Bells

Our apartment is in the middle of downtown Brescia. As I look out my window to the left is Basilica San Faustino (the old one), I look to the right, I can see the tower with the bells of the Cathedral on Via San Faustino. If you look behind, you can see a couple of more towers from churches.
Bells...
They ring.
They ring at 6am,8:15am, 9:30am, 12, 3pm, 6:15pm, 9pm.
Yeah, they ring. Best part of it all, they don't ring simultaneously. No, first its one, then its the other, and the other, and then the other. Oh and on weekends, they don't just sound one or two times, they play a song.
Bells...oh the bells....

i am canadian?

at least once a day scenario:

me: 'scuza, ei non parle italian'
Local: So where you from.
Me: well i am from Canada, I am Canadian.
local: no, no. You no understand me bella, where you from?
me: ah, well ok. I was born and partially raised in El Salvador. But have lived in Canada almost my entire life. So I am canadian.

I am Canadian. Not America. Not from Mexico, not from South America. I was born Salvadorian, raised in a Canadian environment with some Salvadorean flavour. I have now started to say: i am latina-canadianense. All of my students will now know this new terminology. I have started my very own language. Yes! I love it. I love it all. I love explaining the difference between being American and being Canadian. I love telling people how I am still able to speak Spanish at home with my family, yet switch over to English and French. So becoming a local is creating an identity for yourself in a new environment, an unfamiliar environment. It teaching and learning all at the same time, pretty cool if you ask me.

bonjourno de Brescia

Well it has a been a week since I arrived in Brescia, Italy.
flight was really long but overall good. Scandanavia airlines - rock!

Impressions so far:
-Beautiful.
-the town is smaller than edmonton, but really cute and friendly.
-tonnes of students, so very mutlicultural. I have heard Polish, Spanish, Pidgin and French within the first couple of days.
Irony at its best. For a culture that takes a passive way of life (people here walk slower, take their sweet time for everything, never no real rush) you would think they would have a million and one places to sit and have coffee. No, instead, coffee - which by the way is a shot of espresso, is downed in 2.5 seconds at the bar. All I want is to sit down and have a cup of coffee. hehhehe. Its great, I laugh about it as I have learnt to walk in, order un caffé, take my shot and keep on walking. Fabulous. Needless to say, i am addicted more than ever to caffeine.
Fashion: everyone decked out to the 9, all the time! I attempted to try it. Got dressed, threw my stilleto pumps on and walked to work. I cabbed it home. As if, cobblestone and pumps = a recepie for disaster. It was a good learning experience.
will post pics as soon as i go out and buy the usb cable i forgot at home....grrrr...
luv
alms

jour d'action de grâce

To everyone near, far, overseas, across town, etc. Happy Thanksgiving.

Giving thanks for everything I have been given not only this past year, but throughout my whole life. Wanting to say I can't believe I am bound to leave in less than 3 days to another life, another country, heck, another continent. woot woot.

People ask every minute they get as to how i am feeling. This is what I go through within an hour:
it seems surreal,
excited and scared,
happy and sad,
nervous and restless,
and best part of it all - i am trying to pack for a year.

Oh my gosh, I think that is my biggest concern right now right now.
But, it will all work out.
It always does.
My next post will probably be from Brescia, Italy....
ciao

farewell party - round 1.

All they kept screaming was Ciao Alma. Ciao Alma...drunken fools...
Saturday night, my cousins wanted to have an impromptu farewell party for me. called the girls, and basically the pictures say it all.





Moments of the night:
-my parents coming home and finding 25 drunken peeps inside the house - what i have a big family.
-the cabbie trying to scam us on the way to the bar. too bad, we know his game and beat the mofo to it.
-a two piece cellphone.
- coming home to the partying continuing until 6am!
-Mario and his pilates while eating a PB&J sandwhich while watching best of Will Ferral
-Pepe's has his own hilarious moments includign: artisctic capabilities - canvas: Rodri's face, trying to share a sleeping bag with Jaya, the Sherpa Robe, and passing out in the hallway - two feet from his bed.