The Mason-Dixon Line Among Other Divisions

Now that I’m back in the north, I thought I’d reflect on a few things these last 6-7 weeks that were completely different from my experience last summer, which is only natural working for an organization that places me in a totally new environment every week or two. I also randomly inserted pictures from yesterday and today, a 20 km bike ride and a trip to Lago d'Iseo, one of Italy's great lakes, both with my host mom and siblings.

The South
This is the most obvious one. But spending a month in Sicily was so incredibly lucky. I feel like I studied abroad there. I spent an evening on the southern coast, an afternoon on the western coast, three days on the eastern coast, two weeks on the northern coast, and a week smack dab in the middle of the island.

SO MUCH FOOD
Last year I took no pictures of food. This year I took many pictures of food. For dinner on Monday, my first night up north this summer, my mom made soup, beef, fish, and a vegetable mix. It sounded like so much when she described the meal, but everyone ate so little of everything! Last week, when I went to a camper’s family’s house for a big dinner, my meal started with 3 big pieces of breaded beef, and there were about 10 other dishes spread across the table (no exaggeration). Last night I wasn’t hungry when dinner finished, but I wasn’t stuffed, which was a strange feeling. It's crazy to remember that last year this family fed me the most of all my host families. I officially have a Southern Italian stomach.

Italian
Even though when I was with this family last summer it was my last week and I’d picked up quite a bit of the language, I speak much, much better now. I didn’t really realize it until yesterday. But last year, my host mom spoke much more with my co-tutor who was fluent in Italian when the three of us were together. Now, I think she’s having conversations with me that she would have had with my co-tutor last year. I communicated much more in English with my host brother here last year, but now I even communicate with him in Italian much of the time. Unfortunately… I realized last week when trying to speak Spanish that Italian is not supplementing Spanish in my mind, but replacing it entirely. Hopefully this is not permanent.

Facebook
I know I mentioned it in my last post, but really, Facebook never came up last summer at camp. When I visited my convent camp near Rome in June, my campers from last year asked if I was on Facebook. And all my campers this year have asked. Lynne and I were teaching the first conditional tense when this happened:

Me: “If you go to China, what will you do?”
Student: “If I go to China, I will eat sushi.”
Me: “No, if you go to Japan, you will eat sushi.”
Other student points to Lynne: “You eat sushi for 24th birthday.”

Lynne’s eyes widened and she turned to me and said “Oh god, they’ve seen my Facebook.” Turns out she has no privacy settings, and she spent the next 5 minutes quizzing the class on her Facebook profile, and many of them knew quite a bit about her.

I always think about telling them that Facebook is from my hometown. If I did ACLE again, I would go around taking pictures of tech headquarters in Silicon Valley before I came to show what my area is known for.

French fries
Maybe they were around last summer, too. But this year, I don’t know if it’s a southern thing or what, but they were EVERYWHERE. Sicilian kids love French fries. I got increasingly frustrated that there is so much amazing fresh, homemade food surrounding them, yet they choose to eat French fries. But maybe it’s just my romantic idea of Italy and it’s offensive for me to not want them to change. A few weeks ago I made a vow to myself to not eat any French fries here, and I’ve stuck to it.

Lateness

Kids in the south all seem to go to bed around 11-12. When I was their age, I think I would go to bed around 8. In the north, kids stay up later than in America but I don’t remember them going to bed super late.

Families

For me, last summer was largely about getting to know the other tutors. I’ve kept in touch with a lot of them throughout the year. This year has been more about getting to know my host families, because I haven’t lived with the other tutors at any camp. Of course I’ve still enjoyed getting to know the other tutors, but I’ve just spent so much more time this year with the families. When I return to Italy, I will have to come south to see them.

Water

Last year, from my first week of camp near Rome to my last week here in Fontanella, I did not see the coast once. This year, I was within 5 minutes of the sea for 4/5 of my working weeks, and the other one was Pool Camp in the middle of Sicily.