Monday, November 26, 2012

26 November, 2012, Monday first day Scuola Leonardo da Vinci, Firenze


View from our classroom
Monday, the first day of school at Scuola Leonardo da Vinci. We only have one boy, Korean I think who already speaks four languages. After class he asked me in English about California. His English was very very good. It's clear he has a gift for languages. One very soft spoken Japanese girl arrived in August for beginning Italian. She'll be here for a year. I am so envious of these young students whose families have the means to support them. Maria, from Spain wants to be able to speak to her future son-in-law. The young Swiss girl needs the language for work in fashion design. Two other girls, I'm afraid Americans, sit at the far end of the table. Twice our instructor has asked them to put away their cell phones and stop texting. These privileged children are not good ambassadors.  
 
I re-studied ten idiom common phrases which I will write on cards and finally use them.
 
We also gave each other advice on how to learn better. So nice to see memorizing lists of words is pretty futile. I was the only one who suggested using an audio book along with its print copy. Listening to songs seemed to be the most common method suggested. No one is buying DVDs it seems. My suggestion of turning on the Italian subtitles (for hearing impaired) was a new idea.
 
The class has elements which are easy for me which means I can concentrate on what I don't know. Three instructors in the hallways have asked if I had been a student before. We all looked familiar to each other. I haven't attended for four years, during Alessandro's illness. Three or six months attending school is my first dream to achieve
 
At break, I went to pickup my ring, but found them closed on Mondays.
 
At 12.15 the two classes for my day were done. I was hungry after only having a baba, milk and tangerine for breakfast. Near the Duomo I bought a piadina with prosciutto, lettuce, dried tomatoes and black truffle sauce. A piadina looks like a burrito, but tastes nothing like one. Served hot off the grill.  The bread is folded over, with whatever you have chosen inside. I could only eat half and put the rest on my window sill fridge.




 

 
Then I was ready to race to Via Banchi near Santa Maria Novella, to find the offices of the English newspaper, The Florentine. I rang and the door buzzed open. Impossible to find the auto light switch! Up three flights on stairs in darkness to find their door propped open for me.    I confirmed my reservation for Friday afternoon's tour of the Vasari Corridor.  Odd that everyone in the office speaks only Italian. I didn't try my English. Cost was 60€ which includes a book about Italian women painters.
 
Different shop keepers have different personalities and I have more words to speak in some shops. In the bookstore I was able to have a normal conversation about two authors I love, Marco Vichi and Gianrico Carofiglio.  I bought four books. Can't wait to have time to read them. I'm too busy here to read! I also found a new TV series set of Dvds, Il Giovane Montalbano, based in writings on Andrea Camilleri. I have only bought one book of his. He writes in parts in Siciliano dialect and it's a little too difficult to follow.




 
In the stocking shop, GoldenPoint when I bought stockings, conversation was impossible. She held fingers up to indicate 4, like I was a child. It was difficult for us to understand each other.  Buy four of one type and get one free. When I couldn't find a fourth pair I liked, she gave me a look...I was too stupid to understand her offer.
 
Near the Duomo at Armando Poggi  (Via dei Calzaiuoli, 103) I bought three Pandora charms, plus one free one! 27€ each for silver and made in Italy. Now I have a Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and a Florentine fleur. The free one is Venetian glass.



Back in my room it took two hours to complete homework. Laura called and we arranged to meet in Arezzo tomorrow. Sara will be there too. Sara and I chatted in Facebook to decide on the right train for me to take: 1.13 arriving one hour later in Arezzo.
 
Homework done, I got ready to walk one hour to meet another of Alessandro's friends. We planned to meet at 8.15 and leave for a restaurant at 9.00. Dinner here is normally around this time.  I was given a jar of freshly made jam, using fruit from his own garden. He gave me a spoonful to sample.  Delicious! I left with a bagful of fresh apples too.
 
Just before midnight they dropped me off on the bridge up north from Ponte Vecchio. I took some pictures of Christmas lights. There were several couples strolling and lots of street lighting. After 15 minutes I was back inside the hotel.



 

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