by Maureen | Nov 20, 2009 | Cheese, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, People
After 5 months here in Milano, I’ve finally had people over for a meal! I invited Evelina, Glenda and Lydia, from the office at NABA, to come join me for lunch. We all see each other whenever I’m on campus and we get along well.
Just before they arrived, I baked a fresh loaf of Irish Soda Bread (which was devoured with a creamy cheese on top), marinated and then grilled some chicken breasts (red orange juice, olive oil, mustard, red onion, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper), grilled some peeled beets and served a rucola/songino salad. We sipped some prosecco and laughed through lunch. It was all topped off with coffee, both Italian-style and American-style, and a few pastries from the infamous and fabulous Spezia Pasticceria.
I love to cook for people. It was great fun to have them over!
by Maureen | Aug 21, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ireland, Journal, People
This is what one comes to Ireland to experience: a pint of Guinness and some traditional music. It was after 10:00 on Wednesday night and we walked the half dozen blocks into the town of Carndonagh for “Trad Night” at the Persian Bar. There were 4 or 5 people in the pub and the place was near empty. We took seats at the bar, right across from the table where the to-be-gathered musicians would sit. Within 10 minutes, the place started to fill, and musicians gathered around their table, including the 3 Henry Sisters. The music started at 10:55.
I joked with the bartender, saying that I was doing a Calendar of Irish Bartenders.
The Inishowen Henry Sisters
Joleen, Lorna and Karen Henry are three of six sisters from Inishowen. Their music has been described as traditional, folk, bluesy, roots, world and contemporary, an eclectic mix of their individual and collective musical experiences. The Henry Girls released their first album ‘Between Us’ in 2002 to widespread critical acclaim and giving the group access to a wider audience.
http://www.dun-na-ngall.com/nw92.html
“Convivial” is absolutely the word I’d use to describe the nature of the people here. Everyone is immediately a “cousin”, (many of them truly so). Conversations sprout readily whether lubricated by a Guinness or not. And there’s something about the lilting music in the voice of the Irish that speaks of welcome.
Trad Night is off-the-cuff spontaneous, yielding songs both mellow and lively. When James Nonne, the local storyteller, began his bawdy, rhyming recitations the patrons in the packed pub would “shush” each other loudly, and then give a round of applause with his story told.
Ballads/Stories:
“Galway Bay/Young Farmer”
“Bonnie Black Hair”
“The Rangy Ribs I Bought from Mickey Dhu”
One cousin’s advice about getting to know people here: “Never say ‘no’ to the cup of tea.” (That doesn’t look like a cup of tea in his hand…)
Another cousin’s comment about the reception he expected from his wife when he got home that night (when he had only been expecting to be gone for a short evening): “A cold shoulder and a hot tongue.”
by Maureen | Aug 20, 2009 | Ireland, Journal
2:00 a.m. Just back from the pub, “The Persian Bar” in Carndonagh, Ireland, in Inishowen, the northernmost region of County Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland . THIS is why people come to Ireland and THIS is what they hope to find! Wednesday night at The Persian is “Trad Night”, the night of traditional music. Six or seven random musicians showed up and filled the room with music from their harp, tin whistle, guitar, accordion, fiddle, and banjo. They sang ballads, folk songs, American classics …and accompanied some “recitations”, (readings of traditional, ballad-style poems).
The Guinness flowed freely and the place was packed with patrons, 17 – 70. This was not a tourist show, as would be found in the big city hubs. This was just the locals getting together to have some fun and pass a rainy, Wednesday evening.
I shot many photos, handheld, adjusted for the dark pub lighting, but my camera card reader is at “the house” where I’m staying, and I will likely just stay here tonight. …And so, post more later. But I will fall asleep pleased. Tonight’s gathering embodied what I’ve always heard of Ireland (following a full day of neighborly comings and goings).
Tomorrow, we have more exploration to do. (“Giant’s Causeway”. Google THAT!) Hmm. Who knows when I’ll have a chance to sit inside the house, download photos and post to this blog… Hmm. Who cares?
by Maureen | Aug 3, 2009 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Graphics, Journal, People
It’s August in Milano. It’s hot and humid, and most people are part of the mass-exodus out of the city for the month. (The whole country takes the month off.) But some of us are left behind (or haven’t left yet). What’s the average relaxation passtime on a hot summer day? A day at the beach. But there is no beach in Milano, up to two hours away from the sea, so someone brought the seaside to the city. And the beach was packed.
Dubbed “MysLand” (with a silent “s”, like “island”), the in-city beach was constructed on 10,000 square meters of former fairgrounds, not far from the center of town. The cost was 1.8 million Euro ($2.56 million) to create the semblance of the sea, complete with an imported sandy beach, palm trees, an odd-shaped “ocean” (pool), boardwalk, dressing cabins and café. The real kicker to me, though, was the supergraphic panel that encircled the whole “island”, giving us our view of the wide open ocean with blue skies overhead and occasional puffer-belly clouds.
When we arrived at 10:00 a.m. the place was so empty we thought they were closed. By the time we picked up our towels off the beach chairs at 2:00, there was lying-room-only. Many people sprawled on the astroturf sport court fronted by the big, beachside banner.
The whole concept was a hoot!
Sun-bathing in Italy was a lesson in body-consciousness and body-acceptance. Women of every size and shape sported two-piece bathing suits, no matter how abundantly they overflowed the seams or how sparsely their body parts were covered. And they didn’t seem terribly concerned either way. Men wore enough to cover their privates, some more private than others. I’m afraid my bone-white, sun-starved, Irish-German, Seattleite skin was like a beacon amidst the deep bronze I was surrounded by. Part of my lesson in body-acceptance. My new love of Italian cheese and lack of gym-time also lent opportunities for self-acceptance!
By the way, I spent the day at the beach with Ewa, the one I enjoyed my octopus with two weeks ago after strolling the antique market. After our seaside Sunday, we went home to a delicious lunch of lamb cooked by Piotr, Ewa’s husband. We’ve gotten together several times and will meet up in September after they return from their Milano exodus.
by Maureen | Jul 28, 2009 | Journal, Quips
Erin and Pete are in Switzerland now, “lounging” for a couple of days (or at least not pushing quite as hard). They’re storing up energy for a plenty-high mountain pass they anticipate soon. If you want to read THEIR version of their time in and then out of Milano, here’s a little link to their travel blog.
by Maureen | Jul 25, 2009 | Featured Articles, Journal, People
“Maureen, we’re still in Milan. Can we come crash on your floor tonight?”
“Better yet, my couch folds out into a queen bed.”
Erin and Pete, whom I had met in the morning along the canal bike trail, got sidetracked at the duomo and castello for the day. They hadn’t made it out of the city on their 6-month-total bike trek, so they were looking for a place to lay their heads for the night.
Sure! Why not? (Per ché no?)
I tried to put a twin bed sheet on the queen size mattress. It only kinda worked, but it sure beat sleeping in the bushes between two highways, which they HAVE done along the course of their trip.
They arrived in the evening and got showered up. They put on their cleanest clothes and I walked them over to the Antik Café alongside the canal for appetizers, while I headed to NABA for the End-of-Summer-Session party. An hour later, I brought Erin and Pete back to the school where they joined the loud music and danced ’til the late hours.
(When their day had started, I’m sure they had no idea they’d end up meeting someone on the bike trail and then sleeping on her couch after dancing in bare feet all night.)
Back at my apartment, we talked about their trip and their plans. We looked at photos. Exchanged stories. And then ran out of speed at about 2:00 a.m. Breakfast on Friday morning was an odd one, serving what I had available. Pete ate granola with yogurt and a cup of coffee. Erin was daring and joined me for a Mexican-seasoned stew of chicken, veggies and beans that I had cooked up a couple days earlier.
Next stop for Erin and Pete: up to Lake Como and into Switzerland. Buon viaggio!
by Maureen | Jul 23, 2009 | Featured Articles, Journal, People
Out for a good ride this morning, down along the canal 17 kilometers (10 miles) south of Milano. Mid-80s and the temperature was fabulous. I needed to get my heart rate up and my blood moving.
I stopped for a short break at a decorative bridge. Aside from a couple of fishermen at the canal edge, I could see a couple of bicyclists, loaded up with full paniers and heading north in my direction. They got to the bridge, said a fleeting “ciao” and kept on moving. At my break’s end, I turned around and headed for home. Unburdened, it wasn’t long before I caught up with the two riders. We crossed the busy highway together, then stopped in the shade for a brief chat.
Erin and Peter are from Adelaide, South Australia, and they’ve been riding around Europe for 4 months. It was fun to stop, say hello, exchange travel stories and e-mail addresses. I should have invited them to my place for a shower and a home cooked meal! (Erin and Peter… sorry for the oversight, and very nice to meet you! Good travels to you!)
Here’s their “loose idea”:
Loose idea – England, France, Spain (walk the Camino de Santiago while our bikes are magically and mysteriously transported to the end of the trail), Portugal, up through Spain and south of France, Italy, ferry to Greece, Albania, Croatia, Italy again on the way to Switzerland, Germany and then either the Netherlands, ferry to England or Denmark, ferry to Shetland Islands, Scotland and back down to England (option 2 sounds like more than 6 months but who knows? We’ll wait and see).
You can read about their travels on their blog.
by Maureen | Jul 19, 2009 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, People
One of the Sunday street markets of antiques and collectables lines the narrow, crooked, cobbled Via Fiori Chiari. I had found the listing online and it seemed like a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.
Almost as soon as I came up out of the subway, I was faced with the Piccolo Theater and the public art that dominated the intersection. (I thought of Burien’s new Town Square.)
Two blocks later, at the entrance to Via Fiori Chiari, sat the mozzarella bar, Obika. I made a note to go back there, as I watched the woman prepare a broad flat disk of fresh mozzarella the size of a pizza! She laid the cheese out flat, piled it with fresh arugula and freshly sliced bresaola (my favorite cured meat). She rolled the whole thing to be later sliced into beautiful green, white and red spiral rotoli. The place looked sleek and hip, (The prices weren’t so sleek, however. Check out their web site for a lesson in mozzarella.)
Via Fiori Chiari is a mere alleyway, only two blocks long, narrow but spotless, and faced by antique and clothing stores. The restaurants along those two blocks set out their tables and table cloths, their menus written in either cursive or chalk, and umbrellas to shade all the hungry antique-shoppers.
I wandered the two blocks and bought 7 beads. Sure. Come all the way to Italy and buy beads from Thailand! But I liked them. They reminded me of folded paper, and their simplicity pleased me.
Lunch time. I perused the posted menus and the octopus at Il Kaimano kept sounding good to me, Polpetti alla Luciana. I stepped up and was seated with tables one inch away from either side of my own. The waiter handed me a menu, and when I said “grazie“, he looked startled and replied “Italiana?”. I said “si“, and he returned with a menu in Italian. (I was pleased again today.)
The table proximity was cozy… Indeed! And it was on this lovely, just-right-warm Sunday afternoon, sipping prosecco and spooning octopus out of my bowl that I met my first new friends in Milano! I can’t remember how the conversation began with Ewa and Piotr; I think it was that Piotr asked if I’m English, or if I speak English. “Americans speaking Italian usually don’t have such a good accent,” he said. The three of us ended up enjoying our meals together over the next hour or so, speaking with Italian and English blended so well I forgot what language was being spoken!
Ewa (Eva) is a doctor from Poland and has lived here for 30 years. Piotr is Polish and German, and a retired musical conductor. He was especially pleased by the music of the street musician just a few feet away, and thus their selection of this restaurant. He told of being a part of the musical production, Cinderella, at the Kennedy Center in 1962.
It wasn’t long into the conversation that Ewa suggested we get together so she could practice her English and I could practice my Italian! What fun. How perfect. We exchanged cards and numbers and plan to meet for coffee or pizza next weekend. We might make it a weekly language practice!
Just last night I was musing about “living” in Milano. Living in a city is not simply having an apartment and buying groceries alongside the locals. That’s just the mechanics and structure of living. Living in a city is about being a part of community in that city. That’s the heart of living and the key I was wondering how to create. Certainly, sitting in my apartment doesn’t do much to help me meet people, but I had thought, “What? Go to a restaurant alone and just sit there writing in my journal while I eat?” Well…no journal with me today and the tables were only an inch apart. How could we NOT have started a conversation?! It was all so fluid and easy.
Reflecting on friendships, I am so very grateful for the lifeline that NABA creates for me, and the gathering of wonderful people that I’ve met there. Without those friendships this move to Milano would have been an entirely different story. NABA has given me a community to dip my big toe into right from the start.
But since arriving here, meeting Ewa and Piotr began the first spontaneous, independent friendships outside of NABA that have a likelihood of continuing! And that prospect pleases me even more deeply than paper-like beads or being mistaken for an Italian! Grazie a Ewa e Piotr!
by Maureen | Jul 4, 2009 | Journal
We even skyped the dog, Sammy!
It was worth getting up at 6:45 for a 7:00 AM chat with my goofy friends from Junior High and High School! Skype me, baby! They were all together on the beach in West Seattle on their Friday night, at 10:00. We talked for an hour. I gave them a skype walking tour of my apartment and we just talked about the little things of getting settled in.
Fun to see their silly faces and recognize each voice in the background.
They had pulled in a bunch of crabs in the crab pot and had a feast on the beach. Even the crab got into the skype action.
Good, ole technology. (New technology!) It makes all these remote smiles possible!
