Sunday, March 28, 2010

Immigrant Party WhooHoo!

Well, we sure had an interesting night on Friday. You may remember that we live in the heart of Parma's "migrant district". A few weeks back we noticed this very eclectic-looking place right by our house:
















Upon closer inspection, we saw a flyer advertising free Italian language classes for people who lived in the area. Bingo! How could we refuse?

So every weeknight from 6-7:30, we walk down the street and participate in this class, led by some Italians, along with other immigrants from the district. It's been quite interesting, to say the least - we're in class with people from Algeria, Senegal, Sudan, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Mondavia, Morocco, and Eritrea.

We're pretty sure we're the only Americans who have EVER been in the school, based on their reaction to us. At first, we weren't even sure we were welcome there, but now we fit in just fine.

That's not to say that everyone doesn't watch our every move though, because they do. Because of the media, or the influence of our culture, or whatever, everyone is very curious about the Americans. So we're trying to represent well.

Anyways, we've been in the school for a few weeks now, and Friday night it put on a monthly party. Everyone was encouraged to bring music and a food item "typical" of their country. I made an eclectic music mix of American bands, and Emily made vegetarian chili and also artichokes.

At first I was against the chili because, being a Texan, I passionately argued that chili without meat isn't really chili. But we knew that there were several Muslims in the class who wouldn't want pork, and several Indians in the class who probably wouldn't want beef...so those considerations won and she made it with eggplant, carrots, and beans.

Plus it was SUPER tough to think of another "typical" American dish - what is typical American anyways? Grilled cheese? PB&J? Chili seems to be a solid choice to represent our country - it's big, bold, and hard to pin down exactly what it's made of.

So with chili and artichokes in hand, we went to the party. Sure, there were some awkward moments:















This is me with Ali, Asimov, Mbaye, and Ivan, from Sudan, Eritrea, Senegal, and Mondavia. Very nice guys all, but we speak 5 different languages, so there wasn't a lot of communication going on, mostly smiles and nods.  About the only thing we know how to say to each other in Italian is our names and what time it is, and that gets old real fast.

Anyways the party started off slowly but once the music started it definitely kicked up a notch.  One interesting thing we learned is that everyone, all over the world, knows Bob Marley.  And boy do those Algerians love to dance!















When all was said and done we had a great time.  And the vegetarian chili turned out to be a HUGE hit.  People were a little scared of it at first but once they tasted it, they went back for 2nds and 3rds.  Emily stayed true to her reputation - one guy refused the chili on the first pass, saying in Italian, "I don't eat vegetables, especially eggplant".  I saw him about 15 minutes later with a heaping plate of the stuff...apparently someone gave him a taste.  That's Emily for ya, converting veggie haters all over the planet!

3 comments:

  1. This is so great! The first photo of Paul really made me laugh and I love the dancing photos! We'll have to get the recipe for "Meatless Chili" and enter it in the next Texas Chili Cookoff! Mom

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  2. Augh I LOVED this post! I'm so excited that you guys are having such cool and wonderful experiences. Reading the blog is really reigniting my itch to move to Europe! I wanna try Emily's chili! -Beth

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