Before I Hear About the Festivities

I just finished a full day of work. Now I remember that tomorrow is Thanksgiving for the Americans. I am about to open up my Facebook account and I know I will see a long list of posts related to turkey, the holiday and maybe even football references.

It's strange knowing that I will work a long day tomorrow. I won't be on vacation. Thanksgiving is going to wait until Saturday at my house. (There will be turkey, some sort of cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.)

I have lived abroad for over a decade and this sensation is still strange. Knowing that people are celebrating and I am not.

This is part of the package of being an expat. On the upside, I will get my birthday off: December 8th. That's something the Americans don't celebrate unless they are Catholic. And even then, they go to work like everybody else and just go to mass in the evening.

I'll get a long weekend this year here in Italy--il ponte dell'Immaculata.

Bang Bang

If you look carefully, the blood becomes bats.

Taken from a column under the porticos on Via Roma near the Tabacconist

at the beginning of the street.

My Other Project on the Blogosphere

I mentioned before that I have been kept away from An American in Padua for a while because of a project that had been lurking in the corners of my TO DO list for years. Well, I started it in September. It's a blog/showcase of contemporary art in Northeast Italy called NE-ARTE.

This blog is meant to feature the art of the this part of the country for a local and international audience, being written in Italian and English. This is especially important to me since I am a contemporary artist myself, when not blogging or teaching.

I also hope to see NE-ARTE become a valid community for the region with its artists, curators, gallery owners, art collectors and enthusiasts.

If you would like to be part of its followers and/or community, please click here.

New Blog on the Block

There's a new blog featuring a woman's view on the city of Padua. It's called Galline Padovane and written by Cristina, an Italian who is passionate about Padova and writes her posts in both Italian and English. The name of the blog translates as "Paduan Hens"after the special local variety that is bred in this area.

She recently featured my blog on hers at this link. (Thank you, Cristina)

Now you can get more on the scoop here in town by checking "The Hens" out!

Galline Padovane

Desperate House Cleaners

While recovering from surgery, the house got progressively dirtier. F only did so much and I couldn't do anything on crutches, so I placed an ad on a local internet site for help cleaning the house: 2 hours once a week. Just enough to do some basic cleaning like vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom.

To my surprise, I got over 80 responses. The calls kept coming at all hours from early morning to evening and weekends, too. My mobile phone's battery was completely drained at the end of everyday by the sheer volume of telephone calls. The emails popped up in my box, one after another. Foreigners, Italians, women, men and girls. I got printable CVs! They were willing to drive 30 minutes to get to our house to clean for just 2 hours. They wanted to be interviewed immediately. I was absolutely shocked. Even the 45-year-old daughter of the family that lives door happened to mention that she saw the announcement, figured out that it was me, and asked for the job.

If anyone tells you that the economy is just fine here, they're wrong. There are thousands of people who are trying to make ends meet by cleaning. Young girls doing poorly-paid internships who need a little extra money. Women out of work. Mothers who wanted to do a little extra work when the kids are at school. Men who lost their jobs.

I am lucky that F and I have a job.