September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011

I fell asleep last night to the sound of the rain against the window and the distant thunder, sleeping soundly through the night. I woke up this morning to much cooler weather, although it’s not supposed to really last. To take full advantage of the one day it would be cooler, I wore jeans, leather boots, and a three-quarter-length shirt. I figured that, even if it got warmer throughout the day, I would pretend it felt like fall. Luckily for me, it ended up being quite cool all morning and I was very happy to be in long pants and to have sleeves. During the afternoon it was sunny and warmer for a little bit but, by the time I caught the bus home, it was cooler and looked like it would rain again. So, finally, some signs of fall!

This morning in Italian we reviewed for the quiz tomorrow and did a lot of dialogue, which is my favorite. We did role-plays of ordering in a restaurant and buying tickets for a train. They are so relevant to our lives in Italy and things we will actually use right away and things we need to know! While we were in class, it started pouring rain, then thundering and lightening, and then even hailing! It was a pretty crazy storm but cool to watch from inside the classroom. Because it was storming, we also learned storm vocabulary!

After class, I ate my sandwich and responded to a few emails. Because we had yet to go grocery shopping for the week, I only had a sandwich today so, after a bit, I went to the central market (the place with all of the fresh fruit and fresh everything) and got some fruit and freshly baked strawberry muffins that were delicious! When I came back to Linguaviva, I checked my mail and found a letter from Aunt Julie! Thank you so much for the card; I love getting mail! Also, thank you for the reminder to stretch on the back of the envelope :) I appreciate it!

At 2:00, I had the informational meeting for my Dante class. It is exciting to finally be thinking about our classes outside of Italian. The idea of reading all of Dante’s Divine Comedy is definitely daunting but I am very excited for it nonetheless. The assignments for the class seem like they will definitely require a lot of work and effort but they look enjoyable and interesting as well! My professor for the class is a professor from Cornell College in Iowa and the students on the trip from Cornell say she is a really wonderful teacher and a favorite on campus. I’m glad I am taking both of her classes! She definitely seems to know and love the material she is teaching, which is great. The class has fifteen people in it (the maximum for an ACM class) so it’s a little crazy but I think it will be a very interesting class (in a good way, of course!)

At 3:00, I had the informational meeting for my Weaving the Tale class. In the class, we look at both art and literature narratives about Florence. For whatever reason, this class only has seven students, which I LOVE. Since most of the students on this trip are artists, I think the reading component is a little more daunting. Besides, most of them are taking the drawing class, which I (with my zero ability to do any type of visual art) am not. We will be reading The Decameron along with a few other pieces of literature that all look like they will be very enjoyable. We will also, of course, be looking at narratives in works of art, which will be more difficult for me but definitely interesting nonetheless. I guess I’ll learn with all of the art components within this program! The Cornell professor, Katy, also teaches this class. Another thing I love about Katy is that all of her assignments for both classes are creative projects, analytical papers and oral presentations rather than the classic “exam.” They are also very discussion based, which is definitely something I love.  It was a little overwhelming to get both syllabi at once and see all of the reading and projects to be done over the next few months. However, it was also very exciting and I am definitely ready to get started with everything! It’s definitely a manageable workload and won’t completely overwhelm me and stress me out. However, I say that now and they could overwhelm me at times…for the most part, they should not be too bad :)

After the informational sessions, I went to the store that sells notebooks and writing utensils and such. I needed a nicer notebook for one of our assignments for my Dante class (for every class period, we pick a passage from our assigned reading for the day from The Divine Comedy, write it out and then make or find a visual representation of what it means to us), a few smaller notebooks for note taking in my classes and on sight, and some colored pencils for my Dante project (in case I actually want to try my hand at something artistic). After that, I went to the grocery store right by Linguaviva to get a few groceries for the week. Because we leave for Venice on Friday morning and it is already Monday, I just needed a loaf of bread, some fruit and some yogurt. I got what I needed and then caught the bus home. While I was waiting for the bus, I could see lightening and dark clouds coming toward where I was. Thankfully, the bus came right before the rain started and, when I got home, the rain hadn’t started yet so I didn’t get rained on.

When I got home, I put my groceries in the fridge and put away my purchases from the writing/art store. As I was doing my Italian homework, I came across another example in my workbook with “Dirk” in it. It’s so funny because most of the names used in the book are very Italian and then, every once in a while, Dirk pops up. It made me smile :) Dad, you should really come to Italy; your name is everywhere! After I finished my homework, I made myself a study sheet for my quiz tomorrow and studied for a bit. I needed a break so I decided to write my blog for the day. It has stopped raining but it is still very dark and cloudy. Every once in a while, you can hear thunder in the distance. I hope it storms again tonight! Well, in the hour before dinner I think I might start reading for one of my three classes for next week. I realized that I need to do it before we go to Venice because I’m not going to want to do it there! More after dinner, as usual :)

Brrr I am sitting outside on the balcony in jeans, a long sleeve shirt and my fleece jacket and I’m still cold! What is this?! Oh well, I’m not complaining :) For dinner, we started out with fettuccini noodles with butter and cheese (a creamy kind of cheese, not parmesan sprinkled on top). That was very yummy and perfect for a chilly fall night. For our main dish, we had lentils and a kind of baked/breaded pastry with spinach and lots of cheese that was delicious as well. We finished off with fruit salad, my favorite :) I love how you can tell the season through the fruits in our fruit salad. Daniella likes to cook with fruits and vegetables only that are in season. That also means she gets them fresh from the market. It’s fun to try new things as they come in and out of season! And we definitely get a taste of Italy through her cooking.

Tonight I supposed I’d better study a little more for my quiz tomorrow and then I’ll probably either do some more reading for one of my other classes or do some coloring with my new colored pencils. I may not be any good at drawing but I still love to color :) Then I’ll probably get to bed fairly early, as usual. It’s so nice to be well-rested…imagine that!

Buona Notte!

Kari