Friday, January 25

 
so i complained about the sorry shower setup here, but then that very afternoon i returned home to find that my
host family had installed a real, live showerhead. i was so happy i could have cried. ah, it's the little things.

you know, i got to thinking some more about that car hitting people thing, because this week a kid on my school got
taken out by a car while riding his bike, and last night we saw a guy on a motorino get hit by his car. they are both
okay, but still, this city is a death trap. i worked out a math problem in my head: there are 11 american students at
the centro. every week, an average of one american gets hit by a car on the road to school. if there are 10 weeks
of school, what are my odds of escaping unscathed? 1 in 11. scary, huh?

it finally happened this week: i'm finally settling into my italian. though i still have a long way to go, my language skills
are skyrocketing, and this is so exciting for me i cannot even relate it. i've started making friends at the centro, so
every day i have long conversations with germans or swedes or japanese kids in italian. italians regularly tell me
that they are impressed with my speaking abilities. i read postmodern literature in italian, for crying out loud. it is all
starting to feel so natural. i often fnd myself thinking in italian instead of english, and i can't not take notes in italian in
class (even when i try not to, which is kind of freaky but also very cool.) it is all starting to feel very natural and it is
the greatest.

of course, there are still some miscommuncations which make for lots of laughs around the dinner table, such as
when i told my host mom that ice cream is not as good in the united states because it is made with preservativi
("condoms"), or when i told her that my older brother got married in a hotel/casino ("whorehouse").

okay. so i will continue with the project of outlining my normal days here after a word from our sponsor. but now,
time for some shoe shopping.
posted by from shannon at 8:04 AM

 
so i complained about the sorry shower setup here, but then that very afternoon i returned home to find that my host family had installed a real, live showerhead. i was so happy i could have cried. ah, it's the little things.

you know, i got to thinking some more about that car hitting people thing, because this week a kid on my school got taken out by a car while riding his bike, and last night we saw a guy on a motorino get hit by his car. they are both okay, but still, this city is a death trap. i worked out a math problem in my head: there are 11 american students at the centro. every week, an average of one american gets hit by a car on the road to school. if there are 10 weeks of school, what are my odds of escaping unscathed? 1 in 11. scary, huh?

it finally happened this week: i'm finally settling into my italian. though i still have a long way to go, my language skills are skyrocketing, and this is so exciting for me i cannot even relate it. i've started making friends at the centro, so every day i have long conversations with germans or swedes or japanese kids in italian. italians regularly tell me that they are impressed with my speaking abilities. i read postmodern literature in italian, for crying out loud. it is all starting to feel so natural. i often fnd myself thinking in italian instead of english, and i can't not take notes in italian in class (even when i try not to, which is kind of freaky but also very cool.) it is all starting to feel very natural and it is the greatest.

of course, there are still some miscommuncations which make for lots of laughs around the dinner table, such as when i told my host mom that ice cream is not as good in the united states because it is made with preservativi ("condoms"), or when i told her that my older brother got married in a hotel/casino ("whorehouse").

okay. so i will continue with the project of outlining my normal days here after a word from our sponsor. but now, time for some shoe shopping.
posted by from shannon at 8:02 AM

Monday, January 21

 
i thought that maybe people from home would be curious about how exactly i spend my days here. if you're not you can skip this stuff. but if you are...

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
7:15a.m.
this is the saddest part of the whole day. night is the only time that i am warm here, hiding out under five or six layers (no joke), so crawling out of bed in the morning is a true test of character every day.

7:26a.m.
after a few tries at getting up, i generally succeed, and then crawl pathetically into the shower - if you can call it that. i feel like a shower implies that there is some kind of steady stream of water pouring out from above you. this is not really the case. the shower head is one of those hose deals, except it doesn't fit into the little hooky thing above my head, so it just lays on the floor of the tub. every time i need shampoo or something i have to put it on the floor or hold it between my legs. only my feet or my thighs can ever really be warm.

8:30a.m.
after i get ready, dikla and i have breakfast. right now that means cheerios since my mom sent me a box in a care package. usually that means bread so hard it can chip a tooth and some fruit. in the breakfast's defense, however, i will say that the produce here is so good it brings a tear to my eye. i live in california, the citrus capital of the world (or is that florida?) and i never eat fruit in l.a. here i have fruit two or three times a day.

8:57a.m.
after that i put on all the layers of clothes that i own until i look like a fat kid in an orange coat and waddle out the door. we have to catch a bright orange bus to the centro (full title: "il centro di cultura per gli stranieri", or "the cultural center for foreigners", part of the university of florence.)

9:19a.m.
when we get to the stop it is a ten minute walk up this narrow street with high walls. every day the foreign kids and i traverse this distance in a single lemming-like line, lest we wander out to far out into the middle of the street and get hit by a crazed italian motorist. two of my friends have already been hit by cars. seriously. not full-blown brad-pitt-in-meet-joe-black style or anything, but knicked pretty hard by side mirrors. it is not pretty.

9:30a.m.
the centro is where i take language classes. it runs until 11:00 or 12:00, depending on the day, monday through friday. i tested into the superiore class (that means "superior" in english), which is good because i wanted a challenge. and boy am i getting one. we do grammar sometimes, but we spend more time having a college-level class that is a combination of literature, history and linguistics - except all in a foreign language. i can't even look down for a minute while i am taking notes or i completely lose track of what this guys is saying. i like it though. my new goal in there is to start making friends with the foreign kids. so far everyone sticks with their own group for the most part - americans, japanese kids, swedes, etc. - but i really would like to try to meet some of them. it is sort of intimidating because i feel like most of them speak italian much better, plus most of them know english in addition to their own language, so they are pretty damn smart. but i'm still gonna try.

okay, i think i am going to call it quits for today on this long blog and pick up tomorrow. ciao kids...

posted by from shannon at 9:21 AM