Travel is like an Artichoke

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There's nothing like travel to get you out of your comfort zone, question your own competence and understanding, and test your patience, flexibility, and fortitude.
Travel is kind of like an artichoke: the challenging, sometimes thorny aspects -- long journeys, language barriers, unexpected delays, or navigating the unfamiliar -- ultimately lead you to the heart, the rewarding experiences, the connecting with others, the many things we find we have in common,  the reasons we travel in the first place.

Language is an obvious area of difference. English is my first language. Spanish is my second language and one I still struggle with. Now we're in Italy where I can speak a few words and understand a few more. Today we were asking directions to a bank ATM and we had to use all three languages to communicate. But we got there. Luckily a lot of people here can understand more than one language.
Paul and I are going to language school for a week to help us communicate while we are in Italy. The Italian language has some curve balls of its own, for instance, "ci" and "ce" are pronounced like "chi" and "che" (ciao, lemoncello), but words that are actually spelled with "ch" are pronounced like "k" (chiave, zucchero). Counterintuitive for us Americanos.

There are also differences in how things work. Can I drink the water? (Not from the tap; only drink bottled water.) Can we flush the toilet paper? (Nope. Note the trash cans next to every toilet.) What's the Wi-Fi password? (You can't assume it's what's written on the modem next to "password.") My favorite is when I washed my hands at the trattoria in Naples. I soaped up and put my hands in front of what I thought was the sensor as there were no faucet handles to turn the water on. Nothing happened. I put my fingers up the faucet and a few drops came out. I waved my hands around. No water. There were not even paper towels to wipe off the soap. Now what was I going to do? For some reason, I looked down and noticed two pedals on the floor, a red one and a blue one. I stepped on one or both, I'm not sure which, and out came the water! Who knew?
Keeping the money straight is a challenge for me. We were just in Turkiye where 38 Turkish lira equaled one US dollar (or 26 or 36.35 depending on the exchange rate); today we are in Italy where .88 euro equals one USD; and we live in Mexico where 20 pesos equal one USD. We track all of our expenses and have for years so when you figure in all the different exchange rates, it gets complicated and keeps us on our toes.

I'm sure we will notice cultural and other differences too and I will write about them in future blog posts. 
But like eating an artichoke, peeling back the tough outer leaves to get to the inner leaves and eventually to the tender heart, I hope to better understand the land of my nonni by digging deeper, exploring local neighborhoods, trying authentic food, and engaging with people and the culture beyond the surface.

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