The weather today is poetically appropriate. For the past week in the Aosta Valley, we basically had nothing but sunshine and occasional clouds. Since this morning, however, we've had nothing but rain and cloudy skies for the 6.5 hours we've been in the van. Sad weather, sadder day. [Editorial note: the sun appeared as I finished writing this post...weird.]
This past weekend has been tough, as it's been filled with extended goodbyes and giant dinner celebrations. On Saturday, the Celtica Clan took us to a restaurant up at the top of the mountains in Aosta:
On Sunday, we performed a small set in our rehearsal space for some of the Clan and some of St. Pierre's public officials as a thank you for their generosity in letting us rehearse in the Valley as we prepared for this tour. The performance was made extra special as Iain (on whistle) and Federico (on bodhran) performed the Barrage setting of "Anach Cuan" with our backline. After dinner, a few of the clan pipers and drummers played a set of tunes for dancing (an important part of clan gatherings). Moreover, we once again got to play "Greenlands," the 45-second Clan anthem that is sung and repeated on end with unbelievable enthusiasm (last year at the final night of Celtica, we played it for about 45 minutes straight--in this smaller setting, we played an abbreviated version that lasted about 10 minutes).
Last night, we had a giant pizza party for Alicia's birthday at an outdoor restaurant that served the best pizza I've ever had (...in the world).
[Warning: philosophical, touchy-feely things ahead.]
I know I've gushed before about how much I love these people, but think I finally have some clarity about how to describe just why they are so wonderful. It's as though they've been enlightened with some way of being that is just right, in every sense of the word. On the whole, they value friendship, respect, decency, and humanity, but they do it all with a sense of honesty that is so unbelievably humbling. Nearly every interaction seems poignant, and it's only magnified by the language barrier; that these values are communicated through often-broken English is even more staggering.
But I guess that's the whole point: language, though obviously useful, can be rendered superfluous when relating to others as humans and not just representatives of a specific culture.
So will I miss these people? The answer is clearly yes. But to what degree cannot be described.
On a lighter note, I should take a moment to explain the title of this post. As you probably have noticed, abbreviations have recently become pretty hip in American pop culture. So, in learning conversational Italian (i.e. hello, goodbye, thank you, and please), I found an opportunity to create a useful abbreviation. It's common to hear people say, "Ciao, grazie," (in English, "Bye, thanks") when they leave restaurants, stores, etc. So, I thought it would be useful to combine those words into "Ciaozie!" Excited about this clever creation, I eagerly shared it with Federico and Iain the other night. They laughed as they explained the one problem with my abbreviation: "zie" means "aunts" in Italian...so I'm actually saying "Bye, aunts!"
Oh well. Even if my attempts to abbreviate a foreign language backfired, at least I've got a good inside joke out of it!
To Iain and Fede, ciaozie!
1 comment:
I am sincerily moved and also partly sad because I wasn't there with you all. Seeing the various because and now reading your words, I realize how important is the friendship, the humanity, the sense of community and all the values and feelings you spoke about in your post.
Say hello to all the band members.
Big kisses and hugs.
Alessia (the missing one; weird how when you were here, in my valley, I was in Scotland and now it is just the opposite. Enjoy Scotland..it is a great place too, even if it is not like home - at least for me)
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