i ragazzi scappano est le passe me revient

<---And that's about all I know.

I had one homework assignment this weekend, and one only: to read chapters four through seven of Italo Calvino's Marcovaldo and write a summary of each. I had an entire Friday night to get started, all workday yesterday to continue, and tonight to finish it off. Guess who just started?

Apparently I had way too much faith in my Italian skills---though I am back to dark doubt by now. I've read exactly one chapter and had to turn to wordreference within the first two sentences. Pretty sure I looked up 75% of the vocabulary, plus every other verb conjugation. A year and a half of oral exams, cultural events, midterms and finals for this? So disheartening.

I try to make up for it by doodling in Italian, thoughts expressed in infinitives and the simplest of subjunctive. I make myself feel a little better by keeping my Italian playlist on repeat, alternately playing Pino Daniele for the ballad days and Paola e Chiara for a disco beat. Still, when you find yourself looking up farlo only to realise it's just a combined phrase with the simple verb to do, you have to wonder.

Plus, I've recently undergone some sort of French revival. This was the more surprising aspect of beginning Italian; French vocabulary, long since forgotten, bubbled to the surface in light of the new twist on a Romance language. I found myself trying to explain the oggi with stressant or étonnant instead of stressante or favoloso, or answering the professor's domande with a peut-être instead of magari. Part of me wondered at the human mind's capacity, the other half cursed it. Why now, of all times, to remember those years under Mme. Simes' patient tutelage? The subtle accent I'd been so frustrated with before came back in full beauty; I fell in love with the language all over again and haven't gone back since. I mix Marc Lavoine with my Pino Daniele, sneak MC Solaar next to Paola e Chiara, indulge in doodles that start J'espere instead of Desidero.

Conundrum!

So here I sit, halfway through Marcovaldo but shouting Vivre la révolution! Unfortunately for my Italian homework, Les Misérables is winning out.

Énigme!