I have Professor Umberto for my class who is
hilarious and a good teacher. Random dancing, impersonations, meticulous
whiteboard erasing, and the freedom to ask how to say words we don’t know
before he has planned to teach them has been a great experience. The intensive
class is more work, but the load really isn’t too bad; it takes less than an
hour to do, and then I’m free the rest of the time to explore the city.
Just last night I received my roommate assignment
and moved into my host family’s apartment. A handful of my classmates were
nervous about whom they were going to live with and where because we didn’t get
to know until the day we moved in with our Italian families. Most of us,
however, seem to be getting along really well and we all love our families.
I am living with an older single woman who lives
with just her cat, Caprizzia. She has a son who is now out of the house, so she
has students living in her cozy apartment for most of the year save Christmas
time, a holiday which lasts from December 15 to January 6. She is such a lovely
lady who speaks more Italian than English, but can understand us well enough.
It motivates me to learn Italian faster so I can have actual conversations with
her. Our first night in the apartment, we had a two-hour long dinner than
consisted of two (amazing!) courses, dessert and tea, and conversation. Jodie
and Kate weren’t joking when they said Italians had long dinners. It was great
getting to know my host mom even if I was a little awkward and shy to speak
English to her at first. She was really nice and I already like her a lot.
As for getting to and from the apartment to
Linguaviva (the school where we’re studying Italian), it’s either a twenty
minute walk or a fifteen to twenty minute bus ride. My roommate and I decided
to take the bus today and getting to the school was no problem. It was coming
back that she and I got lost for at least half an hour. In this case, thank
goodness for iPhones and Google maps. We were going the wrong way and
conveniently got off at a bus stop where the right bus was coming in five
minutes. Then we ended up getting off at the stop after ours, but it was a
short walk from there to the apartment.
It was definitely an adventure and we both became
a little bit more aware of our surroundings. Not bad for the first day, in my
opinion! However, I find myself napping a little more which could possibly be
because the days are just so packed, but also because of all the traveling I’m
starting to do just living here. The public transportation, though a bit scary
and unreliable sometimes, is one of my favorite places just to listen to people
talk. A caffé would probably be safer, but with the bus pass ACM provided it’s
free to eavesdrop! Perks, I say.
ACM is taking us to Pisa this Saturday for a
half-day trip and I’m really excited. We’ll be taking a train there and a train
back, but in between we’ll have a two hour or so long tour and then we’ll be
free to get lunch on our own and visit Pisa or the neighboring towns all day. Well,
until our train ticket expires, of course. I love the freedom I have to walk
around the cities to explore without having a really tight schedule to follow. It’s
the perfect amount of guidance and freedom. I am really glad I decided to join
this program because so far it’s been such an unforgettable experience.
Tomorrow there is going to be a scavenger hunt
which Jodie and Kate split us into groups for, and we’re responsible for taking
pictures of certain things or places in Florence, I don’t know what yet. It’s
going to be a lot of fun racing through the city streets (being careful of Italian
drivers, of course) and getting gelato at the end as our “prize.” I can’t wait
to get to know Florence better!
No comments:
Post a Comment