Well-Behaved Wednesday and Thankful Thursday

After Tuesday's public outburst, my embarrassed and exhausted little self decided to spend Wednesday with Veronica a casa - under the radar and safe from any judgmental nonnas! Sara and I both thought it might be better if the "transition" (read: meltdown) from five Falaschi's in the house to one took place behind closed doors ...

So when the others left the house for the morning, Veronica and I stayed home, and while the screaming lasted a bit longer, the only person exposed to it was me, a seasoned veteran to this type of auditory assault. Every now and then I'm impressed by a particular set of toddler lungs, but for the most part it's just a matter of finding something to do while waiting for the waves of noise to pass.

And pass they did, about five minutes or so after the others had left. In the meantime, I had made myself master of the childlock on the movie drawer (a new edition to the decor that Sara had forgotten to tell me about!) and pulled out La Spada nella Roccia (The Sword in the Stone) to use as a source of distraction for Veronica and education/entertainment for me. Before long the little munchkin had joined me and we played with blocks, dolls, and borse (purses) while the movie was running. I was so encouraged ... because I understood everything! I had Italian subtitles on, which really helped. My next goal is to get to the point where even those are unnecessary, and my ultimate goal is to be able to follow the evening news (!), but until then I'm quite happy to have had yet another instance show me that my knowledge of the language is improving!

The rest of that morning was easy. I watched Lolo until 11:30 or so when Patrizio got back and then the three of us went to get Ginevra from her morning school. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, which completely made my morning!

At lunch we were visited by a couple from the Netherlands that Dr. Webb had met and invited, as well as the Bankers (who were taking their art history class to Arezzo post-meal) and Lucia Bini, a twenty-something Italian girl Dr. Webb and John Rose have known for years. The frequency (as in, almost daily) and variety of visitors make our lunch table a very special time and place here at the Palazzo. Today, for instance, we had the two Italian girls (in their early 20s) from a favorite gelateria come for lunch - it's been a great way for us to meet new people and an equally nice way for them to see us in the flesh (after hearing about le studentesse americane for so long) and get a good sense of our pleasure at being here. I think it does them good to see how glad we are to be here, and how much we enjoy meeting various individuals of Sansepolcro. It is certainly furthering the Italian perception of Americans as being friendly, open, relaxed, and well, financially "comfortable." I can't help but wonder what our life in the Palazzo, from the beautiful living quarters to our abundance of electronics, clothes, etc., looks like to an Italian outsider. I'd give a lot to transpose myself into that perspective for an hour or so! Then I could write a bestselling expo on Americans in Italy and travel on a whim for the rest of my life :)

Ok, back to reality! Sort of. I mean, how much reality am I truly living right now, really? Not much in my opinion. When I titled my blog, I had only an idea of it being a "charmed" time of my life, but now I am convinced. Getting to live in Italy for a third time, work on my language skills, spend time with my dear Italian family and the likes of Dr. Webb, John Rose, and these lovely young women, AND get my own bathroom out of the deal? Oh, and there's a gelateria across the way ... is that a SHOWER of blessings or what?! So in actuality, it has nothing to do with being charmed and everything to do with being positively drenched with graces from above!

Backing up out of bunny trail ... yesterday afternoon I spent some time at the Happy Bar (main cafe in the piazza) with Nicole and Chelsea as we shared a lovely little reading hour over coffee. We all got some reading done and it's also the perfect setup for people watching, which I love. One can look on a good many interesting conversations and non-verbal interactions while tuning in on all sorts of cultural differences as well. I'm reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court right now, and while it hardly "matches" my current location (can one get much more American in literary makeup?), I am thoroughly enjoying Twain again.

Today was another better day with Veronica - a very good day in fact. We took off shortly after Sara left with the kids and made our usual grand sweep through the town. On the way down the mountain into the walled city centre, I made friends with an older man walking his dog (un bel cane, I said with a smile). He then proceeded to tell me that I was walking on the wrong side of the road, and that it was molto pericoloso (very dangerous) to walk on the right side instead of the left. Now, for my own parents and all other parents reading this who may be thinking, "She graduated from college and never learned to walk opposite of traffic!?!" give me a minute to explain ...

See, I realize that the left side is supposed to be safer ... but from my perspective, as a stroller-pushing pedestrian in Italy, I have to disagree. The way I see it, I would rather the car hit me first, with my body and the major part of the stroller shielding the munchkin, than have Veronica's little feetsies be the first thing to come into contact with a macchina that whips around those tight, hard-to-see-around corners too fast. I have just never felt good about that supposedly "safer" position when in Italy - the roads and even the small streets in neighborhoods are just different here.

I explained this to him, saying I was scared for her and afraid of a car hitting her first, but he kept arguing for the other side ... so I humored him out of respect and silently decided to try his way for awhile and see if I could convince myself that it truly was safer for Veronica. It may be a semester-long argument! After I took his advice, the old gentleman and I proceeded to talk a bit more, which was fun. I love making the odd friend here and there on my morning walks because the odds are I already "know" them (by sight at least) and will likely keep bumping into them again. Even if it's just a passing "buongiorno" or "come stai oggi?" as I pass through with Lolo, little things like that take me deeper into the heart of this community and make me feel even more local and permanent and "at home," or essentially, more italiana!

No worries on that front though - I remember last year around this time I was already sad to think about leaving at the end of the semester, and my family was beginning to feel like they'd lost me to Italia forever! But there is no need to fear :) I think I've finally reached a good medium between the two countries I formerly felt so caught between. A very wise woman (one I happen to be privileged enough to see on a daily basis these days!) once explained to me very well the traveler's dilemma: once you live somewhere new for awhile, and make new friends, and fall in love with new things, and find yourself captivated by new sights and beautiful places, you can't ever go back to the person you were before. From then on, your heart will be divided between these places (be they two or three or many, many!) and, most particularly when there are good friends and/or adopted family involved, you will always be missing something or someone. Because one cannot be in two or more places at once, there will always be events missed out on or people that are temporarily out of one's life. It's just the way it works!

So the moral of the lesson is, accept these facts. Live where you are at the moment, but don't forget or take for granted the other place(s) or person(s) either. It's yet another example of how life is a series of choices - I know I've made a good one in coming here, but that doesn't mean I've lost my heart and soul completely to Italy (quite the contrary!) either. I love both places, and I have people who are very dear to me in both, so yes, wherever I am, I'll be missing someone. But I wouldn't trade this "torn" feeling, for if I'd never traveled in the first place, I would never have met the newer ones at all - and how different my life would be!

All that to say, I think I've settled happily into this forever divided state of mine. I'm happy to be back in Italy and loving each day here, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to returning home again as well. It's a strange thing to hear I'm sure - the Bekah of last fall wouldn't believe her eyes and would probably lay a hand on current Bekah's forehead to check for a fever - but it's where I am now, and I'm content in it.

Whew, didn't see all of that coming! Back to today ... Veronica and I had a nice tantrum-less morning passeggiata-ing about Sansepolcro before heading back to the house for water and biscotti. Oh! Did I mention that I have become competent in my third language? Cookie-se. Veronica make be Italian, but she is fluent in Cookie-se (or as she calls her favorite treat, "toh-toh"). How does one speak Cookie-se? Well, it goes something like this (I have translated from the Italian dialect of Cookie-se to English, for your convience):

(Scene. Veronica, not wanting sit still in stroller, leans back to look up at me and starts spitting between her intervals of "no" and the occasional angry "Bekah!")

Me: Lolo, you may not do that.
Lolo: NO! (Spits again.)
Me: Listen. And look at me, please (she spits again) - no! Do not do that ... if you do that again, you will not get your cookies when we get home. Do you want to have cookies when we go back?
Lolo: (Eyes soften. Tongue returns to proper location.) Yesh ...
Me: Ok. Then do not spit again, ok? Do you understand?
Lolo: Yesh.
Me: Ok, good girl! Let's go to the park now, ok? You like the park, don't you?
Lolo: Yesh!

Total transformation. Now, it is not lost on me that I am walking the fine line between using loss of privilege as an enforcer/incentive for obedient behavior and, well, gross bribery. But I do not think I am abusing the previous method, and my fluency in cookie is even teaching the bambina please and thank you (in Italian though, of course)! I am quite pleased with her progress ...

The rest of my day went rather quickly. I walked back to the Palazzo around noon and enjoyed another wonderful lunch in the "great hall" shortly thereafter. Then I was very Italian and took a nice nap after lunch, something I've found that I actually really enjoy after my mornings with a kid or two! After that I made use of my lovely, striped shower and then met John Rose a bit later for another computer lesson (he too is making very good progress, so we are able to cover more and more ground as we continue on into the world of computers). After that I started this post, but was interrupted a couple times (first by the entire Falaschi clan, then to help translate for Dr. Webb when the water heater guy came to look at a faulty part in some of the wiring, and lastly to eat some dinner), but now that I have finished, I am off to read some more Twain and enjoy this amazing period of my life to the fullest.

A presto, tutti! Ciao ciao!