I'm trying to think of everything that's been going on over these last two weeks that's made me too busy to sit down and write a blog post! I'll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).

Way back at the end of my first week here, we had our first all-day excursion. We went to Florence for the day to see just how beautiful Tuscany really is (very beautiful) and to see the famous Duomo. Unfortunately I am a terrible blogger and have no photos to accompany this post as they are all on my camera, but you can take my word for it that it was beautiful. To be brutally honest, I kind of preferred the drive through the countryside to the city itself. It's lovely to see the scenery changing as you drive across the different regions, from the hills of Marche to the mountains of Umbria and the stunning greenness and typical Italianness of Tuscany. Florence wasn't a let down by any means, we had some delicious gelato, looked round some fancy shops, saw the house where Dante lived, and visited the statue of David (not the real one mind you, the queue was a bit ridiculous), I just think I was feeling very tired after a week full of lessons and other activities so the idea of sitting on a coach rolling through the countryside appealed more than walking round sightseeing in the heat.

During the second week, I was busy almost every day with outings. We went to Jesi, a pretty little town near Ancona, and also to Matelica, which is the town where my teacher is from. We were paired off and given a list of things to find out from local people, such as how to say a certain phrase in the local dialect or what they thought about living in the town. Luckily it was market day so there were plenty of people around, and we struck gold with a French stall holder who had a local guide book on him.

On the Wednesday we had an evening of playing 'Chi vuol esser millionario?' (Who wants to be a millionaire). My team was up first, and we did ok to begin with. There was a question about tiramisù so I was very happy, but we fell down when it came to 'Whats the population of Italy?' We guessed 75 million but it was actually 60 million. We still somehow managed to win though and got a free grande gelato!

Then on the Friday the school held an International Dinner, where each nationality represented had to cook a traditional dish from their country. Being the only representative of the UK, I was at a bit of a disadvantage, but did the best I could and attempted a Victoria sponge with no weighing scales, no rolling pin to do the icing, no cake tins and no vanilla essence. It could've tasted a lot better, but I disguised it with a big Union Flag and hoped for the best.

The best bit of the night was getting the chance to taste some Latin American dishes from the other represented countries. The Brazilians did a sort of couscous and tomato starter, the Costa Ricans made marinated aubergines, the Mexicans had a coconut dessert, and the Argentinians did impanadas, which I can only describe as yummy, South American cornish pasties.

At the end of that week, it was time for, in my opinion, the best excursion of the month: ROMA! I didn't think it would be possible to see all the main touristy bits in just one day, but somehow we managed to see the Colosseum, the Roman forum, Mussolini's palace (it does have another name, but I forget what it is), Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, AND the Vatican, even if it did mean we only had about 15 minutes in each place. It was already noticably busier than when we went in February, but it was also sunnier and I felt like I even knew my way around a little bit. It's such a perfect city for walking around, and is very quickly becoming my favourite capital. 

Now onto week three! Something new and wonderful has entered my life this week... cappuccinos. Why I've never discovered the beauty of coffee before, I couldn't tell you, but there is a free coffee machine at the language school and never being one to say no to a bargain, it's my new addiction. They are only to be consumed in the morning though, as we've been told that no matter how well you can speak Italian, if you order a cappuccino in the afternoon, you will always be asked where you're from as Italians would never ever ever drink coffee after breakfast. Being told this was all part of a cultural lesson we had, Italia: Istruzioni per l'uso (Italy: Instructions for use). We learnt about the meaning behind all those hand gestures that they use (I've become convinced that it is impossible to speak Italian without them) and about the five most important things in the lives of Italian men (their mum, their car, food, wine and football. The teacher was very keen to point out that 'wife' wasn't one of them).

Our afternoon excursion this week was to Cingoli, a tiny little town on a mountain top high above the rest of Marche. There was a bellissima view from the top and it was a clear day so we could just about make out the coast of Croatia on the horizon! 

I've just realised that it must seem like all I'm doing here is going on days out, but that's not the case at all. We have four hours of language lessons every morning and they are challenging to say the least. I still feel like my group is difficult, but if I moved down it would be too comfortable and too similar to what I was doing in second year of university. I think I need to be in the advanced group even if I'm clearly one of the weakest in the group as it's good preparation for fourth year.

This week's evening activity was one I had been dreading since first being handed the month's program back on day one: La Serata Karaoke. Karaoke is the stuff of my worst nightmares as it is, but when there are only four people in your class, you can't hide. To make things worse, first the Spanish speakers did a song, then the Portuguese speakers, until it was my turn. As the only English speaker, thankfully I wasn't made to sing alone, and it ended up being quite fun. We sang 'It's raining man', a strange, nonsensical version of 'It's raining men' which had apparently been transcribed by someone who spoke limited English, and as 99% of people at the school are Latin American or Italian, they like a good party and it went on pretty late. Can't say I'll be rushing to do it again, but it was fun in the end.

I can't believe this is my last weekend here already, and also my last excursion! Yesterday we went to Bologna, in the Emilia Romagna region, and it ended up really surprising me! Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world, so it had a really welcome studenty atmosphere, and of course I couldn't go to Bologna without eating some of their Spaghetti Bolognese. Interestingly, they make it with pork rather than beef, but it definitely lived up to expectations. I also will never stop finding it funny that people from Bologna are called Bolognese. 

So that pretty much sums up my last two weeks! It's only now that It's starting to dawn on me that this is the last week of my 'official' year abroad! I don't feel anywhere close to ready to leave Italy yet, and my Italian could still do with some work, but I'm glad that I've ended the year on a high, and all the weeks of hating/loving France have been worth it for this short time in Italy. I won't go on too much though as I'm sure I'll squeeze another post in somewhere between now and when I get home :)

Ciao for now!

Alice x

Il Ritorno in Italia

Well I've now waved goodbye to France for the last time on my year abroad and am finishing off the year in style, with a one month stay in San Severino Marche, a piccola città in central Italy. While obviously my aim this whole year has been to learn French and Italian, I've had other jobs to do as well, and language learning is something that has happened as a result of being immersed, rather than me actively studying. All that has changed now though with this latest trip, and it feels more than a little strange to be the student again, and to not be teaching English. I think I mentioned in my last post that I was looking forward to sitting in the place of a pupil rather than a teacher in the classroom, and although I appreciate the change of perspective, I kind of miss being the one in charge and being the one who supposedly has all the knowledge! I'm also finding it harder to sit still and listen for a couple of hours, and I've been getting fidgety as a result of being used to walking around the classroom. This worries me slightly as I've still got another year of listening to lectures at university to go, but I've got some time to get used to the idea.

When I arrived here I was surprised to see that I was the youngest person by quite a few years, and everyone else seemed fluent. I have now managed to find a few other people around the same age as me, although I'm the only one who's come alone. And as for everyone being fluent, I am one of the only students here who's native language is not Spanish or Portuguese, so even when the others speak broken Italian with words from their own language filling the gaps, it sounds impressively flowy (is that a word?). I think there's a trend among us that those who have a romance language as their native tongue, speak with mistakes, but they do it fluently. Whereas me (and I think a lot of other British language learners), won't speak unless we're sure what we're saying is correct. So although we (possibly) make fewer mistakes, we don't sound half as fluent, and the South Americans sound impressively capable in comparison.

It's for that reason that I was more than a little worried when I found out I'd been placed in the most advanced group, along with people who actually teach Italian in their own countries. The grammar is no harder than what we covered last year at university, so I've been able to keep up with that pretty well, but where I'm struggling is vocabulary. I know how to form a sentence with the correct tenses and prepositions etc, to say what I want to say, but I don't know the words to fill that structure and express it. Ironically it's the exact opposite of my problems with French. In French I know a whole bunch of weird and wonderful words, most of which I rarely use, but when it comes to French grammar, I don't have a clue. I know what sounds right, but I couldn't tell you why it's right.

Everyone here is really really lovely though. Italians and South Americans bring me out of my shell because they're so chatty, which is great for me and means I'm speaking nothing but Italian all day long! Although, I have the same issues with the pronunciation of my name as I did last year, and have heard some interesting new versions of it. In the first week, I've been called Alichay, Alexia, Alessia, Alix, Aleesh, and who knows how many other variations, but I can't use the solution I found last year and call myself by my middle name, because there are at least 3 other Marias in our group of about 40. So I'm just learning to listen carefully for any name that might be 'mine'. I told my teacher he could call me Alichay, because that's how the Italians pronounce Alice, but I regret it now because I end up ignoring his questions and looking round the class when he asks 'Alichay' to answer a question, before remembering that's me...

Yesterday I had a weird moment when this woman came up to me after class, and practically pulled her trousers down right in front of me. She started pointing at her underwear and speaking Spanish or Portuguese or something I didn't understand, so I just gave her a funny look until she started making hand gestures and I worked out that she was trying to tell me that someone in my apartment had dropped their knickers over the edge of the railing when they were drying on the terrace. We're on the top floor so this woman had just seen these knickers falling out of the sky and held onto them for 2 days until she found out who lived on the top floor, and I was able to tell her one of my housemates was missing a pair of pants. Then everyone wanted to know what the word for knickers was in English. Oh the joys of language barriers...

Another weird thing is that apparently everyone in my language class thinks I look like Renée Zellweger, and have started calling me Bridget Jones. I don't see the ressemblance, but they're all convinced and several said they noticed it when they first met me, so I've decided to take it as a compliment!

We have a lovely view from our appartment!

Not sure how safe that roof is though! The castle you can see in the photo was where we went to for our first escursione and then yesterday we went to a nearby castle called Calderola and a little town called Tolentino which has an important basilica. Also, every castle and basilica here seems to have the body of some saint or another on display. I think it's morbid and impressive in equal measure that the body just lies there, and that there are so many of these important Catholics to go round that seemingly everywhere has one! 

I'll leave it there for now, as after a week of ridiculously early mornings, I am molto stanca and need to get up at some horrible hour of the morning tomorrow as well. But we're going to Florence, which makes me enormously happy :)

A presto!

Alice :)