Marina's Bloggariffic

Hello! I’m typing this while waiting for my dental appointment at the polyclinic!

Cart and I have been here in Singapore for about 4 days now and we’ve been enjoying our stay so far, seeing different places eating different foods.

We came here with Air China by the way. It was my first time with this airline. Normally, we would usually travel via Emirates because of their competitive pricing and also because of the larger seats. Unfortunately when we were comparing for the best price for economy seats 6 months before our flight for this year, it turned out to be Air China this time round.

Among the people that I knew, Air China did not have such a fantastic brand name. In fact, the first time when a friend learnt that Cart came over to Singapore via Air China, she laughed out loud and thought that he was joking!

On the evening that we left Rome, it was my father in law who fetched and  sent us to the Fiumicino airport. It was really cold when we were reaching there. 2 degrees! It was probably the coldest that I felt in Rome for a while. My father in law mentioned that snow was expected the next day and I was shivering badly underneath despite wearing my winter jacket.

After checking in and going to our gate, there were already quite a number of Chinese people gathering around. There was also so many rosy-cheeked toddlers. One even wore a traditional chinese costume adding to their cuteness factor. He was so adorable.

In no time, we finally boarded the plane. It was an Airbus A330. The seats were a little smaller than the one in Emirates but thankfully, our row had two seats, followed by four in the middle and then two on the right. I had the window seat while Cart had the aisle and we could have our armrest lifted so it was a little more comfortable.

In each seat, there was an entertainment set for each traveller. The range of shows were limited though, and the programs did not start on demand. We had to wait till the show ends before it repeats to the beginning and the quality of the videos looked very VCD’ish. Nevertheless, I was laughing at My girlfriend is an agent, crying at the last scene from Shrek Forever After and falling asleep during Ironman 2.

Despite the smaller seats, I thought that the plane was pretty decent. My one small qualm with Air China though, is that I really didn’t like the food.

9 hours later, we were at the Beijing Airport for a stopover. It was a nice, modern looking airport. I liked how clean and new everything looked. Cart and I were fawning over the fever-detection infrared machines that was at the gantries as we walked along. This was most probably installed since the SARS pandamic some years back.

I noticed that since practically everyone here prefers to speak in Mandarin, it could be a little tough for travelers to ask for help. It could also be the additional cultural factor that the people were rather curt here. But luckily I picked up a little bit of mandarin while in kindergarden, from channel 8 chinese drama serials, and stuff I always hear my Chinese schoolmates tend to say. But I am extremely rusty though. So I was able understand and speak a little, albeit very badly.

By the way there are free wifi at the Beijing Airport. You could ask for access from any shops. Cart and I didn’t realise that till we reached the business counter which was a challenge to find. We walked round and round and I almost gave up.

But Cart persisted and at length we found it! The girl at the counter, while she could not speak English, she was very kind and patient and helped set us up for internet and we were off!

Thanks to the great firewall of China, we couldn’t access plurk. Nor twitter. Nor facebook while at the Beijing Airport. But we discovered something interesting. Cart was able to get through to wikipedia in Italian but when the language was changed to English, it was blocked!

In Italian

Same page in English

We did not get to surf for too long because not too long after that, we had to board the connecting flight to Singapore. But before that, we had to take a shuttle bus to take us there.

And at length, after 6 hours later, we reached Singapore! It was my entire family welcoming us at the Changi Airport.

This month was said to be cooler for Singaporeans and Kaosd was commenting on how cold it was. Nevertheless, after just a couple of days, I am sunburnt now. Red patches all over my arms -_-

Sidenote : Oh and thank you for the welcome be it via Plurk or Facebook or Twitter. That’s really sweet! By the way, there is an open house going on on the first of January. There will be some Italian food and Nasi Lemak for those who doesnt like Italian food. Oh, if you could bring some Wii games, it would be lovely too :-p

Since the beginning of last week, the air feels very festive here in Rome. On Friday as I head back home from Italian class, everywhere I go there was a group of people tidying up their lawn, trimming their trees and bushes, with the buzzing of their electric saws, and many has already put up their Santa figurines outside of their balcony.

I was remarking to Cart at how funny it looked. It didn’t looked like Santa was climbing up, it looked more like he was hanging on for dear life!

Anyway there were a few people who put up fairy lights all over their balcony. And seeing the lights flash like that, and the festive mood and their air reminds me so much of Hari Raya. What with the moon and the stars. I always see them around while going visiting my friends and relatives in Singapore.

Of course, not to mention going through central Rome like Piazza Navona, there was such a bustling of activity there, with the huge rows of booth. Like pasar malam! There were a few booth with games and some selling seasonal sweets and foods. I was extremely drawn to the giant doughnuts kiosk.

Check out the size of the doughnuts compared the candied apples above it.

And there were some selling christmas decorations and also the epiphany items like this creepy laughing Befana dolls.

Of course, seeing all these made me feel the festive mood myself. I don’t celebrate Christmas though, so I guess I will hang my ketupat at the door.

I is kepokian

Sidenote : Can you make it?

I feel quite stressed out during Italian class nowadays. Level B1 is way more advanced compared to what I’m used to, so I’m struggling in class trying to catch up with the rest of my classmates who seem to be very fluent already.

But anyway! One of the things that I enjoy learning during these classes is the “Modo di dire” segments or the different ways of expressions, metaphors and proverbs used by Italians.

As a Malay, I appreciated a lot the use of Malay proverbs because to me, it is an intelligent and witty way to convey something. You see a picture in front of you and connect the phrase accordingly to the quality of the object.

Like for example one of my favourite peribahasa, “Sekeras kerak nasi, kena air lembut juga” when translated it means, as hard as burnt rice is, when soaked in water, it’ll become soft. Which figuratively speaking, as stubborn a person is, when you speak gently to him, he’ll eventually relent.

E.g. Lana, don’t lose hope, because, sekeras kerak nasi, kena air lembut juga and he’ll eventually buy for you that Dolce and Gabbana shoes. Hehehehe!

Beautiful huh?!

And Italians use a lot of these metaphors too. Although, probably because of the difference culturally and regionally, some of the objects that we experience would have a different quality and meaning in Italy. By the way, the yellow book in the picture above, Italiano per modo di dire by Gianluca Aprile, is actually quite fun to do, kind of like how some people like to do sudoko, or crossword puzzles. I enjoy bothering Cart and asking him about the connection.

Anyways! Lets take for example, “Un Pugno nell’occchio” which literally means, a punch to the eye. And the first thing that came to mind was that there must be something dangerous or painful. However, the meaning of the idiom is actually, an eyesore.

E.g. Urgh! I cant stand girls wearing tights! Its so ugly! È un pugno nell”occhio! Its not meant to replace pants!

And another example, “Fare come i gamberi” which directly translated means, to be like prawns. And to many English speakers, we always associate prawns with cowardice. But instead, in Italy this means not to have progress but instead become worse. I don’t really see the connection with the prawn though?

Wait! This is scampi! This isn’t gamberi!

Nevertheless, I’m appreciating all of these different ways of speaking. I think its beautiful, and a rather witty way to say something. Also, with these knowledge, I can be rude without being vulgar

And some of my favourites so far are :

• Non capire un’acca which is a classier way of saying that I dont understand a f-

• Fare una testa come pallone which when referring to a person it means that they talk so much useless things that my head is swollen and full of your hot air.

• Avere il cervello che fuma like what I’m experiencing right now, studying so much Italian that my brain is fried!

And yes, my brain IS fried from 5 classes of Italian a week! I need kopi nao.

Some while back, I noticed that I was subconciously doing an Italian gesture. This one in particular :

Basically it means, “What the heck do you want?” and give emphasis to sentences. It looks quite thuggish though and should be done moderately.

In any case, one of the things that I’ve noticed that a lot of Italians do is to make an inverse U with their mouths. Like a frown, except very exaggerated. Kind of like how beaker’s mouth is naturally

To shape your mouth this way is an easy way to convey that the person is deep in thought. Like, “Hmm … *frowns* Let me think” But it looks so unattractive! It makes a person look like a cow or something! And I vowed that I’d never do the same with my mouth.

Unfortunately, I guess after living here in Italy for close to two years, the inevitable has happened and subconciously, without realising it, I’m doing that super frowny face too

So I guess I’ll just might as well demo it here, the Italian gesture of “Let me think”

This also works for …

And it also works for …

And it also works for …

And now that you know them, you can use them too I guess. And we can all look like cows. Class dismissed.