Prima settimana di "scuola"

Last week was my first week of "school" while studying abroad, and I must say it is like no school I have ever attended. Classes do not follow the same rigid and formal teaching/learning format that one would find in an American university or college, but rather are about truly LEARNING about life. My first course, Italian, is indeed a language course, and yes, there are tests, but they are merely assessments; and when I am living with a host family and carrying my in-class learning over to a very real setting, those assessments are more of a security checkpoint for me. By pairing the "formal instruction" of a language with going out and using that newly acquired skill in public, I feel that I am picking up the language quite well, better than Spanish, and I have taken far too many years of that. 

Following suit, my other course is Italian Culture: Pairing Food and Wine. Italian food has always been one of my favorite types of food, and now that I am eating true Italian food, I really love it. Learning to cook some of the Italian classics is something that may not count for credit at my home institution (which I find completely asinine, because culture, food, and wine are all a form of visual and performing art, but hey what do I know), but is a skill that that I will be able to apply to the rest of my life. Then add the wine portion of the course, and WOW!, talk about a truly fun course. All of the different aspects of both food and wine that can affect one another is not something to lightly brush aside as mere fun. I mean, yes, of course I am enjoying the course probably more than any class I have ever taken, but I'm also probably learning more practical and usable information than in any other class as well. We as humans usually do not fully appreciate the individual constituents and flavors of our food and drink, and therefore do not maximize the potential to pair them appropriately. The beauty of this course, is that I am training my sensory receptors to recognize and memorize certain qualities to both food and wine, such as acidity, bitterness, tannin content, and sweetness, just to mention a few of many. By doing such, once I have successfully devoted some hard and slow hours of being able to discern these qualities, then I will forever be able to sit back and enjoy my meal in its entirety without having to put so much effort into figuring it all out. In other words, once I have "mastered" the balance of certain contents, I will be able to remove the training wheels and sit back and truly enjoy my food, wine, or anything else I consume. 

Essentially, my first week of school has taught me far more than the average classroom lessons...more like life appreciation. There is far more to just sitting in class and learning a subject because some arbitrary board decided that it should be learned. By fully immersing myself in what I am doing, whether it be studying or playing or working, I can truly say that I have done whatever it is that I am claiming to have done. Don't do something just for the sake of doing it, and don't not do something for the sake of not doing it...do or don't do things based on personal ideals and interests, which will grant a grander appreciation of all of life's opportunities.