DEJA ROMA
Rome: December 21, 2014
Woo hoo!
It is officially natale break for our students and the annual Alphabet School holiday ‘apertivo’ party was last Wednesday evening to thank all of us teachers for our hard work and English mother tongues. I must say the best part about the holidays for teachers isn’t just Winter Break (aka required time off), but also TEACHER GIFTS! Case in point (images below), two of my favorite students- twins Lorenzo and Laura- gave me MY very own M&M’s…literally. Some of the holiday festive M&M’s read, ‘Auguri Mallory,’ which means basically ‘Best Wishes Mallory!” But even BETTER, the other half of the M&M’s (and it may be hard to see in this photo) have an image of their family’s dog- a huge black Labrador named Colt. I mean…AMAZING. Not to mention, the twins also have a fat cat named Caramello who they chose not to imprint on my M&M’s because I'm more a dog person.. My students really are so thoughtful; clearly evident by the amount of Christmas cake and cards I received this week in addition to my personalized chocolates.
Gaia XMAS card to me: let’s just say ‘Malory’ is Italiano for ‘Mallory’…
Hoping that Gaia’s drawing was not an attempt to draw ‘Malory’
Last weekend was also very interesting and extremely entertaining for Ellie and I beginning on Friday evening straight through into Sunday night, largely in part to our new friends we met in a bar called Tinder (wink) and thanks to the mega-retailer, IKEA, which helped cap the weekend with XMAS activities.
First let me backtrack a bit to paint a clearer picture for my readers who may not have had the pleasure to know every single detail of my previous ‘Tinder’ experiences. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, Tindering Through Testaccio, I was any early adopter of the app when it arrived in NYC circa 2012. While I had a few totally weird, creepy and interesting ‘Tinder’ tales, the very last Tinder happening I had in the USA (before picking it back up abroad) was with a Francesco (half Italian from his father’s side). His name is pronounced full Italian and a name that is without a doubt one of the top 5 most popular names ever in Italy. Long story short, Francesco in the USA made Tinder totally worth using in my opinion and I actually ended up meeting a really cool person who was interesting, trilingual and molto intelligente who I still keep up with today. Fast forward to Italy, that name definitely still resonated with me when I logged back on to Tinder after a long hiatus – even if everyone and their mother’s brother was also named Francesco.
When we first moved to Roma, Ellie and I utilized this ‘dating’ app for more than just dates and hilarious entertainment (some of the profiles were TRULY one-of-a-kind). We used it to ask the locals for living/housing recommendations, favorite bars, concert venues, etc. Thus, in the first two weeks of me being in Roma I swiped right with a Francesco, not only for his name (assumed he was a local), but also for the cute picture he had with a camel and the ONE mutual friend we had in common (which was one more friend than the rest of the Italians on the app). The problem was he no longer lived in Roma. He had many friends here and reassured me it was still his favorite city in the world (with his favorite futbol team), but he lived in Brussels (I love mussels) and traveled as far as Doha almost every week for work. So the banter continued occasionally, but I never thought I’d actually ever meet up for an apertivo or cozze e Chianti with (this) Francesco… Whelp! I should know better than to never say never, because who came in town on a short trip to see a soccer game, visit with old friends and squeeze in a few job interviews- Francesco (#2).
Following Ellie’s long overdue birthday dinner on Friday at a locally recommended spot called Romolo’s (black truffle pasta is a MUST), we met up with Francesco and his good Belgian friend Arthur at our watering hole, Pimm’s Good. Both Arthur and Ellie probably had the same idea in mind (as any good friends would) when tagging on to a Tinder meet up on - their friend’s safety. As Ellie put it, this guy could have been a serial killer, a total whack job, boring, or worse- look nothing like their profile photos. Ellie would have absolutely faked the death of a family member, a family pet or even her own death for me if the time called for it.
But don’ttttt worry everyone, the evening was absolutely enjoyable, un-awkward, and culturally enlightening, as most things tend to be for Americans unfortunately. What I mean is, not only were they both super interesting and witty conversationalist, but both Francesco and Arthur also spoke TEN languages (okay, in total), but still. Most people in the states can barely speak their own language correctly- let alone five each. And for someone whose career is now primarily teaching a language, I’ve realized that to know two languages is standard or even expected, three is impressive, four is awesome, and five is just-dare I say it– sexy. When I say know five languages, I don’t mean say ‘hello’ in English, Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch- I mean be able to fully communicate with other native speakers, ask for directions, order off a menu, probably write an A+ research paper… They could fully communicate in more languages than hours I’ve spent this month learning one. My Uncle Will once told me, you know you’ve ‘mastered’ a language when you start to dream in that language. That may be true, but in my opinion, you’ve mastered a language when you can also be funny in that language, pick up sarcasm and be sarcastic yourself. I’m still working on being ‘funny’ in Italian- and not funny in the sense that sometimes I confuse similar sounding words like ‘birra’ (beer) with ‘burro’ (butter) – which in spagnolo means donkey FYI.
Meeting those two definitely made me rethink language curriculum requirements in the states AND immediately made me ring my Italian tutor, Emiliano, to schedule my next lesson. I had my first breakfast (third lesson) with Emiliano, which really just means I went to his home far too early for “la ora de prenza” (lunchtime) and his mother, Maddelena did not have time to prepare homemade pasta or pick up a loaf of bread. But that did NOT mean I went unfed or that Emiliano’s mother was not overwhelmingly gracious throughout my hour and a half Italian lesson. Maddelena made me a delicious cappuccino to sip on because it was still 10:00 am-ish. And to sip a cappuccino after lunch is a major violation of the Italian Food Rule. Italians believe the fresh whole milk that makes up over half of the contents of this drink plays havoc with digestion. So unless you are breakfasting, ordering or drinking a cappuccino after said hour is seen as suspect behavior…Guess I’ve been a suspect my whole life.
I mentioned last time that one thing I was going to miss about Christmas this year from home was a real tree. I was sure I was not going to be decorating an actual fir this year until Stiles, our school’s founder and director, invited us over to his apartment for a Christmas apertivo and Willie Nelson’s holiday album. Stiles is a native New Orleanian as well and still believes in a real tree for the holidays. Cue IKEA! Apparently you can purchase a real tree from the mega retailer IKEA for 15 euro and get this – if you return it within 30 days, IKEA will give you your ‘money’ back in the form of IKEA credit. IKEA can recycle the trees to make the affordable pieces of furniture that are too much work for its customers to build and Stiles can use his 15 euro credit to buy a nice salmon filet! It’s a win win for all parties- Ellie and I included because last Sunday we were able to decorate the real IKEA tree (soon to be a bedside table or dining room chair). And instead of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, we were treated to homemade bruschetta and copious amounts of vino rosso, leaving me with a nice red wine lip for Monday classes. The icing on the cake is that Stiles also lives IN Vatican City and his apartment basically overlooks Papa Francesco’s bedroom. Ellie and I will also be spending Christmas day at Stiles’ apartment, logistically making my attempts to be blessed by Papa Francesco much easier.
beggars can't be choosers- the best IKEA has to offer!
As excited as I am for Christmas, I am even MORE excited for the most overrated holiday of the year, New Years Eve! Because my sister from another mister, Raine Rafferty and her whole family will be in Paris for that week and I will be tagging along as their adopted daughter. I’ve assured Emiliano I will still be able to practice my Italian since Raine’s older sister, Lucye, married one! Although Bernie is not from Roma and is a huge Juventus soccer fan, I’m sure we will be able to find some common ground.
Ciao from Malory until 2015!
