the daily grind

So I thought I should tell everybody what a typical day looks like for me right now. Granted, it's been only a week so my routine has not solidified, but here's the best case scenario of what I've been up to:

-Wake up mid morning, say 10 am. Yogurt and bread with nutella for breakfast. Get dressed and begin the 45 minute walk from the residence to school.

-En route, stop at the Mercado Triunfale, a market that is open daily until 1 pm. Buy 3 peaches or nectarines for a total of about 1,30 euro.

-Stop at a cafe for a cappuccino or a cafe (una cafe is an espresso by default, unless you ask for a less potent variety such as macchiato or cafe latte) for about a euro or a little less. Probably will not understand everything that is being said to me. Freeze when it's time to say goodbye and they inevitably say ciao and I never know if it's acceptable to say ciao back. Sometimes i'll say arrivederci but a lot of times I'll hope that a wave and a smile will suffice.

-Arrive at school, eat a peach, check email. Have Cristiano's Italian class from 1-2, where he makes weird sounds and mouths things at us and solicits us to asks him words we don't know (Come si dice ... ?). Somebody will ask something he thinks is dumb (like how do you say nail polish remover) and he will comically berate us, saying "You do not know how to say window, you do not know how to say door, but you ask me how to say nail polish remover? You know nothing and this is what you ask me?" It's a great class.

-Break until 6 pm. Grab lunch nearby campus, probably a panino full of vocabulary words that I don't know, so I'll have to point and say "questa." Even if it's the wrong one, I'll probably take it. They'll say "Caldo?" and I'll say yes, to get a toasted sandwich. Worst case scenario (which frequently occurs), my sad Italian will prompt the clerk to speak english to me. That's not good practice. Maybe get another cafe. This will all probably cost about 4 or 5 euros.

-Go to the library (really only about two rooms) and do homework, or read the paper. Surf the internet. Eat another peach.

-Economics class, learning about international trade with the demanding but entertaining Dottore Patania.

-Sociology class, learning about Italy's crooked past or Italy's crooked present. Very good class that gets me excited to learn all there is to know about political and social tension in this country.

-Last class ends 9pm, walk home. Cook dinner with my roommates and Jimmy when I get home; typically pasta with sauce, a loaf of bread and 2 bottles of wine. la dolce vita indeed.

an exciting time to be here

In my first Sociology of Postwar Italy class last night, the prof alerted us that it's an exciting time to be living here, as there is a real possibility for the dissolution of the current governing coalition. This could be great for Italy, because Prime Minister Berlusconi is one of the most crooked guys in world government, who essentially keeps changing the laws to protect himself from extensive criminal charges of corruption. He is the richest man in Italy who also basically owns the media (all 6 TV stations and a major newspaper) so his ousting would be a particularly historic occasion.

Since I've been here, I've noticed that there is a ton of graffiti everywhere. My political science prof explained this as reflective of the Italian attitude towards public property. Despite being one of the earliest republics, Italy has not been a democracy for much of its history and lacks the "for the people, by the people" sense that we have in America. My soc prof pointed out that a lot of the graffiti is political, and he showed us several symbols that are commonly drawn by extremist groups on the right (neo-fascists) and the left (communist terrorists.) I can't wait to learn enough of the language so that I can hear Italians' opinions on all of this.

Things you can't do in Rome

I'd meant to start to blog earlier, but turns out that the internet in the residence is just awful awful awful. I haven't gotten on even once yet despite trying a couple times per day. so hopefully that gets all fixed up and I don't always have to do this from the school computer. So I've been here since about Tuesday which was really Monday. I stumbled all around center city last night to try and orient myself and I have pictures of lots of touristy things although I unfortunately can't put them on til I get internet on my laptop. So here are some of the first mistakes that I made so you don't make them. Do NOT

1. Order a cappuccino in the evening. Apparently this is a faux pas equivalent to ordering a beer at 7am. Too bad I already did it before I knew (at Bar Doria where I'm considering becoming a regular. I mean I've been there 3 times so I practically am)
2. Pay for 31.83 euro worth of groceries with a 50. They get so mad when you don't have the right change. It also didn't hurt that I couldn't understand a single thing that the signora was telling me about it. You need to have loads of change in your pockets at all times.
3. Say ciao the same way you say hi and bye in english. No singsongy ciaaaoooooo. They say it curtly, quickly, so it almost sounds like you're mad. Ciao.

I've also been walking about 100 kilometers every day, or so it feels, and eating only carbs. Bought a 2 euro bottle of wine in a plastic bottle that looks exactly like ginger ale. There are endless wonders here.