MY FIRST FAUX PAS (OR WHATEVER YOU MIGHT CALL IT) IN ITALY

For the second time, I woke up around 4 am (though last night I went to bed around midnight) and could not go back to sleep. So, I thought, rather than tossing around in my bed, maybe it’s better for me to share my (first) experience(s) in Italy while eating an apple and facebooking.
Well, I should say that I seem to be losing my confidence in speaking Italian among those who speak it so fluently. I always get tensed and nervous whenever they talk to me too fast, and it worsens my understanding. And to come up to a stranger to ask something, I still have to summon my courage first, and plan my words ahead of time. I’m so lucky to have some people here who are available to help me and of course, to have Betty with whom I can suffer the confusion together and laugh at our mistakes afterwards.

Well, here are some examples of my faux pas (which surely will keep adding on in the following days)

1.I went to the right side of the car of my friend Fabio (who picked us up at the bus station) while he went to the left side to open the door for me and Betty, and suddenly realized that I was no longer in Indonesia when he motioned to me to enter the car from the left side. And then, when he asked about the number of my lodging, I said centotrentacinque (135) instead of the correct one centocinquantatre (153). Only after he called the owner of the house, we ‘got’ the right number, which was clearly written on the identification tag of my bag!

2.When I went to the tabaccheria (tobacco shop that also sells postcards, phone cards etc), instead of saying ‘possiamo comprarla qui?’ (can we buy it —the SIM card— here?), I said ‘possiamo venderla qui?’ (can we SELL it here?)

3.Just as we were about to enter the hall of the university to meet Mr. Rondelli, the person who’s in charge of the scholarship, we were stopped by one of the elderly ladies with lots of keys in her hands. We thought it was an important thing, so we listened to her, but it turned out that she was offering us a room to rent. She insisted that we had to at least look at it because it was cheaper than the room we ‘d already rented and it was very near. Though I preferred to meet Mr. Rondelli asap, I just could not say no to her, cos she was old and I had pity on her. So up we went to her house and after looking at it, out of courtesy, we asked for her phone number though we had decided that we did not like it. And just as we were about to enter the hall for the second time, another elderly lady stopped us and said the same thing. Well, this time we knew better and continued to look for Mr. Rondelli inside.

4.Following the instructions of the two security guards, we went further to look for the secretariat office but we were stranded in another room with a waiting lounge. The people inside seemed to be busy talking with some people so I went to the only Italian looking guy seating in the lounge and asked where we could find Mr. Rondelli (in Italian). He stared blankly at me and in halting English, explained that he was German and did not speak Italian at all. He was pretty stressed out himself because he just wanted to enroll for a course and he did not know what to do or where to go because when he came to the front office to ask for some information, they only spoke Italian or Chinese. Then I decided to use my eyes rather than my mouth in finding our beloved Mr. Rondelli and finally could spot the word segreteria, which was nearby. And yes, Mr. Rondelli was there and was really nice, especially because he spoke Italian really SLOW and CLEAR—a very understanding man! In the front office, while we asked for the form to ask for the stay permit, we were helped by two patient Chinese girls –who answered in English every time I asked a question in Italian, and answered in Italian when I asked in English. Well, at least , finally half an hour later our forms were completely and appropriately filled in.

5.After that, because we did not have any food supply yet (cos we were too tired to shop the day before and just wanted to crash in bed and unfortunately had to say no to a very nice invitation to a Birthday party extended nicely by a friend of Vlad and Voica, our Romanians roomies), we did not have anything to eat for breakfast and thought we would be okay cos we had some instant noodles around 4 am. But around midday, we were hungry (Betty even said she was started to tremble), so we rushed to a pizzeria-which was not even opened yet. When finally we found a place which sells some pizza, I just pointed to one and Betty, wanting to know whether there was meat in the topping, tried to remember the Italian word for meat. But we did not know how to say ‘topping’. So we were standing there, pointing to a pizza and like two idiots, asked to the puzzled shopkeeper, ‘ Questa e’ carne?’ (is this meat?)

6.Our two Indonesian friends, Edwin and Flora, laughed at my choice of gelato flavors. They said fruity flavors didn’t match with chocolate ones. But I actually do not consider this as a faux pas cos I enjoyed it no matter what eheheh

Now my apple is finished and so I will try to get back to sleep!