It seems my body wants me to only sleep for four hours at a time. I guess that's okay, as long as I can do it more than once a day. Did the writing and the homework and rechecking everything between 5AM & 6AM and sat around staring at the walls for a while. No teevee in my room, no internet as yet and there's no going in the living area to watch the Signora's teevee. She pops up out of bed when I come out in the morning to see me off. She'd probably get apoplectic if I turned on tube at that hour. I left a little before 7 and walked slowly toward Santa Croce. Went into the Cafe Oibo again and was pleasantly surprised that the barista remembered my order from the day before. Yay!
My classmates Werner and Kristina, the German couple, are making me a little crazy. He cannot seem to grasp the idea that if a question is being asked to you (in the “you all” plural, like there's more than one of you being directly asked) that you answer in the “we” form – like “I” plural.) Apparently in German they don't have as much verb conjugation going on? I don't know. I only know romance-rooted languages so I can't speak to this. They do tell me there aren't prepositional phrases and indirect objects. Maybe we should all learn German. Kids wouldn't have to learn to parse out sentences and there'd be less anxiety in elementary school. I'm sure of it...
Werner gets soooooo stressed out when he's not “getting it” and turns beet red and starts muttering things in German that can't be all that nice, and then Kristina chimes in to give him the answer and they start hissing back and forth at each other. I should have videoed it. It only happened fourteen times today. Kristina, on the other hand, has an accent so thick there is no way you discern that Italian words are coming out of her mouth. I only know because we're reading from the same exercises.
Conversely, the young German woman in our conversation sessions is so easy to understand. When Fraucka speaks English you wouldn't even know she's German. She sounds so natural 95% of the time. Her Italian accent is clear and not overwrought with German-ness. If she has to slip into German to find a phrase it's almost a shock to me every time.
Fraucka and I are becoming friends. After class (our second sessions) she asked me if I wanted to go for a coffee during our 30 minute break before the third session. She's in a different setting for 3rd, since she's not taking the business course I am and I'm going solo in it. We went to a place around the corner in Piazza Santa Croce because Oibo was packed to the gills.
I learned a lot about the German educational systems and university tracks in a short space of time. Boy, that widely-known German efficiency is used in all aspects of life. That's all I can say.
Florence is stiflingly hot at the moment. We're having a late-season heatwave. It's been 85-88F but not absolutely unbearable thanks to the breezes and winds, even though they are sciroccos coming up from Africa which leaves actual grains of sand in your hair on on the floor of the shower – I kid you not. I've got Sahara sand in my hair, y'all! But I have been here in summer when it's 105 and absolutely still air. Ugh. I'll take the sand in my eyes, please. Here's hoping the heatwave does not extend to Venice when I'm there on Sunday.
Meanwhile back at the apartment of La Signora... CeeCee the cat is ruler of the roost, as most any cat is expected to be. At any given moment she is laying on the foyer table, in the sink, in the mail basket, in front of my door to trip me when I open it at 4AM. She must be old. The cantankerous bitching she makes as she's settling leads me to think she's got old bones. Me too, CeeCee.
I am very pleased to report I am the proud new owner of a working mobile broadband internet key. Whoo whoo! It's fast enough for me to stream teevee shows and talk on the magic jack. I have everything I need right there. Life is good.
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