First, I made it to my first destination on my own! Last week we pretty much just were wandering around, we never really had a specific place we were looking for. But yesterday, I went in hunt of the English book store. It was in a very obscure place and I took out my map and found all on my lonesome. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but if you know how directionally impaired I am you completely understand what a milestone this is. So I was very excited to find the bookstore and get all the textbooks I needed.
The locals are starting to recognize the American students because we've been invading their areas for long enough. So today on my way to class, I was stopped by a local shop owner. I was excited that a local finally wanted to chat with me, like I was a regular. He said hello and insisted that I, the beautiful Americano, come inside his store. I didn't think there was any harm. He started speaking a million miles an hour in Italian and I must have looked very confused, because he knew that I didn't understand a word he was saying. Then he started looking around his story and giving me things. I said I didn't want to buy anything and he said "No, for you." I walked away with some shoe polish and he wanted to give me a belt, but I got out of that one somehow. It was all quite a crazy exchange. When I was reliving my story to my friends, they warned in other countries gifts can be a sign of marriage so I should watch out. I think they were joking ;)
My photojournalism professor is 28 and speaks very rough English. But he studied under a photojournalist in New York for two years. Now, he works for different Italian publicans and Newsweek. He was in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and on the Burma Thailand boarder with all the immigrants. He showed us his portfolio and it was astounding...he just takes breathtaking photos. He is also very blunt and makes a lot of jokes, or at least tries, we don't understand what he says a lot. The best part of class was when he was looking at what equipment we all had. He sang a song of triumph when I pulled my Nikon out and gasped in horror at the cannon camera.
In Introduction to Renaissance Art History, we heard exactly was I was hoping for from this class. We will start with lecture for the first half and then leave and go to various museums, churches and galleries throughout Florence. What a fantastic way to learn about the city.
I have Italian three times a week for an hour with 5 other girls. It is nice our class is so small we will have a lot of opportunities to speak out loud. Also, my professor is awesome and she makes fun of all of us because we are really bad at pronunciation. For me, I keep saying the Spanish version and she says "Atenciona, e Italiana no espanol!" Well, the word gente (people) is the same in Italian as it is Spanish, but said very differently. A lot of things are like that, so I have a feelings I will struggle with pronunciation for the whole semester.
I hope everyone is doing great! Have a great rest of the week.
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