Romeo and Juliet



SUNDAY, February 12, 1995.

Nothing really exciting to report this week - no rental cars, no nights stuck in Grosetto - but I'll do my best to make my ordinary week as a language student in Siena sound interesting.

Along with panforte and torta al cioccolato, Siena offers Italian men. Although they may seem sedated in contrast with their Sicilian counterparts, the Sienese men circle foreign women like vultures. Friday night, Michelle, Malina, Lonni and I went out for drinks at a local night club which featured a band playing remarkably good U2 covers. When we arrived, most of the tables were already taken, but we managed to find one upstairs on a balcony overlooking the stage. Later in the evening, an Italian man started talking to Michele from the stairs below. He fed her an incredible line about how this was like Romeo and Juliet and that while he was perhaps more humble than Romeo, she was even more beautiful than Juliet, that she was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. We've been giving her plenty of shit about this, and her name has been unofficially changed. Of course, she blew him off. We saw Romeo again last night, and he didn't even acknowledge Juliet. How tragic.

As for language, it's an emotional roller-coaster. My vocabulary is still small but it continues to grow. I know the most important words - how bad can life be if I know how to buy cappuccino and canduccini? As for grammar, I'm struggling with pronouns and prepositions and can now make mistakes in four different verb tenses. I had a few "reasonable" conversations with Signora Provvedi this week, but I'm still not without occasions when I have no clue what she's talking about. I ask her to repeat herself more slowly - but it doesn't work - she starts off slowly, but before long she's jabbering away. I reach a point where I just can't listen anymore, and we both get frustrated. C'est la vie (oh wait, that's French).

It's frightening how little Italian I need to simply make it through the day. I listen to about 5 hours of Italian a day, but I speak for less than an hour. I need to force myself to say more. There's a lot of stuff in my head and I hope that someday (hopefully soon) it will "click". As for routine things - I'm catching on. No problems with "Hi," "How are you?," "I'm fine, thanks. And you?," "Thanks for dinner," "Have a nice day," etc. I've even made progress with slightly more advanced topics: "I'd like a piece of pizza and a small Coke," "I'd like a small bottle of non-carbonated water," "tonight, I'm going to a bar with my friends," and things along these lines. However, while practical, this type of talk makes for short conversations and does not allow for much personal expression. I find that when I am absolutely forced to communicate in Italian (like calling about apartments in Rome), I hobble along. I suppose this is encouraging.

Photos of Siena

Only two more weeks at language school! I'll miss my new friends, but I'm looking forward to moving on to Rome for a more cosmopolitan atmosphere. I'm also looking forward to working again - it'll be fun to sink my teeth into a new project, and the hacker in me yearns to get back in front of the machine.

Friday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous - not a cloud in the sky, the sun shining warm and bright on the Campo. We stripped down to our T-shirts and soaked up the rays. The weekend was cool and rainy, but I'm hoping for more good weather this week. Nothing like a warm, sunny afternoon with wine, canduccini, and friends in the Piazza del Campo.



Copyright 1997 by Bradley Edelman
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E-mail: Brad Edelman