Prima settimana

Ciao tutti…

Sooo, I’m in Italy and è fantistico! First of all, as the great Margason Patricia Chalaylay III has said, everything here is BEAUTIFUL. From the people (young and old!), to the food, to the shoes, to the pets, to the words that flow from everyone’s mouths, I have yet to find an unattractive thing here in Italy.

Continuiamo…

I arrived in Rome after a very smooth 7 and a half hour flight last Thursday morning. I met the group, which consists of a total of 19 students ranging from no knowledge of Italian to 4 years worth. 8 are from Siena College in Albany and the rest from California and random states in the Midwest and New England. The three main program directors, Lavinia, Antonella, and Mike (a native of Colorado who has worked as Internships and Service coordinator for Siena Italian Studies for the past five years after being a student here himself) are incredible individuals. Whether it is making sure we have bus passes or seeing that we have access to the Internet, they have done nothing but answer our endless questions and make us all feel comfortable. They are, again, BEAUTIFUL.

We spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday walking, eating, and drinking our way through Rome. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit the Vatican (I saw it in the distance at night though and it was pretty sick) but I’ll be back. We devoted most of our sightseeing to the ruins in Rome. I really need to work on taking more pictures even though I think the few I do take pretty much suck. I need to find some time to figure out how to post photos, even the sucky ones...

After a three-hour drive north from Rome to Siena, I met my host family, Rosanna, a retired widow, and her little dog, Sofie. Rosanna and Sofie do not speak a word of English. As far as the language is concerned, living with one person has its pros & cons but I am pretty content at this point and getting by. I definitely said that my brothers were 38 and 34 (they are 28 and 24) and for the first few hours I wasn’t sure if her husband died or if he left her for another woman in Florence, but I do what I have to, even if it means talking to her with an Italian dictionary in my hands. I seriously struggle at times and I make a fool out of myself on a regular basis (eh, nothing new…), but she is very patient and generous to me, l’Americana who is butchering her language, and I’m very thankful to her.

On Sunday, her son, his daughter, wife, and her mother came over for a typical Sunday dinner. None of them speak English, except the daughter, Julia, who is 15 and takes English in school but is not very comfortable with it even though she speaks it well. Regardless, they were also very patient with me. Rosanna’s son teaches piano at the conservatory in Siena so we were able to talk about the piano, and the “molto carino” Pursuit of Happiness, which they saw recently.

Even though I will admit to butchering the Italian language, I haven’t even been here a week and I already feel like I’m improving. I am literally immersed in the Italian language and culture as I listen to conversations between Sienese people on the bus, watch Italian game shows, and give commands to dogs in Italian, and I couldn’t think of a better way to learn. I’m constantly experiencing and learning like I have never before in my entire life, and it’s incredible.

Monday was the first day of five hours of Italian language class each day for the next three weeks. After that, we start class (all in Italian) and I’ll begin teaching English at local schools and working at a soup kitchen/clothing bank at a local church as part of the service-learning component.

Allora…

This is only the beginning! I’ll return soon with more pictures of the beauty of Italia. Ciao amici!