15 years
Tonight marks fifteen years since I landed in LA. I never thought I'd still be here. I blame it on Ben. ;)
When we met, I was just about ready to move out and move on, then we started dating, I started grad school, we bought a house, started a business… Life happens.
My first two years here were very difficult. I had left all my family and friends behind, married a man who turned out to be a horrible choice, and found it hard to transition from a small town in Italy to the big metropolis. As a consequence, I went through culture shock, divorce and undergraduate school all at the same time.
Now, I have many good things going: a good relationship (I'm trying to convince Ben that that's portable), good friends (and yesterday I met an old friend from my Art Center days that I hadn't seen in over twelve years), two wonderful cats (they're portable, too), the business (hm, that's not as portable). So I have mixed feelings about being still here cuz I've been restless for a while, but the good stuff is good and I'm feeling more like celebrating than regretting or reminescing.
In true celebration mode, over the past week I have splurged on some aceto balsamico tradizionale…
…spicy hot chocolate, and hazelnut biscuits.
By biscuits I always mean what the British call biscuits, the Americans call cookies and the Italians biscotti. Of course, confusingly, the Americans use the term biscotti to mean something else, i.e. a specific kind of biscuit, er… cookie. I'm finally getting used to seeing Italian words used to mean something other than what they mean in Italian, though I really don't understand why someone would pick a foreign word to mean something different from what the word means in the original language. Take "latte" for instance. Latte is Italian for milk, but in the U.S. it's a coffee beverage that includes variable amounts of milk, coffee being still the primary ingredient. Why call it "latte" when they could call it "caffelatte" or "cappuccino" or make up a word in English?
I also got myself some flower tea…
and a tea posy…
I am going to spoil myself rotten this weekend. :)
Comments
Congrats!--I'm glad that you landed here and hope that you are not poised for flight. Isn't the tea fun, you will have to let me know where you found them.
Theresa
Posted by: Theresa | March 31, 2007 5:08 PM
I was brought up to call a certain type biscuit and others, cookies!
Wow, you've got 3 years over me. Enjoy yourself!
Posted by: Marina | March 31, 2007 6:46 PM
Those flower teas are beautiful, and intriguing, and a little scary. I think they are so neat. But do they taste good?
Your celebratory materials are lovely! I didn't know that latte didn't mean... well, latte. Thanks for that!
Posted by: Mary-Heather | March 31, 2007 6:58 PM
15 years.. long time! I did try to convice my hubby to move back to Europe but I'm getting to like it here now! If only I could fly with no fear!
Have a happy celebration with Ben!
Posted by: Laurence | April 1, 2007 8:20 AM
i'm glad you're here! i thought of you last night at a friends house when she poured some fancy balsamic on the grilled asparagus - delicious.
Posted by: stephanie s | April 1, 2007 10:17 AM
So, you've been here 15 years? I can imagine that you miss Italy very much. I have friends from England who are going through the slow process to become U.S. citizens, and I can't understand why. Sometimes I look at them and ask, "Why?" All the better for the rest of us that they and you stay; it makes life more interesting here.
As for "latte", I've known of this misnomer for some time now and I don't know why we Americans turn words around like that. It is very strange.
Posted by: domesticshorthair | April 4, 2007 10:51 PM