Street Slang and Dubbed Movies!

I feel like I'm getting more into the flow of normal life, the problem is that I'm still not exactly sure how to function here, but it's coming. I just ran a load of laundry and hung my clothes out on a clothes line (type thing) to let them dry outside; I definitely wasn't about to hang my bras and panties out there for the world to see though, so while I am trying to get fully immersed, there are a few lines that I don't know if I'll ever cross...

The food here is pretty different as well, lots of carbs, but nothing is processed; seriously, the freshness of the food here is AMAZING! For breakfast, I usually eat/drink warm soy milk and break biscuits into it, then eat them when they're kind of soggy. By biscuits, I mean a kind of cracker-cookie thing. It may not sound good, but it actually is. Who would've guessed? My favorite thing though is honestly the olive oil here—which is doused on pretty much everything we eat! The family I'm living with gets it fresh from a man that lives close by. I honestly think that I would be happy if the only souvenir I brought back from Italy was the Olive Oil. One thing that I'm not such a fan of is prosciutto crudo which is basically just raw ham; okay, well maybe I'm simplifying it a bit—it's uncooked ham that is preserved with salt and whatnot to amplify the flavor. Italians put it on pizza, eat it plain, and Diego told me its best with cantaloupe... Who knows though, I like the tomatoes here (which I despised in the States), so maybe the raw ham will grow on me as well. The Merchetti family (who I’m staying with) is truly wonderful. They've tried to make me feel a lot more comfortable in a lot of little ways. When we were talking about how many carbs Italians eat compared to people in the States, they asked me what I usually eat for lunch. I told them that I ate a lot of salads with fruit—like lettuce with strawberries, kiwis, etc., so now lettuce with apples is a common addition to the dinner table. :) Oh, another thing that's different here is that no one drinks tap water, all the water they drink is bottled, and a lot of it is carbonated; I never really drink anything with carbonation, so I can never really gulp it down, and I'm pretty sure I'm making myself dehydrated… gotta work on that!

On Saturday, I went out with a big group of young adults from the Rome area. The LDS church is great for so many things, and making friends is definitely one of them. It's nice to come to Italy and have an instant group of friends. Our communication is still kind of lacking, but we make it work. :) We went to the Rome, hung out, walked around, and I tried to avoid watching Public Displays of Affection (which are EVERYWHERE, mainly because everyone lives with their parents until they are around 30, so I guess they don't really have anywhere else to go to kiss, and they therefore do it in the park, for the world to see...). Anyhow, I’m grateful for one of the guys I met, Eduardo, who is half Uruguayan and just moved to Italy a few years ago. I feel like he understands me and is really great at making me feel comfortable and at home. We spent a good deal of time that afternoon talking, as always, in half English and half Italian.

 Later that day, the group went to grab dinner; I didn't even end up eating because I was still so full from lunch, even though it was 8pm. Everyone sat around talking, then they decided to play this 'game(?)' where someone would choose a mood (sad, angry, jealous, annoyed) and something to say (in Italian, obviously), then act out these scenes. I figured I'd just watch. False. After a couple girls went, I found myself with 15 Italians staring at me, waiting for me to act like a jealous girlfriend, sitting in between my boyfriend and his ex-girlfriend and say, "Che cosa sta facendo qui?" (What is she doing here?) (haha). My first instinct was to get out of it somehow, but honestly, even if I tried, they probably wouldn't have let me. It may not sound like a big thing, but try being center of attention in a group of people you don't know, and try to say things passionately, in a language that you don't know very well. I did it though, and everyone got all excited, clapped, and said that I did really well. I figured that they were all just trying to be nice, but I don't actually think that was it because apparently my second attempt at acting wasn't all that great, and they had no problem telling me! Of what I've experienced, I’ll make the blanket statement and admit that I love Italians—they're passionate about everything they do, which is fun to be around. They're pushing me to break out of any comfort zones that I was trying to retain :) They taught me some street slang as well, and in an awkward situation, all I have to do is say one of the phrases, and everyone laughs and thinks it’s funny. I'm trying to determine if that's because it's funny that I know it, or just if how I say it is funny...either way, it works.

To end the night we went to a movie: The Avengers. In Italian. I was pretty thankful that it was at least an action movie, and a little easier to follow than a drama, but I still would have been completely lost if Diego (my host brother) and Eduardo hadn't been sitting next to me and translating for a majority of the film. I still missed out on a lot of the humor—which I've realized is pretty difficult to translate, but I enjoyed it and found some humor in the fact that the movie was dubbed. I was the only one that thought anything of that fact though; pretty much the only dubbed things I've seen are little clips from those random Asian karate type movies which are the epitome of cheesy. But I guess that's how a lot of the movies are here. They do show most films in English as well, and even most of the music Italians listen to is English.