On Monday I took my Italian placement exam. The oral part was more of a conversation to see where I stodd on pronuciation, vocabulary, sentence structure and ease of speaking. Then I took a written grammar test that was not so hot, and I would find out my placement when I arrived the next day. The class is at Italiaidea, a program for teaching Italian to foreingers and they don't use a typical classroom approach, instead the lessons are more like converstation (3) hours facilitated by a staff member to get us comfortable with speaking Italian and creating unique thoughts instead of regugitating already formed phrases from a text. (It works so well that 1- I enjoy it and can crack jokes with the teacher, and 2- I am resisting spontaneoulsy incorporating Italaiano nella questa posta... oops.)
We'll get back to Italiaidea in a second, because in the morning I had my first class of Liturgical Art and Architecture. We meet mostly outside of the classroom, except for the midterm and final, at various locations throughout the city. Our first challenge was to meet at la Colonna Traiano (Column of Trajan) ((Mom find it on the puzzle map). I was able to take the 628 bus all the way from home to Piazza Venezia, which is right next to the column, but I tend to get jumpy and get off at the stop before mine because I am worried I am going to miss it. So i got off early and had to walk the last 5 blocks, and it ws COLD. The weather has typically been great, but then again I havent really been up at 9am much this trip. We whipped around Rome for a few hours, seeing la Basilica SS. Apostoli, with the tombs of St. Phillip and St. John, as well as a few other churches and liturgical structures.
We returned to the classroom for 45 minutes of instruction and the coolest thing I learned (I had not known this before and often wondered about it) is that when God created the world it was "good," meaning it was a place He could live as well, and He did live in the garden with Adam and Ever for a time before they sinned and he cast them out into the wilderness (this garden/wilderness//good/bad paradox is important in scripture) and he returned to heaven. Then God sought to repair the relationship with man and he delivered them to the promised land, and gave them the law, which was good, but no one followed the law so that didn't work. Finally he decided to become man to fully bridge that gap and surrendered himself to the greatest evil and suffering man experiences in death, descended to hell, deafeated evil, returned to heaven (like a boss), and promised a new salvation. And what we as Catholics look forward to is not all going to heaven (that's a temporary goal), but teh new creation when heaven returns to earth. I hope you enjoyed that little tangent, because I did.
Then I returned to Italiaidea at 4 to find that I had been placed in "Pre-Intermediate," and the rest of my peers who I studied with at CUA were in "Intermediate." I'm not saying I want to be with my friends (I do but thats not my motivation), I'm saying I believe my Italian skills to be above those in my class who struggle to find words and are unconfident in their ability to speak. I'm not saying they're bad people, I love them, but I don't think I will be challenged enough in that class, and I think I experienced that in the first lesson. Nonetheless Italiaidea was very fun and was much more comfortable than any Italian class I had ever taken at CUA. Their teaching style is very unique but I have heard it is very successful.
Dopo Italiaidea, sono prendato aperitivo con mi amica da Loyola, Bianca. Aperitivo is most similar to the American happy hour after work, but different at the same time. We went to a bar (remember a bar is more like a cafe, not an American bar) and picked out a half bottle of wine and took it to the bartender/server/barista and told him "prendiamo aperitovo a tavoli." We sat down at a table outside and teh server brought us our bottle and glasses and oured us wine, we began out conversazione and then the server returned with a plate of chips and small sandwiches, salmon, lox and something (I didn't eat that one, Bianca did, and mozzarella, prosciuto e funghi, mi piace questo) That's the difference between happy hour and aperitovo. At happy hour you get half price drinks, appetizers, and a bowl of nuts. At aperitivo you buy drinks or wine (ours was 8E) and they give you free food. Va bene.
So after three glasses of wine I returned home just in time for dinner, spaghetti and a dish that I problably could only describe to you as stir fry of chicken, olives, zucchini, and some other vegetables. Maria Luisa kept pushing the food e il vino rosso perche e' l'ultima medicina. She expressed concern for my cough and I told her I would go ask for a doctor il dopo giorno poi. I went to bed and woke up to a knock on my door and a phone call that Maria Luisa aveva telefonato Gabirella, chi e' telefonato Aurora, chi e' telefonato un dottore e ho avuto un appuntamento alla 11:00. Va bene. Vada Maria Luisa. Lei e' la migliore.
I found the doctor with little trouble, I'm a pro at the bus system now, and he was a really nice American odl guy. Turns out my flu triggered some upper respitory malfunctions and I have a broncho spasm (not the same things Tebow fans experience). He gave me a ton of medicine: codine, antibiotics, and a cortizone shot in the ass.
Now I'm just hanging out waiting for a friend so I can complete my Permesso di Soggiorno, not get my host mother arrested, deported.
Well this was fun. Hope to do it again soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment