May is almost over...

...can you believe it?

On Friday I met with an Italian deaf woman who spent the year in Gallaudet as the Italian counterpart to my Fulbright here in Italy. She wants to become a teacher of Italian for deaf students (like me teaching English to deaf students). Talking with her was so nice, her dreams are very interesting and I hope that she achieves them!

I met with her because she is one of my interpreters (ASL-LIS) for my presentation next week in Torino. My topic: "Deaf and Hearing Cultures in America: A Comedy of Errors." Basically I'm presenting about how these cultures are different and similar, and how the differences often leads to conflict between deaf and hearing people. The goal of my presentation is to start a dialogue about Italian deaf and hearing culture... are they the same or different, and how? What kind of conflicts come up and how can they be solved? I'll be signing in ASL (thank goodness - my LIS is not THAT advanced), and 2 deaf Italians who have lived in the USA will be translating into LIS. I'm nervous because at the last count there will be about 120 people there. Eek! Laura (the deaf Italian interpreter) was commenting how nervous she was, I was like, heck! I'm the presenter!! She made a good point though - if she misinterprets something I say, who's fault is it? Hers. OOh. Pressure. :-/

I wanted to announce some changes that will be coming up soon... I'm moving out of my apartment here in Biella on Friday and will be staying with Vale for one month in her house in the mountains. I won't have as much internet access there as I do here, so you won't see me online much at all, nor will I be able to send emails as often. BUT please do keep in touch with me via email and I WILL reply when I have the chance.

This summer will be a busy one - a friend of mine from New Mexico emailed me yesterday telling me she and her mother wanted to come to Italy and were hoping to meet up with me. When I looked at my schedule, I was like damn! Ha. School finishes June 8th, then I go up to work at the summer camp at Oropa for the following week, then the weekend after I'm finished with Oropa, I go to Roma for a Fulbright end-of-the-year event. In July I fly to Czech Republic to get things settled and packed up there (but haven't decided WHEN I will go). Then in mid-August, I fly to Paris to meet Amber (yayyyyy!) then we will spend the week in southern France. After her brother's wedding in Lyon, I take a train straight back to the Biella area where I hope to "set up house" in a new apartment for the following year. Then, last week of August, 2 friends in Genova (3 hours by train from Biella) invited me to stay there for a week to spend time seeing the sights and just being near the ocean. I'm excited! I'll finally hike Cinque Terra!!! :-) According to our agenda, Libor should move here first week of September. Keep your fingers crossed that he finds work too.

Two friends invited me to come to Sicilia whenever I'd like, and another friend invited me to come to Puglia (north of Sicilia on the east coast) but I told them better I wait until next summer when I have more money. Ha. They said ok, thankfully. It has been recommended if I go to Sicilia, better go to for one month to really see everything. Hmm... 1 week here, 1 week there, and 1 week camping... then one week in Puglia... sounds good to me. :-D

Goodness. 2 summers pretty much booked already.

Plus I've already decided I MUST cook Thanksgiving dinner in November and invite everyone to join in on this strange American tradition. ;-) People ask me about it all the time. The most recent comment was the desire to try the red sauce made from fruit? Ah yes. Cranberry sauce. I need to find a decent recipe for that! However, I'm dubious about finding a turkey the size of those you can find in the USA. Maybe I can have one shipped? ;-) That'd be an experience! 2 weeks languishing in customs, for sure. [Someone sent me a book from the USA via media/ground mail - took 2 1/2 months to get here. I think it was sent by submarine to keep with the "ground." Must have been a challenge going around the Bermuda Triangle.]

I'll try to post again after my presentation to let you know how it went...