Category: Language

Faced with 3 days alone in Frankfurt I really wasn’t sure what to do. After I got over the immediate wrenching dislocation I decided to make it an adventure. It took a little while to figure out how to use the machines to buy the tickets for the tram but once that was accomplished I […]

Really I should say lunching with friends. I did have dinners and lunches a number of times but these were two notable occasions. Just a week after I had arrived in Italy Paolo invited me to a barbecue (his word) at his country place near Imola.  Paolo is an orthodontist and almost everyone (at least the men) […]

I am now ending my 9 weeks of school at ALCE. It has been pleasurable and frustrating in turn. I now can not only ask for directions but usually understand the answer – an important consideration. Not only that, if I don’t understand the answer I can ask for clarifications. I can carry on a […]

I have had Skype calls with Massimiliano for a year. Each week at the appointed hour (11:30 California time and 8:30 Italian time) we talked for an hour. We are friends but had never met one another. I had a plan to go Torino (Turin) a month ago but the week before the planned trip, […]