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The Italian Test
Non ho capito niente! (I didn't understand anything!) Ho compiti per casa. (I have homework). What in the world...?
As I have said several times before in these blog entries, I AM NOT A STUDENT! Ok and it would have been better if it were in Italian so I could actually learn some of the language from it, but NO..... it's in English! For English class! Ugh.
Since I don't have to do anything, I think school is the easy part of the day. Normal school day schedule:
-Wake up, shower, breakfast
-Go to school, struggle to understand the teachers, and teach myself Italian.
-Go home and do stuff
-Sleep
Today's schedule was the same as any other school day, except the English teacher took advantage of me being there. Here's how it came about.
Before English class, there was the philosophy and history (in which I was studying Italian vocabulary with Maria Elena, using the drawing I talked about on Saturday) and then the Italian class. In their Italian class, they had to take a written test. The teacher gave me a test just for kicks, and I posted a picture of it so you could see (very different from American
Pioveva oggi...
It rained today... and the school apparently is not that waterproof. tests, format-wise it seemed). The first question asked something about comparing the two books of these two authors I've never heard of. So on the first line I wrote (if you can't see it) "Dispiache. No ho legguto questi libri. Non posso rispondere questa problema" which translates to "Sorry. I haven't read these books. I cannot answer this question." (I was able to write those sentences pretty easily, but I spent most of the time trying to figure out what the question was asking, which was stupid because I really didn't need to know it anyway. On another question I said "Dispiace, non ho studiato. Studiaro la prossima volta" which means "Sorry, I didn't study. I will study next time". I gave the test to the prof, and she got a good laugh out of it! I still probably failed the test. 😞
Anyways, when English came along, the prof had me read a poem for the class, and then talk about my literature classes, and then had me talk about books that I thought the guys in the class would like to read. It turns out that the real purpose of this was
See?
They have to use trashcans to catch the rainwater from the leaks. As one of the teachers said, "good institution, huh?" to figure out what books she was going to have the class read over the summer... that tricky professor. So, before I knew her intent, I suggested Frankenstein and 1984 (she decided on 1984). So I played a part in the fate of the guys reading. However, I did save them from the hell that guys would suffer through if they had to read Pride and Prejudice with the girls. If they ever come to know that, I don't know, but I have the satisfaction of knowing I probably saved their summer from suffering.
Then she asked me about drama. Apparantly she read my application and found out I do theatre, and then she proceeded to ask me what plays I've been in that are classic. So I told her Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters by Carlos Goldoni (she was happy about that) and that I played Marc Antony in our Shakespeare night shows. She got all excited and wanted me to do the famous monologue (Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...).
Dear Lord.... That was 2 years ago, lady, and I haven't looked it over since!
So I got about 8 lines into
A One-Way Tunnel
That's new to me. There is a stoplight to tell you when to go... but I'd still be nervous. it and hit a wall. I thought she be like "Ok, Ok, all right that's good, thank you (Come si chiama? (what's his name) ) Bryan? No Stan, Stan, thank you Stan" (in her British-accented English) but, NO, she wanted me to go home and see if I could memorize it again so I could recite it to the class (or even read it if it's written). Then she went on to say how she did it 20 years ago and still remembers a lot of it (well, yeah, she did look it over a bit. She is an English teacher...). So for the sake of my dignity, I'm probably going to memorize it again by Wednesday. So there we are. I expected an easy day of school, and I come home with what? Compiti a casa d'Inglese (English homework). Yay.
Well that sums up my school day. We came home, had a great lunch (as usual), and then Elena, Claudia and I went to the supermarcato (supermarket) to buy food. Now I was really really excited about this because I wanted to see the differences between a place like Walmart and Safeway, etc. and an Italian supermarket. I
Giulio Metano
This guy cracks me up. Nice hair, eh? Who does he remind you of? I seriously can't place a name took my camera and everything. So I decided to make a video slideshow of the pictures that I took in the store. You will see that the general placement, presentation, and functioning of many of the things are different... from the amount of pasta in the store to the freezers to the way they weigh and price their fruits and veggies.
The funniest thing about this trip (besides Claudia pretending like she didn't know me when I was taking pictures) is that after I took the last picture that I wanted, a guy came up to me (wearing this really cheesy pink-striped dress-shirt) and started yapping at me in Italian. Non ho capito (I didn't understand) until Elena told me he was saying that I'm not allowed to take pictures in the supermarket. Oh really? And why didn't I get this message before I took the 25 pictures?!?! That's ok, because I still had them. It turns out they were afraid that I would use the pictures for commercial use. Yeah, because I'm going to go home and start making money off of some pictures of the pasta aisle... I bet there are people on eBay who'd buy them though...
So just a warning to my readers, if you watch my video, and you try to put it to commercial use, and randomly some Italian person working at that supermarket in Rovigo, Italy stumbles upon your efforts at making a profit, I can be in deep... so don't try it! 😱
On the way home, we stopped by Elena's parents house so they can meet me. Nice folks, spoke little English, but i could understand most of the time since they spoke slow. When we got home, we had dinner (of omelettes with bread to eat it on... actually kind of tasty) and then Claudia, Paolo and I played Super Smash Bros. on the Wii. And some other crummy game called "one piece". I won't even capitalize the name because it was so lame.
And after that I worked on my "compiti de casa" (homework), and now I'm here, making a video of a supermarket and typing a blog entry at the same time.
So yes.
We did have a question on yesterday's entry, from some dork named "Ranger Bob". Now who ever this weirdo is, he asked the question, "does Paolo play an instrument, or is he just a music fan"? Well, Ranger Bob, he plays the bass (the stringed instrument, not the fish) and in a band (two, actually), and I think I have mentioned that before... like on Saturday's post... and last Monday's post... but that's ok.
Oh! I also found a picture of Giulio. The guy with the funky hair, you know? I'll put it on here too 😊. Comment if you think of anyone his haircut reminds you of because it looks so... old... but it really rings a bell. I just can't pull a name.
Alrighty well that's all I've got! Have a great rest of your day there in the good ole' USA while I catch some sleep.
Buonanotte, e Ciao!
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Lauren Shoop
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Giulio's haircut
Ok this guy's haircut reminds me of quite of few people haha.. Rod from Hot Rod, Will Ferrell and John C. Reily (both from step-brothers), and Ty lehman haha well that's all i suppose. Really you couldn't think of anyone??