Superiore!
11/18/2008 8:32:55 AM

Oggi, ho cominciato la mia quattro ed ultima classa d'Italiano. Quando la insegnante ci ha dato i nuovi libri, ho visto che il titolo della livello e' "superiore". "Makiko, siamo 'superiore!'" e rideviamo.

Today, I began my fourth and final Italian class. When the teacher gave us the new books, I saw that the title of the level is "superiore." "Makiko, we're 'superiore!'" and we laughed.

Some of those verbs should have been in the imperfetto form, but whatever, I'm tired. Makiko, my Japanese classmate who has been with me since the beginning, laughed with me because after the third level's failures, we don't feel superior! The fourth level, by ogni ben di Dio, doesn't really introduce anything drastically new but instead more thoroughly covers what we've learned already, and seeks to expand our knowledge of the language outside of "Maria bought a red dress last week and wore it to the party." Case in point: we read an article from a psychology journal today on dream interpretation. And the Italian word for psychoanalysts- psicanalisti- is the hardest thing in the world to pronounce. But I digress.

In this class I have two new classmates. One is from Croatia and one is from England. This officially brings my total of nationalities of classmates here to nine, ten if you include my Italian intsructors: Japan, Czechoslovakia, Venezuela, Iceland, France, Germany, England, Croatia, and of course, America. I've gotten past the stereotypes and gotten to know so many different people from all over the world. Had I not taken this ridiculously huge Italian class, I would have been in class with only American trust fund babies, safely shielded from the outside world yet again. Not that there's anything wrong with Americans, but, to be frank, I see quite a few of them in America.

I've really gotten close with Makiko and Takeshi, two of the Japanese students who have been with me since the beginning. Takeshi leaves this week, but before he left he gave me a beautiful Japanese wall hanging with horses on it, probably because it's a frequently discussed subject in class: the Japanese consider carne di equino crudo (raw horse meat) to be a delicacy, and of course I do not! Last Friday, I made lunch for them both that did not involve horse meat! Now that Takeshi is gone, it is down to Makiko and I. Makiko is a 24 year old singer from Osaka, Japan who could not be more different from me, yet more perfect for me. She and I have really bonded recently, and I have no doubt that my future includes a trip to visit her in Japan, as well as a visit from her! I'm really going to miss her when I go.

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