Back To School

Last night I left the comfy confines of the Hotel Eden and slept in my apartment for the first time. It was fairly uneventful, but far less luxurious than a weekend full of valets, very handsome bellmen, and 24-hour room service. Instead of the dull drone of the Via Veneto I was kept up until the wee hours by a barking dog in my courtyard. Since I don't speak enough Italian to say anything I had to simply wait things out until the pup tired of whining, which he finally did near 2am. I wouldn't have minded but today was my first day of school and I was hoping to be fresh as a daisy. So much for that.

After a 7am alarm (to which I replied - out loud - in my empty bedroom, "are you kidding me?"), I hightailed it to the Scuola Leonardo. The school itself is an old palazzo located just behind the Piazza Navona and across a grand boulevard from the Campo dei Fiori, the ancient fruit and vegetable market cum-nightlife hub (think Union Square). There's a massive courtyard with palm trees for staff parking and a huge square out front surrounded by centuries-old apartment buildings. Bellissima. There was a long line of people of all ages waiting to pick up placement tests and many confused, stoic faces, and naturally I scanned to see if there was anyone I could see myself being friends with. There wasn't.

I was given a small written exam and then had to speak with a professor to determine my level of fluency. My grammar was about as impressive as a toddler's on a bad day but my conversational skills were (surprise, surprise) above par. That much is simple genetics. I waited around for an eternity before speaking with the school director himself, who determined that because there was such a difference in my tests, I would need to be divided between two levels. Fine by me, as the sentence of spending 6 months with the same 12 students was daunting.

Sadly, there aren't many people in my classes I see myself sipping vino with or engaging in debats philisophique. But the good news is my "people skills" never fail and by end of day I had two phone numbers - one, a very friendly girl from berlin with a great sense of humor (who knew Germans were so funny?); and two, an italian girl bred in bermuda. By day's end I had two dinner invitations. They then introduced me to some of their friends and, well, let's just say I'm none too worried about having a social life here.

One interesting point is that I am the only American (that I know of) who started today. There were many germans, poles, swiss, and even a portugese and a russian, but no americans. I'm sort of the token American which is a trip, especially since I'm from New York. People were literally coming up to me telling me how much they wanted to live there, how they loved visiting, how they wanted to go and where should they stay, etc. I felt so exotic! It was a first. One very nice girl had interned at Hugo Boss, lived in the East Village, applied to FIT, and asked if I could explain to her friend - in Italian - what "Project Runway" was. I happily obliged.

It's nearing midnight here and I still haven't done my homework. (Never thought I'd have to say THAT again.) I've got a mobile now so if you're interested in spending a pretty penny to hear my pretty voice, shoot me an email and I'll give you the number.

I'm not saying today was world's best first day (though the outfit was Top Ten of my "best first-day-of-school outfits"), but it was very encouraging. Almost everyone at school had family or friends in Rome and were shocked that I chose to come here knowing nobody. Hopefully they'll take me under their little European wings.

A domani.