Fun facts

1) Ben & jerry's ice cream started in vermont

2) there are more cows than people in the state of vermont

3) more than half of the people in the state government were born in other states

4) john deere, the company, was started here in middlebury

5) I have 14 days left here

What a mystery

For those of you who don't have access to facebook, i'm providing the link for some photos that I've recently taken and played with just so you can see what my new method of procrastinating is. lol

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139370&id=634486277&l=9893d3d809

"that everything enjoyable in this earthly life is just a brief dream"

the title of this post is an excerpt from a poem by Petrarch  (or petrarca, whichever you prefer) a super famous italian 14th century poet. On friday this week, i took a huge italian lit midterm on Petrarca, Dante, Boccaccio, the invasion of the barbarians (or barbers, again whichever you prefer) and written latin versus colloquial italian. Basically, i have petrarca on the mind.

If you read the last post, this terrifying midterm was the reason I temporarily cancelled my facebook (really temporary, it only ended up being like 3 days...haha) so I'm really glad it's over. By the time it was over on friday, i didn't really care what I'd gotten on it, but when i saw my professor after lunch he asked me how i thought it was. I said it was semi terrible, but i didn't really mind, and he said 'oh that's funny cause you did really well.' I don't know how? Miracles happen?

Anyway, I spent last night with a few friends in a group of adirondack chairs on a large green in front of the library talking for a few hours. It was a fun saturday night that lasted till 2 in the morning just talking. 

I've commenced, as always, incredibly in advance, thinking about the things I want to bring to italy and how the hell i'm going to get it all there. I've decided that I have way too much stuff, especially since one of my 4 bags (eek!) broke on the way here, so i obviously can't use that one to carry anything. I'm going to have to downsize immensely, and I don't know how or with what.

Recently, we're studying immigration in and out of Italy which is really interesting. This is a field of italian studies I think i might be interested in, because it's such a recent development and it's severely lacking solutions. Racism, hate crimes, and segregation are severely on the rise in parts of Italy, and it doesn't help that thousands of new immigrants  from Northern Africa and Eastern Europe who are smuggled into Sicilia and other parts of southern italy every day by the mafia are blamed for these statistics around crime etc. There are a lot of things about this situation that intrigue me... its a cool synthesis of a lot of social issues that I care about, i guess?

Speaking of the mafia, I saw one of the BEST movies i have ever seen last night. Of course, I've never seen any of the american mafia films or even the godfather, so my prior knowledge of the mafia has been limited to academic discussions of crime and corruption rather than stereotypical cigars, shooting and italian new yorker accents, but either way, this movie, fresh-out-of-italy, rocked my socks. It's called Il Divo, about an incredible powerful Mafia politician named Andreotti who ran for president in italy in the 1970s (not by popular vote in Italy) Anyway, the cinematography and the music were sooo flippin cool, and the worst part is I don't even know how the movie ends. About 20 minutes from the end, the sound went to this weird muffled half volume and no one could figure out how to fix it, so after a while I decided to leave because it wasn't worth reading english subtitles if i couldn't hear the rest of the film. I'm set on seeing the rest soon. But everything about the hour and 20 minutes I saw was amazing. awesome. clever funny profound a bit gory. it was like everything i've ever wanted in a movie. 

There are only 3 more weeks of this program starting tomorrow. So ready for it to be done. WHEW.

also, today i met a phd student who has been at middlebury for 7 summers. holy shit. comparative spanish/italian degree. DAMN

ci vediamo, spero che tutto sia bene-

Ali

Language Pledge

So i've been breaking the language pledge, obviously, when I write in my blog, go on facebook, la la la, etc. Today I had a talk with two professors about how classes are going because I'm feeling so behind. I realized, after talking to them, that maybe I should take the language pledge more seriously and stop thinking in english. I tried really hard when I got here and there was a brief adjustment period, before I just got really impatient and felt like I couldn't express myself in italian and I just started talking to my friends in english, via the web. 

I think I have to try to stop a bit more seriously, one more time. I have midterms this week and tons of projects to start in the next week, and if I don't stop spending time in the english language, i'll never be able to finish all this stuff in italian. So my point is, I've deactivated my facebook account temporarily, I'm going to try to stop using chat functions (aim, facebook etc) and probly won't respond to email as much. Just a reinforcement of the language pledge again, i guess, but this time I'm actually going to try to follow it. 

Okay, ciao for now

ali

music

I don't want to publish this on facebook because it's WAY to widely distributed, but I put up some new things on my myspace. http://www.myspace.com/alirucker. none of it is very polished, and most are pretty shabby recordings, meh. Va bene (it's all good)

Productivity

ugh. All i want to do is listen to music all day. I'm having productivity issues. 

So this week and weekend were cool. on friday I went to a lecture on italian youth and it basically talked about unemployment issues that youth face and why they end up having to live at home for sometimes 8 or 9 years after they graduate from prestigious italian universities. the job markets are virtually impossible in italy, and they have been for a while, meaning it wasn't just this economic decline that broke their job market.

So, I knew about this before, but it got me thinking about why I'm studying italian and what I want to do with it, because even if I wanted to I might not be able to get work in italy (ever). I don't know. I just feel like its such a privilege to be studying this language in such depth, but what is there to do with it? italian culture and history are really interesting, but it's a bummer that I'm not taking or haven't learned spanish, because there are SO many jobs, in the states, but also all over the world, that require or look for bilingualism in english and spanish. Anyway, I just have a hard time really loving something and giving it my all if i don't know how i'm going to use it, and for right now I know I'll be using it a ton next year, but I'm not sure if I'll use it later in life and that sort of sucks to think about. I don't want to spend all this time learning italian, and then not really need it later. 

Anyway, then yesterday we made costumes and masks all day for the party that was last night. There was a huge 'festa' at a loungish place in the town center and it was basically one of the funniest things i've ever experienced. Both my professors were there, intoxicated, as they should be since they're all italians, but it was basically hilarious to watch them dance and shout at each other like they were at a rave. There were a lot of really funny costumes and I ended being wonder woman (pictured above) because it was easy to craft from clothes i already had. I considered being a dinosaur (cuz i had bought a foam dinosaur kids visor at a dollar store down the street) but wonder woman won (of course, after all she's a super hero)

This week we're finishing a book in my lit class that we've been reading, and its only been two weeks. This is all quite fast for me.

Oh, also, turns out I've been cleared to possibly receive grades and credit for being here at Middlebury which means that hypothetically I only have to take 3 classes toward my italian major while I'm abroad, if the Middlebury courses count for credit. Basically, if i want, I can take tons of music or take less classes while I'm abroad, or even start another language or take something REALLY strange. I have a lot more time and less pressure than I thought. That's all. I'm really glad.

That's all. 

Okaiii.

OKAII is how us american students make fun of the way italians say 'ok.' When we enthusiastically want to agree to something (like a plan, for instance,) it warrants an "OKAAIII." Hard to explain. Anyway, I'm starting my post in such a manner because I only have one month left here and I think I can do it, OKAII!

Tomorrow is July 10th, and my flight to Italy is August 10th (even though I won't get there till the night of the 11th. This means that after tomorrows quizzes tests and classes, I only have 4 more essays, 4 more quizzes, and 4 sets of huge reading assignments. Possibly 2 midterms. Eh. I haven't gotten the final word from the director of the school about whether or not I'll be able to take final exams here for a grade. It would make the last week of class REALLY difficult for me because I'd have to learn the material from the week that I'm missing in advance, and take the exams during the weekend. I'd like to at least try, though, especially in my grammar and culture class, because I love the material and I'm doing pretty well in that class right now. Lit, as I complain about every post, has not gotten any easier.

In less academic news, I have quit the soccer team because as I quickly learned, knowing nothing about the sport is not a good position to be in when playing competitively against other countries (language schools). It's like war. no joke. Anyway, since I have no skill at it, i don't really want to play and I've been playing volley ball instead. Much less terrifying, for me, because there aren't defenders running at you full speed and 20 people on the field.

A few nights ago (saturday night?) I was in the living room of our dorm with some other people just chillin, when this professor comes in and starts playing all these sock-hop 50s songs on the piano. Then a grad student shows up and sings all these songs (some american, some italian) while he plays, and he starts recruiting everyone in the room to form a "spettacolo!" (spectacle/show) with him for this sock-hop he wants to put on. Anyway, there's a line of back up singers, a sax player, a great lead singer, and somehow, I got recruited to play a tiny african jimbay (spelling?). It's pretty hilarious, I suck at drums, some of my friends would be embarrassed to see me play, but it's enough to make the dancers dance and the back up singers sway. The show is on Sunday night, and we're performing 13 or 14 songs. Should be fun.

There's a masked dance this saturday(amelia! wish u could go-i thought of you) and unfortunately, there's no where to buy either a mask or material for one in middlebury, at least not without a car. It's sort of a costume party too, so I think I might go as wonderwoman. I duno, haven't decided.

Today, in my literature class, an italian author of the book we've been reading called Buio is coming to our class to talk about the book and answer our questions. I'm excited to have such an incredibly intimate interaction with an author. There are only 10 of us in the class. You know when you read a book and you think "what did the author really mean at that point?"-well i guess we get to actually ask her, "what did you mean?" Sweet. It's strange that some of the opportunities I'm getting here far surpass any I've ever had in american culture or my english-speaking life. 

I managed to lose my ID, my camera battery charger, and my cell phone all within the last few days, because I'm such a mess, but I've managed to recover most of it (except my camera battery charger because I'm not sure I ever had it here in VT-if any of you see it in marin somewhere at ur houses, PLEASE let me know-it's a nikon battery charger) The beds here SUCK and i'm still pretty tired all the time, but I guess it's reassuring to know that my work is paying off. I can basically understand everything my professors say, but my biggest issue linguistically now is synthesizing ideas in a grammatically correct and clear way. I guess that's something that's difficult to do in english too, so it makes sense that it's difficult in italian. I can't believe I only started learning this last september. 

Anyway, I'm really ready for this month to fly by. I like the people here a lot, but the work load is beyond Wellesley. Its like Wellesley during finals except for 6 or 7 weeks. This program sort of prides itself on teaching a years worth of material in 7 weeks. That's hard for me to grasp now that I'm living it, and I sort of doubt that it's possible, but I will say that I've seen people who didnt know a word of italian before they got here hold conversations with grad students, which is basically amazing. 

Class in 5 minutes, so ciao, a dopo (till later)

Ali

in previsione delle classe lunedì...

I'm writing this post to procrastinate, possibly.

More hilarious language mix ups happen to me and my roommate every day. It seems like a lot of the other students are probably having these same slip ups, but Jordan (my roommate) and I are just really silly about them. My favorite story is from a few days ago. Jordan was in her film class with the same professor that I made "the invasion of the barbers" mistake with. He asked her to answer a question about a character named Antonio, and she was supposed to say "Antonio has a good head on his shoulders." Instead she ended up saying, by accident "He has a good head on his balls" because the word for shoulders in italian is spalle, and the word for balls is palle. I died of laughter when i heard this. Language is so damn funny. It's awesome.

This morning was our first soccer game. We won. It was so fun. 

But, I didn't play (hahah) so it wasn't thanks to me at all. The coach for the team is WAY too intense for my liking, but there's this other coach whose like 20 years younger that I think is way cool. When we had our first meeting for soccer, he said that the team was just for fun, and everyone would play and it would never matter whether we won or lost. Then the other coach came to the 2nd practice and has been like delivering these really dramatic speeches about how we have to win and how our starting line up is always going to be all the most talented players. I'm totally fine with not starting, in fact I probably wouldn't have any idea what was going on anyway, but if I know the team wants to win more than anything as well as knowing that I can't play whatsoever (at least not helpfully) then I don't want to play. I didn't want to upset anyone, especially not the overly intense coach. 

So instead, i did what i do best, and formed a very noisy cheerleading squad with two italian mothers (they or someone in their family teaches at the middlebury italian schools-i'll touch on this more later) and we shouted, cheered, and formed pyramids for a good hour and half. At the end of the match, when our team was up by a goal and the coach FINALLY started putting in inexperienced players for 5 or 10 minutes, he called on me to go in and I vehemently refused, although kindly, by saying I can't play, I don't want to! hahaha I was hiding behind the italian women and my teammates at that point. I'm not sure why he wanted me to go in though, there were 5 or 6 others of my teammates who also didn't play the whole game that he could have put in.

When I play scrimmages at practice, I like playing in smaller games with 4 or 5 people on each team or so. I do pretty well in those. I've even made a few goals. I like to run and defend, but I have no handling skills with the ball, so I lose control quickly and it frustrates me. My professor of literature practices with us, although professors aren't allowed to play in the matches, but it's been really fun to get to know him casually outside of class on the field, because he's absolutely nuts and enthusiastic, and he corrects my italian whenever I speak incorrectly. even at soccer practice. I guess everyone corrects each other. all the time. This school is truly nuts.

Anyway, about the families here: There's this incredible family atmosphere here, mixed with young people, priests, grad students, and visiting artists (mostly authors). I love seeing the wives of some of the professors, or husbands of the professors chat with each other in quick dialect italian. Since I only have 3 professors out of the 15 or 16 that are employed by the italian school, I can hardly tell the difference between whose a spouse of a professor and whose actually a professor so all the real italian people just fade together. It's like foreigners and true italians. But it doesn't really even matter, because everyone treats each other the same way outside of class like in the dining hall. Everyone says hi, and its like a small village, which i guess might sound like wellelsey or a dorm at a college, but this feels stronger because of the huge cultural force that the real italians have brought with them to the states, just the flow of conversation and the hilarity of everything. I don't know how to explain...

There are also some young italian people here, and I'm not even really sure who they are-they're definitely not grad students, family somehow of employees of the college, but anyway, they're a really great resource for other young people who are going/want to go to italy. A lot of them live there. Like I really can't explain how excited I am to have networked this much (only in a week) before going to Italy. I already know people who will be in so many places that I have to visit. 

I'm drowning in homework this weekend. I have over 35 pages to read in italian, which doesn't sound like much, but i guess it's the hardest thing for me to do. I also have to essays. I've spent the 4th playing soccer and being in the library. I've written a few new songs lately which seems good. 

alright, ciao, a dopo

Malta

So, in all my pensieri (thoughts) about Italy and italian in the past week (has it really only been a week? i feel like i've been here at least for a semester) I've been trying to budget and make plans for this interim space I'm going to have in september between my study abroad program orientation and the real beginning of the program. I used ryanair to conduct preliminary research about general ticket prices and i've decided....

I'm going to MALTA. (pictured above)

I have to. It sounds like/looks like the coolest place ever. There are less then 500,000 people there on only 121sq miles of land, and there are also what are thought to be the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. It's also considered a hypothetical location or nearby location for the lost city Atlantis. Basically, it sounds magical. This is the first truly tourist aspiration I can remember having, in which I just want to go to a place to say I've been there. I admit it, i'm guilty as charged. But I'm sure Malta doesn't need American culture bearers (like myself) invading when they were already colonized by a western power (britain, but who wasn't colonized by britain?) for so many years.
Anyway, I actually think I'm really gonna go, because I was planning (sort of loosely) to go to Athens, Greece, and do the whole island hoping thing, but I only found Malta because ryanair (the cheap european airline) only has 8 flights from this one airport, Bari, that I have to fly out of after my time in Lecce. I was checking out the possibilities of airports and maybe flying out of other airports to greece, so i was googling locations at random and checking them out. When I saw Malta i was like, "what's/where's Malta?" Google led me to the overly-dramatic picture above, and further research led me to the conclusion that it was/is affordable enough to go (on my budget) and I looked into flights and hostels. I'm psyched. I think I'm going. September is a ways away, i know, but I needed to make plans early to save money, i guess.anyway, ciao. i definitely need to do my homework