Final Fulbright Seminar in Matera

              Taralli!!!!!!                                      The pool of our hotel

 The final Fulbright seminar took place over the course of three days in Matera (one of the Fulbrighters was placed down there). Matera is located in the southern region of Basilicata and it is where Mel Gibson filmed The Passion. One word to describe it: breathtaking. It’s a place where pictures don’t do it an ounce of justice. It was a lot of fun being united again with the other ETAs and with some other members of the Fulbright Commission and the American Embassy. We had a great time over lunches, dinners, and in the hotel spa. Yes, we did work, but in Italy there is a lot of play time. The meals were spectacular. For my taste, the further down in Italy I go, the better the food gets. Thank God I wasn’t placed in Matera because I would have come home 50 pounds heavier. The lunches and dinners were so extravagant and the food did not stop coming. It was surreal talking about our experiences throughout this past academic year. At the initial Fulbright orientation we had no idea what to expect, and there we were all sharing our stories and coming out with both similar and unique experiences.     

Cultural Notes: 1. Matera is the oldest continually inhabited settlement in all of Europe. 

                        2. Taralli are native to the southern regions of Puglia and Basilicata, but can be bought throughout Italy. They’re this bread, cracker thing and I don’t really know how to explain them, but what I can say is that I am completely obsessed with them, and have stopped buying them because once I start eating them I finish the entire bag. I found out that all us Fulbrighters have become obsessed with them this past year. We were laughing talking about how we love the big ones, the small ones, the ones with fennel seeds, and most of all, the broken ones...taralli pieces are so good!!! 

                        3. The future of the Fulbright ETA program was briefly discussed in one of the meetings. Southern Italy (southern Italy constitutes south of Rome) is a lot poorer than northern Italy, and they don’t have the access or the money for many intercultural opportunities. For this reason, the placement of future ETAs will be primarily in the south.      

Highlights: 1. Receiving letters from my boyfriend. 

                    2. Sitting at the lunch table one of the days in Matera and thinking how crazy it was that my dream had actually come true: my dream of living in Rome, of teaching in a public school, of making contacts and forming relationships with Italians, of having the honor of calling myself a Fulbrighter, it had all actually happened. I had gotten almost everything I wanted to get out of this experience. 

Impara con me!  scarafaggi- cockroaches       

The End of a School Year

 

L'Aquila

L'Aquila 

                                            
                                                                             L'Aquila

Rome 

And what a beautiful school year it was. One of the things I will miss most is the feeling of being excited to get up and go to work each day. I could not have asked for a better group to work with. My students and colleagues will truly be missed. The last week was a series of parties. The students brought food and we spent the lessons talking and asking final cultural questions. I was showered with gifts and flowers and I felt like a celebrity or something. In my favorite class I got quite emotional when I told them how much I loved working with them throughout the year. My cooperating teacher started dancing in front of the class room to lighten the mood; it was pretty funny.  

Cultural Notes: 1. Secondary school teachers work 18 hours (in-class hours) per week. They only come to school for the classes they teach. It’s not like in America where teachers are assigned to hall duty or lunch duty etc. They earn about €15,000 per year. 

                          2. Tips are not the source of a waiter’s income and tipping is rarely done in Italy. Nothing more than a few euro is left for the waiter. Waiters have contracts and receive vacation days. They earn €12,000-€24,000 per year. 

Highlights: 1. Teaching a really fun lesson on American slang. In one of the classes, they taught me more Roman slang than I taught them American slang. At one point I was laughing so hard that I was sweating.

                    2. Going out to dinner with my cooperating teacher and two of the classes from the liceo classico in L’Aquila. 

                    3. Showing my Aunt around Rome. I brought her to one of my favorite restaurants and it was her first time having an artichoke. A classic Roman dish is carciofi alla romana...fried artichokes.      

Impara con me!     1. esigente- demanding 

                            2. siamo sgamati- we’ve been found out (Roman Slang)

                            3. me la sto tagliando- I’m having fun (Roman Slang)

Book Club

We fit 4 adults in a Smart and I was the lucky one to ride in the trunk. 

Thermals in Tuscany

Tuscan Country Side

My book club has officially finished and it was a huge success. Its completion is more bitter than sweet because I looked forward to it every week. It was complete chance that I had chosen The Hunger Games as the read. I chose it because when I read it last year I fell in love with it and I felt that it would be engaging for teens as well as level appropriate linguistically. I had no idea that it was going to turn into this huge sensation in America, but it worked out perfectly. It made all of us even more excited to read the book and at certain points we would hypothesize on how they were going to incorporate certain aspects into the film. After completing the book, we went to see the cinema to see the movie together. It was really fun. 

Cultural Note: When you buy a movie ticket you get an assigned seat. I was surprised being that there isn’t much social order in this country. The popcorn was better than the popcorn in America. 

Highlights: 1. My cooperating teacher asking me which students were participating in my book club. She gasped when I told her and she said that she has seen a drastic improvement in the language skills of those specific students, including their class participation, but she didn’t know how it had happened. I love that my book club was able to help them so much in improving their English skills.  

                    2. Coordinating a meeting between my Italian students and American students from Smithtown High School. My former Italian high school teacher was in Rome with her students on their trip abroad. It was nice to see the two cultures interacting, and I felt like I was truly carrying out the Fulbright aim in promoting intercultural relations.   

                    3. Going to the beach with Natalie. It has been a Saturday event for the past two weeks. The Long Island beaches are nicer though.    

                    4. Going to the thermals in the Tuscan country side. I had forgotten how breathtaking the Tuscan countryside is. However, the whole “communal pool” concept really grossed me out and I was trying to focus on the the landscape instead of all the people I was surrounded by. 

Impara con me! 1. lettino- beach chair (the long kind that you lay on)  

                           2. trapano- drill (as in the tool)

                           3. un insegnante di ruolo- a tenured teacher               

Tracing My Roots

Maranola 

I went to the town my great grandparents came from. No one in my family has been back to that town since they left in 1902. It is a small town in Lazio called Maranola, only a 20 minute bus ride from Formia. It was very easy to reach from Rome. My purpose for the visit wasn’t only to see the land of my ancestors, but to obtain the necessary documentation to apply for dual citizenship. I had been in contact with a man, Pasquale, who works at the commune and we set up an “appointment” for me to go down to pick up the documents...and so my journey begins. He told me over the phone to come in the afternoon. I asked him for a specific time, and he said to come any time in the afternoon because he would be there. In my American mentality, afternoon means anywhere from noon to 4:30PM, so I arrived in the village at 11:30AM. At noon the doors of the commune building were still shut. Lucky for me it was a beautiful day and the village was pretty. Although I was an immediate eye sore and the villagers stared at me as if I were some type of extraterrestrial they were very nice. The village piazza looked over the sea and there were old men sitting in the sun and others reading the paper. There was once caffè and one restaurant. The restaurant is only open in the summer. I started chatting with Fabiana who told me that according to Italians, afternoon starts at 3:30PM and continues from there. When she realized how much time I had to kill she told me to go to the mini market where her brother works and he would tell me things to do in the surrounding area. I roamed the town a little, went to the mini market to introduce myself to Fabiana’s brother (although he already knew who I was by the time I got there), and had a conversation with the town drunk who was probably about 90 years old. I technically wouldn’t even call it a conversation because I had a very hard time understanding him between his accent, his drunken speech, and the fact that he had not one tooth in his mouth. Our encounter consisted of him talking and me just nodding my head and saying “Sì, sì.” However, I did understand the part when he was trying to get me to go back to his house and have a drink with him. That’s when I stopped saying sì. When Pasquale finally arrived I went with him up to his office and he pulled out these huge record books from the 1800s in order to get my great grandparents birth and marriage certificates. It was some pretty crazy stuff. After the paper work he asked me if I knew of any existing family in Maranola and I told him I wasn’t sure. He started thinking of how he could help me locate any remaining family. He went over to the office window, opened it, and called down to the piazza, “Mario, vieni sù!” Mario came up to the office and they were talking about who they might know. Mario then went to the office window and called down to the piazza, “Giuseppe, vieni sù!” Giuseppe came up to the office and there I was: in the middle of three Italian men all helping me try to locate my family. At one point Pasquale got on the phone with his doctor seeing if he was able to help in any way. It turned out that my last ancestor died in the early 2000s and he didn’t have any children. The men all gave me their contact information in case I needed their help for anything else. I didn’t know how to thank them so I offered to buy them a coffee. We went down to the caffé and needless to say, they wouldn’t let me pay. Mario then took me to some of the surrounding towns and showed me the different beaches. It was a really great experience and to top it off, I actually got the documents I went for in the first place.   

Cultural Note: There are many different political parties in Italy, all of which are given money by the government. Instead of the politicians using the money towards an actual cause, they use it for their own personal interests, luxuriantly filling their lives with cars, houses, and other material items. Millions and millions of euros is being wasted in this manner and the government continues to give money to these parties. 

Highlights: 1. Having a completely relaxing rainy Saturday drinking tea, looking through magazines, reading, and renting movies...procrastinating without having anything to procrastinate over. I love this stressless life.   

                   2. Hearing Tanti Auguri being sung from a neighboring home as I lay in bed. It confirms that I’m really in Italy. 

Impara con me! una lanuccia- a fuzzy 

                        fregano i soldi- they steal money                  

Capri

Excited that our hotel room had a walk-in closet...not that we really used it

Capri was pretty, but Deidre and I both agreed that it was nothing extraordinary. The people were very nice but Positano on the Amalfi Coast is much nicer. It rained most of the time with short spurts of sunshine. It was also very cold, so our bathing suits, silk headscarfs, and SPF weren't very useful. Deidre was wishing she had brought her cashmere sweater that she left in Rome. On Easter Sunday we were the only two people in the restaurant. We were surprised at how many restaurants and shops remained open on Easter Sunday.   

Bella Napoli

Happy in Roma

Pastiera- Neapolitan Easter Cake

Napoli

La Galleria Umberto, Napoli

Dancing with the waiters in Naples

Simply Delicious  

Riding his motorino in the rain 

Naples is amazing. Aesthetically it is run down and dirty, but the people are so warm and welcoming. From the shop woman who was so eager to help us find the piazza we were looking for to the bread maker who posed for us to take a picture, the people of Naples make this 
city beautiful. My sister and I constantly found ourselves saying, "oh my God, she/he was so nice!" until we realized that everyone in Naples is just so nice. And it's not a fake 
I-want-your-tourist-money nice; they are genuinely nice. The food is to die for. There was a moment when Deidre and I were in heaven eating sformato di melanzane, and it was so 
delicious that all we could do was laugh. It's the best food I've had up until this point. I feel like Naples is just so real.

Cultural Notes: 1. Pastiera is a typical Neapolitan Easter cake. I was able to eat the real 

thing in the real place. Other typical sweets of Naples are babà and sfogiatella. 

                          2. Naples is the birth place of Italian pizza. Neapolitan pizza is thicker and more doughy while Roman pizza is thinner and more crispy. 
Highlights: 1. Eating pizza napoletana. I must say, I think I prefer it over pizza romana. 
                  2. Seeing the veiled Christ sculpture in the Museo Cappella Sansevero. It was stunning. 
                  3. Exploring the city with my sister, shopping and interacting with the 
napoletani. 
                  4. The weather! It was supposed to rain, but Naples gave us sunshine. It's now 
raining in Capri. 

Impara con me! 1. cavo- cable wire   

Hello April...and Easter

Chocolate Easter Eggs

Pizza di Pasqua Aquilana 

Casatiello- traditional Neapolitan Easter bread made with cheese and salami 

  

The flowers I smelt 

On Tuesday my sister, Deidre, is arriving and on Thursday we are packing our bags and leaving for Naples AKA home of Italian pizza AKA hold onto your belongings and your life. I’ve been hearing quite the horror stories from other Italians about Naples. I’ve decided to leave all of my jewelry at home and I was told to stay away from anyone on a motorino who is wearing a helmet. Apparently the only time Neapolitans wear a helmet is if they’re about to steal something or do something worse...so let me tell you all now that I love you very much because we might not make it out alive....just kidding. There’s an Italian saying vedi Napoli poi muori, see Naples then die, meaning that it’s so beautiful you can die after seeing it. Although the way people have been talking about it makes it seem that you’ll die while seeing it. I’m sure it will be beautiful, and it’s a place I’ve been wanting to go to. I’ll just blend in and enjoy the beauty. After Naples we are going to Capri. I envision silk head scarfs blowing in the wind while laying out in the sun. Except it’s supposed to rain so I might have to envision something else. Rain or shine we will have a blast. 

Cultural Notes: 1. With Easter only a week away all of the bakeries are ready. Some Easter traditions: La Colomba (the dove). It is a cake in the form of a dove and all the Italians I’ve spoken to don’t like it. It’s more like something you buy because it’s traditional even though it’s not necessarily enjoyed. In L’Aquila there is a traditional pizza di pasqua which is a sweet bread eaten for breakfast. In Rome, their pizza di pasqua is filled with cheese. In all of Italy it is traditional to have a large Easter breakfast with both sweets, meats, and hard boiled eggs (uova sodo). In some parts of Italy, the family goes into the mountains to roast meat. Lamb is the traditional meat eaten for lunch or dinner and coratella which is a warm mix of lamb innards and artichokes may also be seen at the Easter table.  Huge chocolate eggs filled with a surprise and small chocolate eggs can be bought in supermarkets. Some cities have a religious procession, but since I will be in Capri for Easter Sunday I will miss the procession in Vatican City.  

                         2. Today I went to one of my student’s field hockey games. Some of the things I noticed: the referees were wearing jeans. I was thinking how uncomfortable that must be to run in jeans. Some of the athletes were smoking after their game. My student told me that there is a greater number of male field hockey teams in Italy than female teams. I was surprised to discover this, because field hockey is not common among males at all in America.    

Highlights of My Week: 1. While I was grocery shopping I heard one of my favorite songs by Tiziano Ferro from one of his older albums. I used to listen to that song while on my way to Italian class at SBU, and I remember one specific time sitting alone in my car reading the lyrics and wishing I were in Italy. I guess I still can’t believe I’m here...I’m really living here. 

                                  2. I had time to kill before my book club this past Friday so I sat outside in the sun at a caffé. A light breeze was blowing, transporting a delicious sweet smell from these purple flowers that were growing nearby.

                                  3. On Saturday night I went to my friend Natalie’s house for dinner and a movie. We ate pizza, drank Peroni, and discussed how we are going to cry when we have to leave.    

Impara con me! 1. sigillato- sealed 

                       2. passeggino- baby stroller