Now that school has started Chris and I have a number of daytime hours to fill without our children. Chris has a complete home-office set up and spends a fair amount of time each day working online (or on the phone) with colleagues and clients in the Netherlands.
My typical day (so far) can be described as follows:
6:55 alarm, wake up kids, shower, kids get dressed and have breakfast, pack a merenda (snack), leave the house by 8:10.
I’m not a huge fan of the morning rush and I tend to make things worse with my bad morning vibes so I made a little board with to-dos and I try my best to leave Chris and the kids to it until departure time..
8:10-8:20 drive from Muravera to Villaputzu
8:20 -8:30 park, kids play, chat a bit with other parents
8:30 All of the primary school classes line up and the kids (each class separately) are picked up by their teachers and go into school together*. Once they are through the door the parents take off (libertà!)
8:30-8:45 walk with Alex to the other side of the building to drop him off at his class (3-5 year olds in the scuola d’infanzia have a flexible drop off time between 8:00-9:00)
8:45 – 8:55 drive back home from Villaputzu.
Possible exceptions – Tuesday is market day in Villaputzu so might do a round there. Or I may have a walk and a coffee somewhere in Villaputzu before driving back.
8:55-10:00 usually one of my favorite parts of the day which usually involves walking with Gia and stopping somewhere (usually the cafe Corallo) for a cappuccino and sometimes also a cornetto al cioccolato if I’m feeling really indulgent. Or just hungry.. for a grand total of 3€
I have met some of the other regulars at the café and I have advanced from exchanging buongiornos to sitting side by side and having a convo to being invited to one couples’ table and being introduced to their friends. Progress!
10:00 onwards is less predictable but could consist of assembling Ikea furniture, having lunch, some form of bureaucratic admin (filling out paperwork or visiting a public office to submit paperwork), basic household chores, keeping up with the various school related what’s app groups…
Kids pick up times have varied between 11:30-11:30 the past few weeks and since 2 October I need to wait until 15-16 to get Alex and 16:30 to get Isa so the total rendezvous takes about an hour, or I / we make two trips.
Mondays and Wednesdays Isa has dance class after school (16:00-17:00) and some of the mammas stick around and chat for an hour until the kids finish. Half the time I think I’m following along great and totally getting the gist of what is being said.. and other times I can only chuckle about the fact that they stop to translate Sardinian words and phrases for me from time to time knowing that I have no shot at knowing what they mean.. but there are still sooo many ‘normal’ Italian words that I also still don’t have a clue about. And the speed at which people talk has a huge impact on my ability to follow along in group contexts. I am, however, a strong believer in the fake it til you make it mantra so my way of faking it is making excellent eye contact, laughing on cue, and trying not to panic when asked direct questions (when in doubt just say si…). Fortunately a few of the ladies have me pegged and they will speak slowly for me, repeat things where necessary, and just keep an eye out for me in general (and for that I am grateful).
One of the direct questions I got this past Wednesday was ‘che lavoro fai?’ = what do you do for a living/ what kind of work do you do? I said ‘sono insegnante’.. first in present tense, and then tried to explain that I was a teacher in Holland and now am taking the time to settle in, learn the language, etc. before I can clearly state what I plan to do here. And as much as my future career is currently a mystery, the kind of work that other people do is also a big black hole. I have seen some of the mom’s almost every day since school started (most of them twice a day) and at the 7 or so birthday parties Isa and I have already attended but I have NO clue what they all do when they are not dropping off or picking up their children. It’s not a common question to ask here (or maybe it is and I just don’t feel comfortable doing so?). I’m super curious.. what are these mysterious ladies doing all day? I don’t even know what I do half the time so my brain can’t even fathom what they could possibly be up to…
*Sciopero – if there is a strike there is a chance that the kids won’t be picked up and need to be taken back home. This has already happened once.
