Tuesday, July 31, 2001

I'm going to tell you all about this year when I come back, people, don't worry. You're going to hear every little teeny detail. I'm going to have three months of unlimited internet with no school and probably no work, which means, nothing to do. So tune in on the second of December, and you won't be disappointed. Thankyou.
Posted by Claire Kilner 2:17 AM |

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Hi everyone, I’m now here in Gravina di Catania. Have you seen pictures or read about Mount Etna being in eruption? Because that’s where I am right now. A couple of nights ago I went up close to see it, and it’s very impressive, there’s an enormous heap of lava that glows red in the dark, plus another fracture that shoots out two spurts of bright red fire. Since then also another fracture has opened up, which I think makes five altogether, although the others I think just pour out clouds of gas. People are getting worried, here in Gravina in this family they’ve said that if it continues like this for a few more days they’re going to start packing their things. The lava is currently 4km from Nicolosi, a town further up the mountain, and a state of emergency has been called. A few days ago they said that if it continued at that rate, it would be here where my house is in a week, but since then I think I’ve heard it’s been slowing down. Even from here you can hear great rumbling noises from the volcano; it really is quite a frightening thing. I, personally, am thrilled that I’m here to see all this and half of me kind of wishes it will be a very close escape. There’s not really any risk to life because the lava isn’t that fast, and I am not at any risk of loss of property because all my property here fits into one suitcase. However it would be a terrible thing for all these people, to lose their entire city and all their homes. The scary thing is that it’s really possible. But you have to admit it’s cool. Yesterday it was raining ash and the people in Catania went out with umbrellas, and I had a white t-shirt on the washing line and now it is grey. I’ve taken some photos. And I’m glad I’m here.
Posted by Claire Kilner 10:58 PM |

Thursday, June 21, 2001

Meanwhile since I’m about to leave Lecce (and I have to wait until 7:30 before I can log onto the Internet because that’s when the phone is off-peak) I thought I’d teach you some dialect. Now, if you actually happen to speak Leccese and I’m wrong, please email me to tell me, and as your reward we’ll meet in Piazza Sant’Oronzo and have a Cornetto Caramel together. I’m serious. Meanwhile, no one laugh at my moronic-looking phonenetic renderings, and I really have no idea about the spelling of these things, so lets keep it spoken if reproduced, please.

What are you saying?: Ce sta dici? (cheh stuh deechie)
What are you doing?: Ce sta faci? (cheh stuh fachie)
Good: Bueno (bwehno)
Look how clever you are! (sarcastically): Ce si bueno! (cheh see bwehno)
Pardon?: Cene? (chehneh)
Gorgeous and sexy (a guy): Bono (bohnoh)
Tomorrow: Crai (cry)
The day after tomorrow: Biscrai (biscry)

The only ones of those that I’ve heard regularly since I’ve been here are “ce sta dici” and “bono”. They tend to use “ce sta dici” when they’re rather critical of someone, it’s really the equivalent of “what the hell are you talking about?” I also have a feeling that “sini” means “yes” and “noni” means “no”, but I’ve only heard those a couple of times and anyway that may be Brindisino not Leccese.
Usually, if you listen to the dialect you can understand enough words to get the general meaning just because it’s similar to Italian. It would be kind of cool to have learnt to speak the entire dialect and everything, but honestly the Italian’s enough to worry about for the moment. Then again, maybe I’ll end up speaking Cataniano soon. We’ll see.
Posted by Claire Kilner 3:50 AM |

Hello! I just got a phone call from my new host-family for July to September, so I finally know where I’m going.
Envelope, please. The Claire goes to... Catania in Sicily.
It’s not what I was expecting (which was, the north), but still, it’s not exactly a bad way to spend the summer holidays, secondo me. I spoke with the mother and the 16-year-old daughter (they also have a 20-year-old son/brother) and they were both really warm and friendly, and they liked the fact that I play the piano. So, it seems that it should work out well.
Yay me :)
Posted by Claire Kilner 3:49 AM |

Saturday, June 02, 2001

Well, hi. It’s been a while. I’m actually quite well. I know absolutely nothing about the Internet any more because I really haven’t surfed at all since I got here (4 and a half months ago!!), and to be honest I do miss it, especially the blogging community because it used to be an entire little world that I had a nice little place in that I suppose I’ve now lost; however it’s not as though I’m pining away. I’m hoping you’re all well and that you’ll let me back in when I ask.
To clarify the situation, which I’m not sure if I ever did, I’m living in Italy from the 18th of January to the 1st of December. Therefore I’m 4 and a half months through, and I’ve got exactly 6 months left. So far, I’ve been living with a family in Lecce, which is in Puglia. However, they only have me booked for 5 months, which are almost finished already, and therefore, for the summer holidays I’ll be moving to another family (and they still haven’t told me where), and then when school restarts in September, I’ll be moved yet again. And I’m hoping very much that I’ll be able to come back to Lecce, since I know my way around and I know my schoolmates (who are all beautiful) but I really have no idea how likely that is. Still, I’m daring to hope.
These have been an interesting 19 weeks. Next week will be the last week of school for the year, after which I’ll be on holiday until September. I’ve never had summer holidays this long before; in Australia they’re broken up during the year. I still don’t know where I’ll be spending them or with whom, and I’m wondering what I’ll do to pass the time, since I don’t have friends or even the Internet any more. For that reason, I’m a little sad that school’s about to end. I’m also sad because I won’t see any of my classmates any more; it’s like finishing high school all over again, and I only just did that six months ago. Still, I survived that time, so I suppose I’ll do the same again.
So, these past 4 and a half months have not been easy. I have to work at everything, and it shows, because I need so much more sleep than I used to. You don’t realise how much language is a part of everything you do until you don’t have it any more; you can’t watch TV, you can’t read newspapers, you can’t make jokes, you can’t eavesdrop on the bus, you can’t really get to know anyone or have anyone know you. I admit that now it’s much much better; I can read magazines pretty well, I can follow TV shows even if sometimes I miss crucial words, and I can have conversations with people and explain myself well enough. However you have to realise that you’ll never speak or understand Italian the way you understand and speak English; it’s never going to be as natural and there will always be the accent. That is, everyone will always know I’m foreign the moment I open my mouth (it does take them until I open my mouth, however; people expect me to be Italian when they see me, which I’m pretty proud of, since I’m completely Anglo-Saxon-gened). Still, I manage to think in Italian sometimes now, and I have a tendency to conjugate English verbs in the Italian way (don’t even ask how that turns out), so I’m hoping to reach some kind of level where when I talk, people think, “oh, what a clever foreigner, she’s learned to speak Italian so well!”. And, we’re getting there, slowly. It’s the speed that’s always the problem.
Then, of course, the language isn’t the only difficult thing. The entire culture is completely different, and you find that you don’t know how to do anything any more, especially the most basic things like eat a meal or even go to the bathroom (they have bidets here). Combine that with the lack of language, and you come across as a complete moron to everyone you meet, and it’s hard, when you’ve spent your whole life having people believe you when you talk and recognising that there is something going on in your head. I am a little tired of people thinking that because I can’t express anything, that I don’t know anything, and of people thinking that because I don’t know how to do anything the Italian way, I don’t know how to do anything at all.
So, a lot of the time, it’s a guessing game. For example, if I finish my pasta and there’s bread on the table, should I wait until they all finish their pasta so we all eat the same thing at the same time, or otherwise should I take it now because if I don’t they might think I don’t want it at all. And they are things you really can’t know, and you’re worried about everything you do because everything ends up being wrong. So in the end, you throw it all out the window, and do whatever you want. Which I’ve only just started recently, but it feels much better.
I realise I’ve spent the last four paragraphs complaining, and I sound like I haven’t really been having a good time at all here; because, of course, it really is a struggle. The thing is, it’s all worth it; the amount I learned even in the first couple of months was enough to make the entire year worthwhile, and I’m still learning and learning every day. There is absolutely no doubt that I feel better about myself and about the world than I did this December, and that I’m a better person out of all this. What I’d really love, actually, is for this year to be already over and for me to be on my way home, so that I could use what I’ve learned and manifest how I’ve changed. I have an entire list of resolutions (some general, some more along the lines of “learn to play chess”) for when I get back to Australia, and I’m dying to do some things again like take my dog for a walk, have a barbeque, or go out to pizza hut with my friends, but it’s not as though those things won’t still be there when I get back. I’m learning to be the person I want to be and that the person I want to be is who I really am; therefore I’m learning how to be really really good at being myself, and if I learn as much in the next 6 months as I’ve learned since I arrived, then this will have been immensely worth it.
So, if you’re thinking of an international exchange, do it :)
Carissimi saluti, from Claire.
Posted by Claire Kilner 5:01 AM |

Saturday, April 14, 2001

Well here I am again, and so out of it on the Internet side of things, it's not funny. Just to let you know that my digitalrice site is no longer to be found in its old home, but instead at this one thanks to some changes from digitalrice which I never even heard about until like, yesterday. However that's probably my fault for neglecting the Internet as I now do. Anyway, I'm sure you're thrilled to see that I'm alive. Ciao a tutti, and have a good Easter.
Posted by Claire Kilner 4:06 AM |

Thursday, March 15, 2001

Hello my little blogger-muffins (why you're always muffins, I don't know). I haven't been here for such a long time, have I? It's because I have a social life. What's that, you say? Yes, it's true. Claire does things that don't involve computers now. And what’s more, she understands quite a fair bit of Italian. And she's going to Rome in 14 days. And her English is really really suffering, so she's going to leave now for a while and wish you all the best until we meet again.
Posted by Claire Kilner 6:01 AM |

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Hi, my muffins. I’m still alive, you’ll all be happy to hear. I’m not even particularly miserable, either. I’ve been here for almost a month and a half, and the Italian is much better. I have friends and a social life, even. Everything seems to be going well. The reason I’m writing is that I’ve heard geocities is going to go the angelfire/virtue.nu way and stop direct linking to its images. I want to apologise, because I’m sure there are some images on this page that are linked from my geocities account (from when I was too busy to open my FTP). So, they won’t be showing up in the future. The first of many such problems. This site is going to degrade a lot in the next 9 months, I am sure. I can only promise you that when I get back to Australia I will clean it up and it wil be more beautiful than ever.
Until then, happy surfing. Kiss hug kiss.
Posted by Claire Kilner 6:32 AM |