Today was the first day of classes. I failed to get up in time to work out, but I at least showered before breakfast. Monday-Thursday I have Italian class from 10:30—11:45. It will be a nice way to start off my school day.
Silvia Chegia (KAY-jah) is my Italian teacher. She spoke basically no English for the entire class, but while the man we had last week for our “crash course” was good about making it simple for us to understand him despite the language barrier, this woman spoke to us as though we were fluent: very rapidly and without any hand motions to help us understand. Perhaps we will learn it by immersion. We shall see…at this point, most of us just look back at her and smile and nod, or with blank stares.
She did say, however, that learning Italian would be easy for the musicians in the class, because “Italian is a very musical language.” I thought that was interesting. It’s true, those of us who are auditory learners have an advantage, and we’re able to easily mimic the sounds that she’s making. Repetition is a snap. The Italian language has a lot of stereotypes associated with it and the culture in general. But the thing is, they’re all mostly true. The language is very sing-songy.
In the afternoon I had Music Theory IV, taught by Richard Trythall. He moved to Rome in the 1960s after winning some composition award. He fell in love with the country and hasn’t left. He’s pretty elderly. I’m not sure how old, but he’s up there. However, he’s EXTREMELY likeable and everyone else seemed to enjoy him as well. He is/was a concert pianist…so he played us some music of his performances and compositions on the piano. I will definitely enjoy this theory class, even though it’s 2.5 hours long. It turns out there’s a half-hour break in the middle! And since the class is held in Villa Natalia where I live, that will be very convenient.
I interviewed today for a work study position on campus as part of the “Villa Ulivi Team” of assistants. Hopefully I will get that. They pay $8.50 (yes, in US dollars) an hour and you can work a maximum of 10 hours a week. I feel like I’m going to have a lot more free time here than I do when I’m in New York, so I might as well make the most of it and earn some money.
It was raining today, pretty hard at one point. It’s still beautiful when it’s raining, but I definitely prefer the sunshine.
Random Italian fact today: in the bathrooms there are two buttons in the wall that you push to flush the toilet. One button is bigger than the other. Bigger button = bigger loads. This is because, according to my introductory materials, Italy’s plumbing system dates back to the Renaissance, so…it can’t handle a lot. We are reminded to be very conservative when it comes to toilet paper…
I’ll write more about my room (and show some pictures) in the coming days.
Also, L’Alfabeto Italiano: A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V Z
Notice anything missing? That’s right, 21 letters. J, K, W, X, and Y do not exist!
(notice the two buttons! and tiny shower...)
I think you mean that your Italian class goes until 11:45?
ReplyDeleteAlso in Taiwan, some toilets have the two buttons. And for almost all toilets you can't throw the toilet paper into the toilet; it goes into the trash can. I think I already told you this...
What would you do as an "assistant?"