Weeks 1 and 2, 29-10-2021

1. This is a time for me of reconnecting with a number of practices that have been interrupted by the pandemic; by the 3-part-time-jobs, recent-humanities-grad, gig-economy work routine that I've just left; and by the inevitable ebb and flow of intersecting needs. This is just that -- a practice, a practice of connection, a practice of reflection, a practice of synthesis, a practice of perspective.
2. This is not meant to replace my 1:1 interactions!
3. This should serve me. There is no right or wrong way for me to structure these. Like my bullet journal, if the structure becomes cumbersome, it means my needs are shifting and I need to re-evaluate what I am including and how I am preparing to write.
4. This is not a finished product, ever, by any standard. I will not fret over punctuation, word choice, or syntax. There are many spaces in my life where those things do matter, quite a lot, but they are not a priority here.

---

A note on formatting -- I am usually not one to communicate through images (shoutout to my photo friends), but I've found myself taking photos to show people the spaces within which I'm existing these days. I am going to include photos throughout these updates, in no particular order.

This is lungomare! Both pictures taken on morning runs, one much earlier than the other. There are palm trees, which is wild to me. The mountains to the north are near the towns of Gaeta and Formia.
 

---

Word Pictures
I've been using the phrase "word pictures" for a few years now. It means a snapshot from my day that would function as a photograph, to preserve a moment, but described instead in words, with only the most striking details. This could also be called the "most painfully stereotypically Italian things I've seen since arriving" section.

• An old man riding his bike with an enormous jug of olive oil strapped to the back, whistling as he rode down the cobblestone street. (As a side note, all the old men whistle very well here. They must go through a training in order to receive their pension payments or something.)
   
• A young man wearing so much cologne that I could smell it from a block away as he sped past on a Vespa
   
• An old woman sweeping the street in front of her house while two young children walked past. She looked at me and said something in dialect that I didn't understand, but the sneaky smile on her face was all I needed to know that it must've been hilarious.
   
• Talking American/Italian comparative politics with a young couple (27 and 27, both just out of med school, one the daughter of a teacher I work closely with and the other her boyfriend) in Italian, in the backseat of a Fiat 500 while we sped down the highway, with neither of them wearing seatbelts (ack!) on our way to meet their friends in a neighboring town. People here know Bernie Sanders -- except they refer to him as "Berrrrnie."
   
• Bernie also came up in conversation with a teacher after I taught my first lesson on Bob Dylan and the anti-war movement -- I guess that was a pretty strong indicator of my political leanings because it was a blunt "So you support Berrrrnie?"
   
• A sign in the teachers room of the high school titled (rough translation) "Best Practices for Comportment of Responsible Adults in the Case of an Earthquake." I'd like more signs in the world titled "Best Practices for Comportment of Responsible Adults."
   
• All the teachers in the hallway between classes. (In Italy, the students stay put in their classrooms and the teachers move around the building.) I think it's to maintain order, but the hallways here are more chaotic than the hallways at my American high school ever were. Except instead of teenagers shouting, it's all old men shooting the shit -- I need to learn how to say that in Italian, or I should teach them how to say that in English.

---

I live right next to Piazza San Francesco -- you can see Rocca Dragone in the background, too. I've been told that you ~technically can~ climb to the top of the mountain, but there is not a trail (I'm not deterred).
 

---

A little about Mondragone

• A strong theme since my arrival -- that Mondragone is both a very small town, and very densely populated. My cousins from Abruzzo, who drove me to Mondragone from the airport, asked for directions at a toll booth (less than 50 km from the town) and the attendant said he had never heard of Mondragone. When I went to buy my SIM card, I was explaining my program to the owner of the shop and he apologized that I'd been assigned to Mondragone. And when I met the friend group of the couple who drove me to get drinks over the weekend, I was saying where everyone else is placed (Bari, Lecce, Caserta, Campobasso, Caliari etc), and they were exasperated that I'd been placed in Mondragone. At the same time, Mondragone is very densely populated, the center of the town feels like a larger Italian city, and the public school system is big -- there are over 200 teachers.
   
• The post office is always crowded, and because of COVID precautions, nobody is allowed inside to pick a number from the machine until they are 2 or 3 people away from the front of the line. However, instead of standing in an actual line, everyone stands around in a clump. And the protocol is that when you arrive at the post office, you shout (over everyone else who is already shouting because everybody knows everybody and why not chat while you wait) "CHI E` L'ULTIMO?" or "WHO IS LAST IN LINE?" Half of the time, somebody throws up their hand, mid-sentence; other times, the whole group goes silent as everyone realizes, at the same time, that they have lost track. And then they all start yelling to figure out who arrived when.
   
• There is no sidewalk! Except on on section of one of the main streets that was built in the last 70 years. I've thought about Shel Silverstein a lot this week. I also had planned to get a bicycle for my time here, but after seeing how narrow the streets are (for pedestrians, bikes, scooters and cars alike), I think I'll stick to a good pair of walking shoes.

---

This is the "sidewalk" -- and sometimes this isn't there, or it's only 3 small stones wide!
I accidentally took this walking home from school - another example of there just not being a sidewalk!
 

---

A few logistical updates
I usually won't include this section, but since I'm settling in and adjusting, these are important to include. This could also be called the FAQ section.

• Climate -- Mondragone, while it is in southern Italy, is chilly in the winter. Not cold by any New England or Mid-Atlantic measure, but damp and windy. It's about 60 degrees here, 70 in the afternoon when it's sunny. But everybody walks around wearing winter coats, hats and scarves. It rains often, too. But it does not snow, and will not go below the mid-40s, even in January and February. (I'm working on learning Celsius).
   
• Housing -- I am renting an apartment that is part of the home of a family. The parents are a straight couple in their 50s with a 9 year old son, Giancarlo, who attends an English immersion elementary school. The couple's offices are on the ground floor, and their parents also live with them, in a separate apartment like mine. They have been very helpful with my adjustment. it's like having a host family, except with a lot more privacy. And I am paying them to be here. Lisa, my host mom/landlady runs a feminist book club that meets at a cantina. I'm relieved that there are people talking about social justice in Mondragone!
   
• Schedule -- I teach 5 days a week, 16 hours total. That shakes out to 3-6 hours a day, depending on the day. I meet with 8 classes 2x each. They are all in high school but at drastically different levels of English, even within the same classroom. I had planned to write another section on cultural differences between Italian and American public high schools, but I think that will be a central piece of my next newsletter (around the second week of November). 
   
• Gluten free food -- It exists! When I spent some time in larger cities in the north of Italy a few years ago, all grocery stores and most restaurants had Schar's products. That has not been the case here, and it took me a while to find the gluten free food. Everybody kept saying that this one grocery store had an entire shelf of GF products, but when I'd ask the cashier where it was, they would direct me to the pasta section. I really thought that when people said "gluten free products" that they really only meant GF pasta. But the section did exist in a different room! And I am starting to figure out which other grocery stores stock which other non-pasta products.
   
• Language -- People keep saying how good my Italian is (shoutout to the Vassar Italian department for that one), but I do not speak the dialect at all - and Mondragone has a dialect totally separate from the Napolitano dialect! So much to learn. I am also noticing that my English is becoming more Italian, which is amusing. I have been thinking a lot about my high school French teachers, who were incredible role models for how to be an effective high school language instructor.
   
• Culture shock -- I was very naive in thinking that I'd not experience culture shock because I was raised Italian-American. Spoiler alert, I felt a lot of culture shock my first week. It manifested primarily as not knowing where to buy things, which I'm starting to get the hang of (they call dollar stores "negozi cinesi" or "chinese stores," which is definitely microaggressive! I'm figuring out how to translate dollar store into Italian). I also have been listening to a lot of music that means a lot to me, and I've felt much much better since my jet lag wore off last Thursday (it was like a switch had flipped).
   

---

This is the cantina, where the book club meets. The paintings are by a local artist!

I could not get this photo to rotate, but this is Regina! It means "queen" in Italian, and she knows it! She is the most vocal cat I have ever met. She is 14 and she is a little ball of love when you start petting her. I've never heard a louder purr.
 

---

And finally, my overarching takeaway from these last 2 weeks -- "tranquilla." Even before I arrived, when I'd email my teachers or my landlord with a question, they would say "tranquilla, cara." It has the same connotation as "relax" in American English. I must stick out like an American-Northeast-seven-sisters-educated-corporate-nonprofit-work-culture-type-A sore thumb here, because even the people in line behind me at the grocery store have said it to me. I am looking forward to becoming more "tranquilla" over the next few months.