Wait, we have classes?

I think I had kind of forgotten that I would have to take classes and do homework while I was living here.  Whenever you talk about Study Abroad experiences, people talk about all of the places they traveled too, the community that they lived in and the people they met along the way.  Nobody ever spoke about schoolwork, so I think I had minimal expectations as far as workload.  While I am taking a significant break on my course load compared to last semester (I won’t be studying engineering mathematics or modern physics while I’m here), we will have to do homework, write papers, and give oral presentations.  When I first started to plan my schedule for traveling, I don’t think I took any of this into account!  The upside?  I think I’m going to really enjoy the classes I’m taking while I’m here. 

My Italian language class is basically the same as our week of Intensive Italian.  I have the same professor, Barbara, and to say that she’s a wonderful teacher is truly an understatement.  After giving us the syllabus for the official course, she told us that if there’s ever something that we’d like to go do or see, just ask.  I think this class is going to be very practical.  Now that we’ve gotten past the basic grammar and vocabulary, this course seems like it’s about using it, not just filling out exercises about proper verb tenses.  Like all of my other classes, I’ll have to give an oral presentation in this course.  But as we began brainstorming ideas, she told us that we can pick any topic we’d like.  For example, one of the girls asked about presenting on Baci and the Perugina Chocolate Factory.  Barbara’s response?  Of course, and the day after you present we won’t schedule any other presentations, this way we can take a field trip to the factory and see it for ourselves.

After my language class in the morning, I'm taking an Italian Short Story class.  Some of the stories I recognized in the syllabus because I've read them in previous Italian classes, or the names of the authors sound familiar.  But it was so weird to go from two Italian classes in the morning (especially considering the previous week of Intensive Italian) to a class taught in English.  It seemed especially strange that we have a British professor teaching a class on the History and Culture of Italian Food.  This will probably be my favorite course, and not just because I love to eat.  He made sure to mention on the first day that this is not a cooking course, but we will be tasting a lot of food, including wine, gelato, and a field trip to a restaurant in Florence.  I've only had two classes so far, and it’s already interesting to see the differences in food by region.  What’s especially interesting is that Italian food wasn’t popular before the Second World War- it was actually feared.   Scholars who came to Italy in the 1800’s to study Ancient Rome came despite how “awful” all of the Italian food was.  One of the things that surprised me is that there is no such thing as Italian food.  First off, the foods that we find in America at all of the Italian restaurants, such as spaghetti and meatballs, would never been found in Italy.  But more importantly, foods that are found in one region, such as Sicily or Naples, cannot be found in Bologna or Milan.  Even the foods of Bologna are a little different than food found in a restaurant only 30 minutes away.  So there's no such thing as Italian food, it's simply regional food.  The Italians aren't really proud of the government (especially after Mussolini), so when the war ended, they became proud of the cars, soccer team, and finally, their food.  It wasn’t until Dr. Ancel Keys published the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet that Italian food really became popular in the United States.  In class on Tuesday, someone was explaining how sore she was and how her arms kept creaking.  Barbara told us it’s like the Mago di Oz, which after a couple of moments, we realized she was talking about the Wizard of Oz.  Barbara acted out the tinman for us, reminding the class that he needed oil to stop creaking.  She said the same thing works in Italy, you need lots of olive oil to stay young, but instead of putting it on your body, put it on everything you eat!

Monday night we had a travel meeting, and they provided us with a lot of information, such as websites to use to research hostels and cities, as well as information on traveling via plane, train and bus.  Most importantly, they gave us some tips on traveling in general, and what to do in specific situations, such as what happens if your passport gets stolen or if the trains go on strike.  They recommended that we bring a photocopy of our passport with us, but instead of carrying it ourselves, we should give it to one of the people that we’re traveling with.  This way, if something does happen, we can bring the photocopy to the Consulate immediately to get a new passport.  It’s nice that the school is really looking out for us.  For Spring Break, they’ve asked us to fill out travel forms that indicate where we’ll be, this way if something happens while we’re away, they’ll have a better chance of getting in contact with us. 

Sitting on the steps!

There are many things in Italy and in Europe in general that seem very strange to me.  As we’ve been reminded several times in ISP, it’s not wrong, it’s just different.  Some of the things are certainly better, some are not, and some are just plain strange.  I think I’ll have to keep a tally in order to remember all of the things that are different to me, beginning with #1, Unisex Bathrooms.  I’ve been in Europe for two weeks today, and it still weirds me out when I walk into a bathroom and see a man washing his hands.  While it does seem practical just to make one bathroom with several stalls, I don’t know if I’ll get used to it.  I would think that men must hate it, considering that now they’ll have to wait when groups of females decide that they all need to go to the bathroom at the same time.  I have yet to see a urinal, but there are plenty of bidets.  We’ll call bidets #2- I won’t even begin to go into detail about the foreign concept of bides because I think it pretty much explains itself.  We’ve been trying to think of alternative uses, but the school already told us during orientation that we’re not allowed to put ice in the bidet to keep drinks cold.  


I'm done with classes for the week, and tomorrow we begin traveling!  I'll try and update again when we get back on Sunday. Buon Compleanno Wally and Uncle Gary, a presto!

For Uncle Tom, I saw this in the window of one of the shops and had to take a picture