grammatica e conversazione

(here is the last in a series of three excerpts from an email to Katy)

"So I had to take an entrance test before school started and they put me in the second lowest level, which suits me just fine because I think it's where I need to be. I have classes mon-fri 9am to 12:30 ish. It's about 2 hours of what they call structure and grammar, but the practice we do is mostly conversational and interactive. Then after a short break there is about 1.5 hours of expression and conversation. We're 12 students in a tiny room without airconditioning and it's about 90 most days. Most of the other students have studied Italian for about 2 years- they are mostly better than me in grammar , but I think I can usually hold my own in conversation. The other students are from all over- England, Slovkia, Germany, Japan, Austria, Sweden, and one other student from the states. Two of them are 19 years old, the rest are almost all in their 20's, only one other 30-something, but I am the oldest and only one with kids (there's one obviously older woman in the photo below, but she changed classes). I feel like peers with my teachers, who are about my age and do what I used to do, but I don't have the language skills to chat socially with them :( Afternoons are free for me, but if I want to take advantage of the little extracurricular options they organize for us here, I can't go home. I have been finding a park 15 minutes walk from school (there are two) where I eat my lunch and do my homework, then just reading the newspaper (trying to keep on top of American politics and maybe learn something about Italian politics) or window shopping. One day last week, I suggested an outing to a restaurant for lunch and more than half the class came. It was fun and I think I'll do the same again. We can all be communication handicapped together...

In the evenings there are little social outings or a lecture, or a visit to a historic location. It makes for an incredibly long day because I get up at 6, leave by 7, classes start at 9, I'm in town sometimes til 8-ish (that's the last bus that goes all the way out to our house) and don't eat dinner til 9. Exhausting for me, hard on your Dad because it leaves him with all the work at home... Not every day is long, maybe two every week I can be home by 3 or 4. Tonight to make the long day more fun, yer dad, maddy and gus are coming into town to eat in the same resturant as my school."

The photos above are: our classes first lunch outing (there have been more) and our whole class from week one.  Photo 1: Denisa, Michele, Elena, and me  Photo 2: Katie, Jenny, and Sinead  Photo 3: Amanda, Me, our conversation teacher Marina, then in back: Michele, Linnea, Katy, Agnes, Jenny, Sinead, Harriet, Angela, and Denisa.  The class is full of great people and we laugh a lot together.  Four are leaving this weekend to go home or on to other Italian adventures and I will miss them!