Goodbye to All That...Hello to All This...

Where were you all my life???

Back in November on Black Friday (this commercial non-holiday has arrived even in Italy, or at least on Amazon Italy), after I had spent a good month weighing the pros and cons, and reading all the Amazon reviews of cordless vacuum cleaners I finally got myself a Dyson V8.  My reasoning was that our new place in Italy was enormous (by NY standard) and impossible to clean, and at the end of the day I could have the cleaning lady come just one day instead of the two.  The money that we would save this way would more than offset the cost of the Dyson.

I used to never vacuum in New York because I hated taking out the bulky vacuum cleaner and plugging it in the wall while trying not to trip on the cord. Instead I would occasionally use the Swifter to pick up hair or dust balls.  But now we have two little kids and because the apartment is so old (Think Middle Ages dungeon) it looks dirty all the time.  The whole place is covered in centuries of dust and I needed a system of keeping the place presentable and safe that would be, if not pleasant, at least effective and easy to do.    

Some years ago I had read a New Yorker profile of James Dyson, the man behind its first bagless vacuum cleaner.  And since then I had always wanted one, but we already had a perfectly functional vacuum cleaner and I didn’t feel right about buying another one.  And how WRONG I was to think that.  I am in love with my new Dyson.  I would trade my husband with it.  The 500 some euros I spent on it is the best money I ever spent.  In fact, vacuuming has turned into my new hobby.  I vacuum almost everyday now.  I even vacuum the ceilings (there are some spider webs from the Middle Ages), on top of floorboards, even keyholes.  Unbeknownst to my husband I tried to vacuum our black poodle with it too.  That wasn’t a good idea.  I guess you can vacuum anything with Dyson except your pets.  It has revolutionized my life and I think everyone should get one.  The upfront cost may be hefty, but in the long run it is more than worth it.  Here are some pros and cons.

Dyson V8 Absolute

Pros: 1) It’s bagless so it’s good for your wallet and the environment.  2)It is cordless and comes with a charging station.  3) It is light.  4) It comes with 5 attachments, turning it into a hand-held vacuum cleaner as well as one suited for ceilings or curtains. 

Cons (Although I’m not that bothered by these): 1) Since you can’t switch it on and off, but rather keep your finger on the power button when you’re using it it can be tiring for your hand.  However, unlike with my previous vacuum cleaner this feature has prevented me from idly running the power so it is also a pro.  2) It doesn’t run for very long at the maximum setting, but the regular setting has good suction so I rarely need to put it at the maximum.  3) Since this is essentially a hand-held vacuum even when the floor piece is attached your hand can get tired holding it.  4) Disposing of the dust can get messy, but if you hold open the dust compartment inside the trash can rather than over it you can minimize the mess.   

In Oltre Parole (In Other Words) by Jhumpa Lahiri

Now that living in Italy was no longer just an idea but a reality I decided to start reading in Italian.  It might seem odd that I chose this memoir written by the Bengali-American writer Lahiri as the starting point.  Her Italian is not that of a native. In fact, after Bengali and English, it is her third language acquired as an adult, not out of any need, but out of pure, inexplicable longing.  Some wondered why Lahiri, a Pulitzer winner, would renounce the language that had given her the career many would only dream of and adopt a language that had no relevance to her life, and was spoken only in Italy.    

Reading it though, I empathized with her completely and was even inspired by her difficult, yet exhilarating journey in Italian.  It turned out to be the perfect book I needed to launch my own journey.  Italian gave her back the joy of reading like a child and a freedom to experiment and fail in her writing that English could no longer give her.  As for me, it encouraged me. To write.  In any language. Whether it be my mother tongue Korean, or English, or dare I say in Italian in some distant future. It was humbling to know that a writer of Lahiri’s accomplishments was willing to embarrass herself, challenge herself to scale a mountain that she knew that she would never reach the summit of.  In the book, she quotes from an interview with the novelist, Carlos Fuentes: “È estremamente utile sapere che non si potrà mai raggiungere certe vette.” 

"They are like Cockroaches." That was how he saw them.  The old people in New York.  While my then-boyfriend(now husband)'s observation was potentially(probably) offensive it rang true nonetheless.  At least the curmudgeonly folks that lived in crumbling rent-controlled tenements of East Village, often seen pushing carts full of random objects picked up from others' trash, sometimes muttering something to themselves or cursing some NYU freshman for hogging the sidewalk.  It seemed a little unfair and even mean to liken this demographic to cockroaches.  Their condition was probably a function of their poverty and loneliness. That said, I certainly didn't want to end up like them, and it was around that time that I started seeing my older self still living in my below-market one-bedroom apartment, climbing up the four flights of stairs with a sad plastic bag of grocery for one, or cooking myself a fried egg while listening to the NPR for the umpteenth time.  I shuddered at the image.  That can't be the only fate for people that choose to grow old in New York.  I said, hopeful, "You can go to Upper East Side.  Old people don't look like cockroaches there." To which he replied, without missing a beat as if he had given this thought before, "Nah, they just look like botoxed cockroaches.  I wanna leave NY before I end up like one. " I bursted out laughing, yet thinking to myself, 'Like we would ever have the means to live up there.  I'd give up everything to look like a botoxed cockroach.'