Author: Mara L.

I met up with Jens in the Italian Alps! I came from slightly further in the south, to see the place where Jens photographs his Mountain Project. We went for a tour together. I’m not much of a hiker — the last time I was that high up must have been in an airplane! The place was stunningly beautiful.

So here is a picture of Jens, with the monopod that, after last year’s accident (a broken elbow) now does double duty as hiking stick and photographic equipment.

[Update: The monopod is a Gitzo with a metal spike for the icy terrain, with a lightweight Manfrotto head. After three weeks of using this in harsh conditions, I find the Monopod with the spike excellent; the head is light (that’s why I bought it) and, overall, does its job. JH]

Now I feel bad, having had such terrible things to say about reverse culture shock and my home country. Time for an entry of a different kind: a short note on something I truly miss in Manhattan supermarkets. Every Italian market offers pre-cut vegetables for soup, and as a result, one finds oneself eating healthy minestrone all the time.

I searched the web for recipes that resemble my own minestrone, but I didn’t really find anything. The only photo where the soup looks somewhat like my soup is from a Californian-French-Italian food blog, Citron & Vanille. But it’s so easy to get it right that detailed recipes seem somehow misguided. You just throw the vegetables in a pot and combine them with whatever you feel like, pasta, potato, dumplings, tortellini, and so on. Here’s a tip for vegetarians, or people like me who love vegetarian soups and accordingly use no meat, bacon, or anything of that kind for flavor. Heat some olive oil in the pot before you start, and slowly roast some raw slices of potato in it until they are slightly brown; then add boiling water and the vegetables. Add another shot of olive oil when the soup is done. Perfect!

While I thought about this entry for Jens’ blog, a word formed in my mind: reverse culture shock. I must admit that I had not encountered this expression before. But then I searched it, and a whole world opened up. There are web-sites that are entirely devoted to this topic. Australians, having lived in Europe where a trip between Tuscany and Paris is nothing, feel trapped when they move back home. Students counsel other students who return from a semester outside of the US. And so on.

Why did I think of this? I’m back in northern Italy, after a long time of absence and “naturalization” in Manhattan. Tonight, I was waiting for dinner with some relatives and aimlessly flipped through a fashion magazine. The editorial was devoted to a surprising topic: the X-ray diet. What is this? While the world wonders whether the newly introduced body scans at airports support our safety or affect our privacy, Italian culture takes a different perspective. Why discuss privacy rights, why take up the issues of security and freedom, when there are bigger worries? It is not enough, says the author, that ever thinner models and celebrities have imposed ever more rigid notions of thinness on us; now we have to go on a yet more grueling diet. While up to now we could hope to hide some imperfections under perfectly tailored clothes, we are finally visible in all our flaws. We have to become even thinner – this is what world politics and airport security do to us! We need to go on the X-ray diet.

I was shocked, and I knew, I’m home.