5 things you might not know about me

Last week, fellow tea blogger Nicole Martin shared 5 things her readers might not know about her on her blog Tea For Me Please. I really enjoyed getting to know her a bit better through that post! She challenged fellow tea bloggers to write their own versions of this post, so here I am with mine! Thank you, Nicole, for sharing such a fun challenge!

Here are 5 things that are not tea-related that you might not know about me:

• I’m multilingual, I speak 3 languages fluently on a daily basis. Yes, at times it gets confusing, especially when you can’t remember a word in one of the three languages and the only thing you can think of is that very same word in the other two languages, but it’s fun. I use my mother tongue, Italian, with my family, my friends from Italy and occasionally with my husband. I’ve learned English since I was 7… yes, learning a language is a lifelong endeavor and living in an English-speaking country helps. German is my husband’s mother tongue and the language we mainly speak with each other. I can even understand some German dialects and regional variations but writing in German is the one thing I am not very confident of. German grammar (compared to English grammar) is dreadful.
• I own a dirndl, a traditional dress from Austria, South Tyrol and Bavaria. The upper section of the dress looks like a bodice, you wear a blouse with short sleeves underneath and an apron over the skirt. I even got a necklace with edelweiss flowers that goes with it. It was a present from my husband’s family and I love it! I still need to figure out when to wear it here in San Francisco (beyond Oktoberfest!). PS Choosing a dirndl was almost harder than finding the perfect wedding dress! :-) 
• A few years ago, when I was living in Cambridge, UK, I was a radio host. I used to present a bilingual radio show on Italian art and culture. It was so much fun! The show was not live (luckily!) and aired every other Saturday at around lunchtime. We often had guests, like the curator of the local museum (which, by the way, has an exquisite collection of Italian art). I still have some of the recordings… that might be the only time you’ll ever hear me talk with a British accent!
• I’m an amateur bread baker. Long before moving to San Francisco, I had heard about the local sourdough bread “movement”. I’m a big fan, but I never would have thought I would bake my own sourdough loaf one day. Then, my husband gave me the Tartine Bakery book as a present. Such a beautiful book but when I read it, my heart sank. It’s a very complex and time consuming process! Nonetheless, I accepted the challenge. I made my sourdough starter from scratch and bread baking has become a weekly ritual for me. It’s the epitome of slow living, just like tea. 
• I collect greeting cards and cute rubber stamps and I love sending and receiving hand written notes and postcards. There is something so special about a hand written card or letter!  At some point, I’ve tried to teach myself calligraphy but have not really succeeded (yet) because I don’t have a dedicated space to set up my calligraphy board and supplies and calligraphy requires a lot of practice.

I'd like to challenge my readers to tell me something about them beyond their love for tea and my fellow tea bloggers to write their own versions of this post. Let's all get to know each other!