Natale in Sicilia

Ciao a tutti!

This will probably be the last time I post before Christmas, and I just want to say: Buon Natale, Merry Christmas to everyone!

I'm in Palermo right now, and Cristina, Gabriele, "and Friends" have taken GREAT care of me here!! Especially in the kitchen - we've been eating like champs :)

I'm sorry - I don't have much time to elaborate but I'll give you a little picture of my "Christmas in Sicily" so far. Sunshine. Fresh fish from the outdoor market. Cassata. Exchanging "Auguri" (Good wishes) with friends before Christmas with panettone e spumante. Overwhelming welcome and generosity. Fantastic!

Today I'm heading to Mussomelli to spend Christmas with the Bellanca family, and looking forward to it.

So Merry Christmas to all! Until the next time,

Leah

Fresh OJ

Two big pieces of news . . .

The first . . . I'm in! Yesterday, December 17th, was Selection Day for my program at the University of Bologna (The Master in the History and Culture of Food). I had my interview over the phone with the director - and I'll admit, I was sweating a little. But he was extremely nice, I could tell he made a special effort to speak clearly so as not to make me work too hard with the language, and - this is key - it turned out to be less worrisome than I thought, because they didn't reach the maximum number of people in the program. The bottom line: "I'M IN!"

And second - I am staying with Alessandro and his family in Joppolo, Calabria, and they are awesome! I've been eating like a champ and - good thing they're good for you! - eating about twenty fresh, delicious, juicy oranges every day! Great family, great food, great coast . . .

A presto.

New Photos : Vacanza Romana

Hello everyone! I've put together a few pictures from my Vacanza Romana . . . there are also a few pictures from France and the end of the Camino de Santiago (Spain) mixed in. No captions, and you might have to tilt your head sideways every once in a while - it's the best I've got for you right now :) Enjoy, and Merry Christmas! Also feel free to forward the link to anyone I've "missed" who might be interested.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=18rl5z5e.3k5yzb76&Uy=mz0iil&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Sciopero!

Without making this into a judgment rather than an observation, I think many of you guys will find it interesting to learn a little about strikes (scioperi) in Italy. Strikes are a bit of a different affair here: they're announced ahead of time, they happen all the time, they usually have some wiggle room and work-arounds, and they seem to get resolved reasonably quickly. Since I've been in Italy (which is about three weeks), here are some of the groups that have gone on strike:

Taxi drivers

Transportation workers, including metro, bus, rail, and airport workers

State doctors

Truck drivers (maybe you've seen this in the news? It's caused major problems not only for travel but for food prices and gas availability)

. . . and the one I think would "hurt" the most, quite literally . . .

anesthesiologists.

I hope they decided to reschedule the surgeries for another day . . .

Fast Food Nation

To prepare for my interview on "Alimentation" (which is on Monday, the 17th, if you happen to, say, make a trip to the grotto that day . . . ), I just read Fast Food Nation. If you've never read it, and if you ever eat at McDonalds, or if you ever eat anything that you didn't grow in your back yard, I recommend a trip a to the library. Perhaps the most memorable line from the book went something like this: "You're better off eating a carrot that you dropped in your toilet than one you dropped in your kitchen sink." Some scientists studied the toxic matter found in "average" American kitchens and those found in the average American toilet and found that the kitchens were worse than the toilets. This is mostly because of the - literal - shit that comes with a good portion of the meat you buy at the store. So - I think the lesson is: Grow tomatoes in your back yard and go out and kill a deer!

It is a worthwhile read, though, and I recommend it. I'll also comment that it's grossed me out because I seem to continue finding myself in living situations that are just filthy. I can't understand how people live like this. If you don't have any choice - if you don't have any water, if you don't have a house - then ok, the problem the lies elsewhere. But if you have a house, running water, and a market down the street that sells things like ashtrays (not used in my house: They use the toilet instead, which, along with other hygeine fouls, perhaps discounts the idea of eating a carrot out of the toilet), dish soap, towels . . . why not just wash your plates??? It just seems so easy to me.

Right, back to the topic of food. And here's a happy comment, and an invitation for you to participate in the blog! I had my first Roman pizza the other day: super-thin, slightly crunchy crust, the pizza as big as a plate - super! I went with Giovanni, one of my language exchange buddies, and we talked about Pizza: Roman-style vs. Naples-style, the Sicilian variation on the Naples style, and foccaccia as an ever thicker style that really shouldn't qualify as pizza but as another breed of food (oops, "alimentation"!) altogether. His conclusion: Our thick pizzas in the USA really aren't true pizzas; they're more of a pizza-fied foccaccia, super-sized becaused everything in the USA is super-sized :) . I said I'd like to get some photos for his expert consultation. So here's the debate: "American Pizza: Is it really pizza?" Here's what I'm thinking. Can you guys take some photos of different pizzas - Pino's Sicilian, Just Pizza, LaNova, ChickNPizza Works, whatever you have . . . and we'll post them here for "expert analysis"? I think Giovanni has volunteered to be the panel's expert :)

Thanks, everyone! Let the Pizza debate begin!

What we can learn from Little Old Italian Ladies

This week, a potluck.

To start, "Things we can learn from Little Old Italian Ladies":

The last may be first and the first may be last, but if you don't push and shove a little, you might not get in at all. This lesson came in handy for me the other day: I was waiting for the bus, and, when it arrived, my inclination was to wait in line patiently, mount the stairs when it was my turn, and so on. But everyone else starting pushing to be the first one to the front, so - it's my competitive side, I couldn't help it - I did, too. And it's a good thing: At one point, the driver got tired of waiting for people to get on and closed the doors and kept on driving.

I heard the Irish didn't have such a great season this year. Did the offensive line have any trouble? If so, I have the answer! Forget 330-pound supermen. They need to send some recruiters to Rome. Get two little old Italian ladies, give one of them a wheeley-cart and the other an umbrella, and they'll create an absolutely impenetrable ten-yard pocket. The best spin moves and linebacker blitz won't do a think. And if you take away the umbrella and instead give the second lady a yappy-dog on an extend-a-leash, I guarantee she makes All-American. Except that she's Italian, of course.

Next up, I've discovered what could become the latest, greatest, workout craze! Not exactly. I think it'll live and die with me, but I think it's great. I decided I didn't really want to "work out" : Get up early, put on the special clothes, run, shower, and then get on to the "rest of the day." Nah. But I realized that Rome is pretty big, and I want to see "all" of it. Why not run everywhere? So I've been a runner-tourist. I just wear my normal clothes and go wherever I want. It's awesome, because I've been able to experience lots more of Rome than I expected - thanks to taking the "fun way," so to speak, plenty of times. Of course, this only works if you are willing to commit at least one major fashion foul: You can't wear fancy shoes.

And, finally, speaking of fashion, I've possibly purchased something fashionable! It's a coat, it seems to be the same coat that everyone else is wearing, it covers up my traveler'clothes (except for the shoes), and I bought it for five euros. And - it's strange, what Italy can do! - I've even considered buying reasonably fashionable shoes.

Notes from Rome

. . . Overheard near the Pantheon, from a little boy being pushed in a stroller, as he rounded the corner and the Pantheon came into view: "Oooh, stop! I wanna play here for a while°! Me too, little buddy!

. . . To be included on the growing list of people who should be fined for major infractions of courtesy and common sense: those who approach a zone clearly occupied by someone else (me), and toss breadcrumbs to the pigeons. On the plus side, if getting pooped on by a pigeon is lucky, how lucky must I be to have been pooped on in St. Peter's Square! Whooo!

. . . Again, I have to reiterate, how do you dog-lovers handle it? Specifically, by "it" I mean the slobber and stench and destruction. Are all dogs this disgusting? If I had a choice between living in the same room as a dog (or at least a dog like the one I'm now living with) and living in the same room as a smoker, I would definitely choose the smoker. And if that option weren't available, I think I would take up smoking myself. Smoke: the carcinogenic potpourri!

. . . Favorite study spaces: (1) St. Peter's Piazza, (2) the Roman Forum. Isn't it awesome, that I can grab my books and "take care of business" in places like that!?

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Be sure to check your shoes for candy (but after checking for pigeon poop and dog droppings)!

The Bad

At the risk of offending a good portion of you - well, what risk? You're probably wondering where the real Leah has gone - I have to reiterate that I hate dogs. I can't understand why people have them. They're filthy. And they wreak havoc. So this is what happened.

I mentioned that the family whose room I rent is really strange. That's not a problem, as I've accustomed myself to strangeness. In fact I fear that I sometimes seek it. But they have two evil dogs, which, sensing, knowing that I detest their slobber and filth, wait for me to open the door. Really, they wait. I can hear them panting and scratching, and, when I have to use the bathroom, I try to "hold it" until they're gone. But the other day, I had to go. I tried my squeeze-out-the-door approach (and it's a good thing I'm skinny), but they burst into the room and attacked everything. It was caos - in italiano, un casino. They tore paints, shirt, jacket, sleeping bag. Slobbered all over my food. Peed on the bed.

So do people just live with this? The stench, the pee, the torn clothes, the hassle? As if there were any question about about my stance on man's best friend: I hereby declare that dogs can go to the devil.