One week complete!

It’s been 7 days or so since I last posted so a lot has happened and I’ll be brief. One week ago my program started, though it seems like it was two or three weeks ago. Orientation is over and was pretty standard as far as program orientations go. Lots of meetings, going over rules, being told how to not get your bag stolen, ect. We got a lovely taste of Italian bureaucracy when applying for our “permit to stay” at the Italian post office. This took forever and cost 30 Euros and we also have to go back to various police stations individually for another appointment which they give you. Fortunately, my appointment is not during my scheduled class time which is lucky! There are two highlights of orientation that I’d like to go over.
1.       Discovering Appertivo  - This is a wonderful concept that America should definitely adopt. For a flat fee, usually between 7 and 10 Euros, you get entrance into a bar or restaurant, a drink and access to an all-you-can eat buffet usually featuring standard appetizer foods. The key is that this is an unlimited buffet so appertivo is an entire dinner, with a drink included! The drinks, from what I can tell, are not standard simple drinks but rather any drink off the entire menu and are usually quite strong. Great discovery.
2.       The US Consul Lecture – The US Consul in Milan came to speak to us and he was a wonderful speaker that gave us an honest picture of life in Milan as well as some interesting stories and funny personal insights. For instance, he explained that Italian jails are pretty good as far as jails go; inmates in jails usually have their own cells, can cook for themselves, some can leave during the day to work, and they get to keep any money they earn. Not a bad deal for a prisoner. He is almost done with his time here because he’s leaving to accept what seems like a better position, though I cannot what the title was exactly. His previous post was in Lebanon and he led the evacuation of all 15,000 Americans there in the 2006 Lebanese War.
Friday was our first day of Italian class and I can honestly say I have never, in my life, been more excited to start a class than I was on Friday. Our regular classes do not start until the beginning of February and until then we have our “Italian Intensive” period which consists of 2.5 hours of Italian class every day. It is so frustrating to not be able to communicate effectively. If there is a simple question I want to ask I just cannot ask it and the stress this is causing me is far greater than I anticipated. I am in an advanced beginner class because, though I haven’t taken Italian before, they felt my Latin background means I should not be in the regular beginner class. Today I discovered that I’m the only one that hasn’t taken Italian before… wonderful. This is yet another added stress as I simply don’t know a lot of vocabulary so, even though I may understand different verb conjugations, I do not know what is actually being said. This means I am really going to have to buckle down and do a lot of independent studying but I am sure that in hindsight I’ll be pleased that I learned as much as I possibly could during my time here.
Pictures of my apartment to come in the next post!

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