Ciao ciao everyone!
So I have arrived at half-time of me visiting Fabio and his beautiful country. I'm not sure how the rest of Europe is but I don't think it's the same as here. The reason I think this is that Italy is filled with history everywhere you go. It's not all just in one place, I am constantly surrounded by a 2000 year old building or by some new finding that architects are digging up. Its really awesome but at the same time strange to me because in America you usually find something 100 years old, not 2o00!
So I'm going to talk about some interesting facts that are not necessarily positive, and I'm not trying to be condescending on Italy, but it's important to know. Because Italy is practically the size of Arizona they have much less and have to learn how to abide with what they have....and they really do! They use what they have and they don't waste. The streets are extreemely small because of space...its not that they don't have the money to expand, but they don't have the room! So, they build the country up. On the interstate it's almost the same, there are mostly only 2 lane highways, and 3 lane highways in the north. This is also because there is no room to expand..so it can become aggrevating during traffic. The roads here are very rugged not because the Mafia is present now-a-days....but because we are seeing the effects of the Mafia 20 years ago. Basically they stole so much money that it affected the roads being repaired and built properly. The economy of Italy is also really struggling. The government is trying to pay off their debts by higher taxes...(and extremely high taxes). Try passing that in America..people would flourish to Canada. Because of this problem people are going on strike. When me and Fabio went to Rome we were there for three days. The last day we were there we found out that we couldn't plan to see anything because everything was shut down...including the metro, due to everyone going on strike against the government! So..we went shopping and visited the Vatican Museum (not bad, not bad :) ) One more note about the economy of Italy and then I'm moving on to happier things. The country is suffering to the point that they have to cut a lot of the military personel's salary. Italy also does not have the money to make their guys practice...this is a problem for Fabio too. He can't fly until September, and after that he is "guaranteed" at the least 16 hours of flying time in 4 months. (for everyone who is not pilot-savy that is not very much..its the minimum for a pilot to remember how to fly!) Obviously America is to blame for a portion of this, because we are at war. When America goes to war, other countries are forced to go as well.
Now, moving on. To answer Virginia's question in the last blog, the supermarkets look the same lol. Italy does have more open markets, but they only have fruit and veggies...and sometimes fish. But they are kind of in covered areas to be protected from the rain. And a lot of the time you can only use cash. Actually, most places only accept cash...like stores, cafes, and other basic places like the car wash.
So..I have been fully immersed here with Fabio as my only confidant. I can't even watch TV in English lol...except for MTV, but it plays the same songs over and over again for one month now. So I finally was able to buy a book to read in the English language so I can entertain myself when he is at work...YAY!! I never thought I would be so excited to read..who would have thought! My mom made me read as punishment when I was a kid, so that gives you an idea.
Me and Fabio just got back from a wedding in the north which was just gorgeous in the mountains. We also stopped by Naples to see his Aunt who made me try the best Pizza on the planet...and the best mozzarela!! We also saw Mt. Vesuvius (the volcano that has risen from the previous valcano that destroyed Pompeii)...very thrilling for me because I've never seen a volcano.
Well that about wraps things up for now. There is just too much to write. I'll be here for another 6 weeks. In two weeks Fabio gets vacation leave from the military for one month. Since Italy considers August as summer vacation, I'm hoping he will take his vacation in August so he can come back to the States with me so I have him for one more month! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
~ Jessica
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Living in Italy-the funny little things
So I have been living in Italy for three weeks now and experience new things every day. I'll start by telling the funny things.
Most Italians use gas instead of electricity because electricity is so expensive. The problem with this is I have never used a gas stove and at first was very scared to use one. It sparks, smells like gas..so you never know when its going to blow up the house, and if you turn the heat up, you may start a fire, if you turn the heat too low, you will burn out the flame and then will have to start the long process of turning on the stove again. However, after three weeks I'm starting to get the hang of it. On the contrary, the gas also runs the hot water in the house. For the past week our shower has been ice cold and we don't know why exactly...so apart from taking showers at his parent's house, we have to heat water on the stove in a pot and hope that its enough water to wash with!
Cooking has been an interesting event. I think I'm a pretty good cook, but being here has really tested my knowledge because there are no such things as pre-made anything! There is no self-rising flour, you have to make that. There is no can of cream of chicken, or broth, or brownie mix, or heavy cream, sour cream...the list goes on. If you think that's difficult, there are no measuring tools either. And when you do find some kind of mix that you think you can manage to make a cream of chicken with, you have to figure out the measurement converting from grams to what you remember a cup or tablespoon looks like. I have been experimenting quite a bit...poor Fabio. So before you cook you have to go to the store to buy your ingredients. Well, at the store you better remember to dress to impress. Italians sulk in what they look like everywhere they go! It is a hobbie to them. At the grocery store you will find women wearing high...and I mean at least 4 inches high..heels, jewelry, plastered lip stick, their nice ironed shirts...it's nuts! So when I went to the store I wore my nice little flower dress like a normal American girl would, and I was stared at like I had some target on! ...So at the store if you pick fruit you have to have gloves on. After you pick the fruit or vegetables they have to be weighed by the designated fruit-guy. The milk is stored in the dry food section, and there is no such thing as yellow cheese. Neither is their sandwhich meat...but a bunch of proscuitto for sandwhiches. They do not use salad dressing, but salt and oil on their salads, so there is no salad dressing to be found anywhere! Oh, and one interesting thing is they don't have crabs over here. Ok enough about food.
My daily life so far is from 7-4 Fabio is gone at work so I'm home doing my homework and cleaning the house. Every weekend we go visit his parents and see some of his friends. In two weeks we are going to one of his friend's wedding. I'm excited to see what that is going to be like! About marriage, 90% of Italians marry in their late 20s early 30s. On that note, I have not seen one under-aged pregnant girl or young couple with a child. Every couple that I have met so far with a child is in their 30s. And they all only have one. The Italians have a different view in life in that they don't see the reason to "rush" to have children...and all of the families have an age gap in their children of 4+ years. They like to finance once child at a time. I think this is a responsible thing about their culture. And on the marriage note, if anyone is worried about me..let me set your heart to ease because it is not even Fabio's culture to marry a girl so young without a degree, like me :) and I'm perfectly happy with time because I would like to fully know what I'm getting myself into anyways.
This is all I can write right now, but there will be plenty more! I'll try to post pictures soon
Most Italians use gas instead of electricity because electricity is so expensive. The problem with this is I have never used a gas stove and at first was very scared to use one. It sparks, smells like gas..so you never know when its going to blow up the house, and if you turn the heat up, you may start a fire, if you turn the heat too low, you will burn out the flame and then will have to start the long process of turning on the stove again. However, after three weeks I'm starting to get the hang of it. On the contrary, the gas also runs the hot water in the house. For the past week our shower has been ice cold and we don't know why exactly...so apart from taking showers at his parent's house, we have to heat water on the stove in a pot and hope that its enough water to wash with!
Cooking has been an interesting event. I think I'm a pretty good cook, but being here has really tested my knowledge because there are no such things as pre-made anything! There is no self-rising flour, you have to make that. There is no can of cream of chicken, or broth, or brownie mix, or heavy cream, sour cream...the list goes on. If you think that's difficult, there are no measuring tools either. And when you do find some kind of mix that you think you can manage to make a cream of chicken with, you have to figure out the measurement converting from grams to what you remember a cup or tablespoon looks like. I have been experimenting quite a bit...poor Fabio. So before you cook you have to go to the store to buy your ingredients. Well, at the store you better remember to dress to impress. Italians sulk in what they look like everywhere they go! It is a hobbie to them. At the grocery store you will find women wearing high...and I mean at least 4 inches high..heels, jewelry, plastered lip stick, their nice ironed shirts...it's nuts! So when I went to the store I wore my nice little flower dress like a normal American girl would, and I was stared at like I had some target on! ...So at the store if you pick fruit you have to have gloves on. After you pick the fruit or vegetables they have to be weighed by the designated fruit-guy. The milk is stored in the dry food section, and there is no such thing as yellow cheese. Neither is their sandwhich meat...but a bunch of proscuitto for sandwhiches. They do not use salad dressing, but salt and oil on their salads, so there is no salad dressing to be found anywhere! Oh, and one interesting thing is they don't have crabs over here. Ok enough about food.
My daily life so far is from 7-4 Fabio is gone at work so I'm home doing my homework and cleaning the house. Every weekend we go visit his parents and see some of his friends. In two weeks we are going to one of his friend's wedding. I'm excited to see what that is going to be like! About marriage, 90% of Italians marry in their late 20s early 30s. On that note, I have not seen one under-aged pregnant girl or young couple with a child. Every couple that I have met so far with a child is in their 30s. And they all only have one. The Italians have a different view in life in that they don't see the reason to "rush" to have children...and all of the families have an age gap in their children of 4+ years. They like to finance once child at a time. I think this is a responsible thing about their culture. And on the marriage note, if anyone is worried about me..let me set your heart to ease because it is not even Fabio's culture to marry a girl so young without a degree, like me :) and I'm perfectly happy with time because I would like to fully know what I'm getting myself into anyways.
This is all I can write right now, but there will be plenty more! I'll try to post pictures soon
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The first week
So this is the start of my blogging about my summer in Italy. So far I am alive and proud of myself of making it here lol. I traveled for more than 17 hours, and when I was in the airport in Rome I thought I was going to die when they started switching my gate numbers. I had no phone connection, they couldn't transfer my money so I couldn't buy a phone card to call Fabio, I was freezing and so exhausted. I was thinking to myself...ok, if I miss my flight Fabio is going to kill me first, my dad is going to kill me second because I didn't transfer money or get a phone card ahead of time like a normal person would...so here I was asking everybody if they spoke English and thank God to my relief everyone knew English!! So...I made it :)
My first day I noticed so many things that were different. For instance, people never hand money to someone else in their hand. They put the money on a dish and then the receiving person takes it. I thought that was peculiar because I was like wow...I thought America was crazy about disease and come to find out..everyone is probably the same :). Another thing is people eat ice cream like they chew bubble gum. I have never seen so much ice cream in my life. No matter what coffee shop you go in (Adriana this is the place for your business) you will find ice cream. And its mostly fruit flavored..not really a lot of chocolate or mixings. A few other differences were no dryers, no dish washers, and they really practice conservation. They don't use appliances or electricity so freely like we do (Papa I'm sure that puts your heart at ease)...they don't use lights unless they absolutely have to and they don't have a lot of things running at one time like the washing machine, oven, blow dryer all at once...
I could go on for quite a while about other things but I've got to keep yall reading so I'm not going to say everything. Anyways, now we are in Germany for Fabio's little 9 year old cousin's communion ceremony. The whole family is here! Almost everyone flew from Italy to Germany for the ceremony so I thought that was pretty loving. Apparently its a huge deal, and I don't really know how it works at home because I never had communion but it was fun to experience. We will be leaving Germany on Wednesday and are going to drive back through Venice which is really called "Venezia"...one thing I learned is that America changes the names of everything and half the stuff we actually do know on the map isn't really called what we call it! haha, so after Venice we'll be back in the South.
Look for my blog every two weeks...I miss and love everyone!
Love ~Jess
My first day I noticed so many things that were different. For instance, people never hand money to someone else in their hand. They put the money on a dish and then the receiving person takes it. I thought that was peculiar because I was like wow...I thought America was crazy about disease and come to find out..everyone is probably the same :). Another thing is people eat ice cream like they chew bubble gum. I have never seen so much ice cream in my life. No matter what coffee shop you go in (Adriana this is the place for your business) you will find ice cream. And its mostly fruit flavored..not really a lot of chocolate or mixings. A few other differences were no dryers, no dish washers, and they really practice conservation. They don't use appliances or electricity so freely like we do (Papa I'm sure that puts your heart at ease)...they don't use lights unless they absolutely have to and they don't have a lot of things running at one time like the washing machine, oven, blow dryer all at once...
I could go on for quite a while about other things but I've got to keep yall reading so I'm not going to say everything. Anyways, now we are in Germany for Fabio's little 9 year old cousin's communion ceremony. The whole family is here! Almost everyone flew from Italy to Germany for the ceremony so I thought that was pretty loving. Apparently its a huge deal, and I don't really know how it works at home because I never had communion but it was fun to experience. We will be leaving Germany on Wednesday and are going to drive back through Venice which is really called "Venezia"...one thing I learned is that America changes the names of everything and half the stuff we actually do know on the map isn't really called what we call it! haha, so after Venice we'll be back in the South.
Look for my blog every two weeks...I miss and love everyone!
Love ~Jess
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