Ciao

A chance to use that Linguistic Minor.

Mims, your Italian lesson of the week: “Ciao”. It can be used as either hello or goodbye, that part I’m sure you already know. The history behind it however is much different.

You see, after the Roman Empire fell, Latin was still the official language in most of what had been the empire. Much like England’s withdrawal from many countries is allowing for new Creole languages in parts of Africa and the Caribbean. This is how languages like Portuguese, Spanish, and French came about. Latin that had been perverted over the years based upon geographical isolation. It did not end there however, even amongst the boot itself, Latin was perverted into even smaller Romance languages. In fact, there are nearly 50 Romance languages. After the Empire, the boot divided up into many small kingdoms, most of these kingdoms developed their own language. Before Italy was finally re-united into its present form that we know it as today, Italian was merged together using many of the kingdom languages at use at the time.

The Venetian language had a phrase “sciao vostro”, this literally meant “I am your slave”. “Sciao” is a cognate with the Italian “Schiavo” which is a cognate to the Spanish “Esclavo” and they ALL derive from the Latin word “Sclavus”. Anyway… over the years after the merger which has become the Italian language, and the lazyness of people (yes, the same lazyness that has transformed “Bell Town” into simply “Belton”) the term which was initially a sign of respect in a greeting to mean, “I am here at your service/to bring you joy” has been shortened down to the modern form “Ciao” without any of the old connotation in it.

Okay Edward… that’s awesome I guess… thanks for the history lesson. What does this have to do with you?

Today, I said, “Ciao Signore e bona note amici” (Goodbye sir and goodnight friend) to Ray for the last time.


The day seemed to start off like any other, as though it was not my last day working with him. I showed up and helped him pick various fruits and vegetables for the market on Sunday. Starting with… well… very fittingly… plums. The same fruit that I first picked for him that first cold morning that I first drove to his farm with the Estonians. Then we moved on to carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes. All the bunches needed for market having been picked, we went back to the shed in the near dark as the sun began its decent into the horizon and washed everything off before packing it into his cooler.

The day was filled with putting crap on each other and Italian slurs. Yelling such phrases at each other such as,

“Damn it Ray! People can’t understand you when you mumble to yourself walking in the opposite direction! You old WOG! How many times do I have to tell you I can’t hear you when you mutter like that!”
“Ahh… you useless Yankee Doodle! OPEN YOUR EARS AND THEN… VAFFUNCULO TESTACAZZO! (go get F-ed D-head)”
“OH! I not only HEARD that! IO CAPICHE STRONZO! (I understand A-hole)”

And of course…

“Ray! Can you believe I’ve been working for you for nearly 3 months! Well, with the exception of the time that I worked for your brother Jerry”
“3 months huh… ya, would have been nice if you had actually been doing work in all that time. You’ve called in and asked me for money for the past 3 months that part is for sure”
“Ray, if bitching, moanin, and winjing (whinning) where an Olympic sport, you sir would make your country proud with how many gold medals you’d bring home for the skippies”
“Admit it yankee… you’re going to miss me yellin at ya”
“Admit it wog, you’re going to miss having a yankee to yell at”
“Naw… I’ll just find some other dumbass backpacker to replace you by the end of next week”
“You can’t replace me! I’m special”
“Pshh, ya… special retarded, can’t even understand a damn instruction the first time I tell you, and all you backpackers are replaceable, just you watch, I’ll have some new guy from Europe who works better than you here next week”
“Oh ya, I’m so retarded that I know English, Spanish, AND your Italian slurs. AND ACTUALLY! You can’t replace me by next week, Michael said he practically doesn't have any backpackers right now! Ricevere quello! (Take that)”
“Really? F^(k… oh well, I can still pick better than you one handed. Oh, and by the way, that phrase doesn’t work as well in Italian when you say it like that”
“It doesn’t huh?”
“NO! psh… Cacasenno (smart-ass)”


Anyway, at the end of the work day, I asked if he wanted that computer lesson or not and he said,
“ya, but you’re not comin in here all filthy. Go home, wash up, and have tea (dinner) then come back over in say about an hour”

Then he asked me how much he owed me for the last few days,
“$375, but hey, you can always round if you want to, ya know, me being your favorite backpacker on my last day and all”
“oh, don’t worry, I was going to round… DOWN that is, give ya $300, maybe $350 if you’re lucky”

Well, before I got in the car to go home and clean up he handed me the cash and walked inside. I counted it out…
$400

I went back about an hour and half later and had a cup of coffee and helped him learn a couple things about his computer. Also, I took some pics that I took with his camera off and saved them on my lap top, and I also gave him some pics that I took with my camera.

So… here are the ones that I took with his camera sometime last month:

This is a week’s worth of me picking green beans


This is a close up


This if (finally) an image of Ray while washing what I picked



Now these are what I took with my camera today:

I have been having a lot of fun with the panoramic setting on my camera lately, this is part of his field with his ute (pickup truck) on the left and him in the middle area


This is the same field but looking from where Ray is to the plum trees


A close up of the turnips (I believe)


Ray working


“My” freshly planted strawberries from yesterday


“My” strawberries and the corn in relation to Toorak Wines (Ray’s neighbor)


The bike that I used around the farm that Ray adjusted for me


And his Ute (pickup truck) that I got more practice driving stick in than any other vehicle



Pictures having been downloaded, swapped, shared, and of course a computer lesson on how to deal with the basics and stuff that he can do completed… I, for the foreseeable last time walked out of Ray’s house, turned around, said “Grazie Signore” to which he extended his hand and replied with “thanks for all the help, coming back again and again, and for everything you’ve done around here”

Then I walked to my car, was barked at by Roger the dog for the last time, and drove off forgetting to pick some more pomegranates for Paul for the last time from the trees near the driveway.



“Ciao Signore e bona note amici”