noise to signal

Mi chiamo uno studente

Well, my friends, I have once again circled back into the student life. Not full-time, mind you, but I am devoting two nights a week to Italiano classes at the Washington Academy of Languages. Miz Becky and I, you see, are trying to get our busy asses to Tuscany later this year, and since I hate not knowing any of the local language when I travel, I'm going to spend thirty hours picking up the basics. Not all at once, mind you.

Tonight's highlights:

1) Meeting Signora Maffy, one of my classmates, also co-worker of the lithophilic Rob and actual reader of this humble site. I don't meet too many of you who I don't already know in the real world, so it was a little freaky for her to ask about my crows and to know who Miz Becky is. Not that I expect any different, of course... it's just not something that happens every day. Anyway, shout out to Maffy.

2) Rat-holing on the difference between an "open e" and a "closed e". If you imagine "eh" and "ay" as the two ends of the line, the open and closed "e" are on that continuum, but much closer together. It was a little like the "Merry Mary got Married" test -- if you're an English speaker from some parts of the planet, those three words are crisply distinct phonemes; and if you're from other parts of the planet, you have no idea there's any difference. La professoressa e studenti were nearly broken by this little exercise.

3) Really a lowlight: Traffic was so bad on SR520 tonight that not only did my bus not make it downtown in time to grab a snack, but I was 10 minutes late for the start of class. Those of you who know me in the real world (see 1 above) know that I'm the kind of person who likes to plan to get everywhere 10 minutes early, in case something comes up, so it's irksome to me to be late, especially on the first night of class. Ah well. I'll plan better next time.