Dreaming In Italian

I have had a one month membership at this gym once before, about a year and a half ago. It’s not really all that far from where I live – a 3 stop bus ride followed by about a half mile walk. But there’s more to the story of course. I think that I’m becoming a little bit more like an Italian, I’m becoming a little bit “furbo” which variously translates to sly or clever. It is not considered a negative trait at all. You might compare it to someone in the states that manages to talk their way out of a parking or traffic ticket.

In any case I first went to the gym at about the 10^th of April to inquire about costs, etc. So a short term membership was quoted as 41 euros a month (if I’m out of the place by 5:00 PM) plus a 25 euro annual membership fee. But the monthly fee always starts at the first of the month. Still, I could have half a month for 27 euros. So, I thought, OK I can do that but I’ll start next Monday so that I will just have a small gap between the end of the two weeks and the start of May. So the following Monday, the 12^th, I showed up changed clothes in the locker room upstairs and went downstairs to enroll in my membership. Here’s where the fun begins. There was nobody there to enroll me. The sole person associated with the gym, a personal trainer, said that the secretary shows up at about 10:30 and it was now a little after 9:30. So I did my cardio and weight workout and was just on my way out to the locker room to shower when the secretary showed up. So I showered and just went home. Then I started to think. Hmmm, next Monday is Pasquetta, the day after Easter, so it will be closed anyway. So those 27 euros will only be good for maybe 5 visits. Seems pretty expensive. Let’s see how this goes. So I did the same thing on Wednesday and Friday. Then, deciding not to press my luck I didn’t come back until May 2^nd. Now I am a member and patting myself on the back for my “furbizia” (cleverness).

The gyms here are pretty different from the U.S. At the Berkeley YMCA where I’m a member, there is an olympic pool, basketball court, 2 free towels each visit, a sauna and steam room. Lots of exercise machines both for cardio and weight training. The gym opens at 5:00 AM and closes at who knows what hour. Here the gym opens at 9:30, no towels, no soap, tiles on the floor in and on the way to the shower that are as slippery as ice when wet, locker room (well, dressing room with showers) on the 2^nd floor with lockers on the first floor. Basically zero amenities and the cost is only about $4 less per month AND as you might imagine this is significantly less expensive than most of the other gyms.

And here are the photos.

The route through the stadium to the gym.

Ah, you have arrived at the gym

Poster on the way up the stairs to the locker, well, dressing room

Welcome to the locker room, gives new meaning to the word “spartan”

The lockers are downstairs – curious arrangement, no?

I think that same bathroom was under repair when I was here 1 1/2 years ago

Is it too much to ask to have a toilet seat? Do people steal these things or something?

The cardio and weight room. Limited, but they do have all of the necessary equipment

And finally the shower with peeling paint, plumbing in disrepair and a floor as slippery as ice. The only place in the world that I wear flip-flops.

Well, not really stagecraft but a short weekend course in theater. Claudia had organized this weekend class of theater with a teacher with whom she had taken a class once before. The idea is not that anyone attending is seeking to become an actor but in learning some acting techniques and doing some self-revelation that is part of the training, one can release some of what we all have inside us but keep hidden away. So, being game for almost anything, and Claudia having a silver tongue I signed up.

Flyer for the Theater class

Subtitle of the flyer (more or less): “Theatrical study for one who has the will to laugh at himself” – If anyone Italian is reading this please leave a comment to correct my translation attempt.

So from the flyer that Claudia prepared (she’s the one on the left with the long hair) you can see that it’s 5 hours (!) on Saturday and almost 9 hours (!!!) on Sunday. Actually we started a little late both days (seems to be a very Italian way of doing things) so it wasn’t too bad. There were movement exercises designed to help loosen up, including some on the floor which are difficult for me so I mostly sat those out. Then there was free form dance for awhile – interesting and at first enjoyable but went on too long for me.

Then there were exercises in improvisation. I wanted to throttle the person that suggested that I should be a lamp… how does a lamp look, talk, walk??? Not easy and I really didn’t think especially useful. Everyone had a hard time with that. Stefano offered some examples but frankly, although he could be quite expressive with his face, body and voice, much of his depictions were pretty much the same.

There was one exercise where two people were paired up and instructed to have a strong argument with one another. I was paired with Elena the 19 year old German girl that is a student of Claudia’s at the school. She was to be my daughter and we were to be arguing. He said just speak in English and she can speak in German. We did and it really didn’t matter because I realized that in a big blowout argument people don’t listen to each other much anyway. In fact an interesting observation is that when Italians are talking and ESPECIALLY when they are arguing they talk at the same time and nobody seems to really listen to the other.

We each then sang a little bit. That was hard for almost everyone, not so much because most of us sang relatively poorly but also because we didn’t know the words to the songs. So the homework assignment was to pick a song, write out the lyrics and if possible memorize them. I found this to be difficult in an unexpected way. The songs that I like the best I found almost impossible to sing without bring tears to my eyes (I’m an incurable romantic). So I settled on Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis). One, I like it; two, it’s not a heart touching song and three, I figured that the Italians would be familiar with it – they were.

So when my turn came I sang it, then he said OK, now sing louder, I did. Now sing even louder and play a make-believe guitar and play to the audience. Finally he said, OK, now sing it as though you were a seductive woman. This was fun and when you consider the lyrics it adapted well to this version. This was one of the more straight out fun exercises.

Moving right along we had some exercises that were more self revelatory now that we had become more intimately acquainted by making fools of ourselves without becoming too self conscious about it. We did role playing where we had a conversation to get to know the other person followed by an argument. Then there was an exercise to recall a serious argument that you had with someone and think of what might have been thinking and wish that you could have said – one line. Then in turn each person got up and shouted that line. A really interesting exercise was to close your eyes and wander around touching whatever surface or person you happened across. People react differently with their eyes closed. One woman, for instance, who was fairly cold in demeanor was much warmer under those circumstances. She’s the tall one on the right in the photo below. I was pretty sure that it was her because of height hair and how she was dressed.

The final exercise was for each of us to assume the identity of an imaginary character and imagine ourselves in the waiting room at the airport. I found that because of my language limitations what worked best for me was to play to the reality. So I was an American with somewhat limited Italian. I purposely spoke broken Italian but tried to use English words that were very similar to Italian so that the Italians would understand them. It was kinda fun.

The group – except for Claudia who took the picture

Stefano, the instructor is the one to my right with the gray sweatshirt.

I must say that I haven’t been cooking too much at home since I’ve been here. I try to keep a very active social life which means often going out for aperitivo which easily serves the function of a light dinner as well as an opportunity to meet people and speak more italian. However May 1^st was different. It’s labor day for most of the world. The american fear of anything that hints of collective action or “gasp” socialism has led to our declaring our own labor day in the fall. Stupidity.

In any case since labor day fell on a Thursday a lot of people took the “ponte” (bridge day) to make a long weekend so just about everyone I know here in Bologna, including Cesarina, was out of town. I stocked up on a few items including some of the artichokes that they have here so I made spaghetti with carciofi (artichokes). It’s really pretty easy with the little artichokes since they don’t have a choke to dig out. Take of the stiff outer leaves, trim the stem end, cut of the some of the other end, cut in half, slice thin and put them in acidulated water. Since I didn’t have a lemon I used some white wine vinegar which worked just fine. Saute some garlic until golden, add the drained artichokes, saute for awhile, add a half glass or so of water, cover and braise over low heat for 20 minutes or until quite tender. Check occasionally and add water if it starts to get too dry. Cook the spaghetti a little less than al dente, drain and add to the sauce, mix it well while it cooks for a little while more (maybe a minute) to absorb the flavor of the sauce, put in a bowl, top with whatever grating cheese that you have (best would be pecorino romano) but since I only had parmegiano that was it. Eat and enjoy.

The artichokes here are purple but the taste is about the same

The ingredients, at least most of them

Artichokes added to other ingredients – don’t forget a little salt

We be braising

Cooked and tender

Add the spaghetti and mix

Enjoy – artichokes are the enemy of wine. Beer is a better choice

Second meal. Friday it was raining cats and dogs (stava piovendo a cantinelle) so I decided to skip the usual Friday night aperitivo. I told Cesarina that I was going to stay home and I would walk down to the local pescheria and buy some clams and we could make spaghetti with clam sauce. She said “eviva!” (yipee!). So I bought the clams. These are a type that I’ve never seen, at least in a fish market, in the U.S. They’re called vongole verace (something like “genuine/real clams”) and are significantly smaller than any I’ve seen in the states but carry a lot of the sea with them in their little shells. The recipe is not really that difficult but I’m glad that Cesarina was there to add her expertise. First put the clams in cold water with salt added to approximate their sea environment and mix them around once in a while. This is about a 2 hour operation. The purpose is to give them a chance to eject any sand and, uh, other waste that they have carried with them. It works. Then the clams go in a deep enough skillet or saute pan to hold them all and covered over moderate heat for 4-5 minutes until they are all open. In our case they all opened so there were no dead ones. It’s amazing the amount of liquid that will be present in the pan. Remove the clams and shell most of them reserving a few to add visual interest to the final product. Start cooking the spaghetti (or linguine). Save the liquid from the pan (VERY important) , just wipe out the pan with a paper towel saute some minced garlic and minced parsley in enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan and if desired (and we desired) a pinch of peperoncini (red pepper flakes), add a little wine and reduce, strain thoroughly the liquid from the clams, add it and reduce it a bit over high heat. A minute or so before the pasta is a little firmer than al dente reduce the heat and add all of the clams plus some more minced parsley. Drain the pasta and add to the pan and stir well to mix. A minute later put in bowls, pour some good white wine and savor one of the best pasta dishes on the planet. Adding cheese would be a grievous sin. Don’t even think about it!

In the pan and ready to eat

Cesarina ready to dig in

Oh yes, I almost forgot. When I was at the pescheria I saw a strange looking mound of stuff. I took a closer look and, what the hell, tiny fish?! This must be some kind of specialty in the south (the owner must be Napoletano). He said you beat an egg, mix with the fish, and fry briefly in hot oil. I was a little skeptical but like to try new things. Cesarina had never seen these either so we were both a bit baffled so I suggested that we try them two ways as an antipasto. The first way was like the fish guy told me and the second just bread them in a little flour and fry. The first  was, you might say a “special” taste. It certainly had more of a taste of the fish but Cesarina didn’t like it at all while I found it interesting but not that great. We both liked the second method but of course who doesn’t like salty oily snacks.

What are those tiny things?

OMG they’re tiny fish!

One of my volunteer jobs here in Bologna is an after school program with middle school students. The schedule is from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon at a library near the horse race track (ippodromo – hippodrome). Unfortunately the schedule has been a bit erratic due to holidays (Pasqua and now Mayday) and one teacher’s inability to come regularly on Thursday due to some family obligation. That’s too bad because I really like the kids. I’ve really had little experience with this age group of kids (13 and 14) but am enjoying it. I have learned the italian word for rambunctious (turbolento) which best describes boys of this age. The girls are much less boisterous. Naturally I am there to help with English so the number I work with goes up and down depending on their interest in both English and me and their currently most pressing homework assignment – sometimes it’s math so I have only one to work with.

My most regular student is Giuseppe who is 14 and clearly likes working with me. I’ve had him one-on-one a couple of times and that works well because I can get him to settle down and now he’s actually working at it rather than goofing off. The timing for this program is good since school finishes the week before I leave so I’ll see them through the end of the year. So here are the students that I have worked some with to date along with their ages and where they were born. All obviously now live in Bologna.

Matteo 14 – From Bologna (Bolognese) – not much of student, only wants to learn “bad words” (parolaccie)

Giuseppe 14 – Bolognese, father is a pizzaiolo

Alessio 13 – Treviso

Charles 13 – Philipines (good english so only worked with him once)

Livio 14 – Bolognese but parents are both from China.

Farah 14 – Palestine (the only girl I’ve worked with – very good student)

Dante 14 – Capo Verdi

Farah

Giuseppe (on left) and Alessio

As is my unfortunate persistent habit I keep forgetting to take enough pictures. I may do another post with more photos before this job comes to an end.