Day: Minus 3 and Counting

I guess I should start with explaining the purpose of this blog, because it may morph, as blogs do. About a year ago, when the economy tanked, I thought to myself... maybe this is a gift of time... what is it you always wanted to do but never had a chance to do? I thought back to my college years and how I always wanted to have a term abroad. It occurred to me that they have "senior" learning courses at universities abroad and that I should look into those... but they are very expensive and I wasn't sure I really would want to be gone all by myself for several months in a foreign country. Afterall, this same girl also chose her college based on the fact that no foreign languages were required (seriously, that was a critera along with no PE requirements). I have no talent for language and enough said about PE.

So, I thought... start small and prove to yourself (and Rob) that you really want to do this..

I signed up for the local adult community ed Italian course in March of 2009. And, predictably, I was the worst in the class. There were only two of us for whom English was their native language... and the other person at least had relatives in Italy who she'd visited multiple times. I've been to Italy, but always with tour groups and never with the desire to actually communicate. After 6 classes, I had maybe learned to count....

I remembered my highschool French class (2 painful years) and how the kids who did well tried to immerse themselves in the language... they listened to language tapes and rented French movies to watch in the summer. So I decided to try self-study immersion. I signed up for a class on Tuesday and Thursday nights, plus a class on Saturday and bought some language tapes. To put me in the right mindset, I read any historical novel set in Italy that I could find. The Saturday class was a bust... all we did was read and repeat, but the night class sucessfully taught me the alphabet and maybe some names of food dishes. This was officially my third "beginning Italian" class. Of course, I had no one to talk to, and, honestly, I didn't usually do my homework.

Along the way I read a book by Carlos Levi called "Christ Stopped at Eboli" which is about Basilicata (Lucania) where my great grandparents were from. I realized that all I had known of Italy was focused on the North, the Renaissance, the Church... and that the history of my heritage was very very different. I also knew that there were no tour groups going to the remote mountainous region of Southern Italy, so I was going to have to go it alone. Fear and Fear Alone motivated me through the next few months of Italian language classes.

But now I had an interest where I could USE the Italian. I decided to get serious. I signed up for community college (real college credit) where I would have to do homework. In the evenings I took a second Tuesday/Thursday beginning class.. and I hired a tutor so I would have someone to listen to me... oh, and in case I felt that wasn't enough, I found a free senior citizens class at the senior center on Fridays. I mostly skipped that class. I'd rather be the old lady mascot in the 18-20 year old class than the young-un in the senior class. At least the kids believe the line about losing the ability to memorize after age 40.

With all of this I successfully completed my first Italian 1A course and feel I have earned my trip to Italy and my two week immersion course. Actually, I HAVE to take a class during Christmas break because otherwise I won't have "one-up" on those kids at community college. I started that first class with several months advance study but those kids quickly caught up and surpassed me. But they were kindly to the little old lady... especially that first day when I couldn't find my way to get my picture ID... and a kind young man walked the little old lady completely there (even when there were signs I could follow that clearly said "Picture IDs Here".

I rented every Italian movie on Netflix and I listened to Learn Italian CD's. And I read everything I could find in English about Basilicata and Il Sud. I even found 3 books (two in Italian) about Calvello and have been writing to the authors asking many questions.

And in 2 more days, I'm on my way... to a two week immersion course at the home of a teacher... followed by a week driving in Southern Italy with my brother and sister. We are Calvellesi! Non vedo l'ora! (I can hardly wait)!

Oh, yeah, as planned, I digressed.. the purpose of this blog is to chronicle my adventure to Italy and document what I've learned for anyone who cares to read about it.