June 27, 2008
Last night on television I watched as Spain beat Russia 3-0; this was the first time I have ever watched a professional soccer game. We were told by the employees at our local Turkish take out place that we must watch. This is a counterpart to an establishment we had discovered on the second night of our arrival. At that time we were still staying at our hotel and we were wandering the streets, wondering what to eat (in Italy???, but yes…); we saw the Turkish Kebab symbols in the window and decided to give them a try. We were immediately delighted and acknowledged our good fortune as we watched them take out fresh dough, roll it into a perfect circle and pop our soon to be sandwich bread/pita into the oven. (I forgot to mention that they also advertise that they make pizza). They offer falafel and kabobs with very fresh ingredients all the way down to the picante. While we were waiting, we began speaking to two of the workers telling them that we’d been to Istanbul and from there we all excitedly talked laughed and began the quick journey of each of us trying to describe who we are; how we fit into meeting one another at this moment in time. Coming from Istanbul, they have been here in Alessandria for just under six months. They too were surprised and asked several times about our year long stay—wanting to make sure that our language struggles weren’t giving them inaccurate information. And each time we confirmed that yes, we are here for a year.
In our short two weeks we have certainly met Italians but we are also meeting Italian immigrants—Julia (who cleans the complex common areas on Monday and Thursday) and her son Wriggly are Albanians. I’m not yet sure about our internet café host, Zack and his family. They are Muslim and so somewhere from the Middle East; we’ve introduced ourselves but haven’t asked where they are from. Now we meet these gentlemen from Turkey. As we walk around it’s obvious the melting pot of nationalities and again I am left thinking about earning a living, survival and my abundant life in America. How is it that I have been given so much that living in Italy is for me a dream come true versus a hope for a new and better life? While I am hoping that my being here changes me to become a better person, again I am doing this as a gifted choice versus a need.
The first time we met 8 year old Riggly, he told us how his parents had left Albania before he was born and then ended up in Morocco. Something happened in Morocco that we couldn’t figure out but he kept saying “polizia” and that then they came here to Alessandria. Riggly’s father works at a local hotel and as you know, his mother has cleaning jobs. What has been interesting to Kim and me is that two different times, the Italians who live in this complex have asked who Riggly is—making it apparent that they haven’t gotten to know “the help”. I don’t mean to sound “better than” but it has felt strange. It’s apparent that when Julia is talking to us she is always looking over her shoulder and listening. It’s a look of not wanting to “get caught” and our eye contact has verified this. I know, I know, it’s easy for me to talk. I’m not paying her (well, yes I guess I am in a way via our rent) to clean and just get on with it.
What I am trying to say (and not so very well) is that I am confronted by multiple worlds—the joy of meeting people of all backgrounds and the world of hierarchies that we as human beings have established since we began walking on two feet (and actually from my readings, prior to that). I keep telling Kim, in jest but also with a tiny level of revelation, “they all look just like us”. I have come to believe that it should be mandatory for any Presidential or senatorial candidates to have at least travelled outside of the US, without an entourage. They should have learned to buy a train ticket in a foreign language and to not have a car for one month. I still find it mind boggling that George W had never travelled outside the US prior to his presidency; this was quite worrisome to me at the time of his first candidacy. I do believe that his lack of exposure to the rest of the world made it easier for him to invade Iraq because he just had no insight into all of the faces there that look just like us. Now I can hear a few voices in my head (who will remain un-named) saying “oh, come on Rachel, too much red wine”. But I would say, ponder it, please, just for a few minutes; you don’t even have to tell anyone what you are doing...
So, to end, I am happy to know that one of my goals today will be to stop by the Kebab joint and let them know that we watched as “Spagna kicked the Rooskies” butts. We are joined together by sports and all of the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”. We can all relate to this; matters not what language comes out of our mouth.
Closer to home: USA has taken over in the Cribbage tournament; little Uzbekistan won a couple of Hollywood games but the score remains lopsided 20-11. Kim just knew you’d want to know…
Showing posts with label by Rachel with Kim's updated game scores. Show all posts
Showing posts with label by Rachel with Kim's updated game scores. Show all posts
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A little about Alessandria
June 25, 2008
So, perhaps it is time to talk a little about our city, Alessandria. The main question prior to our coming from friends and family was, “why Alessandria? What do you know about it”? The answer was quite simple; we knew nothing other than we decided to totally trust someone we’d just met and barely knew. (Note: We met Aurelie and her husband Francesco (and baby Marco) through our friend Mike Barnett. Mike and Francesco are Microsoft colleagues and Francesco and Aurelie have been in Seattle for about a year. Francesco is from Southern Italy and Aurelie is from outside of Paris). It was over dinner one night that, for me, a totally intuitive trusting took place and I told Kim I thought that Aurelie knew what she was talking about and that she had quickly figured out what we wanted. She heard us say that we wanted a real Italian experience, little or no tourism, a place where we didn’t need a car, a place where there was good train access and a place that would be more affordable given the conversion rate of our dollar and the Euro. All of this partially sums up Alessandria. Aurelie lived here (in the same apartment we are in now) for two years while she was in school. We are slowly meeting our neighbors in this complex and it is very obvious that she was very well liked and is much missed. We have a hard act to follow!
Our apartment resides in the more central and older part of the city; consequently, charm and Italian architectural beauty abounds. The streets are skinny and cobblestoned. There are a number of churches (with bells attached), piazzas, beautiful buildings with iron balconies and huge wooden doors. And, there are stores, stores, stores, and more stores. Many with a traditional specialization, i.e. the bakery, the cheese store, the fish market, the meat market, vegetable bins out front everywhere. At the same time there are small “mall type areas” that have multiple stores within—often mostly clothing but there is one place we’ve been to a number of times that’s like a mini version of Pier I. Also, there are a few more what we would call traditional style grocery stores that sell most of everything.
The streets are to me, like a rat’s maze and it has taken me these last couple of weeks to finally begin to feel a bit better oriented. There is a section in the center that is almost all pedestrian and it is a major evening and weekend hang- out for the city folk of all ages. People stroll leisurely looking into windows, buying a little something to eat which turns out to mostly be gelato. Do they love their gelato; that is a business to be in! Kim is in seventh heaven when it comes to this tradition. I have grown very fond of the limone flavor and she tends to experiment with multiple varieties.
The intertwining of streets has been okay because that is how we have discovered various places and additional stores that might come in handy. I am constantly reminded that it really doesn’t matter if we get lost because we have the time and are on no real set agenda. Usually the bigger agenda factor becomes time of day, noon until about 3 or 3:30 when it’s quite hot and most stores close. There is a very sound logical reason for this. The heat makes it hard to do anything so why even try?
One happy example for me of just wandering through unknown areas would be our discovery of a store that can be compared to a hardware store; how I love a good hardware store! In our search for a fan, as we were walking to a destination that we were told would have fans, I spied a fan out front of a store. We quickly went and grabbed the fan but within about a nanosecond a young woman was “almost” yelling at us that it was not for sale and that we would have to come back tomorrow….so, we figured out that it was a display model and they must be out of stock. Since we were there we decided to look around to see what else they had and probably would not sell me. This is when we discovered that it is hardware store-like and we will be back!
There is so much more to say about this city that was founded in 1168 and was partially destroyed by Napoleon. For today, however, I will end with one last image and that is of bicycling. Everyone either has a car, a moped (how I miss mine!) or a bicycle. Bikes are ridden everywhere by everyone. And, when I say everyone, I include the over 60 on up crowd. It amazes me every time to see older men and women (they have to be closer to 80’s) riding their bicycle to whatever destination they are seeking. Have any of you seen such a site in the US with great regularity? I told Kim that I wish I could start taking pictures of folks (older) on bikes but I worry that they might yell at me. I will have to explore this further because it is an encouraging, endearing and charming sight. And finally, speaking of bikes, we have a couple of leads on where we might go to buy bikes for ourselves and then we will at least look like we fit in.
Kim feels compelled to add:
Wish I had a banner like CNN: Cribbage score is now tied 8-8; Hollywood is now 17-5 USA, USA, USA. Someone may care, Rachel ….Berta??? Anyone???
So, perhaps it is time to talk a little about our city, Alessandria. The main question prior to our coming from friends and family was, “why Alessandria? What do you know about it”? The answer was quite simple; we knew nothing other than we decided to totally trust someone we’d just met and barely knew. (Note: We met Aurelie and her husband Francesco (and baby Marco) through our friend Mike Barnett. Mike and Francesco are Microsoft colleagues and Francesco and Aurelie have been in Seattle for about a year. Francesco is from Southern Italy and Aurelie is from outside of Paris). It was over dinner one night that, for me, a totally intuitive trusting took place and I told Kim I thought that Aurelie knew what she was talking about and that she had quickly figured out what we wanted. She heard us say that we wanted a real Italian experience, little or no tourism, a place where we didn’t need a car, a place where there was good train access and a place that would be more affordable given the conversion rate of our dollar and the Euro. All of this partially sums up Alessandria. Aurelie lived here (in the same apartment we are in now) for two years while she was in school. We are slowly meeting our neighbors in this complex and it is very obvious that she was very well liked and is much missed. We have a hard act to follow!
Our apartment resides in the more central and older part of the city; consequently, charm and Italian architectural beauty abounds. The streets are skinny and cobblestoned. There are a number of churches (with bells attached), piazzas, beautiful buildings with iron balconies and huge wooden doors. And, there are stores, stores, stores, and more stores. Many with a traditional specialization, i.e. the bakery, the cheese store, the fish market, the meat market, vegetable bins out front everywhere. At the same time there are small “mall type areas” that have multiple stores within—often mostly clothing but there is one place we’ve been to a number of times that’s like a mini version of Pier I. Also, there are a few more what we would call traditional style grocery stores that sell most of everything.
The streets are to me, like a rat’s maze and it has taken me these last couple of weeks to finally begin to feel a bit better oriented. There is a section in the center that is almost all pedestrian and it is a major evening and weekend hang- out for the city folk of all ages. People stroll leisurely looking into windows, buying a little something to eat which turns out to mostly be gelato. Do they love their gelato; that is a business to be in! Kim is in seventh heaven when it comes to this tradition. I have grown very fond of the limone flavor and she tends to experiment with multiple varieties.
The intertwining of streets has been okay because that is how we have discovered various places and additional stores that might come in handy. I am constantly reminded that it really doesn’t matter if we get lost because we have the time and are on no real set agenda. Usually the bigger agenda factor becomes time of day, noon until about 3 or 3:30 when it’s quite hot and most stores close. There is a very sound logical reason for this. The heat makes it hard to do anything so why even try?
One happy example for me of just wandering through unknown areas would be our discovery of a store that can be compared to a hardware store; how I love a good hardware store! In our search for a fan, as we were walking to a destination that we were told would have fans, I spied a fan out front of a store. We quickly went and grabbed the fan but within about a nanosecond a young woman was “almost” yelling at us that it was not for sale and that we would have to come back tomorrow….so, we figured out that it was a display model and they must be out of stock. Since we were there we decided to look around to see what else they had and probably would not sell me. This is when we discovered that it is hardware store-like and we will be back!
There is so much more to say about this city that was founded in 1168 and was partially destroyed by Napoleon. For today, however, I will end with one last image and that is of bicycling. Everyone either has a car, a moped (how I miss mine!) or a bicycle. Bikes are ridden everywhere by everyone. And, when I say everyone, I include the over 60 on up crowd. It amazes me every time to see older men and women (they have to be closer to 80’s) riding their bicycle to whatever destination they are seeking. Have any of you seen such a site in the US with great regularity? I told Kim that I wish I could start taking pictures of folks (older) on bikes but I worry that they might yell at me. I will have to explore this further because it is an encouraging, endearing and charming sight. And finally, speaking of bikes, we have a couple of leads on where we might go to buy bikes for ourselves and then we will at least look like we fit in.
Kim feels compelled to add:
Wish I had a banner like CNN: Cribbage score is now tied 8-8; Hollywood is now 17-5 USA, USA, USA. Someone may care, Rachel ….Berta??? Anyone???
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