Day 39 (7/13/11):

Class today was more review of passato prossimo. I'm starting to think that Jessica is worried we don't understand all the rules we've learned so far, and that's why we're doing so much review. Hopefully we will move forward soon, though! One good thing is that she has been assigning us more writing assignments for homework, which is great practice for proper sentence formation! Then at intensive a lot of people were missing, so there was a lot more potential for talking! It felt nice to have more time to speak and practice.

After class I got my new favorite panino from the foodstore - mortadella from the deli on a fresh green olive loaf. Yum!!! I ate in while Julius and I walked to Palazzo Altemps to meet up with Andrew and Pepijn. The museum was pretty cool, with several statues of Hercules, Venus, and Dionysus, along with many other gods. The building itself was also very interesting, with frescoed walls and ceilings everywhere.

We spent a long time there, until Pepijn and I suggested escaping from the "oven-heat" of the city and getting one of the Roman ice drink specialties. We went towards the Pantheon, where we had seen people with them before. They only had a lemon flavor, but that worked for us, and we enjoyed the icey coldness of it for a little while.

Afterwards, we parted ways and I went to Hotel Cesari, which was right around the corner. I heard they had a really great rooftop terrace, and wanted to see what it was all about. I asked a woman in the hotel if it was open, and she said she would show it to me. Then she asked where I'm from, and when I said the U.S., she exclaimed, "You're American! And you speak Italian with no accent!" Talk about being proud of myself!!! :o)

The terrace was beautiful, and had a really nice breeze flowing through which felt amazing on such a hot day. I got my new favorite drink (Aperol Spritz) and wrote in my journal for a bit. The waiter brought me over some snacks, too, of mixed nuts, and pretzels, and the biggest green olives I have ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed my time up there!

Day 40 (7/14/11):

At class today we reviewed the 4 types of pronouns that we have learned so far, then we started learning about "ci". You can use this in reference to "where" - similarly to how "ne" is used when expressing quantity. It seems straightforward, but I bet it could get a little confusing when reading things, since "ci" is also a reflexive pronoun that means "us/we". Hopefully I'll be super good at reading and understanding things, though, and won't have any problems with it!

AnnaMaria had some games for us to play in intensive today. I was excited about them! I love games :o) I don't think it went over so well with everyone else, though, since they still weren't very chatty. It was a great attempt, though!

After class I got my cheap and tasty panino from the foodstore - mortadella on an olive loaf, and sat and ate for a little while with Pepijn and Andrew. We needed a little break from all the sightseeing, so Pepijn and I headed to the pool from there. It was fun hanging out and relaxing in the sun for a while. Later, Andrew and Tim joined us, too. It's as though we've all been good friends for a long time :o)

After the pool I went home to use skype for a little while. I also went over my list of things to do, and saw that my ticket from yesterday's visit to Palazzo Altemps would get me into Palazzo Massimo for free tomorrow! Woo hoo!

Day 41 (7/15/11):

I like school :o) There weren't that many people in class this morning, but it was just fine. It gave us each some more speaking time! We learned about combining pronouns today, and how the words are slightly altered. I caught on really quickly, and hopefully will be able to use this when speaking and writing. Then there were only 4 of us in intensive! We listened to an audio conversation (which I understood most of!), and discussed movies and other socializing topics. Then we paired up, and Karin and I started chatting completely off topic from the assignment, but it was more fun for us that way :o) Plus, we still only spoke in Italian!

After class I went back to the foodstore where I get my panino, but saw they had some pre-made panini that looked really good. I ended up getting salami on crusty bread, and it was very good. The food is delicious here!

Then Julius, Andrew, and I headed over to the Palazzo Massimo Museum. I was really happy I didn't miss out on the free access! It pays to be organized, I guess :o) The museum was massive, with all sorts of things inside. My favorites were: the bronze boxer, the sculpture of the dying child of Niobe, the sculpture of an athlete resting, the modest Venus/Aphrodite, there were a few great Dionysis', the tomb with an incredibly detailed war scene on it, and the discus thrower. They were incredible! There were also mosaics everywhere, and I couldn't believe how detailed they were and how such teeny pieces of stone could make such huge images.

We spent a really long time there, so I was ready to get back home and eat something by the time we were through. And that is exactly what I did! We were all meeting again in Trastevere, so I didn't have a ton of time before needing to get ready for the night.

When I met up with everyone tonight, I met Jud from… Boston!!! Apparently he was at school here before, but then studied in Florence for the past few weeks, and is just back in Rome for the weekend before heading home. What a treat to meet someone who knows my city! We all went to a place in Trastevere that we've been to a few times (one of these days I'll write the name of it down) and hung out there for a long time. A bunch of people met up, which was great! Eventually some people wanted to go to Campo de Fiori, and I decided to head back home since I had an early wake-up call coming the next day.