A very brief commentary on the first three weeks in Rome, just because I know you guys miss my bright, happy face!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Florence, my favorite things and the Great Roman Blackout of 2010
It’s been a wild week here in the boot. Let me catch you up on life:
At the Colosseum
Thursday we went to the Ara Pacis Museum. It’s across from Emperor Augustus’ tomb. It was pretty cool. Afterwards we went to the train station to buy tickets for our weekend trip to:
FLORENCE! I still love Rome, but Florence is by far the second coolest city I’ve been to in Italy. Granted, I’ve only been to two, but still. It’s such a different pace from Rome. It’s calmer, more peaceful. Just as (if not a little moreso) beautiful. I could definitely see myself living in Tuscany someday.
Try and top this view
We went to the top of the Duomo Church, the Ponte Vecchia, the Statue of David (highlight of my trip!) and around to a few nice restaurants and bars. The nine of us even hit up a discoteca. It was good times! The train tickets cost about 30 Euro for a round trip, and our hostel was 9 Euro for the one night we spent there, so it was a cost-effective trip too!
It was worth 500 steps to get this scenic view
We technically weren't supposed to be on this part of the bridge, but the photo op was just too nice to pass up.
Back in Rome Italian class is over (thank God!) and Communication Campaigns is starting. The class seems interesting and is even taught by a priest who works at the Vatican, which I think is kind of cool.
Last night we helped Jessica celebrate her 21st birthday, and should have kept in mind that we had a 9:30 class this morning. Which I didn’t.
Now for today. Woke up late (around 9 a.m.) with what we’ll call ill repercussions of the previous night’s events. Got out of bed just in time for the electricity in our entire building to go off. That’s right, we’re powerless in Rome! Ran to class and came back afterwards and, you guessed it, power is still off.
I didn’t know they had blackouts in Rome, but this is no bene. I had to eat everything in the fridge for lunch (which included cheese, salami, milk, yogurt and a Coke) so needless to say my stomach is really upset with me today.
All in all it’s been a great week, and I can’t believe how time is flying by. While sitting in the dark, I created a list of things I really like at the moment. Here’s the highlights:
Art; hot chocolate; Florence; dress shirts; Not checking my email all weekend; the phrase “live life one Mento at a time; Mentos; Mexican food with an English menu in Italy; taking pictures; soccer games; Italian class being over; the feature on my crappy cell phone that lets me use the flashlight right away; Jay-Z, Drake, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne; Jogging around the Tiber River, Campo De Fiori and Rome; and these amazing cherry croissants they sell at the local grocery store.
I also wanted to let you all know the official song of my trip to Rome is: “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn. I’ve heard it at least 10 times since I’ve gotten here. Same with “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, which is a close second.
Well class is going to start soon so I better head over. Hope life is going good for everybody, and I will talk to you all again soon!
At the Colosseum
Thursday we went to the Ara Pacis Museum. It’s across from Emperor Augustus’ tomb. It was pretty cool. Afterwards we went to the train station to buy tickets for our weekend trip to:
FLORENCE! I still love Rome, but Florence is by far the second coolest city I’ve been to in Italy. Granted, I’ve only been to two, but still. It’s such a different pace from Rome. It’s calmer, more peaceful. Just as (if not a little moreso) beautiful. I could definitely see myself living in Tuscany someday.
Try and top this view
We went to the top of the Duomo Church, the Ponte Vecchia, the Statue of David (highlight of my trip!) and around to a few nice restaurants and bars. The nine of us even hit up a discoteca. It was good times! The train tickets cost about 30 Euro for a round trip, and our hostel was 9 Euro for the one night we spent there, so it was a cost-effective trip too!
It was worth 500 steps to get this scenic view
We technically weren't supposed to be on this part of the bridge, but the photo op was just too nice to pass up.
Back in Rome Italian class is over (thank God!) and Communication Campaigns is starting. The class seems interesting and is even taught by a priest who works at the Vatican, which I think is kind of cool.
Last night we helped Jessica celebrate her 21st birthday, and should have kept in mind that we had a 9:30 class this morning. Which I didn’t.
Now for today. Woke up late (around 9 a.m.) with what we’ll call ill repercussions of the previous night’s events. Got out of bed just in time for the electricity in our entire building to go off. That’s right, we’re powerless in Rome! Ran to class and came back afterwards and, you guessed it, power is still off.
I didn’t know they had blackouts in Rome, but this is no bene. I had to eat everything in the fridge for lunch (which included cheese, salami, milk, yogurt and a Coke) so needless to say my stomach is really upset with me today.
All in all it’s been a great week, and I can’t believe how time is flying by. While sitting in the dark, I created a list of things I really like at the moment. Here’s the highlights:
Art; hot chocolate; Florence; dress shirts; Not checking my email all weekend; the phrase “live life one Mento at a time; Mentos; Mexican food with an English menu in Italy; taking pictures; soccer games; Italian class being over; the feature on my crappy cell phone that lets me use the flashlight right away; Jay-Z, Drake, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne; Jogging around the Tiber River, Campo De Fiori and Rome; and these amazing cherry croissants they sell at the local grocery store.
I also wanted to let you all know the official song of my trip to Rome is: “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn. I’ve heard it at least 10 times since I’ve gotten here. Same with “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, which is a close second.
Well class is going to start soon so I better head over. Hope life is going good for everybody, and I will talk to you all again soon!
Friday, January 22, 2010
My Fake Italian Friends
(Disclaimer: This is the final post for my Italian class, so it's not quite as exciting as my other posts, but I still had fun and I don't feel like it's too painful to read.)
Learning a new language is tough. Learning a new language in 3 hour sessions every weekday is even tougher. Along with weird rules and punctuation marks above letters, there are words that look familiar, and appear to be words one can easily figure out. But turn out to be something very different. This blog is about these “fake friends.”
What is a fake friend? Let me give you an example before we jump into this. “Embarasado” in Spanish appears simple enough. One day, sophomore year of high school I messed up, and told the class I was embarasado. My teacher almost fell on the floor laughing and informed me that I just told the class I was pregnant. See what I’m talking about? That’s just mean!
Italian is no different. The joy I feel when seeing a word I think I might be able to guess the meaning of is quickly squashed when I find out I’m not even close. For example, yesterday in class I ran across the word “tornato” in a paragraph that I had no idea what was going on. I thought, “Wow, they have really severe weather in Italy.” Turns out it’s a conjugated form of “tornare” which means “to return.” Long story short: I wasn’t even close. (Side note: even Microsoft Word’s spell check wanted to make it “tornado!”)
This does not mean "I am severe weather."
That was just the beginning. I went to the grocery store this morning and that’s when the fun really begin. It appeared Coca-Cola had two very different ingredients in Italy: “zuccheri” and “grassi,” which I naturally thought meant “zucchini” and “grass.” While figuring out why Rome would want to ruin a perfectly good drink, I walked down another aisle and found a whole stash of “zuccheri,” which it turns out was sugar. I had to look up “grassi” when I got home and found out it meant “fat,” (Side note: “fatto” - the conjugated form of fare which “means to do or make”- also does not mean “fat.”)
Don't worry, Coke's the same here...sort of.
A sign in the grocery store had an arrow pointing toward the front that said “bagni,” which I followed thinking I’d get to the checkout stands (where they have bags). Wrong. I ended up in the bathroom, apparently with a very confused look on my face because an older woman asked me if I was ok (honestly that’s what I assume she said, I couldn’t really understand her-my Italian’s not the best yet; I heard “bene.”).
This way to the bags!
Two more exciting (and I use the term exciting very loosely; I enjoyed this
game) words I came across were “contenuto” and “vincitori.” These two I was actually fairly close to. The first came on a water bottle, and I couldn't figure out why a water bottle would be so happy (content)? Well it's not, it explains how much the bottle contains, something I probably should've known right away. The latter I thought meant “invincible,” but I couldn’t figure out why it would be on a can of Pepsi. In real Italian, it means “winner.” Apparently there’s some kind of contest going on, and anyone, even me can be a vincitori!
You will make this bottle content if you recycle.
Winners drink Pepsi!
My final false friend from the store was milk. I was trying to get something healthy to offset the Coke, Pepsi and other various items I bought, so I went to the dairy aisle looking for “milci,” “creamci,” or even “moooooooooci” but could not find anything like that. Fortunately I finally found what I was looking for, in a bottle labeled “latte.” Hoping it was in fact what I was looking for (I don’t drink coffee) I threw it into my basket and moved on.
Got milk? I do!
It’s not just in the grocery store, certain words in class confuse me too. “Guardare” which one might think means “to guard” actually means “to watch.” In fact, I haven’t “guardo la TV” since I got here. “Volentieri” which almost sounds like “violent” is what you say after someone introduces his or herself to you (it means “with pleasure”). “Notte” (which does not mean “note!”) means “night.” Finally, the cognate I least saw coming, is the Italian word “coincidenza.” It seems so easy doesn’t it? Even in the context, talking about taking the train. Feeling confident, I continued reading, thinking that it was a coincidence that these two friends were on the same train. I continued to think that until I glanced at page before my homework assignment and discovered that “coincidenza” actually means “connection.” Yeah, I feel like I had absolutely no chance of getting that.
Learning a new language is tough. Learning a new language in 3 hour sessions every weekday is even tougher. Along with weird rules and punctuation marks above letters, there are words that look familiar, and appear to be words one can easily figure out. But turn out to be something very different. This blog is about these “fake friends.”
What is a fake friend? Let me give you an example before we jump into this. “Embarasado” in Spanish appears simple enough. One day, sophomore year of high school I messed up, and told the class I was embarasado. My teacher almost fell on the floor laughing and informed me that I just told the class I was pregnant. See what I’m talking about? That’s just mean!
Italian is no different. The joy I feel when seeing a word I think I might be able to guess the meaning of is quickly squashed when I find out I’m not even close. For example, yesterday in class I ran across the word “tornato” in a paragraph that I had no idea what was going on. I thought, “Wow, they have really severe weather in Italy.” Turns out it’s a conjugated form of “tornare” which means “to return.” Long story short: I wasn’t even close. (Side note: even Microsoft Word’s spell check wanted to make it “tornado!”)
This does not mean "I am severe weather."
That was just the beginning. I went to the grocery store this morning and that’s when the fun really begin. It appeared Coca-Cola had two very different ingredients in Italy: “zuccheri” and “grassi,” which I naturally thought meant “zucchini” and “grass.” While figuring out why Rome would want to ruin a perfectly good drink, I walked down another aisle and found a whole stash of “zuccheri,” which it turns out was sugar. I had to look up “grassi” when I got home and found out it meant “fat,” (Side note: “fatto” - the conjugated form of fare which “means to do or make”- also does not mean “fat.”)
Don't worry, Coke's the same here...sort of.
A sign in the grocery store had an arrow pointing toward the front that said “bagni,” which I followed thinking I’d get to the checkout stands (where they have bags). Wrong. I ended up in the bathroom, apparently with a very confused look on my face because an older woman asked me if I was ok (honestly that’s what I assume she said, I couldn’t really understand her-my Italian’s not the best yet; I heard “bene.”).
This way to the bags!
Two more exciting (and I use the term exciting very loosely; I enjoyed this
game) words I came across were “contenuto” and “vincitori.” These two I was actually fairly close to. The first came on a water bottle, and I couldn't figure out why a water bottle would be so happy (content)? Well it's not, it explains how much the bottle contains, something I probably should've known right away. The latter I thought meant “invincible,” but I couldn’t figure out why it would be on a can of Pepsi. In real Italian, it means “winner.” Apparently there’s some kind of contest going on, and anyone, even me can be a vincitori!
You will make this bottle content if you recycle.
Winners drink Pepsi!
My final false friend from the store was milk. I was trying to get something healthy to offset the Coke, Pepsi and other various items I bought, so I went to the dairy aisle looking for “milci,” “creamci,” or even “moooooooooci” but could not find anything like that. Fortunately I finally found what I was looking for, in a bottle labeled “latte.” Hoping it was in fact what I was looking for (I don’t drink coffee) I threw it into my basket and moved on.
Got milk? I do!
It’s not just in the grocery store, certain words in class confuse me too. “Guardare” which one might think means “to guard” actually means “to watch.” In fact, I haven’t “guardo la TV” since I got here. “Volentieri” which almost sounds like “violent” is what you say after someone introduces his or herself to you (it means “with pleasure”). “Notte” (which does not mean “note!”) means “night.” Finally, the cognate I least saw coming, is the Italian word “coincidenza.” It seems so easy doesn’t it? Even in the context, talking about taking the train. Feeling confident, I continued reading, thinking that it was a coincidence that these two friends were on the same train. I continued to think that until I glanced at page before my homework assignment and discovered that “coincidenza” actually means “connection.” Yeah, I feel like I had absolutely no chance of getting that.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Italian buses are confusing, the Roman Forum is beautiful, and the Colosseum takes your breath away!
This last week has been crazy.
Rome is so cool I can’t even begin to describe it. The other day I went for a run, which I figured I should do cause it seems like all I do is eat and drink (water, and nothing else), got lost and ended up at the Coliseum. That’s been one of the highlights of my trip so far.
Another highlight was getting lost (this is a recurring theme) on the bus and rapping (that’s right, rapping) our way back home. We were in the Roman Projects. More on that later.
What’s been going on since the last post? Well, the guys cooked dinner for a couple of the girls last Wednesday, followed by a Pub Crawl at the Coliseum Thursday. We went to about three bars before we split up and ventured off into the night. It was pretty expensive (20 Euro) but was a pretty interesting experience, and I got a cool shirt so it wasn’t all bad.
At the Pub Crawl. Yeah, that's the Colosseum in the background!
The next night we went to Club Micca with our Italian T.A. While it seemed more like she was babysitting us at first, eventually we got past that and had a good time. Then she left (right before the Cabaret that was both cool and a little disturbing) and told us to get on bus N12 to get home. So we did. Unfortunately, it was the N12 that went in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. 20 minutes later we figured this out, jumped off the bus, crossed the street and tried again, this time with much better results.
In the VIP at Club Micca
After that it was a night out at the Scholar’s Lounge, where I watched the Saints run all over the Cardinals and won a free drink because of it. After another late night, we took life easy on Sunday, taking the 116 that we always see drive by our house all the way to Borghese Park, where we got to see a beautiful view of Rome. We go back as a class in a couple weeks, and I can’t wait. It was the first time all trip I had seen grass!
Last night was taken up by a screening of “Gladiator” with one person from the program and 10 kids from the honors program. Then we went out and walked around for awhile before heading home.
Finally, getting up to today. Our first Roman Civilization excursion involved walking through the Roman Forum. It was incredible. And beautiful. And old. Much like Angelina Jolie. It was almost haunting walking past monuments that have been up for thousands, (THOUSANDS!) of years. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom it all.
On top a hill looking over the Roman Forum
We even had beautiful weather!
Then, since we had a ticket to explore for the day and an extra half an hour before Italian class, Semir, Whitney and myself ran into the Colosseum and looked around. Holy cow! It was an amazing sight, and a little surreal, especially, after just seeing “Gladiator” the night before. When you think of how long it’s been around, how huge it is and the fact that it only took 5 years to build way back in the day!
It takes 2.5 years for them to repave a two-mile section of I-5!
At the Colosseum
It was my favorite place that I’ve been so far in Rome. The only thing that could've made it cooler was if my camera's battery hadn't died.
The last picture I got before the battery went out.
It was a heck of an experience and is going to be hard to top. Fortunately, I have a little over 7 weeks to try to do it. And with my three page paper that’s due tomorrow pretty much done (I say “pretty much” very liberally) and a trip to Florence coming up this weekend, anything’s possible!
Ciao!
Rome is so cool I can’t even begin to describe it. The other day I went for a run, which I figured I should do cause it seems like all I do is eat and drink (water, and nothing else), got lost and ended up at the Coliseum. That’s been one of the highlights of my trip so far.
Another highlight was getting lost (this is a recurring theme) on the bus and rapping (that’s right, rapping) our way back home. We were in the Roman Projects. More on that later.
What’s been going on since the last post? Well, the guys cooked dinner for a couple of the girls last Wednesday, followed by a Pub Crawl at the Coliseum Thursday. We went to about three bars before we split up and ventured off into the night. It was pretty expensive (20 Euro) but was a pretty interesting experience, and I got a cool shirt so it wasn’t all bad.
At the Pub Crawl. Yeah, that's the Colosseum in the background!
The next night we went to Club Micca with our Italian T.A. While it seemed more like she was babysitting us at first, eventually we got past that and had a good time. Then she left (right before the Cabaret that was both cool and a little disturbing) and told us to get on bus N12 to get home. So we did. Unfortunately, it was the N12 that went in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. 20 minutes later we figured this out, jumped off the bus, crossed the street and tried again, this time with much better results.
In the VIP at Club Micca
After that it was a night out at the Scholar’s Lounge, where I watched the Saints run all over the Cardinals and won a free drink because of it. After another late night, we took life easy on Sunday, taking the 116 that we always see drive by our house all the way to Borghese Park, where we got to see a beautiful view of Rome. We go back as a class in a couple weeks, and I can’t wait. It was the first time all trip I had seen grass!
Last night was taken up by a screening of “Gladiator” with one person from the program and 10 kids from the honors program. Then we went out and walked around for awhile before heading home.
Finally, getting up to today. Our first Roman Civilization excursion involved walking through the Roman Forum. It was incredible. And beautiful. And old. Much like Angelina Jolie. It was almost haunting walking past monuments that have been up for thousands, (THOUSANDS!) of years. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom it all.
On top a hill looking over the Roman Forum
We even had beautiful weather!
Then, since we had a ticket to explore for the day and an extra half an hour before Italian class, Semir, Whitney and myself ran into the Colosseum and looked around. Holy cow! It was an amazing sight, and a little surreal, especially, after just seeing “Gladiator” the night before. When you think of how long it’s been around, how huge it is and the fact that it only took 5 years to build way back in the day!
It takes 2.5 years for them to repave a two-mile section of I-5!
At the Colosseum
It was my favorite place that I’ve been so far in Rome. The only thing that could've made it cooler was if my camera's battery hadn't died.
The last picture I got before the battery went out.
It was a heck of an experience and is going to be hard to top. Fortunately, I have a little over 7 weeks to try to do it. And with my three page paper that’s due tomorrow pretty much done (I say “pretty much” very liberally) and a trip to Florence coming up this weekend, anything’s possible!
Ciao!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Dear Dad
Once a week I’m going to write a note to someone specific . If you still want to read it, be my guest, I have no secrets! And look out, you may be next!
Dear Dad
What’s up? As I’m writing this I see that the Grandpa of the NFL is leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. Congrats!
How’s life back in the states? Glad to hear Emily hasn’t crashed Tara yet. Just the thought of her driving at all makes me a little nervous, but I’m slowly coming to terms with it. Maybe every once in awhile you could check her oil because I know there’s no way Emily will ever do that. Ever.
School’s going well. I have a giant presentation tomorrow that I’m trying very hard to care about, but really, there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (you get the idea) other things I’d rather be doing than homework.
But regardless, grades should be ok this quarter. And if they dip a little bit, hey, you don’t have to get me a car after graduation. So it wouldn’t be all bad.
I’ll try to get a few pictures up of the past week soon (I saw the Coliseum twice! Once sober, once a little bit less so-It was a Pub Crawl which was kind of a waste but still not too bad).
All in all, life is pretty good. Don’t have too many complaints and if you ever want to complain about a certain short, blonde, chatty family member or just discuss football, my phone’s always on. And has a bad tendency to ring in class (Italy texts me daily, I just wish I knew what it said!).
Take it easy and I’ll talk to you soon. Love you!
David
:D
Dear Dad
What’s up? As I’m writing this I see that the Grandpa of the NFL is leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. Congrats!
How’s life back in the states? Glad to hear Emily hasn’t crashed Tara yet. Just the thought of her driving at all makes me a little nervous, but I’m slowly coming to terms with it. Maybe every once in awhile you could check her oil because I know there’s no way Emily will ever do that. Ever.
School’s going well. I have a giant presentation tomorrow that I’m trying very hard to care about, but really, there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (you get the idea) other things I’d rather be doing than homework.
But regardless, grades should be ok this quarter. And if they dip a little bit, hey, you don’t have to get me a car after graduation. So it wouldn’t be all bad.
I’ll try to get a few pictures up of the past week soon (I saw the Coliseum twice! Once sober, once a little bit less so-It was a Pub Crawl which was kind of a waste but still not too bad).
All in all, life is pretty good. Don’t have too many complaints and if you ever want to complain about a certain short, blonde, chatty family member or just discuss football, my phone’s always on. And has a bad tendency to ring in class (Italy texts me daily, I just wish I knew what it said!).
Take it easy and I’ll talk to you soon. Love you!
David
:D
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Learning Italian: It's a Work in Process (Italian Language Post #1)
(Disclaimer: This is post for my Italian class, so it's not quite as exciting as my other posts, but I tried to liven it up a little bit!)
So we've had six days of Italian class (totalling roughly 300 hours) and already I feel like I'm finally starting to get a grasp on the language...maybe...just a little bit. Three years of Spanish helps (some words are very similar, “diche” (Spanish) and “dice” (Italian) both mean “say”) but also hinders (I can't tell you the amount of times I've started counting “uno, dos, tres...”).
As I get more and more comfortable traveling around Rome, I've also started to enjoy speaking Italian to locals and shops and restaurants (see video below). Unfortunately, I estimate that I have the linguistic knowledge comparable to that of an average Italian six year-old. But I'm trying, and that's the important thing.
There have been two instances this past week in which I really wish I had a larger Italian vocabulary. The first was at the grocery store around the corner from our apartment. Being the graceful, coordinated person that I am, I walked around a corner and ran into a parked shopping cart. I wanted desperately to say “I'm sorry” and “let me help you.” Instead, I said “scusi” (“excuse me”) and went to help pick the groceries up. The man whose cart I ran into did not appear to want my help, or accept my terrible apology. He grabbed the last few things and headed away toward the checkout stand.
It was the first time that I felt my inability to speak the language really hurt me in Rome, and prevented me from being myself and doing what I wanted. It wasn't my favorite situation of the trip, but it did encourage me to look up a few phrases that I could use should this situation happen again. Next time this happens (I'd like to say it won't happen again, but really, who am I kidding) I can immediately throw out a “mi dispiace” (“I'm sorry”) followed quickly by a “io vi aiuterò” (“I'll help you”). While I may get the exact same reaction, at least I can say I tried, instead of just standing there like a goofy, helpless American.
The other situation I really wish I had had a more extensive vocabulary during was when I went for a 20 minute run and two and a half hours later realized I was lost. While it was cool to get out and explore my new surroundings, by the end of the run it was getting dark and raining. I asked a couple locals how to get back to the Campo De Fiori, where I could easily find my way home from. I didn't know how to ask “Where is” the Campo, but figured if I just said my final location and looked scared and confused they'd know I was trying to get there.
That was all well and good until I talked to somebody who knew exactly how to get back to the Campo, only problem is he explained it in Italian, and realized halfway through his explanation that I had no idea what he was talking about. He tried to gesture in the general direction and say things like “Piazza Navona” (which I had heard of) and “Piazza Popolo” (which I had not heard of). Fortunately, I was able to head off in the right direction, find the main street that took me toward the Campo De Fiori, and make it back to the monument in the middle, and ultimately my apartment. And, even though I was absolutely exhausted, was never happier to run up the four flights of stairs and lay down on the couch. Mission Accomplished!
Yesterday in class, we had our first introduction to directions, which is awesome and helpful, just a few days late. One of the first phrases we read would have been enormously helpful the other day:
“Scusi, mi sono perso. Sa dirmi dov'è il Campo de Fiori,” which translated means, “excuse me, I'm lost. Can you tell me where the Campo de Fiori is?”
We also learned basic directions like left and right (“sinistra” and “destra”) which I immediately remembered the nicest and most patient man in Italy telling me. “Continuare” (“continue”) also came up in our awkward conversation. A few more helpful words and phrases I've learned are: “E vicino?” (“Is it far?”), “attraversare il ponte” (“cross the bridge”-we live by about four), “lungo” (“alongside”) and finally, just the basic “strada,” or “street.”
I want to stress again, that for the most part, I've been able to get around pretty easily. But situations happen. I'm doing my best to soak up as much Italian as I can, so that I can be the most successful here, and brag about being tri-lingual when I get home. Now if you'll excuse me, now that this class-mandated blog is done its time to “vado alla festa” (“go out to a party”). That was one of the first, and most important phrases I've learned here so far.
David Orders Gelato
So we've had six days of Italian class (totalling roughly 300 hours) and already I feel like I'm finally starting to get a grasp on the language...maybe...just a little bit. Three years of Spanish helps (some words are very similar, “diche” (Spanish) and “dice” (Italian) both mean “say”) but also hinders (I can't tell you the amount of times I've started counting “uno, dos, tres...”).
As I get more and more comfortable traveling around Rome, I've also started to enjoy speaking Italian to locals and shops and restaurants (see video below). Unfortunately, I estimate that I have the linguistic knowledge comparable to that of an average Italian six year-old. But I'm trying, and that's the important thing.
There have been two instances this past week in which I really wish I had a larger Italian vocabulary. The first was at the grocery store around the corner from our apartment. Being the graceful, coordinated person that I am, I walked around a corner and ran into a parked shopping cart. I wanted desperately to say “I'm sorry” and “let me help you.” Instead, I said “scusi” (“excuse me”) and went to help pick the groceries up. The man whose cart I ran into did not appear to want my help, or accept my terrible apology. He grabbed the last few things and headed away toward the checkout stand.
It was the first time that I felt my inability to speak the language really hurt me in Rome, and prevented me from being myself and doing what I wanted. It wasn't my favorite situation of the trip, but it did encourage me to look up a few phrases that I could use should this situation happen again. Next time this happens (I'd like to say it won't happen again, but really, who am I kidding) I can immediately throw out a “mi dispiace” (“I'm sorry”) followed quickly by a “io vi aiuterò” (“I'll help you”). While I may get the exact same reaction, at least I can say I tried, instead of just standing there like a goofy, helpless American.
The other situation I really wish I had had a more extensive vocabulary during was when I went for a 20 minute run and two and a half hours later realized I was lost. While it was cool to get out and explore my new surroundings, by the end of the run it was getting dark and raining. I asked a couple locals how to get back to the Campo De Fiori, where I could easily find my way home from. I didn't know how to ask “Where is” the Campo, but figured if I just said my final location and looked scared and confused they'd know I was trying to get there.
That was all well and good until I talked to somebody who knew exactly how to get back to the Campo, only problem is he explained it in Italian, and realized halfway through his explanation that I had no idea what he was talking about. He tried to gesture in the general direction and say things like “Piazza Navona” (which I had heard of) and “Piazza Popolo” (which I had not heard of). Fortunately, I was able to head off in the right direction, find the main street that took me toward the Campo De Fiori, and make it back to the monument in the middle, and ultimately my apartment. And, even though I was absolutely exhausted, was never happier to run up the four flights of stairs and lay down on the couch. Mission Accomplished!
Yesterday in class, we had our first introduction to directions, which is awesome and helpful, just a few days late. One of the first phrases we read would have been enormously helpful the other day:
“Scusi, mi sono perso. Sa dirmi dov'è il Campo de Fiori,” which translated means, “excuse me, I'm lost. Can you tell me where the Campo de Fiori is?”
We also learned basic directions like left and right (“sinistra” and “destra”) which I immediately remembered the nicest and most patient man in Italy telling me. “Continuare” (“continue”) also came up in our awkward conversation. A few more helpful words and phrases I've learned are: “E vicino?” (“Is it far?”), “attraversare il ponte” (“cross the bridge”-we live by about four), “lungo” (“alongside”) and finally, just the basic “strada,” or “street.”
I want to stress again, that for the most part, I've been able to get around pretty easily. But situations happen. I'm doing my best to soak up as much Italian as I can, so that I can be the most successful here, and brag about being tri-lingual when I get home. Now if you'll excuse me, now that this class-mandated blog is done its time to “vado alla festa” (“go out to a party”). That was one of the first, and most important phrases I've learned here so far.
David Orders Gelato
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wow...I thought I was an intense sports fan
Holy cow. I think it's safe to say that it's a miracle that those of us who went to the Roma/Triestina soccer game last night are still alive. Things got a little crazy.
Stadio Olympico
European soccer is insane! I feel like insane is a serious understatement, but I don’t know what else to call it. Crazy. Loco. Mesmerizing. Incredible. Wild. None of these words do it justice. I considered myself a super sports fan, some may even say an enthusiast. But I was humbled last night. I have nothing on any of these guys! The people chant the whole time. Scream their lungs out. Wave giant flags for 90-plus minutes. Make their own homemade confetti to throw up. And when Roma scores…my gosh!
Yeah that's a flare going off, in the stands. Totally safe!
Final Score: Roma 3, Triestina 1
The final score was Roma 3, Triestina 1, but that’s not what I’ll remember from the night (although I am glad that the game didn't end in a tie). I’ll remember the stunned look on everyone in our program’s faces when people started falling onto us from the rows above. The mosh pits that began at the end of certain songs, and the clapping and laughing that accompanied others. The flares people ignited IN THE STANDS and the cannon shot that came out of pretty much nowhere. The experience was so incredible and surreal, I spent the majority of the night pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t all a dream.
One final side note: I also got to order my first beer at a sporting event, which made the whole night even better!
Representing for Seattle at the Stadium
The match made such an impression on many of us, that we’re heading back Sunday afternoon to catch another game, Roma vs. Genoa, an official Italian Serie A match! Last night was the five best Euro’s I’ve spent in Rome, and I can’t wait to go back and check out another game. This time I hope I’m a little more prepared for what happens, but after last night I’m fairly confident that I have no idea what's in store for me when I head back to Stadio Olympico.
Which makes it all the better.
Stadio Olympico
European soccer is insane! I feel like insane is a serious understatement, but I don’t know what else to call it. Crazy. Loco. Mesmerizing. Incredible. Wild. None of these words do it justice. I considered myself a super sports fan, some may even say an enthusiast. But I was humbled last night. I have nothing on any of these guys! The people chant the whole time. Scream their lungs out. Wave giant flags for 90-plus minutes. Make their own homemade confetti to throw up. And when Roma scores…my gosh!
Yeah that's a flare going off, in the stands. Totally safe!
Final Score: Roma 3, Triestina 1
The final score was Roma 3, Triestina 1, but that’s not what I’ll remember from the night (although I am glad that the game didn't end in a tie). I’ll remember the stunned look on everyone in our program’s faces when people started falling onto us from the rows above. The mosh pits that began at the end of certain songs, and the clapping and laughing that accompanied others. The flares people ignited IN THE STANDS and the cannon shot that came out of pretty much nowhere. The experience was so incredible and surreal, I spent the majority of the night pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t all a dream.
One final side note: I also got to order my first beer at a sporting event, which made the whole night even better!
Representing for Seattle at the Stadium
The match made such an impression on many of us, that we’re heading back Sunday afternoon to catch another game, Roma vs. Genoa, an official Italian Serie A match! Last night was the five best Euro’s I’ve spent in Rome, and I can’t wait to go back and check out another game. This time I hope I’m a little more prepared for what happens, but after last night I’m fairly confident that I have no idea what's in store for me when I head back to Stadio Olympico.
Which makes it all the better.
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