I've started this week with a class change to afternoons.
This is very good news for me, as it now means my classes run from 2pm to 5.30pm. Most school extracurricular activities begin at 5.35 so I now have the luxury of getting up later, enjoying a little more leisure (and more of Rome) during the day and continuing on into the evening.
I'm one happy student. I was finding my original class was just too disruptive with a teaching style that wasn't engaging. My new teacher Marta uses a far more didactic approach and the class size is smaller, which has meant a great day of off-the-cuff story telling (trust me, this is hard with my current level of fluency) and some conversation about our weekends and our backgrounds.
Tomorrow I have a day off school as I'm booked on a Context tour of Rome's culinary gems - this includes coffee tasting, visiting the Ghetto for carciofi fritti, artisan gelati and Rome's best pizza houses. Fortunately I walk so much that I'm not too worried about the calories - I find I walk at least two hours a day, including lots of time climbing stairs. Stairs to my classroom at the scuola, stairs to my apartment, stairs up to the Gianicolo..
Last night my landlady Sari and I drove over to Testaccio for dinner at Angelina in Testaccio and it was an amazing meal - home made pasta with rosemary and guinciale. Testaccio has become a mecca for good and innovative food, and its popularily is attested in that we spent more time circling the streets looking for somewhere to park than in driving over from Trastevere (about 5 minutes in the car). Rome belted out a storm while we ate with impressive amounts of rain, thunder and lightning and the roads were almost deserted. We managed to pull up right outside and avoid getting completely drenched.
The restaurant is in a converted warehouse and is decidedly un-Roman like in the decor and well spaced tables, however the service and the food is italian in the most positive sense. I find I am slowly understanding more of the language and could order my food with relative confidence. Piano, piano.
Yesterday I took the plunge and put a profile post up on the Conversation Exchange site seeking some italian conversation buddies. The concept is that you either meet your buddy face-to-face, chat via skype or use email or Facebook. In 24 hours I've had a lot of responses from italians wanting to improve their english in exchange for me speaking in italian. Tonight I've chatted with Angelo from the north of italy, who is not only learning English but also Polish, and who is a history teacher who connects with people all over the globe. I really enjoyed the opportunity to practice the language and can't have been too excruciating as we are chatting again on Sunday. I also have a face-to-face meeting over coffee this Wednesday with a young Roman man who is learning english so I'm hopeful I'll get the opportunity to learn more colloquial italian.
This is very good news for me, as it now means my classes run from 2pm to 5.30pm. Most school extracurricular activities begin at 5.35 so I now have the luxury of getting up later, enjoying a little more leisure (and more of Rome) during the day and continuing on into the evening.
I'm one happy student. I was finding my original class was just too disruptive with a teaching style that wasn't engaging. My new teacher Marta uses a far more didactic approach and the class size is smaller, which has meant a great day of off-the-cuff story telling (trust me, this is hard with my current level of fluency) and some conversation about our weekends and our backgrounds.
Tomorrow I have a day off school as I'm booked on a Context tour of Rome's culinary gems - this includes coffee tasting, visiting the Ghetto for carciofi fritti, artisan gelati and Rome's best pizza houses. Fortunately I walk so much that I'm not too worried about the calories - I find I walk at least two hours a day, including lots of time climbing stairs. Stairs to my classroom at the scuola, stairs to my apartment, stairs up to the Gianicolo..
Last night my landlady Sari and I drove over to Testaccio for dinner at Angelina in Testaccio and it was an amazing meal - home made pasta with rosemary and guinciale. Testaccio has become a mecca for good and innovative food, and its popularily is attested in that we spent more time circling the streets looking for somewhere to park than in driving over from Trastevere (about 5 minutes in the car). Rome belted out a storm while we ate with impressive amounts of rain, thunder and lightning and the roads were almost deserted. We managed to pull up right outside and avoid getting completely drenched.
The restaurant is in a converted warehouse and is decidedly un-Roman like in the decor and well spaced tables, however the service and the food is italian in the most positive sense. I find I am slowly understanding more of the language and could order my food with relative confidence. Piano, piano.
Yesterday I took the plunge and put a profile post up on the Conversation Exchange site seeking some italian conversation buddies. The concept is that you either meet your buddy face-to-face, chat via skype or use email or Facebook. In 24 hours I've had a lot of responses from italians wanting to improve their english in exchange for me speaking in italian. Tonight I've chatted with Angelo from the north of italy, who is not only learning English but also Polish, and who is a history teacher who connects with people all over the globe. I really enjoyed the opportunity to practice the language and can't have been too excruciating as we are chatting again on Sunday. I also have a face-to-face meeting over coffee this Wednesday with a young Roman man who is learning english so I'm hopeful I'll get the opportunity to learn more colloquial italian.
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