The re-birth...

Paul and I have decided that a great analogy for my experience here so far is, well, starting your life all over again. OK. Probably a bit of an obvious analogy but let me take you through it....

First you start in the womb (the aeroplane) where it's warm, the air is filtered, you're crammed in but generally pretty comfortable, food just turns up in front of you, and the sights and sounds of the outside world are buffered. You are completely dependent on your carrier....ain't no getting out until they let you!

And then all of sudden, you are getting ushered out!! You don't really know where you're going, you just go with the flow and head towards the light. Through the gates (ahem) and you are confronted with all these people who are excited to see you.....but the light is too bright, it's too noisy, it's cold and nothing looks familar - apart of course from your dependent other who is strangely familiar! All you want to do is sleep and eat at strange times of the day whilst your dependent other is intent on introducing you to everything and everyone.

For the first week, all you can do is make noises - not even intelligible words, and you can't understand anything going on around you. You are completely reliant on your "dependent other" to navigate your way around.

In the second week, you move into two-word utterances.....telegraphic speech if you will. Then before your know it....

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Excitement. Fear. Packing your backpack the night before. Separation Anxiety as your dependent other leaves you at the door and you have to try to communicate all your needs to strangers. And then you meet your teacher!! And you're instantly in love!! Funny, considerate, SPEAKS SLOWLY, young and handsome. He will be your saviour! He will be your guide in this crazy world! He will bring structure and meaning! Instant bonding! Hurrah!!!

Only, he's not your teacher afterall. He was just your teacher for the orienation. Separation anxiety all over again. New teacher scary and strict. And what about all those "friends" I made in the orientation? Now I have to start all over again. Will I be accepted?

Day 2. Meet teacher number two who will teach half of your classes. In love again! Like a primary school teacher, sweet, pretty, wears funky clothes and SPEAKS SLOWLY!! Ahhhhhh. Better. Exaggerates her speech and gestures...."Vaaaaa beeeeene?? Okaaaay? D'accorrrrrdo?". And you're covering all those basic subjects - family, clothes, types of work, animals etc. No dictionaries allowed.

What's really frustrating is knowing that your teachers and the whole class can speak English (these Europeans speak English better than me - not hard, I know) but we can only hope to understand the meanings of Italian words through our teachers' explanations in Italian, gestures and pictures.

Anyway - I'm in week 3 at the moment. I imagine I've learnt a lot but everyday I'm confronted with how much I still don't understand. One of the students gave up trying to conjugate a question with the correct tense, subjects and articles today in our class (strict teacher), so she just said "biscotto" instead. It was hilarious because it wasn't relevant at all to what we were discussing. I feel like that often too. i.e. "Here's a word I know in Italian - you figure out the rest cos 'biscotto' is all I have to offer right now - leave me alone".

After school I often go home, have lunch and watch my favourite show "Ciao Principessa". Yes, it's a children's show....but it's at my level! And she has a dog called "Scruuuf". I like Scruff. Of course, Scruff doesn't speak.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay. Vaaaaa beeeeene. Only one more week of school left and then I enter the real world. I'll keep you posted!

Ali