Xmas, understanding Italian and a cold

Xmas has been and gone. I was invited to Paola's family for Xmas lunch - which was very nice. Very similar to our celebrations of holidays - a lot of excitement, food (stuffed chicken, a spinach pie, a gnocchi soup, and of course, a big panettone (traditional Xmas cake, yeast cake with dried fruit in it) and many more things), and in general a good atmosphere. The prayers at the beginning are obviously different, and we don't really have a holiday where gifts are exchanged so diligently (it must be difficult to find nice and new gifts to give every year). Everyone gives gifts to everyone else. I got some nice infusions to drink (orange and frutti di bosco - fruit of the woods) and a small Xmas cake.

The stores were packed before the holiday - and everywhere gifts were packed very nicely in gold, silver, red and green. The city is decorated - a big Xmas tree (poor tree) is standing in the Duomo square all lit up. lights are hanging everywhere. In the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele the dome is covered with little blue lights (I suppose some pictures would be good here but I haven't taken any... - I found these pictures on flickr taken by a guy named Giorgio http://www.flickr.com/photos/girogio/2098108545/). On the 25th and 26th everything was closed - although flowers could be bought - the streets practically empty. A unique experience in this noisy city.

On Thu. and Friday I went to work. Hardly any phone calls or mail. A good time to throw away stuff I found in my office from 10 years ago. One guy called up to ask what he needs to do if he wants to move to Israel and work there. hmmm.... I explained things to him in Italian - me being the only one there to talk to him. Yes, I can understand and even say things in Italian so people understand. However, it's a struggle. Constantly being in a situation where I'm not sure I've understood what was said, or being sure I chose the right words for my question or answer. In Italian, like in Hungarian, there is a courtesy form - third person, and one has to remember to use it and not the simple - you, like you would in English or Hebrew. My situation here is better than in Hungary - it took me about two years to get to the same level of understanding of Hungarian. Also, here, usually people understand some English so you can say - Vorrei (= I would like) un subscription or parking tickets or whatever and they know what you're talking about. They then go on to answer in Italian but at least if I'm not sure about the initial term I can say it in English. Then you've got to figure out how to use whatever it is you bought. I just bought the Milanese version of an "easy park" machine, but I've got to use a dictionary to figure out how to make it work. I discovered the telephone I bought for home doesn't have an answering machine (Although initially I thought it did - I think I confused it with the telephone numbers' memory...). I keep being worried I won't understand things and probably some of the time I don't so I've got to really push myself to ask for things. Today was the first time I bought things from the dairy inside the supermarket - up until now I only bought things already wrapped. I still remember not finding the ground meat in Hungary - they make it on the spot when you ask for it, you can't just point and say - I want this. So for months I went around with a little piece of paper on which was written how you say - "I would like ground meat" in Hungarian... My next "big" project in this sense will be to buy a GPS for the car. I'm not sure I know the terms regarding this but I hope to figure it out (by the way, if you use a GPS and have recommendations - on a brand or on some feature - do let me know). Another thing that happens to me with languages I don't know too well - I need to really concentrate to understand, so a lot of the time I hear conversations but don't understand, I'm also a lot more aware of the tone of things rather than the content because of this. I remember in Hungary I knew I needed to tune in whenever the words for trade or economics were used, the rest of the time - it was quality time with myself. Italian is closer to English so I'm more aware of what's being said - at least I know what the topic is, and also my Italian is probably better than my Hungarian was (I'm forgetting a lot of it now...) - so I understand more. I hope, with time, my understanding will be better. I probably need to insist at work that I'm talked to in Italian and also answer in Italian but I keep "escaping" and using English. I suppose because I don't want to make mistakes - and there are a lot of mistakes to be made - the Italian grammer is pretty difficult... many tenses and forms some of which I barely understand when you're supposed to use them and how.

and finally, I've got a cold. Nothing major but definitely a cold. I hope it doesn't get much worse on the plane. I'm trying to take it easy so that I feel better before the flight. It's not pleasant to fly with a cold. Sometimes it gets much worse because of the pressure or the temp. or something. I hope not to spend the entire time at home being sick. Looking forward to seeing you. and finally - Happy New Year to everyone.