here in crema we have what's called "raccolta differenzata" which means compulsory recycling and sorting of rubbish. here are the categories:
friday morning pickup
umido: organic stuff. food.
plastica: bottles, saran wrap, etc.
tuesday morning pickup
carta/cartona: paper and cardboard
secco: everything else that can't be recycled.
i have been here a month and i think we've already forgotten to take the trash out at least 3 times. it has to be out by 7 a.m. the real tragedy is forgetting to take out umido because then you've got a stinky green bucket of slimy spinach and moldy tomatoes waiting for a week in your kitchen. but i came up with a strategy--which we will never use--to get our umido to the whereever they take it. and that is haul our umido in its biodegradeable bag to the other collection zone of the city on a different day. in effect, commandeer someone else's garbage day. assuming that it's a day or two later. i can just see us stealing through the city by night wearing capes and masks... gotta get rid of the umido.
i'm going to firenze / florence in a few hours. except first i have to teach shawna's class because that little fiend called me and begged me to teach geography for her. it's fine because i've already taught this lesson three times but not fine because i thought i was done for the day and now i have to work until 5:20, finish up business at school, pack, and get a 6:28 train. BUT what i get out of it is a free train ride to florence, a 32.87 value.
mauro asked me a question yesterday that really made me think. i told him that i love the book 1984, and so does he, and so does shawna. a few hours later he asked me to explain how i can love that book, for it's not in accordance with my life. for all you uneducateds who haven't read it, the book is the one that the idea of "big brother" came from... oh yeah and doublespeak and lots of other worthwhile things. it's about an ultracomformist, controlled society where nobody has choices. the lesson of the book is that liberty is absolutely essential to humanity. and according to mauro, i live a life devoid of liberty; i am robbed by my religious beliefs of my choices. he sees me going home on saturday night so i can leave for milan at 7:30 am and not having their kind of fun, and he sees those as restrictions placed on me by a i suppose tyrannical power like the one in the book. i tried to explain to him in my awkward italian that instead i believe that i have complete freedom, that i am ultimately free because i choose the consequences i want and then the actions, that i am free from dependence... after going home i studied the idea a little more and found that the idea i tried to explain to him of liberty is pretty much exactly the definition that is found in the dictionary at the end of the book of mormon, or at least the italian version. free to choose either "eternal life" or "captivity because of sin" or something. i have to go teach silly shawna's class now but as this is a critical question i would like to explore it later. critical for every person to understand the source of their liberty.
ciao from crema and in several hours from florence!
savanna
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