Oh yeah, I have classes!

    It was my very first day of school at the University of Bologna. I was nervous. I had picked out exactly what to wear: shorts, boots, my favorite shirt, and a scarf. I left an extra fifteen minutes early to make sure I got to class on time. I had even checked where the classroom was the day before. When I finally got there 15 minutes before 9am, the door was locked. I sat on a nearby bench and waited. And waited. And waited. It was the very first lecture of the semester and the professor had forgotten to mention that he wasn't showing up.
 After three weeks in classes, I've started to realize that this is not that unusual when it comes to the Italian University system.  Disorganization seems to be written in the rules of conduct. I would be very surprised if anything was written down in terms of "conduct". All the Italians seem to just go with the flow.
 There is an "unwritten" rule that classes always start 10-20 minutes late. This is to allow students who have a class from 1-3pm and then 3-5pm to get to class on time. I don't know why getting to class on time matters though since no one ever takes attendance. Frequenting lectures is done out of the goodness of your heart, and a scant hope that you'll be able to pick up on something that will be on the exam.
Oh yes, all my exams? They're oral.
So not only do I have to have to interpret the rapid Italian lecture, take notes on it, then study the mess of "italglish" I wrote, but I have to be prepared to answer questions about the material in my still very broken Italian.
And my material can't be bullshit. Italian professors rarely like to hear a students opinion. They are the gods and we are the subjects. We are simply there to absorb as much of the precious history, facts, and professional interpretations as we can.  Class participation, essays, in-class activities: they don't exist. You're sole grade in the course depends on how much you can memorize and repeat in the span of 20-40 minutes.
While I don't agree with this teaching method, the lack of organization does give a lot of freedom to the system. You actually don't have to be a student to go to a lecture. Any person can walk in, sit down and listen. They just won't be taking the exam or getting a grade. In the syllabus for a course there are usually two parts: one that the professor chooses to shape the topic of the course, and one that generally contains a list of books from which the student can pick. So the student gets to study what their interested in. Of course, they may not study at all.
I've heard stories of students walking into an oral exam and having missed every single lecture and having completely neglected to open a book. If they pass, great! They get the credit. If they don't pass, they can try again during the next exam period in a month. Or the month after that. Or after that. You could hypothetically take your exams 20 years after the actual course happened. If the professor is still alive that is...
I, however, go to every single class and attempt to tune in to a complete different channel of my brain. One that can comprehend the Italian lecture on thecomplex symbolic significance of the goat in southern Italian farm life. Ever try reading Dante in Italian? It isn't Italian. At least not the kind I speak.

Here is an overview of my courses for this semester...

Grammar: Based around reading Italian newspapers, this course will hopefully help me master that last real grammatical block I have with Italian: prepositions. I also now know how to several very helpful words including: shoot, bullet, suicide, drug-dealer, wound, robbery, and stab.

Cinema: This is a course offered through my program, so it is much easier to follow that University lectures. Especially because there are only 15 of us instead of 150. We are exploring the post-WWII films of Italy that, so far, are mainly neorealistic. Lots of poverty and social strife. Very uplifting! Rather like reading the news...

Contemporary Italian Literature: I absolutely love the books for this class. At least I think I do. I've only managed to read about half of the first one. And there are eight for the course. Thankfully there is a shortened syllabus for foreign students and I am actually taking only the first half. Which means I'm done with class November 8th!

Italian Literature: The first day of class, the professor (who is also the head of the department) described studying literature as studying how to live (with a very profound emphasis on the connection between letteratura and vita) I was automatically in love with the class. The professor is incredibly passionate and animated, constantly pacing, talking with his hands and inflecting his voice. But with passion comes a slight flaw: fast talking. And a fast-talker is not a good thing for someone new to the language.

I will conclude by saying that while this post may have seemed complain-y, I actually do really like all my courses. So here's to cultural differences! Who really knew, other countries actually do function differently than the United States.