My First Day of School

Today was my first day of class at AUR! Just about everyone else started yesterday, but lucky me, I have no Monday classes J I love school supply shopping at home [nerdy, I know] so I tried to do a little here. I discovered what they call “China Stores” and I now like to refer to as the “Italian Dollar Tree”. They have just about everything from bras & underwear I’d never touch to soap & paper towels to paper & pencils. I got two notebooks – one that has lines and one that looks more like graph paper. Works for me.

I also got a folder that looks more like a giant envelope since I can’t seem to find a plain old two pocket one.

[The flowered notebook I brought from home since it was a gift from Catherine. I needed something from home to bring to school each day!]

At least I made it to both my classes in the right place at the right time! I’d chalk it up to a successful day.

Introduction to Italian Language and Culture

First I had Italian. The professor definitely speaks more Italian than English, as you can tell by her heavy accent. She was ended up being very nice, though. After going through the syllabus, we jumped right in to learning a few phrases. Here’s what our conversations consisted of today:

[I practiced with my roommate, who happens to be in my class!]

·         Ciao! Come ti chiami? [Hi! What’s your name?]

·         Ciao, mi chiamo Sarah. E tu? [Hi, my name is Sarah. And you?]

·         Mi chiamo Gianna. Quanti anni hai? [My name is Gianna. How old are you?]

·         Io ho 20 anni. E tu? [I’m 20. And you?]

·         Io ho 21 anni. [I’m 21.]

·         Di che nazionalita’ sei? [What nationality are you?]

·         Sono americana. E tu? [I’m American. And you?]

·         Anch’io sono americana! E di dove sei? [I’m also American! And where are you from?]

·         Sono di Connecticut. E tu? [I’m from Connecticut. And you?]

·         Sono di Michigan. [I’m from Michigan.]

·         Che cosa fai? [What do you do?]

·         Sono studentessa di pedagogia. E tu? [I’m studying education. And you?]

·         Sono studentessa d’inglese. [I’m studying English.]

·         Va bene, ci vediamo presto allora. [Well, I’ll see you soon.]

·         Va bene, ciao! [Alright, bye!]

·         Ciao! [Bye!]

I always think it’s funny to imagine what we sound like to native speakers of Italian. I’d love to sit in a class of Italian students learning English. It would be so strange! There was a girl from the local high school there to help us practice as the university worked out a program with them. She probably laughed listening to us all!

Sociology of Contemporary Italy

Next up was Sociology of Contemporary Italy. My professor for that has an even stronger accent. We talked about the first three things that come to mind when we think of Italy. Mine were wine, pasta, and shoes. Most of the other students had similar lists! The Italian students did the same exercise with the USA. The responses were skyline, melting pot, and consumerism. [Fitting, I thought, but nothing about the social media & image, which I thought may make the list.] Our conversation touched on stereotypes, taking a step back in order to study a culture, focusing on “what’s wrong” as that’s what we’re often drawn to, and the importance quality of life plays in driving political reform. It wasn’t the most thrilling 90 minutes, but hopefully it will get better by the time I have to write my 2,000 word term paper. It’s not all play studying in Rome!