 101; dbt: 0.0902s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
