Two days in one post! Get ready for the excitement.
Really there's not all that much to say for yesterday (Monday). We started our language class at the Dante Alighieri school at 9:30am—a great time to start class, I think, because it's not too early.
And then we didn't finish until 1:30pm. Four hour-long class? We did two hours straight of grammar (pronominal verbs . . . what the? who even knows what those are) and when our teacher told us we were done for break, we didn't realize we were only halfway done! The audible sighs in that room were deafening. But we trudged along and made it through. For the last (fourth) hour of class we had a different teacher and we worked on different stuff (not these pronominal verbs of which I still know nothing) so that was a nice change of pace that got us through the final stretch.
After the language class we had a one and a half hour break (hooray) before our next class began—the Italian civilization one with our study abroad group. Luckily, that class only lasts an hour. And it's in English so it takes less energy to concentrate.
Following the endless day of classes we had another quick break before heading to the church for a ward Family Home Evening. Grand total of people at the FHE was 27, including our 17, the branch president and his wife, and two sets of missionaries. So it was small but really fun and informal.
We played the game where every person has a piece of paper and you write a sentence at the top, then pass the paper to the person next to you and they have to draw a picture depicting the sentence you wrote. They then pass the paper to their neighbor with the sentence folded over, so that person has to write a sentence based only on the picture that was drawn. It probably makes more sense to actually play it than have me explain it in writing. Point is, it is a fun game. And it was hard because it was (obviously) in Italian, but in a way that made it more fun.
After the game we had some cake and gelato to celebrate the birthdays for this month, and then a bunch of us had to rush to our houses to make it in time for dinner. Yes, the cake was before dinner. It is at times like these that I embrace Jerry's motto that he always reiterates at family parties: eat dessert first in case you choke and die during dinner. A good rule to live by.
That was my Monday. It was kind of disappointing to realize for the first time this trip that I am actually here for school, not a vacation where I learn things on the side. An unfortunate realization, but a necessary one. Because we have four days of classes and then our final exam and final 5-page essay are due in one week. Better get crackin'.
But of course I didn't, because today did I work on my paper or my presentation that I'm giving on Thursday? Nope. I have a good excuse though! We were busy!
This morning (Tuesday) we had class again, and it actually went better than yesterday's, partly because the shock of having class for four hours had worn off (slightly) and partly because the grammar lesson for the day was on the subjunctive, which is something we have all studied in Italian classes before (no more pronominal verbs! high-five!). We also got to do some dialogue in small groups to practice using the subjunctive, which was both useful and entertaining.
Again we had a break of about an hour and a half before going to class with Cinzia and our study abroad group at 3pm. Today's was actually a really fascinating class period for me, because we reached more modern history and talked about the twentieth century, particularly the end of WWI and the rise of Mussolini and Fascism. Right up my alley! Wait, that doesn't sound right. I'm a history major focusing on the twentieth century with an emphasis on the World War II era, so my fascination with Fascism is academically justified. I promise. Plus, it's so interesting!
Cinzia really made this lesson stand out for me. She grew up in Pescara, Italy, so her parents and grandparents lived through the World Wars and had many unbelievable experiences living in Fascist Italy. For example, her grandfather once gave his coat to a young Mussolini because Mussolini didn't have one. Years later, when Cinzia's grandfather voted against the Fascist party in elections (very risky because the Fascist party was the only accepted political party by then), he got beat up in the streets and even had his house set on fire three different times. When Mussolini found out about this persecution and remembered who Cinzia's grandfather was and what he had done, Mussolini ordered the Fascists to leave her grandfather alone. He still didn't support the Fascists, but it proved a point that the way you treat people can truly make a difference in your life.
Cinzia had other stories as well, like how poor Italy was under Mussolini's rule, having only one loaf of bread a day per family, and how constantly frightened everyone was to speak out against Fascism or Mussolini. Hearing her stories made the history of this amazing country so tangible and meaningful to me.
After that great class period we had another short break before meeting back at the school for a . . . drumroll . . . cooking class! Now THAT is a class I could easily take for four hours. And we almost did.
At 5:30pm we met in the huge kitchen at the school, washed up, got paper aprons, and received instructions. Then we got to work! The seventeen of us were spread out and hopped around to different stations as we prepared a three-course meal for ourselves. That's right, we got to eat it all. So great.
We made bruschetta on bread for an appetizer, pasta for a first course, potatoes and turkey for a second course, and tiramisu for dessert (BYU-style, without coffee). Does that count as four courses? Not sure.
The greatest part was that we made everything from scratch. Really. For the first time in my life I handmade pasta—whisked the eggs, folded in the flour, kneaded out the dough, fed it through the pasta machine, cut it up, and then gave it to the chef to cook. Of course I was doing all this with other people, and we all got into a kind of rhythm and took turns at every station. Overall it worked really well, and it was so much fun! I couldn't make pasta on a regular basis because it takes so long but I would definitely try doing it once in a while. It's really rewarding and it tastes amazing.
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Aside from the pasta, a group of us also handmade a thick pesto sauce that went on the turkey while others worked on the potatoes and tiramisu. Eventually, everything was done and we ate it all. It was so amazing.
<-- This is how we felt.
Anyway, we finally left the school around 9:30, making today a really long but enjoyable day. I'm ready for tomorrow, when we have fewer classes and we get free lunch! Food is always something to look forward to in Italy.
A domani,
Ciao!
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