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091305 Food, food, and more food |
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by homebase / 09.15.2005 |
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Itinerary |
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| Italian class at Italiaidea |
| Aurora Santoro trying to teach us Italian |
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Sabrina Tatta taught us tonight, during Italian cooking class, that the ancient Roman did everything to excess, especially eating. For example, they ate in a reclining position so that they could eat more. Halfway through the dinner, Patricia and I are both reclining on the sofa in classic Roman style, having eaten to excess. What did we eat? Hmmmmm. Two kinds of pasta, two salads, two kinds of calzone, and I think I remember counting four desserts—all made by the students under Sabrina’s direction. The tiramisu was made the night before with Lisa’s direction. It took four hours to prepare the meal and two kitchens, followed by several hours of eating (to excess), cleaning the kitchen and washing the dishes. Total time spent on dinner? About eight hours, including the shopping. And, that was only part of our day.
The first part of the day began in Italian class at Italiaidea. This is our second to last class, with the final exam coming up two days from now. In class we practiced ordering food in a restaurant (how appropriate we do not stray too far away from the subject of food and drink in this class). Our teacher, Daniela, pretended to be the waiter and we were in a restaurant where the service wasn’t very accommodating, which meant that we had to ask for everything.
As a professor who hasn’t been a student in a long time, it’s very stressful being a student in Italian class. I never took a formal Italian class, instead have learned and memorized phrases over the last ten years and six trips to Italy, which is why I decided to sit in on the class with my students. After being in class, I’m really embarrassed by the poor grammar I’ve been using. Prior to taking the class, I was fearless about speaking my version of Italian. Now that I know more, I’m more hesitant about speaking. I’m self-conscious about my grammar, word choice, feminine and masculine nouns, present or past tense, formal or informal—I’m a wreck of indecision. A little knowledge is sometimes a bad thing. Ooops, I didn’t mean that. I’m the professor on this trip.
As the professor, I wasn’t going to take the final exam in Italian class—you know professional license or some lame excuse like that, but the students put the big guilt trip on me and now I’m take the final exam on Thursday. Uh, the last time I took any kind of final exam was probably 35 years ago. Fear has now been replaced by terror. I told the students that in order for them to get an “A” in Italian, they have to score higher than me. I’m not sure if I’m setting the bar high or low. Luckily for me, most of the vocabulary in the class is centered around food and directions, which is the Italian I do know pretty well.
After Italian, my wife, Erin, and son, Peter, and I went for a walk. Peter fell asleep in his stroller, so we stopped at a quiet wine bar for lunch and had a leisurely lunch (caprese salad, veal saltimbocca, pasta with prawns, some fabulous red wine from Sicily, and an espresso). Very civilized way to calm the nerves following Italian class.
In the afternoon, I was in the computer center with some of my students. They were working on their homework—or so I assumed. I was reading my students’ homework on-line. It was a nice symmetry. I like the ambience in the room and I like being near them while we’re all working. OK, that lasted just a few minutes, but it was a nice teacher moment. The fantasy ended when I heard them talking about the TV show, “O.C.,” and whether they could watch it on the big projection screen in the Rome Center. I asked how they could watch the show here in Rome and they told me that they had downloaded the show from the internet. Interesting.
Professor: Can you download other TV shows?
Honor student Julia: Yes, of course (or was it “duh, yeah”?).
Professor: Can I download “24”?
Greek chorus of Honor students Julia, Zinnia, Joel, Judy: Duh, yeah. (That’s what they were thinking.)
Professor: How do I do that? I’m addicted to “24.”
Revealing non-academic secrets about yourself is not usually a good idea for professors, but I was desperate. A brief lesson followed, then we had to run off to cooking class and that’s where today’s story began.
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