Day 20

Day 20 September 3, 2010


Did I mention that all of the Romans have finally returned to Rome?

On the 15th of August is the Festival of the Assupmtion…Ferragosto…and traditionally the start of the Roman vacation which runs through the end of August. Many Romans leave the city at this time, its hottest and most humid, to the tourists. A lot of the smaller shops and restaurants had been closed since I arrived and now they are magically opening their doors!

And there are so many more people here! I thought that Rome was full of activity and people but I didn’t realize that half of the “native” population was not even here all this time! What a change! The buses are so crowded that we cram in like sardines. The Metro looks like a giant clown car with people pouring out. Even though it is a little bit uncomfortable, I love it because now the music of the language is all around me! I love hearing Italian. Especially now that I am starting to understand what is being said. It really is like listening to music. Even in class we have to learn how to say a word with the added dimension of intonation. Why doesn’t American-English have music? What a shame! No wonder Italians make such great music…it just lives in their words!

So today is Friday. Nothing really significant happened today. We are planning to leave for the beach early tomorrow so I prepared for that before I left the apartment for today. I just made sure that I had my towel, bathing suit, outfit, etc in order so that I don’t scramble around tomorrow morning.

School went well. I can’t believe that another week is over! I do feel like I am making progress with Italian, but I have such a long way to go. There are so many verbs! So many different conjugations! But I am studying and getting better day by day.

I stayed at the school club after class with “the group” and we partied for a little bit. I, as usual, left early because I just can’t keep up with the “young’uns”. That is a joke. I could keep up but I am discovering that I really don’t enjoy being around drunk people….maybe if I was drunk with them I would find it more amusing….but I just feel like I have to take care of them and make sure that everyone is safe and then there is absolutely no fun left…so I leave before things get to that point and I leave happy.

A domani, andiamo al mare!! (Tomorrow, we go to the ocean!!)