Venice, Italy - "One week down and eleven to go..." I'm sure my drinking companions had a slightly different perspective when we raised our glasses to toast the completion of the first week of classes, as they are all faculty at Venice International University. (This is the school where Jerry is teaching this semester; indeed it is the reason we are in Venice.)
But I felt I also earned the right to toast, not because I am teaching but because I am taking classes - all part of my goal to eat, drink and speak as much Italian as possible while I am here.
VIU is located on San Servolo, an island in the Venice lagoon. In former incarnations it was a monastery and an assylum, but now it is a univerisity, which inspires many jokes about how the place has not really changed.
We go to school on a vaporetto, which is like a water bus - quite a pleasant commute! So this was the first week of a new routine: getting up early to study vocabulary and drill verbs; stopping for a capuccino on the way across the campo; then waiting for the boat, just like all the other Venetian commuters.
Somehow I ended up in the intermediate Italian class (which I am sure says more about the VIU evaluation process than it does about my Italian skills!). The other students in the class are Chinese, Japanese, German and Israeli. I am the only American. I am also the only student over the age of 25 (however slightly). I think my presence adds a real element of diversity to the class, allowing us to learn such important words as sposata (married) and lavora (job).
And although I have been studying all week, this weekend we have our first real homework assignment: a 250-word essay about my family and my life in America. This intermediate class is serious business.
Stay tuned: if my essay comes out good, I might just post the masterpiece (in the original Italian, of course)
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