Inside the wall, days 1 and 2

I posted my blog last night completely forgetting that I had not even touched upon the fact that I had started my internship at the Vatican.

This first week is what I would call Italian boot-camp. 3 hours of Italian tutoring from 8am to 11am every morning, with our awesome Italian tutor, Carlotta. Going into this I was afraid I wouldn't do well learning another language. My experiences with french classes did not exactly end on a high note, so I had this premonition that learning a language couldn't be fun. I was wrong. Carlotta is engaging and fun. She is able to not only teach us the basics but help us effectively understand the language that we are surrounded by. It's as she called it, "survival Italian", and so far it has been extremely effective. After two days, though I haven't even learned how to speak much Italian, my comprehension and confidence when listening to a native Italian speaker speak Italian to me has significantly gone up. Going into the phone store today to get an Italian phone, I found myself eager to listen in on the representative talking in Italian (though he was speaking in English to me). Carlotta has proven to me that I can understand Italian even though I don't know how to speak it yet, and that is more than half the battle.

The internship part of the experience has been short due to the extended Italian tutoring for the first week, but it has been awesome nonetheless. I've gotten settled into my office and am beginning to learn what I will be doing for the rest of the semester. Being so close to the Vatican and knowing that what I work on will be seen by one of the largest populations of people is motivating me to go above and beyond the jobs assigned to me.

When I start working on specific projects I will be sure to keep you all updated. I hope to have some video up soon of experiences in Rome or of working in the Vatican.