My Au Pair family is wonderful! They are very friendly and welcoming. In fact, the other night Marco (the father) was on the phone. I'm not sure who he was talking to, but I heard him mention my name so I glanced up. He then spoke in English and said, "She is like a part of our family!"
The parents, Marco and Chiara, are some of the sweetest people. Marco doesn't speak English as well as Chiara, but he really tries. He told me that he is very happy when I can understand what he is saying. But often times he has to refer to Chiara to translate a word. Sometimes she just laughs at him and says, "What are you trying to say?!". Once the daughter said something to me in Italian. I asked Marco what she had said. He paused for a moment and said, "Umm, uhh, she said you are very beautiful!" He had no idea how to translate it, so he just made that up! Marco uses the word marvelous a lot. He says it about everything! "Ah, it was a marvelous cake, marvelous town, marvelous wall, etc." Chiara is very funny. When we talked about my Elephant accident she said, "What scared your elephant? A mouse?!" Hahaha Surprisingly, that's the first time I've heard that one!
The children are Giorgia (4) and Mattia (2). They are adorable kids, with quite the personalities. The first night I arrived Giorgia attempted to take photos of me, except she never turned the camera on. She did however make me pose all around the house, while "snapping" photos and trying to figure out how the camera worked. Out at dinner the other night a woman was eating with us who had a deeper voice. I even took notice of it, but of course said nothing. The woman said something to Giorgia about liking her tutu. Giorgia said, "You are not a lady with that voice!" This was all spoken in Italian and later translated to me by Chiara. Let's just hope that the woman did not hear that! Giorgia also loves to sing. She goes around the house singing, "Ah Ah Ahhh, Ah Ah Ahhh!" from The Little Mermaid. She also sings, "Aurora!" from Sleeping Beauty. Speaking of Disney Princesses, Giorgia tried teaching me how to say their names in Italian. However, we had issues when it came to Aurora. I cannot roll my R's, which is of course necessary when saying "Aurora". Every time I would repeat her she would laugh and say, "Nooo! Aurora!" (with the rolled R's) I got Snow White down though! "Bianca Neve". After I said that Giorgia replied, "Si! Brava!!".
Mattia doesn't speak much but calls me Mama along with everyone else. When he's in a bad mood he doesn't want to be bothered. But when he's well rested, he likes me. He likes to cuddle while watching movies and loves for me to help him with his Cars puzzle. I can now complete that puzzle in less than 60 seconds WITH my eyes closed.
I am slowly learning basic Italian words, which helps when dealing with the children. I'm supposed to be teaching them English though. Oops! Just kidding. I will say the Italian word followed by the English word. Giorgia seems to be picking up on some things, Mattia as well. I'm even helping the parents with their English. It's funny how it's the simple things they don't know the word for. Like napkin, curtain, mall, cotton candy, and even pancakes!
One night we were talking and Chiara asked about a cake made in America. She said, "Even McDonald's makes them. It's like a type of cake with a sauce." This entire time I'm thinking, "Since when does McDonald's serve cake?!" She then asked, "What is the leaf of Canada?" I said, "Maple??" Her reply, "Ah, yes yes! Maple Sauce!" I giggled and said, "We call it Maple Syrup." At this point I was still utterly confused as to what kind of cake she was speaking of, but good ol' Marco was on top of it. He had Google translate out and said, "Pancake?" I replied, "Ohh, pancakes! Yeah, those are great! Have you had them before?" Their reply was jaw dropping. They said, "No"! Can you believe that?! They've never had pancakes before. They said that they would like to try them though and asked if I could make some one Sunday morning. I, of course, said "Yes"! I mean, no one should go thru life without having eaten pancakes at least once.
Another shocker, they have NEVER heard of a s'more! But don't worry, we'll be trying those too!
Today we went to the mall so I could buy a warmer coat. I didn't think I'd need my heavy jacket since it's in the mid 40's and I was coming from Polar Vortex weather (which they have heard of because it made the news here)! Anyways, Italians like to stand outside. When we go to restaurants, we wait for the rest of the party...outside. When we arrived early at the cafe, we stood outside. I can't deal with this cold weather, so to the mall we went. At the third store I looked at, the sales associate asked if I needed help in Italian. I looked dumbfounded at first before I replied with, "I'm from America." (This is my typical response when anyone speaks Italian to me.) She said, "Oh there is a girl who works here who is from America!" I excitedly replied, "Which state? I'm from Kentucky!" The sales associate said, "I think that is where she is from." This whole time I'm thinking, "No way is this chick from Kentucky." She goes into the back room to get the American girl. She comes out and we start talking. Come to find out, her dad is in the Army and was stationed out here in Italy, which is where she was born. She'd lived here her entire life and chose to stay even when her dad got restationed to the States. And guess which base he is at?! Yep, Fort Knox! She has even been to Louisville a few times while visiting her parents. How crazy is that?!
You never know who you'll meet when you travel. That's one of the marvelous things about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment