And Now

"Mr. Obama appeared to be preparing the world for a reshaped global economy in which the United States no longer was the ultimate export market for the world’s established and emerging powers. It was that habit of overconsumption, he appeared to say, that led to the boom-and-bust cycles that he has said must end."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/world/europe/02prexy.html?_r=1&hp

Hooray hooray hooray!

benvenuti a milano

It’s the end of my first full day in Milan. My apartment is beautiful, and seems very big for one person. I have two balconies, all for me. My second suitcase (my beloved backpack) arrived today, so everything is here.

After cooking dinner tonight and sipping my second glass of wine, I lit the candles I found in the flat and a stick of incense I imported from California. It already feels like home.

I taught my first English lesson today and sat in on a class with the kids I will be teaching next week. I loved both – not hard at all!

Valentina has been very helpful in getting me set up with a telephone (still not programmed), internet (haven’t received the adapter yet), directions (I got lost walking to the school), tv (BBC decoder should work by tomorrow), and groceries (the supermarket is a two minute walk). Really she, and her family, have been wonderful and I am so thankful for their help.

I already understand so much Italian, but I really need to speak it for goodness sakes! I think I have not said a single sentence in Italian yet. It runs through my mind constantly though. It’s so easy and fluid. I tried to take a nap (jetlag fighting with two or three espressos) and realized after twenty minutes that I was processing Italian grammar the whole time. I love this part of the process. I can see, too, that I have matured since (and largely because of) my experience five years ago in Romania. I am not afraid to step out of my apartment, not afraid that someone will say something to me I don’t understand, not afraid of making a huge grievous error and receiving angry foreign reprimands. (Remember the ice cream, Sarah?)

Tomorrow I will go into the city of Milan. Where I live is actually a suburb called Rho. Actually, I live in a sort of suburb of the suburb, called Mazzo di Rho. As far as I can tell, Mazzo di Rho is a small shopping center (supermarket, café, flower shop, beautician, tabaccheria, etc) and public school surrounded by apartment buildings and some houses extending out from the shopping center in rings (that’s where I live, and where the English school is). The outermost ring has a lot of industry and connects to the highway. (The lesson I taught today was in one of those companies – they sell ball bearings.) It really is a beautiful model for a tiny suburb. A nice change from my suburb of Boston, where the closest industry is the pizza shop a mile away – and another mile to anything of substance or usefulness.

The supermarket, though tiny, carries pretty much everything I could want or need. I succumbed to its temptation today and bought, aside from the essentials, several luxury items: a bottle of wine (3,49 euros, delicious), a block of cheese (called Nostrano val Lesina, 1,92 euro), and the most amazing mushrooms I have ever laid eyes on (1,99 euro, the same price as their boring old white button mushrooms). So none of those things were bank breakers, and they make me very happy, but I must remember that I am on a budget, at least until I start making money.

One more observation: supposedly all Italian people do is smoke! but I have yet to see a single Italian person smoking. Maybe that will change tomorrow when I go to the city. I’m holding my breath! (haha, pun. ok, i’m sad.)

Now I must try to sleep, even though my body and mind think it’s only seven in the evening. Hoping the two glasses of wine will help…

an answer to my question

so, as i listened to all the babble about the financial crisis today, i realized the answer to my question about the importance of credit. quite apart from the individual/family, it is small business that relies on credit. so, if i like small business, then i should like credit. nostalgia may pretend that there exists a simple answer to society, but that is of course just not true.

this is the reason why i titled my last post "the dangers of having a blog": because i start spewing about things i think about, regardless of whether i actually know anything about them. then i sound either a)pompous or b)idiotic [or c)all of the above]. this is one reason why i didn't have a blog for a long time. i don't like sharing things that are too personal (my mother and who knows who else reads this) but if i share things too impersonal, i run the risk of being (bumbumbum!) WRONG.

i am a person who thinks a lot and talks a lot. sometimes i sound like i know a lot. but at the end of the day, i am aware that i know pretty much squat.

actually, it's debilitating to have so little confidence in my knowledge, because it makes me afraid to have confidence or make decisions. how can a person have an opinion when there are very smart people out there who have opposite opinions? or when you don't have all the facts?

so, faithful readers of the blog (of which there are none, so i guess my rear is covered), bear with me in my times of error (pomp and idiocracy). and feel free (i beg you) to correct me or add to a discussion. this would pretty much make my week.

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in other, more exciting news, i sold my car today! that's a weight off my mind. the longer i can wait before buying another one, the better. the high school girl who bought it seemed quite happy about the investment. and she had cool glasses.

closing remarks - the danger of having a blog

"Recently, we've seen how one company can grow so large that its failure jeopardizes the entire financial system." -Bush in today's speech about the proposed $700 Billion financial bailout.

Personally, this is how I feel about megastores like Walmart. I know it's a completely different thing from Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, and (reaching further back) Enron etc. Nevertheless the principles can be applied: too much of our money goes into one company and its failures affect us all. In financial institutions these failures are such as we've seen in the news recently. In the retail sector, these failures include product quality, job outsourcing, poor employee treatment, and (an underappreciated problem) aesthetic tyranny.

Ok, so I have nostalgic preference for buying local and locally-owned small business. That is how I would like my life to function -- small circles. Knowing where my purchasing dollars go, even if I'm spending more of them for fewer (but essential) things.

Anyway, after that tangent...

I did not see Bush's speech, but read it, and actually thought it was pretty good (considering, I mean, it IS Bush). It provided a synopsis of the mortgage deflation and ensuing financial crisis that a civilian like myself could understand. It made his plan look pretty good. He even says it will partially (mostly? maybe completely?) pay itself back. Even I know enough to see that as optimistic.

The speech revealed to what extent our economy depends on credit. Buying houses, cars, and college education -- all need credit purchasing power. Watch out, Americans! Bush says. The way things are going, someday, in the very near future, you might not be able to buy things you can't afford!!

Now, I understand that mortgages are necessary for buying houses, and I am the current holder of certain college loans that I think are worthwhile, but all in all, Americans buy way too much on credit. Everyone has credit debt. No one saves money. Financial consultants are always warning us about this problem. Everyone knows debt is a big mistake, but most of us do it anyway.

We can feel patriotic about going into debt. Spending makes the world go round. At least, it keeps our markets moving in the direction we like them to move. If we didn't spend, there wouldn't be Christmas.

How did you spend your Economic Stimulus tax rebate? Remember that? Well, now that you've spent that money on a Wii, be prepared to give it all back, with mucho interest, over the next umpteen years to pay for this big governmental buy out. (Also, be prepared to pay for surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome.)

What would our world look like without as many ways to go into debt? Would everything collapse, allowing China to stage its big takeover? Bush certainly thinks so. You haven't bought a new car since 2006! You might as well be a Communist!

Money. The big world. It all makes me want to crawl off the grid.

Maybe I will someday. As soon as I've paid off my debt...