I Lezioni...non ho capito nient!

So I thought I’d try class. While this may sound a bit slackerish, in Italy, class is completely optional. On Tuesday, I thought I’d try going to a class on the history and institutions of Latin America. I got to the building early and asked where Aula 6 was. Turns out, that “Aula 6” was actually a “G” on the handwritten schedule. G stands for Facoltà Giuspredenza, which is on the other side of town. I walked over to the Facoltà and looked for the class. I asked about it at the desk and, after calling the person at the desk in the Political Science Facoltà, it turns out that class, although written on the board, is not in session yet. Now I had an hour to kill before the next class, one about the Politics of Agrarian Economy in the European Union (Hey. I think it’s interesting). I checked with the woman at the desk to confirm the time and she said it was at 14:00 so I waited. At 14:00 no one was in the classroom so I asked again and the woman at the desk now had a different schedule that said it was over. The two women scrambled to figure out what was going on. They sent me to the Professoressa’s office. She explained to me that the class exists, but no one goes so she doesn’t have it. After a conversation (I understood most of it I think) we arranged for an independent study and I’m going to attend a seminar on the topic. That should be good.

Today, I woke up and went to another class: this one an analysis of the language of politics (Again, sounds good to me). Low and behold this class exists! I sat down and waited for other students. In the end, only 3 others showed up. The professor got there and noticed that I was obviously new and asked me questions about where I was from and then broke into a 40-minute lecture about, from what I could gather, Rome and the similarities between the current economic crisis and Rome. He moved on to the books for the class. It was so hard to pay close enough attention to pick up what he was saying. After those hours of torture, I went back to my room and took a nap. It was only supposed to be 30 minutes. 3 hours later, I woke up and felt groggy. I went to town to get my kit for my “permesso di sogiorno” from the post office and had an espresso. Now I’m in the bar area of the dinning hall, Mensa.

Tomorrow I will try another class, hopefully one with a lot of people and a slow, English speaking professor.