Chill

The caption reads, "the world changes". I don't know what I think about the constant appropriation (and manipulation) of Obama's image by the Italian left, but I'm glad that we can celebrate his win together.

I recently finished a very tiring but stimulating interpreting job in which I had to present the machines pictured below.



They look like robots, but they're really meant for cultivating the ground between and under grapevines (and fruit trees). I learned how to say a lot of new things in Italian (tractor! open field!) and I gained a momentary entry to a new world. Because I came to Italy and immediately started working in an office at a cooperative - then moving to an office at a consulting and tourism company - I've had contact with lots of Italian college grads and office workers, but almost no one outside that bracket, aside from some of the parents of my friends.

There's so much of Italy that I don't know, and working at an agricultural convention really helped me see that. In two years it's impossible to really know a new culture or a new country. I wonder if it's ever really possible. After all, there's a lot of my own country that I'm not familiar with.

Now I'm off to London for some good Thanksgiving turkey -- and next week I start my job as a Fiat girl . . . Apologies to anyone I've been out of touch with, I haven't had much time to breathe recently!