Yesterday

Today was a very significant day for me in a few ways and I have to capture it or risk losing the memory. Class is a whole new animal with the teachers talking much faster and course materials being more difficult. 5 hours in a row starting early takes me straight back to my undergrad days in college...yet I'm absolutely eating this up. I'm driven hard to learn for a few different reasons, but primarily it's my longing to communicate better with friends and family here that provides all the incentive I need. My thrist for the language grows with every day as so much more of this world is becoming accesible to me now. Books, news, Le Tour de France coverage here (no Phil Liggett or Paul Sherwin, the men and women are Italian)...you name it.


The significant part of today was that I felt somehow a significant change in my ability to think and speak first thing this morning. I made two calls to people who only speak Italian and the conversations went off without a problem. And I had the confidence to do this. (YEeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!! I'm leaping inside with excitement.)

Tonight was a sagra (festival of sorts nearby) that ended up being really cool (in a perfect summer night kinda way). There were plastic plates, but I kid you not, it was still the full, typical Italian meal with first plate, second, third, forth, fifth... all tasting quite wonderful. I was asked what a typical good American meal is. Hmmmm....sorry, all, I don't have a good answer. Finally I came up with Thanksgiving dinner. That's the only thing that is uniquely American and fairly standard across the country. When I think of "American" food, all I can think about are Indian dishes, sushi, burritos from Illegal Pete's, salads that I make at home and mom's homemade lasagna. In case you were wondering, I haven't eaten lasagna here that I like more than mom's. Hers is the best in the world. And she claims to not have any Italian blood.

The equivalent of the sagra we went to tonight in America would have been very different food-wise. Hamburgers, hot dogs, funnel cakes instead of two types of pasta, prosciutto, formaggio, bread, wine, pork, pigeon, sausage, salad and dessert. Don't misinterpret...I'm not totally criticizing American get-togethers in this statement. It's simply different. I do appreciate all of the good food everywhere here and I never ask or even think "is this organic?" Or "are there trans-fats?"

Yes, I'm too full to sleep and I have class too early tomorrow! I was laughing, someone asked me about the cuisine and said something about dogs. So I was thinking about the domesticated type, until I put two and two together and realized they were talking about hot dogs. Ha ha, gotta love the nuances that get lost in translation!

I might have mentioned before that group get-togethers are impossible for me language-wise. As much as I love the togetherness (totally, totally fabulous), they've always been a little stressful since I can't contribute anything much...and if you know me, you know I like to participate in group activities! Understanding conversations flying back and forth between so many people has been impossible before and speaking was close to out of the question. One-on-one conversations were much better. Tonight was great. I can honestly say I understood quasi-everything that was said and was able to talk a decent amount as well...it was almost flowing at times. My vocabulary needs to be so much more, but for basic conversation, it's almost there. We had a great time.