classes? school?

Buongiorno blog followers, and welcome to the next installment of the trials and tribulations of being a student in Rome. Yes, everyone, I do still go to school.

Before I get into that, I must tell you that I just successfully managed to make my first pot of coffee, or shall I say espresso, after several failed attempts. I am very pleased with myself, and feel as if I should receive an award or something. First off, the espresso pot does not fit on our stove, so placing the pot becomes a serious balancing act (it has indeed landed on the floor). Second, the plastic handle is so low to the flame that if you aren’t careful, it melts. Third, no matter how hard you screw up on the top of the pot, water/coffee magically trickles down the sides of the pot and gets all over the stove. Finally, you never really know the water to espresso ratio, so you just have to put it in, close your eyes, and pray for the best.

This time, God heard my prayers.

Last week was the first week of classes, and I soon found out that going to school here was going to be a little harder than I had anticipated. I am attending a small university, known as The American University of Rome. The student body is primarily composed of those, like me, looking to wander the streets of this eternal city and expose themselves to a different way of life. However, you do stumble upon the occasional student that just couldn’t get on the flight home, and decided to take permanent residence in Rome.

To my pleasant surprise, I only have class Monday-Wednesday. I am taking 5 classes, all of which revolve around Italy. My favorite class so far is Masterpieces of Italian Opera. In this class, we will be taught how to analyze opera from top to bottom, and we will also be attending the opera here in Rome. The homework? Listening—to become so versed in the three CD’s of Italian opera given to us that we can identify by composer, tone, and meaning of the opera in a mere 10 seconds. The second class I am taking is Shakespeare’s Italian plays. In this class, we are reading The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and Othello. This one should be a challenge. Of course, I am taking Italian, which hopefully will help me get around Rome (we have all come to the conclusion that no one really speaks English, especially in our neighborhood). Perhaps among my most interesting classes in Archaeology of Rome, where we will be on site at various places in Rome, learning the ins and out of how archeologists go about excavating ancient ruins. It has become well known that they can’t ever build anything new in Rome, because as soon as they try, the stumble across another amazing ruin. The final class I am taking is Italian architecture. After my visit to the Roman Forum, I was really excited for this class because it baffles me how, with minimal technology, the Romans managed to build these incredible buildings that are still standing today.

Ciao for now, for it is 50 and sunny and Roma awaits.

chrissy