Monday, July 23, 2007

Una cena troppo tardi (A very late dinner)

It was very difficult to not read scripts this weekend. I kept looking at the pile and feeling guilty. On the other hand I'm almost done with one of the four books I'm reading. When I was at my friend's house on Thursday, she lent me two books I have to read. I had a great time on Thursday sitting out in their backyard, talking and drinking wine until almost midnight.

I am on pins and needles waiting to hear back from my editor. Trying to be patient, which is not one of my strong suits. In the meantime I am going to start going throught the ms again, to look for the dreaded typos.

Last night my former Italian professor had us over for dinner. The invitation was for 8:00 p.m. we left at almost 1:00 a.m. I go to bed at 10:00 maybe 11:00 p.m. if I'm living on the edge. Dinner was amazing! Anti-pasti, salad, pasta (rigatoni with eggplant and tomatoes), wine, bread, etc.

The night started out a little rusty for me since one of my classmates just spent two weeks in Italy and was speaking so fast. The other two are at a level higher but I was able to at least understand the conversation. I would freeze when it was mine time to speak. I just need to practice more. I read Italian much better since I'm constantly getting emails from one of my friends (we met in another class two years ago) who refuses to send me emails in English, I read Italian newspapers and magazines when I can, and I'm reviewing my text book.

Our professor's husband came home from work and joined us. He's an American, a musician and very, very funny. We could have stayed and talked for another hour or so.

Now it's back to work. As of 8:00 a.m. today, the movie is still on track. Hopefully there will be no major hiccups this week.

6 comments:

erin said...

Sounds like the dinner and conversation was worth "living on the edge" :)

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Sounds like so much fun! It's completely normal to be nervous about speaking when you're used to reading; that's pretty much where I was at for a while when I was already in Italy! All it takes is one bilingual person around to give you a crutch, but you just have to soldier on--as I know you are :)

Btw, I'm answering your question tomorrow!

Giulia said...

You know, late night dinners is the one thing that I am having the hardest time adjusting to since living here. Without even planning it, there have been times where we don't sit down to eat until 9:30 10:00! It's exausting, in a way, because I hate going to bed with a sink full of dishes. So, you can imagine what late night hours I am up 'til to get the kitchen clean! UGH

In a way, I guess it's just more comfortable to eat during the later hours in the summer time. Nobody wants to sit around the table fanning themselves because it's just too unbearably hot to eat. This is pretty common in Italian households because not everyone has air conditioning.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Aren't those times great?
It's one of those things that far outweighs whatever sacrifice of sleep one must make.

Glad you enjoyed it, keep up on the Italian, you'll need it when you get back to Italy!


Scarlett & V.

Shelley - At Home in Rome said...

Ti scrivo un po' in italiano per aiutarti a non "arrugginire" -- in bocca al lupo con il film questa settimana!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

chris & erin - LOL. It was.

sognatrice - I am going to try and find a tutor when I'm in Canada, or at least someone I can practice with.

giulia - I know what you mean. In Rome my friends were killing me with the late nights. I can't eat a full dinner at 10:30!

wanderlust - Although I was tired the next day, I do love nights with good food and good conversation.

shelley- grazie mille. Sei molto gentile.