Italian kids vs. American kids.. and the winner is..

by far AMERICAN KIDS. well as you know I have been working with several Italian families here in Florence and subsequently taking the abuse that their kids throw at me lol. Now I will say that there have been good moments, even happy ones but unfortunately I haven't seen those lately which now means blog time!

many people will say..American kids are so spoiled, picky eaters, don't listen , which is true in some cases , I have met some spawns of Lucifer in my times but after about 2 years on and off working with Italian kids, the few times I take the odd babysitting assignment for American tourists here I am so thankful that its hard to wipe the silly grin off my face. Why? They listen, they brush their teeth, they go to bed after I read them the 1 story requested and the parents actually CARE if the kids speak to me bad. Which my friends, is refreshing! Everything is done in a professional, here's my number in case of an emergency , there is food in the fridge, kids must go to bed by such and such time.. not the case in my Italian family experiences..

Most of the time when I work for Italian families its as if i am walking into chaos.. no instructions, no games plans, definitely no emergency numbers, nobody cares or asks if I am hungry and as far as payment goes.. I am lucky if they actually remember to pay me when they say they will. Some examples of this weeks festivities..

Me: " ok Fabiola ( 3 yr old Italian girl) , do you want to go in the garden and play?"

( keep in mind i am supposed to speak English with her which results in blank stares and my favorite phrase by her which is " i hate English, I'm Italian which means i am only supposed to speak italian!" um ok.. my job is officially irrelevant..

Her " ( in italian) I hate you , GO away , why do you always come over to my house and try and make me go into the garden , I am angry with you!"

( reference to garden comment :the mom asks that i take her into the garden for "fresh air" ..easier said than done!).

7pm rolls around which I eagerly gather my things and leave, awkwardly saying goodbye to the family who could care less that I exist..

Of course the Moms sister exclaims .. " oh children are like sponges, I have a German nanny and all my kids understand German" its so great..

oh really? great for who? your German nanny who probably suffers the same mistreatment on a daily basis while the kids learn a "wie gehts" and a "hallo" .

Seriously there needs to be some classes on how to discipline your kids here! I would never let my kids talk to people like that, much less those who are hired to work for them! anyhow who am i kidding, these are the kind of people who have 2 live in nannies.. i just want to say to them .. you speak English, how about spending time with your kids and just speaking English to them? they live in Italy, they will pick up Italian fast enough! so i think it is time to find another family and see if I can find the holy grail of Italian families.. to be continued..


at this point I am going to get back to more important issues such as , where to go to lunch.. any advice?

November 5th, 2008.. a great feeling..

what can i say..i woke up this morning in my boyfriends comfortable "double ( consisting of two single beds pushed together) bed" and lo and behold its not only SUNNY for the first time in a longgg while but Obama has been elected president. What more can you ask for in life? i know.. a croissant with nutella..

anyhow we will get back to that but since this is my first ( dare i say the word I always deem as slightly annoying...blog) I feel like I should provide a back story instead of demanding that people be interested in my life.. I am 24 years old, American, I grew up in San Antonio, Texas ( Go Spurs) and although I love Texas and my fantastic, loud typical Texas family at 18 I packed my bags, left home and I haven't looked back since. Of course I had some help with that, namely my ex boyfriend and best friend who all moved to LA or "la la land" as I like to call it.. I came, i worked, i finished University.. It was hard but in an age where I think we have a problem of what I call "sweet 16ers" , a little hard work never hurt anyone! Los Angeles was and is a great a place to live. I met many great long lasting friends and hey it gave me the opportunity to do things that i may not have been able to do in Texas, go to a pay pride parade with feisty older men in leather chaps, transvestite parties, crazy nights in Malibu and a paid trip to teach English in China and last but definitely not least, the opportunity to study and eventually live in .....ITALY.

I get random emails from time to time on Myspace. Most of them positive and some of them not ( mainly " so do your rich parents pay for your exploits ( exploits ?..what am i an eastern European hooker?) in Europe.. so to answer that persons question.. no no and more no.. of course my father has helped when I studied here but I live here ( in Florence) under the condition that I use my degree and actually "gasp" work and "gasp" support myself.. and work? oh yes work i do! I have two jobs as well as some freelancing lessons. Job #1 goes to a Vacation Rental Company located here in Florence where my job is to find clients from abroad , get them in vacation rentals, and customer service. A little bit of everything.. including having a crazy boss whose mood changes like those 2 dollars
mood rings everyone bought as a kid...She crazy , she makes ME crazy and if it wasn't for my sarcastic and funny colleague from the south of Italy i probably would have hightailed it long ago.. A good job in Italy is the equivalent of finding the holy grail during the religious crusades and I for one am not going to give that up so easily.. job#2 is slightly more masochistic in that I don't technically need it but since I am mainly paid on commission from job number 1 , I want to be sure and have this one as a steady paycheck. A couple of afternoons a week I get paid (well) to "teach" a rich familie's 3 and 5 yr old kids English by playing with them.. a very popular job with young Americans and English alike here in Florence. The funny thing about it as they know NO English .. so picture me speaking English to them and them staring blankly in my face as if i was speaking Swahili.. yep that's pretty much what I do.. the job is not without its rewards though and they are flexible so if I have to do something, no biggie i can call and not go that day because the family has not 1 but 3 nannies at their 24 hour disposal. I have perhaps seen the woman ( the mom) who hired me about 3 times since I have begun working there ( about a month ago) and the father almost never, in fact when i dyed my hair back to brown he introduced himself to me again because he thought i was a new English teacher.. lol.. hmm dad how about spending less time at ferregamo and more time at home with your kids? ahem... anyhow that's all i will write about that for now..

I live, work, eat, cry, laugh, sleep, ponder life here in this fantastic gem of a city called Florence. Is it the fantasy land where every English / American person wants to settle down for simple life after working 50 hour weeks? NO.. but it is for me! for the moment.. YES! there is nothing simple about Florence unless you are already rich and have people doing all of the "grunt work" for you.. if you think Florence is simple , just try to get fast Internet connected at your house..

I do love it here and yes I miss my friends and family back home very much, I have met amazing people here from all over Europe but it makes me sad because 99.9% of them leave after a certain period of time because like I mentioned before.. good jobs, low rent.. kinda hard to obtain here! I have met many great Italians as well ( hello, I'm dating one!) but it is comforting to be able to speak in English ( i speak Italian very well, i have to..i mean after 2 years it would be kinda lame if i didn't) and be able to bring up those cultural references ( like family guy) with someone who knows what i am talking about.. but time will tell..

so back to the first paragraph.. Obama won, the world( most of the world=) sighs in relief and here I am downing my second espresso and waiting anxiously to get paid and go get a nice big slice of Pizza for lunch! mama mia!

until then.. arrivederci!