First day of class

*I wrote this late last night so this is an account of Monday*

First day of class! Since I jumped the gun a little bit last week I did not have to arrive at Torre di Babele until noon, unlike the rest of my class that had to arrive at 9 to take the entrance exam. Torre di Babele is very close to University City which houses Rome’s largest university which is Sapienza. This campus is the largest of three that are part of Rome University and it has roughly 150,000 students; take that OSU! So in any case, a lot of the guys at Villa study at Sapienza, so it was not hard to find someone who was going in that direction the same time I was. I was accompanied by a guy on my floor named Angelo. He has a basic understanding of English but is one of the students who will soon have to take their English examination test so he is eager to be around me. It’s an even exchange of understanding and confusion and laughter which leaves us both feeling awkward and comforted by the fact that we both have trouble with each other’s native tongue.
I exited at Politicano which is the stop before his, so we bid each other good day and I went to school. I arrived well in advance of my class but there was a lot of confusion since it was the first day of classes for many others as well. The first meeting of the day was an orientation about Rome which was slightly helpful but nice because everyone seemed to be on a basic understanding of their surroundings. There were two meetings, one in English and one in Italian. In the English meeting there were 6 Germans, 3 Australians, 1 New Zealander, 1 Brit and 2 Americans, myself included. After our orientation we had an hour break and then a lesson. Since it was the first day my class was big with about 14 or 15 people. We were split into two classes that would start the next day, one group in the morning and one in the afternoon (almost all of the afternoon people were very disappointed at this), and luckily, I got to be in the morning. The class was brief but after doing some exercises on introducing ourselves (which I absolutely hate, whether in English or Italiano, they just suck and I felt like I was back in high school drama class trying to play charades with my name) we dove right into work on our book.
After class as I was walking back to the Metro stop, I ran into a girl from my class, one of the Australians. I had pinned her for being a bit of a whiner and the moment we started talking (as we were going to the same Metro stop), I immediately knew I had her just right. She tried to get switched into the morning class after already being annoyed that the fact that she had to (and I quote) “demote herself to such simple things as will discussed in our level 2 class.” I was suddenly very glad that she was not in my class. But other than that, she was relatively nice and at least amicable toward me. She invited me to go out for her birthday which is next Monday. I appreciated the offer although later I realized I would probably never see her again since our classes did not overlap in time and her cell phone was stolen two days ago. I late appreciated this lack of communication.
I was very tired as I had woken up very early (why, I have no idea) so I had planned to head back to Villa, but as should happen when in a foreign country, my curiosity go the best of me. Angelo had told me that I should eventually go to Piazza di Popolo which is near a Metro stop called Flaminio. I got off at Flaminio and then never made it to Piazza di Popolo. I was too amazed by the park that stretched out endlessly next to the Metro. It was beautiful and I couldn’t help but to continue walking. There were children playing, couples laying on blankets, old men watching the time pass, parents and children riding in pedal cars, people in boats on the pond, gardens that lay about in sunken terraces, trees offering abundant shade, the whole scene was truly out of a book and I had trouble containing myself while taking it all in. I was truly taken aback by the smell of flowers that seemed to be the air itself as the scent was so strong.
After walking around and enjoying my fill of smiling strangers and the laughing of children, I found a bench under a tree and pulled out my book. Being in such a beautiful and mystical place certainly made picturing the lands of Avalon much easier to picture. I thought about pulling out my headphones to listen to music until I realized that everything going on about me was music in itself. The combination of laughter, the water, the wind against the leaves, the soft tread of leisurely walking footsteps, the heavy breathing of passing joggers, and of course the abundance of the Italian language being spoken by all passers was a complete symphony and I had no need for the composed music of those who probably got a great deal of their inspiration from being in situations such as the one I was currently in. Truly, the most pure form of music I have yet to hear.
After tiring and rapidly becoming very aware of my stomach (since my first day prevented me from having lunch at Villa, I had to suffice with just an apple which I had eaten 4 hours ago), I decided to head back toward the Metro, very slowly. I made it back to Villa with enough time to taken a short rest then head to dinner. After dinner my friend Antonio took me to his room to give me a lesson on the geography of Italy. We were soon joined by Gabriele who wanted to show me pictures of his trip to Sardegna which apparently is the most beautiful seaside town in all of Italy (pink sand?!). It was then apparently time for a spot of limoncello which was then accompanied by an invitation for late night gelato. I decided it was time to try some fruity flavors since I have been mostly sticking to abundant varieties of chocolate and biscotti. I had a combination of lemon, strawberry and amareno cherry. They were all good but I have a seriously weakness for amareno cherries, so it was by far my favorite.
Feeling like an incredible glutton, we headed back to Villa where for some reason I tossed and turned for a good part of the night. Oddio.