Return of the Friday

Hey everyone, I hope all is going well back home and that Portland in September is as beautiful as I remember it, I gotta say Roma so far has been lovely and everything I'd hoped for and more, it's just this damned heat. I mean, it's so tough to really acclimate to, I'm sure I'm much, much better than I was when I got here, but I gotta say I'm excited for the climate change that comes with the end of September and having it be at least cool enough to put on a jacket every once and a while if you know what I mean.

Today it was very obvious from the outset that it was going to be very, very warm and tougher to deal with than normal. I walked out the front door today and it was so humid, you could just feel the sticky, warm air in the shade cling to you and you don't know when it happens, but it definitely hits quick: you just are sweating and profusely. I mean, very rarely do you actually feel beads of sweat roll down your face when you're just walking around. But it does. A lot.

After I made the trek to class and wound up very warm once I got up there, we just launched right into our monstrous test that we had for today. I mean, yikes. I feel like I'm absorbing a lot of grammar, and I know a lot of words, but the conversation ability still lags a bit. We don't have the time to practice it in class since we just have to keep on learning new things, and I do, I'm learning a ton and fast. But applying it is tough. I use it at the store, I use it to get by, but as far as actually describing myself, who's in my family, where I go to school and what I'm studying, I don't ever talk about that out of class, and so the conversation segment is tough. Understand what's asked of me? Absolutely. Choose good words? You bet. Put it all together into a structurally strong sentence? Ummm, sometimes. Compound that problem with adding French into everything when I don't know, it comes out a jumble sometimes. And that is not a good problem to have on an oral. But she knows I'm working hard and trying to get better, my professor, that is, and that's good.

I think part of the reason it was tougher this week is that it's been 5 straight 4 hour days of language learning, so about 20 hours, with no real break or chance to digest it. This weekend will be good for that, I do believe.

I went and did a little shopping today, and I got absolutely chewed out by a grocery store lady for her mistake of putting Bert, my roommate, and my groceries on the same tab, even though they were separated by about 4 feet of space. I proceeded to tell her loro sono differente, mio spesa c'e loro, or those are different, my groceries are these ones. She glared and rolled her eyes and acted like the apocalypse had arrived. She then tried to give me incorrect change and I got a little angry with her and said, no, spiacce corrette, per gratzie, or correct change, please. She growled and gave it to me.

I was quite angry, but after the fact, I was quite proud of myself. I know how to handle my business, and oral struggles or not, I made it out of a jam with the correct change and the right groceries.

But really, that's about it. It's just a week til Greece, and I'm beyond excited for a new adventure over there. I'm also excited to have the weekend here finally, and to be able to relax a bit. Now, to just save some money this weekend . . . people want to go out to a pub or bar tonight and / or tomorrow, but a lot of us are just like "why go out when you can spend a tenth as much (no joke) and have just as much fun around the apartment area?" Then we realize we're in Roma, that's why.

It's a difficult line to walk. It's a balancing act.

But really, that's about it for today. Nothing too exciting. We have a potluck to go to tomorrow, so that should be good, and we might go to the beach tomorrow, which'd be really cool, but outside of that, should be pretty quiet around here.

Until next time,

Ciao.