Anyway, upon arriving in Pisa, I managed to buy a bus ticket to Lucca (in my very limited Italian), about 45 minutes away. It was pouring rain by the time I arrived at the Lucca station. So there I was with two big bags of luggage, trying to find a taxi, which I finally did. He took me to the language school, which is one of our central locations. As soon as I got there, a teacher took me in to a classroom to test my level of Italian, which really just involved a short conversation--nothing too intense. After that, Lorenzo, another teacher at the school, took me to my apartment, where I was met by my landlords, Stefano and Monica (yes--apparently my name is also very common in Italian!).
After studying abroad in Wuppertal (Germany), where my apartment basically consisted of a hard chair, a desk, and a bed, I wasn't really expecting anything extravagant for my apartment here. However, I was pleasantly surprised! We have a kitchen with a dining room table, a living room with couches and a TV, two bedrooms, and a spacious bathroom. I live with two other girls, Kendra and Charissa, who are doing the same program I am. Charissa and I share one of the bedrooms.
My daily schedule is basically the same each day. We have two hours of Italian language class in the morning with Lorenzo, then an hour of acting class, then 30 minutes to an hour of rehearsal for our opera scenes, then an individual voice lesson with my teacher (Dr. Crum from WSU), then a coaching session with an accompanist. I have only been here two days and already feel like I have made progress. I don't think I have ever been drilled so much on diction--except for maybe when I took voice lessons in Germany. I always thought Italian diction was easier than other languages, like French and German, but now that I am being coached by native speakers, I feel like that's only an illusion!
Lucca itself is a beautiful city. It is completely surrounded by a wall, and the only way to get around within the wall is to walk or bike--a person must have a special permit to be allowed to drive there. The population is about 85,000, so it has pretty much everything a person needs to get around. There are more tourists here than I expected there to be, which makes me want to disguise myself as not being an American even more. I have already gotten a new purse and a pair of Italian sandals :).
The problem is, any outward impression of not being American falls flat on its face when I try to communicate with Italians! I'm hoping that will change at least a little bit while I'm here. One thing I have noticed about Italians that I like is that it is easier to try to practice your Italian with them. In Germany, it was almost frustrating that everyone could speak English because it made it very difficult to practice my German with native speakers. As soon as they figured out I was American, they would immediately switch to English. However, Italians will try to speak Italian with you even if your Italian isn't great. At the same time, they are also willing to speak English with you if needed. I don't think most Italians speak as much English as other Europeans, such as Germans and Scandinavians, but most seem to know at least some--probably because they've had to interact with tourists often.
Anyway, that's the gist of things so far! We are taking a day trip to Florence this weekend, so I'll hopefully have some new stories and photos to post after that! Check my Facebook page for photos of Lucca and my apartment.
Grazie per la lettura! :)
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