10 Things I Miss About the USA

Hate to be a day late and a dollar short, but here it is TUESDAY already and I'm just adding my list to the Monday Listicles fest over at The Good Life. Yesterday was a national holiday here in Italy, so I was on vacation, man! Oh well, better late than never and life's too short to sweat the little stuff (since I'm on a roll with the cliches, might as well go with it), so here I am.

This weeks topic is 10 Things I Miss. Since I'm an American living abroad, I thought I'd tell you about the 10 things I miss about the USA.

1.  Easy access to my mom and dad. It's not ideal to be able to get together only once every two years. Not for me, not for them, but especially not for their relationship with my children.

2.  Speaking English all the time freely and without thinking about it. I do speak English quite a bit here, but if I am talking to students I am modulating my speed, my intonation, my choice of vocabulary so as to help them understand me while, at the same time, not talk down to them, ideally using language that is somewhat challenging (to help them learn something new) without overwhelming or discouraging them . . . see how that quickly gets complicated? It's not just talking anymore, it's work.

3.  Adult education. Very little happening here. If I were in the States I'd be taking courses in all kinds of interesting things.

4.  Old-fashioned doughnuts. Especially chocolate!

5.  The Pacific Ocean. I used to live in San Diego, right on the water. The ocean was always an awesome and awe-inspiring source of personal inspiration.

6.  Vast choice of foods from different countries. Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese are the first that come to mind. Italian food is great and all, but variety is the spice of life (today has been officially declared Cliche Day).

7.  California. All of it. From top to bottom. Coast, both north and south. Mountains. Forests. Deserts. Rivers. Lakes. Cities. Small towns. Valleys, both north and south.
All of it.

8.  Ethnic diversity. Where diversity means more than just being from the next town over.

9.  Dressing however I choose. Beautifully, sloppily, vintage, with an odd hat. However I like. Theoretically I could do that here, but I would be quickly labelled "that crazy American lady" and have a hard time keeping friends.

10.  Knowing what to expect and how to do things. Life on auto-pilot. Not having to start from zero all the time or ask someone to help you. This is obviously less of a problem for me now, after having lived here for 19 years, but in the beginning I sometimes felt like I had taken all my "adult" knowledge of how to get around and get things done, which I had acquired over a lifetime, and thrown it out the window, wiped the slate clean and was starting over again as a child who had to learn everything one step at a time.

Of course, there could be equal, or longer, lists of "things I do not miss about the US" or "things that are wonderful about living in Italy" - don't get me wrong!

To see other fun lists like this, head on over to The Good Life. Why not add your own list while you're there?

Take It With a Grain of Salt

This is going to have to be a short post. You see I have every single pot, pan, fork, knife, spoon, plate, bowl, cup and glass that I own waiting to be hand-washed in the kitchen. In fact, you can hardly get into the kitchen at the moment. It looks as if my cupboards exploded.

Why this mess? Well, it all started with the water running out. My house isn't hooked up to the city for water because we live "out in the countryside." Only in Italy could where I live be considered "out in the countryside," it's only a 5 minute jog into town and there are other housing developments nearby. But there's no arguing with Italian logic, as illogical as it may be, so we are officially off the grid.

This means that we have a cistern and have to call a water truck to come fill it when it's empty. Which usually happens all of a sudden, when you are least expecting it, right when the water truck guy has a thousand other off-the-grid cisterns to fill so he can't possibly get to you before the next day. 

This happened to us a couple of days ago, in a rather dramatic way. One minute there was water, and the next minute there was not. I, of course, never remember the magic combination of levers I'm supposed to lift, turn and rotate to switch over to the emergency water tank . . . so I did it wrong . . . and sent all our precious water reserves down into the cistern instead of up into the house. Now there was water in the cistern, but not enough for the pump to grab onto it and pump it into the house. Oops.

My husband then had a bright idea. We could add some of the salt water we get from a well in the yard to the cistern to raise the water level until the water truck could come. Great! He got that going and then told both my older son and me, "be sure to turn off the water by 3." Of course, no problem, you can count on us!

At about 4:15 my son and I looked at each other and said, "The water! Did you turn it off? I didn't turn it off. Me neither!" Let's just say that, even with the addition of the load of fresh water from the truck the next day, our water is REALLY salty now. Double oops.

And so, since it was pretty much all my fault, I guess it's only fair that the dishwasher does not seem to like saltwater. I have run it twice, but to no avail. It doesn't just leave everything covered with a salty, white film. The dishes don't even get saltily clean. It's like they're just as dirty as they were before I ran the load, with the lovely addition of a white, salty film on top. Very nice.

           

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea,” according to Isak Dinesen. So, for the next month, or until we use up enough of this salty water to make space in the cistern for another diluting load of fresh water, I'll be living the salt cure and crying and sweating over the sink while washing all the dishes by hand . . . in salty water. Uh huh.

You should try brushing your teeth with it . . .

Valentine's Day in Puglia

Looking for a different way to celebrate Valentine's Day with your sweetie? Check out the festivities in Vico del Gargano, a lovely medieval town overlooking the Adriatic Sea, where Saint Valentine himself is the patron saint and the town goes all out to celebrate this special day.

Kissing Alley

Read all about the town that even has a special street dedicated to kissing in my article at Charming Italy!

How romantic can you get?

A Windy Sunday on the Adriatic Sea

Sunday is the big beach day around here. For many families it's the one day they can spend all together, so they organise a picnic lunch and go for the whole day.

But a very windy day at the seaside is not always as relaxing as you would like. We were all dressed but still undecided whether we should go or not...
A key consideration for me is my hair. Nothing gets me more nervous than my hair whipping about and sticking in my eyes every 30 seconds.
So up it goes, rolled into what they call a "banana" style and held tight with a butterfly hair clip.
Look at those waves. This is very unusual for the Adriatic, there is usually no wave action, just a vast expanse of blue-green water. So unusual that I wasn't the only one taking pictures...
Do you wear jewelry when you go to the beach?
No?
You must not be from my corner of Italy!
All the women here do!

This "Maestrale" wind is a strong wind that blows in from the North-West.

It made it chilly in the shade, but hot in the sun. It's always hot in the sun here in the summer! Some people are hot, others feel cold.

Did you notice the little blue glass pieces these men are using to keep their cards from blowing away?

My beach Crocs. I have a shoe fetish, be patient with me...

No comment.

"When I grow up I'm gonna be a lifeguard!"