My First Day At
An Italian School -
Monday 10th November 2003
It wasn't a great start to the day. Having enrolled in free Italian classes at the local school, about a 15 minute walk away from the apartment, I got up early to get myself prepared for my first day. I had a shower, breakfast and was just about to leave when I looked at the timetable I had been given when I enrolled to discover that on Monday's the class is actually from 3.30 - 5.00 pm and not 9 - 11 am as I had thought! I could have done with an extra hour in bed too, but it was all too late!
When 3.30 pm came I sat down next to a 24 year old Venezuelan called Oscar who spoke English and was soon to become my class "buddy". As other students entered the class, I noticed how many nationalities were represented. There was a Polish girl, several Chinese, an Albanian lady and couple of Moroccan girls. The teacher, a pleasant lady called Lina, appeared incredibly adept at teaching her own language to those less familiar and spoke slowly and clearly making sure everyone understood before she moved on. I was mistaken for an Albanian by the School Principal when she dropped in to say Buona Sera. However I soon discovered that she seems to think most foreigners are Albanian! The class was very productive and not too taxing. It had started just a couple of weeks before I joined so I wasn't too far behind. We learnt how to conjugate a few verbs and the most important thing of all, pronunciation.