Romance Languages

Last night a kind of shock. Severe jet lag. It is so hot and there is no air conditioning. Finally got to sleep at about 6:03 in the morning. And then had to wake up at 8 for class. This sucked. Watched my mind race. So I am exhausted. Too tired to eat. Or think. Today class was easier. I am thinking and dreaming in Italian already. o.k. more like, I am translating in Italian in my thoughts and in my dreams. which is a good sign. The take off for Italian has been very fast because of knowing the basic forms of the other romance languages. Today was the take off so to speak. It all just kind of poured out. I sound like Tarzan but I am forming sentences and find myself translating more from Spanish than from English because they are so close. 

Without Spanish and Portuguese this would be much more challenging time—as it is for the other students who do not know those languages but say only German or Swiss German or even the English or Scottish. Because I just really don't know Italian at all. It is actually very funny at this point how little Italian I know. I am like an idiot walking around who cannot communicate. But if someone doesn’t speak English I ask them if they speak Spanish and a lot of times they do, and when I hear Portuguese of course it is a welcome sound, so then I can ask them directions or other things like “where the fuck am I right now? And how can I get back to the school before I go crazy?”

I am taking four hours per day plus another hour of one on one in the afternoon. And then after dinner I am studying another hour or so. I just need to get to that point where I feel like I can communicate clearly. There is that first one thousand words thing. I don't know maybe that's me but I do notice that generally there is that first one thousand or so words you need to learn in any language to feel comfortable. Your Basic verbs like “to know, can, see, come, go, I am, etc..” and then a bunch of connecting words like “but, until, maybe, we’ll see, how, when, also, help, etc etc...” once you get these, you're in. Then you just learn to conjugate the verbs etc. easy breezy.

So today in my afternoon class my professor was going crazy, because he wanted to teach me in this structured way but I was just all over the place asking him all these words and phrases that are part of “the one thousand” because in the morning classes I already have four miserable hours of structured classes, so he is like “you are all over the place, you can’t learn Italian in one day!” and I said, “I know, but I can learn in two days.” And he did not laugh. Like I said, it is a lot easier once you know one of the other ones. Its more like you guess and you get damn close if not dead on. Compared to if you're just learning one for the first time.

So today was the first day that I felt like actually sight-seeing rather than just trying to find the basic needs like grocery store and restaurant etc. because after all this is the best site seeing in the world. So I just start walking. Holy fuck. You know you just turn around and your standing in front of the Statue of David (the copy in the place where it used to stand for the last five hundred years—they moved the original a few blocks away indoors because of the weather and vandals) And you look at whoever is standing next to you and you are like is that what I fucking think it is? And of course they are standing there with their mouths hanging open too staring straight up at it and you just kind of stand there for some time the bunch of you staring straight up at it like holy shit. ‘Can you take a picture?’ And everyone tries to stand there looking cool in front of this incredible statue. And they’re just everywhere. All these famous statues from the 13 and 14 and 15 hundreds and even earlier some of them. or you are walking around and thinking about  what am I going to eat later and then you look up and you see this mammoth church that is like something out of star wars or something and then you turn around and you realize you are in this ancient plaza from the 1030’s surrounded by all these famous statues. It just freaks you out. We just don't have anything like that in America. We have “look kids, it’s the very first McDonalds, built in 1944.... c'mon lets take a picture.” It just really gives you perspective.

I was so moved; I just walked around with my mouth open. Like holy shit, this is why all these people are here. This is why I am here. And that is the first time that it struck me consciously the idea of living here.

I knew there was something very vulgar and distasteful about malls and stripmalls. I just didn't realize that there were already such brilliant and beautiful alternatives in existence (except new York of course.) Florence is brilliant and beautiful.

I have to find a way to make a living. For real. That is the only glitch. I still don't make enough money from my music. the bitter fucking irony. I dreamed of this struggle. But I never knew it would be such a struggle—When I was young and reading about all the great artists. I romanticized about the struggle of course but I secretly told myself that it would never happen to me, but at the same time, it hasn’t been that bad. Time has passed quickly and the reward of making great music that makes me feel good has always outweighed the struggle. But I need to make money, so I can continue to live, so I can make music. What a funny circle it is. Whatever. It’s true.

You walk everywhere. My feet hurt. I have blisters on my feet from sandals. After a while I will get a bike, and then maybe a scooter for going farther away or faster.