Ciao di nuovo

Hi again! I have a few updates!! I've joined Google+ and I am hoping to increase my use of Google+ and decrease my use of Facebook. This, however, depends on if more people will make the switch to Google+ because at the moment, I only have 3 friends who appear to use Google+ on a semi regular basis. I do know that I will no longer post any travel photos to Facebook since I am not a huge fan of their photo copyright policies, so many photos from now on will be loaded through Google+.

Ok, that was a bit off topic, just a heads up. The main reason I wanted to bring Google+ up was because I found a good starter lesson of Italian through a community on Google+. I'm not sure how often they will be uploading videos, but I found it really helpful and I could actually understand most of what she was saying even though I haven't studied much Italian because it is so similar to Spanish! There where a few words from the lesson that did not mean the same in Italian as Spanish though- these false cognates can easily trip you up!

These are the 2 that come to mind from the lesson: Loro and Siete. In Spanish 'Loro' means 'Parrot', but in Italian it means 'They'. In Spanish 'Siete' means '7', but in Italian it means 'are' for the plural form of you-Voi.

They also appear to have other Italian Language programmes available to watch on their Youtube channel which I will check out later, but for now, here is Laura with la prima lezione di Italiano =)

~Ciao Ciao Bella~

regali e ricordi

So, I've taken quite a long gap from updating this blog, and I am truly sorry for that. I spent the month of September traveling, moved back to the United States, returned to work, got a new job and have been trying to readjust to life stateside in general. One of my new years resolutions though is to resume my studies of Italian, so I will be posting here again regularly once again!

I haven't started studying again yet, so instead of updating you on a fun new phrase or tidbit or on my progress, I will instead share some fun gifts and souvenirs (regali e ricordi) I picked up in September while I was visiting Pisa and Rome.

 A magnet I bought for the family who let me stay with them while in Spain. It's hard to tell here, but there are multiple layers of wood there which gave it an even cooler effect!

 Leaning Tower of Pisa leaning shot glass I got my brother

Pinocchio! I got 3, one for a niece, one for a nephew and one for me =)

I also got my friend and myself t-shirts that look similar to this one! I actually had remembered this shirt from the first time I was in Italy 7 years ago, and I was mad at myself for not buying it when I was there all those years ago, so I made up for it this trip!

These are not things I bought/did, but they made me laugh =)

 Duff beer! Haha, didn't know anyone would make a real version of the beer from the Simpsons!

Saw some guy at the top of the Vatican drinking a Guinness beer!! So funny!!

una pausa

Ciao a tutti!

I am going to take a break from this blog and from learning Italian. My dissertation has taken over my life, so probably not until late September will I resume this blog and learning Italian. I am still keen to learn the language and may even try to take another trip to Italy before heading back Stateside, but for right now I need to focus on graduating!!

So.... a presto! ~Ciao bella~

Italia e Spagna

Italy beat Germany in the semis of the Eurocup! So happy!! My 2 favourite teams to the final. It should be interesting to see who wins! They played in the group play rounds of the tournament, and 'hanno pareggiato' - it was a draw (1-1), so it doesn't give much of an indication of who will win. 

Would like to Spain win it just because no team has won the Eurocup - Wold Cup - Eurocup back to back to back-- but really I will be happy with either team being crowned 'campione'. =)

~Ciao Bella~

New book

I got a new book to help me learn Italian, it looks really good. It is actually 3 books in one. Each of the 3 books cost £8 or I could buy all 3 together for £11... it was a no brainer!

I had a brief skim and it has a section on grammar, a section that is like 501 (insert language) verbs and a vocab section. Should be really helpful in learning Italian, especially since romance language verbs can be a bit tricky at times! Once I have this website done, I should have some spare time to really start learning Italian! Can't wait!!

~Ciao Bella~

Eurocup update

No biscotto for Italy! They made it out of their group because Spain beat Croatia. Very exciting! I look forward to Spain's match with France and Italy's match with England!!

I'll try to get back into studying Italian. I have a lot of school work right now that needs to get done though, so it is not at the top of my list of priorities right now.

~ciao bella~

biscotto

I had a great birthday- or compleanno!


I haven't been able to practice Italian as much as I would like right now, but I did learn a new idiom thanks to the Eurocup.


Italy, Spain, Croatia and Ireland are in a group together. Italy has drawn with Croatia and Spain, so they have 2 points in their group. Spain and Croatia have both drawn one match and won one match, leaving them both with 4 points. I was looking at an Italian newspaper that said Italy is waiting for the buscuit...I was very confused! So I did some research.


In football (soccer) biscuit -biscotto- means to cheat of fix a match. Apparently if Spain and Croatia draw their match, each scoring 2 goals, they can knock Italy out of the tournament. The term either comes from horse racing when horses were given drug-laced biscuits to alter their performance. Or it could be like an icecream sandwich where the 2 cookies (Spain and Croatia) can push in to squeeze out the icecream (Italy). 


Learn something new everyday! We will see if the biscotto happens tonight!