A good old habit

One of the things that I remember of my life in DC is that I was travelling like a spinning top. Literally, the Departure Hall of the International Dulles Airport was almost a second home for me.

One of the good habit I had developed was, after having checked-in, to stop at Harry’s Tap Room and order a ‘Harry’s Burger’.

Then, on a full stomach, I was falling in a sound sleep for the entire duration of my flight.

As they say, ‘il lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio’ (the leopard cannot change its spots).

Old (and new) friends in DC

But of course a city is empty without its people. And although many of the friends we used to have in DC have, for a reason or another, left, I was lucky enough to meet a few old friends.

And to get to know a new (very new) one!

Wandering about DC - two years later

One of the things that struck me while wandering about DC in these days - and perhaps one of the reasons why I felt so at my ease in Washington in these days - is that it seems that nothing has changed since I left. In fact I had the impression I left only the day before yesterday… 

I already mentioned that the flower street vendor in Farragut Square, in front of the Metro, is the same. The Washington Monument is still there, as well as the Jefferson, the Lincoln, the Roosevelt, the World War II, the Vietnamese War and the Korean War memorials. Also the White House is still there. Kramer Books is still there, Tryst and the Diner are still there, as well as Rumba Café, Bossa, and Madam’s Organ. The only place I could not find was Ghana Café, where they used to play good live reggae music - but considering this is the only change I noticed,  I guess I should not be too disappointed.

The only thing that was completely new to me was the Martin Luther King Memorial, built on the Tidal Basin nearby the Roosevelt Memorial and opposite the Jefferson Memorial, opened to the public in August last year when we had already left. Perhaps a bit too ‘monumental’ for my tastes, but well, very happy that Martin Luther King (one of my favourite heroes) is symbolically placed beside the fathers of this nation.

And now, considering we are in the middle of the electoral campaing, ‘forza Obama!’
 

Back in DC

After the Chino-Japa-Vietnamese wedding in LA, I went to DC for a week for work.

You all know how attached we were to DC - and in fact returning here after more than two years had the same pleasent feeling of returning home.

Here there are a few of the things that made me feel home in these days…

- Glimpsing the Washington Monument from the Memorial Bridge arriving from the airport*
- “How are you today?!”
- “Single or double?” (at the bar, referred to the espresso)
- Discovering that my Smart-trip card (my metro card) is still functioning (and still has credit on it!)
- Managing not to get lost while driving in town (thanks Carito for lending me your car!)
- Lunch at Cosi, brunch at The Diner, ice-cream at Pitango
- Grocery at Whole Food

- To meet deer while jogging along the Potomac at the sunset

- Squirrels in the parks

- Finding the same flower street vendor in Farragut Square

I still have difficulties in identifying which place I should call home. But certainly, even if it is not home anymore, even if I think it won’t be home anymore, a piece of our heart is here in DC…

(*) Cfr. this picture with the last picture I took in DC two years ago.

Foto per le mamme

The Marchisio Brothers 2012 ®

Photo booth

At American weddings it is now very fashionable to have a ‘photo booth’, exactly as those you usually find in train stations to get an ID picture.

You enter in it, and a series of four pictures is taken: one strip remains to the newlyweds; a copy is immediately developed for you to keep it as a souvenir.

Brilliant, isn’t it???

Cugini

After cuginetti and cousinettes… cugini!

Pre-wedding dinner

It is a Chinese tradition to invite the families and the closest friends of the weds-to-be to a dinner the night before the wedding.

It was a sumptuous eight course Chinese dinner. Do I need to add anything to these pictures?...

Family reunion

But, above all, Rex and Hoai’s wedding has been an opportunity for the Chinese branches of our families to meet again, after almost 15 years from our first meeting, in 1997, in San Francisco.

And to do something together with our uncles and cousins: we (used to) live not more than 400 m from each other, and this trip is the first thing we do together in a long long time. Perhaps exactly since that trip to San Francisco 15 years ago…

(Ps: a little thought to Auntie Cora, our grandmother’ sister. For health reasons she could not travel to LA, but she would have loved to see the families together. She was there with us in our hearts…)

Wedding in LA

We went to LA to celebrate Rex and Hoai’s marriage (Rex is our Chinese cousin: the son of the daughter of our Chinese grandmother’ sister).

A marriage that joint together families of four different nationalities and cultures, as Rex is half-Chinese and half-Japanese, Hoai is Vietnamese - and, well, although we were affiliated to the Chinese branch of the family, we are Italian.

And I don’t know why, perhaps because I married a person of a different country myself, I always feel particularly touched when I see the love of two persons bringing together families of different nationalities and cultures.

Best wishes, Rex and Hoai: the world is yours!

Los Angeles, CA

More in the next few days...

In partenza

This time (for once) towards west…

Gemelli separati alla nascita (Twins divided at birth)

Mi approprio di due foto di Riccardo scattate alla Festa di Ivrea per concludere il resoconto sul mio blitz alla Festa.

Ivrea è stata per me soprattutto l’occasione per rivedere Emanuele, dopo più di due anni. E nonostante attraverso i nostri Blog, qualche chiamata su Skype, e qualche email ogni tanto ci si mantenga in contatto, se non ci si riesce a rivedere di tanto in tanto, queste amicizie ‘a distanza’, come tutti i rapporti, corrono il rischio di diluirsi - forti sì di tanti ricordi e condivisione passata, ma incapaci di alimentarsi e rigenerarsi con nuove esperienze e nuove condivisioni.

I nostri lettori più assidui dovrebbero già conoscere Emanuele. Per chi non lo conoscesse ancora, posso semplicemente dire che lo ritengo il mio alter ego. Le nostre vite hanno percorso strade parallele, che qualche volta si sono intrecciate e sovrapposte. Ma è soprattutto una strana (sorprendente) affinità su tantissime altre cose che mi ha più volte portato a pensare che non potessimo essere altro che gemelli separati alla nascita.

E quando, dopo più di due anni, l’ho rivisto a Ivrea vestito uguale a me (la camicia in realtà era leggermente diversa), ma soprattutto con la stessa identica custodia della macchina fotografica, ho avuto nuovamente la conferma che sì, siamo proprio gemelli separati alla nascita.

E, senza parole, senza nient’altro, i due anni di distanza sono stati immediatamente colmati…

Three generations of Marchisio - seven months later

Seven months from the first meeting (i figli crescono, i padri imbiancano…)

Nonni & bisnonni

Bisnonni

Nonni

I mostri

Sly, untrustworthy, quack, Don Juan… this is the portrait of the main characters of ‘I Mostri’, a 1963 movie by Dino Risi which portrays, with cynicism and black humor, the behaviours and the vices of the Italians.

A movie that was quite successful in France (I had never seen it; it was my inlaws’ who showed it to me in La Bourboule) - and that contributed to strengthen the stereotype of the ‘Italian’ among our transalpine cousins.

So you can imagine what the reaction of Macha and Pacha was when Mathilde confessed she was dating an Italian…

La grande famille

Let’s conclude the reportage of our third and last leg of our vacation with this family picture.

À l’année prochaine!