Week 1

Well our first week in Italian is over (we ended it a little early since it's just the first week and we did pretty well), and we haven't killed each other or ourselves yet, so things are going pretty well! :)

The google translation of the post below is way better than anything I could come up with, but I'll stick my direct translation there for your amusement. I have attempted to retain any errors in the Italian, but have not unfortunately introduced new errors due to Google Translate. For more humor value, please click the link down there.

We're going to Assisi tomorrow, because, why not? it's 25 minutes away by train. Pictures and report forthcoming.

Our classes and teachers are very good, the city is beautiful, and pretty much the only source of stress is the language itself, which is plenty stressful, but overall, I'd say things are going really well. Italian is coming much faster than German came; I think I(/we) have a much better idea of how languages work now, and I think I'll probably come out of this summer with a pretty good working knowledge of Italian. A great help in that direction is the satellite TV system, which provides a good 1-2 hours a night so far of Italian-dubbed american TV/film.

Currently the Umbria Jazz festival ("OOM-bree-a JETS") is going on in Perugia, which means all over town, inside and outside, for money and for free, there are jazz concerts going on most of the day and all of the night. We went to the center of town and followed around a marching band from New Orleans and then listened to a set from the Roosevelt High School jazz band next to the city's 800 year old fountain. Pretty awesome.

That's all I got! Send poorly translated comments! (or if you send them before monday for me, I shall read them in English)