Ciao, Walter

The big news du jour is that I met my language partner yesterday. A language partner is an Italian student whom Brown pays to show you around the city, speak Italian with you, and help you with any general cultural adjustment difficulties. Mine had been gone on vacation until now, so it was nice to finally meet him.

The facts: His name is Walter Gesu. He is 22 years old. He studies pharmacology here at the Universita di Bologna and will graduate in about three years. He is from a small town just north of Naples. He has one older brother and he does not play any sports.

My opinions: Walter is the embodiment of the Italian stereotype. He showed up to our meeting wearing a brown, airy, canvas-like shirt with three top buttons all unbuttoned, crisp khaki shorts, leather loafers, and black Wayfarers. He has a serious amount of dark wavy hair and sported the over-the-shoulder man purse.

The first thing we did after we introduced one another was go buy cigarettes. When I politely declined his offer for one, he apologized and said he only smokes a few day which is significantly better than most of his friends. We took a walk all around the city chatting anything I had the vocabulary for and eventually ended up at a little cafe in the University section of the city. He ordered two espressos (without consulting me), and when I got out my wallet to pay for mine, he said, "No, no, le donne non pagono" (No, no, ladies don't pay). I was too taken aback to object.

After our coffee and water break, he took me on another short walk and on the way he showed me where a really nice library is. It's not too far from my apartment and I think I'll be frequenting it as it's difficult to make myself study at home. Our walk ended back at the Piazza Maggiore where we exchanged cell phone numbers and made a tentative date for our next meeting.

All in all, meeting Walter was quite the experience. I'm pretty sure there are many more good Walter stories to come, so watch out. For my new vocabulary word, I have a somewhat out-there choice, but it was in my reading last night and I had a small chuckle about it. The Italian word "la macedonia" means "fruit salad." For some reason, the fact that word for fruit salad also happens to be a random eastern European country just tickles me. Alright, it's ciao for now as I'm off to history class.