Italia week 2

Living in the countryside has it's benefits. Yesterday, I picked baby cherry tomatoes from our garden, under the Italian sun. I harvest jujubes from a tree and examined the growing pomegranates while the chickens clucked in their pen. The number of fruits that we consider exotic that you see growing around any neighborhood is amazing to me.
For lunch we sat outside in the garden and the first course was a pasta-caprese salad, made with penne, fresh mozzarella, with basil and tomatoes from our own garden. All dressed of course in a perfect distribution of olive oil.
On the nights where I go out, I hop on my bike and ride the 2 km into town, where I meet up with friends in the Piazza (plaza). There is a big culture here of standing outside during these warm nights, talking and drinking. It's a little intimidating speaking so little of the language, but that is why I am here learning. I started out in a language class that was a bit hi level for me. About half of the class were pretty fluent Italian speakers, and the professoressa would ramble on in italian without really slowing down. I'm proud of my classmates for being where they are, but it was truly above my level and I was miserable in class that first week. The people at CIEE are very understanding and familiar with the situation, and now I am in the intermediate class, which is more what I thought I would be getting myself into, having increasingly complex dialogues and learning new grammer/vocabulary.
The events CIEE organizes are very fun. They have great connections in the town and treat us to events like observing the making of high-class gelato. We also got to play Bocce, which according to one of the organizers who might have had a bit much to drink, made us not tourists, but members of the Ferrarese family and it's history.
Everyday I try to understand more. It's a struggle, but it's still early on. It sometimes boggles my mind when I think about how long I will be in a country speaking a different language. Fall term at OSU is long and it hasn't even begun yet. I am excited for my birthday coming up in a couple weeks, and I miss my family and friends back home. I am thankful for the friends I have who I talk to from back home while I am here. They help me feel connected. That's all for now, I will try to post again this week.

Rowan