So I am writing this post from a park outside, using the Blackberry dad gave me, because there is an internet cafe but the keys are sticky and I haven't been able to find wireless anywhere so far. I am listening to the italian children play soccer and chatter as the heat of the Roman day lessens.
I understand some of the rolling italian around me, but by no means all, so I placed into Level Two italian class. The first day the teacher was a fun friendly woman and the class was big and diverse; even a Congolese priest! Then classes "officially" started the next day, and my new teacher is an attractive but intimidating man who looks to be early thirties. We started right in on the most difficult grammar concept there is in Italian: prepositions. Who knew it could be so daggone difficult to correctly express where you're from and where you're going! Class is two hours of grammar and two hours of interrogation I mean "conversation". Alessadro the teacher does not have the knack of putting people at ease, corrects you rather brusquely when you make a mistake, and you kind of get the feeling as he is snapping questions at you that he really doesn't like this part of his job at all. Especially when the brazilian nun from the amazon talks. NOONE can understand her, not even Alessandro, but nevertheless she monologues on at least ten minutes a day about something that none of us fully grasp, due to her mix of indigenous, portuguese, and remote topic choice (saving the amazon, or how the US and white people in general mistreat indigenous people. The expression on The Interogators face makes me laugh. (Internally) becausr he obviously has no clue either and is reduced to smiling and nodding too.
But its not all bad. Today we learned future verbs which involves a lot of tonguerolling, and listening to all those beautiful rrrrrrs roll off Alessandro's tongue was a treat and a half. My sweet roommate Tina is in the class, as is this awesome Slovakian girl I'm quickly becoming friends with. I'm learning tons of fun words and grammar, and find that it is way easier to learn Italian in Italy.
So that is my morning. Tim left today, so I'm not sure what my afternoons will be like now that I have seen most of the big stuff! My feet are slowly getting accustomed to the kilometers of cobblestone I walk over. Ill keep you posted on other adventures as they arise!
