A Quarter of a Century!

I am sitting on my couch watching Sex and the City: The Movie in Italian on TV, left over pizza from my birthday is warming up in the oven and Easter/Birthday gifts are overflowing on the table. Life is good :)

On my Birthday eve, two of my friends took me out. We went to a pub and had dinner. The entire evening was filled with laughs! I don't think we ever stopped laughing! They were so gracious to spend the evening with me and they even waited until midnight to celebrate the start of my birthday with me! They took me to a gelateria but they also had croissants. So we got a conchiglia (shell shaped croissant) filled with chocolate. At midnight, the guy put a candle in the conchiglia and my friends sang me Happy Birthday, as well as the other patrons in the shop. 

I came home and decorated my apartment with my numbers and balloons. Usually, my mom puts my numbers and balloons around the house but since she isn't here I had to do it. Oh well, this way when I woke up the house was already decorated. 

I woke up and got ready for work. I put on my "birthday dress" and checked Facebook for any messages. One of my students posted a Happy Birthday youtube link on my page. I played it and smiled. It was a catchy up beat version of "Happy Birthday to you" set to the background of Happy Feet. It seemed perfect for me! I had the song playing all morning! I loved it!

I went to work and had my lessons. After my lessons, I went to Ipolita's house for lunch. Her mom had prepared pasta with tomatoes, Neapolitan broccoli, which I have grown to love!, and scallopine. It was all very delicious! For dessert, we had biscotti (cookies), the almond paste kind that are my favorite!!! When her seven year old daughter came home from school, I found out that she had told her teacher that it was my birthday! The other daughter was teasing her but I felt honored that she felt it was an important thing to tell her class! It reminded me of when I was a child in 1st grade, the same age actually as the daughter, when I told the class it was my father's birthday. So we made a card for him as a class and I gave it to him that evening at his party!

After lunch, we went back to the school. I had a couple of lessons in the evening. During the last lesson, Ipolita threw me a party! We brought our two classes together and had a trivia quiz. There were snacks, pizza and then the cake. It was great! Thank you Ipolita!!!

After the party at school, I came home. Shortly afterwards, a couple of my friends came. They brought pizza and panini! Then a few more friends came with decorations, wine and the cake! Later, even more friends came! There were a total of 11 of us. I had a great time and we laughed all night long! I cut the cake 10 minutes before midnight. It was a great way to end my birthday by blowing out candles and eating cake among friends. I felt honored that all my new friends came to my party. I didn't do anything expect hold it at my house. They brought all the food and decorations. I felt honored that they stayed as late as they did too since many of them had to get up early for work. They also bought me a beautiful purse and one friend even went home to get me a digital decoder so I could watch television, hence why I am distracted while writing this post. I am sure I wanted to write more than I have but Sex and the City is on and even though it is in Italian I continue to stop writing and watch the TV! 

Overall, I had a wonderful day! Hundreds of people wished me a Happy Birthday and I had 2 parties just for me!!! I want to thank everyone for such a wonderful day!!!! My first birthday in Italy was wonderful and I feel truly honored for everything everyone did for me!!! 

Goodbye March, Hello April!

March 31, 2012. The last day of March was spent relaxing for most of the day. I made pancakes for breakfast, sent money to my mother, all by myself (which means I was able to communicate enough in order to complete the mission), made lunch, walked to the grocery store, made dinner, cleaned up and then I was invited to go out to a pizzeria with my friends. Looking back on it, I would say it was a day of eating instead of relaxing! Anyways, I did go out with my friends. You can't pass up the opportunity to go out and eat good pizza! :)

We went to a place in the Sanità district of Naples. I am starting to remember and learn my way around! The pizzeria was off of Via Foria and it's name is Pizzeria Oliva da Concettina ai 3 Santi. My friends' referred to it as the Three Saints. As we stood outside waiting for a table, I noticed what looked like a memorial outside of the building. There were three saints. I am sure there is a story behind it. 

Of course I am not hungry at all and I told my friends I only wanted a little bit of the pizza. So they ordered me a "small" pizza. But, before that came out, fried dough came to the table. Some had tomato sauce on top and others had ricotta inside. The ricotta filled dough tasted wonderful! The cheese was excellent! Then they brought out more fried food! There was fried zucchini, fried mozzarella (tasted wonderful!!!), fried crocchè (potato), and fried pasta (tasted like macaroni and cheese). Then they brought out this monstrosity of a "small" pizza! It was huge! Mamma Mia! The rest of the photos are what the rest of the group ordered...Which one would you choose?

My pizza! 

My pizza! Look it takes up the whole plate! 

The space pizza

Corn pizza

Bufala Mozzarella pizza

Potato Pizza

I don't know what this was...but it had a lot of things on it!

This is the traditional April 1st Italian chocolate fish.
Not sure why a fish but they are interesting!
I like the chocolate fish on the top shelf.
It says "You are beautiful" Imagine getting that fish! lol

                                                                           After the pizza, we went to a bar for coffee, not for me but for the three guys in the group. They were leaving that night, after they dropped us girls off, for Torino. They were driving 10 hours during the night to get to Torino (Turin) for the Naples/Juventus match tonight. It is a very important match, they kept telling me. So we returned home after the coffee but on our way home, I saw green fireworks! Ogni giorno è una festa! 

April 1, 2012- Hello April! Hello Birthday Month! This morning, I woke up early. I asked myself, "why Angela, can't you sleep late?" So, I stayed awake for about one hour then went back to sleep. I woke up around noon! Yes, some good sleep! 

Then I got a call to have lunch with Ipolita's parents. I walked to their house around 2pm. I have come to realize that this is a wonderful time to walk around the town. It is peaceful and quite. Everyone is eating and with family at that time and no one is out and about. I arrived at their house and took pictures of some pretty flowers, I love flowers! Then we discussed the best way to grow citrus trees. Hopefully, I have some more insight now to help our lemon tree situation at home. Remind me to tell you, Mom! 

We had lunch and talked about Italy's problems regarding people claiming they are disabled to get money from the government. Apparently it has been going on for years but now they are investigating it and finding that many people aren't disabled. After we finished lunch, I was going to go home and start on some laundry that I had to do. But, Ipolita's mom said that it wasn't safe to walk alone at this time of day because no one is on the streets and who knows what could happen. So she told her husband to accompany me home. He did. We walked from their house to my house with no problems. But, on the way, he was sharing with me some stories of his town from when he was a child. He told me as we passed by a park that the park used to be more beautiful when he was a child but now it is run down. He also showed me where a couple of farms and farm land used to be which now has homes built on them. He also showed me where one of his buddies works/lives and told me that he likes to visit him sometimes during the day on one of his many strolls. It was fun listening to him talk about when he was a child. I felt like I was getting an insider's view of the town. Sometime, I will have to write down all the stories he has told me about WW2. This town like all towns in Italy were affected, but to hear about the specific stories of that time is very interesting to me. It is also interesting because I am now living here and so I can actually place the events. Again, I will have to write those stories down soon! 

We had other things as well but I only took a picture of the artichokes! They were delicious! ;) 

Anyways, I had a good weekend! I am very excited for the days to come! Happy April Everyone!!!! 

Trattoria Nennella

Last night, I went out with the group, there were 10 of us. We went to a typical Neapolitan restaurant called "Trattoria Nennella." It is located away from the main road in a small alley. It is well known by the locals for serving traditional Neapolitan food as well as being insulted by the waiters. They only speak the Neapolitan language too. Although, our waiter spoke a few words in English to me :)

Our waiter's shirt

There were many people at the restaurant. Very popular! We arrived in two cars. The first car got there probably 30-40 minutes before we did to put our name down for a table. We arrived around 11. We didn't sit down until around 12. In the mean time though, there was a wine shop next to the restaurant and we got wine to hold us over until we sat down. :)

At 12:20am we started the antipasti with olives, provola, fried mozzarella, crocchette, salami, and prosciutto.

We had wine too!

Then we started on the first course, pasta. There were no menus. Only 3 selections to choose from. Pasta with potatoes and provola, pasta with seafood, or pasta and tomatoes. I had the pasta with potatoes and provola. I was told it is a traditional Neapolitan dish. I also can tell that this dish is definitely a comfort food dish. I think I have to add it to my comfort food list!

Afterwards, there was a second course, but I was too full to eat anything. Others ate pork, sausage and french fries. But, I noticed they squeezed lemon on to the meat. I was partially shocked because I had never seen that before, only on fish. Interesting.

After the meat comes the fruit. But, for some reason the fruit bowl was not in a fruit bowl but a plastic smaller version of a toilet bowl. We were all full but they insisted in showing me how they prepare the banana. If you think about it, you can probably figure out what they do with a banana. They wanted me to post the video so here it is.

Overall, it was a fun experience and it made that much more fun being with a group of people.

FORZA NAPOLI

Last night, I had another first. I went to my first soccer match ever! Amazing, I know! I went to Naples' San Paolo Stadium to watch Naples play against A.C. Siena in the Semi-Final match of the Italian championship. I will tell you now that Naples won 2-0. Forza Napoli!

I am not a true fan by any means but last night I was a Naples fan. I was excited for days leading up to this game. I told everyone I knew that I was going to the game. Most people were very excited for me as well, I even had one of my teen classes clapping and cheering for me like I had won the golden ticket!

I left after work with my friends and headed for the game. Everyone said that there would be traffic and we would miss part of the game but luckily for me, my friend took the long way around and avoided most of the traffic. When we arrived I asked where we were going to park. They said it was difficult. But, then I heard a phone conversation that proved otherwise. And sure enough, my friends have connections and we had a parking spot waiting for us. We parked and walked quickly to the stadium (I jogged). :) I told my friends I wanted to buy something of the team Napoli. They suggested a scarf. So I bought a scarf for 5 Euro. In America, any form of memorabilia would cost significantly more! We continued on our way and made it to the stadium but we had to wait in line to enter. We waited about 10 minutes and then made our way inside the stadium. I could hear the music playing and the crowd going crazy. I was so excited!!! We found our seats and sat down. The first thing I noticed was that everywhere I looked I saw blue, light blue (Naples colors). I didn't see any other colors. I thought where is Siena's fans? Finally, I spotted them. There were only a few of them. I'd say less than 100 people. Whereas, the rest of the stadium was filled with Napoli fans (around 60-65,000 people). Chants started and the noise never ceased.

What I enjoyed most about this experience was learning the culture behind the sport. At the stadium, thousands and thousands of people were there but not of one particular age group. All ages were proudly represented. From the grandparents all the way down to the little toddlers. And never did anyone miss a beat. If the crowd stood up during a chant, everyone stood up. Everyone participated. Children were fun to watch. They would randomly stand up and cheer not knowing if there was actually anything going on. I learned that they like to yell "SCEMO"which means stupid. Also when someone makes a goal, the crowd cheers their name. I didn't realize this until later when I realized that there was a player with the same last name as the cheer they yell when they make a goal. I thought it was just a cheer they say when they get a goal. And the same player made the goal twice so I didn't think anything of it. If a different player made the goal then I would have figured it out, I hope! ; )

I learned about their food culture too. At the stadium, there isn't food vendors inside the stadium like in America. There are a few guys who walk around and sell boxes of crackers and coke, but there aren't booths or places to go for something to eat. Instead, all the people bring sandwiches with them and eat either before the game or during halftime. When my friends busted out the sandwiches at halftime, I looked around us and many other people were pulling out sandwiches that looked very similar to ours. Outside of the stadium there are vendors with food but inside there was nothing. I enjoyed the experience very much especially because you didn't have people constantly getting up and down to get food like in America. People brought their own sandwiches and own drinks.

I noticed there wasn't a scoreboard anywhere within the stadium. I guess it is a good thing they don't score that often otherwise it would be difficult to follow. But, I enjoyed not having the scoreboard. Sometimes the scoreboards distract me and I watch it instead of watching the actual game. Instead, I was able to watch the game, follow the ball and watch the players. I was also able to look around the stadium and admire all the flags, scarves and chants. They even had a guy screaming into a megaphone to get the crowd going. One section of the stadium kept setting off a form of a firework, so smoke kept filling up that area. And, as each goal was scored the crowd went wild. Everyone was screaming and cheering! It was fun sharing that joyous moment with everyone.

After the game, we made our way back to the car and went to a cafe to meet up with the rest of the group. We sat and talked for a little bit then headed back home. I was exhausted but had a wonderful time. I was worried that today I wouldn't have a voice from screaming during the game. I kept saying "GO, GO, GO!"- I figured they understood some English :) Thank you to all for taking me to the game and letting me experience another first!

Doesn't it look like something is on fire! No, it's just fireworks...

Can you see the megaphone? They mean business!

He is one of the younger fans... :) 

Forza Napoli!