Monte Verde & Barber Shop Experience

"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" Cheers, anyone? I just feel like I belong here in this city.

So times starting to come to an end here, and I'm going to have to say good-bye to my lovely Monte Verde neighborhood soon. I feel so at home here, I don't want to leave. This has honestly been a really great place to live. There's a bar (in Italy a bar is where you eat breakfast and lunch) on the bottom floor of my apartment building where I can get my breakfast pastry and espresso along with my lunchtime panini. There's Pizza e Pasta, my go-to place for dinner with their cheap prices and great food. Multiple supermarkets and convenience stores close by. The tram line downtown comes right here, There's a bus stop here that takes me to school. There's a post office and barber shop right up the street. I live next door to one of the biggest hospitals in Rome which I guess makes me feel safe if I ever hurt myself. It's also a really safe and friendly area. Not much to complain about living here.

Anyways, I brought up the fact that I'm leaving soon for the first time last night at Pizza e Pasta. By the way, as soon as I walked in, they knew exactly what I wanted, I didn't even have to order anything. The mom said she'd go start my pasta and then brought me over a Peroni. La bella vita. It's a small pizzeria here that is run by a family of a dad, mom and 2 daughters. They've got good hours, good prices and good food. I probably go there more than any other place since I got here. It was also the very first place I ate here in Rome, the day I got here Juan and I went there for our first meal after getting here from the airport.

Anyways, I went there for dinner last night on my way home from school. I was the only one in the place for most the time so I was talking to them while they were making my penne amatriciana which is my favorite type of pasta they serve. The mom and dad were telling me how my Italian has gotten a lot better since they first met me in January. Then we talked about what I'll miss most about Rome and how I really don't want to leave here yet. They were kind of surprised that I didn't want to return to America, they've never been there but they were real shocked that I said I really liked living here. Anyways, that definitely won't be my last trip there, I hopefully have half a dozen more, but it made me sad to bring it up to them that I was leaving soon.

Then, a final goodbye came today at the barber shop. I'm sure you all remember my blog form mid-March about my haircut, that was the most read blog I've posted yet I'm pretty sure. Anyways, I went back there this afternoon for another haircut and of course the same two people were working there. When I walked in they were both eating their lunches from Disney Pizza which is a good pizza joint up the road. I'll remember that place best from January when my roommates and I had our first meal together there, and one of them in particular was not a fan of the place, ha. The barber told me to sit down and talk with them while they finished. So we sat there and chatted, and then he smoked a cigarette by the door while still talking to me. Finally, after that we started my haircut. See I know most people in America would have gotten offended if they had to wait for their barber to eat lunch and smoke a cigarette but I thought it was actually really cool to just hang out and talk. Of course he knew I was in no rush so we just sat around and had a conversation. I guess it's my fault for walking in around lunch time. By the way neither he nor the other lady speak any English so this was all being done in Italian.

They also told me my Italian had improved a lot since last time. I was surprised he remembered me to be honest but the minute I walked in the door he remembered who I was just after that one haircut from March. I guess I'm a pretty memorable person. Or it's just a testament to how friendly and caring they are about their customers here in Italy. He asked if I wanted the same "Italian style" haircut as last time and I told him of course! So first we talked about sports and soccer, asked his opinion of an American taking over ownership of the AS Roma soccer team. Then we talked about music, which we both remembered talking about last time because the radio station in there was playing English songs. Just Can't Get Enough (Black Eyed Peas) and ET (Katy Perry & Kanye) came on so I asked him about those singers. He's a huge Black Eyed Peas fan so we talked about how amazing Fergie is at everything and anything :) and I told him to watch the Superbowl video of them at half time performing, after I reminded him what the Superbowl was.

Then of course came the inevitable question. "Allora, sei americano, e bin Laden è stato ucciso, che cosa pensi?" I knew this was coming, I've already been asked it by my Italian teacher, another Italian teacher and another Italian friend. Getting into political conversations with strangers is always risky, you never know what 'side' of the argument the other person will be on, so you can imagine what doing it in another language would be like. I have the same problem every Thursday night at the language exchange bar when Italians ask me what I think of Obama. I guess this was preparation for that tomorrow night though. Anyways, I gave a pretty general answer, I said justice had been served, I was happy to hear the news, I was scared of a retaliation attack, etc. I then asked him his opinion, and by his opinion, I mean the whole barber shop who at this point was listening to our conversation and chiming in from time to time to help me remember a word if I blanked out. Turns out, everyone in the barber shop, including him, doesn't believe it. They all said they don't believe Obama for a second, and that most Italians in general don't believe it's true. They said they don't trust Obama and want to see evidence that bin Laden is dead because they think he's just playing a political game. When I asked them if it was because they just flat out didn't like Obama, that wasn't the reason. The room was split on liking or Obama or not, but unanimous that they didn't believe him. I found that pretty interesting. I know I've read lots of stuff saying that it's a lie but I never for a second believed any of it or thought Obama would actually lie about that. I still don't, let's make that clear. I just found it interesting.

For all those trying to remember if Italy is actually close to Libya

Then the conversation moved to to Bush, and surprisingly enough, the room was again split on if they liked Bush or not, with all the Obama supporters against Bush and vice versa. Politics will be politics where ever you are I guess. A lot of them don't like Obama because they felt put Italy in danger by bombing Libya because Italy is the closet and most likely target if Gadhafi decides to attack anywhere. I told them I felt the same way.

Anyways, that's just a little taste of what I got today at the barber shop. We talked about a lot more too, I was there for awhile, after all, remember I watched them eat lunch. Don't confuse this sample for the feelings of every Italian in the world though and claim they're all conspirators. This was just a few people's opinion at a barber shop. I just always think it's fun to get other cultures opinions on stuff. I'd be interested in seeing a poll here about their feelings on bid Laden being dead or not though, but I have a feeling they might have just been a coincidental group of doubters..who knows though. Feel free to post your thoughts on any of this as a comment.