Every morning, we have intensive Italian starting at 9 am. Before class, I usually have breakfast at the Collegio. Breakfast usually consists of un brioche (a croissant), a cappuccino, and maybe some yogurt or fruit. Their breakfasts are very light...nothing like the heavy American breakfasts of pancakes, eggs, and bagels. But it keeps me energized until lunch!
After Italian on Monday, I had an interview to get into the Performance Workshop for the music students and my audition for my voice teacher. I sang "Quel guardo il cavaliere...so anch'io la virtu magica" from Donizetti's Don Pasquale. After hearing me sing she said "You-a have-a a very healthy-a voice." Not quite the feedback I am used to (haha), but she did give me a little bit of a coaching on my aria. She seems like she will be a very excellent, tough teacher and I am really excited to work with her. As I was leaving my audition, the accompanist runs out of the room and calls my name. She explains that she will be my piano teacher this semester. Her English is not very good, so this should be interesting...but she seems very nice. I started blabbing about how I would prefer to to collaborative piano rather than solo piano, until she stops me and says "I-a am-a sorry, but-a my English is-a not so good." So I attempted to explain to her (in my not-so-good Italian) what the term "collaborative pianist" meant. She told me the word for it in Italian, which I can't remember anymore. So she should be very fun to work with too!
On Tuesday, we had our first Performance Workshop class, which was a very interesting class. For the first hour we talked about the aria "O mio babbino caro," its context, meaning, and interpretations on how it should be performed. Apparently no one was familiar with the opera, so I was the expert on it because we had done it this summer at my summer program. We listened to several different versions of the aria and talked about staging and interpretation. For the second hour we talked about Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique), which was very beautiful. We analyzed the score and talked about the meaning of the different musical markings and why the composer chose to do certain things. I am very excited for this class. It seems very interesting and we will get to perform some too!
After class, I got on the metro and got of at a random stop to go find a hairdryer. I walked around down the street of this little neighborhood and didn't see anything that promised a "fon" (hairdryer in Italian...I learned that in class!). Just when I was about to give up, I saw a store that looked like it sold electronics so I went in and asked for a hairdryer. The woman working found two, one was 25 euro and one was 65. And considering I am only going to use it for a semester, I got the 25. The woman was very happy to help me and the entire interaction was in Italian! Yay! Success! When I was walking back to the metro station, I had another successful interaction with some strange man on the street who asked me for a light for his cigarette (in Italian) and I said no. Success #2!
That evening we talked to one of the other residents at Collegio, named Stefania. Katie (the other girl who lives at Collegio from my study abroad program) and I were asking her why Italian people tended to stare at us and we told her that in America, you would get very uncomfortable if people stared at you. She answered that they stared at us because we were beautiful (how nice) and that they probably thought that Katie was American. Apparently I look more Italian than she, although she is half Italian and I am not Italian at all. Haha. Oh well.
Today (Wednesday), after class, I had to go to the post office and get a 'Permit to Stay' in Italy. It only took a few minutes and was pretty painless (except for the 30 euro I had to give them!). After getting my permit, I returned to Collegio to eat lunch and then Katie and I went to the grocery store to buy some things we needed. Tonight, our friend's boyfriend is visiting and they are taking him around the city at night, so I might join them!
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