Why I Love Thursdays

I LOVE:

• My Italian Class,
• My Food Class, and
• My Wine Class

My Italian Class.

The teacher is an old man. He's Italian, but speaks VERY good English, and lived in the US for a couple of years. He speaks to us mostly in English so he can explain things. He's very patient because we are learning a new language and don't always know how to pronounce everything. The class is very small.There are eight of us in the whole class. We have it twice a week, for an hour and 15 minutes each class period. So far, we have learned the alphabet, punctuation, greetings, numbers, days of the week, seasons, months, and weather. I say "learned," but I mean that we went over them, and now I have to study. It's much more fast-paced then the French classes I've taken, but I guess that is to be expected because I started French in high school, not college.

My Food Class.

Another small class, about 10 people, I think. Throughout the semester, we are traveling through Italy, via food. We're starting in the north and working our way south. We start each week learning the history of the region we're "in", the weather and geography, what types of foods are found there, etc. Then, we make two or three dishes from the region, following simple recipes the teacher will give us. Finally, we get to taste the food, and then clean everything up. I love the teacher because she is very knowledgeable. She went to cooking school, worked in a restaurant for many years, and did catering for a few years before she started teaching. She stresses the importance of buying and using what is in season and what is fresh. Today, for the first class, she took us to the market and explained all the different kinds of pastas, sauces, cheeses, meats, fruits, vegetables, and fish. She told us what regions they're from, how you prepare them, and what you eat them with. She told us what to look for in meat to make sure it is fresh, and what sorts of vegetables and fruits to buy now, and which to wait until the summer to buy. I learned about a lot of different types of tomatoes, what regions in Italy they grow in, what they taste like, and what they are used for. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to learn how to cook things I never would have tried. The syllabus says we will be cooking clams, calamari, etc. I'm thrilled! This is my FAVORITE class. Ever.

My Wine Class.

So much fun. The teacher is very young. He seems like he is in his 20s, but I am also horrible at guessing ages. He's a wine expert. Today we went over the history of wine, which was first made like 8000 years ago or something. We covered the brief history of wine in Italy. Similar to the food class, we're studying different regions each week. We try four different types of wine each week after studying all the background information. Then we try to describe it-- how it looks, smells, and tastes. Today we only had time to try three of them, all white wines. I actually liked them more than I thought I would! This class was fun today because when he asked us to describe the different smells of each and we had never done that before, we all said to each other, "It just smells like wine..." He's been describing wine for years so he knows what he's talking about, but we're still clueless.

So now I have had a full week of class. I love that they are all so small and the teachers are very good. I can tell I am getting a really good education here and will learn a lot.

There is no class on Fridays, so I think I will go to the Uffizi Gallery tomorrow. Arrivederci!