Well, it looks like I just might survive alla Universita per Stranieri. One week down and beyond a few mistakes, a couple of ego bruisings, and un sacco di head aches I'm doing pretty well. My class is very challenging and the other students totally know what they're doing. 

You may (or may not) know that I'm a bit of una secchiona. I've really always enjoyed being in a classroom setting and learning. It feels very natural to me, probably in part because I know very little about a life other than that. But back to my point, I'm sure you can imagine what comes along with this kind of personality: being preoccupied by grades, having the utmost attention to details, and caring more about classwork than classmates. But I must admit that this course has put me through a very drastic change in my typical approach to learning.

Since my grade in this course really means nothing to me, I've started really paying attention to the process rather than the outcome. For instance, I push myself knowing that I'm guaranteed to make mistakes, which has always been a limited action for me. Moreover, as I mentioned before, the other students know.their.stuff. While on the other hand, I am understanding about 65-75% of the class, but am missing some of the details (for now). Although I'm a bit behind, I'm working hard and still learning lots. And finally, I'm finding that having a rapport with the other students in the class is just as important as the course content. My intentions here were to learn how to speak. I'm not going to get that development from book exercises alone. We have several activities within the lessons where we can interact with each other, and everyday there's a 20ish minute break (from our 4.5 hours of work) during which I usually go on a walk or take a coffee with my compagni di classe.

My professor's name is Simonetta. She's very kind and has a great sense of humor. Simonetta facilitates all kinds of activities for us to learn. Just this week, we've played Taboo, listened to music, acted, and written a group story. For this morning's "warm up," we were asked to write our own haiku; mine, naturally, was about Il Palio. But in addition to the grammar, we learn a lot of cultural components of the language like idioms and word play among other things. During a lesson a few days ago we were working on gerunds (-ing words for those of you who've forgotten). She taught us a phrase that I've decided to take on as my approach to language learning: "Sblagiando, si impara," or "Making mistakes, one learns." Maybe this is the formula for success? I'm told it's very American. Which is fitting.

Still, there are a couple of things that I have to note that make this course even more different from what I'm accustomed. I find this experience unlike anything else:

• being the only American in a class of about 25-30 people. There are people from all over the world and it's such an enriching experience to be learning about the Italian language and culture in contrast to those of everyone else's. But I really never recognized just how other countries compare themselves to the USA for better or worse. At first, I was nervous to admit where I came from due to all the stigmas that come along with that (almost talking about my nationality as if it was some sort of drug problem), but I'm starting to realize that if I act like I always do, it wouldn't be bad for people to meet a real American.
• being in a class with men. Going to a women's college, I'm not used to the influence of testosterone in a classroom. I only took one class at NCSU and that one was a huge lecture course and never felt I got the full effect. Since this course is very heavy on conversation , I'm not sure that I missed out on too much hearing what these guys have to say (haha!), but am finding myself still learning a lot from their unique points of view. And that's not even mentioning "boy humor." There's really nothing like it....
• since I'm walking to school. Or maybe "hiking" is a more appropriate term due to the Sienese hills. I was riding the bus at first, but to save enough euros for about two trips to the grocery store I've been walking about an hour a day. At first, "American Sam" was completely adverse to the idea of walking that much, but now I find it great way to wake up in the morning for class and give my brain a break in the afternoon. The weather has been wonderful; mid-70s during the day makes the walk perfect.

So although things are completely exhausting right now and my head beats like the drums preparing for the Palio, I know I'm learning a lot...or at least I hope I am. I'll keep you posted.