So, it's the end of my first week in Italy, and my first week at Italian school! My Italian has definitely improved (although it's still rubbish!) and my 'charades' is now excellent! I already want to stay longer than the 6 weeks I had planned. I'll have to consult my bank accounts and rethink the trip budget I think....
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Packed and ready to go after a week's stop off in England!
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I arrived in Rome last Sunday and was completely overwhelmed at first! I had gotten up at 4am to get my flight from Manchester and was still a bit hungover from my big Friday night out in Northwich (!) with Rachel. :-)
I didn't speak any Italian because I had quit studying in April in order to devote more time to my other ambition of getting a six pack!! I failed at that too!
Crossing the road here reminded me of Vietnam. (Having been here a while now I can say it is not like Vietnam, but still, people don't exactly stop for pedestrian crossings).
Despite all this I managed to take two trains from the airport to the apartment I had arranged through my school. My room is nice, although my bed is tiny and the apartment has no living room. I don't really mind, I actually only noticed that it didn't have a living room after a few days - I spent the last month living in a van so....
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| Doing my homework on my tiny Italian bed! |
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| My walk to school on my first day |
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| A typical Roman street - very narrow and cobbly. I'm glad I didn't bring my flip flops or there would be some serious toe injuries! |
The next day was my first day of school! When I arrived everyone had to take a test to determine which level we would be put into. I didn't want to take the test really - I didn't want to get put into any level higher than beginner. I didn't need to worry, I could only answer the first 6 or 7 questions! We also had to have a conversation in Italian as part of the test..mine didn't last very long! When we got the results an hour or so later, I was in Livello 1 :-) shocker!
Our lessons don't start until 12.30 this week so I spent a couple of hours walking randomly around Rome with Kirsten (also Livello Uno).
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Some ruins!?
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I had not done much research before coming to Rome, I had spent my time planning the first parts of our trip so we didn't really know where we were going. We saw lots of really nice places though! It seems like there is an historic sight around every corner in Rome.
Unfortunately we walked so far that we ended up rushing back for our class so I got there all hot and sweaty on the first day. Rome is warm at the moment - I wore a cardigan, a hoody and a coat from Manchester and I was so hot when I arrived. I didn't bring my 30+ sunscreen either - BIG mistake!
Our teacher at school - Edoardo - is very nice - he speaks so slowly and doesn't laugh at us when we make stupid mistakes. There is only Italian spoken at the school (No English or German etc). So you can't help but learn it...hopefully!
I spent the rest of my first week going to school, going out with the other students in my class - practicing our Italian in the restaurants and gelaterias, and wandering randomly around Rome because I still hadn't opened my Lonely Planet!
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