Learning a language is a lot like learning to fence. In both cases, it can be a bad thing to get positive reinforcement for doing the wrong thing. I was riding high after my first day or two in Verona when the friendly shopkeepers would give me what I wanted when I asked them for things in Italain, but I’ve come to realize that when it comes to expressing myself I have a long way to go! Without my classes at Idea Verona I might just feel good about my ability to communicate with people by pointing and saying “questo, per favore.” But with a skilled instructor who won’t let me get away with sub-par expression, I am able to do much more (or at least see that I have the potential to do more) than I would have noticed on my own.
Verona is starting to feel like a small town. It’s easy to get around the whole city on foot and we’re starting to get fairly familiar with the two main city centers (piazza Erbe and piazza Bra). We go to new places every day to eat, but so far I haven’t been blown away by anything. It was so hot Thursday we decided just to eat some cheese and drink some wine while watching TV – the heat really takes away one’s desire for heavy, hot meals.
The last two nights we’ve needed to stay up late to watch soccer games. I’ve been nodding off and fairly miserable at them because we’ve had to stay in town all day and they run from 8:30-10:30 or so. This is pretty tough when you are still dealing with jet lag! Thursday we had a quiet evening at home. I’m kind of getting used to the extreme heat in a house without air conditioning. I’m also getting more used to Ornella, our landlady. I was a little offended at first because she is pretty picky about how she wants things (she starts complaining “le scarpe, le scarpe!” if you leave your shoes in the leaving room for more than 5 minutes) but she does our laundry and dishes, which I certainly didn’t expect. I think the landlady situation is just a little different in Italy than in America – she comes into our room and moves our things around, but still gives us plenty of privacy when we’re actually at home. And, we usually figure out at some point why she moved what she moved. The free wifi also isn’t bad.
