11/20/06-
Well, what to say? I haven't written anything in quite a while. I'm not sure why the slow down. I guess it's partly because of the feeling of running out of things to say, and partly because I think for a week or so I was pretty miserable. Things with Caterina were downright unbearable. I was seeing some real fundamental problems with the way this household functioned, the way she was raising Leone, and my role in it all. I guess nothing has really changed, except that I am learning how to adapt to get the results I want using the tools I've been given. Since I'm really not allowed to discipline Leone, I've been having to think of other ways to impose on this spoiled rotten boy all the discipline and respect and decency I can, since he is not getting lessons in these areas from anywhere else in this household. A lot of the problem lies in that Leone is simply a product of his mother's example, and she can be terrible if she's in the wrong mood. A good portion of my energy goes into what I call Putting Leone in his Place. He is used to hearing his mother complain about “the help” so he does it as well. His favorite things to say are “Nobody in this family likes you”, “Jimmy, we pay you too much” and things of this nature, meant to generally demoralize me and assert his imagined dominance over me. Luckily, this provides me with lots of opportunities to practice my witty retort, and to mentally outmaneuver him in general. One morning, as I was pouring a bowl of cereal, he says “Jimmy, you eat too much. You're the au pair, you should just watch,” to which I snapped back “Leone, you talk too much, You're the child, you should shut the hell up.” And he did. Another morning he wanted me to pick him up from school and take him to his tennis lesson, which is only 10 minutes by foot from the school and a walk that he usually makes himself. I told him no, that I wasn't going to interrupt my day to drive him to tennis when he can easily walk. His solution to my insolence was to leave his tennis racket in the car when I dropped him off for school, so that I would be forced to come back and give him his racket and a ride. My solution to his solution was to take his racket to the place where the tennis lessons are held and ask them to hold on to it until Leone arrived there after school.
In general though, things are good. At times it seems like things are horrible. Like when Leone is having a day when he absolutely won't sit still, or when Caterina is in one of her moods, but I am doing a good job of taking a step back, remembering that I'm doing all this for the experience of it, and whether that is good or bad, I'm certainly having an experience! Gaia says this is a defense mechanism my brain is using to cope with all this craziness, but that that is a good thing since it is, afterall, proof that my brain works.
Fall is here and the colors are absolutely amazing. I've been taking too many pictures to post them just yet, but once things are cold and grey and colorless, I'll stop taking and start uploading. Many times I find myself reaching for the camera as I'm driving because there is a row of enormous trees lining the street on both sides with leaves of orange, yellow and brown, or something else that I have to take a picture of. Today I took a picture of a completely yellow tree with a car parked underneath it of exactly the same shade of yellow. I don't think it will look as good in the picture as it did in real life, though.
Frank and Darshani are leaving. I'm very sad about this. I've grown to like them very much, but I don't blame them at all for leaving. They are treated like animals. If they make one little mistake, they get chewed out incessantly. If they fail to anticipate what Caterina or Alessandro want, they get chewed out incessantly. They are often brought into the room and have to stand there silently while either Caterina or Alessandro simultaneously shoves food in their mouths while insulting them and telling them in detail how terrible the food is. They are saints to deal with it for as long as they have. Whenever I complain at the way I'm treated in this family, I have to think about how much worse it could be. The really bad part is that I know it's truly a class issue. Frank and Darshani are from Sri Lanka, and they're relatively uneducated (although very smart), and basically they are expected to serve and to not have feelings. However, the worst part is that the people of this family will never know how amazing they are. Frank was telling me how, four years ago, he was working in Sri Lanka, making so little money that he would never be able to save enough to buy a house, despite the fact that he had a really good job, handling the books for a major manufacturing company. So he sold his car and everything he could and paid the 7,000 euro it cost to buy a ticket to Italy and to pay for his visa. He found himself in a strange new land, where he didn't speak or understand a single word of the language, and was literally standing on the corner begging for money or a prospect. Luckily, he found a job somehow and was able to save enough for Darshani to come join him. Now, four years later, he speaks fluent Italian and English and is leaving a job because he's not getting the respect he deserves. It's not quite the rags-to-riches success story we're used to in America, but it's definitely an impressive tale. I'm so proud and happy for them that they're leaving because it hurt me to see such a noble, hardworking and intelligent couple be treated so badly by this “nobility.” I think that the more that life gives you in the way of luck, fortune, and inheritance, the less entitled you are to be petty and cold to the people around you.
Gaia and I decided to just be friends. This makes sense because we get along great but my schedule isn't really reliable enough for a relationship. She's a little bummed, I think, but I'm feeling much better because I always felt so miserable when I told her we could hang out only to have Caterina change her mind at the last minute and call me away to duty. We went to Rome though and that was lots of fun. We basically did everything that was free, which is a lot. All the really good stuff is either a church or just laying around on the ground for anyone and everyone to look at. I'd like to go back of course and visit some museums, but there's time for that. We were only there for one full day because we didn't want to pay the outrageous hotel prices in Rome.
My mastery of the language is coming along nicely but slowly. Of course I'm frustrated with my lack of communication ability and I have to remind myself constantly that I've only been here two months and that's not enough time to learn a language. I'm learning A LOT though! I'm pretty happy. I can almost watch TV in Italian without missing a beat. I'm constantly finding joy in the way things are worded. I also get joy from adding to my list of ways Italian is like a battle of words.

My List of Ways Italian is Like a Battle of Words:
1)They answer the phone with “Pronto!” which literally means “Ready!”
2)When you walk into a store, the person taking your order says “Dimme” which means “Tell me.”
3)The three most common things I hear shouted are “Vai!”, “Dai!” and “Muoveti!” which mean “Go!”, “Come on!” and “Move it!” in that order. I hear these all the time.
4)A good number of sentences begin with “Senti” and often conclude with “Basta” which mean “You listen” and “Enough.”

There's probably more but that's all I can remember right now.