What 13 days of Italian feels like

Ciao tutti, voglio tu stai bene. Oggi e mio tredicesimo giorno di italiano e ho solo due giorni rimanere.

That, my friends, is my Italian skillage after 13 days of Italian. If you could suss it out, it means "hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. Today is my 13th day of Italian and I have only two days left." Three weeks ago, I was not even knowing how to say anything other than ciao or buongiorno, pasta and pizza. And look at me now! I'm really feeling pretty confident overall, and my verb knowledge is growing as is my comprehension, and it feels pretty good, I must say. I'm living in a country that I can now speak the language enough to survive. And I'm proud of it!

But yes, yesterday night after I blogged I was feeling a bit low on energy, but I went out and gioco un pico di calcio, or I played a little soccer, at the country club again. It was great, as usual. This was my second time and only the second time it's been offered, but yesterday we had 9 people, so it was 4 on 5, with the 4 being one who guy who's really good and three of us who are ok, and the other 5 having a really good player and some others who are pretty good too. It was fun, and I was on the 4 team, and we won like 10-3. I ran myself ragged, but I had to since we were always a man down. I love a good workout, and it was still pretty hot and humid over there at night, so I got a really good sweat going and came back here and showered, which was most excellent.

Then I got up this morning and made some scrambled eggs, nutella toast, cereal, and a glass of orange juice, which was most excellent. I am getting better and better with making food on the stove here, and speaking of, after this I'm going to make some Rigatoni con salsa alle funghi e carne. Woohoo. I am just feeling more confident in everything here, which makes me feel good.

I think part of this came from today when I saw two British people stumbling around, looking at a map and they had no idea where they were going. I stepped up and gave them street by street directions as I walked with them for a while, and told them a few things to see before they left, all in about a span of 5 minutes. It was really funny, I know I have a staple set of things you must see, and it's just awesome to know that I have a report with this city now. Too bad no one is coming to visit, I could lay out a hell of an itinerary.

But yes, other than just class, shopping, homework, soccer, cooking, sleeping and checking out the sights on my way to and from class, not a whole lot going on here today. It was new towel day today and they didn't bring any and I was disappointed, but hey, things go on. If that's the worst part of my day, then so be it. I have only two days of Italian class left, with tomorrow being totally review oriented and Friday being my final for the course and, of course, my departure day to Athens! Yeah, I am pretty much ecstatic about that. Couldn't get much more excited if I tried. It's going to be a blast and I'm going to take a billion pictures, so fear not!

Oh, and it's only 6 days til my birthday. 21. Somehow, it all gets lost in the mix. I always envisioned this one being the biggest and most eventful of all of them with the exception of maybe 18, and I have to say, waking up in Athens and falling asleep in Roma, I can't say I'm disappointed in the least. How about elated, how's that sound?

And really that's about it. I hope your September 10th goes well (happy Birthday Grandma Pat! Dad, maybe you could help me out with that thank you there) and know that I love you all and I'll be back soon with much grandeur and excitement. And as always, until next time,

Ciao.