Archive for 2007
calabrian women’s summit 2007
I’m going to go ahead and say it. The Internet is the best invention ever.
I’m speaking from the perspective of an American who has moved to the middle of nowhere, and although beautiful, is not the cradle of expats by any means.
If you’re a regular reader, you probably get the impression that I love living here, and, indeed, I do. But sometimes you need some female, English-speaking companionship–next to impossible to find down here, but this past weekend, it was the order of business as we held the first Calabrian Women’s Summit, which also served as our belated celebration of International Women’s Day.
And all this came together because of this fancy network of invisible wires that make up the World Wide Web. Thanks Al Gore!
Blogger-to-be (no pressure!) Dawn and I traveled to the big city of Catanzaro to meet fellow blogger Cherrye of My Bella Vita who is in the process of opening a Bed and Breakfast with her soon-to-be-marito Peppe.
In fact, Dawn and I were their first guests. We were greeted with adorable welcome baskets complete with my new favorite Kinder snack–and Cherrye only had to make up our little tags twice with Italian help from Peppe.
Bless her heart, Cherrye’s going through what both Dawn and I have experienced already–the early days of learning Italian. I’m not sure that Peppe will be happy with the types of information we shared this weekend, but we thought it all rather essential. Cherrye’s in for some interesting times as she perfects her language skills–more frustrating than fun, to be sure, but she’s doing fabulously.
And speaking of fabulous, the B & B is simply gorgeous–comfortable, homey, and a great location.
Other than hanging out at the B &B, we had a nice if expensive lunch at a pizzeria, which surprised both Dawn and me since nothing is even open for lunch where we live…and pizza? During the day? Unheard of!
But we went, we ate, we got charged 3,50 euro for flat Cokes, and now we have organized a campaign against such unscrupulous business practices. So, yes, if you’re down in these parts, that’d be us wearing signs that say “We got robbed at Ciro’s” on the side of the road.
Unfortunately it rained most of the time, so we were stuck indoors with only our mouths to keep us occupied. Luckily, as it turns out, we do rather enjoy talking.
But it wasn’t all bad weather. Once the rain stopped, we were able to go down to Lido on the seaside for a walk and an aperitivo before lunch.
Now I wouldn’t want all of you who couldn’t make the gathering to feel left out, so I’ve compiled the minutes of the inaugural Calabrian Women’s Summit at which we discussed and reached conclusions on many important topics.
Some highlights:
(1) We will be settling our own village so that we can invent our own language that we’ll call Calatalglish.
(2) In that village, there will be only what we call “delusional mirrors,” i.e., those that instantaneously perform the type of airbrushing that magazines do all the time on stars. It’s only fair.
(3) For fear of offending anyone, some words in Italian should simply never be used: scopare and fico are at the top of the list. Some tips on avoiding them: Say you’re cleaning the floor instead of sweeping it, and always refer to figs in plural even when it’s incorrect. We concluded that they’ll forgive you faster for a mistake in number than for an offensive remark about a vagina.
(4) Leaving someone at the altar can actually be quite a funny story years later, but only if it involves gnocchi.
(5) Not all gay men have good taste in ties.
(6) When you call your own home in America, you shouldn’t call back when the person who answers tells you that he doesn’t know you and to stop calling. It’ll only end in assumptions that a non-native English speaker has broken into your home and is willy nilly answering the phone saying “hel-lo?” And that won’t go anywhere good.
(7) The movie “The Da Vinci Code” would have been greatly enhanced had the nun simply shrugged and responded “Boh” when when Silas asked where the key was.
(8) The southern Italian response of tsking while jerking the head upward should be outlawed. It’s confusing for foreigners when the mouth says no but the head says yes.
(9) Attending southern Italian weddings can make you poor.
(10) Fancy soap dispensers, even if they cost only $8 in Wal-Mart, should be screwed into the sinks if possible, because they are fair game for visitors.
I know, now you’re all wishing you had been there to bat around ideas on these pressing issues, but don’t worry. There will most definitely be another summit soon, and I’ll keep you posted.
The admission price is simply a book or magazine written in English that will likely end up spread across a kitchen table and discussed in great length.
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[tags]calabria, girlfriends, friendship, first meetings, life in calabria, learning italian, learning a language, bed & breakfasts in italy, bed & breakfasts in calabria[/tags]
A Blog By Any Other Name…
I’ve gotten quite a few questions about the origin of the name of my blog lately. Maybe others are also wondering where it came from and are just too shy to ask. Or, most likely, you haven’t given it any thought at all and couldn’t care less about my creative process.
No matter. You’re all getting an answer right now. And we’re going back to when I first moved to Italy in 2003.
I’m a journal-keeper by nature, and so it was only logical that I’d be recording my experience of making a new life in my family’s old village. Remember this was around the time of Under the Tuscan Sun, and I was thinking about at some point organizing my experiences and observations into something larger, which for the sake of argument, we’ll call a book.
So I brainstormed some names for chapters and came up with “Mozzarella Dreams,” (this because I had recently had nightmares on two separate occasions after eating mozzarella in the evening; the chapter would be about food habits); “Questi Uomini” (“these men”; chapter to discuss the culture of machismo); “The Young Girl and the Sea” (talking about my aversion to the beach despite living so close to it); and (I bet you saw this coming) “Bleeding Espresso” (about the coffee-drinking habits around here, including the no cappuccino other than first thing in the morning “rule”).
But that still doesn’t really explain where I got the phrase from, so stay with me here.
“Bleeding Espresso” first came to mind because when I was in college, there was a rather flamboyant football player who was always good for an entertaining quote. One day he let loose with: “I believe if you’d cut me, I’d bleed Duke blue.”
It immediately became a catch phrase among my friends and me because it was so over the top and hilarious. I mean, I like my alma mater and all, but that’s a little excessive. Surprisingly, it’s not as out there as I thought because when I just did a quick Google search for the phrase “bleed Duke blue,” I got 5 pages of results. And none of them were said by this particular athlete.
In any event, that phrase has always been somewhere near the surface of my consciousness, so when it came time to chapter name, I wanted something along the lines of espresso, cappuccino, and the like. I thought about just how much coffee people drink here, and that probably even I at this point would bleed espresso if I were cut.
So I scribbled “Bleeding Espresso” on the inside of a manila folder where I kept random tidbits that I wrote, brochures from travels, etc., and there it sat for a few years.
And then one fateful December night, I got the inspiration to blog, but I drew a complete blank on a name. I thought and thought for a couple days until it occurred to me to go back to the beginning of my Italian travels quite literally.
I went to the folder, and Bleeding Espresso was born. The tag line below it came a few moments later, and my name “sognatrice” (“dreamer”) came from the “Mozzarella Dreams” phrase.
So now you know.
Buon International Women’s Day!
To all my fellow females, Happy International Women’s Day!
Far be it from me to speculate as to why this worldwide holiday isn’t celebrated the United States, but I assure you, here in Italy, it’s a big deal.
It’s called la Festa della Donna, and it’s the day when women of all ages are honored with dinners, girls’ nights out, auguri, and, of course, flowers–in particular, the exploding-with-joy yellow mimosa, the international symbol of the day.
We have a few mimosa trees in the piazza here and normally they’re in bloom just in time for March 8, but this year’s mild winter had them full of yellow in January, and so now, sadly there are no more mimosa.
But I thought ahead so I could give all of my favorite women (you’re one if you’re reading this!) a little love for this International Women’s Day, so I snapped this photo on January 20:
Now for you fellas that are reading: you have some appreciating to do!
W le donne!
what’s cooking wednesday: risotto with pancetta & peas
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Check out 5 minutes for mom to learn more about
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I love rice, but we don’t eat a whole lot of it because P was brought up, ironically, on the three Ps: pasta, pane, and pizza. So I figured that maybe if I threw things in with the rice that started with the letter P, maybe that would fly.
Clever, aren’t I?
So for this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday we have a delicious, quick risotto with pancetta (bacon if you must) and peas, which, if you’re wondering, are “piselli” in Italian, keeping the P theme alive.
FYI, it took me about 35-40 minutes from chopping to eating.
I used fresh peas that had been shelled and then frozen, but there’s no reason you can’t use canned peas–although it will change the flavor and for goodness’ sake, don’t cook them nearly as long or you’ll end up with a big ole mushy mess.
Ah, and another thing, I’m with Karen who says stir your risotto as often as you like and in any direction you see fit.
I trust you.
Risotto with Pancetta & Peas
(serves 4)
2 tbl olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/4 lb of pancetta, cubed
8 oz frozen peas
1 cup rice
1/2 glass white wine
1 1/2 cup broth
1 pat of butter
3 tbl grated parmegiano reggiano
Heat olive oil in large pan and add pancetta and onion. Let them cook for 3 or 4 minutes and then add the peas, still frozen. Mix well and cook until defrosted–just a few minutes.
At this point, add the rice and stir the mixture together, letting everyone get acquainted for a minute or two, and then add the wine.
Turn up the heat so the wine evaporates, and when it does, add some broth–enough so that it covers the risotto.
This will need to cook for about 20 minutes on medium heat with you stirring as you prefer (see note above referencing Karen). If you’re wondering how I do it, let’s just say it doesn’t involve continually stirring in perfect circles, and I think my risotto turned out great.
Within those 20 minutes, when you see the mixture getting dry, add some more broth.
When the rice is cooked to your satisfaction, mix in a dab of butter and grated cheese.
Turn off the heat and let the risotto sit for five minutes, then serve.
Buon appetito!
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[tags]risotto, risotto recipes, peas, pancetta, recipes, what’s cooking wednesday, cooking[/tags]
airing my clean laundry
*Don’t forget that all this week is The Ultimate Blog Party!
Check out 5 minutes for mom to learn more about
how you can participate–everyone’s invited!
I’m smiling just knowing that so many of you enjoyed the photos from yesterday; it was a pleasure to share a beautiful Calabrian morning with you.
Had I thought ahead, though, I would’ve worn red to stop all that malocchio coming my way from so much envy.
Just kidding, of course–I know it wasn’t *that* kind of envy.
On yesterday’s post, fellow blogger Stefanie commented that sometimes my life seems like a movie, which got me thinking…and you know what? She’s absolutely right. Sometimes it’s more romantic comedy and other times horror or drama, although hardly ever Van Damme action (quite by design).
And isn’t this more or less how all of our lives are when you think about it?
I tend to focus on the positive in my daily life, and that’s what I like to share on the blog as well. Do I never stress about anything? I wish, but I’m human. I have rants and whatnot, but I like to get them out and then be done with it.
Sometimes that’s here on this Internet thing, but most often it’s on the phone with my mom, or even better, with P. Venting in Italian is *so* much fun–probably because it’s the only time I talk really fast in my second language without a care as to whether I’m making sense.
You see, P nods and agrees no matter what. He’s a smart man.
What I’m getting at, I suppose, is that I don’t dwell on mishaps or frustrations because then I feel like the nasty forces in life are winning.
And I hate to lose.
So besides bringing some warm sunshine to cold, snowy days with yesterday’s photos, I also hoped to encourage all of you to appreciate the simple things, the everyday sights in your life, whatever they might be.
And today for me, the sights are laundry (so much that it will spill into tomorrow), a translation project that I need to finish today, and lesson planning for tomorrow and Thursday.
So in lieu of a longer post, I’m going to share more pictures from yesterday’s Marina adventure.
I’ll start with a woman doing laundry the old-fashioned way (note: I use a washing machine although I do hang out the clothes like most of us here…don’t get us started on the dryer situation, right expats?).
“Maria Concetta!” she called out when she saw me, mistaking me for her granddaughter, but she didn’t act the least bit disappointed when she realized it was just a straniera with a camera. She even offered coffee, but I was on a tight schedule so I could catch the bus back up the mountain before lunch.
“La prossima volta!”
Next time, I promised.
Just a few steps away from this woman’s house was this view through the stairway:
And here’s a leftover shot from the beach area:
The flower stand at the small market in the Marina on Monday mornings:
A wider view of the mercatino. That’s my village nestled into the mountains:
And this was my view while waiting for the bus home:
OK, so this was my view *after* I pushed down a plastic orange fence surrounding the property with one hand and leaned over the squished barrier to take the photo with the other.
Sometimes you just gotta go for it and make your own pretty pictures.
P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!
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[tags]calabria, badolato marina, badolato, open air markets, italy, beaches, boats, ionian sea, sea, hanging laundry, trees[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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