All the small things...
I'd forgotten how there are really small things that can change a person's mood quickly. Or at least, change my mood quickly. The other day I was on a mission to get some stoppers for our shutters. Now, after scrawling through the internet I had no idea what they were called and could not find them anywhere online so eventually discovered that the word for Ironmonger is ferramanti so googled that. Sure enough there was one within walking distance.
As I left the house it dawned on me that I also needed credit for my Italian mobile. And this is where the small thing hit me like a massive elephant stampeding down the road. How the hell do I do that? In England I obviously know the many different ways to get credit. I assumed that it would be similar here. But was credit the same in Italian, did they sell vouchers in shops, what shops? the post office, or tobacconists, or sonly in retail shops for the network? And when I ring the voucher number will I understand. Fffwomphh. My heart sank.
And now I am faced with describing a shutter stopper to someone who potentially cannot speak English. Hadn't thought of that when I left my house. My Italian is very limited. Very. Everything I did in London has disappeared and even when I go over all my notes I stumble over the smallest of things. Plus we didn't exactly cover "How to explain you've broken a window shutter". Dammit.
Thankfully this is when another small thing flipped my mood again. In the ferramanti the man at the counter disappeared out back after I had explained I didn't speak much Italian. I had recognised the word inglese in the babble he told me and another man appeared. This man spoke pretty good english so with a range of hand signals, and keywords: window, stop, broken etc. I managed to get him to understand. He appeared with a box of the stoppers I had been scouring the internet for (obviously my issue was common in these parts!) and announced "One euro". My problem was fixed with one euro!!! Genius. And that put me in a better mood.
So I managed to get my mobile credit sorted at a small shop on the main street, by a girl about my age who spoke english and put the credit on my phone for me. Amazing. Going back there again!
No-one ever said moving to a foreign country would be easy!
As I left the house it dawned on me that I also needed credit for my Italian mobile. And this is where the small thing hit me like a massive elephant stampeding down the road. How the hell do I do that? In England I obviously know the many different ways to get credit. I assumed that it would be similar here. But was credit the same in Italian, did they sell vouchers in shops, what shops? the post office, or tobacconists, or sonly in retail shops for the network? And when I ring the voucher number will I understand. Fffwomphh. My heart sank.
And now I am faced with describing a shutter stopper to someone who potentially cannot speak English. Hadn't thought of that when I left my house. My Italian is very limited. Very. Everything I did in London has disappeared and even when I go over all my notes I stumble over the smallest of things. Plus we didn't exactly cover "How to explain you've broken a window shutter". Dammit.
Thankfully this is when another small thing flipped my mood again. In the ferramanti the man at the counter disappeared out back after I had explained I didn't speak much Italian. I had recognised the word inglese in the babble he told me and another man appeared. This man spoke pretty good english so with a range of hand signals, and keywords: window, stop, broken etc. I managed to get him to understand. He appeared with a box of the stoppers I had been scouring the internet for (obviously my issue was common in these parts!) and announced "One euro". My problem was fixed with one euro!!! Genius. And that put me in a better mood.
So I managed to get my mobile credit sorted at a small shop on the main street, by a girl about my age who spoke english and put the credit on my phone for me. Amazing. Going back there again!
No-one ever said moving to a foreign country would be easy!
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