Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post
View from Antonella's house
I thought it was a nice view, so I thought I'd share it! So I just got home maybe 20 minutes ago... spent 15 minutes trying to get the Internet to work, and here I am, at 1:54 in the morning, trying to stay awake long enough to type a blog entry! I'm exhausted...
So my morning wasn't too eventful. I got up a little earlier because I thought we were going to Padova and I didn't know when... better safe than sorry. I ate breakfast, talked with Lucia, my allergies were killing me (despite the Claritin) and I had to blow my nose four-billion times (no exaggeration), read The Jungle, and other things.
The real day began when Elena dropped me off at Antonella's house (she then took Paolo to his lessons.) So there I was, alone, an English-speaking foreigner, in the house of a classmate I don't know too overly well, just hanging out with Antonella and her little sister. We resolved to play Monopoly, so we went out on the patio and started a game (which was wierd with all of the Italian properties) until Maria Elena, Clara, and Silvia showed up. We then went outside and played a game where you throw a ball as fast as you
WOW!
I had to take a photo of this memorable event: The is the first basketball hoop I've seen somewhere besides the gym here in Italy. There are not metal ones in driveways. And this one's plastic! (Sure, shoopie, there are plastic ones in America, but the fact that the first basketball hoop i've seen outside of a gym is PLASTIC and not REAL, it does tell us that Italians don't play much, if any, basketball.) can at each other randomly, and if the person doesn't catch it, they get a letter (kind of like how we play PIG or HORSE). Except their word was "ASINO", which means "donkey". Interesting...
Eventually Paolo showed up, and soon we left the house and walked a long ways into downtown Rovigo, where we all had some gelato (I ordered alone!). We left Paolo with some of his other friends so the ragazze and I went to buy some stamps at a tobacco shop (I didn't buy any tobacco this time... I'm trying to quit. *cough*). They told me that we were now going to go to a store that guys would enjoy too. "oh thank the lord!" I thought... but my exclamation was in vain when I didn't catch their sarcasm and we ended up in a little jewelry boutique (a step down from Burri's, but a gigantic step up from Claire's). That wasn't very fun... except some nerdy looking glasses that Maria Elena and I tried on. I think we looked pretty cool!
We left the jewelry shop eventually when I persuaded them to go to the "libreria" (bookstore) with me, so I could maybe buy
I'm on a bridge..
and don't forget it. some books. Well, I thought the store would be a little larger, but No.... the goal of the storekeep was to cram as much stuff into that place as humanly possible. They had a good try at it. After looking at one shelf of books that had the more classic literature on it, I found an Italian verson of Orwell's "1984" and decided to buy it. (They also suggested a book by an Italian author Gianni Rodari called "Favole Al Telefono", which they said was a great author who wrote easy to read stories with a deeper meaning. Well, seeing as I'm an Italian amateur, that's right up my alley, so I bought that one too.)
We found Paolo and walked back to Antonella's house, where we finally ate dinner. The food was fairly decent and we talked a lot about America vs. Italy. Antonella's father, mother, and little sister don't understand English very well, and I kind of forgot about this at one point when I went on about how their definition of "old" is a lot different from my definition. They just kind of stared at me with a fakish smile and nodded--but I could tell that
Nerds for life!
Here's those awesome glasses I talked about! Smooth eh? Coincidentally, we are both some of the most book-smart people at our schools! they didn't understand (I do that plenty here so I could tell... just smile and nod.... smile and nod...)
After dinner, we listened to Antonella and her little sister (I keep referring to her as this because I can't remember her name... sad day) play the piano (phenomenal!) and then to Antonella play the violin (also amazing! She is, they told me, in one of the best youth orchestras in Italy. And I believe them!)
We all found our way back to the kitchen where we sat down a played a couple round of Uno, and then a game that was a lot like Scattegories in the US of A. I had the upper edge since they let me play with English words, so if I really wanted to, I could just make up words and they wouldn't know. But I didn't try to do that... there just were some that weren't in my dictionary to verify it... like the English word "tarp".) I think I ended up winning... but I think that is once again because of my foreign advantage (Paolo jokingly was wanting me to have a handicap.. how could we have done that though???)
Statue in main piazza
I don't know who this guy is at the moment, but considering his statue is in the main piazza in Rovigo, I think he's probably important. Finally, to end the night, we sat down to watch a film, which was all in Italian. When they remembered that I don't speak Italian, they wanted to change the movie, but I insisted on watching it because I wanted to see a movie actually made in Italian without English subtitles. The movie was called "Bienvenuti al Sud"... and from what I caught of it, it was actually a really funny movie! I just don't want to go into details. I'm too tired 😞.
Eventually, Maria Elena's dad (who came and watched the movie with us, interestingly) took Paolo and I home. And "ecco ci qua"... here we are. Me writing a blog with my eyes half closed.
You know what that means... buonanotte!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0577s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
shoopie
non-member comment
plastic basketball hoop
i don't know if you were just too tired to think when you were writing this or if you are really just that clueless.. or if i completely misunderstood what you were saying - which is entirely possible. there are plastic basketball hoops in america too, that aren't in gyms. you can hang them on a wall or on your door. so.. i'm not sure what you were getting at when you said it was a "WOW" moment cus it was the first hoop you've seen not in a gym and it was plastic, what does that tell you about italian culture. well.. absolutely nothing. so yea..