05.18.10
Nostalgia
It’s spelled just like the English word (I’m guessing we stole it from Italian). But it’s pronounced a bit differently: no-stal-gì-a. And it has about the same meaning: longing for the past, wishing for things that once were. But the Italian word has a nuance that we don’t have in English. It also means homesickness.
Every now and then I get hit by a little no-stal-gì-a. I find myself spending time on Facebook looking up people back home. I call people for no reason just to chat. I wonder what so-and-so is up to right now. Cultural things that are normally just differences become irritating. The line in the post office seems longer, the cash register at the grocery store less organized, the bureaucracy even thicker. It’s easy for me to work from home instead of forcing myself to be out. I find myself retreating into my little introverted world and I have to force myself out (or maybe find the right people to coax me out).
I wish I could find a cause for the occasional outburst of no-stal-gì-a. I think it seems to come after a certain length of time in Italy. Sometimes a particularly stressful event with the culture sets me off (there’s another blog post cooking about this very thing). And then it just kind of goes away and life starts to feel a bit more normal. But then, when you live with your feet in two different countries, with family and friends on both sides of the Atlantic, surely a little no-stal-gì-a is normal, right?
Heather Seybld said,
05.20.10 at 4:43 am
well said, my friend. and especially when you know what the end of the year brings. i’m glad (in retrospect) fb wasn’t around when we started out.