Official superhero uniform.
Today at lunchtime I had a Superhero Moment. You will only understand what I mean if you've been a bilingual foreigner in a different country. If you've read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love memoir, you'll know she had that moment too when she explained the smell of durian to Italian tourists in Thailand. So this is how it all went down-
I was having my usual at the restaurant right around the corner: a romana pizza with a Coca-Cola (the only time I'm allowed to have pop in Italy is with pizza). I've befriended the owners who are actually a Chinese family so we recognize our common Asian-ness even though the only thing we really have in common is the fact that we both live in Italy and speak Italian. I'm eating my pizza slowly, listening to the news and scrolling through Facebook when I hear an English accent behind me and suddenly there's utter chaos as the waitresses and owners come scurrying over. I hear an impossibly strong Italian accent trying (and failing miserably) to describe funghi in English and I decide I better intervene before things get ugly.
"Do you speak English?" I ask the baffled Englishman, knowing the answer already because his eyes are pleading for help and he looks like he's about to pass out.
So I scoot over to his table and help him pick out a pizza but he's already at the point of being so frazzled he's not even listening to me list various toppings.
"Just a pizza, any pizza!" he insists.
Upon explaining to him that the Coke Zero he had requested was not available, he then had me order him a Shandy. Ok, so being Canadian, I had no idea what a Shandy was, but enough to say that should you need to order on in Italian for someone, it would be una mista di birra e gazzosa.
That was it. The Superhero Moment. I had come to the rescue of a floundering foreigner, swooped in with my cool knowledge of two languages and crediting myself with knowing someone is filling their belly with something they actually wanted. I know for certain the Shandy would have never appeared without my help! You know in movies when someone is having a medical event in a restaurant and someone says 'is there is doctor in here?' and the doctor who is conveniently dining at the next table rushes in and saves the day? That's exactly what these occurrences feel like in Italy.
Have you had your own "Superhero Moment" in Italy where you "saved the day"?
I was having my usual at the restaurant right around the corner: a romana pizza with a Coca-Cola (the only time I'm allowed to have pop in Italy is with pizza). I've befriended the owners who are actually a Chinese family so we recognize our common Asian-ness even though the only thing we really have in common is the fact that we both live in Italy and speak Italian. I'm eating my pizza slowly, listening to the news and scrolling through Facebook when I hear an English accent behind me and suddenly there's utter chaos as the waitresses and owners come scurrying over. I hear an impossibly strong Italian accent trying (and failing miserably) to describe funghi in English and I decide I better intervene before things get ugly.
"Do you speak English?" I ask the baffled Englishman, knowing the answer already because his eyes are pleading for help and he looks like he's about to pass out.
So I scoot over to his table and help him pick out a pizza but he's already at the point of being so frazzled he's not even listening to me list various toppings.
"Just a pizza, any pizza!" he insists.
Upon explaining to him that the Coke Zero he had requested was not available, he then had me order him a Shandy. Ok, so being Canadian, I had no idea what a Shandy was, but enough to say that should you need to order on in Italian for someone, it would be una mista di birra e gazzosa.
That was it. The Superhero Moment. I had come to the rescue of a floundering foreigner, swooped in with my cool knowledge of two languages and crediting myself with knowing someone is filling their belly with something they actually wanted. I know for certain the Shandy would have never appeared without my help! You know in movies when someone is having a medical event in a restaurant and someone says 'is there is doctor in here?' and the doctor who is conveniently dining at the next table rushes in and saves the day? That's exactly what these occurrences feel like in Italy.
Have you had your own "Superhero Moment" in Italy where you "saved the day"?
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