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November 29, 2003
The Italian Driving Experience (Part Two)
Okay, so obviously I got out of there alive and amazingly enough, my van did not have a single scratch. Just as I got onto the street going the wrong way, a caribinieri (Italian police/military) happened along and guided me, thus preventing any deaths. And he was amazingly nice about it too (must be that special license plate that marks the Americans as idjits).
The next thing Americans will notice about the way of the road in Italy is that there seem to be some major difference in the road rules. But, before I tell you about that, I need to discuss the difference between the American and Italian concepts of time. Americans think of time as very linear - we tend to be future oriented which means that we don't really think about the present and once the past is past, it is forgotten. The Italians, on the other hand, are mostly oriented to the present and somewhat the past. They take special care of history but mainly focus on making today the best that it can be. Neither of these concepts are inherently right or wrong. Just different. And what's more, they make for some interesting conflicts. ** Warning, the next few sentences represent sweeping generalizations!** The Italians think that Americans are greedy and don't appreciate what we already have. They don't put a lot of stock into preparing for the future and are genuinely perplexed by our obsessive need for preventive practices. One example of this is that it is unusual to see them wearing seatbelts or have their children in carseats. To them, it is unconscionable to force a child to sit in a carseat if it is going to make them unhappy. To us, we would rather see our kids cry in their carseat than to risk the outcome of a car accident.
There is no such thing as a line here. When you go into a bank or store, you will see a large crowd around the cashier. To the Americans, this is chaos and overwhelming. What it means when you first get here is that you will stand at the back of the crowd for as long as it takes you to smarten up, while indignantly watching people just walk up past you to be served. In the U.S., you get in a nice neat line in order to be served. We have an unwritten rule about personal space, you generally stay about half an arm's length from the person in front of you. In Italy, you pick out what you want to buy and then walk up as close as you can to the cashier. You make a mental note of who was there before you and so does everyone else. If you hang back a bit, it means that you are not ready and you send out the okay for others to go before you. After doing this a few times, you begin to see that there IS an order to it.
When you get on the road, the concept of time is no different. The lines painted on the road are a mere suggestion, whatever works for you. Because they have always dealt with small spaces, they see no need for giant hunks of asphalt marring their beautiful countryside. I generally agree but it has been a steep learning curve downsizing my space requirements.
There are two speeds that the Italians drive. Really, really slow, which happens to be the speed limit - about 35 to 45 miles per hour and really really fast - about 80 to 100 miles per hour. The older Italians drive at a snail's pace and the rest of the population expects it. It is very predictable. Fortunately the "slow-goers" (my made up term, of course) hug the outside of the road in order to let everyone pass. Driving seems to be a terrifying experience for them. When I first got here, I was amazed at how often they left their left turn signals on. Then it became clear to me that this was their way of asking people to please go around.
Now the folks that drive at the faster end of the spectrum use their bright lights to talk to you. It is completely expected when you see brights flashed in your rear view mirror, to immediately hug the side of the road so they can pass. Same thing for an oncoming pass. It is normal to have a car driving towards you in your lane. As a matter of fact, if you do not facilitate their passage and an accident results, YOU are mostly at fault by Italian law. Road rage here, at least in the rural areas is nearly nonexistent. If for some reason, you do not get over or they can't pass at that moment, tailgating is the norm. I have discovered that helping them pass as soon as possible is definitely better for my blood pressure.
In the beginning, it takes at least double time for you to get to your destination because it seems impossible to pass. After a while, you start to get brave and peek your head around the trucks to guage the safety of a pass. For the Italians, passing happens. It doesn't matter if it is during a curve or whether there is even oncoming traffic. The roads are mostly two way, single lanes. There is an imaginary third lane down the center of the road that is used for passing. When you get brave enough, you dash around the slow goer and make it into the lead position just as another car whizzes by. Pretty soon, you are passing like a pro (Mario Andretti, stand back). And then it happens. You are passed WHILE you are making a pass. This has happened to me twice now. The other thing that has happened to me twice now is having someone pass on my LEFT side while I am in the process of turning left!
There are so many American vs Italian traffic accidents, that they tell you in the traffic class that virtually no one gets out of here without some sort of fender bender. Indeed, last January, I drove past a very fresh accident involving an American (we have special license plates with the initials AFI - Armed Forces International). The car was heartstoppingly crumpled. I got the story when I got to work. The woman in the car had been driving to base and had been hit head on coming around a corner. The Italian that hit her was in the process of passing someone else during a blind curve. The kicker of the story? The caribinieri issued a ticket, assigning partial responsibility of the accident to her - because her back tires were slightly bald. She is okay now but spent MONTHS in the hospital after multiple surgeries and physical therapy.
Part three coming soon.
Posted by DebC at 11:46 PM
November 23, 2003
The Italian Driving Experience (Part One)
One of the biggest cultural shocks a new arrival has to deal with when adjusting to life in Sicily is driving. It is such a different and overwhelming (okay, terrifying) experience for Americans that three hours have been devoted to discussing it in the base orientation we are all required to take.
The first thing you will notice is that their cars are about a third of the size of the average American car. I rented a car the day after I arrived to tide me over until my comfy minivan arrived (you can knock off that snickering right now!). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when they brought out my rental. It literally looked like a clown car. But true to clown cars, I was able to fit two large carseats, three boys and a great deal of luggage into it and still be able to drive (okay, so the rear of it was scraping the ground a bit). My sponsor had driven us around the day before and that morning, so I already knew that things were a bit different here. I felt like I was sixteen and learning to drive.
The towns here are old. Very old. Roman days old. The streets are narrow (guess they didn't anticipate cars huh?) and lined with two story stone/brick buildings which means that the streets can NEVER be widened. When I say narrow, I mean the average American would consider them a nice and roomy one way street. I looked all over to find the sign that showed which direction the traffic flow was, until I observed two way traffic! Oh, did I mention, that they also PARK on these streets? If you can't parallel park, put on your hiking boots. But fortunately for me, they park halfway up on the sidewalk (oh, did I forget to mention that one side of the street generally includes a sidewalk?). I already knew how to do that. So, while I am doing my usual 50 point parallel park manuever, cars are whizzing by in both directions. And honking angrily. Which of course makes me park so much better.
I started to have a sinking feeling that I made a huge mistake bringing a minivan. But looking around, I saw plenty of city buses and other large vehicles managing just fine. My car arrived about six weeks after me and by then I was feeling pretty cocky about Italian driving. About a week after I started to drive my minivan here, I decided to go to an outdoor market nearby in a town called Caltigirone. This place is world famous for its fabulous ceramics (ceramiche). Well, I discovered that there ARE one way streets here in Sicily, I just didn't realize that was what the sign meant. So, narrowly missing turning down a one way street (thanks, nice man doing all those helpful arm gestures), I found myself going the correct way down a side street that was half a car larger than my van. And then it got narrower. With a pounding heart, I inched down this street about half a mile per hour. Which of course made the guy tailgating behind me really mad. About halfway in, I had to stop, pull in the side mirrors and have my passenger coach me (there were literally inches to spare). I am not a religious person but I began to pray at this point. "Please, oh please, oh please, I'll be good, I promise, oh please oh please" was at least a fifth of the litany. I managed to get to the stop sign at the end of it and breathed a huge sigh of relief. And then I pulled out the wrong way onto a one way street.
This is one of the main streets in the little town where we stayed when we first got here (Motta St. Anastasia).
Part two coming soon.
Posted by DebC at 11:48 PM
November 01, 2003
Today is my 20 year anniversary with the Navy!
And in honor of that, I am going to steal the current blog meme (sort of like a toy/fad).
20 years ago:
Graduated high school
Turned 18
Left my house in the wee hours of the morning of November 1st for bootcamp in Orlando, Florida
15 years ago:
Turned 22
I returned from being stationed in the Philippines (with Los Angeles, CA before that)
Was in a very serious relationship that only lasted one more year
Went through 12 weeks of psychiatric technician schooling
Got stationed in Newport, Rhode Island
10 years ago:
Was living in Jacksonville, Florida
Turned 28
Had just married my college bestfriend
Was starting my senior year of nursing school
Had just begun the most difficult period of my life due to my husband's (unknown then) mental illness
7 years ago:
Was 31 years old
Living in Whidbey Island, Washington
Had a fabulously smart 2 year old son
Was hugely pregnant with son number two and excitedly planning his homebirth
Recieved a national award for Navy Junior Nurse of the Year
Was starting a very scary slide out of control with husband's mental illness
5 years ago:
33 years old
Was stationed in Guam and loving it
Miserably married and separated for all intents and purposes
Had two great kids who were fearless in trying everything set before them
Spent a fantastic week in Cannes, Australia
3 years ago:
Living in Vancouver, Washington
35 years old
Had just come out of an extremely stressful time with husband's third psychotic break
Divorce was a mere month away
Was working as a Navy Medical Programs Recruiter in Portland, Oregon
Had a fantastic part time job at a birthcenter
2 years ago:
36 years old
Still in Vancouver
Was hugely pregnant with an unexpected but very welcome baby
Planning a homebirth again
Hating my job with every fiber of my being
1 year ago:
Had just finished cleaning up the aftermath of my exhusband's fourth psychotic break
Still high from the most fantastic birth and the most gorgeous baby
Was in transit to Sicily with three little boys!
Today:
38 years old!
I will be working a twelve hour shift at a tiny little hospital in Sicily
My children will be recovering from Halloween sugar highs
I will have them choose ten pieces of candy to eat over the next week and put the rest away for rationing
Easily the happiest and most confident that I have ever been
Growing into this parenting thing more smoothly now
Actively planning my retirement in November 2005 although still frustratingly ambivalent about it
At peace with the idea (fact?) that I am comfortable being alone for the forseeable future
Tomorrow:
Work another twelve hours
Type up a memo requesting to move to a business hours clinic position
Rejoice in the fact that I will probably be moved shortly after the New Year
Promise that I will work on my extra assigned duties instead of goof off
Begin to hope and pray that the physical fitness test I have to run on Monday will not kill me this time either
Things yet to accomplish:
Retire!
Declutter my house ruthlessly
Go back to dairy free diet
Buy property in Southern Illinois
Do as many things from scratch as possible
Learn to make soap, garden, spin wool, cook
Have a variety of animals, especially cat, dog, chickens and sheep
Homeschool my boys
Become a massage therapist?
WRITE!
Travel
Volunteer
Posted by DebC at 09:50 AM | Comments (2)