Almost 30 in Italy!

SPAESATO
Sometimes I really feel out of my element here in Italy, simply because I didn’t grow up here. My father’s grandparents and half his aunts and uncles left here almost a century ago and as far as I know we don’t have much family here apart from some distant cousins that I met in 2005. But we always retained some of our Italian identity. For this I really feel in between both countries. Not Italian like the ones that were born and raised here, yet not a typical American back home. To add to the confusion, I look Italian and I blend in here rather well, people all the time ask me things while walking around. As for the language, I have good days and bad days with it. Some days I can’t seem to get the words out with stuttering or getting blocked as it’s said in Italian, other days I am more relaxed and can speak better. There is also the issue of the local dialect, napoletano. It is somewhat difficult as it has a distinct pronunciation and the different usage of certain words. I know some of it thanks to my father and other sources but it is real challenge to understand at times. Strict dialect speakers to me are a mystery.

Having studied Italian both here and in America, I am in a good position to be able to communicate and make myself understood, but my challenge still is to speak it without getting blocked, and to sound more like a local. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sound or resemble a napoletano or just an italiano, but I can damn well try and the worst that can happen is I greatly improve my Italian. If I don’t hear Italian however in a clear and slow enough manner, I can’t follow what is being said. At times for it is like trying to talk to someone in an airplane who is 2 rows ahead of you, or a cell phone call with static.

For the first time in my life I am experiencing what it is like to live outside of my own country and it is an indescribable experience. It isn’t like school where you spend 90 mins in class then when you go home and go out with your friends it’s America and English. Now it’s the opposite, English at home and at work, but then outside it’s all Italian. I handle it pretty well usually, although some days I wouldn’t mind being back in American for a week, then it passes and I am glad to be here!

MI MANCATE!!
What do I miss in America……
First and foremost it has to be my parents and my friends. I had a lot of Brazilian friends (and an ex) back home and I miss being around them, Portuguese and going to mass in the Brazilian Catholic church. Being here helps me understand how it is for them to be immigrants in America, even though I am not the same type of immigrants as they are, I am still not in the country that I was born and raised like them. One friend in particular is Santos! Anyone who knows him can understand why I’d miss him! I miss also the following: Hockey, baseball, my car, central air, Boston and my father. I am my father’s son and for as much as I like talking to him every Friday, it isn’t the same as when he is in front of me.

STRONZATE AMERICANE!!
I don’t miss the following in America: Arrogant impatient people, subpar food, winter weather, snow, having everything so far from you (for all I need in life I can see it from my window here) overly defensive drivers of CT and probably the most is the overall fakeness that I come to find in American society. I think I will be able to form a more objective opinion about America more time I spend away from it. I need a real comparison via living in another country to form a more objective opinion the USA. So far though, I don’t really feel homesick and there are other little things that I could put here that annoy the hell outta me in America that makes me happy to be in Italy.

Many Italians here love my country and that’s fine, I have a fascination with Brazil which could be compared to their desire to visit NY, LA, Boston, Miami etc etc. I don’t burst their bubble but when we get into specifics I tell them what I was always told about here in Italy; being here to live is not like being on vacation. It seems like I live in a world where it is taboo anywhere to say anything bad about the USA, in particular in the USA. Well this is my blog and I don’t intend to hide anything. Quite honestly, I find much to not be proud of being an American and America itself. I thank God for such an ethnic identity, appearance and last name.

LA VITA BUONA
What I perhaps like most about being in Italy is the change of life that it brought. It was a much needed change as I spent the bulk of 2009 unemployed and just existing in my parent’s house in a small town where nothing happens. You can have your peaceful living; I say it’s too easy a catalyst for boredom which does nothing for stimulation. Here I am around a lot of people every day. This is basically city living and I don’t feel so alone here. When I am bored I go for a walk and simply observe what is around me. What is also nice here is that I don’t use any form of credit card, I have no debt, no type of insurance at all, free medical care, and no car expenses, just house expenditures and the everyday needs. Yes this is indeed a nice way to ring in my 30th birthday in a few weeks!