Corona and School

(Week of..) February 24th, 2020: School is still amazing! This week we had a different grammar teacher but kept the same conversation guru. It is insane how much I have learned!! I now know two tenses (present and present perfect) and will be starting the past and future this week! It is crazy! My class was much smaller this week, just the three girls from Argentina, a woman from Macao and me! We had lots of laughs over mispronunciations, governments of different countries, and our lacking vocabularies. The low of the school week was learning prepositions, obviously we need to know them but it was a struggle to stay awake during that lesson. If that is my hardest class while I’m here, I think I’ll be okay 🙂 To my father’s dismay, the highlight was learning one simple phrase: “I love you” we spent loads of time perfecting this phrase. It’s as if they know we are here for all the hallmark moments. Lesson time: Ti voglio bene can be used for family, friends, and coworkers but only use Ti amo with one person….it could get pretty complicated if not and that is not how hallmark works!

It’s a tough week for my dad, not only did I learn love, I also discovered the 100% gluten free bakery right around the corner from my school. Sorry bank account. The people at Starbene are absolutely amazing and when I go in, I attempt to use what I learned that day. Also the food is incredible and that makes the embarrassing encounter worth it. After class Friday, I stopped by the bakery and got a quick snack and then walked further downtown to go to Perchè No. On my way, I just happened to pass by my favorite building on the planet which is pictured above. If anyone wants/needs to hear a recitation of the Medici family history just let me know.

On to the Coronavirus. The outbreak has spread to Northern Italy and there are many cases up there. It has been interesting to see how the government and people are reacting. Several soccer matches are being played in closed door stadiums, including Fiorentina’s game today. The mayor of Florence has decided to make several museums free for a couple of days to try to maintain normal life…guess who is going to the Palazzo Vecchio for free???? A woman from my school is thinking about cutting her vacation short two weeks so she has time to be quarantined before returning to work while another person is extending their vacation by two weeks to hopefully avoid being quarantined before returning to work.

In other news: I am now a master chef and will accept challengers for when I get home in July.