School’s Out for Summer

School is over, and it was a very bittersweet ending to the year. Along with all of my students, I’m ready for summer and ready to spend my days at the beach rather than in the classroom, but in exchange I’ve had to say goodbye to over 200 students that I will miss more than they know!

Last week was the very emotional week of goodbyes, filled with dinners, parties, and presents.

This class gave me a bracelet made of black lava rock beads, and a Sicilian marionette! The character is Angelica, who is the princess in the Italian epic poems Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso. I was excited about the Angelica puppet both because I took a seminar in college about Italian epic poetry, and because I visited the marionette museum in Palermo in April.

Me and Duccia (far right), another English teacher I worked with, and our class of freshmen

This class gave me a card with their present and wrote: “We hope you’ll remember us forever, and you’ll bring the shadow of our memory among Little Italy’s streets.”

Cue the tears.

“To Gabrielle, in remembrance of a beautiful year together at the Liceo Spedalieri of Catania – the Principal and Colleagues, Catania, June 2012”

At the Liceo Classico, the public school where I taught, they had an awards ceremony for the outstanding students that year, and at the ceremony they presented me with this plaque commemorating our year together. They also made me say something into the microphone in Italian in front of a small crowd of Italian parents and my students who had never heard me speak in Italian before. I was taken by surprise since I didn’t know I was going to speak and only realized it about 5 seconds before the English teacher, Anna, handed me the microphone. I wish I’d had a little more time to prepare myself so that I could have been more eloquent, but I think my students were very entertained by finally hearing me speak in Italian!

Me with Anna, one of the English teachers I worked with

Another class gave me a beautiful pair of ceramic tile earrings with hand-painted Sicilian carts on them.

Sicilian cart earrings from one class and lava rock bracelet from another

Later in the week, there was a big end-of-the-year performance at the Liceo Linguistico, the private school where I taught. In the early evening, my tap class performed, and I was so proud of them! Unfortunately none of us had tap shoes on (I didn’t want them to buy tap shoes just for our short performance, and my tap shoes are at home in New York!) but the performance went very well and I was excited for my students to perform their dance in front of an audience after working on it for so long.

Bringing jazz hands to Sicily

We did a dance called the Shim Sham, which is a traditional tap dance from the days of Vaudeville. It was choreographed in the 1920s, and soon became known as the “tap dance anthem.” After each performer did their separate act on the Vaudeville stage, everyone would come back out and perform the shim sham together at the end of the night. It was a dance that everyone was expected to know, and still today tap shows almost always close with the shim sham. Now there are several 15-year-old Sicilian dancers who are also experts at dancing the shim sham!

Elena, the English teacher I worked with at the Liceo Linguistico

At that school, they brought me up onstage and presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers to thank me for the year. They also asked me to say something into the microphone, and I started out in Italian but then got flustered (big crowd! lots of native Italian speakers!) and they told me to speak in English, and Elena translated for the audience. Phew.

Later in the evening, the high schoolers performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, half in English and half in Italian. The performance was outstanding, and since my parents were still in Catania (they left the following morning) they were able to enjoy it too.

Me with Annalisa, the art history teacher, and a class I worked with in both English and art history

One of my senior classes actually gave me a dress! They gave it to me at school on Friday morning, and Friday night they had their class dinner. Seniors in Italy don’t have any graduation ceremonies – in fact, their big high school exit exams are in late June and July, so they spend the first part of the summer studying like crazy – so each class usually hosts a dinner for their teachers to thank them and to say goodbye. In Italian high schools, teachers change classrooms and not the students, so each class has the same students in it for all 5 years of high school, just like our elementary school classes are the same groups of students, and they become like a family. The final dinner is an opportunity for them to spend one last night together as a class, together with their teachers with whom they’ve spent the past 5 years.

Me with two of my seniors from the Liceo Classico, in the dress that their class gave to me

Seniors at the Liceo Linguistico

The third year students at the Liceo Linguistico also hosted a final dinner. Most classes only host dinners their last year, but this one is a big class and have been hosting a dinner since their first year. This year it was even more emotional for them because four girls are going to spend the next year studying abroad (in America, Argentina, Austria, and Sweden) so there were some goodbyes to be said there as well. This class gave me two fabulous presents – a pair of earrings and matching bracelet of lava rock beads, which perfectly matched the dress my seniors had given me (which yes, I happened to be wearing), and a big Sicilian flag with all of their signatures!

Decked out head-to-toe in presents – earrings, bracelet, and dress!

I feel kind of at a loss when I try to think of a few sentences to sum up my year teaching. It has been such a luxury to enjoy going to work every day, to look forward to seeing my classes and presenting the day’s lesson to them. My students have taught me so much this year, about how to be a better teacher, about Italian and Sicilian culture, and about America and how it’s viewed abroad. Through my experience living in Sicily and struggling to speak Italian everyday, I understand exactly what they grapple with in learning English, and I hope I’ve been able to translate this understanding into compassionate teaching. At the beginning of the year I think I was a little formal with them, since I had to establish a teacher-student relationship before a friendship, and being 5-feet tall and looking like I’m their age doesn’t help with that. But I think I was able to show them my less-formal, silly, relaxed side as well and definitely became friends with many of my students. I do feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of fulfilling the Fulbright mission of cultural exchange and mutual understanding, and I hope I’ve motivated my students to continue studying English and perhaps even study or work in an English-speaking country someday. I will miss them so much!

Some things students wrote to me on cards and on the flag:

“I wanted to thank you for having dedicated your time to always creating interesting discussions! You have a Sicilian spirit. I hope this Sicilian experience will remain forever in your heart!”

“I really admire you for the courage you had to do this experience. I hope you lived it to the fullest and that it will always remain in your heart! You are an example to follow, always cheerful, radiant, and intelligent.”

“Thank you for everything you’ve done during this year of school. I’ve appreciated your personality, your culture, and your presence during the never-ending hours of English. I hope you always remember us when you’re back home. I’ll keep you in my mind!”

“I hope we will be in your heart with Sicily for a looooong time!”

“A goodbye and a kiss from our Sicily. Come back soon.”

“I hope you enjoyed Catania and us 😉 “

“I love you! I hope you will remember me!”

“Can I come visit you in America?”

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Reflections on my Fulbright year

I’ve had my plane ticket from Rome to New York for the end of July for months now, but I procrastinated buying my ticket from Catania to Rome because that would mean I had an end date, and that would mean that I was really leaving. But eventually not having the ticket was stressing me out more than having the ticket, so last night I sucked it up and bought it. July 2nd. There were tears involved. Don’t get me wrong, life isn’t so bad; I’ll be traveling in other parts of Europe for most of July, and once I manage to leave Catania I know I’ll have a wonderful time before flying home. It’s just that the leaving Catania part seems like it will be impossible to do.

Catania’s harbor, with Mount Etna in the distance

This week has been filled with lots of end-of-the-school-year events, which will get a separate blog post, but I also recently submitted my final report for the Fulbright grant. It was a series of open-ended questions that forced me to reflect upon my year and what I’ve learned. At first I was a little resistant to trying to sum up and analyze the experience since it’s not over yet – I still have a few more weeks and I refuse to count down the days so you can calculate that yourselves – but school is winding down and from this point on it’ll mostly be going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and packing up my apartment, so I sat down and made myself look back over the year to try to accurately answer the survey questions. I thought some of the responses might be interesting for others to read, so here is an abbreviated version of some of my answers.

Sledding on Mount Etna

Please comment on your social and cultural adjustments, and describe any challenges and/or problematic intercultural situations. Also comment on the benefits of your grant in terms of personal and professional growth.

My social and cultural adjustments were made easier by the support network of my tutors at both schools, who were all incredibly warm and friendly, and genuinely concerned about making my transition to living in Catania as easy and painless as possible. I was able to go to them with any questions or concerns and they helped me sort out difficulties I had at the bank and at the questura during my first few months living here. In terms of personal growth, I lived in an apartment alone for the first time, which was a freedom and a challenge that I very much enjoyed and feel that I have become more independent and confident in many ways because of it. Having a space that wasn’t shared with roommates also allowed me to have larger groups of friends over for dinner or movie nights, which had a significant positive influence on my social and cultural life here. In terms of professional growth, my fluency in Italian has improved tremendously and I feel confident discussing any topic and encountering (almost) any difficult situation in Italian. I also learned a lot about being a teacher and the challenges and rewards of this career, by being in a classroom every day with very capable and nurturing mentors.

Me with Alessandra, Alessandro, and Alessandro on my terrace after a Sicilian barbecue (“arrusti e mangia”) – make friends that have the same name and you’ll never forget their names!

Another “arrusti e mangia” in my kitchen.

In what ways do your feel that your language skills have improved or changed as a result of your Fulbright experience? 

Speaking with friends in Italian on a daily basis and conducting daily life tasks in Italian has really made me feel fluent in the language. I know that I don’t always speak with perfect grammar or tenses, but I feel confident that I can explain or describe or recount nearly anything, about any topic, to anyone. I did not feel that confident in my linguistic abilities before I came here. My accent has also improved tremendously and I know that while it is immediately clear that I’m not a native Italian speaker, it isn’t immediately clear that I am an American from my accent in Italian. Now after 8 months in Catania, people tell me I have a Sicilian accent and cadence when I speak, and it makes me very proud to feel like I’ve truly immersed myself and absorbed not only the culture but the language as well.

My friend from choir who considers himself my running coach. Trying to converse in Italian while running 9-minute miles is surprisingly effective for improving fluency.

Discuss activities, apart from your research or study, in which you participated during your grant period. For example, volunteer work, community organizations or groups, sports or social clubs, etc.

I participated in a local choir of university-age students, which by far had the biggest positive affect on my Fulbright experience. I became close friends with many of the choir members, and they took me to do many cultural activities in Catania. Together we went to an opera, to a soccer game, to the Feast of Sant’Agata, to Mount Etna in the snow, to the beach, and we also did many dinner parties, some in which they taught me Italian recipes and some in which I taught them American ones. With the choir, I also had the opportunity to perform in different venues in Catania, including a seminar about Sant’Agata, Christmas masses, and even a wedding.

Choir concert in February

Please describe briefly your study or research program. Discuss the adequacy of educational facilities and the availability of research materials. Were you able to complete your work? Were you able to implement any innovative ideas?

As an ETA, I feel that I adequately fulfilled the expectations of the grant by sharing my American culture and language with my students. In addition to our regular English lessons throughout the year, in which I incorporated popular songs, literature, and movies, I also did two unique projects. The first was in conjunction with the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) initiative, in which I taught art history in English separately to some classes that I was working with in their English lessons. In these art history lessons we not only discussed new vocabulary about describing art and sculpture, but I presented different periods and works of American art that are not usually covered in Italian art history curricula. I also taught a tap dance class in English, because I studied tap dance extensively growing up and taught a tap class in college, and my tutor and I thought it would be an exciting and different experience for the students to learn a traditional American dance form in English.

A tap rehearsal with my second-year high school students

Describe your host affiliation(s). Comment on your professional relationships with (a) the host affiliation (b) Deans or department heads, and (c) faculty associate or supervisor?

I feel very fortunate to have been placed at the schools where I worked this year. The teachers I worked with were truly incredible. They were warm, welcoming, open-minded, helpful, and always open to my input and suggestions. They really tried to mentor me and help me grow as a teacher while helping me do what was best for their students. They also tried to gear their lessons to my strengths, and allowed me to not only teach English but also do several hours each week of art history in English, in conjunction with the CLIL initiative, since I studied art history as well as Italian in college. I had a wonderful experience in both schools and am envious of future ETAs who get to work with them!

Party for Carnevale at one of my high schools, with the theme of “Around the World”

What advice could you provide about conducting research or study in your host country that could also apply to future grantees? 

Don’t spend all of your time with other Americans. Had there been other Fulbrighters in Catania I might have taken the easy way and spent most of my time with them, but instead I had to go out into the community to make friends, and this was the defining element of my Fulbright experience. Definitely take advantage of the Fulbright network while you’re abroad; I went to visit other Fulbrighters in other cities and several visited me in Catania, so I certainly did spend time with Americans throughout the year. But if I hadn’t made a constant effort to form friendships with Sicilians my age in Catania, I would have missed out on so many incredible experiences and incredible people. Make an effort to step outside your comfort zone and join a club , join a sports team, go to University events – just get out there and meet people who aren’t American.

A Carnevale party that some friends threw, which centered around a gigantic jar of Nutella someone had given them as a present. What better excuse to throw a party?

Study Italian before you come to Italy and be willing and eager to speak it as often as possible. Don’t assume that people will speak English; they may or they may not, but they will be delighted to help you speak Italian, and always appreciative of your efforts. Moreover, you are the person abroad, and you should be the person who feels slightly ill-at-ease linguistically; it is part of the experience. You will be doing yourself an extreme disservice if you speak in English, not only for your linguistic growth but also because there is no way you can fully enter into the culture of a place without conversing with people in their mother tongue. People are naturally more comfortable and at ease in their mother tongue, especially in group settings. Interacting with people in Italian will make the difference between you feeling like an American abroad, and feeling like a member of your Italian community.

An afternoon snack of briocsina tomarchio, a Sicilian cake a bit like a cross between a pound cake and a muffin, with nutella

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Siena and the Tuscan Countryside

First, the big news: I got my hair cut yesterday! It hasn’t been this short since I was 7 years old. I’d been wanting a short, low-maintenance summer hairstyle for a while now and I finally worked up the courage to do it. And I’m so glad I did! Here are two very low-quality and slightly awkward photos I took of myself in the mirror at the hair salon. They’re not the best, but they’ll give you an idea:

Also, I found out this morning that one of my fourth year students got selected for a very prestigious and competitive scholarship program sponsored by the U.S. Dept of State at UNC this summer. High school students from all over the world gather for a month of conferences about political, economic, and international affairs issues, and travel to other cities on the east coast as well. I nominated her and wrote her recommendation letter for the program (the first time I ever wrote one of those…boy was that surreal) and it wasn’t even guaranteed that a student from Italy would be selected. I feel like a proud mama!

 And now back to our scheduled programming.

After our Easter festivities in Florence on Sunday, we took a train to Monteroni d’Arbia,  a small town in the Tuscan hills outside Siena where Samantha’s boyfriend Gabriele lives. The next morning, Sam and I woke up early to go for a run. It was shockingly cold (about 40˚) but the sun was shining and the view was incredible.

I’ve been running on city streets for so long that it doesn’t even faze me anymore. But let me tell you, running in the Tuscan countryside in the morning sun is pretty much as good as it gets. (The hills, though, were killer.)

After our run, Gabriele drove us all into Siena, taking the long scenic route through the countryside. I was very excited to see Siena again because I had spent 5 weeks there in 2007 doing an intensive Italian language program, and hadn’t been back since. It did not let me down.

Siena’s skyline, viewed from just outside the city walls.

Carly, me, and Sam in Siena’s main square, the Piazza del Campo.

Siena’s town hall.

The Piazza del Campo is shell-shaped and is famous for the Palio, a medieval horse race held twice every summer. The Palio that I went to in 2007 was the one filmed for the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace – we even waved to Daniel Craig in the piazza!

Siena’s Cathedral

I made Sam pose for me and smile at the Duomo so that I could capture the reflection in her sunglasses. Isn’t this photo adorable?

Siena’s cathedral is very unique and zebra-striped.

We got lunch at a tiny trattoria that Gabriele took us to, where we ordered authentic Sienese fare. I got pici with wild boar ragù sauce and Carly got papardelle with rabbit sauce, naturally paired with the house red wine. After lunch, we got gelato (you knew that was coming, didn’t you?) and with our bellies quite full, we wandered to a nearby park and soaked up the view of the surrounding countryside.

We sat down on the jungle gym, where all four of us fell asleep in the sun. We were woken up when a little girl came over and shouted to her mother that there were people on the jungle gym…sorry, kid!

In the afternoon we trekked up the hill to the church of San Domenico, where the remains of Saint Catherine of Siena lie. Well actually, only her head and right thumb are in Siena; the rest of her is in a church in Rome, where she was killed in 1380.

Wikipedia can recount the story better than I can:

“The people of Siena wished to have St. Catherine’s body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: Knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag. When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to St Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Due to this story, St Catherine is often seen holding a rose. The incorruptible head and thumb were entombed in the Basilica of San Domenico, where they remain.^[15]“

Creepy, right? I can tell you that seeing her preserved head and thumb is even more creepy. There were no photos allowed, but I don’t think a photo could have done it justice anyway.

The Church of San Domenico

Siena’s Cathedral viewed from San Domenico

Sienese treats in a shop window

That evening, Gabriele’s parents invited us to have dinner at their house. We were still stuffed from lunch, but when an Italian mother invites you for a meal, you accept with nothing less than joyous anticipation. Because you know it’s guaranteed to be a fantastic meal.

Needless to say, Gabriele’s mother fed us very well. We ate risotto with leeks, wild boar and roe deer (a small species of deer common in Tuscany), fennel salad, peas, Chianti wine, and cake topped with pine nuts. She also served us two types of liquors that she made herself, cedrina (lemon verbena) and limoncello cream liquor. She gave me the recipe to make the lemon verbena liquor, which I will definitely try when I get back to the states! (Recipe at bottom of post.)

It was also fun to chat with Gabriele’s parents, who were very warm and welcoming. They compete in ballroom dance competitions, so Carly and I had fun talking with them about dance. They also have a very strong Tuscan accent (its most distinctive feature is that all hard “c” sounds are pronounced as “h”) which I hadn’t heard since I did the summer program in Siena in 2007. They also told me that I had a Sicilian accent! I was really amused and delighted, because it’s still very hard for me to hear the subtle differences between Italian accents. I can recognize that accents are different but it’s very hard to say in what way, or to imitate them, or pinpoint where they’re from. Most of all, I was flattered because it means I don’t sound overwhelmingly American when I speak, which is mostly what I’m going for!

The next morning, we took the train back to Florence. Carly and I went to see an exhibit at the Palazzo Strozzi called Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists. Maybe it was geared towards all of the American tourists and college students in Florence, but from an art historical point of view I thought it was really interesting to see the art produced by Americans who visited and lived in Florence, and to see how their time spent in Italy influenced their art back in America. After the exhibit we went to the leather market, and then got some pizza (bet you thought I was going to say gelato, didn’t you) before hopping on the train to Turin.

Cedrina (Lemon Verbena liquor) – from Gabriele’s mother

Ingredients:

• 1 liter water
• 1 liter pure alcohol
• 2 lemons (only the rinds)
• 500-700 grams of sugar
• 1 handful of lemon verbena leaves, from the month of October (about 120 leaves)

Put all of the ingredients in a container (Gabriele’s mother used a large glass bowl with a glass cover) and let sit. After 40 days, filter and pour into a bottle.

 

**Also note that there is now a recipes tab at the top of this page to make it easy to find all the recipes I’ve posted!**

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Six Months in Sicily

Today marks my six month anniversary of living in Sicily, so I thought I’d take some time to reflect on the past half a year, probably the most incredible six months of my life so far.

Everywhere I go, there’s a new and even more breathtaking view of Mount Etna.

 

On Monday, October 3rd I landed in Catania, jet-lagged and overwhelmed, but staunchly optimistic and determined to jump right in. (On Tuesday, October 4th, about 18 hours after arriving and still in a haze of jet-lag and culture shock, I went to school and introduced myself to some of my English classes.) I really had no idea what my life in Sicily would be like, and I had spent countless hours worrying that I wouldn’t have a good time. Just ask Emily, my friend from college who was the English teaching assistant in Catania last year. Soon after she got back to New York in July we met up for dinner at Whole Foods. I was so stressed out that I literally burst out crying at the table, because I didn’t know if I wanted to go to Sicily. Now, there was never a moment when I actually considered not going, but I had let anxiety get the best of me. I was worried I wouldn’t make friends, I wouldn’t remember how to speak Italian, I wouldn’t find a good place to live, and I’d miss New York City like crazy and be counting down the days until I got back home.

Miraculously, none of that happened.

I’d hoped it wouldn’t, that I would be deliriously happy in Sicily and never want to leave, but I was skeptical. When I studied abroad in Bologna in the fall of 2008 I did get painfully homesick (or rather, New York-sick, and if you live in New York you can probably understand the subtle difference) and I did count down the days until my flight home. I never really felt settled in Bologna, but rather that I was just passing through.

If you told me six months ago that I wouldn’t want to leave Sicily, I might not have believed you. But now, with only three months left, the thought of leaving is enough to give me a minor panic attack. Somehow, despite my initial fears, I’ve made a life here. I joined a choir and made wonderful friends. I love the teachers and the students that I’m lucky enough to work with every day. I have a beautiful apartment all to myself, with a gorgeous sunny terrace where I can eat lunch al fresco and listen to the birds chirp and occasionally jump out of my skin as a lizard dashes out from between the plants. I live right by the market with rows of vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables every day, and I even have a fruit guy and a vegetable guy that both know who I am and give me 50 cent discounts (or so they say) and throw in an extra fennel or orange every now and then.

I even have a park with trees and a circular path to run on, only a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Not even NYC can offer me that! (Unless someone has an apartment on Central Park West for rent, in which case, please contact me immediately.)

 

I’m already anticipating a post-Sicily rut and have taken action to proactively prevent that – yesterday morning I registered to run my first half marathon in the fall! Eleanor (my Fulbrighter running buddy who did the 10K with me in Milan) and I will be running the Hamptons Half Marathon on September 29th. At first I was a little intimidated by the thought of training to run 13.1 miles amidst the inevitable whirlwind of jet-lag, culture shock, and what-am-I-doing-with-my-life post-Fulbright panic, but then Eleanor pointed out that this would be a good way to focus my energy on something concrete, and hit the ground running when I get back. (All credit goes to Eleanor for the pun.) And I realize that worrying about a post-Sicily rut is pointless because last year I was wasting time worrying about living in Sicily, and things turned out far better than I could have ever imagined. Hopefully next fall I’ll find a wonderful job right away and everything will be sunshine and daisies. But regardless of what happens when I get back stateside, in another six months, I’ll have completed a half marathon!

Nine months seems like an interminably long time when you’re at the beginning looking forward. Now, with only three months left, it feels like the downhill of a roller-coaster, picking up speed every day, and all I want to do is slow it down. But the best is yet to come – summer in Sicily, and my birthday in a month and a half! I’m planning on leaving Catania at the end of June, but I’ll still have almost a full month of traveling ahead of me before my flight to JFK on July 26th, so I’m trying to live in the moment as much as I can and not think about leaving until I absolutely have to.

Yup, I’m going to miss this group. Moltissimo.

In the words of the sagacious Scarlett O’Hara, “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

Or maybe not even until July 25th.

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Happy International Women’s Day!

March 8th is International Women’s Day! Even though the first International Women’s Day was apparently celebrated in the US in 1909 following a declaration of the Socialist Party of America, it’s not really observed in the US today. It is, however, widely celebrated in most Eastern European countries (primarily those belonging to the former Soviet Union), and in Western Europe and the UK as well. It’s also the United Nations’ Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosa flowers to women. It’s not a romantic gesture, but a way to honor and acknowledge the women in their lives, and the tradition has evolved so that now women sometimes give mimosas to each other as well. My Italian professors in college always had little bunches of mimosas to give to the female students on March 8th. This morning one of the boys in my second-year class brought in mimosas for all of the girls in the class – what a gentleman!

Roberto and the ladies, with our mimosas.

Me and Elena, one of the English teachers I work with, after teaching a lesson about how to describe paintings.

If you want to know more about how the day is celebrated in Italy, take a look at this article from lifeinitaly.com. To all the amazing women in my life – have a wonderful day!

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Soccer, S’mores, and Squid Ink Pasta

Last weekend, I went to see Catania’s soccer team play. I’d been to soccer games in Bologna, when I spent a semester there in college, and in Madrid (Atlético Madrid, not Real Madrid, the more famous team), and I wanted to go to a game in Sicily too, because soccer is such an integral part of Italian culture. Being with the fans is half the fun of being at any sporting event…and I knew that Sicilian soccer fans would not disappoint.

In the stadium, there are two sections that always call and chant to each other: the north curve and the south curve. Sort of like the Bleacher Creatures in Yankee Stadium in that they’re the rowdiest of fans, and take pride in which section they’re a part of, since they always go to the same one. We were sitting to the right of the south curve section. The whole section stood up and sang chants for the entire game, and the man on the far left of this photo had his back to the field and didn’t watch the game, just conducted the group. Apparently he comes to every game just for that, not to watch the players! The two sides usually insult the opposing team, but this game was against Genoa, which is a sister team of Catania, so instead they just insulted Palermo, because why not? (Catania is sicily’s second biggest city, after Palermo, and there is a big rivalry between the two.) Needless to say, I was treated to some very colorful Sicilian insults that my friends then translated into Italian for me. Another thing I found interesting was that whistling is the equivalent of booing or hissing in Italian culture – there were both boos and whistles when the Genoa team came onto the field.

When Catania made a goal, this showed up on the screen: Gol, spelled like Italians would pronounce it, without the “a”!

Even though the city is “Genova” in Italian, the team is called “Genoa” because it was founded by a Brit. Same with the team “Milan,” except they pronounce it “MEE-lahn” instead of “muh-LAHN.”

“Calcio Catania” – Catania soccer

Catania won 4-0, which I was told is an exceptional score for soccer (and Catania in particular) that I’m not likely to see again anytime soon. We were also lucky because it was bright and sunny for most of the game. You can even see Mount Etna from the stadium!

At school last week, some of my students who come to the optional weekly conversation classes wanted to have an “American party” with American food you can’t find in Italy. One of the girls has a family friend who works at the US Navy base nearby, so I gave her a list of some quintessential American junk foods and she managed to get most items on the list. We blasted some Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars music and had ourselves an American party.

Good ol’ Amurrrican junk food: Cherry Coke, Bugles, Cheetos, Cheez-Its, Doritos, Twinkies, Ho-Hos, coffee cakes, and ingredients for s’mores (graham crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows)

They loved everything, but the winners were Cherry Coke (which they had tried in France on a school trip last year, and specifically requested), Doritos, Ho-Hos, and marshmallows. I hadn’t realized it, but American marshmallows are very different from Italian marshmallows, which are artificially colored and even more fake-tasting than our marshmallows. Many of my students said they hated Italian marshmallows and couldn’t believe how incredible American marshmallows are. (Ah, yes. My work here is done.)

I had hoped to use the school’s microwave to make s’mores (not quite as authentic as a campfire, but still delicious; there’s even a recipe for microwaved s’mores on the marshmallow bag!) but we ended up not being able to use the microwave. Instead, two very resourceful girls took out their lighters and we toasted the marshmallows that way! It didn’t really work, but they got the idea, as well as that tantalizing burning sugar smell which is so integral to the s’mores experience.

I also started teaching a tap class last week! In a completely unrelated discussion, I told the English teacher at that school that I’ve taken tap dance since I was 7 years old, and taught tap in college and co-founded a tap group, Vassar On Tap. She was delighted and said that I had to teach a tap class in English to the students. I taught the first basic tap class to a group of very excited second-year students, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun! None of us have tap shoes (mine are back in New York, since I never thought I’d have use for them in Sicily) but I’m hoping we can do some sort of performance at the end of the school year.

This afternoon I went to lunch with one of the art history teachers I work with and her family. She took me to a very authentic local family-run restaurant that makes old Catanese recipes, mostly fish dishes. She wanted me to try spaghetti al nero di seppia – spaghetti with black squid ink! It’s a traditional Sicilian dish, cooked differently on both sides of the island, and since I’m not squeamish at all when it comes to food (as evidenced by the horsemeat sandwich I ate during the Feast of Saint Agatha) I was up for trying anything considered authentically Sicilian.

It was actually delicious – very oily but a much milder taste than I’d expected. Really not fishy at all; to me, seafood pasta with tomato sauce has a much stronger seafood taste. It does make your mouth black though – my napkin had black lip marks all over it, as if I’d been wearing black lipstick!

Below are photos from a few weeks ago when I went to visit the library at the Benedictine Monastery (now a university building) with one of the high school art history classes.

They had an exhibit of paintings done by a contemporary Catanese artist depicting what Catania looked like in the mid-17th century, before it was destroyed by an earthquake and a volcanic eruption, and subsequently rebuilt in the Baroque style. The artist did extensive research to try to represent the buildings and streets as accurately as possible.

Piazza Duomo

Castello Ursino

Today the castle is not on the coast, but much farther inland.

A painting done by a different artist representing the Feast of Saint Agatha processions.

I realized a few days ago that this past week was my midway point – I am halfway through my Fulbright grant! What a bittersweet realization that was. I am having such a wonderful time here and although I do get nostalgic every now and then, and wish I could teleport myself back to New York for a day or two, I know that the next 4.5 months will go by even faster than the last 4.5 months, and I will be very sad to leave Sicily when my grant is over!

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Eating (and other adventures) with Eleanor

My fellow Fulbrighter Eleanor’s visit to Catania continued about two and a half days after the Festa di Sant’Agata, so I felt it was my duty to fill those days with every other delicious Sicilian food she hadn’t yet tried, and interesting sights as well. She had already gotten an arancino alla catanese, a rice ball made with tomatoes, cheese, and eggplant from Savia:

(Not my photo, but this is the place that sells the BEST arancini and cannoli in Catania, Bar Savia.)

We had also gotten torrone from one of the candy stands set up for Sant’Agata. The typical torrone is a chewy block of nougat with nuts in it. Sicilian torrone is different; it’s still made with nuts (we got the classic one, almond) but it’s a solid block of dark caramel candy. On this page you see what it looks like while it’s being made: they mix the steaming hot syrup with almonds on marble slabs at their candy stands, and then spread it out and slice it into bricks. On this page you can see what it looks like in solid form, broken into pieces. It’s not chewy at all and nearly impossible to cut.

We woke up mid-afternoon on the 6th, after having stayed up all night to watch the closing fireworks show of the Festa di Sant’Agata and returning home a little before 6am, and we headed out to the see the Castello Ursino, Catania’s 13th century castle that now houses the city’s civic museum.

That night, a few of my friends came over for dinner since I had told them I wanted Eleanor to try a real Catanese pasta alla norma, Catania’s signature pasta dish (named for Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma, since Bellini was from Catania). Instead of making the recipe from scratch in my kitchen, Simone had his grandmother prepare all the ingredients at home, and we assembled it in my kitchen. I still made them explain the process to me though, so I could write it down! (Recipe at the end of this post.)

For dessert we had sfincione, a larger version of crispelle di riso, a typical Sicilian dessert of sweet rice, fried and coated in granulated sugar, then drizzled with honey.

Alessandra and Alessandro tearing the fried eggplant slices into strips.

Simone tossing the pasta with the tomato sauce.

Top with shredded ricotta salata cheese, pair with a robust Sicilian red wine…

Buon Appetito!

Pasta alla Norma is spaghetti with tomato sauce, basil, fried (NOT breaded) eggplant, and ricotta salata cheese.

On Tuesday morning Eleanor came to school with me. I wanted to give my students an opportunity to talk to another American, who’s also interested in Italy and living abroad this year, but doing a very different Fulbright project. (She is doing research in Bologna on Italy and Russia and the oil trade.) Also, she’s from Ohio and went to college in Pittsburgh, so she had a very different American experience than I did growing up in New York City. My students really enjoyed her photos of college football games and deep-fried buckeyes at the Ohio State Fair, and hearing about her impressions of Catania after living in northern Italy. After classes, we took a walk around the city.

Catania’s seal in University Square: the elephant, the symbol of the city, and the letters S.P.Q.C. which stand for “Senatus Populusque Catanensium” in Latin, or “the senate and the people of Catania.”

All of Catania’s streets are paved with lava rock from Mount Etna.

The “A” is for Agata

Inside the Cathedral – the candelore were still on display after the Festa di Sant’Agata.

We indulged in the best cannoli in Catania, from Bar Savia: a classic cannolo with a creamy ricotta filling in a light, crunchy shell, with chopped pistachio and covered in powdered sugar.

Two heavenly cannoli = two happy girls.

Banners from the Festa di Sant’Agata were still hung around the main square.

That night, we went to one of the best seafood restaurants in Catania for dinner. We ordered a mixed appetizer of lots of small seafood dishes, and shared spaghetti with clams for our main course. Dessert was lemon sorbet with fragoline, tiny strawberries that I’ve only seen in Sicily. (Maybe they’re called something else in English?)

The next day we visited two nearby scenic seaside towns, Aci Trezza and Aci Castello.

The marina in Aci Trezza

The big rock formations in the water are said to be the stones thrown at Odysseus in ‘The Odyssey’

From Wikipedia: “Off the coast of Aci Trezza are three tall, column-shaped islands. According to local legend, these great stones are the ones thrown at Odysseus in The Odyssey. The islands are referred to as the “isole dei ciclopi” (islands of the Cyclops, or Cyclopean Isles) by locals. This compliments the notion that the Cyclops once had a smithy below Mount Etna, which looms over the village to the northwest.”

In front of the Islands of the Cyclops

Aci Castello‘s 11th century Norman castle on the foundations of a 7th century Byzantine fortification.

We got lunch in Aci Trezza and for dessert Eleanor and I shared granita, a typical Sicilian ice/sorbet eaten with a brioche roll and whipped cream. We had pistachio and chocolate granita. Sicilians are very proud of their granita; it’s made nearly everywhere in Italy, but they claim that theirs is incomparable. It even varies within Sicily; on the west coast and in Palermo, it’s made of chunkier ice, and in the east, where Catania is, it’s nearly as smooth as sorbet.

Recipe for Simone’s grandmother’s Pasta alla Norma

Ingredients: spaghetti, eggplant, jar of tomato sauce, ricotta salata cheese, fresh basil, one clove of garlic

Slice eggplant thinly and fry with a lot of olive oil until golden. (If there is time, let slices soak in salted water with a heavy plate pressing down on them, before frying. If there’s not enough time, go straight to the frying.) Then cut eggplant slices into smaller pieces. Heat tomato sauce with the garlic clove (whole, not chopped), a bit of olive oil, and basil, until flavors blend together. Cook spaghetti.* Toss cooked spaghetti with the tomato sauce and eggplant and divide onto plates. Grate ricotta salata on top of each portion. Serve immediately.

*The Sicilians I’ve cooked with have added salt to the pasta water not before boiling, but right after adding the pasta to the water. And my goodness, they use a lot of salt! Maybe it’s just the friends I’ve been cooking with, but Eleanor and I were both aghast at the amount of salt they boisterously threw into the pot.

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A bit about teaching

So far I’ve mostly blogged about my exciting adventures traveling, cooking, and sight-seeing, and I realized I haven’t written much about my time in the classroom. Each week I go to two different high schools and do lessons in English language and American culture with 11 different classes. In Italy, there are different types of high schools, which focus on different subject matters. While in America most high schools are large and offer a wide range of elective classes so that students can create their own programs, in Italy students have to choose what type of high school education they want when they’re in their last year of middle school. (It’s very similar to what my high school decision was like, since I grew up in a city where there are a lot of options for specialized high schools within the public school system; I went to a performing arts high school and studied musical theater in addition to all the normal required subjects like English, math, science, etc.)

The public school I teach at is a liceo classico, where the focus is on classical studies, including Latin, Greek, history and philosophy. The private school I teach at is a liceo linguistico, which instead focuses on languages, which at this school are English, French, German, and Spanish. Other common high schools are liceo scientifico (focus on math and science), liceo delle scienze umane (focus on humanities), and less common are liceo artistico (visual arts), liceo musicale (instrumental music), and liceo coreutico (dance). I consider myself very lucky to have been placed in a liceo linguistico and a liceo classico because the students have chosen a more humanities-focused education than a science one, which means that their main interests are liberal arts-based. Most of my students are interested in improving their English skills and learning about American culture, which is great for me!

A posed picture we took for the school’s website – why yes, that IS a crucifix on the wall behind me! The building that houses the private school is owned by the Ursuline Sisters, an order of nuns in Catania. 

Another difference is that high school in Italy is 5 years, so my classes of seniors are really the age of college freshman. The difference between the linguistic abilities between the 13 and 18 year olds is astounding, and I sometimes wish I could come back when my current 1st and 2nd year students are 5th-years, to hear them speak English. (Maybe I will!) There is also a big difference in what activities and discussions best engage them – most my 4th and 5th year classes want to talk about difficult topics like politics, immigration, and the economy, while I’ve found that doing games, skits, and songs works best in my younger classes.

I also teach two classes a week of art history in English at the liceo classico and about once a month at the liceo linguistico. In Italy, the students don’t change classes, the teachers do. It’s like our American elementary schools in that the same group of students stays together for all classes. So the two art history classes I teach are with the same groups of students I do English lessons with earlier in the week. Up to this point my lessons have included Caravaggio, Van Gogh, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and Rococo vs. Neoclassicism. Teaching art history has been a lot more fun than I expected, and the students really like learning terms in English and trying to convey their thoughts about style and meaning in English. They’re also really amused when they struggle to find the translation for a word, and it turns out to be almost the same in English. Still to come are lessons on 20th-century American artists and architects, hopefully including Jackson Pollock, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Edward Hopper.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night

The U.S. Capitol Building, one of the most prominent examples of Neoclassical architecture in America.

At the liceo linguistico, in addition to my English classes I also do a few sections of optional conversation classes which we’ve called the “Speaking Club.” This has been really fun because it’s a chance to talk about lighter things with the students who really want to practice their English. Some of our topics have included bucket lists, superstitions, allowance, and travel.

Before beginning my Fulbright, I planned to use this year of teaching to try to decide whether or not teaching is something that I want to pursue as a career. While I’ve taught both English and Italian before to many different ages in many different settings, this is the first time I’m doing it full-time (well, not full-time by American standards, I have 16 hours of classes a week) and for an extended period of time. And I’m really enjoying it. It’s very exciting for me when students get excited about what we’re discussing, or when something clicks for them and I can tell that they get it. It’s sort of a false impression of teaching though because I get to do all of the fun parts of teaching and very few of the not-so-fun; while I do have to plan lessons, they’re lessons that are more conversation- and culture-focused, not grammar or essays. I work with their full-time classroom teachers, so I never have to discipline or reprimand them, there’s always someone else in the room to do that. While I discuss their progress with the teachers I work with and have input on their grades, I don’t have to give final grades or grade papers and essays. Nevertheless, I do think it gives me a good idea of the daily trials and tribulations of being a teacher, and I hope to have a good idea of whether or not I want to be a teacher by the time my grant ends in June.

If you’ve made it this far, here’s your reward: my bio page on the liceo linguistico‘s website.

Not about teaching but about current events, This is an op-ed article from about a week ago by the Italian journalist Beppe Severgnini, who has written a lot of books in English. It’s about how the rest of the world sees Italy and why the country has a tendency towards theatrics that often make the international front pages. (Think Costa Concordia, EU debt, and Berlusconi.) It’s a quick read, and excellently summarizes the Italian mentality and the country’s struggles today.

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A Very Busy November

It’s been a very busy November so far. This past week I moved into a new apartment in a central part of Catania, so most of my time has been consumed with settling in and setting up house. Before I moved, I wanted to thank the family I stayed with for my first month and a half here by cooking them lunch on Sunday, the most important meal of the week. Their father is an excellent cook so I really wanted this meal to be great, and I wanted to make something very American. I decided to make beef chili and cornbread drop biscuits, and snickerdoodle cookies for dessert. (Side note: it is impossible to find cream of tartar, an essential ingredient in snickerdoodle cookies, in Italy! After asking people about it and getting a range of perplexed and disgusted responses when I said I wanted to make cookies – they thought I was asking about tartar sauce – I finally found it when I went to the Navy base a few weeks ago.)

Beef chili with greek yogurt (instead of sour cream, which you also can’t really find in Italy)

Cornmeal drop biscuits

Snickerdoodles!

Monday was Elena’s birthday (one of the English teachers I work with) and a bunch of the teachers at school all went out to have a birthday tea with her:

I’ve been exploring my new neighborhood a bit, and one of my favorite things is that there’s a fruit and vegetable market closeby, so I can buy fresh produce, as well as chicken, meat, and fish, but I haven’t worked up the nerve to do that yet. I think I’m going to take a local with me first, to show me exactly which stands to buy from! There are also all kinds of dairy products at the market, as well as nuts, dried fruits, and freshly ground spices.

There’s a particular form of cauliflower that grows only in the Mount Etna region. Because of the volcanic soil, the top is purple, but it’s different from purple cauliflower that grows elsewhere in the world. The bottom is white, just like normal cauliflower, but turns light green when it’s cooked. I think the taste is a little more bitter and less bland than cauliflower elsewhere.

My new apartment is not far from Piazza Duomo – this is the view at night:

This week was also very busy because the U.S. Consulate General from Naples came to Catania, and since the Fulbright is a government-sponsored program, he came to our schools to visit. We had students prepare presentations on things they’ve done in class with me so far (presentations on American regions, art history related to two Thanksgiving paintings, a debate related to the Occupy Wall Street movement, to name a few) and then the Consulate General talked about Thanksgiving and his personal relationship with the holiday. It was really interesting to hear (he comes from Florida, from a big Southern African-American family, so it was great for my students to hear a different American perspective and also a different English accent), and when he talked about how Americans are very mobile but everyone goes home for Thanksgiving and spends time with their families, it made me really homesick! But that’s okay, because I have exciting Thanksgiving plans…more below.

With a few of my 4th-year students (high school is 5 years in Italy so they’re the age of American seniors, but still have one more year of high school after this)

In the afternoon, the Consulate General and I were invited to speak on the University of Catania’s radio station, Radio Zammù, about the Fulbright program and my experience as an English teaching assistant in Catania so far. It was all in Italian, so that was a little nerve-wracking, but it ended up being really fun.

On Thursday morning bright and early (you’ll probably still be awake in the eastern time zone) I’m leaving for Bologna for Thanksgiving! I studied there for a semester my junior year of college, so even though I don’t know any Americans studying there now I know the director of the program. Every year they have a big Thanksgiving dinner for all the students, so I thought it would be fun to join them and celebrate the holiday with other Americans. I’ll be staying with another Fulbrighter who’s doing a research grant in Bologna, so we’re planning to tour around the city a bit as well. So excited for turkey and pumpkin pie and to be in Bologna again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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