Tuesday, September 18, 2012: Siena, Italy

Allora, today I went to work by myself for the first time! Like I expected, I was pretty nervous. I had all morning to fret about it, calm myself, begin worrying again and try to calm myself once more. I left the house a whole hour early because I didn't want anything to happen that could result in me missing my bus. It was all pretty simple though: I got my ticket, found the area it was supposed to arrive at and waited. It got closer and closer to when I was supposed to leave and I still didn't see Linea 36 (the bus I knew to take) and I wandered around a little and realized the area I was supposed to wait in was a lot bigger than I expected, but another man was also confused and asked the ladies on the bus what number it was and, sure enough, it was 36! Hooray. 

Since I went to the station yesterday, I had an idea what it looked like, but we were taking a different route and Italian buses, in my experience, don't tell you what stop they're at, they just expect you to know. So we kept driving and driving further into the countryside and I started freaking out and planning what I would say if I missed my stop, but then I saw a sign for Badesse: just where I needed to be! I was so relieved. So I was able to make it to the radio station and guess what? It went really well! My "boss" spoke really slowly to me and made sure I understood everything. She had me work on translating a couple small stories into English and then another woman who speaks some English edited it. I felt so comfortable because I am used to people critiquing my writing in that kind of situation and it was so nice to be in a setting I was familiar with. 

After that she showed me how to record. That's right, record myself for the radio! Uh... I didn't think they'd actually have me do that since I have no experience. I guess I'll have to practice my best radio voice. It was a little awkward, but I get to record alone so that's nice. After that the woman came back and listened. What's more awkward than listening to a recording of yourself? Having someone else listen to it with you around and then critique it. She was so nice though and really helpful. Hopefully I can keep getting better. After that we were done and she offered to drive me back to the city. She told me she studied in the UK for 6 months so that's how she knows English. But she said she can understand it a lot better than speak it; I know how that feels. 

Once I was back in the city I decided it was time for food. After the expensive weekend in Venice I wanted to try a more frugal approach to lunch which means bread and fruit. There's a bakery here where you can get a bunch of bread for like, 30 cents so Amber and I go there probably three times a week. At this point I think the girls who work there are starting to recognize us, mostly because of an incident that happened today. I went into the store and there was an English speaking couple asking what a good bread would be for bruschetta, but they were, of course, pronouncing is with a "sh" sound instead of the hard "k" sound. So there was a lot of confusion and the girl who worked there asked me to translate, probably because she knows me as the American who tries to speak Italian. And I was helpful! It was really simple since it was just a mispronunciation and all I had to say was "brusketta" and she understood, but she and the English speakers were grateful and I felt useful. Yay.

Monday, September 17, 2012: Siena, Italy

I went to the radio station for the first time today. A nice woman from the DA school gave me a ride there since it’s outside the city. On the way there she talked with me a little and I was thinking, “Okay, this isn’t so bad, I think today will be okay” but then we got to the radio and the Italians started talking to each other and it was all so fast and I sort of freaked out. I know they understand that I don’t know Italian perfectly and I’m still learning, but I feel bad nonetheless because I want to be able to understand them like a competent person! Hopefully they will be patient with me and I will try my hardest to get better as fast as possible. Until then, I’m really nervous about tomorrow since I’ll be going to work alone. The good news is my bus doesn’t leave until 11 so I don’t have to catch any early morning bus or anything that I could potentially sleep through.

After I met with the radio people and planned my hours, I was basically set. I went back to the school and hung out there for awhile. I think I’ll still be at the school a lot even during my internship because I love the Wi-Fi/internet and it feels better being “out” than hanging out in my room with nothing but an internet-less computer and Brunelleschi’s Dome, which I need to read, but every time I try to do so on my bed I fall asleep. Anyway, after that I got some pizza and ate it in the campo. I love sitting out there. One day I really want to take a nap there, even though I’m opposed to public napping because of my sleep-talking, but I think it would be really nice and lots of people do it. Hopefully it won’t get too cold or rainy soon. 

After that I just went home and took a huge nap, ate crackers and fruit and chocolate, read my book, played some hearts and waited for dinner. It was delicious, as always. 

I got an email from Eliza today and it helped ease my anxiety a bit. She’s serving a 16 month (that’s more months than weeks I have here!) mission in Chile and I think she is so wonderful and brave for doing that. Anyway, I told her I was having a hard time coping with different languages and places and people and food and lifestyles and she said she knows a lot of people who go through things like that, but she’s always so excited experiencing new things she doesn’t have time to miss familiar stuff. I think that’s a really good way to approach things. That everything is a new experience and that is such a blessing and I shouldn’t be freaking out because new things teach us, open our eyes and help us grow.

Sunday, September 26, 2012: Siena, Italy

As I afore mentioned, I went to Venice this weekend! Here’s a brief summation of the trip:

I stayed in a bed & breakfast run by a really nice couple named Fausto & Deby. Deby told me we could get to Venice by taking the blue bus at a stop 200m down from the gas station. Like I mentioned in the previous post, it didn’t look like a whole lot was out there. But Amber and I walked along the side of the busy road again and eventually found a pole with “fermata” labeled on it so we figured it was right. The bus was supposed to come right when we got there, but we never saw it. We did see many blue semi-trucks that tricked us, but despite our hopes we ended up standing there for half an hour until the next bus came.

After the bus ride we were in Venice! It is beautiful and I think it was my favorite day in Italy so far. We didn’t have a whole lot we wanted to do there so we wandered the streets looking around and enjoying ourselves. It was so much nicer touring in Venice than Siena. I’ve concluded several reasons for why I feel this way. A) the streets are bigger, so slow people can walk slow and fast people can get around them. In Siena if anyone wants to stop to take a picture, or just look around, they will definitely hold someone up or possibly get hit by a car. B) Lots of people speak English and are nice about it! I know I’m here to work on my Italian, and I am trying, but sometimes it’s really scary not understanding what exactly is going on. Or being able to say what you need/want clearly. Mostly I just like that I didn’t feel like I was annoying anyone when I didn’t understand them right away. 

For lunch Amber and I went to the one and only McDonald’s in Venice. I’m a little ashamed to admit I spent precious time and money ordering a Big Mac, but at the same time, I just needed something that reminded me of home! How sad it had to be fast food. Anyway, McDonald’s here is expensive! In the US it has a reputation for cheap, low-quality food. The quality is the same here… it’s just about 3x as much as you pay using the dollar menu in America. They had an original menu with about six things including chicken nuggets, filet-o-fish and hamburgers. They had a few other “Italian” items like a foccacia, ham sandwich or a caprese salad. I’ve always been fascinated with the marketing of McDonald’s and how they adjust their menu for differing countries. Needless to say, I still forked over the 8 euro for a Big Mac. I also accidentally spend 20 cents to on mayonnaise?? I thought the lady was just asking if a I wanted mayonnaise on my burger. Sure I guess? She pulled out a little container of mayonnaise though and when I looked at my receipt I saw they charged me for ketchup and the mayo! I didn’t dip my fries in it… That’s gross to me, but I’m sure if I told them I dip my fries in ranch back home they would think that’s gross too.

I got to see Piazza San Marco and gondole and glittering masks. I bought a cheap mask with a “Made in China” sticker I peeled off right away but I can’t afford a fancy real one! We also found a family-owned glass shop and got some earrings made from Venetian, Murano glass. We also went to the San Geremia church where the remains for Santa Lucia reside. Santa Lucia is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She is said to be the patron saint of those who are blind, which is why she is sometimes depicted holding a platter with eyes... kind of different. I got to see her. Mostly just her feet since her face was covered in a metal mask, but her really old remains were there in the church. It was awesome. Amber and I also went to Mass at there. Neither of us had ever been to Mass, so we didn’t really know what to expect. It didn’t help that it was in Italian. But it was still interesting. It’s inspiring to me to see devoted people of all different faiths gathering for their religion. We left Venice as the sun was setting and it was lovely.

 

This morning we asked Deby to help us get directions to church since we only had an address. Before we knew it her husband Fausto had offered to drive us. He took us on about a 15 minutes drive and refused to take the money we offered. It was seriously nice. We then went to church in the Venezia Mestre ward. A real ward! The people there were also so nice and the most beautiful babies with bright eyes and smiles kept looking at Amber and me. After church we were again blessed to get a ride to the train station from a member of the ward. We got back home by 7pm, about seven hours after we left Venice. It was a long and tiring trip, but I think it was worth it.

P.S. Staying out in the country = lots of mosquitoes. For some reason Italian mosquitoes love me, so much so they swarmed me this morning. It was horrifying. I counted 22 bites tonight, six on my right arm alone.