Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Busy Week


Well, I'm going strong on day two of All Saints vacation.  The boys are off from school for a week and a half (they return a week from Thursday) which means that I am working twice as much as usual.  Besides the normal 3 - 8 p.m., this week I'm also helping out 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. (and getting paid a little extra as well).  I'm also the only au pair at this point, before the next girl arrives on Thursday, but I'm almost convinced that it's easier to work by myself.  The boys don't have as much room for manipulation... ;)

I admit that this new schedule took some getting used to.  I usually have all morning to gear up for the kids, but this week I have to be up and at 'em immediately.  Yesterday, I was so tired at the end of the day that I fell asleep without turning out the light.  To former roommates of mine, I am certain that this comes as no surprise.  To Mariacarla and Pasquale, however, it came as a bit of concern.  I think Mariacarla, on the way to the boys' room, passed by at some extremely late hour of the night.  Seeing the light still on in my room, she assumed I was still awake, and the next morning she asked me if I'd had trouble sleeping.  After I explained that I fell asleep with the light on, she beseeched me to remember to turn out the light -- I was wasting so much energy!  (I don't actually know what electricity costs in Rome, but it must be pretty high.)  They even offered to buy me a small night light if I had a problem with the dark.  Ha!  But really, they are so sweet.  They said they would give me money and I could go to the light store myself and pick out a style that I preferred.  So sweet.  So I promised to turn it out tonight.

Today was a little bit easier.  For one thing, Mariacarla was at home all day (yesterday she was teaching) so she could keep one boy while I played with the other.  When Pasquale is the only parent at home (as was the case yesterday) the most he does is put the boys "in punishment" which means the naughty one has to sit in the parents' room, without playing, for a period of time.  It does calm things down, but it happens only after things get intolerable.  Today, both boys were on much better behavior because they weren't able to provoke each other in the first place.  The other advantage was that on Tuesdays there are swimming lessons.  An hour at the pool creates a welcome diversion from the humdrum of staying at home all day.

At the end of the day, as I was getting ready for dinner and Mariacarla was getting some grapes for the boys, I noticed that there was a lot of the grape vine still attached.  That led to a discussion about the vocabulary, in which I learned that "vine" is vite in Italian.  Mariacarla brought up Jesus' illustration of how He is the vine and we are the branches (in Italian, of course).  I got so excited that I recognized the verse and started quoting it to her in English.  So I will leave you with John 15:5 in both Italian and English.  It's a good reminder and encouragement for me, this week.

Giovanni 15:5
Io sono la vite, voi siete i tralci. Chi rimane unito a me, ed io a lui, produce molti frutti. Senza di me, invece, non potete far nulla.


(I like the fact that la vite for "vine" is similar to la vita for "life"...)

Grape vines from wine making last month.

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

To Market, To Market

Today could be characterized as a shopping day.  When I woke up this morning, I didn't have any idea of the extent of it.  (I also didn't have any idea that daylight savings had ended, meaning I woke up at 8 instead of at 9.  I got a great start to my free day!)

It was Emi's last full day in Rome and she had made plans with Léa and Elise (two other French au pairs whom we know through the kids' school) to go  to the Porta Portese Market.  It's a typical Italian outdoor market, where you can find everything: from kitchen and gardening supplies to clothes and cosmetics -- and everything in between.  It's held every Sunday morning.  What makes Porta Portese unique is that it's so big.  I went for the first time last summer with my cousin Anna and have returned twice, but I still haven't seen all of it.

The actual gate from which the market gets its name.

One of the prettier avenues of stalls.

 My shopping companions Emi, Léa, and Elise, who were were nice enough to smile even though I surprised them with the camera.
 I took all my pocket money that was left over from the month of October and frittered it away throughout the course of the day.  First, I bought some practical black socks.  I'm supposed to wear them inside the house to set a good example for the boys (who must wear socks at all times to avoid catching a cold or getting a fever).  Anyway, for the first week I wore my white athletic socks but those picked up dust from the hardwood floor like none other.  So black socks it is.

Then, I bought a pendant that I'd been thinking about for a long time.  It's a little silver sphere (they come in different sizes, but mine is about half an inch in diameter) with a tiny bell inside.  If you hold it up to your ear and shake it, you can hear it tinkling.  They say it's calling the angels to come and protect you.  It's a cute idea and (at least I think) it's a pretty necklace.  You can find some version at almost every jewelry stand in every market or street corner.

My next purchase was a pair of really beautiful silver elephant earrings.  The Indian man selling them said they were from Bombay, but I can't really be sure.  He was also flirting with me and asking if I had a boyfriend in Rome, etc. etc. etc.  He said he they cost twelve euro ("special discount for you, because you are bella and speak Italian so well").  I said I could pay eight and he said no, ten euro was the best he could do.  I said I would think about it and come back later.  Then he said okay, just because I was so beautiful he could give it to me for eight.  I hope you are joining me in laughing out loud.  And I hope you are just as excited as I am at the successful haggle!

I also bought some inexpensive trinkets like white scarf with a lacy border and a couple of silver bead bracelets.  Writing about it now, I feel kind of self-indulgent.  Maybe the next time I go to Porta Portese I will buy presents for other people!  It's almost Christmas shopping season, after all.

After shopping for several hours we were all very hungry -- and cold.  It was one of the first cold days I've experienced in Rome so far.  I guess it is almost November, about time.  We got some pizza near the Trevi Fountain (one of Emi's favorite places in Rome) and since it was cheaper to do carry-out rather than sit in the restaurant, we searched for some nice steps to sit on.  We ended up on the Quirinal Hill, right outside the presidential residence, and settled down (more like huddled, it was so cold) to enjoy our meal.

Outisde the Palazzo del Quirinale.

That's when we noticed the Polizia di Stato, black escort cars, and shiny motorcycles.  It was a presidential motorcade!  Unfortunately, when President Napolitano finally emerged, I was fumbling with my camera and ended up with a lousy video and no actual sighting.  Bummer.  But the other girls saw him, and it was cool enough to be in the general vicinity.

After warming ourselves with coffee, we headed back through the center of town, passing directly in front of the Trevi Fountain.  I took this picture to show how crowded it can be, even on a cold afternoon in October.  I remember that the first time I came here, I was so surprised.  The photos you see on calendars and postcards don't really reflect the chaotic setting of this beautiful landmark.

What the fountain looks like in real life.

What the fountain looks like on postcards.

What the fountain looks like with friends. (Photo credit: Elise) 

We finished the day by walking up Via del Corso and makings stops in multiple shops along the way.  I refrained from making any more purchases, but we did get some free Ritter Sport at Tezenis!  The chocolate  sustained us through the cold, dark, wet streets until we were forced to say goodbye and go our separate ways.  I'm so thankful for these girls and the wonderful day we spent together.  I will miss you, Emi!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pretty Quiet

Not much to report.

Yesterday morning I got a text from my friend Anna who was passing through
Rome.  Her parents have been visiting from Austria and  wanted to visit some obscure literary landmark (I think the hospital where a certain Austrian author had passed away).  While they were otherwise occupied, we had a coffee together.  It is so nice to have a friend that lives nearby.  Yes, I've made several other friends since I arrived in September, but none so dear as Anna.  It's always good to catch up with her and life in the countryside, and she always lets me talk her ear off about my life here.  I'm really happy that for a few months, at least, I can get random texts from her and we can just go out for coffee on a whim.


**I edited the post to add this photo of my caffè macchiato (an espresso that's "stained" with a little bit of milk).  I found it while transferring the latest group of photos from my camera, and it was just too pretty.  Anna had a latte macchiato (milk that's stained with a little bit of espresso) and they made a leaf pattern in hers as well.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Being an Au Pair

Before one becomes an au pair, one should consider carefully the demands of the job and whether one is suited for the lifestyle.  I've been thinking about this in the past week because Emi is about to leave for home and a new French au pair is about to arrive.  I am quite content after almost two months of living here, but both Emi and the other girl I worked with before have said they were quite ready to leave after one month.  I don't know how the next girl will be, but I myself really don't feel that way!  I feel happy and, honestly, lucky to be here.  I've been pondering what the differences could be between those girls and myself, and the following are my thoughts in stream-of-consciousness form.  If anything is confusing, leave a comment and I'd be happy to clarify.

1) Temperament.   I actually enjoy being with kids for moderate periods of time. I think of them as less-mature equals (is that possible?) meaning that I take their games seriously, I try to talk to them as other human beings rather than little angels or little devils, and I seriously try to understand what they are thinking.  Now, this may come as a surprise, but not all au pairs I've encountered like to play with children.  That presents some difficulties, no?  Our particular family is rather protective of the children, meaning we stay at home a lot.  Besides the trip home from school, swimming lessons, and the weekly trip to the children's museum, we don't go out a lot.  That leaves lots of one-on-one time between us and the kids, and as I might have mentioned before, they don't have very long attention spans.  I take this as a fun challenge to create new games and teach them new things.  While it can be exhausting at times, the moments of genuine enjoyment, for me, outweigh any drudgery.

2) Attitude.  I only work five hours every day, so no matter what the kids (and occasionally the parents) throw at me, I have nineteen more hours to eat and play and sleep and forget about all the negatives.  And I do!  Seldom do I truly feel bummed about my situation.  I can think of one or two times it's happened.  Once was when we took the kids to school in the morning.  I was a little down in the first place, because I had just learned that we would be doing this once or twice a week.  That wasn't in my original work agreement, so the idea took some getting used to.  Adding insult (literally) to injury, the boys were very, very, very naughty on the tram.  They talked in loud voices, they nearly jostled other passengers out of their seats, and they pointed rudely and laughed at an old man.  They wouldn't listen to Emi and me when we asked them to stop.  I was just depressed over how bad they were!  When we left them at school it was not on good terms, and the situation weighed on me the whole day.  The only other scenario in which I get bad feelings about the job is when someone (either my fellow au pair or another girl who knows the family) brings up the struggles of the job and how difficult it can be.  I just don't like to dwell on it, thank you very much!

3) Expectations.  I've already mentioned this, but I only have to work five hours every day.  Sure, I work Saturdays, but then again Sundays are completely free.  Completely!  And seriously, it's only five hours a day.  As a teacher, I may be in front of my students for five to six hours every day, but then there's one or two hours of prep, at least two hours of grading, plus after-school activities and the time it takes to communicate with parents and students.  Lesson planning and grading seriously encroach on the weekends.  So this job, it's a luxury!  Good hours and low stress.  Well, low stress in my free time (remember that part about forgetting about the problems).    Despite being entrusted with two little lives every day, I feel less of a burden of responsibility as an au pair than as a teacher.  I don't know exactly why, but I do.  When I think about the demands of adult life, I think I've got a pretty sweet deal here.  I'm sacrificing some things, like steady month-to-month savings and an apartment of my own.  But, then again, I don't have to pay rent and I don't have to cook.  For one school year and a chance to live in a foreign country, it's an unbeatable opportunity.

In short, if you have some real life experience which can serve to provide you with accurate expectations, yet still feel able to adapt to different living and work situations, and -- let's not forget the most important thing -- like to be with kids, I highly recommend becoming an au pair!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Italian and French

I returned to Italian class this morning, after having missed week and a half due to the chicken pox.  It was was great and I got to review pronouns: direct, indirect, and combined.  Now, unfortunately, I will go another week and a half without class because of school holidays.  We actually get a week off from the language school, ourselves, while the boys get a week and a half off from their school.  This is all because of the All Saints holidays (or les vacances de la Toussaint as it says on the French school calendar).  Pfff!  Forget Halloween!  I'll bet many American kids would gladly trade in one night of trick-or-treating for over a week of school vacation.

After class, I went to Ladurée!  It was as beautiful and as tasty as I imagined.  And it wasn't too crowded, either.  I went with Léa, another French au pair, who was just as excited as I was about macarons (and who coached me on my French pronunciation).  Here are some photos of our expedition:

On the corner in a rather posh section of town. 

 Beautiful window displays, full of macarons.

 My beautiful bag and box of eight macarons which, I am a bit embarrassed to say, cost €14.  Think of it as a continuation of yesterday's celebration.  That's how I'm thinking of it.

From left to right: blood orange, licorice, marshmallow almond, hazelnut, coffee, raspberry  and pistachio   You may notice that there are only seven.  That's because I had already eaten the rose petal macaron.  It was so good.  It really smelled like a fresh flower (and might have tasted like one, too, for all I know).  Actually, I ate one bite of it.  Then a gypsy man came up to me asking for money or something for the little girl asleep in his arms (do they drug those children?  They are always sleeping, the poor things...) and I was so taken aback that I shoved the rose petal macaron into his hand.  I have never given anything to people begging on the street.  I don't know what came over me, or if he even appreciated the cookie.  Anyway, that's why it's not in the picture.

Raspberry!  I ate this one next because it had become a bit crushed on the journey home. I think there were crushed raspberries inside.  That's how good it was.

These were the only ones left at the end of my rampage.  To be honest, I ate the coffee macaron after I took the picture.  I reasoned with myself that I could eat four and still have half left.  And technically I'd only eaten three...right?!
The rest of the day, the parts we weren't working, we spent with Emi's mom and her mom's friends.  We had some coffee together around mid-day, then went out for drinks in the evening.  Now I'm off to bed because tomorrow morning we have to take the boys to school.  Good night!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Celebration!

Today was a red-letter day.  I didn't actually write on my calendar in red letters.  (Is that what the saying refers to?  I never completely understood it.)  Nonetheless, today was really special because I left the apartment after a week and a half of being cooped up inside.  Phew.  Never again!

I put on jeans!  I put on makeup!  Then I went to GiNa, a cute restaurant near Piazza di Spagna.  It wasn't really a traditional Roman restaurant, more fresh and trendy.  The ambiance was light, bright, and airy.  Here's how my table looked as I waited for my food:


I read about it in some "insider's guide" as a great place to have lunch with your girlfriends.  My girlfriends weren't available so I took myself.  It wasn't the cheapest place, but for some reason I haven't had occasion to spend money recently -- hmm, whatever could have happened?! -- so I was way under budget for this month.  I had a delicious salad, as pictured below:  


Look at that delicious goat cheese.  It was lightly warmed and soooo good.  I also saw that you can reserve a picnic basket to take with you for an afternoon in Villa Borghese, which is just up the hill from the restaurant.  Cute!  (It costs €40 however.)

As I walked back to meet Emi and pick up the boys at school, I stopped at Ciampini to get gelato.  Mariacarla had recommended it to me when I told her I was making a gelato tour of Rome.  She was right.  My flavors of choice were dark chocolate along with figs and walnuts.  So good!  Not too sweet but full of flavor.  Behold:


Then, after a good afternoon with the boys, I set out once more.  It was a red-letter day, after all, and I wasn't going to let any opportunity slip by.  This time I went for an aperitivo.  This is a nifty custom in which one pays a fixed amount (tonight it was €8.50) for one drink and a buffet of food.  Some places you get one visit to the buffet, other places are all-you-can-eat.  The quality of the food also varies.  I went to Fluid, a bar near Piazza Navona that Emi had told me about.  It's well-known for its aperitivo and features pretty substantial food on its buffet (pasta, vegetables, etc.)  I thought it would make a nice supper.  Here's what I ate:


That's white wine, by the way, even though it says "martini" in huge letters.  Afterwards I got some eggplant and some meatballs.  I wasn't quite sure if it was one of the all-you-can-eat places, but nobody seemed to mind.  It was a good meal!

Now I am tired and happy.  Unfortunately, I can already feel my legs aching.  What a bummer.  I started running again at the beginning of this month (I had to save up my money for running shoes, first) and just before I got the chicken pox I was really getting into it.  In fact, the day before the virus hit I had gone on a nice forty-minute run along the river.  (That was partly because I deviated from my route and got lost.  It took me longer than expected to get back home.  Teehee.)  Now I have to start over.  Oh well, a new challenge.

Oh, and if you didn't get enough food images today, tomorrow is the grand opening of Ladurée (a Parisian tea room famous for its macarons,  light almond meringue cookies filled with ganache or something equally decadent...maybe I will have pictures tomorrow).  I am so excited because I have been longing for some good macarons.  There used to be a bakery in Annapolis that sold them, and from time to time I would drive the half hour downtown just for the special treat.  What luck that a Ladurée should be opening in Rome during my time here!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Out

I do hereby resolve that tomorrow I will go out, even if it's just to walk in the fresh air.  I might have one or two spots that haven't gotten a scab, but they're hidden away on my back under my shirt.  I think everyone's tired of me being sick, anyway.  The family shouldn't protest too much.  If I don't go out, tomorrow will be the tenth day that I haven't left the apartment.  That's just unfathomable.

I get into all sorts of trouble when I'm not allowed to go out.  I haven't been exercising in any way, shape, or form...and consequently have been getting out of shape.  My body is convinced that it needs three hearty (and I do mean hearty) meals a day, but it's really too much food when I am idle.  Speaking of which, everyone knows that idle hands are the devil's workshop.  Do you think I started my grad school applications during the time I was house bound?  No!  Of course not!  Instead, I re-taught myself how to find TV shows and movies online, then watched them for hours and hours and hours  So I've become not only physically but also mentally lazy  It's horrible state of affairs.

The only good thing to come of being stationary is that I restarted this blog.  And I'll continue tomorrow, don't worry.  Maybe I'll even have more interesting things to write about.  Okay...a domani!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Practice Makes Perfect

Tonight I am practicing the art of a short post.  It's 10 p.m. on Monday night, and I don't have time or inspiration for something longer.  If I don't write at all, however, I start down the slippery slope that ends in utter blog silence.

Tonight I told Grandpa Pietro about all the blogs I read.  I was practicing my Italian.  Earlier he'd asked me if I liked to speak Italian, and I said yes, of course!  Then he pointed out that he was around all week and that I could talk to him whenever I wanted.  So I took my little introverted self out to the living room and we had a nice conversation.  It's always a splash of cold water on my happy little parade (mixed metaphors?) when I realize that I don't actually speak Italian very well.  When I read things on the internet, I understand most of it.  When I watch TV, I can get the drift of the story.  When I speak, however, I am slow.  I have to stop and think a lot, and even then I make silly mistakes.  I completely understand my mistake and how to correct it, even as the other person is explaining it to me.  I have to remind myself, when my ego is feeling picked on, that it was still a mistake.  There's a difference between knowing how to do something and being able to do it.  I haven't really mastered word until I can use it easily in a sentence.  And how can I use it in a sentence unless I'm talking?  Oh, language assimilation must be so much easier for extroverts!

Now you can practice using the comment box... ;)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Grandparents Come for a Visit

Yesterday marked one week since the arrival of the nonni -- the grandparents!  Pasquale's father had to have heart surgery, and the family knew a good doctor in Rome.  So, nonna and nonno drove up from Naples last Saturday to spend a few days with the family before the surgery.  Pietro and Manu were very excited in anticipation.  We heard all sorts of tales like "My nonno holds me on his shoulders!"  We had just met the other set of grandparents, Mariacarla's parents, who are also very nice but perhaps a bit more feeble.  In comparison, these grandparents are young and vigorous (albeit in need of valve repair).  Anyway, they arrived a little after lunch on Saturday, allowing Emi (my current French colleague) and myself to finish work early.  That turned out to be the day I started to get sick, so I happily returned to my room to take a nap before taking the bus out to visit Anna.

The main thought in my head when I sat down to write this post was the scary story I heard in the aftermath of grandfather's surgery.  He went in on Wednesday and came home twenty-four hours later.  The procedure itself seemed fairly routine: they made a small incision near his groin and another in his chest, so it was minimally invasive.  But here's what shocked me:  he was awake for the entire procedure!!!  I don't know if it was some fluke, or if this is standard practice in Italian medicine, but this man had heart surgery without the benefit of general anesthesia.  He told me, shaking his head like someone who had just witnessed the brutalities of a war, "Dura, Katie, dura."  It was rough, Katie.  I believe it, man!  That's like Civil War medicine.  Well, except for the highly sophisticated surgical technique.  But really?  No general anesthesia?!  I almost wouldn't believe it, except for how worn out he looked when he returned home.  Also lending credence to his tale is an blog post I just read, describing the story of a woman and her small child who had to have their orthopedic rods removed without the benefit of pain relief.  Nothing.  I assume that the grandpa at least had local anesthetic; maybe I shouldn't assume.  I shudder to imagine.

Anyway, the grandparents are great.  I was a little uncertain about the grandma's personality at first (she didn't talk to us much the first day, but I think that was just confusion over language) but she is great.  We celebrated her onomastico, or saint's day, on Monday night.  We had cake and ice cream in the living room with the neighbors.  I felt guilty, eating all that sugar when I was sick...but I quickly got over it.  So can any Catholic friends guess her name?  

Speaking of names, the family keeps up the Italian tradition of naming a little boy after his grandpa.  So the grandpa's name is also Pietro (which creates a bit of confusion in the house, at times).  Pietro, the six-year-old whom I babysit, is actually the fourth Pietro in his family.  The grandpa is the third.  And the first Pietro Fava was born in the 1800s.  I can't remember the specific year I was told.  The grandpa tells me all about their family and their home in Naples.  He tells me when all the football matches are on, and who won.  He willingly corrects my Italian.  Both grandparents are always asking me how I'm feeling, checking out my chicken pox, and reminding me not to scratch.

I will be sad when they leave.  Actually, I think the grandmother has gone home for a few days, but the grandfather can't go home until he feels well enough to drive.  It could be another week.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I like having him around.  It never hurts when he cracks his belt to scare the kids.  Or tells Emmanuel to be quiet or a witch will hear him and come to eat him.  :)

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Life in the Big City

This morning I didn’t go out.  Tomorrrow morning I won’t go out.  I will be so happy when I recover from these dastardly chicken pox and get to out again.  I should have a coming-out party, in the style of nineteenth century debutantes.

But two weeks ago I went out.  I noticed that day, for the umpteenth time, what a nice place Rome can be.  Although it is Italy's biggest city, its atmosphere is not what I would call chaotic.  It's almost tranquil.  It's no small town, but it still feels like a neighborly community.  

During my first month here, I had taken the tram over the river to visit a potential language school.  In the middle of Piazza del Risorgimento, where I was awaiting Tram 19 to take me home, I watched homeless man plodding along.  Before long he stopped, sat down on the ground, and then lay flat on his back, as if giving up the ghost.  It was a very hot day, but he lay down in the sun and not in the shade.  Not normal behavior, to say the least.  Barely had I though all these thoughts, when two women and one man approached the scene.  They found a bottle of water and began to revive him.  They sprinkled water in his face and then actually forced him to drink.  I was impressed that they’d take such action with a stranger, who was not directly their responsibility.

Last Sunday was another example of neighborly behavior in the city of Rome.  I was supposed to meet some friends for a walk around the city.  I set out early to find a nice café  to pass some time and have a cappuccino.  I stopped at one nearby my house, which I have walked past dozens of times but never had time to try.  The only other customer present when I came in was a rather ancient lady who had dressed herself up and come down for Sunday morning breakfast.  The barista and owner were treating her with the utmost respect (something else I love to see in Italy is the courtesy towards women and elderly people -- and when you combine those two groups and add a religious habit, wow!  I wish you could have been on the tram on afternoon when my friend and I got on with a group of nuns.  People were literally jumping out of their seats and insisting that the sisters sit down.)  The owner had just brought over a bag of fresh fruit for her.  I decided to sit down, too, even though it usually costs more than standing at the bar.


This is the cappuccino I received.  Look at the fancy chocolate pattern on top!  This doesn't happen in a more crowded bar.  When I got up to pay, the man at the register whom I presumed to be the owner told me to wait and then fetched me a fresh, ripe persimmon!  (My favorite!  I didn't know that they grew in Italy, but I have since enjoyed them several times.)  He also only charged me one euro for the cappuccino at the table!  Sunday morning special?  I said to myself that I would go back, but so far the opportunity hasn’t presented itself.  And now I’m house-bound, at least for a couple more days.  Perhaps I that's how I will celebrate: a return to Caffé Fontana.


Hopefully those anecdotes were able communicate a bit of the charm that Rome holds for me.  Just look how happy I am to be here!  (This was one week before being hit with the plague.  I may never look like this again...)

Friday, October 19, 2012

My First Week (...was long ago, I know)

Sunday, 2 Sept – I arrived in Rome after a very turbulent and unrestful flight.  I successfully retrieved my bag (praise the Lord! I will never let that go for granted) and exchanged my cash to Euros. I took a bus to Termini (a first time experience for me and highly recommended.  The other options are to take an express train which costs 14 euros and takes 30 minutes, or else a combination of local train and metro which costs 9.50 and takes 45 minutes.  The bus, on the other hand, costs 6 euro and on this particular Sunday morning took 45 minutes.  I expect traffic could make travel time a lot worse, but the price is worth it.)  There I was supposed to meet Mariacarla, but when I tried to turn on my phone, I found that my SIM card had expired.  Aiuto!  I had already been nervous because I seemed to have forgotten my battery charger, and now the phone wasn’t working at all!  Priority numero uno was to find a TIM store (that's the cell phone company, but when they text me with annoying offers and deals, I joke that I'm getting messages from "my boyfriend Tim").  Fortunately, I was directed to one on the second floor of Termini station and after a lovely 45 minute wait I was able to update my number.  I hadn’t added any money to my account in a year, hence it had expired.  Oops.

Then and only then I was able to call Mariacarla.  After we agreed on a meeting point, I dashed to the supermarket in the basement of Termini to buy a new battery charger (and of course after I finished unpacking, I discovered that I actually had my old one).  Then I dashed across the street to wait at Bar Trombetta, the exact same place I met another family this spring.  We found each other without problem and she drove me to their apartment, showing me important landmarks (like the zoo) along the way.

I arrived at their house a little after noon, was shown the house and the room I was to share with Anouk, the French au pair.  If I haven’t already explained this to you, it's helpful to know that the family likes to have a French-speaking au pair since their children go to French school, as well as an English-speaking au pair for more practical language skills.  Another enlightening piece of information on this family is that there are very strict rules on cleanliness.  Upon return to the house, one must immediately 1) remove shoes,   2) wash hands, and 3) change into clean pants.  Additionally, suitcases have to remain in the front hallway (not a bad idea, considering where I had dragged mine in the past 24 hours).  So I emptied my suitcases and then they were whisked away to some top-secret suitcase quarantine area (which I later had to locate because I had forgotten something important in the front pocket of my suitcase.  It required the use of a 12-foot ladder to reach that top-secret suitcase quarantine area).  

With the help of my wonderful and wise mother, I had brought several English books for the boys (Pietro is 6 and Emmanuel is 4).  As soon as Pietro saw Experiments with Water he began dancing around the house shouting “experiments! experiments!”  and wanted to do them right away.  He asked his mother, “You can read English, right?  Can we do these?” but he was compelled to wait for me the next day.  In the past week we did most of the accessible experiments in the book, with great success and maybe even some learning.  He still wants to do experiments, but by now the quality has devolved into mixing salt and oil and soap indiscriminately and then blowing bubbles all over the sink.  I think the usefulness of the book has passed, but I appreciated the structured activities to do with him.  I need to find more like it, that are age-appropriate and interesting.  I try to think of things I used to do with babysitters, like playing cards and checkers and reading books.  Reading books are only interesting to them at certain times.  Manuel is more inclined to enjoy that activity, while Pietro needs to be always doing something.  Sports begin in October, and his mother is so relieved that he’ll have a way to release some of his boundless energy.  Really, it’s very hard for two small boys to live in a city apartment, especially when their mother is terrified of dirt and germs.  For example, we stopped in a small park after the dentist yesterday, but after seeing some garbage on the ground she decided to only let them go down the slide a couple times (I was shocked she even let them do that) and we left after five minutes.  Every time we come home from school or an outing, we take off our shoes, wash our hands, and change into house pants.  I’m glad I brought my athletic pants, because they’re comfortable to wear around the house and quite suitable for playing with children on the floor.

Monday, 3 Sept – Anouk was super friendly and made me feel comfortable right away.  Not only did she guide me through the workings of the house and the boys, but she welcomed me into her circle of friends and social outings.  Her boyfriend is from Rome (although he is currently in California studying wine) and so she was connected with a network of his friends, especially one girl who had even spent some time in France with her.  This girl, Elena, was equally nice and welcoming and over the course of the week brought me to several dinners and parties.  Monday night we went out to dinner in Trastevere, a slightly expensive neighborhood which is home, all at the same time, to trendy tourists, very old Roman families, and students from the three American universities located there.  It turned out to be kind of expensive, but I enjoyed experiencing a dining experience from within a group of Italians (to see what they ordered, how they interacted with the staff, etc.)

Tuesday, 4 Sept – Today was the first day of school at Rockbridge Academy, so my thoughts were in Maryland for a lot of the day.  It was also the first day of school for the boys.  And it was raining.  Anouk, being more useful as a speaker of French, accompanied them for the half day.  Then we ate lunch and played with them for the rest of the day.  Monday through Saturday we work for five hours, Sunday we are off.  That evening, Anouk and I went to Castel Sant’Angelo for a special night time opening called Notti dell’Estate (Summer Nights).  As summer is almost over, this was the last week, and I’m so glad we went.  It was my first visit, which was exciting enough, but it also provided gorgeous views of Rome lit up at night.  We got to explore the walls, rooms, and passageways and I learned a lot about its history.  Got a lot of good pictures too, after I figured out the night setting on the camera.

Wednesday, 5 Sept – Wednesday was another half day for the boys (and will continue to be, I think).  The advantage of half days and Saturdays is that we can begin sooner and finish sooner.  I love having mornings free since it is just about my favorite part of the day, but I can see the advantage of having working out of the way early.  So that’s what we did today.  Afterwards, we walked around the city looking for a gifts.  Anouk was having dinner with her boyfriend’s mother and wanted to get her something nice.  That afternoon I learned about the French area of the city, around Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi, where there is a church dedicated (according to Wikipedia) to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France.  There is also a nice French bookstore where Anouk found her gift (later she got some sticker books as a parting gift for the boys).  That night I stayed home and got to talk to Daddy and Julie!  Then I ate dinner and had a great conversation with Mariacarla and Pasquale.

Thursday, 6 Sept – We went to the park after school today.  It was a great way to let the boys run around and release some energy.  That evening, Anouk went to Elena’s for dinner, and afterwards they took me out to the young, hip part of town – it’s just north of our neighborhood, actually, by Ponte Milvio.  It’s so strange to think that this really important historic site, the Milvian Bridge, is now just a place for young people to mill about and drink and smoke and socialize.  A feature of living such an old town, I guess.  I suppose there’s nowhere in this city that doesn’t have some significance.

Friday, 7 Sept – Anouk and I got the boys from school and went to the children’s museum.  I was astounded at how distractible the boys can be.  It was hard for them to focus on one thing for very long, especially Pietro (not that he isn’t intelligent; he has a huge gift for languages and perhaps this is why he has trouble focusing and working at something: some things just come too easily for him, so he doesn’t understand how to persevere through more difficult things.)  It was a lot of fun at first, but then Pietro didn’t listen to me when I told him to wash his hands after the bathroom (imagine what his mother would say!)  I held him in place and wouldn’t let him go back to play until he did so, and he let out several shrieks before realizing he had no choice and stomped off to the bathroom saying “This isn’t an education!”  Well!  I was quite indignant, and so was he, and he rather avoided me the rest of the day.  I was a little bit sad about that, but the next day all was forgotten.  Well, hopefully not all.  I hope he knows now that I am serious about some things.  That evening, I don’t remember what we did.

Saturday, 8 Sept – We worked in the morning and had plenty of time in the afternoon free.  The evening was crazy.  We went to a birthday party for Giuliano, one of Elena’s friends, at the chic bar of MAXXI (Modern Art of the 21st century, clever, huh?)  There was nice party food and even better, free wine and cocktails!  Then, after a brief interlude at Ponte Milvio, we were off to the discoteca.  Oh my.  What an unbelievable experience.  There were swarms of kids trying to get in, but it was already full.  Still, they just hung around outside, waiting for a chance.  Unbelievable.  SO not worth it to me.  I was just along for the ride (literally, since we were driven there by a friend of a friend of a friend) so when Elena said there was and “understanding” and we were going to get in for free, I was like “okay, cool, I guess”.  Then it turned out to be 30 euros per person and I was like “okay, I guess”.  But there I was, so I made the most of it.  I drank the fancy vodka and tonic and danced in my little spot on the floor and sang along to the horrid dance mixes and cheered when they threw confetti and tried to avoid getting vomited on.  We didn’t leave until they closed at 4:15.  It was hardcore.  I was happy to have the experience, but even with such exclusivity I was NOT especially impressed.  I just don’t get the appeal.  At all.

Sunday, 9 Sept – Despite a HUGE need to sleep in, my love of mornings won out.  I went to the 10:30 service at an Anglican church I had spotted near the apartment.  Then I met my dear dear friend Anna as she was passing back through Rome from a family reunion in Austria.  Her boyfriend Ezra was also there, and he was super nice.  We walked and talked (and talked and talked) and caught each other up on EVERYTHING.  It was such a good time, really.  We finished up with two flavors of Tiramisu at Il Regno di Tiramisu, then parted ways.  I felt really lonely after she left, but I was consoled 1) she was not far away and I could visit her nay time now and 2) that I had such a nice family to come back to.  I really appreciate sharing a room with another girl, since I am apparently really susceptible to loneliness.  The super-friendliness of Anouk is just a bonus on top of it all.

Monday, 10 Sept – The first good thing to come to an end: Anouk had to go back to France.  In the morning we looked for a gift for the family (books for the boys, flowers for the parents) then she came back to help me get the boys from school, do homework with Pietro, and pack her suitcase.  Then I left with Mariacarla and the boys for the dentist, and she left to go home!  Goodbye, Anouk!  She invited me to visit her in Bordeaux while I am in Europe, and I really hope I can!  I will have to get over my fear of French.  She did help me with  the pronunciation of the French “r” and certain phrases such as “Jes nous comprend pas” – “I don’t understand!”  That night I went out by myself and found the Lutheran church about a half hour away.  It seems to be a German congregation, so I’m not sure if it’s the right fit for me.  I really liked the Anglican church, and there seems to be a great community to get involved in, as much as I have time.

Tuesday, 11 Sept – My first day totally alone.  We’ll see how it goes!  This morning I went to Angelina, a beautiful but rather expensive café near the Trevi Fountain.  I drank a cappuccino and had a tiny little cornetto while read an article about Ann Romney in an Italian magazine.  I meant to read some Latin (that would be more classy, no?  and definitely more useful) but I haven’t acquired one yet.  There are plenty of used book sellers around, so I hope to get one soon.  I just could not bring any more weight in my baggage, or I would have brought one from home.  I have been given a huge and awesome Latin-Italian dictionary to use by Pasquale.  It was so thoughtful of them and such a novelty for me.  I love it.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Busy Week


Well, I'm going strong on day two of All Saints vacation.  The boys are off from school for a week and a half (they return a week from Thursday) which means that I am working twice as much as usual.  Besides the normal 3 - 8 p.m., this week I'm also helping out 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. (and getting paid a little extra as well).  I'm also the only au pair at this point, before the next girl arrives on Thursday, but I'm almost convinced that it's easier to work by myself.  The boys don't have as much room for manipulation... ;)

I admit that this new schedule took some getting used to.  I usually have all morning to gear up for the kids, but this week I have to be up and at 'em immediately.  Yesterday, I was so tired at the end of the day that I fell asleep without turning out the light.  To former roommates of mine, I am certain that this comes as no surprise.  To Mariacarla and Pasquale, however, it came as a bit of concern.  I think Mariacarla, on the way to the boys' room, passed by at some extremely late hour of the night.  Seeing the light still on in my room, she assumed I was still awake, and the next morning she asked me if I'd had trouble sleeping.  After I explained that I fell asleep with the light on, she beseeched me to remember to turn out the light -- I was wasting so much energy!  (I don't actually know what electricity costs in Rome, but it must be pretty high.)  They even offered to buy me a small night light if I had a problem with the dark.  Ha!  But really, they are so sweet.  They said they would give me money and I could go to the light store myself and pick out a style that I preferred.  So sweet.  So I promised to turn it out tonight.

Today was a little bit easier.  For one thing, Mariacarla was at home all day (yesterday she was teaching) so she could keep one boy while I played with the other.  When Pasquale is the only parent at home (as was the case yesterday) the most he does is put the boys "in punishment" which means the naughty one has to sit in the parents' room, without playing, for a period of time.  It does calm things down, but it happens only after things get intolerable.  Today, both boys were on much better behavior because they weren't able to provoke each other in the first place.  The other advantage was that on Tuesdays there are swimming lessons.  An hour at the pool creates a welcome diversion from the humdrum of staying at home all day.

At the end of the day, as I was getting ready for dinner and Mariacarla was getting some grapes for the boys, I noticed that there was a lot of the grape vine still attached.  That led to a discussion about the vocabulary, in which I learned that "vine" is vite in Italian.  Mariacarla brought up Jesus' illustration of how He is the vine and we are the branches (in Italian, of course).  I got so excited that I recognized the verse and started quoting it to her in English.  So I will leave you with John 15:5 in both Italian and English.  It's a good reminder and encouragement for me, this week.

Giovanni 15:5
Io sono la vite, voi siete i tralci. Chi rimane unito a me, ed io a lui, produce molti frutti. Senza di me, invece, non potete far nulla.


(I like the fact that la vite for "vine" is similar to la vita for "life"...)

Grape vines from wine making last month.

John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

To Market, To Market

Today could be characterized as a shopping day.  When I woke up this morning, I didn't have any idea of the extent of it.  (I also didn't have any idea that daylight savings had ended, meaning I woke up at 8 instead of at 9.  I got a great start to my free day!)

It was Emi's last full day in Rome and she had made plans with Léa and Elise (two other French au pairs whom we know through the kids' school) to go  to the Porta Portese Market.  It's a typical Italian outdoor market, where you can find everything: from kitchen and gardening supplies to clothes and cosmetics -- and everything in between.  It's held every Sunday morning.  What makes Porta Portese unique is that it's so big.  I went for the first time last summer with my cousin Anna and have returned twice, but I still haven't seen all of it.

The actual gate from which the market gets its name.

One of the prettier avenues of stalls.

 My shopping companions Emi, Léa, and Elise, who were were nice enough to smile even though I surprised them with the camera.
 I took all my pocket money that was left over from the month of October and frittered it away throughout the course of the day.  First, I bought some practical black socks.  I'm supposed to wear them inside the house to set a good example for the boys (who must wear socks at all times to avoid catching a cold or getting a fever).  Anyway, for the first week I wore my white athletic socks but those picked up dust from the hardwood floor like none other.  So black socks it is.

Then, I bought a pendant that I'd been thinking about for a long time.  It's a little silver sphere (they come in different sizes, but mine is about half an inch in diameter) with a tiny bell inside.  If you hold it up to your ear and shake it, you can hear it tinkling.  They say it's calling the angels to come and protect you.  It's a cute idea and (at least I think) it's a pretty necklace.  You can find some version at almost every jewelry stand in every market or street corner.

My next purchase was a pair of really beautiful silver elephant earrings.  The Indian man selling them said they were from Bombay, but I can't really be sure.  He was also flirting with me and asking if I had a boyfriend in Rome, etc. etc. etc.  He said he they cost twelve euro ("special discount for you, because you are bella and speak Italian so well").  I said I could pay eight and he said no, ten euro was the best he could do.  I said I would think about it and come back later.  Then he said okay, just because I was so beautiful he could give it to me for eight.  I hope you are joining me in laughing out loud.  And I hope you are just as excited as I am at the successful haggle!

I also bought some inexpensive trinkets like white scarf with a lacy border and a couple of silver bead bracelets.  Writing about it now, I feel kind of self-indulgent.  Maybe the next time I go to Porta Portese I will buy presents for other people!  It's almost Christmas shopping season, after all.

After shopping for several hours we were all very hungry -- and cold.  It was one of the first cold days I've experienced in Rome so far.  I guess it is almost November, about time.  We got some pizza near the Trevi Fountain (one of Emi's favorite places in Rome) and since it was cheaper to do carry-out rather than sit in the restaurant, we searched for some nice steps to sit on.  We ended up on the Quirinal Hill, right outside the presidential residence, and settled down (more like huddled, it was so cold) to enjoy our meal.

Outisde the Palazzo del Quirinale.

That's when we noticed the Polizia di Stato, black escort cars, and shiny motorcycles.  It was a presidential motorcade!  Unfortunately, when President Napolitano finally emerged, I was fumbling with my camera and ended up with a lousy video and no actual sighting.  Bummer.  But the other girls saw him, and it was cool enough to be in the general vicinity.

After warming ourselves with coffee, we headed back through the center of town, passing directly in front of the Trevi Fountain.  I took this picture to show how crowded it can be, even on a cold afternoon in October.  I remember that the first time I came here, I was so surprised.  The photos you see on calendars and postcards don't really reflect the chaotic setting of this beautiful landmark.

What the fountain looks like in real life.

What the fountain looks like on postcards.

What the fountain looks like with friends. (Photo credit: Elise) 

We finished the day by walking up Via del Corso and makings stops in multiple shops along the way.  I refrained from making any more purchases, but we did get some free Ritter Sport at Tezenis!  The chocolate  sustained us through the cold, dark, wet streets until we were forced to say goodbye and go our separate ways.  I'm so thankful for these girls and the wonderful day we spent together.  I will miss you, Emi!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pretty Quiet

Not much to report.

Yesterday morning I got a text from my friend Anna who was passing through
Rome.  Her parents have been visiting from Austria and  wanted to visit some obscure literary landmark (I think the hospital where a certain Austrian author had passed away).  While they were otherwise occupied, we had a coffee together.  It is so nice to have a friend that lives nearby.  Yes, I've made several other friends since I arrived in September, but none so dear as Anna.  It's always good to catch up with her and life in the countryside, and she always lets me talk her ear off about my life here.  I'm really happy that for a few months, at least, I can get random texts from her and we can just go out for coffee on a whim.


**I edited the post to add this photo of my caffè macchiato (an espresso that's "stained" with a little bit of milk).  I found it while transferring the latest group of photos from my camera, and it was just too pretty.  Anna had a latte macchiato (milk that's stained with a little bit of espresso) and they made a leaf pattern in hers as well.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Being an Au Pair

Before one becomes an au pair, one should consider carefully the demands of the job and whether one is suited for the lifestyle.  I've been thinking about this in the past week because Emi is about to leave for home and a new French au pair is about to arrive.  I am quite content after almost two months of living here, but both Emi and the other girl I worked with before have said they were quite ready to leave after one month.  I don't know how the next girl will be, but I myself really don't feel that way!  I feel happy and, honestly, lucky to be here.  I've been pondering what the differences could be between those girls and myself, and the following are my thoughts in stream-of-consciousness form.  If anything is confusing, leave a comment and I'd be happy to clarify.

1) Temperament.   I actually enjoy being with kids for moderate periods of time. I think of them as less-mature equals (is that possible?) meaning that I take their games seriously, I try to talk to them as other human beings rather than little angels or little devils, and I seriously try to understand what they are thinking.  Now, this may come as a surprise, but not all au pairs I've encountered like to play with children.  That presents some difficulties, no?  Our particular family is rather protective of the children, meaning we stay at home a lot.  Besides the trip home from school, swimming lessons, and the weekly trip to the children's museum, we don't go out a lot.  That leaves lots of one-on-one time between us and the kids, and as I might have mentioned before, they don't have very long attention spans.  I take this as a fun challenge to create new games and teach them new things.  While it can be exhausting at times, the moments of genuine enjoyment, for me, outweigh any drudgery.

2) Attitude.  I only work five hours every day, so no matter what the kids (and occasionally the parents) throw at me, I have nineteen more hours to eat and play and sleep and forget about all the negatives.  And I do!  Seldom do I truly feel bummed about my situation.  I can think of one or two times it's happened.  Once was when we took the kids to school in the morning.  I was a little down in the first place, because I had just learned that we would be doing this once or twice a week.  That wasn't in my original work agreement, so the idea took some getting used to.  Adding insult (literally) to injury, the boys were very, very, very naughty on the tram.  They talked in loud voices, they nearly jostled other passengers out of their seats, and they pointed rudely and laughed at an old man.  They wouldn't listen to Emi and me when we asked them to stop.  I was just depressed over how bad they were!  When we left them at school it was not on good terms, and the situation weighed on me the whole day.  The only other scenario in which I get bad feelings about the job is when someone (either my fellow au pair or another girl who knows the family) brings up the struggles of the job and how difficult it can be.  I just don't like to dwell on it, thank you very much!

3) Expectations.  I've already mentioned this, but I only have to work five hours every day.  Sure, I work Saturdays, but then again Sundays are completely free.  Completely!  And seriously, it's only five hours a day.  As a teacher, I may be in front of my students for five to six hours every day, but then there's one or two hours of prep, at least two hours of grading, plus after-school activities and the time it takes to communicate with parents and students.  Lesson planning and grading seriously encroach on the weekends.  So this job, it's a luxury!  Good hours and low stress.  Well, low stress in my free time (remember that part about forgetting about the problems).    Despite being entrusted with two little lives every day, I feel less of a burden of responsibility as an au pair than as a teacher.  I don't know exactly why, but I do.  When I think about the demands of adult life, I think I've got a pretty sweet deal here.  I'm sacrificing some things, like steady month-to-month savings and an apartment of my own.  But, then again, I don't have to pay rent and I don't have to cook.  For one school year and a chance to live in a foreign country, it's an unbeatable opportunity.

In short, if you have some real life experience which can serve to provide you with accurate expectations, yet still feel able to adapt to different living and work situations, and -- let's not forget the most important thing -- like to be with kids, I highly recommend becoming an au pair!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Italian and French

I returned to Italian class this morning, after having missed week and a half due to the chicken pox.  It was was great and I got to review pronouns: direct, indirect, and combined.  Now, unfortunately, I will go another week and a half without class because of school holidays.  We actually get a week off from the language school, ourselves, while the boys get a week and a half off from their school.  This is all because of the All Saints holidays (or les vacances de la Toussaint as it says on the French school calendar).  Pfff!  Forget Halloween!  I'll bet many American kids would gladly trade in one night of trick-or-treating for over a week of school vacation.

After class, I went to Ladurée!  It was as beautiful and as tasty as I imagined.  And it wasn't too crowded, either.  I went with Léa, another French au pair, who was just as excited as I was about macarons (and who coached me on my French pronunciation).  Here are some photos of our expedition:

On the corner in a rather posh section of town. 

 Beautiful window displays, full of macarons.

 My beautiful bag and box of eight macarons which, I am a bit embarrassed to say, cost €14.  Think of it as a continuation of yesterday's celebration.  That's how I'm thinking of it.

From left to right: blood orange, licorice, marshmallow almond, hazelnut, coffee, raspberry  and pistachio   You may notice that there are only seven.  That's because I had already eaten the rose petal macaron.  It was so good.  It really smelled like a fresh flower (and might have tasted like one, too, for all I know).  Actually, I ate one bite of it.  Then a gypsy man came up to me asking for money or something for the little girl asleep in his arms (do they drug those children?  They are always sleeping, the poor things...) and I was so taken aback that I shoved the rose petal macaron into his hand.  I have never given anything to people begging on the street.  I don't know what came over me, or if he even appreciated the cookie.  Anyway, that's why it's not in the picture.

Raspberry!  I ate this one next because it had become a bit crushed on the journey home. I think there were crushed raspberries inside.  That's how good it was.

These were the only ones left at the end of my rampage.  To be honest, I ate the coffee macaron after I took the picture.  I reasoned with myself that I could eat four and still have half left.  And technically I'd only eaten three...right?!
The rest of the day, the parts we weren't working, we spent with Emi's mom and her mom's friends.  We had some coffee together around mid-day, then went out for drinks in the evening.  Now I'm off to bed because tomorrow morning we have to take the boys to school.  Good night!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Celebration!

Today was a red-letter day.  I didn't actually write on my calendar in red letters.  (Is that what the saying refers to?  I never completely understood it.)  Nonetheless, today was really special because I left the apartment after a week and a half of being cooped up inside.  Phew.  Never again!

I put on jeans!  I put on makeup!  Then I went to GiNa, a cute restaurant near Piazza di Spagna.  It wasn't really a traditional Roman restaurant, more fresh and trendy.  The ambiance was light, bright, and airy.  Here's how my table looked as I waited for my food:


I read about it in some "insider's guide" as a great place to have lunch with your girlfriends.  My girlfriends weren't available so I took myself.  It wasn't the cheapest place, but for some reason I haven't had occasion to spend money recently -- hmm, whatever could have happened?! -- so I was way under budget for this month.  I had a delicious salad, as pictured below:  


Look at that delicious goat cheese.  It was lightly warmed and soooo good.  I also saw that you can reserve a picnic basket to take with you for an afternoon in Villa Borghese, which is just up the hill from the restaurant.  Cute!  (It costs €40 however.)

As I walked back to meet Emi and pick up the boys at school, I stopped at Ciampini to get gelato.  Mariacarla had recommended it to me when I told her I was making a gelato tour of Rome.  She was right.  My flavors of choice were dark chocolate along with figs and walnuts.  So good!  Not too sweet but full of flavor.  Behold:


Then, after a good afternoon with the boys, I set out once more.  It was a red-letter day, after all, and I wasn't going to let any opportunity slip by.  This time I went for an aperitivo.  This is a nifty custom in which one pays a fixed amount (tonight it was €8.50) for one drink and a buffet of food.  Some places you get one visit to the buffet, other places are all-you-can-eat.  The quality of the food also varies.  I went to Fluid, a bar near Piazza Navona that Emi had told me about.  It's well-known for its aperitivo and features pretty substantial food on its buffet (pasta, vegetables, etc.)  I thought it would make a nice supper.  Here's what I ate:


That's white wine, by the way, even though it says "martini" in huge letters.  Afterwards I got some eggplant and some meatballs.  I wasn't quite sure if it was one of the all-you-can-eat places, but nobody seemed to mind.  It was a good meal!

Now I am tired and happy.  Unfortunately, I can already feel my legs aching.  What a bummer.  I started running again at the beginning of this month (I had to save up my money for running shoes, first) and just before I got the chicken pox I was really getting into it.  In fact, the day before the virus hit I had gone on a nice forty-minute run along the river.  (That was partly because I deviated from my route and got lost.  It took me longer than expected to get back home.  Teehee.)  Now I have to start over.  Oh well, a new challenge.

Oh, and if you didn't get enough food images today, tomorrow is the grand opening of Ladurée (a Parisian tea room famous for its macarons,  light almond meringue cookies filled with ganache or something equally decadent...maybe I will have pictures tomorrow).  I am so excited because I have been longing for some good macarons.  There used to be a bakery in Annapolis that sold them, and from time to time I would drive the half hour downtown just for the special treat.  What luck that a Ladurée should be opening in Rome during my time here!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Out

I do hereby resolve that tomorrow I will go out, even if it's just to walk in the fresh air.  I might have one or two spots that haven't gotten a scab, but they're hidden away on my back under my shirt.  I think everyone's tired of me being sick, anyway.  The family shouldn't protest too much.  If I don't go out, tomorrow will be the tenth day that I haven't left the apartment.  That's just unfathomable.

I get into all sorts of trouble when I'm not allowed to go out.  I haven't been exercising in any way, shape, or form...and consequently have been getting out of shape.  My body is convinced that it needs three hearty (and I do mean hearty) meals a day, but it's really too much food when I am idle.  Speaking of which, everyone knows that idle hands are the devil's workshop.  Do you think I started my grad school applications during the time I was house bound?  No!  Of course not!  Instead, I re-taught myself how to find TV shows and movies online, then watched them for hours and hours and hours  So I've become not only physically but also mentally lazy  It's horrible state of affairs.

The only good thing to come of being stationary is that I restarted this blog.  And I'll continue tomorrow, don't worry.  Maybe I'll even have more interesting things to write about.  Okay...a domani!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Practice Makes Perfect

Tonight I am practicing the art of a short post.  It's 10 p.m. on Monday night, and I don't have time or inspiration for something longer.  If I don't write at all, however, I start down the slippery slope that ends in utter blog silence.

Tonight I told Grandpa Pietro about all the blogs I read.  I was practicing my Italian.  Earlier he'd asked me if I liked to speak Italian, and I said yes, of course!  Then he pointed out that he was around all week and that I could talk to him whenever I wanted.  So I took my little introverted self out to the living room and we had a nice conversation.  It's always a splash of cold water on my happy little parade (mixed metaphors?) when I realize that I don't actually speak Italian very well.  When I read things on the internet, I understand most of it.  When I watch TV, I can get the drift of the story.  When I speak, however, I am slow.  I have to stop and think a lot, and even then I make silly mistakes.  I completely understand my mistake and how to correct it, even as the other person is explaining it to me.  I have to remind myself, when my ego is feeling picked on, that it was still a mistake.  There's a difference between knowing how to do something and being able to do it.  I haven't really mastered word until I can use it easily in a sentence.  And how can I use it in a sentence unless I'm talking?  Oh, language assimilation must be so much easier for extroverts!

Now you can practice using the comment box... ;)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Grandparents Come for a Visit

Yesterday marked one week since the arrival of the nonni -- the grandparents!  Pasquale's father had to have heart surgery, and the family knew a good doctor in Rome.  So, nonna and nonno drove up from Naples last Saturday to spend a few days with the family before the surgery.  Pietro and Manu were very excited in anticipation.  We heard all sorts of tales like "My nonno holds me on his shoulders!"  We had just met the other set of grandparents, Mariacarla's parents, who are also very nice but perhaps a bit more feeble.  In comparison, these grandparents are young and vigorous (albeit in need of valve repair).  Anyway, they arrived a little after lunch on Saturday, allowing Emi (my current French colleague) and myself to finish work early.  That turned out to be the day I started to get sick, so I happily returned to my room to take a nap before taking the bus out to visit Anna.

The main thought in my head when I sat down to write this post was the scary story I heard in the aftermath of grandfather's surgery.  He went in on Wednesday and came home twenty-four hours later.  The procedure itself seemed fairly routine: they made a small incision near his groin and another in his chest, so it was minimally invasive.  But here's what shocked me:  he was awake for the entire procedure!!!  I don't know if it was some fluke, or if this is standard practice in Italian medicine, but this man had heart surgery without the benefit of general anesthesia.  He told me, shaking his head like someone who had just witnessed the brutalities of a war, "Dura, Katie, dura."  It was rough, Katie.  I believe it, man!  That's like Civil War medicine.  Well, except for the highly sophisticated surgical technique.  But really?  No general anesthesia?!  I almost wouldn't believe it, except for how worn out he looked when he returned home.  Also lending credence to his tale is an blog post I just read, describing the story of a woman and her small child who had to have their orthopedic rods removed without the benefit of pain relief.  Nothing.  I assume that the grandpa at least had local anesthetic; maybe I shouldn't assume.  I shudder to imagine.

Anyway, the grandparents are great.  I was a little uncertain about the grandma's personality at first (she didn't talk to us much the first day, but I think that was just confusion over language) but she is great.  We celebrated her onomastico, or saint's day, on Monday night.  We had cake and ice cream in the living room with the neighbors.  I felt guilty, eating all that sugar when I was sick...but I quickly got over it.  So can any Catholic friends guess her name?  

Speaking of names, the family keeps up the Italian tradition of naming a little boy after his grandpa.  So the grandpa's name is also Pietro (which creates a bit of confusion in the house, at times).  Pietro, the six-year-old whom I babysit, is actually the fourth Pietro in his family.  The grandpa is the third.  And the first Pietro Fava was born in the 1800s.  I can't remember the specific year I was told.  The grandpa tells me all about their family and their home in Naples.  He tells me when all the football matches are on, and who won.  He willingly corrects my Italian.  Both grandparents are always asking me how I'm feeling, checking out my chicken pox, and reminding me not to scratch.

I will be sad when they leave.  Actually, I think the grandmother has gone home for a few days, but the grandfather can't go home until he feels well enough to drive.  It could be another week.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I like having him around.  It never hurts when he cracks his belt to scare the kids.  Or tells Emmanuel to be quiet or a witch will hear him and come to eat him.  :)

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Life in the Big City

This morning I didn’t go out.  Tomorrrow morning I won’t go out.  I will be so happy when I recover from these dastardly chicken pox and get to out again.  I should have a coming-out party, in the style of nineteenth century debutantes.

But two weeks ago I went out.  I noticed that day, for the umpteenth time, what a nice place Rome can be.  Although it is Italy's biggest city, its atmosphere is not what I would call chaotic.  It's almost tranquil.  It's no small town, but it still feels like a neighborly community.  

During my first month here, I had taken the tram over the river to visit a potential language school.  In the middle of Piazza del Risorgimento, where I was awaiting Tram 19 to take me home, I watched homeless man plodding along.  Before long he stopped, sat down on the ground, and then lay flat on his back, as if giving up the ghost.  It was a very hot day, but he lay down in the sun and not in the shade.  Not normal behavior, to say the least.  Barely had I though all these thoughts, when two women and one man approached the scene.  They found a bottle of water and began to revive him.  They sprinkled water in his face and then actually forced him to drink.  I was impressed that they’d take such action with a stranger, who was not directly their responsibility.

Last Sunday was another example of neighborly behavior in the city of Rome.  I was supposed to meet some friends for a walk around the city.  I set out early to find a nice café  to pass some time and have a cappuccino.  I stopped at one nearby my house, which I have walked past dozens of times but never had time to try.  The only other customer present when I came in was a rather ancient lady who had dressed herself up and come down for Sunday morning breakfast.  The barista and owner were treating her with the utmost respect (something else I love to see in Italy is the courtesy towards women and elderly people -- and when you combine those two groups and add a religious habit, wow!  I wish you could have been on the tram on afternoon when my friend and I got on with a group of nuns.  People were literally jumping out of their seats and insisting that the sisters sit down.)  The owner had just brought over a bag of fresh fruit for her.  I decided to sit down, too, even though it usually costs more than standing at the bar.


This is the cappuccino I received.  Look at the fancy chocolate pattern on top!  This doesn't happen in a more crowded bar.  When I got up to pay, the man at the register whom I presumed to be the owner told me to wait and then fetched me a fresh, ripe persimmon!  (My favorite!  I didn't know that they grew in Italy, but I have since enjoyed them several times.)  He also only charged me one euro for the cappuccino at the table!  Sunday morning special?  I said to myself that I would go back, but so far the opportunity hasn’t presented itself.  And now I’m house-bound, at least for a couple more days.  Perhaps I that's how I will celebrate: a return to Caffé Fontana.


Hopefully those anecdotes were able communicate a bit of the charm that Rome holds for me.  Just look how happy I am to be here!  (This was one week before being hit with the plague.  I may never look like this again...)

Friday, October 19, 2012

My First Week (...was long ago, I know)

Sunday, 2 Sept – I arrived in Rome after a very turbulent and unrestful flight.  I successfully retrieved my bag (praise the Lord! I will never let that go for granted) and exchanged my cash to Euros. I took a bus to Termini (a first time experience for me and highly recommended.  The other options are to take an express train which costs 14 euros and takes 30 minutes, or else a combination of local train and metro which costs 9.50 and takes 45 minutes.  The bus, on the other hand, costs 6 euro and on this particular Sunday morning took 45 minutes.  I expect traffic could make travel time a lot worse, but the price is worth it.)  There I was supposed to meet Mariacarla, but when I tried to turn on my phone, I found that my SIM card had expired.  Aiuto!  I had already been nervous because I seemed to have forgotten my battery charger, and now the phone wasn’t working at all!  Priority numero uno was to find a TIM store (that's the cell phone company, but when they text me with annoying offers and deals, I joke that I'm getting messages from "my boyfriend Tim").  Fortunately, I was directed to one on the second floor of Termini station and after a lovely 45 minute wait I was able to update my number.  I hadn’t added any money to my account in a year, hence it had expired.  Oops.

Then and only then I was able to call Mariacarla.  After we agreed on a meeting point, I dashed to the supermarket in the basement of Termini to buy a new battery charger (and of course after I finished unpacking, I discovered that I actually had my old one).  Then I dashed across the street to wait at Bar Trombetta, the exact same place I met another family this spring.  We found each other without problem and she drove me to their apartment, showing me important landmarks (like the zoo) along the way.

I arrived at their house a little after noon, was shown the house and the room I was to share with Anouk, the French au pair.  If I haven’t already explained this to you, it's helpful to know that the family likes to have a French-speaking au pair since their children go to French school, as well as an English-speaking au pair for more practical language skills.  Another enlightening piece of information on this family is that there are very strict rules on cleanliness.  Upon return to the house, one must immediately 1) remove shoes,   2) wash hands, and 3) change into clean pants.  Additionally, suitcases have to remain in the front hallway (not a bad idea, considering where I had dragged mine in the past 24 hours).  So I emptied my suitcases and then they were whisked away to some top-secret suitcase quarantine area (which I later had to locate because I had forgotten something important in the front pocket of my suitcase.  It required the use of a 12-foot ladder to reach that top-secret suitcase quarantine area).  

With the help of my wonderful and wise mother, I had brought several English books for the boys (Pietro is 6 and Emmanuel is 4).  As soon as Pietro saw Experiments with Water he began dancing around the house shouting “experiments! experiments!”  and wanted to do them right away.  He asked his mother, “You can read English, right?  Can we do these?” but he was compelled to wait for me the next day.  In the past week we did most of the accessible experiments in the book, with great success and maybe even some learning.  He still wants to do experiments, but by now the quality has devolved into mixing salt and oil and soap indiscriminately and then blowing bubbles all over the sink.  I think the usefulness of the book has passed, but I appreciated the structured activities to do with him.  I need to find more like it, that are age-appropriate and interesting.  I try to think of things I used to do with babysitters, like playing cards and checkers and reading books.  Reading books are only interesting to them at certain times.  Manuel is more inclined to enjoy that activity, while Pietro needs to be always doing something.  Sports begin in October, and his mother is so relieved that he’ll have a way to release some of his boundless energy.  Really, it’s very hard for two small boys to live in a city apartment, especially when their mother is terrified of dirt and germs.  For example, we stopped in a small park after the dentist yesterday, but after seeing some garbage on the ground she decided to only let them go down the slide a couple times (I was shocked she even let them do that) and we left after five minutes.  Every time we come home from school or an outing, we take off our shoes, wash our hands, and change into house pants.  I’m glad I brought my athletic pants, because they’re comfortable to wear around the house and quite suitable for playing with children on the floor.

Monday, 3 Sept – Anouk was super friendly and made me feel comfortable right away.  Not only did she guide me through the workings of the house and the boys, but she welcomed me into her circle of friends and social outings.  Her boyfriend is from Rome (although he is currently in California studying wine) and so she was connected with a network of his friends, especially one girl who had even spent some time in France with her.  This girl, Elena, was equally nice and welcoming and over the course of the week brought me to several dinners and parties.  Monday night we went out to dinner in Trastevere, a slightly expensive neighborhood which is home, all at the same time, to trendy tourists, very old Roman families, and students from the three American universities located there.  It turned out to be kind of expensive, but I enjoyed experiencing a dining experience from within a group of Italians (to see what they ordered, how they interacted with the staff, etc.)

Tuesday, 4 Sept – Today was the first day of school at Rockbridge Academy, so my thoughts were in Maryland for a lot of the day.  It was also the first day of school for the boys.  And it was raining.  Anouk, being more useful as a speaker of French, accompanied them for the half day.  Then we ate lunch and played with them for the rest of the day.  Monday through Saturday we work for five hours, Sunday we are off.  That evening, Anouk and I went to Castel Sant’Angelo for a special night time opening called Notti dell’Estate (Summer Nights).  As summer is almost over, this was the last week, and I’m so glad we went.  It was my first visit, which was exciting enough, but it also provided gorgeous views of Rome lit up at night.  We got to explore the walls, rooms, and passageways and I learned a lot about its history.  Got a lot of good pictures too, after I figured out the night setting on the camera.

Wednesday, 5 Sept – Wednesday was another half day for the boys (and will continue to be, I think).  The advantage of half days and Saturdays is that we can begin sooner and finish sooner.  I love having mornings free since it is just about my favorite part of the day, but I can see the advantage of having working out of the way early.  So that’s what we did today.  Afterwards, we walked around the city looking for a gifts.  Anouk was having dinner with her boyfriend’s mother and wanted to get her something nice.  That afternoon I learned about the French area of the city, around Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi, where there is a church dedicated (according to Wikipedia) to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France.  There is also a nice French bookstore where Anouk found her gift (later she got some sticker books as a parting gift for the boys).  That night I stayed home and got to talk to Daddy and Julie!  Then I ate dinner and had a great conversation with Mariacarla and Pasquale.

Thursday, 6 Sept – We went to the park after school today.  It was a great way to let the boys run around and release some energy.  That evening, Anouk went to Elena’s for dinner, and afterwards they took me out to the young, hip part of town – it’s just north of our neighborhood, actually, by Ponte Milvio.  It’s so strange to think that this really important historic site, the Milvian Bridge, is now just a place for young people to mill about and drink and smoke and socialize.  A feature of living such an old town, I guess.  I suppose there’s nowhere in this city that doesn’t have some significance.

Friday, 7 Sept – Anouk and I got the boys from school and went to the children’s museum.  I was astounded at how distractible the boys can be.  It was hard for them to focus on one thing for very long, especially Pietro (not that he isn’t intelligent; he has a huge gift for languages and perhaps this is why he has trouble focusing and working at something: some things just come too easily for him, so he doesn’t understand how to persevere through more difficult things.)  It was a lot of fun at first, but then Pietro didn’t listen to me when I told him to wash his hands after the bathroom (imagine what his mother would say!)  I held him in place and wouldn’t let him go back to play until he did so, and he let out several shrieks before realizing he had no choice and stomped off to the bathroom saying “This isn’t an education!”  Well!  I was quite indignant, and so was he, and he rather avoided me the rest of the day.  I was a little bit sad about that, but the next day all was forgotten.  Well, hopefully not all.  I hope he knows now that I am serious about some things.  That evening, I don’t remember what we did.

Saturday, 8 Sept – We worked in the morning and had plenty of time in the afternoon free.  The evening was crazy.  We went to a birthday party for Giuliano, one of Elena’s friends, at the chic bar of MAXXI (Modern Art of the 21st century, clever, huh?)  There was nice party food and even better, free wine and cocktails!  Then, after a brief interlude at Ponte Milvio, we were off to the discoteca.  Oh my.  What an unbelievable experience.  There were swarms of kids trying to get in, but it was already full.  Still, they just hung around outside, waiting for a chance.  Unbelievable.  SO not worth it to me.  I was just along for the ride (literally, since we were driven there by a friend of a friend of a friend) so when Elena said there was and “understanding” and we were going to get in for free, I was like “okay, cool, I guess”.  Then it turned out to be 30 euros per person and I was like “okay, I guess”.  But there I was, so I made the most of it.  I drank the fancy vodka and tonic and danced in my little spot on the floor and sang along to the horrid dance mixes and cheered when they threw confetti and tried to avoid getting vomited on.  We didn’t leave until they closed at 4:15.  It was hardcore.  I was happy to have the experience, but even with such exclusivity I was NOT especially impressed.  I just don’t get the appeal.  At all.

Sunday, 9 Sept – Despite a HUGE need to sleep in, my love of mornings won out.  I went to the 10:30 service at an Anglican church I had spotted near the apartment.  Then I met my dear dear friend Anna as she was passing back through Rome from a family reunion in Austria.  Her boyfriend Ezra was also there, and he was super nice.  We walked and talked (and talked and talked) and caught each other up on EVERYTHING.  It was such a good time, really.  We finished up with two flavors of Tiramisu at Il Regno di Tiramisu, then parted ways.  I felt really lonely after she left, but I was consoled 1) she was not far away and I could visit her nay time now and 2) that I had such a nice family to come back to.  I really appreciate sharing a room with another girl, since I am apparently really susceptible to loneliness.  The super-friendliness of Anouk is just a bonus on top of it all.

Monday, 10 Sept – The first good thing to come to an end: Anouk had to go back to France.  In the morning we looked for a gift for the family (books for the boys, flowers for the parents) then she came back to help me get the boys from school, do homework with Pietro, and pack her suitcase.  Then I left with Mariacarla and the boys for the dentist, and she left to go home!  Goodbye, Anouk!  She invited me to visit her in Bordeaux while I am in Europe, and I really hope I can!  I will have to get over my fear of French.  She did help me with  the pronunciation of the French “r” and certain phrases such as “Jes nous comprend pas” – “I don’t understand!”  That night I went out by myself and found the Lutheran church about a half hour away.  It seems to be a German congregation, so I’m not sure if it’s the right fit for me.  I really liked the Anglican church, and there seems to be a great community to get involved in, as much as I have time.

Tuesday, 11 Sept – My first day totally alone.  We’ll see how it goes!  This morning I went to Angelina, a beautiful but rather expensive café near the Trevi Fountain.  I drank a cappuccino and had a tiny little cornetto while read an article about Ann Romney in an Italian magazine.  I meant to read some Latin (that would be more classy, no?  and definitely more useful) but I haven’t acquired one yet.  There are plenty of used book sellers around, so I hope to get one soon.  I just could not bring any more weight in my baggage, or I would have brought one from home.  I have been given a huge and awesome Latin-Italian dictionary to use by Pasquale.  It was so thoughtful of them and such a novelty for me.  I love it.