Buon Natale e buone feste!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Froehliche Weihnacht!!

Yes, in Germany we celebrate the 24th! In Ticino and in the US the 25th... so for all of you who don't speak German, read this tomorrow!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas time and don't forget what Christmas is really about...

Che palle!!

Che palle, hab die Nase voll, basta!! Che cavolo!! Bin schon wieder krank und das seit einer Woche und das nachdem ich nur ungefaehr schon vier oder fuenf Mal krank war seit, ja, seitdem ich die Horrordosis Antibiotika genommen habe. Und ich musste die nehmen weil mich so ein bloedes Zeckenbiest gebissen hat. 3 Wochen lang die Megadosis Antibiotika und danach staendig krank...

Ja, klar, ich hatte auch viel Stress dieses Jahr und bin hier suedlich der Alpen was vielleicht bedeutet dass mein Immunsystem die Viren hier nicht ansatzweise kennt aber die Hauptschuld gebe ich den Antibiotika. Und ich hab noch gefragt als ich die verschrieben bekommen hab ob man da auch was machen koennte damit nicht die ganzen guten Bakterien kaputt gehen. Die Aerztin hatte aber anscheinend nichtmal davon gehoert dass Antibiotika das Immunsystem zerstoeren.

Und ta-daaaa, da bin ich, die Frau ohne Immunsystem. Nach jedem Virus sag ich mir schoen brav, das war jetzt aber der letzte und jetzt ist mein Immunsystem dafuer um so staerker, aber die Wahrheit ist, ich HABE gar kein Immunsystem!!! Beh, bin wirklich sauer und es gibt nichtmal einen Schuldigen!! Aber eins ist klar ich nehm NIE WIEDER Antibiotika ausser ich muss ansonsten sterben!!!! Die heissen naemlich schon ganz richtig die Sch... dinger: Gegen das Leben--!

Quaranta

Ok, here's something that's really scary. Lately I went to Zurigo and there were two girls who looked kind of lost at the stamp vending machine. They spoke English and for those who don't know it I used to travel to the US every summer for quite some years and in the end I felt absolutely no difference between expressing myself in English or German, in fact people used to believe that I was from another part of the US and didn't even realize that what little had remained of my accent was foreign. I used to be so proud of having learned English so well after my teachers at school had told me I had absolutely no talent for learning languages. (In fact I had to repeat 7th grade because of-- tadaaahhh, English and Latin--how ironic is that???)...

However, so there I was with those two kind of lost-looking girls whose every word I understood and I asked them "Can I help you?" Oh, they were sooo relieved and grateful because all the explanation on the vending machine was in German, French and Italian but then I wanted to explain to them how it works. So I stood there and I wanted to tell them that shipping a letter to South Africa was 1,40 CHF. But, ohhhhhhhh!!! I got so far as to tell them it was "one". Of course I had no clue what CHF is in English and that really didn't bother me, I simply said "franchi" like they say in Italian. But then I wanted to say 40. And, can you believe it? A enormously HUUUUUUUUUUGE "QUARANTA" was written all over my brain. I think I blushed. Desperately, in my head I began to count "ten, twenty, thirty..." but then there was the

QUARANTA

again. I swear, I was completely, utterly, helplessly unable to say "forty". I didn't not only remember "forty", it even felt as if "forty" had never been saved on my hard drive. I wanted to die of shame right there... Then, it got even worse, I wanted to explain why I was having problems speaking English when I first sounded like a native speaker and I could not for the life of me remember the word "learning". Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, aiutooooo! What is happening to me? Also, whenever I talk to someone on the phone, no matter if it is in English or German, I cannot refrain from saying "si" instead of "yes" or "ja". Is it possible to lose a language? But then how strange is it that I can still write in English but speaking don't work? And how am I going to teach English when I am apparently losing it? Hellllllll---p!!!!

Si dev'essere così

La canzone che mi piace di più questo inverno

Si, dev'essere cosi!
Che tutto quel che accade ha un senso
altrimenti non saresti qui
a farmi respirare il vento

si, dev'essere cosi!
Che tutto quel che serve e' un cuore
altrimenti non saresti qui
a farmi respirare amore

tutti cercano una soluzione
e gridano sperando nell'arrivo di un dottore
ma tutto quel che serve in una pillola non c'è
non ti ho insegnato niente
quando stavi insieme a me?

Si, dev'essere cosi!!
Che tutto quel che accade ha un senso
altrimenti non saresti qui
ed io con te non perderei il mio tempo

tutti guardan la televisione
e aspettano di piangere per farsi compassione
ma dentro quella scatola risposte non ce n'è
solo donne in maschera e buffoni come me

si, ammetti che e' cosi!!
Che tutto quel che abbiamo è un cuore
e quindi fatti forza e vieni qui
e chiedimi di far l'amore
e chiedimi di far l'amore
e chiedimi di far l'amore

di Cremonini

La Neve

Snow, snow, snoooooooooooow!!! Yes, it's true, there's snow!! Almost half a meter of snow in the mountains!! After spending Friday and Saturday at Zurigo with two friends from the South of Italy (fotos in Zurigo) we returned to Bellinzona Sunday to see the mercato natale (fotos in Bellinzona) and then took the train from Bellinzona to Faido, climbing 1300 meter by foot at dusk. It was an awesome climb although we had to haul all of the stuff up the mountain that we use here, clothes, food, etc. It felt like a dream, the lights shining on the snow, the forest crispy cold, the air heavy with the profumo of snow. And then today we went on a walk (fotos in Vigera) playing in the snow, taking in the last rays of sunshine (that phrase has become such a joke...) And after that hot cocoa, biscotti, a warm fire and candelight... life is awesome!!!

Stamattina

Mi sono svegliata con la musica di Natale, che bello!!! Mi sentava come da piccola, però tutte le parole erano in Italiano. Era Nico e sui amici dall'Italia che cercavano le canzone in internet per farmi un cd. Ho visto tutto del Zurigo ancora una volta con la Claudia e suo futuro marito Luigi, che sono davvero simpaticissimi!! Ho anche visto il mercato di Natale di Zurigo, però mancava la musica di Natale. Che scemo fare un bell mercatino e dimenticare la cosa più importante... insomma non mi ha messo nell'atmosfera di Natale. La Claudia ha fatto circa due mille foto dell'albero di Swarovski, che è davvero bello. Ha anche scritto la mia Mamma che è andata al mercato di Natale a Muenster (fieeeeep) ma era troppo caldo e più piccolo quest'anno. Nel fratempo è arrivata la neve sopra di 600 metri e vogliamo andare a Vigera (a 1300m) domani sera...

Verbania

Allora... heute sind wir mal rechts am Lago Maggiore langgefahren bis Verbania (It). Ma ohhhhh, che bello!!! Durch den Nebel schien der See wie ein endloses Meer obwohl man die Berge am anderen Ufer noch sehen konnte. Alles schien irgendwie transparent und unwirklich. Die Strasse war eng und zwischen Felswand und See eingequetscht und wenn ein Bus kam dachte man, "Incidente!" Und dann Verbania, enge Gassen und Passagen, Boegengaenge und Innenhoefe und oh, ja, die obligatorische bunte Waesche, die auf eine Schnur gespannt zwischen den Fenstern baumelt.

Ecco, es gibt sogar eine Schule fuer Englisch in Verbania. Ich werde da auf jeden Fall mal fragen wegen Arbeit. Gestern habe ich von einem Lehrer gehoert, dass in Ticino viele Sprachlehrer besonders fuer Englisch und Deutsch gesucht werden. Mal sehen wo ich naechstes Jahr lande...

Unusual friendship

I always start to ponder things when I'm tired. Last night there was a full moon and I hardly slept at all. That is unusual in itself as I have been sleeping pretty darn well here ever since I threw away that piumone horribile. I also had to get up at a number that started with six, ohhh!! My thoughts today were about friendship. What a strange thing that is. Three months ago I talked to someone on the internet mostly in German... three months later I feel so at ease with this friend and he has taught me his language and shown me the most beautiful places of the Ticino. And sometimes I think how weird that is.

There are so many things that speak against us being friends. For once, supposedly friendship between men and women don't exist. We also speak different languages (at least we did in the beginning as we never speak German together) and are from different cultures. And lastly, he's five years older than me. But then with true friendship all these things become so unimportant.

Which makes me wonder what is that thing that we call "friendship"? If it's not in the words, not in the things you have in common (culture), if it's not in the communication (language)... where do we find it? Is it a in-between-thing or is it above all of these things? How have we managed to do this? Did we build all this on meta-communication? I once read that only 5% of what we communicate is actually communicated using words, which would explain how we managed when I hardly spoke a word of Italian. (Which still doesn't explain how he tolerated my abuse of the language... :)

But meta-communication is tightly bound to culture. And that leaves another gap between us... how did we build this bridge? With what? I have written my Master thesis about culture and the concepts of Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede. That was inspired by my experiences in the US. All in all I have lived about two to three years in the US. I must say having read almost everything about culture and how they differ and how you define them, I still feel unable to grasp what it is. There are some variables and knowing them helps a ton if one moves to a foreign country... but my favorite metaphor is that it is a slippery piece of soap. If you grasp it to tight, it slips away. But that's also the magic of it. And maybe the same thing is also true for friendship...

Che cosa hai fatto quest'anno

I just listened to "So this is Christmas" trying to find another Italian Christmas song. If your remember it goes on "and what have you done?" I spontaneously said, "I have learned a new language." And suddenly I felt so happy that I had the courage to really go ahead and do this. And it is true, I have only now begun to read in Italian and finally understand enough to also watch TV in Italian. Che belloooooo!!! Three months and I'm already able to do this!! I do absolute-ssimissimo enjoy this moment.

I also volunteered at unihockey today selling beverages. We (Ticino) lost the game, however, it was all the fault of the Svizzera German referee who gave a red card to one of our players. Everybody was really upset. Hands were flying, faces red, voices elevated, eyes flashing, swear words everywhere. Oh, how I liked that!! Finally there I was with other people who get really upset... yes, it is true, in Germany I have sometimes felt that people didn't have feelings or didn't express them and then in the US everything seemed so artificial because everybody was always happy, fine, and everything was fun as if there weren't negative emotions, too. Daiiiiii! But Italian is a linguage that was quasi made to express emotions, l'amore but also anger and sadness. And that's what I like and what makes me feel so nooooooooormal here. But back to the linguage.

Do you remember how you felt when you were able to read your very first book? I feel just like that. I am halfway through my first Italian book and when I went to read Nico's blog today I remembered when I was at my desk in Muenster and first went to his website the Italian was all Greek to me. But I'm getting it!!! In città I listen to other people talk and I know what they are saying to each other!! Don't laugh, you never know how much it matters unless you can't do it any more. But here I am once again at the door with the key in my hand realizing it fits and behind the door is all the beauty and magic of another culture. And I have to say this is all I wanted for Christmas this year...