We talked to Ivan and Danielle again today after dinner. They invited us to dessert of almonds, butter cookies, and the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had. Danielle doesn’t speak much English but understands a lot more than she speaks. She left after a while to take shower/ “retire for the evening.” It turns out the couple is retired (though they look a little young for it.) Ivan stayed on the patio with us for another lengthy but engaging conversation about language (etymology some too) and accents; Ivan seems to share my (and often C’s) fascination with relationships between languages: foreign words taken from other languages, how hard it is for a French-speaker to pronounce Swedish vs. English-speakers, recognizing foreign accents like Australian and Ukrainian in English, and of course root words that language families have in common. I’m sure he’d get a kick out of my list of French words used in English. We discussed the words that are commonly used in each language, basically catch-all words like “OK” and “yeah” and “sure”: “d’accord” (OK) and “alle” (let’s go/sure) in French; “prego” (OK/here ya go) and “vale” (go?) and “ciao” (hi/bye) in Italian; “vale” (OK) in Spanish.
Ivan was curious what we both “do for a living,” a phrase we taught him. I told him my job sounded a lot more complex than it really was, and he replied with an understanding look. He explained that most job descriptions are far off from what the person actually does – maybe companies have to make it that way so that they can legitimize paying their employees. He read his son’s job description and joked that there was no way he could do that job – he was under-qualified. You never know from the job description – don’t let that discourage you, he said. Ivan joins the ranks of people C and I have talked to who ended up in a completely different field from the one he studied in college. He studied sociology and ended up in management due to a job fair he attended. He enjoyed it for a while, then went into consulting, all the while staying in the same field that he loved (not sure of any specifics.) Danielle did a similar thing, working her first two years out of college as a criminologist, then moved up to management, which was an entirely different job. She stayed in management (in Quebec government) her whole career.
Ivan mentioned he was trying to pick up Italian as much as he could while traveling until he put more thought into it. Italian is only worthwhile in Italy except maybe a small part of Switzerland, but for argument’s sake, nowhere else. It’s therefore not as useful as French, which is spoken in Quebec, Canada; France; and many African countries. Spanish is useful in the large part of two whole continents which include the US, though the international language is still, without a doubt, English. Currently. That’s a big caveat, as we discussed with Ivan. Right now, you can travel in Europe as a Ukrainian and use English as the common language almost anywhere you go. Chinese will probably supersede English in the next 50 years as the international language. The Aussie couple said that Australia has even instated (mandatory?) Chinese classes in their schools! That’s a step we don’t think the US is ready for yet, if a smart one. However, China’s environment may be irreversibly polluted, and they won’t rise as a world power unless they are able to fix a lot of their massively disastrous environmental problems.
I asked Ivan about building construction in Canada. It’s the same as mainstream American construction: wood frames with dry wall, plywood on the outside walls, and basements. There is amazing variation in the US though. Sanford, FL was a good example of that – stucco, Latin American style, beach style, and regular-old ranches. We were guessing at what most buildings in Europe are made of – probably cinder blocks or prefab. concrete walls with plaster, sometimes fairly smooth (just light texture) and sometimes semi-circle patterns.
Ivan and Danielle told us a story from their trip to the Amalfi Coast. A Costa Rican woman they met invited them to her fancy 5-star hotel. She was an extremely wealthy daughter of a successful coffee plantation owner. Also a widow, she was envious of Danielle and Ivan being able to travel together. She had several children and 14 grandchildren, but traveled alone. She had all the money she could ever want – she spends most of her time traveling all over the world – but she’s empty, always alone as she travels.
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This morning started around 0900, tending to our laundry hanging in the bathroom, and then walking across the street to the small grocery store. We got some stuff for breakfast (which is not included at I Coppi despite it being a B&B, 7 EUR extra) and for lunch the next day. Next, we made the 10-minute walk up to the interesting town of San Gimignano. At first it seems a lot like other Tuscan towns, with the 13th century stone buildings crowding the narrow, steep streets, but it is the towers that make this place unusual. There was a large marking happening in the two piazzas that are right next to each other, so we browed a bit and B bought a scarf for 8 EUR, not a bad deal. After some more wandering, our stomachs directed us into a beautiful restaurant that had an area for seating in a garden upstairs. The view was great from there, but the food was ok, especially for the price. I had a mixed plate of meat/cheese with bruschetta, and B had a roasted rabbit dish with peppers on the side. The restroom was weird, but normal for the region. The sinks were in a unisex area with separate toilets for men and women behind doors, so you end up washing your hands with the opposite sex, strange. Anyway, we ended up going into Torre Gross, the tallest of the family-feud inspired stone towers in town. The view of the Tuscan countryside was unbelievable, and the sound of live harp/flute music coming up from below made the scene even more surreal. We browsed the museum briefly before heading out of the city walls and walking around to the south end when the bike rental place was. Turns out the rental prices were too much (about 80 EUR for two bikes for two days), so we just bought a nice map of the area for hiking and bailed out. We walked back through town to the tourist office to see what they had in there but we came out empty handed. Next, we headed back to I Coppi in the very warm late afternoon sun. We had dinner, leftovers from last night, out on the driveway while the Canadian couple ate over by the building. Later, they came over to our table and brought some dessert to share with us, strawberries and cookies. We had another long but very interesting conversation with them until 2030 or so, mainly again about language and jobs.
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The Song of Serendipity 