Italian on wheels

Ok I admit, part of my awkwardness with driving etiquette comes from the fact that I have barely driven in the past five years. I never owned a vehicle in Italy (I like life and choose not to risk it unnecessarily), and during my brief Christmas vacations in Cleveland, I had to split car time with my two sisters and mom. However, I think this can still be grouped into my reassimilation woes.

After lapping the crowded parking lot at the shopping center near my house, I notice a man sitting in his car, perhaps ready to pull out and head home. I catch his eye and unconsciously rest my thumb on the side of my slightly bent index finger and shake it in towards my face twice – a gesture commonly understood throughout Italy as "Are you leaving?". The man crinkles up his face in confusion, thinking I've offended him in some way. Oops, silly Angela forgot that in America we don't have these hand gestures! I speed away, hoping to leave my embarrassing moment in the dust.

I'm sure I'll have many more hand gesture moments because living in Italy, one gets used to using them often in place of or to enhance words. In fact, I think we should initiate the use of them in the States... or maybe I can just teach an elite inner circle of friends the gestures so no one will have any idea of what we're communicating to each other, moohahaha.

The above gesture (also executable by folding your thumb in and hitting your hand, led by the side of your index finger against the center of your other hand's open palm) is useful for quick, unpublicized escapes. At a lame party? All you have to do is look at your friend and make the gesture and within seconds you've both escaped out the side door.

Oh, and that is just the beginning... Here's a strange but perhaps helpful site with pictures of a woman doing some typical Italian gestures: RandomWomanDoingGestures. Learn them, use them, and you can be part of my elite club.