Friday farewells

Every Friday at L’Accademia Italiana in Sorrento, Italy is graduation day as a group of students completes their tenure (usually two weeks) and returns to their native countries, hopefully with a greater knowledge of the Italian language. Today, seven of my eight classmates are departing. It’s always sad to bid farewell. In the short span of two weeks, I gained the friendship of two wonderful women with whom I shared fun times. Christina is outgoing, classy, and embraces the Italian concept of “la bella figura”. She is friendly with virtually every waiter and barista in Salerno and exudes an aura that embraces a joy for life – “la dolce vita”. She is a Muscovite (native of Moscow) who is totally enamored with everything Italian. Ulrike is from Switzerland. She is kind, friendly and and sincere. We shared many conversations after class and during the extra-curricular excursions. We three had a farewell dinner last night at Cicirinella, a quaint restaurant that serves local cuisine, albeit in an upscale manner.It’s sad to say “goodbye” but I now have two new international friends.

Most likely, I will also have a new teacher on Monday. Anna has been a wonderful teacher these past two weeks, always concerned not only about our comprehension of Italian but also about our well-being (especially since I was likely the source of an upper respiratory infection that spread to some of my classmates).

Since it’s a Friday where likely half the students have “graduated” and there will likely be a rearrangement of classes, there is no homework to do, and therefore a perfect opportunity to catch up on some laundry with the European washer/dryer combo that takes forever (i.e. 3 hours) to run through the cycles and still leaves the clothing wet.

A Ph.D is almost required to decipher the operating instructions and there are way too many buttons and dials to adjust! What better way is there to while away three hours than watching MasterChef Italia!