Parla Italiano?

It was a rough night for Avery (and hence us). He was not feeling well, thought he might need to "spit up" and clearly had a sore throat. Subsequently, it became tough to get up in the morning, and if the parents don't get up, the kids don't get up.

Eventually though, everyone was up, clothed, fed and out the door to school. Now it was time for me to get ready to go to school. Today I would be registering for my Italian classes and taking a placement exam.

I hopped on my bike and found the building which houses the school, no problem, on Via de Due Macelli near the Piazza di Spagna. All of the administrators were extremely nice and spoke perfect English (I wish that were the case at RIS). I met with a teacher who said "parliamo Italiano un po" so she could get a sense of my (lack of) ability. She is from the North and was very easy for me to understand. Unfortunately, I just don't have an extensive enough vocabulary nor a knowledge of the verb tenses to REALLY have a conversation.

After the oral portion, I was given a written exam (with several, more advanced, sections crossed out) to complete in 40 minutes. I thought it was very difficult and just underscores how much I have to learn. So now I wait. I will be contacted with my placement and class details.

The school, Italiaidea, was offering a tour of the neighborhood and an orientation later in the afternoon. Many of its students travel here to Rome just to study the language full time, and the school also offers a residence program where accommodations can be arranged.

Back home for lunch, here in Rome, I forgot I was supposed to be fasting. The rest of the day was not too exciting: shopping - for groceries and kitchen appliances, making dinner - my first try at grilled Calamari, which was not too bad, playing with Avery, and picking up Charlotte from swim practice.

It's been exactly four weeks since we arrived here in Rome. I feel like we've been here for 6 months. We've done a lot, we've seen a lot, we've settled in!