Was It Something I Said?

After the test, everyone I saw agreed, it wasn’t as hard as we expected. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

Those of us who are planning to take Italian 2 in the fall need to find ways to hang on to what we’ve learned during summer vacation. I am thinking I will go back to the book that was used in the extension class last summer and try to work my way through it. The advantage of this book is that it includes the answers (printed upside down at the end of the exercises), so I can check my own work as I go along.

People who have been in college often have recurring dreams that go something like this: It’s the day of final exams and you suddenly realize that you must take a test for a class you have forgotten to attend. It’s the day of final exams and you can’t find the classroom. You arrive at the school, but it’s the wrong day, nobody is there, and the doors are locked. You are sitting in the classroom to take the final exam and you realize you are naked. I had some or all of these dreams occasionally for several years after I left college, but they haven’t bothered me in many years.

Today is the day of the final exam. Last night I dreamed that I walked into the wrong classroom. By the time I found the right room, I was half an hour late. Everyone else was late, too, so I thought everything was okay. But then I realized that I wouldn’t have time to finish the test, because I had to catch a train to a faraway city.

Yikes!

At a party last night I talked to a woman who travels extensively in Italy and speaks Italian. I just spoke a sentence or two with her. She was easy to understand because she spoke slowly enough for me. My problem is that I have to think too much before I can say anything. I can form sentences, but not fast enough for a real conversation. Practice!