Politics - Italian and American

Hello to everyone!! (I felt that Ciao was getting a bit repetitive). It is officially the end of my second week here. This week went even faster than the last! I don't know how much international news y'all read - we don't even get that much international news to begin with in the states, but I thought today would be dedicated to all things political as the Italian government essentially fell yesterday.

Perhaps I should preface this blog by stating that I might have misunderstood some things. I have pieced together what happened based on the news (in Italian), my host family (speaking in Italian), CNN (in English, but written in the States), and my friend here Randall (and Australian). So, hopefully I've at least understood something, but it's quite possible I'm all backwards now.

From what I gather, the Italian government is always unstable and corrupt, and this was their 61st government (not type of government, but 61st leader/party in charge) since World War II. That's a lot if you do the math. The current (well, not anymore), prime minister, Prodi, has only been in office less than 2 years. My understanding (thanks, Randall), is that the prime minister is elected within the dominant party in parliament (it sounds exactly like how our Speaker of the House is chosen, except their prime minister has a lot more control). And the main problem from what I gather is that there are a million little parties here, and they bond together with the larger ones to form a majority. The latest issue started when one of the smaller parties withdrew its support from the majority, which caused the majority to no longer be a majority. So essentially, nothing could get done. The apparent solution to this problem is to hold an election and re-elect everyone, and start over. (The alternative I believe is for the president - and don't ask me how he fits in here - can set up an interim government to run things while they hold off an election). And this type of situation has happened constantly here! It's a miracle they actually survive.

The entire thing is incredibly confusing, and I still don't understand. I also realize I've probably confused everyone who just read the above paragraph. I always thought American politics were confusing, but this is insane! While the political system may be in shambles here, it is far more entertaining than anything in our Congress. Granted, I often didn't understand what was being said, but those representatives get very heated. They would yell, pound their fist, yell at each other directly, boo one another - it was very fascinating to watch (they show snipets on the news here every day). When I read an international newspaper today (in English), I read that one senator was called a traitor and a coward, and someone else spat on him. Incredible.

That's all I know about Italian politics, and that's not much, so I'll try to explain American politics! Just kidding. But I did want to share with y'all the interest they seem to have over here in American politics. On the news every night is at least one clip from something that happened in the states. If it is the day of a primary or the day before, the clip is almost always of the candidates campaigning, and information about how the candidates are doing. One interesting thing to note is that they almost always show Hillary Clinton. I don't think I've seen a clip of Obama yet, and they rarely mention his name, and they haven't mentioned any other Democratic candidates. They also rarely mention the Republicans, and the only two people they've shown or mentioned was Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. I think it's very interesting that they are so fascinated with Hillary. I don't know if it's because of Bill, or because she's a woman (plenty of European countries have had women leaders, so maybe they think we're behind the times?). But they seem to love her. (Or maybe they hate her - I don't really know as I don't understand enough Italian to figure out what kind of slant they're putting on these news stories).

The days that they don't show the candidates, they usually show President Bush and they quickly remark on whatever he said. Unfortunately, they always pick a clip where he's stuttering and sounds very untintelligent (He's not a very good public speaker to begin with, so I realize it's probably difficult to find a clip where he is articulate). Anyways, I'm always embarassed when they show him. We went out last night to play cards, and began talking with a very nice couple from London. One of them mentioned how Bush didn't know anything and I laughed and said "Don't get me started." He remarked that every American he had ever met tried to distance themselves from Bush, and were a bit embarassed he was the president. He asked us some questions then about his approval ratings, and why people have problems with him now. The whole situation was just strange as they seemed to know a lot about what was going on in America. I never would know enough to ask questions about what was going on in England.

As a funny side note, the big American news a few days ago was that Bill Clinton fell asleep during an MLK celebration. They showed the clip on the news and it made the front page of the paper. Was it funny? Yes. The most important thing of the day? Probably not, but I guess it's what the Italians wanted to see!

Anyways, that's enough politics for now. I wish I had more funny language stories, but I really only have one this week (maybe that means I'm getting immensely better at the language?).

Ever since I arrived here, my two favorite words/phrases have been "Si" (which means yes), and "Va bene", which doesn't literally translate into English very well, but essentially means everything is good, or OK. Anyways, when someone asks me a question and I don't understand or am unsure, I usually just try to be polite and respond with Si. This means I've said yes to lots of things, and half the time, I don't even know what I'm agreeing to. This finally backfired on me this week. Before dinner one evening, Aurelio asked if I liked anchovies, and if I'd eat them at dinner. I didn't know what he asked, but I knew it involved food and eating, so I just responded "Si, si", like I always do. (I decided it's much more polite to say yes than no when you don't really know what's going on). About 15 seconds later I realized what I had agreed to (the word for anchovies sounds almost exactly the same in Italian and English, so it didn't take long at all for that one to click). But it was too late, Aurelio had moved on to another topic, and was very happy that I ate anchovies. About 15 minutes later, I chowed down on some bruschetta topped with cheese, a tomato, and a nice fat anchovy. It wasn't all that bad, but still a bit slimy. My main problem was that it was spicy. But that's one word I won't forget (and when he asked me later in the week if I wanted anchovies on my pizza, I quickly responded with "No, grazie.").

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Our plans for the weekend are still up in the air, but one the list of things to do is to take lots of pictures in Taormina to post for you on Monday. Until then, Ciao!