Our Bologna GTG-Get Together

Sara beat me to the punch when it came to blogging about the Bologna ex-pat GTG. Initially I was planning to meet just Cyndi and Danilo in Bologna for lunch but to my delight Sara and Franco also came along. Our plan was to stop in Bologna on our way up from Rome to Torino. We left Rome at 10 a.m. and through some miracle, encountered no traffic, no road work and no accidents. The drive was quick with one stop for gas and we made it at 1 p.m. sharp at the restaurant.

Here are the photos:



Here are the men (left to right) Demetrio, Danilo and Franco. We call them the ala carte men, we women look at the menu, order our meals and then men then have to pay ala card, if you know what I mean, AMEX, MC or VISA please.



Here are the ladies (left to right) Sara, Cyndi and myself.



This was the plaque on the door that said to "push". "Funny" I thought is this written in French or some other language, since "push" in Italian is spingere. The signs on the restroom doors were also strange to me. I find out later from Danilo these words are Italian but in the Bolognese dialect. Ah! that explains everything, the dialects of the different regions of Italy can seem like another language. I knew this but to see it in writing was very cool indeed.

On a hilarious side note, Cyndi was telling us a few stories of the Ebonics, some claim it is an American dialect, that she heard while on the job as a paramedic in Indianapolis. One day upon arriving at a call, a man says to her that he needs more medicine for his seizures. "Okay, what do you need?" asks Cyndi. The man says "I need more peanut butter balls." "Huh?" Cyndi wonders, after a few moments she figures out that he needs more Phenobarbital, a barbiturate that helps with controlling seizures. I could not stop laughing; I laughed so much Deme though for sure I was drunk. She told us a few more funny stories; it took me a minute to get the one about the man who called an ambulance because he had "skank on the hang down." Cyndi told him that was a problem but he needed a doctor, not an ambulance and he said it seems like an emergency to him; I just about fell under the table with this one.

After lunch we drove to the city center to walk around, look at the Christmas markets, there was an ice skating rink, a merry-go-round for the kids and tons of family type activities. The center alone there were 3-4 McDonalds' that shocked and disgusted me at the same time. I had a great time chatting with the ladies and really enjoyed the fact they understood my humor, American humor, we laughed ourselves silly and had a wonderful yet chilly afternoon.


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