Being "Talk of the Town" Yikes!

Ciao a tutti amici,
Eeek! I was afraid this might happen. I have tried very hard to be low key too. But this is a small town and i am obviously not the average tourist. The tourists come for a day, a week or two at the most and go. I have been here almost a month now. Maybe i have been here too long lol. One of the teachers at the school told me today that everyone talks about me behind my back. As soon as she saw my expression of fear and panic, she assured me that it was all good. She said everyone loves me, respects my work for the environment (i have been preaching and picking up the trash lol), and that they are impressed with my hard work and progress in learning the language and culture too.


What a relief! I thought that i was a huge failure and was moving too slow. I said before that I was the butt of jokes for my fellow students, but today in class... it went like this.


We were working on the future tense of verbs and the teacher asks the class. So tell me what Traci will be doing in the future. What promise does the future holds for her. There is much laughter and my face turns pink. The first student says (in Italian of course). "Well in the future Traci may find the courage to speak!" More laughter and my face turns red. Next student says "Well perhaps in the future Traci will find an Italian husband and get married." More and louder laughter and my face turns even redder!. Then the next student says something like "well maybe in the future Traci will save the world". Too much laughter and my face turns purple. Next student... and so on and so on. Too much!


So far I have the reputation for:
- being funny. yikes and i am not even trying!
- being a crazy environmentalist that picks up the trash. some have even teased that maybe the city will start paying me for doing it.
- being single and looking around at all the cute Italian men. I bought some darker glasses and will try not to be so obvious in the future lol.
- having a cute dog that sings and dances. Some people have even asked to see the videos of Yota multiple times. I told my kids he would be really popular if he were to come here.
- Being a hard working serious student of the language and culture. I am obviously working all the time with my head in the books and writing writing writing... In the park, in the cafes, at the beach... everywhere.
- being loving and sensitive by crying over the beautiful and historical sights. Silly me.


I am not popular with everyone though!

I am getting some really hard looks from some of the married women. An example is the couple who own one of the internet cafes. I went in one day and the owner was wearing a sweatshirt with an American flag. I thanked him for making me feel at home and when I went downstairs to use the computers. I heard his wife yelling at him for 10 minutes about me. After that day I walked right past him and spoke to her only. She respects me now, but when she is not there, he gets all giddy and tries very hard to speak to me in english. Another side effect of getting a reputation, I am now getting approached by students who want to practice their english. I love it and I feel honored by that. wow.

Blessings:
- my fellow students. Agnes, of course (France). Rhiannon, (Australia), Giulia (Germany). Evelyn and Rene (Switzerland). George (Australia). Vim (Netherlands). My favorites. We all have one thing in common. We are all foreigners here with a deep love for Italy and the Italian language.
- Rhiannons iTunes music library. we have exchanged music libraries. She had a huge collection of fine Italian music as well as english rock and reggae i did not have too. She likes my music too.
- the Cafe di Giardini. There are 4 internet cafes in this tiny town wow. They all charge the same price, 3€ per hour. the difference is. One is in a bakery with too many temptations. One is in an electronics store that is too clean and quiet. One is in a lottery store with too many smoking loud old men. But my favorite the Cafe di Giardini is in a bar where the youth hang out and they play loud music videos on several large screens. Including rock, blues, reggae and hip hop. I love the crowd and the music.
- a 3 day weekend is coming. i will have more time to rest, update my blog and go to the beach. whooo hooo! I will still find time to study though. I want to retain every bit i can.
- The Blooming Flora. The rains these past few weeks had brought them out in mass and the smell is heavenly

Curses:
- The Blooming Flora. My scent glands may like it but my throat and eyes are itching like CRAZY!
- the students that I fall in love with keep leaving after a week or two. Like Agnes leaving last week, Rhiannon will leave this week. There is a promise that a new group of students is coming in next week. Barbara says they are all beginners and that I will no longer be lowest level student in the class. I may even be the best in class next week or 2!

An unbelievable thing here, I saw my first obese Italian this week, my first American SUV and my first American tourists. I heard their California accent from across the Caffe. They were from Long Beach California. YES i can hear the California accent now, and I did not even think we had one hahahaha.

I have half written 2 more blog updates. So to give you a little preview I will be having a rant on the cars here, a piece on the Italian architecture and I am thinking of doing... a shameless plea for money too lol. OH MY GOD!!! I want to thank all of you that have already made loans to me (Jama, Enzo, Nat ). I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU! And I want to assure you that I have many great ideas and have begun writing a plan of action to make repayment very quickly. I have money coming from British Airways and I also have a firm plan on how to pay for my tuition, apartment, flight and running expenses for next year as well. I can tell now it will take me 4-5 years to reach my goal of fluency in this beautiful language and to pick up all the great cooking techniques as well.

arrivaderci per ora cara amici!