Feb 2 Pt. 2

Giovanna walked me to the bank this morning, then we joined another hostmom and student on the tram/train down Viale di Trastevere to Largo di Tor Argentina, the end of the line. There we happened to run into five other IES students, one a full year student who knew his way. We got on a bus with him for the rest of the trip. Altogether it was about a 15 minute trip on public transportation. That left us about 4 blocks from the school. The full year student, who is practically an employee at the school, took us the long way to school, which took us in sight of St. Peter's Basilica.

I think most, if not all of the hostmoms know each other.

All day we had orientation and speakers talking to us about the good and bad spots of Rome. The head of the our program is an Italian who was actually born in Argentina. He said the city of Rome "adopted" him nearly 25 years ago. He wears a bright red sports coat everyday. His speech is very precise and measured. He certainly doesn't speak like an American, but if you compare the way he speaks with the way an American speaks, you'd think he knew more about the language. But nearly everyone is still suffering from an extreme case of jet lag, so no one really heard what he had to say.

On the way back I happened to be walking with the same students I arrived with, minus the full year student who happened to also be the only person who knew where he was going. One of the students, who if he were a student at Illinois I would be certain he was studying Computer Science, declared that he was certain where the Argentina square was. He sniffed out that we should be going straight south, which would take us near The Vatican, rather than back east where we needed to be to take the tram. I kept silent, deciding as long as I knew where we actually were I would get a different view of Rome along the way. Eventually, he did find the right way and they did find the tram. I decided I had had enough of the obnoxious Americans so I walked the rest of the way in the rain.

Every Roman I have spoken to has apologized about the current weather, which feels just like a rainy Fall day back home. Giovanna can't believe I walked 1.75 miles "in this awful Winter weather we are having." The main topic in the city is "The Snow." The weather tomorrow has evolved into more than a forecast. Tomorrow is an event. Tomorrow is "The Snow." Most living in Illinois would look at the forecast and expect a typical late-Winter day, but to the Romans, there is a blizzard coming, and it's going to be huge. The public school system has already closed for tomorrow. Most conversations had by locals mention "neve" and "nevicata" which is "snow" and "snowfall." The most humorous aspect of tomorrow's impending doom, is that there is virtually no chance of accumulation, and there is never even an hourly forecast featuring "snow," but instead a "snow/rain mix." Nevertheless, it will likely cripple the city. An IES employee is predicting the city will come to a halt and public transportation will be useless. I assume we will still have class, since the weather is still better than the current conditions at the US schools of most of our students, which seem to be mostly the Big Ten, GWU, and several small liberal arts schools in the Northeast. There are maybe five students altogether from the South.

In the Roma's defense, the forecast for Saturday morning between 3-5 a.m. is for heavy snow. I don't know why that makes canceling school almost a day before necessary, but I'll let these Italians have their fun. They seem to enjoy being able to express emotion. Nothing deserves more emotion than the mayhem that will be caused by this blizzard.

Ciao

p.s. As I finish typing this, there are five Italians, two adults and three 12-year-old boys, yelling at each other and the TV while watching a show that I believe is a cross between Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and Family Feud. The answer was Barbra Streisand. No one got it correct.