2008 Woodie Awards
Click.
Double click: "Italy-Edu-Study Abroad."
I imagined it. Sitting in a piazza surrounded by narrow cobblestone streets lined with small, outdoor cafes and cooled by a Mediterranean breeze. A dark, olive-skinned waiter leans over to take my order, as perfect Italian flows from my lips.
I am going to study abroad in Italy next spring, an adventure for which I have been waiting for the past six years. I have daydreamed this scene all through high school and GW Italian classes, which could explain my broken Italian. And here I fantasize, with only one semester left before I depart for…where? My summer project of discovering my one true Italian dreamland (and, oh yeah, school) from the seemingly endless list of choices is more difficult than I believed.
So now I am in front of my computer after midnight, after hours in the Study Abroad office reading "Peterson’s Guide to Study Abroad," after an advising session with my Milan-native aunt, to find where I will spend la primavera.
As most of my searches begin, my first reference was Yahoo.com. It sent me to a site for the Perugia Umbra Institute, located somewhere between Rome and Florence. Skipping over academics, I clicked on "Student Life." Wooed by the talk of excursions to Rome and Venice, I read Perugia is a "great city for walking" with "its share of inclines." My cafe-fantasy quickly transformed into a walking nightmare. I imagined it. Sweaty and book-laden I haul myself up the Apennine Mountains to class, as Fiats whiz by on the twisted mountain roads, the word for help long forgotten.
Pushing my fears aside, I checked out the academics. Reminiscent of Colonial Inauguration, I was faced with a placement exam right there on the Web. The first few sections looked easy, my confidence building. I remembered the word for help and decided I was an Italian genius. Then I saw it: "Fill in the subjunctive or conditional tense." There is a subjunctive tense in Italian? The word for help once again lost, I decided to wait to take the placement exam until I had a refresher course this fall.
Double click: "Italy-Edu-Study Abroad."
I imagined it. Sitting in a piazza surrounded by narrow cobblestone streets lined with small, outdoor cafes and cooled by a Mediterranean breeze. A dark, olive-skinned waiter leans over to take my order, as perfect Italian flows from my lips.
I am going to study abroad in Italy next spring, an adventure for which I have been waiting for the past six years. I have daydreamed this scene all through high school and GW Italian classes, which could explain my broken Italian. And here I fantasize, with only one semester left before I depart for…where? My summer project of discovering my one true Italian dreamland (and, oh yeah, school) from the seemingly endless list of choices is more difficult than I believed.
So now I am in front of my computer after midnight, after hours in the Study Abroad office reading "Peterson’s Guide to Study Abroad," after an advising session with my Milan-native aunt, to find where I will spend la primavera.
As most of my searches begin, my first reference was Yahoo.com. It sent me to a site for the Perugia Umbra Institute, located somewhere between Rome and Florence. Skipping over academics, I clicked on "Student Life." Wooed by the talk of excursions to Rome and Venice, I read Perugia is a "great city for walking" with "its share of inclines." My cafe-fantasy quickly transformed into a walking nightmare. I imagined it. Sweaty and book-laden I haul myself up the Apennine Mountains to class, as Fiats whiz by on the twisted mountain roads, the word for help long forgotten.
Pushing my fears aside, I checked out the academics. Reminiscent of Colonial Inauguration, I was faced with a placement exam right there on the Web. The first few sections looked easy, my confidence building. I remembered the word for help and decided I was an Italian genius. Then I saw it: "Fill in the subjunctive or conditional tense." There is a subjunctive tense in Italian? The word for help once again lost, I decided to wait to take the placement exam until I had a refresher course this fall.
