Archive for the ‘weather’ Category
Finding Fall in Southern Italy
I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania, so finding fall was as easy as walking out the front door anytime after late September (and sometimes even before). From the unmistakable chill in the air to the red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves hanging onto the trees for as long as they could keep their grip, fall always found me.
Here in southern Italy, it’s not so easy. Yes, our temps get cooler and some trees even manage to lose their leaves, but you have to pay attention. You have to really look; blink and you’ll miss it. Fall can easily pass you by–and that would be tragic for me as it’s my favorite season.
Fall here, though, isn’t all about things dying as there’s a lot of new growth too. I mentioned the citrus fruits the other day, but there are also some flowers who are just making their appearance as well.
So while I miss fall from back home, I have an all new fall to appreciate here. I found her yesterday.
And she sure is pretty.
Today I’m thankful for: Please see above photos.
31 Things I’ve Learned in My 31 Years
As of today I’m thirty-one years, one month, and one day old, and I’m ready to pass on:
31Things I’ve Learned in My 31 Years
1. Family members can be friends and friends can be like family members.
2. Laughing until your stomach hurts should happen at least once a day.
3. Being alone does not have to mean being lonely.
4. Dreaming is essential to living.
5. When what others want and what you want differ, trust your instincts.
6. Dogs are woman’s best friend too.
7. Sometimes love really isn’t enough.
8. Broken hearts should be worn with pride; it means you dared to love.
9. Peanut butter goes with everything.
10. Fireplaces, books, and blankets rule, especially when enjoyed together.
11. Inclement weather and important appointments are like peas and carrots.
12. Trying new things and meeting new people keep life interesting.
13. You can’t control what others do, but you can control how you react to them.
14. Stepping and/or kneeling on tacks hurts. A lot. Avoid it.
15. Love can be found in the wind.
16. Trust is a choice.
17. Innards for dinner do nothing for me.
18. The shower is a good place to cry.
19. Living simply helps others simply live.
20. Being wrong isn’t failure, it’s human.
21. Everything happens for a reason.
22. Sleeping, particularly napping, is underrated.
23. Being the bigger person isn’t always easy, but it’s always rewarding.
24. The sound of someone’s voice can be the most beautiful music in the world.
25. You don’t need to meet someone in person to develop a close relationship.
26. Success and happiness are best defined individually, i.e., by each person.
27. Appreciating small, good things makes dealing with big, bad things easier.
28. Homemade is always better.
29. Being accessible 24 hours a day is annoying.
30. The best way to learn a foreign language is full, painful-at-times immersion.
31. Moving ahead is easier if you understand where you’ve been.
Feel free to make your own list and let me know where to find it.
Today I’m thankful for:
Rainbows. We had a mini-rainbow a couple weeks ago, just a splash over the sea:
And then this one yesterday:
They’re always pretty, of course, but I just can’t think of a better way to be reminded that even when things are dark and dreary, something beautiful can come of it.
more random stuff about me
So we’re halfway through NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo. How are you feeling kids?
I figure it’s about time to dig into those questions I asked you for a while back.
To recap, I was first tagged by amazing artist Robyn of Have Dogs, Will Travel to write seven random facts about me. Then I was tagged two more times, first by Italianissima of Always Italianissima and then by Tui of Mental Mosaic for more random facts.
And even though I wasn’t technically tagged, I’ll also accept the kind NaBloPoMo invitation from BipolarLawyerCook as well.
I’m responding to your questions in the order they were received with the exception of those from Sara of Moving Right Along who wants my favorite Italian cookie recipe and Robin of My Melange (did you see I won her book contest?!) who asked about whether I’m legal in Italy (short answer: yes) and how I got to be that way (longer answer needed). Both will get their own posts at some point.
Try to sleep at night anyway.
(1) Giulia of From Head to Boot asked what I used to think about future children and whether that has changed.
As far back as I can remember, I always thought three was a good number, and I still do, and, interestingly, so does P. I was never hung up on whether they be boys or girls, though, and I’m still not.
Of course the older you get, the more you realize that these things are pretty much out of your control, so I’m just hoping for a healthy baby or babies in whatever number we’re supposed to have.
Truth be told, though, I’d *really* love at least one little girl; my relationship with my mom is one of the most precious things I have in my life, and I’d love the opportunity to recreate that with a daughter.
(2) Shelley of At Home in Rome asked me what is the most expensive thing I’ve ever splurged on.
I’m not really a big spender generally so, other than book shopping sprees (and there have been more than a few of those), the most expensive thing I’ve ever splurged on was my first trip to Italy in the summer of 2002, and it was very much an impulse decision.
I was surfing the Internet one night looking for information on my ancestors’ village, not a thought in my head of a visit, and I happened to come across a tour that was heading precisely here. Coincidence? I don’t believe in them.
I had my flight booked within a few hours and the rest, as they say, is history.
(3) Dee of Mundane Profound Musings asked if I could be president of one country for 100 days, which country would it be and what would I do?
I’d pick to lead the US because of the issues I’d like to address–getting out of Iraq and providing universal health care. Those are the big two, and probably all I could reasonably focus on with just a hundred days, but I wouldn’t mind trying to do something to increase the value of the dollar as well as pass some environmentally-friendly legislation.
Of course I’d also love to do something about immigration laws in Italy, but I only get to pick one country.
(4) Alyndabear asked about the best thing about living in Italy.
Other than P and my doggies, I’d have to say that the best thing, for me, about living in Italy is the overall peaceful feeling I have being here. Maybe that’s cheesy, but honestly, I’m just happy, and that’s definitely the best thing about living here.
The cappuccino ain’t bad either.
(5) Karen of Artsortments asked how often I get back to the States to visit.
Unfortunately I don’t think the term “how often” really applies as I haven’t been back since June of 2004. I’m hoping to get back there sooner or later, but this euro/dollar thing isn’t making matters any easier. On the bright side, most of my family is discussing plans to come here next summer!
(6) Karen also asked whether I’ve seen any Mafia activity lately.
I hear and see nothing, cara mia.
(7) Maryann of Finding La Dolce Vita wrote “Yes, how do Italian women stay thin in Italy with all the great food? What is a normal day of eating and or exercise like in Italy?”
I’m sorry to report that I know of no magic information explaining why many Italian women are slim; personally I think a lot of them just have high metabolisms because some of them can eat and eat and eat and still be really thin (those women reportedly exist everywhere).
But actually a lot of Italian women *aren’t* slim as percentages of overweight and obese people are climbing up and up. And unfortunately some of the slim women I know really don’t eat very much at all and/or smoke. But I’m guessing this isn’t what you want in the form of diet and exercise advice.
It’s really different for everyone, though, so it’s not easy to say *this* is what they do–except that I can tell you how I lost weight (somewhere around 30 pounds) while here and how, I imagine, many Italian women keep themselves in shape.
I eat less junk food, processed foods, sugar, red meat, and butter. I eat more fruits, vegetables, and beans and use *a lot* more olive oil. Chicken and rabbit are our go-to meats.
I don’t think that generally Italians get a lot of exercise unless they’re walking around cities a lot. Although many young people I know go to the gym, from what I see many Italians like to drive rather than walk from Point A to Point B. But a lot of the older women still do a lot of manual labor, so that’s their exercise.
Me? I don’t drive, so I do a lot of walking, especially with the dogs. And I also do yoga.
I guess it’s cliché but the best I can tell you is to eat less of the bad stuff, more of the good stuff, and move more, which, in general, is what a lot of Italians seem to do (except for the moving part as described above).
And there we have seven random things about me, sort of.
I still have more questions to answer, but if you have anything you’d like to know, ask me in the comments!
Today I’m thankful for:
Sunny, windy days like today so I can finally hang out some clothes and actually have them be dried by the end of the day.
If you’ve been reading my blog or just about any blog by an expat in Italy, you know that clothes dryers are quite rare around here (I’m very jealous of MB of The Flavors of Abruzzo right now!). This means that during the colder months, we end up with wet, musty-smelling clothes a lot of the time as they have to dry inside on racks–which takes at least two days when it’s damp outside.
I will eventually get a dryer, I’m sure, but for now, I cherish these glorious windy days and then go crazy doing laundry. You can see the roughness of the sea a bit here:
La tramontana is the name of the wind that gives us these great clothes-drying days; it also usually means that any rain clouds pass over us quickly without dropping anything.
Sure it puts a bit of a chill in the air too, but I’ll take it for the sake of our clothes…not to mention that it also gives us an excuse to start up a fire in the fireplace.
And I love a fire in the fireplace.
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[tags] memes, wind, tramontana, southern italy[/tags]
weather you like it or not
In case anyone doubts the fickleness of the weather in Calabria, I’m going to show you a little of what it was like here on Thursday, November 1.
From the time I woke up that morning, it had been pouring, buckets and buckets of water, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the windows. But then, just as I was starting to think about lunch, a hint of sun glared through the balcony door.
Literally at that moment, P called me and told me to look outside.
11:45 a.m.:
I’ve seen a lot of rainbows here, but never one this low; indeed, that’s why P had called me–he hadn’t either. And where he was at the time, he was nearly at the start (or end?) of it–my little pot o’ gold!
11:47 a.m.:
To be clear, these views are from my balcony, off to the left. To the right there is the sea, or at least that’s what’s usually there.
11:56 a.m.:
We get a good amount of fog here throughout the fall and winter months, but I’ve never seen this much fog in the daytime. It rolled through quite quickly, though.
11:59 a.m.:
At this point I thought we were finally, finally in for some afternoon sun, and we did have a good couple hours of the stuff, but then I looked out toward where the rainbow had been.
2:24 p.m.:
And it rained the rest of the afternoon and was cloudy and/or rained Friday. As I type this on Saturday morning, there’s plenty of sun and not a cloud in sight, but I’m not placing any bets.
Today I am thankful for:
The sun and rain, the clouds and sky, the hail and snow, the wind and still air, the heat and cold–all of the natural weather elements that make the world go round, help our food to grow, make trees greener, and above all, keep life interesting.
Because who hasn’t gotten caught in the rain? Or the wind? Or the snow? It’s not always fun (although it can be!), but it’s always an experience. You just can’t help but feel alive when you’re getting pelted in the face with hail, can you?
And besides, sometimes it’s good to be reminded that the world does what it wants and we’re just along for the ride. Weather you like it or not. Hah!
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[tags]rainbows, calabria, southern italy, weather, nablopomo, 30 days of thanks[/tags]
Well I Love a Rainy Night, Such a Beautiful Sight
Ciao! I hope everyone had a nice weekend full of Internet connections!
Yes, we lost contact with the outside world (via computer) again on Sunday morning, and it lasted until yesterday evening–and this morning it has been so frustratingly slow to do anything. I’m not even sure if this is going to post when I’m done, but it’s worth a shot.
To be clear, I’m not complaining because when I called the Internet provider, they told me it’d be fixed by giovedì mattina–Thursday morning. Look at Telecom coming through early! Miracles do happen!
So what caused the outage? Well, they can blame this:
But in reality, we lost the phone and internet before the *big* storms came–and they were big. Huge. Scary in fact, and they lasted most of the day Sunday and yesterday.
No complaints on the rain either as it’s been so very long since we’ve had a good soaking, although I could do without the lightning and thunder. I think the pooches, though trembling, secretly enjoyed it all because it meant plenty of Mommy Lap time–Luna on the upper half, Stella on the lower as we stared off into the fog, clouds, and rain (no television allowed when there’s lightning!).
So, forced to stay inside, we did a little of this:
Which eventually led to this:
Those are pieces of one of our chickens marinated in olive oil, red wine vinegar, and Stubb’s Rosemary-Ginger Spice Rub (sent by my mom) and then basted by P using a brush made of his mother’s dried oregano. Yum!
Great family and food time aside, I also got *a lot* of other things done–finished all the translations that were piled up, completed another couple writing assignments, wrote a handful of blog posts, and ran a bunch of errands (in between the raindrops of course). I haven’t felt so accomplished in weeks!
I love the rain! Especially when it’s followed by this:
And, in case you’re wondering, now we’re back to this:
And how was your weekend?
P.S. Thanks so much for turning the last post into a wonderful discussion! You have no idea how happy it makes me when that happens.
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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