the sabbatical logs

​Returned to Sicily shortly after the interview.  Stephanie was now visiting my family and I proudly took on the role of tour guide for Palermo and its neighboring cities.  We discussed her grandmother’s interview and Stephanie was moved by her grandmother’s story as she listened and discovered more about the woman she calls grandmother.  Stephanie returned to Chicago and I currently continue to be with family and work on my project in Sicily.  I emailed Professor Alessandro Portelli, whom I plan to interview, with a more detailed interview date for my project.  Portelli has written several books about and on the topic of Oral History and teaches several classes on the subject and on American culture at the University of Rome Sapienza.  We discussed narrowing down a more definite date for our interview in Rome.  He responded shortly after with ‘best around October 15th or sometime after October 25th.”   I thought, how Italian—I asked for a specific date and he responded in a very Italian, more accurately a Roman way—‘around October 15th’ or ‘sometime after October 25th.’  It’s a cultural nuance—I then had to forget my American mentality of schedule and time and as it is said—When in Rome…so, I wrote back—‘perfetto, will see you around the 15th of October’.  So as of now, I will be interviewing Professor Portelli on October 15th in Rome and hope to complete the adage…do as the Romans do.