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This Week In News...

It’s 1AM Sunday when half of Emilia Romagna gets a little... shaken up. Oh, weird? It would happen again around 4AM rumbling our entire region with a 6.0 magnitude earthquake, lasting 20 seconds and felt within a 22 mile zone. Everyone woken and confused would then look at each other and essentially say, “Oh, earthquake. Now what?” The scariest is waking to feel your whole world literally disrupted with no power to stop it. Where’s the safest place to go or the most effective thing to do? Think about our neighbors on the 8th level of the apartment buildings. What’s their game plan? 

Yes, everyone is tip-toeing around, all nervous and anxious, but considering its potential we got extremely lucky. What are our numbers and how bad is the damage?

 

7 people have died.
50 people were injured.
3,000 people have been evacuated.
5,260 people are now homeless.
5.1 and 3.8 aftershocks have occurred.
20-day state of emergency has been declared by the Italian government 

(meaning, let's ditch the local regulations so civil protection agency officials can answer this SOS without paperwork, permission or problems)

50 million euros have been set aside for relief effort.
300,000 units of Parmesan and Grana Padano collapsed
aka- 10% of the national production of these cheeses.
$254 million is the estimate of agricultural loss  including cheese, livestock and damaged machinery.

And yours truely? I haven’t felt a thing. If it wasn’t for tangible evidence, I’d think everyone was just messing around with me. I was sleeping soundly as a princess by that hour. 

At school, everything is another story. The great crack right across my building and in one of the concrete foundation columns keeps the paranoia going. The emergency alarm accidentally sounded yesterday was a complete disaster. Sabin is a mess! So for now our courtyard has been closed to be safe (the second-hand smoke just became a lot more concentrated and suffocating in that tightened space) . It’s Wednesday but you can still find the jokesters shaking things up in the hallways. Oh, I can’t wait for that joke to get old. 

Living right in the center of Bologna, I'm as safe as I can be - we're in the clear over here. Regardless, my "NO WORRIES" email sent home Sunday morning was misinterpreted thanks to my usual sarcasm. Geeze kids, do you really think I would have messed around with that kind of news? No way, Jose. 

The information is all clear and updated. OMG yes! Italy has television and news too; I’m living overseas, not with cavemen. The disappointing aspect is how little government financial support has been provided but, this coming as no surprise to the Italians, they’ve taken care of things themselves with good hope. Oh, PS. these photos are all stolen online. Relax- this is not what my daily surroundings are looking like. 

Down south in Brindisi this week, it’s harder to find such promising positivity. A bomb placed in front of a school (named after an anti-mafia prosecutor’s wife killed with her husband when their car passed over a half-ton bomb) killed 16-year-old Melissa Bassi and injured ten of her classmates. 

Who did it? Still unclear. Identified only by fuzzy pictures of a middle-aged man wearing a dark coat, light colored pants and classy shoes. 

Why did it happen? Still unknown.  

Something unconsidered in the States but the first thought in an Italian’s head for such an accident is the Mafia. During a class discourse yesterday, my classmates explained that the Mafia has its power and it has its image. They inflict pain on those who then intend it for. The Mafia tends to “leave a sort of signature to say why they did it.” The unsophisticated explosives - a detonator attached to three gas canisters hidden in a dumpster outside the gate - don't seem to be their style. So who this is and what it's supposed to "prove" is still a big question. Police have their own ideas for suspects but the certainty has yet to come to comfort anyone.

Italy is in recession grappling with a deep economic crises and loss of confidence in political institutions, attacked in just one week by a bomb and a deadly earthquake... who could blame my Literature prof when she sat back in her chair at the end of our discussion (no lessons learned that day), rested her head in her hand and wondered out loud, "What is happening to us? Continuing like this, where are we headed?" I see little hope. The frustration and the exhaustion is clearly tiring the people. But can I say something maybe a bit naive? In my generation I see a class of decently-educated, well-informed kids sincerely passionate and really angry about what they've got waiting for them. Of course, there are also the complete teenage idiots who couldn't even load a dishwasher without a helping hand... Buuuuut I see lots of ideas. I see change bubbling, ready to explode. Keep your chin up, Italy. New tides could be coming your way. 

To-Be-Bottled Memory Days

For a Monday afternoon, I left school particularly happy last week. Maybe it was being school-free the next day (Italian Labor Day), maybe it was the city sunshine or maybe I've just generally chilled out.
Arriving at my bus stop, I watched a typical scene play out before me. Two backpacked tourists fresh off the train from around the corner stood with a map in their hands and a lost hopelessness in their eyes. By the NorthFace gear and general composure, I could recognize them as "my people" immediately.
"So, are you a little or completely lost?"
My English startles and relieves them, "Oh my gosh! You're American! Could you please help us? Do you know the area? Where are you from? What are you doing here?"
Psh, well by know I better know this place well enough. I explain that my route home from school would be useful to them, bringing them straight to the center of the center.... I would have suggested following me but they've already agreed so willingly that I might as well have had been glowing with a light sent by the gods.
This mid-40s Oregon couple celebrating 15 years of "togetherness" has been travelling with little guidance or agenda. They're just goin' with the flow and lovin' every minute. As they kept up with my New York-paced stride, we got to know each other a little bit.

I missed that about the States. As cranky as everyone thinks we can be (or as cranky as we really can be), striking up conversations with strangers is a lot more rare here. There isn't a beauty comparable to that of a ten minute friendship.

My easily distracted free-ness has me shining in my Bologna pride. I'm twisting and turning to point out all the touristy goodies when...
"Oh, mi scusi!" I apologize to the couple I ran into in my circling who happened to be... Jake (IL) and Chloe (PA)? And so I just happened to bump into two American AFSers. Jake and I go way back - we do all our regional camps together and he's always good for pastimes like "what the heck is there to do in Illinois?" or "why is there no Snapple here?" Chloe, however, I haven't seen since Rome!
What a reunion. So, Americans - meet my other Americans. The five of us, quite a sight to see, continued towards the main piazza...

Jake, Islay, Norway,
Yours Truly & Chloe

...Where we met Norway and his will-be host sister next year.
That's Bologna's charm (or curse?). You can't get anywhere without seeing someone you know. We had a lovely little meeting blessed with spontaneity.
We explain a few key Bolognese things to our Oregon friends at this point. Don't leave without climbing the towers. Tortellini and lasagna must be eaten. Avoid certain streets and their overpriced coffees (we learned the hard way). Get lost. Love this city as I do.
I left them at the tourist center in good hands. We shared a sweet goodbye as I wished them good travels and they wished me good...living. We hugged. The end - I'll never see them again but hey, we spent a fun hour together.

So that was that. I walked home. I had lunch and coffee like a lady with my bros. I dined in church with the kids. I spent the night in the club. We drove home at 3:30am in a mom's van with music of my father's generation and a car full of sweat and laughs.
By now, I've got two months left and it's these sweet little moments that are really making it count.

"If only there could be an invention,” I said impulsively, “that bottled up a memory, like a scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again."

Daphne Du Maurier

Keep In Mind That..

"There's times you'll be 

A sinking boat

Left adrift at sea.

And times you'll be 

The ocean tide

Breaking wild and free.

There's times you'll be 

A jellyfish 

And other times a seal

And times you'll be 

The great white shark

And times you'll be the meal.

There's times you'll feel

Like giving up

And sinking to the floor.

And times you'll float 

Upon your back

And wash up on the shore.

But know these times

Will come and go,

And just like tides

Will break and flow.

And though you won't

Know which you'll be

You're still a part

Of that mighty sea."