# Gelati: 1, Distance Walked: 6.7km
We had a new classmate join us today, Luisa from Brazil. She has been part of this class for sometime but had been in Rome on a holiday. As a native speaker of a romance language, she is another person who can speak in Italian without pausing. I believe she has been in Italy for 10 months and had applied for a visa to stay for longer but it has been denied. At least this is what I understood from what she said. It is very frustating to be the least fluent in the class. I hope Fall doesn't leave any time soon. She is the only one who is as bad as me.
In class this morning we first did the homework out teacher, Diana, had forgotten to give us yesterday. This was to write a short paragraph describing what we would do if we had 100,000 euro to spend on a holiday. I was the only person who said I'd spend it on 1st class airfares, my own chauffeur and luxury hotels. What is wrong with these people?
Next we took it in turns to read aloud from an article about myths about the Romans. Nero was maligned apparently. Who knew? The teacher repeated every paragraph not just the ones I read aloud thankfully. Our grammar lesson today was on the passato remoto and common antonyms. Most of which I already new. Again, a boost to my ego.
In our conversation class our teacher Arianna paired us off. I was paired with Livia, the Frenchwoman. We had to roleplay a conversation. Our conversation was between two friends trying to decide where to go on holiday. Arianna wanted us to do it like "proper Italians". That is, with verve, interruptions and much handwaving. Livia and I happily obliged but the others were much more restrained. Not convincing at all, even if they were more grammatically correct.
Fall and Luisa had to argue about what to buy a friend for a wedding present. This sidetracked the class thoroughly. Arianna is 32 and all of her friends are starting to settle down and get married. She's been to 5 weddings in the past year. The Italian tradition is to give money, typically around 100 euro. This is getting quite expensive for her and she had lots to say about it. I much prefer the Australian tradition of a gift registry, although this does presuppose not all the gifts are expensive ones.
My lunch for today was a roll with mortadella (it is a traditional food here after all) with grilled eggplant (my veg for the day!). It was Decent. My gelati was from a cremeria Miriam (my conversation teacher) had recommended. It was Decent/Good-is (pistachio and hazelnut). However, it was some distance away and not really worth the walk.
My afternoon class with Miriam was hard work today. I'd prepared several anecdotes and used them all up. Miriam isn't much of a conversationalist. I told one about Jack being sick and that I knew he was ill because he didn't want to eat. That is a clear sign as he eats a lot and is fat. I told her he is a completely black cat and my vet had said it was a good thing black is a slimming colour. That got a laugh from her, which was good, but she didn't ask any follow up questions. She could have asked me what colour are my other cats, are they fat or thin, how old are they? A whole bunch of questions that I would have known how to answer and which would have kept the conversation going. Instead, after laughing, she just sat there smiling at me so I had to start babbling about something else. The whole hour was spent with me talking about random things that I had words for. Urgh.
Tomorrow I had a different teacher, Giulia. This will be easier as I can just repeat all the getting to know you stuff again. However, I get Miriam again on Friday. I might try asking her questions or asking for advice. I'e run out of stories to tell. I hope I get a different conversation teacher next week.
After my conversation lesson I went in further search of a pair of comfortable shoes. This time with success! Yesterday I went to an Athletes Foot shop but the salesgirl (she looked all of about 16) was completely bemused by the notion that shoes could come in different widths. Today the saleswoman (she looked to be my age) knew exactly what I was talking about. She was able to show me 3 different pairs that fit me. She was also willing to do the whole interaction in Italian, rather than lapsing in English at the first sign of me butchering her language.
Sadly the pair of shoes that fit the best only came in pale green. We both agreed that since all of my clothes are either red or purple, these wouldn't be the best choice. I had to settle for a slightly different style in white. The saleswoman also considered the white pair were more my style. Such fun to discuss fashion and style as if I had any!
For dinner I went to a restaurant that was recommended to me by both the company I'm renting my apartment from and also the school, Trattoria dal Biassanot. This is a word in the Bolognese dialect with the meaning given below. Two out of three ain't bad.
I had an antipasti of prosciutto and cantelope which was Good. The melon was ripe so it was tasty and paired well with the prosciutto. For main I had strozzapreti with Bolognese ragu. This was also very Good, although there was more sauce than, strictly speaking, was appropriate. Still, as it was very tasty sauce, I forgave them. For dessert I had tenerina which is a traditional flourless chocolate cake with marscapone. Sadly this was just Decent. The cake was a little dry and the marscapone had been mixed with cream and lacked the tang you get with just marscapone.
I really must eat more vegetables.
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