FML

Alright, now on to Sunday! Quite a day. It was mother’s day, and we went to a small(er) town 20 minutes away called Scigliano to visit Marilena’s parents. They were nice people, a little quiet, but nice. I think I’ve gotten so used to listening to Marilena that she was the only person I could understand, especially when the grandfather tried to talk to me. I felt so awful because every time he said something I couldn’t understand him and Marilena had to repeat everything. I’m sure they all think I’m retarded now. But to make myself feel better I like to think that they had stronger accents. Grandpa even sounded a little like the Godfather when he talked…

We ate both lunch and dinner at the grandparents’ house. Lunch was massive, I was more full than I’ve been in Italy thus far. Then after lunch, everyone grabbed a spot on a couch or chair and fell asleep. Seriously, that’s the Italian way. Perfect for me, right? After our naps we went to the town square and uscire-d, which yet again entailed walking up and down the main street. Every time I’ve done this I feel like I’m kind of being paraded—check it out, we know the Americans!

Once finished walking, we popped into one of the bars for a soda and ran into the nephew I had met at lunch. Here’s where it gets interesting. First off, some background: this guy is named Giuseppe (like every third guy here) and he’s probably something like 25. Total loser, doesn’t go to school, no job, etc. The only thing he has going for him is he’s got a girlfriend, though I don’t know how that happened. Now I can say all these horrible things because this guy was a total jerk to me. First off, when they introduced me to him, he said ciao then walked right past me and turned on the tv. Then they sat me in between him and his incredibly nice sister at lunch, and the entire time he never spoke to me and was turned around flipping channels on the tv. His back was to me the whole time, during a big family meal too! So I already thought this guy was a loser, when at the bar I said something wrong and apologized explaining that my Italian wasn’t very good. Marilena and his girlfriend both tell me, no you’re doing fine, you sound good. Then Giuseppe has the nerve to tell me in short ‘no you’re right you don’t speak well.’ Asshole. I got so frustrated then that I literally told him straight up in English “look, I speak English, it’s not like I’m stupid!” It felt good when they didn’t understand…

I had woken up that morning knowing it wasn’t going to be a good day for my Italian. Even since high school Spanish, some days I feel really on top of it, and others I just can’t get the words out. Of course the day I meet the extended family is one of those days. And as if my confidence wasn’t low enough after not understanding the family, this loser tells me to my face ‘no you’re not very good.’ It took all I had not to get a little teary. I held it until I was able to Skype with my family for mother’s day. I was only able to Skype because Giuseppe had lent me his internet USB thing, so since he did me this favor I couldn’t tell him off to his face. But it was good to see everyone’s faces, even Joey’s wait-why’d-you-wake-me-up? face. Also, Dad, if you read this, you really need a haircut. You’re verging on whafro.

The whole family crowed behind me and watch me Skype for a while, until I started to cry a little after my frustrating day. Then they all awkwardly left the room. Afterward Marilena asked why I was upset, if I was unhappy at their house. I hadn’t even thought of that, I felt so bad. I tried to explain it was because my communication was so bad that day, but I don’t think she believed me. I found out tonight that she later talked to my prof Giuseppe to ask him if I was unhappy. I don’t really know how to convince her that it has nothing to do with them.

The next day I went over the journal we have to keep in Italian with prof Giuseppe. He corrected the entries for me, then I told him I was frustrated and he reassured me that I was doing wonderfully. At least it made me feel better.

Also that morning we had the craziest day at the elementary schools. The first school went just fine, we taught body parts in English then taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. The kids at the first school are excellent, very quiet and well behaved. The next school is a different story. Maybe because we get them after snack time. About 10 minutes in, David walks past me and says “I hate to say this, but this is turning into an FML situation.” And he totally called it. For those that don’t know, FML stands for F My Life, which is the best time-wasting website ever created. Worth a look, fmylife.com. Anyways, the kids were basically on crack, running all over the place, yelling, distracting each other. At one point David and Drew had to both sit in chairs with kids on their laps to physically restrain them.

We semi-salvaged the day by playing Hang Man with the English words we had taught the last few days. I am basically the only one in our group that tries to speak Italian at these schools. When it’s up to us to explain or initiate something, my entire group stands dumbstruck until I step up and take a stab at it. It’s a little frustrating, but at least I get the practice. It’s either we all stand silent and look stupid together, or I take one for the team and look stupid while trying.

Today I had to do the exact same thing. We went in with no idea of what to do, we thought maybe try teaching colors then play red light, green light. Turns out they already knew colors. So instead, at the first school we talked about typical American meals. The teacher asked what we ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then proceeded to explain that we eat such big breakfasts because the country is so big we need the energy to get around. I’m not sure, but I think she mentioned something about going around a city like Seattle is like going from Rogliano to Napoli (4 hours to do that, by the way)… Then I asked if the kids had questions for us. They asked about schools here, what time we get up and what time we eat, what we study at the U, basic stuff. I really enjoyed that. Afterward we went outside, along with 2 other groups with the same idea, and played red light, green light. Or some strange version of it since they never really got the idea of the game. And when we left, our class and another class started chanting “state qua!” which means “stay here!” Made my day :)

But of course we didn’t try the same thing at the second school. We instead had them draw their families and taught the words in English. The teachers stayed in the room the entire time today, so the kids weren’t such mental cases. But I could tell they were bored. However, we couldn’t risk taking this group out for a game, they couldn’t even play Duck, Duck Goose. To finish up we played another few rounds of Hang Man.

Alright, there it is, the last 4 or 5 days all wrapped up. I’m sorry if it wasn’t as entertaining as the last one, but I have been in a strange mood for a while and can’t seem to snap out of it. Maybe next time will be more fun.