11.18.06

Tragically Hip

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:55 am

Heidi and I went on a rare date the other night. We went out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. Then we were going to meet up with Maurizio at a new jazz club that has just opened up here in Ancona.

We were greeted at the front door by a friend of ours who happened to be singing live that night. She was so excited to see us, and sheepishly asked us not to notice the mistakes in her English (she was singing in English that night). We went and found a seat and waited for Maurizio.

A few minutes later our friend brought over a couple of membership forms. Apparently, the jazz club is actually a club. Only members are allowed in. Later on that evening I noticed the sign on the door that says only members admitted, with a big bouncer outside the door just in case you don’t believe them.

So they accepted our application, which apparently means that we are cool enough to sit around a jazz club (those of you who know me know that is completely untrue!). As we sat there listening to our friend sing in the Alanis Morissette style (really not jazz at all), I couldn’t help but smile at the places that God brings us to be with people who wouldn’t ever come to a church service. So if it means being tragically hip at a jazz club in order to be a light, I’ll do it.

Plus, I really like jazz.

11.16.06

I think they’re actually angry this time…

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:49 am

I know I’ve written a lot about strikes. They are an aspect of Italian culture that I really don’t understand. Today, the journalists are striking – no newspapers. Tomorrow, we’ve heard word of a possible teacher’s strike. The last time this happened, the teachers told us the day before that the strike had been called off. Today when we asked if there was still a strike the teachers said that we’ll have to bring our kids to school tomorrow to find out. They had told our kids earlier that if they lights are off when we get to school in the morning that they need to go home.

So apparently they’re upset this time. But I’m really kind of irritated that we have to wake the kids up and go through the morning routine only to possibly turn around and come back home. As teachers, I wonder what this strike game “teaches” the kids.

And … as usual … I have no idea what they are striking for.

11.09.06

Just trying to pay a bill

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:50 am

I’m taking care of a teammate’s finances while he is in the states. I needed to pay a bill by depositing money into a certain account at a certain bank (a fairly common way to pay a bill here). However, new laws have been passed that don’t allow someone who the bank doesn’t know to pay a bill using cash. It’s an anti-Mafia law, apparently, who used to deposit money passing out small bills to normal people and instructing them to deposit it into a certain account, thus avoiding the suspicion of making large deposits. So now, no more anonymous cash deposits. You have to “register.”

The man who took my information asked me what I was doing in Italy. I told him I was a pastor. He replied, “I don’t really like the protestant church.” I sort of ignored the comment, and listened to his mini-rant. He asked me where I was from (a set up, since it was written on my ID card he was punching into the computer). I told him America and he said, “I don’t really like America very much.” I resisted the urge to tell him I don’t really like bankers very much!

But then we had a decent conversation about faith, theology, and the church. He ended up giving me his business card and inviting me to call him sometime to chat about theology. I’m certainly no theologian, but I’m happy to have met someone who is interested in talking – even if he doesn’t like American protestants!

11.07.06

I Passed!

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:09 am

Today was a big day. After a month or two of class and studying, I passed my driving test. I now have an Italian driver’s license (called a patente). The test was a breeze, and really was a relaxing drive while me, my instructor, and the inspector chatted it up about what it means to be a pastor. At the end she said, “You passed, but you already knew that.”

And as you can see, driver’s license photos are awful here, too!

11.06.06

Where’d we go?

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:54 am

Looks like were back online (or as Heidi’s mom would say, “On the online”). Someone bought our service provider, who promised a seamless transition. And then we were offline for a week. Not so seamless, I guess. Thanks to our teammate, Matt, for uploading all the files again. Ain’t technology great when it works?!

10.25.06

Superstitions

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:03 pm

Heidi spent some time tutoring a friend in English this afternoon. We have been having some unusually warm weather lately. Heidi’s friend commented on how strange the weather was, and explained that she had heard several older people saying that they feel like an earthquake is coming. I have no clue how those two things are connected, but I suppose time will tell. Yikes!

10.23.06

My First Earthquake

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:42 am

We had the pleasure (!) of experiencing an earthquake this weekend. Heidi has felt a small one before, but this was the first one where both of us looked at each other and knew what was going on. It only lasted ten seconds or so, but was eye-opening for sure. No damage to anyone or anything.

Read about here in english, or here in Italian – for the brave! Just one of the fun parts about living in Italy!

10.19.06

The Open Air Market

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:34 am

Today I found myself with some extra time between a couple of appointments, so I decided to take a stroll through the open air market. Every morning about 20-30 vendors set up tents and tables along a certain street. I don’t go their often, but today I noticed that suddenly everyone was selling winter items. Sweaters, big coats, scarves, mittens – no more swimming suits and flip-flops.

It’s an interesting experience. The vendors yell out their little catch phrases: “Good quality! Low prices!” … “Real leather” … “Must go” … that kind of thing. In between customers they take time to greet friends as well as the other vendors. It’s really a community “watering hole” of sorts, were people (mostly ladies) go to catch up and see what’s going on with so and so.

About 6 or 7 in the evening, they pack up their stuff, take down the tents, and take it all to their storage units. The street cleaners come by at night to clean up, and it’s like the whole thing never happened.

10.18.06

Are we still talking about chess?

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:27 am

More schoolhouse drama! Last weekend our daughter brought home a note from school. There was a meeting planned on Monday to discuss “the recent problems with the projects.” A puzzling note. Heidi inquired around Monday morning. One mom said, “It’s about chess. We have to be united.”

In Italy, 27 hours of the school week are devoted to the main subjects (reading, math, etc.). Three hours are devoted to “projects” – special things like music, art, and (for the first time this year), chess. However, each project much be approved by all of the parents – 100% approval – in order to pass. The vote for chess was 18 parents in favor, 4 opposed.

So the teacher brought us all together to work out our differences. She had heard that there are parents that are mad at each other, and wanted to fare la pace. She claimed that she had no agenda and didn’t care one way or the other if chess passed or not (though her glowing reviews of the benefits of chess helped me to see where she really stood). She then turned the discussion over to us.

And that’s when the yelling began. Those in favor of chess were upset that a small minority could overrule the wishes of the majority. However, the law says (there are laws for such things?!) it must be 100% or nothing. We all agreed that this law should be changed, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. Those opposed to chess were upset because if they vote “no” we’re just going to call a meeting and try and get them to change their minds anyway. Phrases like “false democracy” were used.

Both sides had valid points. But I could not for the life of me figure out why everyone was so angry! I think I’m a pretty involved parent, but I really just don’t care very much if chess passes or fails. And perhaps the most unsatisfying part of the whole meeting – we couldn’t revote. The votes must be secret and there was no way to assure that secrecy in the meeting. So if anyone wanted to change their vote, they couldn’t unless they spoke privately with the teacher later. Such a let down to get all riled up and we couldn’t even change anything!

I think I learned a little bit about the Italian culture. But I think the meeting brought up more questions than answers!

10.14.06

That must have been a really big pipe

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:53 am

We had a little bit of craziness in Ancona yesterday. Around 11:30 AM a water main broke. The break was near one of the main intersections in town. In addition to around 1/5 of the population of Ancona being without water (around 20,000 people) traffic was backed up for Kilometers going in and out of the city. The eventually had to close one of the tunnels going to downtown because there was just too much traffic.

The police went around with megaphones telling people where water tanks would be set up, but there was still a run on water at all the stores. Even though the news listed our street as one of the streets without water, we’ve had water the whole time. Our teammates weren’t so lucky, so we ended up making dinner for everybody last night.

As of this morning, it sounds like most of the water is back on. And they’ve assured us it is safe to drink, even if it’s a little “red.” Gross.