Signora Sheila

We have a saying in Italian. Non c’è niente di nuovo sotto il sole. (There is nothing new under the sun.) And yes, I know it’s from the Bible. But I also know that King Solomon, who wrote it, didn’t live in a foreign country. Otherwise, I wonder if he would have changed it to: “There is something new under the sun. Every day, and in countless ways!” 

We were in the deep south, with my father-in-law’s. A dear man, but eccentric, and prone to grumpiness. Having lived alone for many years, he had a tendency to mumble under a lot. Hubby says he was mostly cursing. He didn’t like the priests or saints, and seemed to blame them for most of his ills.

And while I know he loved me, I think I was a trial to him at times. Always cleaning and moving his things. Even throwing away his prized pair of rusty scissors! How was I to know he treasured those totally rusty shears? We bought him a new pair, but I’m sure they never seemed as good…

Culture shock: confusion and distress

Moving to a foreign country usually causes culture shock, and often great distress. Italy was such a place for me.

“What affects men sharply about a foreign nation is not so much finding or not finding familiar things. It is rather not finding them in the familiar place.”

G.K. Chesterton

For example…

Our legal documents

It wasn’t so much the waiting; that happens in every nation. But a month of waiting for a simple ID card? Unthinkable!

Or the laundry

Everyone, everywhere does laundry. But only on a certain day of the week? Unthinkable! “Why do they change their clothes so often?” the neighbors asked, not too discretely. “What a shameful waste of water!” Didn’t they realize, I wondered, that five people have a lot of laundry?

And then there were the tablecloths!

You never, ever sit down to a meal without a cloth tablecloth. Even if it’s the same one all week long! But my plastic tablecloth? “Slovenly,” that’s what they said. “Hey, at least it saves water” I thought. But they never seemed to notice that small act of water conservation…

Papà also had strange eating habits. Which finally explained some things about my husband! No wonder he eats with his hands and loves hot peppers so much!

And finally, there was Papà’s love of meat

That really surprised me. Maybe it was the experience of living through two world wars and eating half-cooked potatoes to stave off hunger that did it. Meat had always been a sign of well-being and you didn’t dare waste a bit of it. Everything was used. The entrails, the cow’s stomach and tongue, the pig’s feet, the liver, the gizzard, the lamb’s brain.

Even rabbit eyes! Yes, Papà ate the eyes. I’ll save you all the nasty details. But he loved to tease our kids with them!

Let me tell you Solomon: Everything was new under that Mediterranean sun.

From super strong espresso, to specific laundry days. Insane government bureaucracy and bottles of seven day deodorant!

But that worm cheese that got me!

The cheese with the Italian jumping worms! Now I was a country girl, raised on a farm. I went fishing and played with snakes. But those worms almost scared the wits out of me!

Cheese in the cupboard? A bit strange. But with worms jumping out? It had really gone bad! “Throw it out!” I shrieked. “Get it out of here right now!” But Hubby insisted we keep it. “Just in case.” We didn’t want a repeat episode of The Scissors…

“Come on dear,” I told him. “Get real. Even your father would never want cheese with worms in it! He’ll thank us for getting rid of it!”

“Throw it out?” Papà yelled when we showed it to him. “The worms are the best part. Yum, have a taste!” We didn’t stay to watch. But I guess it was part of his wartime frugality. Any All food must be eaten. Especially such rare and precious protein! Surely those worms were chock full of it!

Some of the things under this new Italian sun really took a some getting used to!

But determined to make this new country my home, I learned to look past the strangeness and discomfort. (Grateful, of course, that I wasn’t forced to eat everything!)

And you know, Solomon was right. Nothing is new. It’s already been seen or done somewhere, by someone. But if we embrace it, all the new things under our own sun – no matter where we are – can teach us a lot, broaden our horizons, and help us grow!

Because there’s a positive side to almost everything – if we just look for it! Even worm cheese episodes!

About Worm Cheese:

Casu Marzu, or worm cheese, is a true Sardinian delicacy. So if you come to Sardinia, you might want to try some if you can find it. It can no longer be sold in some areas.

But not for me! It doesn’t look appealing, those larvae can jump up to six inches, and it has such a strong taste of ammonia that they say it burns your tongue and leaves an aftertaste that lasts for hours. I believe that; it left me with a bad aftertaste and I didn’t even eat any!

📷 Image credits: cheese wheels; worm cheese by Shardan