August 31

August 31, 2011

I slept very well last night in my first night at my new home. Granted a little bit of Nyquil helped, but what can you do. We woke up at 7:45, got ready, had breakfast of toast, jam, tea, coffee and orange juice and headed out to catch the bus around 8:30. We had to wait 5-10 minutes for the bus but, once it came, the bus ride only took 5-10 to get to Linguaviva. An old man on the bus told us which stop to get off at (in Italian) so we didn’t have a problem. Umberto (my Italian professor) was gone this morning so our class split up into two groups and joined the other two classes for the day. I had class with Luigi who was very funny and I learned a lot from him. However, it was difficult to be in a different class because we are not learning at the same pace or all of the same things at the same time. Some things were repetition of what we had already learned and some things we had not touched on in my class. However, it was a fun time nonetheless. After class, Erin, Willi and I went to the market for lunch. We got fruit, cheese, crackers and sanpellegrinos, which made for a lovely picnic-y lunch in the garden at school. After we had finished lunch, we headed up to the classroom to use the Internet and do some homework. We had a two and a half hour lunch break today so I was able to finish my Italian homework, catch up on emails (I should really unsubscribe from stolafextra while I am in Italy…) and even Skype my parents for a little bit. At 3:00, our entire group met in the garden to discuss La Bella Lingua, a book we read about Italy and the Italian language before we arrived in Florence.

After our discussion, we went back to the classrooms so Franzi could Skype her parents and I got some other things done. Around 5:00, we caught the bus home (after almost getting on the bus going the wrong way). Once we got home, we dropped off our backpacks and headed out to find the supermercado (the big grocery store…like Cub Foods or the like). It’s only a couple blocks away and huge! We bought a few things like notebooks for class and toiletries and then headed back home. Next week we will probably start buying bread, cheese, and fruit so Franzi and I can pack our lunches. We arrived home to be greeted by Daniella’s friend who is preparing us dinner for the evening. Daniella and Andrea had some meeting they needed to go to this evening that they couldn’t get out of and were VERY apologetic. However, Daniella asked her friend to come over and make us dinner! She is so cute, very friendly and speaks VERY little English so it’ll be an interesting dinner :) It smells absolutely delicious right now; it’s making me very hungry! I will finish this post later tonight (although, by the time I post it, it will all appear at the same time). Buon appettito!

Well dinner was absolutely delicious but absolutely hilarious. Our antipasti this evening was fresh pesto that was absolutely incredible. I had seconds even though I was already beginning to feel full! For the second course, we had eggplant parmesan that was incredible. Apparently, if we understood the Italian correctly, it was a recipe passed down from Daniella’s grandmother. We also had a salad with tomatoes and olive oil. For dessert tonight, we had fresh watermelon, which was, of course, delicious as well. The reason dinner was hilarious was because Daniella’s friend (I am forgetting her name at the moment), spoke basically no English at all and we, of course, spoke so little Italian. Basically, our conversation involved an Italian-English dictionary and lots of charades and acting things out. It was very entertaining. And we, surprisingly, learned a lot about one another and [eventually] got our points across. It was quite the dinner. Franzi and I literally fell on our beds laughing afterward, though. It was funny but kind of stressful and a little embarrassing at times. But we all used the dictionary and our fair share of charades and gestures. It was actually a lot of fun.

Now we are home alone, although not for long I suspect. Daniella and Andrea said they would be home a little after nine and it’s just nine right now. We’re thinking we might go to bed early tonight so we can catch up on sleep a little more quickly. We do have to wait a while, though, since we just ate so much. Tomorrow we have class in the morning, more paperwork to fill out in the afternoon for our permits of stay and then we have a walking tour of Florence at 5:00! I am glad it is in the evening because it has been so hot here during the day. It is quite pleasant at night, however.

I apologize for how long these are; it may not last forever. We’ll see how much I write once I have more complicated Italian homework and once my other three classes start! But, for now, I am writing these blog posts instead of a journal because, for some reason, I prefer to type and not write at the moment. We’ll see how things go. Thanks for reading though :) Wishing you all well!

All my love,

Kari

Our living room

 Our backyard

 Dr. Seuss in Italian

Our new home