ILLUSTRATION
Bettona Siamo Noi 12
Angela Fratellini is my best friend here in Bettona. It doesn’t seem to matter that I am just shy of her mother’s age and that’s fine with me. She just couldn’t be a more wonderful friend. Her boyfriend Marco is equally as nice and we all like to kid around. One of our running jokes revolves around the habit of the Bettonese that I find particularly odd. (One of those cultural differences that I always notice.) It happens when I return to Bettona in the spring and met people in the street or piazza. They ask two things — how I’ve been and when I’m leaving. They’re really asking “How long are you here for?” or “You’re going to be here for a long time, right?” But it literally is “When are you leaving?” The joke with Marco is that he always asks when I am leaving..
Funny too are the series of videos the two send me of various friends trying to explain Italian hand gestures to me. It’s really too funny and makes me laugh out loud.
