Fluency Update: Month 3

As of today, I have officially been in France for three months. Unfortunately the magic of being abroad has faded a bit since I've been acquainted with the numerous atrocious aspects differences in the French school system (more on that later!). The reality is that I'm missing out on a years worth of degree and career advancing opportunities back at UCSC. This fact, along with unfortunate events back home, has put me in a funk recently. I know all this somber stuff seems to have nothing to do with fluency but, in this case, it does. When I began to feel like my schooling here was a waste of time, that same attitude was reflected in my use of the language. I forgot why I was learning French, told myself that I didn't understand French, and didn't use French except for with French people. And let's face it, that contact is very minimal.

But today, during the hours of free time I had, I really focused on the reasons why I decided to study abroad in the first place. In my application essay, I wrote that I wanted to become fluent, to experience a different culture, and I wanted a challenge (Boy, has it been a challenge!). I wrote that essay from the heart. I reflected on it for days because I needed it to be true, not because I wanted to appear as the perfect candidate with the best writing skills. In that essay, I never mentioned achieving any lengthy academic or career goals; it was all about personal goals. Since the frenzy of French life began, my personal goals have been crowed out by these exterior ones. Now is the time that students my age decide what they want to do career wise, if they haven't already. All I can think about is: What do I want to do with my Anthropology degree? Do I want to study primatology and do fieldwork? Do I want to research primate cognitive function? What about primate sexual dimorphism and secondary sexual characteristics? Maybe I want to do forensics? Or do I want to contribute to research on human evolution? Where in there can I fit in food culture studies? Can I please have a brain like an encyclopedia and just do all of this?

Obviously there is a tangle of career questions in my mind hiding my personal needs and wants. So I think to myself again, Why do I want to be fluent in French? It is not so much the specific language that I care about, it's the wonderful feeling I get from communicating with people in a way I find foreign. The patterns I recognize, what I learn about my own language from studying another, the risks you take every time you attempt to say something and the feeling of saying it right or being understood... thats what I love and thats why I'm here. It seems that I just needed to be reminded of it.

I'm trying, I really am. I takes a lot of mental and emotional strength to remove oneself from the comfort of one's mother tongue and dive full force into a foreign one. This is communication we're talking about here, that very innate thing that is the essence of our social lives. But I know I can do this, I know it, it will just take some positivité.

Grazie to the food gods

After hours of site seeing in Italy, the only appropriate way to unwind is sitting down to eat. The best part: the food was so cheap! Buono appetito!

Cappuccino

Penne Alla Arrabiata

Prosciutto Pizza

Tiramisu

Italian style crossaint: Flaky, but not buttery. Filled with lemon cream!

Cappuccino foam

Donut filled with lemon cream

Asparagus Pizza

Chocolate ice cream with a hazelnut interior covered in cocoa powder

"Grandma Cake"

Classic Spaghetti

Cannoli

Gnocci Alla Arrabiata

Ice cream sundae

Cappuccino and hazelnut pastry

Lasagna

Ravioli in a sage butter sauce

Tiramisu and chocolate gelato

Italian chocolate candy

Yummy cookie found in Italian bakeries

I can't wait to go back again, just to eat!

Ciao! 

Fiasco Italiano

Ever since my junior year of high school, I've dreamed of visiting Cinque Terre. This dream destination consist of five hill top villages on the Mediterranean coast of Italy, each with a different "personality". So, when my first mid semester break and the Toussaint (All Saint's Day) came around at the end of October, I immediatly booked my tickets to be able to hike Cinque Terre. Here is the story of what followed...


My housemate Jill, our friend Alex, and I borded a plane for Milan since it was the cheapest flight to Italy. All was great and dandy, the flight went smoothly, we were able to find the ticket booth for the shuttle from the airport to the train station, and we arrived at the station well before our train left. However, this is where things got complicated. Jill and I had bought all of our train tickets in advance but Alex was unable to. So, Alex tried to purchase a matching train ticket at the self operating ticket machines at the station. The machine said it was unable to complete the purchase. In a panic, we stand in the long line to buy a ticket from an actual Tentitalia employee. After some jumbled communication (Do we speak French or English? Do these hand gestures translate in the same sense?), the employee understood that we needed a matching ticket but, he would not sell Alex the ticket to the connecting train because he could not guarantee that the second train would actually run that day. He said, in English, there would be a possible cancellation due to the weather. After a 15 minute delay, we finally get on the train to Genova.


Heres where things start to get complicated: Since our first train was delayed, we were cutting it close to missing our second train to La Spezia (the train the employee wouldn't sell a ticket for). However, when we arrived, the time board said our train was cancelled. We saw that another train was scheduled for La Spezia not long after the original train was supposed to leave. So, Alex went to the self-operating machines to buy a ticket for the second La Spezia train while I went to the Information office to demand a replacement ticket at no charge (I think I get my confidence to complain and demand things from  companies from my mother, i.e. complain at disneyland every time we go and get free tickets to come back again). I tell the employee in French that I want tickets for the new La Spezia train but he says that its not possible, the only option was to take a train to Parma and another to La Spezia that would arrive around midnight. Why couldn't he give me tickets to the direct train to La Spezia, it wasn't fully booked or cancelled? He didn't have an answer that he could communicate in French or English (time for me to learn Italian!).  Since Alex had already bought tickets for the La Spezia train, there was no way that she could get on the train we were assigned. So, in a rush to catch our new train Jill and I separated from Alex. Let me just say that this was a terrible idea.


Before getting on the train, I gave Alex all of the information for the hostel I booked in Cinque Terre and told her that we would meet her there. On our separate trains we called each other a few times to check in. Everything seemed to be okay until Alex called us saying that La Spezia was closed and they made her get off at a stop called Lasagna (yumm) and take another train to some city called Lavanto. Jill and I were confused since, at that moment, we were on a train going to La Spezia. We figured that we would go as far as we could and then find a way to Lavanto even if we had to sell our souls to afford a taxi. Soon Jill receives a text from our friend who was planning on leaving Milan for Cinque Terre the next day. Her text asked us if we were okay because she had heard that there was a flood in Cinque Terre. WHAT!?!?!? A FLOOD?!? Why had we not heard about this? Why did the weather report say just a bit of rain? Why did all the Trentitalia employees say cancelled or late due to rain, not flooding? I internally began to get anxiety, but appeared calm because I know freaking out will not solve a problem. At that point we tried calling Alex again but her phone went directly to voice mail. Oh no, not good, is she okay? We decided to wait until the train reached La Spezia or whatever end destination they might change it to to find a pay phone and call her again. Contrary to Jill's belif that we would be kicked off the train at some random stop before La Spezia, we arrived at the supposidly "shut down" station and tried using a payphone to call Alex and the hostel we had a reservation at. No answer from Alex or the hostel. Since the last text we received from Alex said that she was in Lavanto we decided to find a way to get to her. We looked at a local train schedule and "oh perfect, a train that goes to Lavanto and it leaves in 8 minutes!".  Jill and I go to the assigned platform and wait. And wait. And wait. Annnnd it never shows up. What to do next? Taxi? No, a group of drivers refuse to take us there because 1) its too far away and 2) the only way to get there is by boat because of the flood. Boat? It was just getting worse and worse.
   
At this point, we felt conquered by our day of being lost in translation and just lost in general so, we decide to accept defeat and retire for the night in the hostel right across the road from the train station. The proprietor of Albergo Parma was such a nice old man, and very excited to use his excellent French and English skills with us. Before even going to our room, we sat in the lobby and tried to use the wifi on my iPod touch. We wanted to get ahold of Alex so we were hoping she would think to find wifi too. The only way I had to contact Alex was on facebook and, unfortunately, it wouldn't work on my iPod (I should really say yes to all those software updates!). The only thing I could think of doing was emailing my mom and Kevin and telling them the situation and my Facebook information so they could send a message to her. After Kevin sent a message for us, we waited for a response in the lobby while television images of the disaster flickered tauntingly across the screen. The anticipation and anxiety was tangible, like the slippery residue humidity leaves on everything. You can't do, touch, or think of anything without being reminded of it. The fact that we were tired and hungry did not help. So we took care of our food  needs at the only open kebab place and then lay in our beds. Sleeping was impossible. I kept getting up to check for a response in the lobby however, my attempts proved worthless since she was probably asleep wherever she was. The next morning, the inn keeper took care of us. He called the hostel we originally booked in hopes of finding Alex and provided us with a free breakfast complete with a fantastic Italian cappuccino. I almost forgot we were Italy because I was too preoccupied with worrying! A few yards away from the hostel, Jill and I found an internet café to continue the chain of emails with with my mom and Alex's parents. When I logged on to my Facebook I found a response from Alex saying that she was safe and stayed in Lavanto for the night. It was a short message but enough to calm us down. We responded and waited again for her response with no luck. Eventually we decided to go to the port and see if we could find a boat to Lavanto. The walk there provided us with our first chance to actually see some of La Spezia. It was quiet charming once we left the one block radius we were confined to for our food, lodging, and computer needs. 
   
When we arrived at the port, we found it bustling with people, rushing to get emergency non-perishable food onto a boat. People were running with arms full of groceries from the closest store to the boat. You could feel their sense of urgency. Jill and I sat on a bench and watched since we didn't know how to communicate to help. But we wanted to help so badly! Finally we decided to try to get tickets for the  Cinque Terre ferry but the ticket seller said it was only for emergencies. Then we asked when other rescue boats would be arriving in La Spezia from Cinque Terre. She said 4PM, which wasn't for another 5 hours. Hoping that Alex would think to take that boat and hungry from the stress, we started to walk back towards the town to get lunch. However, as we were about to turn our backs on the port I saw a boat that resembled those of the company's coming in. I told Jill to hold on a few minutes, I just wanted to see if Alex might be on the boat. When it was docking, I could see people covered in mud from the flood and looking distressed. As people were finally beginning to get off, my eyes were locked on the boat and all I could hear was the loud steady beating of my heart. The rescued people walk down the ramp single file...a man... a few children... another few men... and ALEX! I run for the boat like I was ready for a race, screaming her name...like a crazy person.


RELIEF


All I could think about was how much luck we had being at the port the exact moment her boat came in... an unscheduled emergency boat. It just worked out. Out of all of my experiences, this was the most stressful event of my life. It even beat the college application process and my first college finals week. The idea of losing someone you care about, not knowing if they're okay, all of the possible things that could happen to a girl alone in a sketchy place at night, the flood... Really, how would this have worked out without the help of technology? My mother relaying email messages in the middle of the night for us, using whitepages.com to find Alex's parents' contact information and letting them know what happened and to let us know if they hear from her. Technology really helped us in this situation and I am internally grateful for my mother's help in this. Thank you mom, I don't know how this would have played out without you!


After a relaxing glass of vino, our italian vacation actually began to to feel like one. Our next stop was Venice which was really wonderful; a city everyone needs to see! There, we stuffed our faces full of pizza, pasta, and tirimisu! Food pictures to come soon!