Ciao Bella!

Alright, it's official: I signed up for Beginning Italian at the community college. I'm stepping outside my comfort zone and diving head first into a language I know absolutely zilch about.

The first class was last night. I learned the Italian alphabet (which only has 21 letters, btw), each letter's respective sound, how to count and how to introduce myself. We also did lots of listen and repeat exercises as well as reading out loud. For the verbal portions of class, I desperately wished I could have the teacher to myself - I wanted to listen and repeat every word or phrase until I had it just right, but of course that didn't happen. And yes, the teacher and most of the class already know my name ;)

After the first five minutes of class I remembered why I liked being a student: the excitement of learning something new and immediately being able to apply it; the satisfaction of praise for a correct answer; the intense embarrassment/humiliation that inevitably follows having no idea what the teacher is talking about when you're called upon (both of which I relived yesterday). It's fun and challenging and it gets me outside of my box. Now if I can only learn to communicate in Italian, I'll be all set!