Tuesday is curry day

Back to life, back to reality, back to school for everyone -- including me. I have to admit, I'm not sure how much I'm getting out of the Italian class I am taking versus just hearing and reading the language all around me. The methodology of teaching a language has completely changed over the years from the traditional (studying vocabulary, grammar, verb conjugations) to a progressive style. At the school where I study, no English is spoken, the entire lesson is in Italian. OK. But sometimes, it is helpful to get an English explanation of an Italian rule. The problem is that the Japanese and the Russian in the class wouldn't understand an English explanation so doing everything in Italian puts us all on an even playing field. Most frustrating for me is that we are also expected to teach one another instead of just learning from the instructor. For example, each class we first go over the homework with one another before the teacher gives us the correct answers. Or, we are paired up and asked to discuss something with our partner. All of this is to encourage dialogue and speaking in the language. OK. But another student is not going to correct my grammar and so I could be expressing myself completely incorrectly and never know it. Is the point just to be understood? We also spend a lot of time listening to a dialogue, or sometimes an Italian song, on tape -- six times -- and then try to explain to one another what was being said. OK. Apparently listening to a conversation or lyrics six times allows for the maximum level of comprehension. But, I can listen to songs in English and still not understand all of the words -- because they are songs... needless to say, I find the methodology a bit frustrating and while I feel comfortable understanding most of what is said to me in Italian, my own ability to speak feels extremely compromised. I am not Italian, but for me, talking with my hands is a necessity -- much like a mime -- and so I glad that it is so widely accepted.

After class, I met my parents on Via del Corso. We walked over to the Piazza Augusto Imperatore and enjoyed lunch al fresco. The weather has been absolutely divine and the outdoor area of the restaurant was jam-packed. Before we knew it, it was 3 o'clock and then it was time to pick up the kids from school.

Morris came over tonight to prepare his traditional Pakistani feast for the family. My parents had heard so much about Morris, we had to have curry one night of their stay. While Morris was cooking in the kitchen, we took both girls to swim practice. Olivia swam with a different group today because she missed her regular class yesterday. She did a fantastic job. Being at AquAniene, we also took the opportunity to take a sauna and rid our bodies of toxins most likely built up during our swine and wine fest of the past three days! The cleansing was only temporary as later in the evening we would refill on curry. Morris prepared several types of fried appetizers for us to try. Then we had both chicken and lamb curries along with the traditional curried mixed vegetables and fragrant rice. Not only did we stuff ourselves; we had left-overs.