Posts sotto 'English Zone'
Have you ever seen a cotton plant with your own eyes?
I mean neither in TV nor in picture, but for real.
It happened to me last Christmas. A friend of my mother came back to Italy after a long trip in Africa and brought to me one.
I was astonished at the very sight of it. I did not expect to see those small white balls set on the stalk… They looked like roses even though their stalk is quite different from the rose’s one. It is bigger, thicker and tan. It is made of wood, I suppose.
In any cases I love the way the cotton’s flower looks. It’s poetic and rustic at the same time. It has got the charm of the countryside, the spirit of old things.
It was the best gift I got for Christmas. I keep it on a shelf of my room, inside a small blue pot, from Ikea. It adds a romantic and gentle touch to the atmosphere and lights it up.
It reminds me of ancient lands and time, of far cultures and places.
When i look up at it from my desk, a smile appears on my face and I feel instantly better.
Gennaio 23, 2006
My first experience abroad was as an au-pair in England.
I decided that the best way to learn English well was to live in an English house, with an English family, sharing their habits.
According to my friends and family my move was brave as I have never done something like that before. I haven’t neither relevant experience with kids nor with houseworking (just consider that I still live with my parents and I am pretty spoiled girl!).
But I wasn’t scared. I was very motivated and determined to live that experience. So I did.
I subscibed to an au-pair agency, waited for their call and left my temporary job. It took just a few days to find the right family for me.
I flew to Canterbury with two heavy suitcases, an English dictionary and all my wishes to do well. I was alone and I was abou to start a new and exciting adventure.
I know that my job wouldn’t have been easy: I had to look after two babies and work 35 hours per week for my host family, but I didn’t mind.
I wanted to show my dear ones I could manage it and first of all I wanted to grow up an independent and confident girl.
I can say that I succedeed. It was tough sometimes, but I have never regretted being there.
I’m telling you more about my life as an au-pair in my next English post because I want to describe it in details, without missing a thing.
Gennaio 2, 2006
Last year I savoured the wonderful experience of Christmas in New York. I spent three months in US, and I could enjoy the marvellous festive holiday atmosphere.
The way Americans celebrate Christmas is unbelievable. All the main streets in Manahattan are full of huge and colourful decorations. All the window’s shops are overlaid with ornaments and patterns. Even the windows of private houses are embellished with wonderful features that remind the Nativity. The Christmas trees that you can see here and there are stunning, with many lights and festive gadgets. Whenever you are, you can feel the warmth of holiday.
Last year didn’t snow during Christmas. It was a pity, because the white flakes would have added an even more magical touch to the city.
In my own town, Rome, you hardly can live the same sensations in Christmas. It’s rare to see a big and shining tree in the street and ornaments in the windows of people’s house. There are just sporadic and poor decorations which have not a deep impact on me.
When I walk to the city centre in Christmas time, I am neither touched nor moved. My mind flyes off, to the Rockefeller tree: tremendous, bright and dazzling…
Dicembre 25, 2005
I am reading the J.T. Leroy book and I am shocked. Even though sometimes I feel sick for what I read, I can’t stop myself to go on.
It describes the wretched and tragic childhood of the author in a straight and harsh language. Jeremiah is four years old when the social workers take him off his foster family and leave him to his own mother, eighteen years old Sarah. The young woman is a desperate tossic who prostitutes herself for a living and changes boyfriends as frequently as her clothes.
Jeremiah is forced to live like an animal the most of the time, without being fed or looked after. His mother and her boyfriend whip him with belts, swear at him, keep saying to him that he has a devil inside.
Worst of all Sarah enjoys to dress him like a girl and allows her boyfriends and clients to abuse of him.
Jeremiah doesn’t understand what is the good way to follow, what is bad or not, he only aims for his mother ’s love.
The book can be tough and cruel now and then. Jeremiah describes all in details and you can’t believe that things like that actually happen. You suffer whit him, pray for him, hope that he will find a safe way out. You hate Sarah and her father (a preacher who forces his children to scrub their skin with scalding hot water and bleach and vigorously clean their genitals with a wire brush), you wish their miserable behaviours won’t ruin the life of Jeremiah for ever. You hatred the sordid and beat up Datsun where they live.
You are sad and touched when you go through the lines, but you are so involved that you can’t take the book apart. I haven’t finished it yet, i don’t know if there will be the light at the end of the tunnel for Jeremiah.
I don’t even know if I would recommend someone to read this book. But I know for sure that I won’t forget it for a long, long time.
Dicembre 16, 2005
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