I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the news that I actually have family that I never knew about in Italy. It was the type of thing where you can’t help but put your hand over your heart, shake your head, and well up with tears…well, that’s what happened to me after my host mother helped me locate the exact town my great grandparents were from only to discover that there are many people with the same last name still living there, meaning they are most likely my relatives. My emotions were flowing and I swallowed back the lump in my throat and managed to get out some words to explain to her what this means to me: for as long as I could remember I wanted to be closer to my Italian roots. I envied those Italian-Americans who still had family in Italy and were able to experience their heritage in a way I only dreamed of. By finding existing family I have the opportunity to repair a link that has been broken for so many years.
It turns out I’m not even from the city I thought I was from. All of these years I was told that my great grandparents came from Naples, so that made me napoletana…wrong!!! After some research, it turns out that my great grandparents were from Maranola, a very small town in the region of Lazio (the same region as Rome). Maranola is all the way in the south of Lazio and it ends up being closer to Naples than to Rome. Although Naples is in a completely different region, the legal documentation simply indicated the closest major city (Naples). My host mom was telling me that Maranola is only an hour and a half away from Rome by car, so we are going to go together and start knocking on some doors to hunt down my family. I’m going to look like some lunatic when they open their door and I blurt out “we’re cousins!!!”
Cultural Notes: 1. Have to be 16 years old to buy alcohol and cigarettes.
2. Wine/alcohol is sold in supermarkets and it’s so cheap! I paid €3 for a really good bottle of wine at the supermarket.
3. Have to be 14 years old to drive a motorino (motorbike) or macchinetta (small car). Have to be 18 to drive a regular car.
Highlights of My Day: 1. I started private English conversation lessons with an 11-year-old boy. He is one of the most adorable kids ever with the cutest little personality. I would ask him one question and he would go on and on for 10 minutes, Italian gestures and everything.
2. Teaching!!! My students are respectful, responsive, interested, motivated, fun. It’s almost too good to be true. I wake up excited on Monday mornings…I’ve replaced TGIF with TGIM.
3. I made myself cacio e pepe (a typical Roman pasta dish) for lunch today after work. It came out so good and as I was eating alone in the kitchen I smiled to myself after realizing that I have been eating pasta almost everyday. When in Rome…you finish the rest.
Highlight of My Evening: My host mother and I were eating dinner together the other night. I was describing to her a really good chicken dish that my dad makes and I wanted to say “chicken leg” so I said “la gamba del pollo,” a literal translation. Her eyes bulged out of her head as she looked at me with both a perplexed and stupefied expression before bursting out into laughter. She explained to me that based on what I had said, she envisioned a chicken with two dangling human legs. The correct thing to say was “la coscia del pollo.” I will now never forget how to say chicken leg.
Impara con me! 24 hours straight- 24 (ventiquattro) ore di fila
