Second "Catching Up" Post

My first day of school – Italian style!

My first success of the day was getting to the bus successfully. Not only that, but I bought tickets properly and everything. Last night, Cristina showed me the locations of stops for two bus lines. One is closer to the house but further from the school. The other is farther from the house but very close to the school. Both are convenient though – nothing is very far from anything else here really.

I had to buy tickets in a store called a “tabaccheria.” Let me tell you, tabaccherie are probably the most convenient stores ever. So far I’ve only bought bus tickets at one, but you can also buy stamps and the cards one needs to recharge time on a cell phone. Both are things I will need in the near future.

To continue though, I got to school just fine. I took the bus that was farther from the house and closer to the school. I overshot the street where I needed to turn to reach the school, but I figured it out pretty quickly. I had momentarily forgotten that roads change names across intersections (quite often) so when I looked to the right, and didn’t see the name of the street. I should have looked left and I would have seen it. But no matter, I had a feeling I had gone too far and turned around. I was nice and early too. After I waited a while with some other new foreign students, the secretary called my name and gave me a test, and told me to take it to a room and do it. After that, I handed it in and then spoke with an instructor. She asked me some questions and then explained to me my class schedule. I found out later I was in the fifth level – maybe that’s pretty good? Anyway, she brought me straight to the class, where they were in the middle of reviewing passato remoto. I sort of just jumped right in after a brief introduction and that was that. It seems that at this school people come and go into classes as they need to.

For the next couple weeks I have class every morning and two afternoons per week. The afternoon class is a slightly different group than the morning group. The morning class has three other students, one Swiss (a guy), one Scottish, and one Austrian (both girls). The teacher is really nice, probably the typical Italian “professoressa” that you might picture.

This particular afternoon, Lucia, my contact person and personal hero for the moment, took me to lunch. Basically ever since I got here (and even before) Lucia has been the person who can answer all my questions and help me with any problem. Pretty awesome. She works part of the time for Georgetown to help the students who come from there, and she also teaches at Lorenzo di Medici. Art history and literature. She’s really really nice and also very helpful. Anyway, she took me to lunch and it was that typical Italian lunch you always picture… I had bruschetta to start, which is apparently a local specialty. Lucky me. I ordered a pasta dish that Lucia recommended, it was basically ravioli with pear and cheese inside, and a sauce along with some asparagus. It was delicious… I even got dessert too – a real Italian tiramisu! Oh yeah, and red wine, and coffee after the meal.

Sidenote:

Lucia paid for lunch using money from, as she explained to me, a special “budget” provided by Georgetown for expenses related to orientation. Apparently there is some sort of supply of money for this. I also mentioned the trips to certain destinations offered by the orientation school, which I was all set to pay for myself – but then she said she can use the budget to reimburse me for that too! Soooo as a result, Georgetown is paying for me to go to Cinque Terre this weekend, and possibly to go to Chianti the weekend after that! Let’s just say I am a fan of this budget thing!!

Right. So lunch was delicious, and a good chance for me to ask Lucia a bunch of questions and talk about things in general. Also I’d like to share that she told me my Italian was good and that she was impressed with my accent! That was nice to hear… I have been wondering exactly how foreign/American I sound. So maybe I am not fooling anyone, but maybe I don’t sound horrible. Score.

To talk more about speaking Italian here… it feels good. Sure I make mistakes, and sometimes stupid ones, ones I know are wrong the second they come out of my mouth. And sometimes, I can’t get the exact word I want. The worst is when I know I used to know it, but can’t think of it. However, overall it’s going really well. I can definitely carry on conversation and understand most everything (when I pay attention). It’s just nice to have the confidence to walk into a store or somewhere like that and know exactly what I should say. Also, I’ve noticed that already I sometimes talk to myself in Italian (in my head) – so I guess that’s sort of like thinking in Italian! I just don’t know how much is voluntary and how much is involuntary or even how one might classify it. I’d say so far things language-wise are going better and faster than I thought they might. I can’t imagine where I will be in June when I leave!

After lunch, Lucia and I went back to the school in order to put together documents and forms for my permesso di soggiorno. Basically it’s another bureaucratic thing one must do to stay in Italy for an extended time – a “permission of stay.” You fill out some forms and then apply at the post office. It was kind of confusing… even for Lucia, which made me quite glad she was helping me. We had to make copies of my passport and fill out some forms, and she had to figure out if I had enough insurance (she didn’t know much about the policy I had from Georgetown until I showed it to her). Eventually we finished all that and walked across the Arno to the post office and downtown. The woman who handled my paperwork was very nice, and everything went smoothly. Lucia was very relieved that after all was said and done, I had my permesso di soggiorno – or at least if not the actual document (it takes a while to arrive… months if I understand correctly), proof of my approval. I guess theoretically the authorities can stop you at any time and ask to see your permesso di soggiorno. Fun fun. Not sure exactly how often it happens and all of that. Better safe than sorry!

After the post office, Lucia and I went to a bookstore so I could get a map and she could show me exactly where we were. We found one that was small enough to be convenient and but showed the essential parts of the city – both the center and the part where I live. She even paid for that with the lovely and helpful budget. Thanks, Georgetown!

Then Lucia had to go somewhere… I think to a library to do some work. We talked a little bit more and made plans for Wednesday afternoon (she’s going to show me the locations of libraries/bookstores where I can use wireless). Then she went off her way and I decided to explore downtown just a bit. I went from Piazza della Repubblica, which is where we left each other, to Piazza del Duomo, ie the location of Il Duomo. Yes, that Duomo that you have probably seen if you’ve ever looked at a picture of Florence. I circled almost the whole thing, I think, and also stopped into a store where I saw postcards for a much cheaper price than I’d seen elsewhere. 0,30 euros for each one! In the bookstore where I got the map, they were 0,80. I started myself off with 6, but I don’t know exactly when I’ll send them out. We’ll see how I feel.

After Il Duomo and the postcards, I walked to Piazza Santa Maria Novella, from which I knew I could take another bus home. On the way I was stopped by a woman whose Italian was very accented, because she was American. I told her I spoke English and she asked how to get to the river. I admitted that it was only my second day but pulled out my map and pointed them in the right direction, since I knew well enough where I was. After a short conversation, she and her husband went on their way and I went to the bus stop. After a wait that was short enough, the bus pulled up and brought me back to the vicinity of the house. I must say that I much prefer Florentine buses to the Metrobus in DC… I mean the Metro itself is great, but I spent my fair share of time this summer waiting for the Metrobus. The waits are shorter on ATAF (the Florentine buses), the buses are nicer, and things seem to run on time at least in my experience today. These are all good things considering these buses are going to be my primary way to get around. But it was also nice to discover that things really truly are not so far apart here. I could even walk downtown from the house in 15-20 minutes. This afternoon I was in a lot of different individual places but the walk truly didn’t feel all that long. Very doable.

I successfully got home on the bus, and made my way back here. I think I got here roughly around 6 pm, but that was well enough in time for dinner – they do in fact eat later here.

The food here at the house, Cristina’s cooking, is also great. The last two nights we had a pasta dish with pancetta. Last night there was prosciutto with melon (a classic combo) and a salad of cheese, tomato, cucumbers, and olives. Then I also had a banana. To drink I had carbonated water and then mixed some prosecco with it too – copying Cristina. This morning I had the classic Italian (and French) breakfast – coffee with some milk in a big mug, and a pastry smothered in Nutella. Yum. Tonight for dinner we had that same pasta, salad, and pizza. Cristina’s pizza was delicious – it had two types of cheese including mozzarella, tomatoes, zucchini, and basil. So good… I was going to ask for another piece and then Cristina asked if I wanted more. Perfetto. I could definitely get used to eating like this. The thought ran across my mind that I could be eating at Leo’s again nowadays… sorry guys, but I gotta say I’d prefer this any day. Yum yum. So yes overall you could definitely say the cuisine thus far has not disappointed at all – both in the house and when I ate out today. I came with high expectations and they haven’t failed me yet.

I was very excited to find out about the activities offered by the school. Like I mentioned, there is the trip to Cinque Terre, which is this Sunday. I am so there, as Cinque Terre was on my list and now I won’t have to worry about logistics. There’s also a welcome cocktail a week from today, a guided walk around Florence, and another trip next week – this time to Chianti country! That was definitely also on my list, so I’m planning on trying to go along then as well – and probably again on Georgetown’s tab!

So what else can I say – life is really good here. My biggest anxiety is finding a way to use the internet on my own computer, but I am getting closer. Even right now I’m writing this in Word to publish on the blog later. But I’ll figure it out and be more in touch with you all soon enough!

Right now Cristina, Federico, and Lisa are out looking at dogs. As I wrote before, Lisa wants a dog and has been pushing for it ever since I got here (and I assume before). As reluctant as Cristina seems, she called some places to ask and they went this evening to look at some. Lisa is hoping they come back tonight with a dog, Cristina is hoping that doesn’t happen. I’ll be interested to see the result when they return.

Tonight during the end of dinner we watched a campy Italian talent show. First of all, it TOTALLY had one stereotype of Italian television for me – 5 pretty girls dressed in skimpy outfits dancing around for no apparent reason… other than to add sex appeal. And then a somewhat doofy male host in the middle of it all. That was totally in one of the movies we watched in Italian class last year – I just don’t remember the name of it. It was the one where the daughter wanted so badly to be one of those scantily clad girls on TV… and girls like that truly do exist! I saw them! Anyway, the rest of the show was like America’s Got Talent or something. Each act had 90 seconds to show their stuff. Then the audience would vote on pairs of acts and get this – the one that lost fell through a trap door into a pool! I am not even kidding… but really I can’t criticize, American TV contains things just as stupid if not more so. But it was still funny. I also saw briefly that Making the Band was on, and I watched some Grey’s Anatomy in Italian just before I started writing this.

I have to be honest – in the months/weeks leading up to my departure there were times when I wondered if this whole thing was really a good idea – because I was realizing everything I couldn’t do and all the people I couldn’t really see during this year abroad. And those things are still on my mind, but after only the second day, I know it was a good idea – for all the reasons I imagined when I made the decision. It’s beautiful here, I am meeting all sorts of people, my Italian is already better, and it’s just incredible. Once you add some more frequent internet use, I am not sure how else things could be better. Certainly, I haven’t started at the university yet, but taking things one day at a time, it’s great. I’m glad I’m here.

This is really long… but I’m glad I have the blog so I can go into detail and you can all read it if you want. Especially with such limited internet for now, it’s really handy. I am going to go now and try to post this as soon as I can.