I Came Here to Study?

Monday, May 23 10:40 pm
Buonasera! Good evening! So it turns out that my time in Rome isn't only for exploring the city and spending relaxing afternoons in a piazza. Today was my first day of classes. Luckily on Mondays and Wednesdays I don't have class until later, so I still have the whole day to fill as I please. This morning, Margaret and I went to an open air market and ate some of the best, freshest fruit I've ever had! We walked around the market for a while, and then found our way back to the place where we ate dinner on our first night, the Piazza Navona. As is popular in any big city, there were the human statues along with many tourists, as well as tons of street vendors. I bought a gorgeous little painting of the Tiber River, which is right in the area where my apartment and campus are located. Just as we have many times before, Margaret and I struggled slightly with our sense of direction and found ourselves walking single file in order to avoid being hit by mopeds and cars passing in the tiny alley ways, but we eventually made it back to our area, Trastevere. When I got home, I realized that I should probably locate my classroom numbers and teacher's names, so I was on the computer a good bit in the afternoon getting everything ready for class. Luckily, I have a friend from my program, Sean, who is also in my Italian 101 class, so I think we will be able to help each other out a lot! My Italian 101 professor is a native Roman and will only speak Italian in the classroom (with a few small exceptions). At some points during class, Sean and I would look at each other in utter confusion after our professor gave us directions in only Italian. However, our teacher is very patient and is willing to help when we seem lost... which is often. I think I will learn a lot from this class - I've been wanting to learn more about the Italian language, so I think this class will be the best way to do so! My Art History class meets for the first time tomorrow morning at 9:00 am, so I'm very excited to see what we will be doing in there!

Love ya'll!
Corinne