Only Six Days????

Date: January 25, 2009

I realized today, as I was cleaning up the mess Elia had made at dinner, I have only been here for six days. SIX DAYS. It feels like an eternity. I wonder how mom is feeling at home. Has it just gone by in the blink of an eye for my family? Of course, I cannot say the situation here has been wonderful. Bugs, small room, bad child, and I family I feel I do not know. This realization really struck me hard. I even stopped what I was doing and just stared at the wall for a minute; wrapping my mind around the thought. However, I have taken some time to think about this, and I do not think it is just the discomfort I feel right now while becoming acquainted with this new family, but also I have only been outside of this house twice since I have been here-I have not even been able to walk around the grounds because there is so much mud everywhere-coupled with the hard truth that I have no means of going anywhere on my own, plus although my language gets me by, conversing is still very difficult for me and most people I try to talk to do not talk nearly as slowly as Alice talks to me. Tomorrow we are going to Arezzo to see a friend of Alice’s who just had a baby and I have asked Alice if she will take me to find some galoshes, warm house shoes, and a winter knit cap so at least I can start going outside more. If you are hot natured, you would love it here. Every day it is 50 degrees, but with the cloud cover and cold wind, it feels much colder. It takes me so long to warm up, I hardly ever want to go outside, but I should get out a little more. Supposedly, we are suppose to have some sun for about three days this week, but then it is suppose to start raining again. Maybe I can ask Alice to show me how to ride the little Vespa they have.
Okay, so back to today. Sundays run a little differently than most mornings in this house. Alice had told me she was going down to the restaurant at 11am. So, when I woke up at 10 I forced myself to get up and get ready, thinking they would have already had breakfast. Nope. Everyone was still asleep once I got up, and everyone hung out in their PJs until about 1120. Alice told me this was their Sunday morning routine, so now I know there is no need to be breaking down the door on Sunday here; truly a day of rest. Alice flew out the door at 1130, and Alfonso had already gone. Elia started to cry, but I immediately turned on the TV, and he was in the zone until she brought up lunch. She did not come in the house, just left the food in the entry, but still Elia began crying. I tried to sit him down for lunch, but he was too upset. So, we went back to the TV for about five minutes, then he was ready to eat. We ate in peaceful silence, with the TV going in the background. He was done rather quickly, and I cleaned up the mess. Alice came back in around 2:15, and I rushed to get my computer to call mom. Something I was not prepared for was the internet overload on the weekends. I do not know how the internet actually works in Italy, probably it is provided by the government or something, but it kept dropping the connection every other minute. It was the same yesterday as well. I just could not talk to mom at all without our call being dropped. This morning it was so bad we could only say two words to each other before my connection dropped, then I would have to wait and wait and wait for an new connection, which would inevitably drop again. So, of course we were both frustrated. However, tonight was better. I was able to stay online seemingly without any problems, and as far as I can tell, this is not a problem on week days and nights. Neither Alice nor Alfonso are very technical so neither could really answer my question, but I am hoping this is not going to be a problem that snowballs. I only got to talk to mom for a minute, and the internet was so frustrating, I just disconnected and went up to my room to watch a movie. After my time of relaxation, it was time to go back down to the living room where Alice was about to get ready to go back down to the restaurant for dinner. Alfonso’s sister’s family came by, her husband is super tall- like a basketball player- and their two daughters seemed nice. No one actually spoke to me, the sister, Antonella, asked why I had chosen to come here to Alice, but no one directed any comments to me. Which, I guess was okay, since I could barely understand what most of them were saying (except for the youngest, and my favorite, Linda).
When Alice walked out the door for dinner Elia did start moaning, but not for her, for the TV. He already knew what to expect, and of course I turned it on. The TV never stopped. Without the TV going, this kid is just not manageable in the house. Even when I tried to turn it off an hour after his mom left, he started crying for his mom and dad. What a card player this little kid is, but I figure, I will do whatever I need to keep him from screaming and crying and wearing down my nerves. He understands me pretty well now, but mostly chooses not to answer me when I ask questions like “what color is this?” Yet, when I ask “are you hungry?” it is a bee line for the kitchen. Alice brought the dinner in the same way she brought the lunch, and everything went well. It was a kind of soup, which Elia would not touch, so I just let him eat the bread and almost all of the leftovers from our lunch. Alice came back in around 10, and I went to the computer room to do a few last minute emails.
Now, here I am, in bed, writing to you
A few more things, did you know people flock here during the week to fill up bottle after bottle of water. There is a faucet outside the house, at the entrance of the park, where you can get water any time of day or night. I have seen people fill up five cases of water, and more. I asked her why they do this, and she says the water is very good here, because the faucet takes water from the aquifer underneath the mountain. Even here the only water we drink is from the tap. It is difficult for me to get enough water in during the day, amazingly no one here drinks a lot of water, and I am use to have plastic portable bottles I can carry from room to room. Alice just has a small set of glasses, and inevitably, I end up leaving my glass in some room and forget about drinking enough water.
Also, I was worried, before I came here, about using too much hot water, taking too much time in the shower; well I worry about it no more. The reason why Europeans do not shower as much is because their hot water heaters must be the size of a garden gnome. Every time I get in the shower, the water is either scalding or freezing, so you take some of the water up just to find the right temperature, then once you are in, I would say you have about four minutes before the fridge cold starts coming through the shower head. It is very frustrating so I guess most Europeans just say to hell with it. I bet, if you gave a European, from birth, the same kind of hot water heaters we have in the USA, they would not only bathe more, they would take longer showers. Oh, plus, since there are no dryers here, you never get the lint off of the towels you buy. That’s right, every time I take a shower, and being drying off I am covered in blue lint, I have a heck of a time picking it all off of my face!
I think if I can just wait out the rain, things will slowly become more natural. Once I am able to leave I might be able to feel more comfortable with the area.