Advertisement
L'ombrelli
See? There's SO MANY OF THEM! It's like someone who is a rebel against superstitions went rampant in an umbrella store or something. Rain, rain, rain....
That's all it did all day... is rain. But that's ok! I don't mind it, really. Mi amo la pioggia! (I love the rain!) Here's the funny thing about the rain... I think the Italian culture is afraid of getting wet. Just like cats. Hence the source of the Blog title. I think Italy has a higher "umbrella-per-capita" than they do Euros-per-capita. Seriously, when there's even so much as a sprinkler watering the lawn, the whole town whips out their "ombrelli" (umbrellas) and wields them like they're up against Justin Bieber (the Italians hate Justin Bieber more than they hate imitation pizza. At least I think they hate that.)
But besides that, it was a normal day in Rovigo.
At school today I worked on learning the Italian articles (our words for "a" "an" and "the"). In Italian, it's a lot more complicated... depending on number, gender, and the word that comes after it, the possible articles are: una, la, le, un', l', un, il, i, uno, lo, and gli. We have 3, they have 11. Pain in the buttocks, if you ask me.
Also, I worked on learning some of the Italian's favorite
Pioggia
If you look really closely (you might have to click the photo to see), you can see the rain. It was going pretty hard. expressions. Here is a list for your personal reference 😊. I have given the Italian, the literal translation, and then the real English meaning:
-Mamma mia! (My mom!) = My goodness!
-In bocca al lupo! (In the wolf's mouth!) = Good Luck!
-Acqua in bocca! (Water in mouth!) = Don't say a word!
-Gatta ci cova... (a female cat is brooding here...) = There's something fishy going on...
-Che macello! (What a slaughterhouse!) = What a mess!
-Salute! (Health!) = Bless you!
-Piantala! (Plant it!) = Stop it!
Ok fine... I will stop it. That's enough for one day's lesson anyway.
I actually was able to follow the general outline of the philosophy teachers' lesson today too... However, I spent so much effort concentrating on the translation and comprehension of the Italian than I did the actual philosophy. Oh well... I was pleased.
After school, we came home, sat around, ate some lunch, etc. etc. Paolo, Claudia and I played some good ole Texas Hold 'Em, and It was interesting to learn the terminology of the cards:
-Hearts: Cuori
-Spades: Picche
-Clubs: Fiori
-Diamonds: Quadri
-The best one is this: They call poker chips "fisces" (pronounced "fish-eh").
Rotary Food (and Federico)
"See the Rotary Food. It looks good! See Federico. He looks good! Federico eats the Rotary Food. It was good! "
------Parody of "Fun with Dick and Jane", children's book series from the 1930's to the 1970s
So we then found out that when we were playing poker, we were playing with "fisces chips" --- "fish-eh chips"--- fish and chips! Ha 😱
Well anyways, after that, I had to get all dressy to go to the Rotary meeting in Rovigo (eh... I just wore my nice dress-ish Hawaiian shirt with my cargo pants. Elena said I looked American. That's good, right?). The Rotary club was, to say the least, a lot different than the one in Eaton. It was about the same size, but everyone was really grumpy-frumpy looking. But they turned out to have a good sense of humor, because they were laughing at each others' jokes (in Italian that I couldn't understand). The food that they served there was not a meal, but more-like appetizers (cocktail-type stuff) like shrimp-concoctions, bread with salami, and toothpicks with mozzarella cheese.
The only crappy thing about the meeting was this one zero-personality guy who came to talk to the club about, guess what: The importance (or lack-thereof) of etiquette in today's Italian society. Well first the president read this super-long resume of what this guy has done and studies while he just stood there with a smug
Rotary Club
Here is a photo of the mulling about following the Rotary meeting adjournment in Rovigo. I didn't have the nerve to take a photo during the meeting, because I didn't want to get yapped at in Italian by the grumpy-frumpy-folks. :) grin on his face. He was totally clean-shaven, not a stray hair on his head, and all of his hair was pure-black (dyed for sure). He seriously looked like a preppy old guy who doesn't want to look old. It's hard to explain. I wish you could have seen him. So he went off on this 30 minute spiel about etiquette that I couldn't understand. I was thinking the whole time: "What would be worse... to know Italian and have to listen to a presentation on etiquette importance, or not knowing Italian and being stuck sitting there alternating between trying to understand the Italian and staring into the abyss?"
It's like, "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a toosie pop?". The answer is, "The world may never know..." Anyways, about halfway through I turned to Federico (who was there too, by the way, since he's going on a year-long exchange to Minnesota) and managed to tell him "Uccidimi" (which means, "kill me") as a joke. We shared a good "laugh-quietly-to-self" moment there.
Then we went and had dinner of.... more pizza. I'm getting tired of "Calabrese"--the same pizza I order every time (of the 4 or 5 times I've had Italian pizza in 11 days). So I'll switch it up next time (watch, I bet you within the next 3 days I'll have pizza again. Any takers?)
Now we're back home, and everyone is going to bed. Even me... I'm making good time on today's entry. It's only 11 o'clock at night here, when usually I'm typing this past midnight and then waking up at 7 the next morning. So I'm content 😊
Oh, and It was just brought to my attention that I haven't posted any pictures of Paolo's parents, Elena and Nico. I apologize because I totally never thought of that because of all the other crazy wonderful things I've been fascinated or distracted by. So I will try to get that taken care of soon... sorry it couldn't be today!
Il e tutto per oggi! Buonanotte! (This is all for today! Goodnight!)
p.s., you should remember "buonanotte and buongiorno" by now. I think I've translated it enough times 😊
Ciao!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.198s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.1151s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Grandma Donna
non-member comment
Wonder how they would like the wind we have?
Have REALLY enjoyed reading your blog; what fun you are having (!) and I wish I had your knack for languages. The wind has been terrible here and on top of that the Platte River is flooding our little valley. Lake Meadow has appeared below the house, much larger than last year. The snow high in the Snowy Range is incredible yet and on the Sierra Madre side the road has been destroyed by a slide. Any gluten-free pasta in the store? Bet not! Love, Grandma