Remember that line from “There’s Something About Mary”? I think of that line whenever something is going so well, then all of a sudden it’s not. Benvenuti in Italia.
If you read our plan, you know that we are planning on spending the vast majority of our time in Europe in Italy. So, we thought it would be a good idea to take some Italian lessons so we could communicate in the local language. The school we enrolled in even set up the accommodations in Florence.
The school offered 3 types of accommodations; a private room in a dorm, a shared room in a dorm, or with a host family. We thought, “It might be a little awkward to stay in the home of complete strangers, but it would be a great opportunity to practice our new language skills and live with locals that can help us to acclimate to Italy and to the city.” Arriving in Florence, we were nervous and excited to meet our new family for the next 2 weeks.
Primo problema: What we got was a room to sleep in and our own bathroom. That’s it. There is a family that also lives here, but they don’t talk to us. There was no offer to use the living room, or kitchen, or to even use the fridge to keep water in. So, we are confined to the bedroom. We don’t really feel welcome. And to top it off, it is absolutely boiling in our room. The first night must have been over 90 degrees. So, we don’t really have a home base where we are comfortable to just hang out and relax when we need downtime.
Secondo problema: I love picking up language skills when I travel to other countries and attempting to communicate in the local language. One of my prouder moments was at a restaurant in Portugal, when after I had ordered in Portuguese, Jesslyn and her mom were struggling to communicate something to the waiter, who then looked at me and said in Portuguese, “you speak Portuguese, what are they saying?” (I think you know what happened next). OK, so we decided to take beginner Italian classes, or as they put it when we first showed up, “absolute beginner”. Perfect.
On our first day of Italian class, the teacher is rambling away in Italian, and the other students are nodding, and responding in Italian! This is the kind of class where they only speak Italian in the classroom. We didn’t have a clue what she was saying. I said half joking to Jesslyn, but loud enough for the teach to hear me, “I thought this was the beginner class?!”. I felt like I was in a bad dream in which I was back in Monsieur Boisvert’s freshman French class and I hadn’t done my homework, only there is no back row to hide in. There are only 12 of us in class and we sit in a horseshoe formation. It turns out that 4 of the students are native Spanish speakers. Spanish and Italian are so similar, they really just need to teach them pronunciation. Another student had been taking online classes for 3 months. Two others are German who, although it’s not their native language, speak Spanish as well. Jesslyn and I are use to being at the top of the class, so this is a tough situation for us.
Allora, things are getting better…
On our second night at the home, we asked how we can make the room cooler. They said to leave the door open (awkward, but I’ll deal with it). We asked for and received a fan. It was much better, only 85 degrees. We also discovered the public library, which has free wifi and air conditioning. We spent the afternoon there planning and booking more of our trip. They even have a cafeteria that serves beer and wine! We didn’t get any, but it’s good to know its there if we need it. So, we still don’t have the family we wanted, but we wouldn’t have that in a dorm either.
Day 2 of class was better than day 1. I think it was because we knew what to expect. The teacher is really nice. She’s patient, and doesn’t make me feel dumb when I say dumb things (I know, hard to believe, but it happens). And, we are not the worst in class. There is a sweet older lady from Japan, Kyoko, who struggles as much as we do. It must be so much harder for her. Actually, there are a lot of similar words between French and Italian, so those years of French class are finally paying off. Merci and grazie M. Boisvert.
- Jake