Interview With a European

Ethnographic Interview My name is Alex, I come from Como, Italy. It's right on the border with Switzerland, near Milan. I speak Italian, German, English and some French. I have lived in the U.S. For two years now. My family is still back in Italy. I'm the only one over here. I moved here because this is where my wife lives. We used to work for the same company in Singapore, and that's where we met.

I've actually been coming here for quite a few years, but only a couple of years ago did we get married and I moved here. I return to Italy every year, and I would go more if I could. I would say that most of my memories are quite fond. Como is a very beautiful place, and wealthy. I haven't ever worked there since I was in school, I always had to work somewhere else, but I think fondly about my home a lot. I miss the food, especially.

It's just not the same here. As far as worst memory, I don't really have one, but there are definitely things I like better over here. I don't miss our government. 4) I think you probably know about Italy. We are a fairly young country, younger than America, but of course all of our towns are old, only the country is new. So depends how you look at it. Julius Caesar is a leader you've probably heard of. Popes. Lots of popes were Italian.

More recently it was Garibaldi who brought our country together, and of course everybody has heard of the fascist dictator Mussolini and that clown Berlusconi. The most beautiful place is of course Como. Everybody knows that, but it's okay that Americans prefer to go to Venezia and Firenze. Those are also quite nice, but not for Italians. 5) I work as a computer programmer. I have done this job for a long time, in a lot of countries.

But I never did it in Italy, it was always somewhere else in the world. Here, I work for the same company that I worked for in Europe, but I do everything over the Internet now. So my pay is the same. It's actually Danish pay, since that is where my office is, which goes a long way in Nashville because things are much cheaper here. Taxes are lower and there is more choice, so I am wealthier, so to speak, than I was in Europe.

The only thing that costs more here is espresso. And it's really not very good -- I don't understand why I have to pay twice as much for something that is half as good. It drives me crazy. 6) I can buy the same things here. The things we eat -- polenta, pasta, meats -- Americans eat most of these things too and we can find a lot of other things as well from Italy.

Even rabbit, which is not so common in America, I can find if I know who to talk to. I obviously cannot find a good espresso anywhere, but I do not like to eat Italian food in restaurants. It's like bad attempts at Sicilian and Calabrian food, and I have been to Sicily and I cannot eat this stuff here. I have to make my own. And pizza. There is pizza everywhere and none of it is any good. I find clothing is not so bad.

We are fashionable people in the north, but there are good clothes in America, and I wear more casual clothes now, too. There are maybe a few things that I cannot buy. I make my own limoncello, because it's just easier than way. But that's only one thing. 7) I live with my wife. We are renting a home right now, because with our work we often move around a lot. Now that I am more settled here, my might stay.

I still think I want to retire back in Como, but if we decide to stay I will buy a house here. I do not think that my wife and I live differently than other people. You live more like an American when you live in America. I drive my car more -- in Europe I had a car but I never used it. I probably watch more television.

Maybe there is a difference when I say I want to watch some football, I mean something different from when my neighbors say the same thing. 8) Technically, I am Catholic. We had a Pope come from our town, Innocent XI. But I don't go to church that much. I could, if I wanted. There are lots of Catholics here, even if they are not Italian. 9) For me, living in Italy is great for the quality of life, how healthy you are, how good the food is, and the wine.

It's peaceful, less rushed than American life. Everybody there takes riposo. But what's good here is that things work better, shopping in better, and people are pretty friendly. 10) Cities are small and there is a lot of public transportation. People take the train between towns and the bus when they are in a town, or they walk. Nobody does that here, which is strange for me. But we have cars, too, but for us to drive 50 miles would be a big deal.

We have good schools and our hospitals are well-run. For me, it is probably better there, because here I have to buy my own insurance because my office in still in Europe. 11) I don't want to talk about the government in Italy. It's not very good. We have gallows humor about our government. People complain about things here, but I don't know. I don't vote in America. But in Italy, I always have to hold my.