Sono arrivata!

And the adventure begins!

I arrived in Catania, Sicily on the 1st and so far it has been pretty crazy. Sitting on the plane, anxiously waiting for takeoff from Seattle, it hit me that this life experience I had been planning for months had finally arrived. It was not a fable, not some story I told strangers to assure them my life had direction; it was actually happening, and though I had been planning for it, I suddenly realized that I, in fact, had no plan at all. All I knew was that my "job" was to help tutor a family in English while immersing myself in a new culture. I didn't know how much English they knew, what materials I would need to tutor them, I hadn't spoken Italian in nearly two years, and yet here I was. So I took a deep breath, threw caution to the wind, and embraced this new beginning.
First, traveling here was an adventure all on its own. I had two layovers between Seattle and Catania, the first in London and the second in Rome. Now I have done my fair share of international traveling and I love the rush and excitement at the airports. I suppose it is safe to I am a confident traveler; I don't get nervous, I know my way around airports, and I know how to pack for both convenience and necessity. Thus, I confidently set out on my journey. By the time I hit Rome, this confidence began to dissipate. I had been preparing myself for this trip and understood what it would mean, but it was not until I arrived in Rome that I fully realized that I am a foreigner in another country. You may be reading this and thinking to yourself, "Really, Alyssa? You just realized this now?," but let me tell you there is a significant difference between thinking about being in a foreign country and actually physically being there. One becomes acutely aware of this difference when alone. No one was there to share my confusion or frustration, especially dealing with my suitcase. I had flown British Airways from Seattle to Rome, but I was told that once I got to Italy, I would have to make sure the Italian airline checked my bag because it would not automatically transfer over to their system. I am happy to say that I accomplished this simple task. I am not happy to say that my suitcase was still lost for two days however. Let me tell you, there is nothing more pathetic looking than a girl standing by herself in a nearly empty baggage claim, waiting for a bag that clearly is not coming. Okay, maybe there are more pathetic moments in life, but in that moment I felt like a complete fool. It took a while to explain my situation to the baggage clerk, partly because she did not understand why I would be in Sicily for three months and partly because she spoke little English and I little Italian. There is a silver lining to this pathetic tale though: each time the sliding doors exiting the baggage area opened, I could see my host family waiting for me, smiling and waving. I felt relieved that they seemed excited to see me.

Meeting my family was great, but was a little difficult. I wanted to make a good first impression, but I had no luggage (which meant only one change of clothes in my carry-on), I had been awake for nearly 30 hours, and of course, there was a language barrier. Luckily, my program correspondent was there and able to translate for me. So here is what the PLAN is: the daughter, Ida, wants to take a language certification for English in May. She has already taken the Spanish certification because Spanish and Italian are so similar, but she has a hard time studying English by herself. This is where I come in. I will be tutoring her for 15 hours a week and she will tutor me in Italian. Her English is already very good so we will focus mostly on memorizing vocabulary and working on grammar. The same goes for me with Italian. The rest of the time I will spend with the family trying to converse in Italian, learning about their daily life, and traveling. Not too shabby, eh?

The family is lovely. They are very easy-going and fun to be around. I share a room with Ida and thankfully we get along well together. We share a fondness over Disney movies and Titanic (we watched the film in Italian so that I could get used to hearing the language). The mother, Antonella, is a very kind and caring woman. She has already embraced me as another daughter and insists on making my bed and coffee in the morning. This is very strange for me because I am a self-sufficient person and its difficult for me to allow others to do things for me. However, upon watching the family and how they interact with each other, I realized that this is her way of welcoming me into their home; this is how most Italian mammas are.

The language barrier is difficult at times. I have to remind myself that it has only been five days and I'm not going to become fluent in a week, but it is frustrating that I have forgotten much of the grammar I learned two years ago. I am gradually remembering everything as I go and I am beginning to understand the conversation at the dinner table when people talk slowly. This is sometimes impossible though because, much like my own family, everyone talks at once. It becomes almost like white noise to me. Even though the program says its possible I cannot fathom doing this without some knowledge of the host country's language. I find myself at times struggling to explain English words in Italian, or trying to remember Italian verbs/vocab to form a complete sentence. If I only spoke English, I think I would be a mess. That being said, it is a slow process. I have to remind myself not to get discouraged quickly and to remember that my family is probably feeling the same frustrations.

Well, now that I have written a novel practically, I will try to keep future posts shorter.