Wednesday, October 15, 2008

No school today!

I crossed the river Adige on this beautiful brick bridge called Ponte di Castelvecchio (a post about it will be coming soon) and stopped to take a photo of it when the two girls caught my attention. It was past ten in a misty autumn morning and obviously the two girls "took a day off" from school and found a good quiet place to spend the morning with a very low risk to be spotted by a teacher or by a relative. They chatted closely and had their school bags near them and one of the girls had a diary opened on her lap.

The river flowed slowly, the air was still and I found myself thinking of when I was in my teens...,
not that escaping school was my habit but it happened, maybe a couple of times. I remember I felt excited, grown up and guilty, all at the same time...

There are many words in italian to call a "day off from school". The most common one is the verb marinare, litterally "to marinate", just like in a recipe you would say "I marinated school today!"
So which is your word to name it?

11 comments:

nobu said...

"marinated school"..nice expression.

Jill said...

We called it "skipping school" in my day. That's a beautifully designed bridge.

Frankie / Nick said...

How observant of you to spot the girls and to create an interesting story based on 'skipping school'. The bridge is nothing short of magestic.

Hilda said...

That's a nice spot to spend a day off from school chatting with a friend.

We don't have an expression specifically for skipping school. It's just 'hindi pumasok' which literally means 'did not go in.' Can also be used to describe skipping work, when you're an adult. I like yours much better!

Unknown said...

It's so nice looking at your photos of Verona! This is another place I have recognized at the 1st look.
Very interesting you have found such resemblances with the Citadel at Cascais and the place you mentioned in Tuscany! :-)

rob said...

Trapped in a triangle! Great place where to ... marinate. Here we say "far lipe". Ciao.

Kitty said...

ah...there can never be enough of those days! Then you grow up and want to skip work, lol.

so much to do, so little time! :-)

Saretta said...

You can also "cut" school or "play hookey."

Unknown said...

we preferred saying 'ditched'..although 'marinare' is so clever! Great story. Brings back similar memories for me too, thanks for sharing.

Dawn Newsome said...

Playing hooky
Skipping school
or just "skipping"
Dawn

Ming the Merciless said...

Everything madison avenue baby said. :-)

The more interesting question is HAVE YOU every marinare when you were in school? ;-)

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