Daily life

It's official; I'm done with my first full week of my normal grad school schedule for the rest of the semester.  I've been here three weeks, but this is the first week we had regular class beyond academic orientation and intensive reading sessions.  At the risk of sounding overconfident, I am way less freaked out/overwhelmed than I thought I would be.  I'm realizing I can do this, I am interested in what's going on, what I'm learning, and honestly, I expect to be very successful.

In some ways, I am being completely masochistic and taking on way more than I actually need to.  Perhaps inappropriately, I moved up to the highest level of the three Italian courses being taught at the British Institute to the JMU students.  I am completely in over my head in some respects, but I have had open communication with program directors about my intense desire to learn and be immersed, and so I have been told this decision makes sense.  I'm putting myself on a completely accelerated course in many ways, and I have agreed to spend two extra hours a week working with the program director's daughter to bring me up to speed with others in the higher level class.  I was essentially offered two complimentary hours a week of private tutoring with a native Italian speaker... and I couldn't pass it up.

When I step back and consider that I did not come here to study Italian language, nor is it essential for my courses, (or, in Florence, really even for daily life) it gives me pause to consider how much time I should really commit to this endeavor.  But then I think, I have one year to live in Italy, one chance to learn a language while it is all around me.  I'm not sure how much I can learn, or how much I can use it when all is said and done, but for right now it's something I just really want to prove to myself I can do.

Anyway, life in Florence has somewhat settled into routine, although nothing is really the same day to day.  I mostly cook for myself, as I find grocery shopping and buying fresh vegetables relatively inexpensive but dining out expensive.  A few of us indulged in one great meal out-- I had a contorno (it's like a 2nd course dish) of tuna with these amazing caramelized onions and mint.  We of course had crostini to start and bottles of wine, so it was a whole production that ended up costing me a pretty penny. But it was so worth it.

In Santo Spirito (the square where I live) I have a vegetable lady and a cheese guy I like to visit.  I decided to continue visiting one produce stand regularly after the woman was very nice and didn't slap my hands when I inadvertently touched the produce-- you don't do that here, as at American farmers' markets.  To those selling their fruits and vegetables at the outdoors stands, their goods are their art, their delicate products, and you are expected to yield to their expertise in which ones they select for you.  If you can speak Italian with them-- and I haven't gotten this far, yet-- they will take so much care as to ask you when you intend on using whatever you are buying, and select each piece accordingly.  You're just supposed to trust them.

When I bought cheese, the man in Santo Spirito took great time to have me sample four or five different cheeses-- some practically the same, just of different ages.  He would give me huge pieces to sample, waiting for my reaction and preferences.  I didn't really know what I was looking for, other than the experience of buying cheese, and so I ended up just arbitarily picking an aged peccorino.  It struck me that he was genuinely concerned that I find just the right cheese, just what I wanted, regardless of how much time he spent talking with me or how many samples he volunteered.  It was patience that I, as an American, was slightly uncomfortable with... I just assumed I was taking up too much of his time or taking too many samples having not yet decided.  But it was as though he was an artist showing his craft, asking for feedback and ensuring he would be a reliable source in the future.  It's all about the relationship.

While it almost sounds like a caricature of Italian life, it isn't presumptuous, cliché, or overdone.  It just is the way you do things, almost by necessity.  I suppose you could go several times a week to the large, impersonal supermarket much further away from home, but it is just usually a more pleasant and convenient experience to communicate within your piazza, and with the people you see almost daily.  I get caffé at the same bar almost everyday, and expect to see the same two or three people there.  It's things like this you appreciate much more when you live someplace, rather than when you are a tourist.  

I went to a film (well really thirteen short films) at the Giornate del Cinema Europeo tonight, which is a large (free!) film festival currently running in Florence.  The subject of the thirteen short films was self-examined German identity, and each short-story projected varying citizen attitudes about welfare-state policies, immigration, globalization, gentrification, bureaucracy and other themes.  It was a look at German identity unlike anything ever found on a postcard or that I had been exposed to, slightly depressing and perhaps pessimistic, but completely fascinating. 


Here is a link to the film festival/description: http://cineuropa.org/film.aspx?documentID=89648 

It's 2:30 in the morning, Santo Spirito is filled with dogs, people yelling and bongo drums as usual, and I am just finishing this glass of Chianti, this long enough blog entry, and this long enough day.  Buonanotte a tutti.

Ciao Firenze.

I arrived in my new city on Tuesday, and it has been a blur of chianti, sleep deprivation, long walks, and broken Italian since then.  I have accomplished a few things: took an early morning run to the outskirts of town, made an ikea trip by city bus, found an excellent aperitivo spot for locals only, learned the €5 bottle of vino rosso from the restaurant across the street is utter crap, and discovered the best kabob in the neighborhood.  I feel guilty every moment I spend in the palazzo taking naps or just hanging out, but I'm already feeling just so comfortable here, and I know Florence will be out there for me to discover all year.  Its a weird feeling, not being rushed to see a million things a day or have my weekends scheduled for me.  They are, for the most part, mine to explore and travel at my own pace.  Its so strange to truly live here.

The palazzo is just as I pictured it, but maybe better.  I have the room right off the square, with a little balcony out onto piazza Santo Spirito.  This square is on the "other side" of the river, meaning we are away from most of the tourist locations and the major churches and attractions.  This might indicate to you that it would be quieter than the other squares, perhaps true during the day-- but at night, our square is where the crazies hang out.  It's not exactly unsafe, police are present and it's very well lit-- it's just loud and filled with all sorts of interesting characters and their bongo drums and dogs.  The square stays very very loud every night of the week until about 4 a.m., then about half an hour later the streets are cleaned and sprayed down, which presents its own set of noises.  The glass from the street trash bins is then separated, so the sounds of breaking glass follows until maybe 6.  Now, I lived in a college undergrad apartment for three years, and even the craziest of those nights cannot compete.  Of one thing I am absolutely certain:  I will be able to live anywhere with any kind of noise after a year of living on Santo Spirito.  Boring podcasts on the ipod have been my method for falling asleep the past few nights.  Definitely an experience.

This next week, I will be in academic orientation sessions, wherein we will discuss summer reading, start Italian classes at the British Institute, and start using the city and EUI library facilities.  We are all very much eager to get into the routine of classes and discussion, and it is very cool to be around other students as interested and excited as I am.  I'm craving a little structure and purpose.  I'm looking forward to settling into a weekly routine as far as where I do my grocery shopping, the time I have to possibly join a gym, and the time I have to explore new places in Florence and beyond.  I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I will, and I'll post them as soon as we get our wireless issues in the palazzo figured out.  We have only been able to use the study room computer all weekend as our laptops require some kind of certificate downloaded by the computer guys...and, as I'm discovering, almost everything in Italy takes just a litttttle bit longer to get accomplished :-P  Ciao a tutti.