Ok, taking a breath here...

I don't even know if I should start this post, but here we go...I need to vent...emote...be pregnant, I guess...or more, perhaps, just be apalled and angry by the conditions that people live in here sometimes in the south. Ok, I'll go back to chalking it up to being pregnant and hormonal....whatever, here we go....

Napoli and its' surrounding areas are breathtakingly beautiful. This is, afterall, the bay that made Goethe famously say "see Naples and die". And, although he probably meant, after seeing the magnificance of Naples, there's nothing more one needs to see, I have a more contemporary take on his famous quote. Yes, Naples is beautiful. I was smitten at first sight. Yes, the people can be incredible & generous. I have many stories and experiences of perfect stranger's kindness & adoption of me. Yes, the food is amazing. I am lucky to be eating homegrown vegetables, fruit, chicken & eggs straight from Mimmo's parents' land along with fish straight from the sea, homemade wine that could give the best-known Napa Valley wineries a run for their money, and the most amazing gluten-free pasta dishes that a celiac would not even know what they were missing if they lived here . But, living here...lets get back to that...I mean, truly living here...not as a single American permanent tourist/writer/actor/student of life...but now as a wife, mother-to-be, & dare I say it "local" is TIRING. I mean, a kind of tiring in that everyday gotta survive kinda way. There is a reason my grandfather used to say "What's new from the OLD COUNTRY?". And, Papou, if you can hear me, I understand this more than ever because I am LIVING in the OLD COUNTRY! See Naples & die? I hope I have a lot more to see in my lifetime and that Naples is not going to kill me!

What's gotten me all riled up today started with returning to work. My school has sent me to a school in Posillipo (which for those who don't know, if the most rich and exclusive area of Naples) and placed me in a classroom of 10 7-year old boys who are to study English for 2 hours after school. Where to even start with this situation? Well, first of all it's ludicrous to have 7-year olds study english for 2 hours...what 7 year-old do you know that can study any subject matter for 2 hours straight? "Oh, well, they will be eating for the first 1/2 hour, anyway," my boss assured me. Which means, with 10 7-year old BOYS eating in the classroom - food fights/messes/constant reminding that they are to place their trash in the garbage, not on the floor/desk/or their neighbors' faces. Yep, fun stuff. Then, there's the fact that they have a class of all boys. At first, I thought that it just happened as only these boys had all enrolled for this course. But, no...after meeting the other English teacher last week (who's from Maine) and seeing all her students - mild-mannered 7-year-old girls and one boy - she explained to me that the class was originally one and she was teaching them all alone. Mammamia. Then the school decided to split it - BRILLIANTLY, I must say - into one class with all ill-mannered monsters (aka ten 7-year-old BOYS) and give them all to me - the new, unsuspecting teacher. Nice. My first day, which incidentally was 3 weeks ago, went something like this...My boss told me I was to meet a woman named "Annamaria Aquamarino" or something like that. She would be my contact, show me where I could make photocopies, my classroom, answer any questions, etc. I came early, asked one of the custodians where I could find Annamaria and was abruptly given the answer "su" with a pointing finger which means "above". Oh, great, thanks. I went upstairs into the vast hallways of screaming children and even more screaming teachers, trying to find Annamaria. Another custodian, finally offered to help me as I had now been searching/standing/asking/looking lost for 10 min. "Annamaria!" she called into an office. A women exited, looked me up & down & said curtly "Si?". I smiled, told her I was the English teacher and before I could pull out my book to ask about photocopies she yelled "You're late! You're suppossed to go downstairs and wait with your co-teacher Penny for your boys!". She walked past me in a huff. Late?! I came a half an hour early! Downstairs, where?! Co-teacher, Penny?! I don't have a co-teacher and where the hell, btw is the copymachine & my classroom?! But, of course I couldn't ask any of that as she just left. And, that is just a small example of some fundamental things in Italy that work my last nerve -

1) RUDENESS
2) COMPLETE CHAOS
3) LACK OF COMMON SENSE

Things could be made so much simpler here, but they always seem to want to make things all the more difficult. It gets TIRING. The following week, I returned to my classroom only to have the custodian come in and scream at me that I wasn't suppossed to be there because she just cleaned the classroom. Um, this is where I was placed last week. Annamaria Aquamarino walked by and screamed at the custodian. They continued to fight as my boys & I watched and then Annamaria led us into another room, while they continued their argument and in the end, what I understood Annamaria's last words to be were that for TODAY, we would be there, and she went off in another huff. I was placed in the worst possible, structurally-speaking, situation as this other classroom was set up in a u-shape with tables, allowing my monsters to all be together, instead of at seperate desks and I got to go from watching Italian adults fighting and name-calling to Italian 7-year old boys fighting and name-calling. Which gets me to my next pet peeve in living here...

4) THE FIGHTING

Mammamia. Everything. I mean, everything is a fight.

So, today, I return to teaching. After a week's break and a Dr. ordered bedrest, I returned to work. I was determined to take it easy. I prepared a lesson that would keep the boys working on an activity - coloring, drawing, working on their own. I returned to my classroom and was greeted by a new screaming custodian who entered my room and asked me "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD BE HERE?". Great, here we go again. I will not go into the details of what followed. It's too...yep, you guessed it...TIRING. I got through my day, came back and received in my inbox this message from Expats in Italy Forum:

http://groups.msn.com/expatsinItaly/employment.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=24260&ID_CLast=24270&CDir=1

This woman's story infuriated me because I have been experiencing the same thing. I have seen many of her posts - she's from N.Y., came to Naples recently with her Italian fiance, is pregnant & has been trying to find her way in the system here. I saw one of her early posts, right after, I myself found out I was pregnant asking if anyone had given birth here in Italy as she had read this horror story coming out of Naples:

http://www.expatsinitaly.com/itow/birth_nicki.html

I, in turn, read the horror story and a thread that followed on another expat site with more horror birth stories, the majority of which came out of Naples and well, to make a long story short, this bambino will be birthed in California!

The question is, can I make it 'til June?! Italy, I love you, but our relationship is becoming tiring and a think we need a long break until...let's say next summer...

Ok, taking another breath here. One thing at a time.