What does this statement mean to you? Well, to me, it means trying not to ruffle too many feathers, trying not to crash their social norms, etc.
I have had a couple "conversations" with our landlord- Pierreangelo. They consist of some Italian, some English and a lot of hand gestures. During these alleged "conversations," I have, at some point, come to realize that I have no idea what we are talking about. Usually, when this happens, I end up wondering what he thinks I could have meant, and what he meant. Thus far, I don't think any damage has been done......so far.
Once he was getting some of his rusty farm equipment (think tetanus) out of the garage behind our place, when he brought over a filthy clear plastic dish with a bunch of dirty nuts on it. He was so proud because he harvested these nuts from his own trees, I guess. He was smiling and enthusiastically telling me all about the different kinds of nuts and what I could do with them.....yeah, right, like I am going to make some kind of Creme de Nut in my spare time. Anyway, he asked me if I had a bowl. I assumed that he was going to give me the plate of dirty nuts and wanted to keep the plate, so I grabbed a rather large bowl and handed it to him. (This bowl is no ordinary bowl, but part of a fabulous set of stacking bowls we received as a house warming gift from Dr. and Mr. C - never before have I so loved a set of bowls :)
I handed him the bowl and he left for a minute and then returned with not only the nasty plastic plate still full of its original contents, but now my huge bowl was full as well and he was handing all this to me! Had I known, or understood what he was saying, I would have given him a much smaller bowl- we don't even own a nutcracker! I ever so graciously accepted the heaping portion of dirty nuts.
So, D & D this is My Italian Nut Bowl, not as pretty as R's nut bowl, but a nut bowl none the less : )
Please, don't anybody give me any suggestions about what I can do with the nuts- this is a family blog : ) and I am no Martha.
As a final thought, I would like any travellers to think about what they have done to not offend the natives...I have witnessed people eating raw salmon WAY before it was in vogue as sushi, not telling the hostess that a cat was lounging in their shelled nut bowl and then watching the grandma eat said nuts (what is it with nuts?), some people ate horse sausage sandwiches while others hid them in their pockets, just recently, I saw a friend chug down his wine (that he hated and wanted to be rid of) only to have the host exclaim about how much he must have liked it and re-filled the glass....he was also filling his pockets with cheese that said host presumed he had eaten......what have you done????
I have had a couple "conversations" with our landlord- Pierreangelo. They consist of some Italian, some English and a lot of hand gestures. During these alleged "conversations," I have, at some point, come to realize that I have no idea what we are talking about. Usually, when this happens, I end up wondering what he thinks I could have meant, and what he meant. Thus far, I don't think any damage has been done......so far.
Once he was getting some of his rusty farm equipment (think tetanus) out of the garage behind our place, when he brought over a filthy clear plastic dish with a bunch of dirty nuts on it. He was so proud because he harvested these nuts from his own trees, I guess. He was smiling and enthusiastically telling me all about the different kinds of nuts and what I could do with them.....yeah, right, like I am going to make some kind of Creme de Nut in my spare time. Anyway, he asked me if I had a bowl. I assumed that he was going to give me the plate of dirty nuts and wanted to keep the plate, so I grabbed a rather large bowl and handed it to him. (This bowl is no ordinary bowl, but part of a fabulous set of stacking bowls we received as a house warming gift from Dr. and Mr. C - never before have I so loved a set of bowls :)
I handed him the bowl and he left for a minute and then returned with not only the nasty plastic plate still full of its original contents, but now my huge bowl was full as well and he was handing all this to me! Had I known, or understood what he was saying, I would have given him a much smaller bowl- we don't even own a nutcracker! I ever so graciously accepted the heaping portion of dirty nuts.
So, D & D this is My Italian Nut Bowl, not as pretty as R's nut bowl, but a nut bowl none the less : )
Please, don't anybody give me any suggestions about what I can do with the nuts- this is a family blog : ) and I am no Martha.
As a final thought, I would like any travellers to think about what they have done to not offend the natives...I have witnessed people eating raw salmon WAY before it was in vogue as sushi, not telling the hostess that a cat was lounging in their shelled nut bowl and then watching the grandma eat said nuts (what is it with nuts?), some people ate horse sausage sandwiches while others hid them in their pockets, just recently, I saw a friend chug down his wine (that he hated and wanted to be rid of) only to have the host exclaim about how much he must have liked it and re-filled the glass....he was also filling his pockets with cheese that said host presumed he had eaten......what have you done????
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P.S. Sunny and I were reading this at school and the tears were flowing. Too funny!