October 24 - 27; Meina, Italy

We arrived in Meina sometime in the afternoon and were picked up at the train station by Bianca, our gracious host for the next three nights, however we didn't realize she was our host. We had been invited to Meina to attend the Youth Compass conference by our friend Thomas Speckhardt when he heard we would be in Italy around the time of the conference. While the cost of the conference was certainly not high especially for the facilities and speaker they provided, it was outside of our budget. Realizing this, Tom offered to let us attend the conference for free if we could find our own accommodation. I did some online research and found a bed and breakfast that was in Meina. I google mapped their address and it said it was only 1 km from the conference hotel, so we booked it, and told Tom our happy news. Up until the day of our arrival all of our communication with the B&B had been over email with a woman named Laura in broken English. No problem – we appreciated the English and could understand everything that she was saying.

Then on the day of our arrival in Meina before we left our other hotel we received an email asking about our train arrival and a cryptic message saying “Bianca = Laura mother.” We figured this meant that Bianca, Laura's mother, would pick us up at the train station and sure enough that was true. What we didn't realize was that Bianca was really our host and that Laura would never materialize. In retrospect we assume that Laura was helping her mom out with her English speaking guests. Bianca was super warm regardless of not being able to communicate this in speech and as she drove us to the B&B she pointed out interesting things along the way. About 10 minutes into the trip I started to get nervous – this was a LONG car ride for only being .5 mile from the station. When we arrived and after Bianca showed us the room and left us to unpack, I turned to Duncan and said, 'Umm. . . she took us the long tourist route right, to point things out to us?' To which Duncan replied, 'Yeah, it had to be.' Well, no this would not be true. . .

That night we left to walk to the opening dinner of the conference. We had found a map and took it to Bianca for her to point out where we were on it, only to find her confused and pointing to one area and shrugging. Hmmm, this should have been our first clue. We thought that her shrugging meant that maybe she wasn't a good map reader and didn't quite know where she was. We also assumed that because of this the area that she identified as our location, was incorrect. It was way too far from the conference! :) So we chose where we think we were on the map and set off.

First problem: no sidewalks, skinny streets and very fast drivers!!! First we walk 30 minutes in one direction only to decide it is wrong and turn around. Then we walk the 30 minutes back and another 20 minutes in another direction. By this time it is completely dark and it is particularly dangerous. In all this walking we haven't seen one street sign and we are surrounded by villas with locked imposing gates and LARGE barking dogs. We are the only walkers we have seen and every person that passes us in their car stares at us until they speed past. We have no idea where we are and are hungry!!!

I was feeling particularly freaked out by the cars and having no idea where we were and rather pouty about the food situation, so Duncan left me sitting at the one bus stop we saw and went forth into the darkness. He returned 20 minutes later having found a pizza place and gotten the confirmation on where we were – far away. We decided to give up on the conference for the night and instead get some food. We ordered two (small) pizzas thinking we would be able to take some back to our B&B as we would have nothing to eat after the conference ended and we hadn't seen a grocery store. We ate half of each pizza and were quite pleased that we would have a whole pizza to take home with us. I looked up how to say 'doggie bag' which translates as 'take-away.' Our waitress came by and asked if we'd like the pizza 'take-away' to which I confirmed. Well, apparently my 'take-away/box/doggie bag' really meant take it away off the table we're finished. We paid our bill and then thought, maybe they'll bring it to us. Waited. . . nothing. Finally we got up and Duncan tried to ask in English on the way out. . . nothing. We realized our mistake. The combination of not knowing where we were, realizing that the whole intention of coming to Meina was to go to the Youth Compass conference, and that we were literally miles from it, getting run down on the road and then not understanding language or customs enough to get our pizza to take home was too much for me. I made it out of the restaurant before I started to wimper and then all out cry. We made it home and promptly went to bed.

The next day we set out determined to get to the conference but our map was not particularly accurate. Streets that physically existed were not on the map and the ones that were important roads on the map, labeled with street names, had no marking whatsoever on the physical street. We made several mistakes and backtracked before we happened on the right route through intuition, having nothing to do with our map. We arrived for the conference that had been in full swing for several hours just before lunch.

All in all the conference was great. Third culture kids (someone who has spent a significant amount of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture) is a population that has significant needs that are not being met. Being married to a TCK I came to the conference with a good understanding of the unique TCK perspective of the world and some of the issues of loneliness and identity that come with this territory. However, I found it particularly interesting how the TCK perspective manifests itself today with technology and that as globalization occurs how many TCKs there are/will be. We met some great people working with TCKs in Europe and had an amazing dinner on an island that involved an hour boat ride on Lake Maggiore. And, very important to me and my health, everything had worked out with Medtronic sending my new insulin pump (to replace the battery eating monster of a pump) to my parents who were able to give it to Tom before he left the States for the conference. He had graciously carted the pump to the conference and graciously carted the old one back to the States so that my parents are able to send it back to Medtronic to clear the $4000 charge from my account. (If this makes no sense to you, read an earlier post about the first diabetic problem of our trip).

Saturday night after the amazing island dinner we readily accepted a merciful ride home since it was late and very dark. Sunday morning we did the walk to the conference for the first time knowing exactly where we were. The conference ended that afternoon and we were again graciously given a ride to the Arona (the bigger town next to Meina) train station to make train reservations for Rome the next day. Walking a couple of miles home from Arona made us realize that our B&B was exactly between Meina and Arona – not in Meina, despite its address. The walk home was hard – mostly uphill, again no sidewalks, skinny roads, and fast cars, but we were able to stop at the HUGE statue of St. Charles Borromeo (Sancarlone). It was one of the largest bronze standing statues in the world, second only to the Statue of Liberty. It is also said that the architects of the Statue of Liberty consulted the plans for Sancarlone before laying out their own. We also explored the San Carlo church with a great historical exhibit including prints from Leonardo da Vinci inventions.

We arrived home in the late afternoon and decided to relax. Duncan started a fire, making sure to open the flue like Bianca showed us. The room immediately filled with smoke!!! We had to open the door and windows which of course let all the mosquitoes in. We then closed the door and windows but the room would again fill with smoke. At some point my eyes were burning so bad that I went and sat in the bathroom. I came out to get my book to read and saw Duncan preparing to roast the chestnuts he had picked up along the walk. I said, 'Please don't roast the chestnuts, I think it will just add more smoke to the room,' and walked back into the smoke-free bathroom. About 5 minutes later I hear an explosion and a sound like marbles dropping and rolling along the floor. I quickly walked out into the living room to see chestnuts all over the floor. Duncan looked at me and then burst into laughter. In between gasping for air he managed to tell me that he didn't know that chestnuts exploded if you didn't turn them and that one had beaned him in the head. :)

The next morning of our departure to Rome our ever hospitable host, Bianca, drove us to Arona. We were dismayed to learn after all our failed communication attempts on both sides with mad flipping through English/Italian dictionaries that she spoke French very well. I was able to understand everything she was saying to me now, despite not being able to respond with fluency. C'est dommage (It's a pity)!!! We had a very pleasant conversation on the way to the station. Arriving at the station early, Bianca invited us a short distance away to a cafe to get coffee as her treat. We drank our frothy cappuccinos and continued our broken French conversation. She then escorted us to the station, told us which track to go to, and sent us off with a kiss on each cheek. Later that day she sent us an email in all capital letters and broken dictionary English saying how much she enjoyed us coming and that we should send her a postcard from Seattle. (We weren't able to explain to her that we just started a big trip.) When you're a traveler and find a host with the gift of hospitality it can make up for a lot of ills (no sidewalks, no doggie bags, smoke filled room, and an exploding chestnut wound to the head). Bianca was wonderful, gracious, caring, had a sense of humor and attacked something new (English) with gusto. We liked her a lot.

Andrea