10 Things Women

So, we'll just slide over the whole discussion of why I haven't posted since August and act as if it's not at all strange for me to be suddenly writing a blog post today. And what better way for me to ease back into my comfy blogging slippers than with a Monday Listicles list? 

This week Ms. Stasha of The Good Life herself has chosen the topic which is loosely defined as 10 things about women, in honor of International Women's Day (March 8, in case you missed it). Here in Italy the day is celebrated as an excuse for women to go out with their girlfriends and watch male strippers. Which could be fun, I guess, but is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about "women."

What did come to mind for me were several songs by or about women, so that's what I've decided to share with you. I've listed them in the order in which I thought of them . . . Tell me which one is your favorite!

1. I am Woman, Helen Reddy

2. These Boots are Made for Walking, Nancy Sinatra

3. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndy Lauper

4. I Love Rock & Roll, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

5. Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves, Aretha Franklin and Annie Lenox

7. You Don't Own Me, Lesley Gore

8. Independent Women, Destiny's Child

9. Paid My Dues, Anastacia

10. Respect, Aretha Franklin

If you stop by The Good Life today, you can see what 10 things a whole passel of bloggers listed about women. Aren't you curious? I know I am!

Yin-Yang You

It's Monday Listicles day again and this time it's a doozy. Kim from Zook Book Nook chose YinYang as this week's list topic. 

Do you know what YinYang is? 

Let me quote Wikipedia: "In Asian philosophy, the concept of yin yang (simplified Chinese: 阴阳; traditional Chinese: 陰陽; pinyin: yīnyáng), which is often referred to in the West as "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only exist in relation to each other."

Got that?

Here's my list of the Yin Yang in my life:

1. Italian-American

I have both Italian and US citizenship now, but neither country recognises the other citizenship. For the US, I am only American. For Italy, I am Italian e basta!

2. Reader-Writer

I am doing one of these two things most of the day, every day.

3. Teacher-Learner

My students are a lot older and somewhat better behaved than the ones in this picture, but the idea is that I learn as much as I teach every time I go into the classroom.

4. Good Mommy-Bad Mommy

It ain't easy being the first love of someone's life and, at the same time, the person who rains on their parade with rules, responsibility and those irritating life lessons!

5. Sedentary-Active

Always working on the balance between these two. I spend long hours seated at the pc working and then vigorous bursts of working out . . . I guess I'm somewhere mid-ground between these two lovely ladies!

6. Interior-Exterior

De Chirico - Archeologi

Another area I work to keep in balance. I do a lot of both work and pleasurable activities that use only my mind, so I have to remind myself to get out of my own head and interact with the rest of the world!

7. Soft-Hard

When people first meet me they often find me "sweet." Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

8. Shabby-Chic

One day ratty old tshirt and no makeup - the next, silk and heels.

It's my blog, so I can show you only the pretty pictures, if I want to!

9. D&G (not Dolce & Gabbana)

D

G

Two different personalities, two different ages and completely different interests 

= 

two different parenting styles.

10. Right-Wrong

I have strong opinions and express them forcefully.

I am always SURE I know what is right and wrong.

Until you show me how the other side of the coin is equally true.

And then that's cool, too.

Stasha at The Good Life has asked me to choose next week's Listicles topic, so . . . here goes:

10 Places You Love

To play along this week, next week, whenever you feel like it, just link up over at Stasha's place.

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?

My 10 Favorite Italian Foods

It's Monday Listicles time again and this week, Stasha over at The Good Life wants to know about 10 foods. Foods we like, foods we don't like, foods that make us happy . . . or not. Anything about food is fair game.

I thought I'd write about 10 Italian foods/drinks that come to mind.
Some are specifically foods from Puglia, the region of southern Italy I live in, others not.
Some I like, others NOT.

1. Espresso coffee

Like, like, very big like! I do not like any other coffee in the world, only Italian espresso.

2. Fioroni

Love, love, love! I love these so much I even wrote an article about them, called Fioroni, Fruit of the Gods.

3. Orecchiette con Cime di Rape

This ear-shaped pasta served with rabe broccoli is divine. This dish is a love for me, but I can't eat it because of the gluten in the pasta . . .

4. Gelato

Italian ice-cream is so scrumptious. I'm not sure how it differs from regular old ice-cream, but it differs, it differs! I had been unable to eat gelato since finding out I am lactose-intolerant, but just last week I discovered a gelateria (ice-cream shop) that sells a wide selection of flavors that are both gluten and lactose-free. Halleluiah!

5. Focaccia

Kinda like a pizza, but with a thicker dough and no mozzarella on top. Heavenly, but a no-no for me because of the gluten.

6. Martini Bianco

My favorite brand of vermouth. I strongly associate it with hanging out at the cafè with friends and enjoying an aperitvo (see number 7).

7. Aperitivo

An aperitivo is a before-lunch snack you order at a cafè. Ideally it's a few peanuts, olives and potato chips to nibble on with a soda or an alcoholic drink, as you prefer. However, at many cafès the aperitivo has become so elaborate, including tartines, mini-sandwiches and more, that you forget all about lunch. 

This is a like, a definite like!

8. Raw Mollusks

These are absolutely the favorite food of most people I know here. The mollusks are locally fished, so you know they are fresh, and include mussels, clams, hedgehog sea urchins, date mussels (the long, thin ones - which it is illegal and an ecological disaster to fish...I googled for this photo, so don't sue me!), and those scary-looking red things that look like a tongue and move around on your plate before and while you are eating them because they are alive . . . they are all alive, you know?

This is a big no thank you for me. I know they're fresh, I know they are aphrodisiacal, I know "everyone" likes them, but not me!

9. Taralli

These are a popular local snack food. They are hard like a pretzel, but not quite that hard and not salted. Hard to describe, but good . . . best enjoyed with a nice red wine before your meal. 

10. Olive Oil

I can't leave out olive oil. It's not really a food on its own, but it flavors all Puglian savory dishes. We make our own from the olives grown on the trees out in my yard. Were you wondering why this blog is called "Amid the Olive Trees"?

To read more fun food lists, or to add your own list, head on over to The Good Life.

LOL 10 Times

It's Monday Listicles time again! I have to say this weekly appointment with Stasha's lists over at The Good Life is becoming addictive. I can hardly wait to see what the topic will be each week.

This week anyone who wants to play this game should share 10 times they actually laughed out loud.

Some of these chuckles (actually belly laughs) date way back and some are kind of hard to explain, but I will do my best . . .

1. When my personal trainer told me my body was becoming a
"force to be reckoned with"

Oh yeah, I'm tough!

2. When my very sweet and discreet friend finally cut loose and told me her ex-husband had a little one

3. This one's kind of hard to explain, but here goes . . . in Naples there's a tradition of connecting numbers with a specific meaning. "La smorfia" is a book that details the Neapolitan tradition of interpreting dreams by associating them with numbers and then betting those numbers in the state lottery. (For more info, you can click here.) So, the funny part is that my  brother-in-law, who has a really bad memory, was telling us a story completely based on the number 69 and how he was sure that number represented "fear." Actually number 90 is "fear," but we had a good laugh teasing him mercilessly of his fear of the number 69!

4. when my son calmly said LOL instead of actually laughing

5. when I got super-splashed by a passing car after strangely remaining dry through a monsoon storm in Japan. Just when my friends and I thought we were safe . . . a car sped through a puddle and sent a giant wave of water over us and drenched us to the skin. We had scary hair, mascara streaming down our faces and we couldn't stop laughing!

Just like this

6. When my parents come to visit, our communication is always a crazy mix of English and bits of Italian. My step-father, in particular, likes trying to pick out Italian words he recognises. Once when Grandpa was playing basketball with my son, D. let fly a minor expletive. Grandpa asked in a puzzled way "porco, what's porco?" (It means pig. If you're really upset you can say "pig dog!") The funny part is the years and years of laughs we have gotten out of my son doing an impression of him.
You'd have to hear it . . .

7. Trying on identical weird dresses with my best friend at the mall during the sales. There was this one dress that we could not figure out. There we were together in the dressing room, each of us twisting and turning the thing . . . which was the front and which was the back? Either way, large bits of skin were left exposed. We decided that THAT was why it was marked so far down!

We should have tried THESE outfits on!

8. Burger She Wrote 

Cracked me up . . .

9. Again my brother-in-law . . . he's staying with us this summer and his poor memory is a never-ending source of entertainment! He just got back from Corfu, where he swears all the men are called Spiros. Unless they're named Christos. And with his fantastic memory skills he just called everyone Spiros. Which probably got him by just fine most of the time, but apparently the manager of the hotel where he was staying took major offense at being called Spiros. His imitation of Christos protesting, "Again with this Spiros thing!" had us almost literally rolling on the floor.

That's my name, don't wear it out!

10. "Ooh Girl," this is an oldie but a guaranteed LOL every time