Aloysius Snuffleupagus or Lost in Translation

It was my intention to learn some Greek while we were here and though I studied the alphabet and can say good morning, thank you and recognize words heard in passing like okay and asshole (the preferred swear word); learning a language involves rigour and that has just not worked with this learn to relax portion of our sojourn.

Many times we get the feeling we are missing something, not only do we have the language barrier but we are also culturally impaired. Many people in Aigiali speak at least some English, waiters and small business people speak a whole variety of languages to get by, French Italian German, English….in any case people are genuinely kind, helpful and friendly. So what do we talk about? Why the weather of course and that is invariably linked to the ability for ferries to arrive and depart which leads to business and this season of tourists. Various people have a variety of sometimes-conflicting pronouncements that may be or may not be true:

“Things will really fill up after the 15^th.”

“After the 18^th is when the you’ll see a change.”

“The wind is always stronger in the morning and dies down in the afternoon.”

“In August it gets so hot that you can’t even walk up to the bakery.”

“The best time to come is in April when the wildflowers are blooming and it is green.”

“The wind is not good for business.”

“The paper will arrive Monday afternoon.”

“We will have that tomorrow.”

There are three different ferries that arrive at the dock here and one of them has a name that is called Skopelitis. Yvonne took to calling that ferry the Snuffleupagus…… being a bit too old for Sesame Street I thought Yvonne had just made up that name which we started using for the many things we could not understand or could not see or basically had no control over.

I was pretty surprised to learn that Aloysius Snuffleupagus was a character that only Big Bird could see. The Snuffleupagus is such a perfect analogy for being in a foreign place short on the language skills; there are many things that you just don’t see and many things just completely out of your control.

We of course compensate for our lack of accurate knowledge by using the great powers of observation, speculation and invention to fill in the blanks. As my bathing suit has begun to disintegrate I now admire the woman who like us arrives at the beach in the morning, does her land exercises, her sea exercises, her sun bathing and then her walk to town for groceries and does a bikini (not really a bikini more like a sensible two piece) costume change between each activity. She smartly brought at least 4 and possibly 6 bathing suits for her vacation.

With everything we have heard, our pronouncement is that late May and June were unseasonably warm in Europe this year and August and September are somewhat cooler than usual.

In any case, from all accounts, the Italians are not so benevolent with tourists and so with great discipline Yvonne and I have been listening to our Italian lessons daily, particularly concentrating on good manners and general survival phrases. We are hoping, like our virtual Italian teacher says to have: “buena fortuna” good luck with that as we continue our travels into Italy for September.

Buffy Saint Marie, the only adult that believed in the Snuffleupagus, wrote a song for him. If only I could find a copy of that I would link it here.