Archive for 2010
What’s Cooking Wednesday: Pasta e Lenticchie
Pasta with legumes is a big thing in La Cucina Povera (peasant food/cooking); they’re both fairly cheap, always on hand, and together make a great stick-to-your-ribs dish.
Read on...An American Expat in Italy Goes “Home”
As many of you know, I was back in the US from mid-November to late December. This was my first trip “home” since February 2004.
Yes I write it in quotes; as much fun as I had there, you see, I was also extremely excited and happy to get back to P, the pooches,
and the three kids (who, incidentally, we believe may all be pregnant!).
Stateside, I spent lots of time with family and friends, visited Philadelphia, New York City (where I met two online friends for the first time and met up with an old college friend–none of whom are shown in the photo below!)
and Washington DC,
helped my mom make cookies (which she sells for Christmas),
and shopped. A lot. The Christmastime prices in American malls? Worth the price of the airline ticket, quite frankly.
For instance, P was amazed that I could get him a pair of Levi’s for $30 (€21) when they cost, oh five times that here. My other spectacular purchases for myself include a new iPod Touch (to make it easier to read English language books, mainly) and a new external hard drive.
NB: Anything technological/electronic costs *way* less in America than it does in Italy.
My biggest culture shock actually came very early on in the trip when I couldn’t. stop. speaking. Italian. It was the weirdest thing! On the plane over, no matter what language the person addressing me was speaking, I would answer in Italian…and only sometimes catch that I had done it–once purely by the blank look on a fellow passenger’s face.
The two hardest things to stop saying were “Ciao!,” “Grazie!,” and “Sì!” So I imagine I just looked like a really pretentious American for at least the first few days of the trip. Oh well.
The other thing that was hard to get used to? Things being open in the afternoon. So strange to be able to go shopping or *gasp* get something to eat between one and four! Lovely.
I still have lots of photos to go through and post on Flickr (and possibly here), and probably a lot of mental processing of the whole experience. Soon I’ll be publishing my Top 10 Realizations After Being “Home” for the First Time in Nearly Six Years so please check back!
Love Thursday: Rocky & the City of Brotherly Love
As you may recall, on my trip to the States I stopped in my old stomping grounds, Philadelphia, to catch some LOVE in LOVE Park.
But you didn’t think I could come all the way from Italy and *not* stop in to pay my respects to one man every single Italian LOVES, did you?
Just in case you weren’t sure this was really the right statue:
And while I was snapping photos, guess what I spied?
After that, I jogged (Mom as my witness!) up the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps just like Rocky so I could check out his footprints:
And stand in them:
FYI: My best guess is that the Italian Stallion wears a size 8.
‘Scuse me…gonna fly now!
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
Psst…World Nutella Day is a Month Away!
More details to come soon from both Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and me, but in the meantime, be sure to check out:
for lots of Nutella recipes, stories, ideas on how to celebrate World Nutella Day 2010 (February 5), and much much more!
Also on your WND to-do list?
(1) Become a Fan of World Nutella Day on Facebook
and
(2) Follow @NutellaDay on Twitter
You don’t want to miss out on any exciting WND news!
Are yooooooou readyyyyyy?
P.S. Happy New Year!
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.
Calabria Guidebook
Recipes
