Yesterday I woke up too early, 5:30 a.m., and found myself lying in bed trying to remember how to say “she” in Italian. Not a good sign for my Italian. I did finally come up with the word (lei), but…
I need an iPod for future Pimsleur lessons. I think I am one of the few adults in New York City without one. I have an iPod Shuffle, but it is old and doesn’t really have enough room on…
Today was a very productive Monday. I got up and got right to studying. In the past couple of days I have finished two grammar books and begun a new one focusing on subjunctive. I find subjunctive enjoyable. The right…
In New York City, it is a pretty common thing to be awoken in the wee hours by garbage trucks. Our apartment is in a quiet, non-street-facing part of our building, so it doesn’t happen to us very often,…
Today was Cinco de Mayo. I tried to find a good local Cinco de Mayo celebration to go to, but I had trouble and gave up after some failed Google searches. I think most of these events were probably held…
It is late afternoon as I write this, and throughout the day I have continued my brief but intensive Italian detour in preparation for our Italian guest tomorrow. I have now been working on Italian since shortly after I…
On Friday, I woke up and continued my intensive Italian review, in preparation for our 3 p.m. tea with the Italian relative of a relative. Specifically, this is the mother of my husband’s sister’s husband. Got that? …
Last night Brandt and I saw the closing night of the play Enron. It opened just two weeks ago, on April 27. Perhaps after a long recession, people don’t want to see a play about corporate greed and crime on…
Today, amid my Spanish studies, I was forwarded an e-mail announcing sad news for this city’s libraries. The message began as follows: “The New York Public Library is facing a potential $37 million cut in City funding. This…
I studied Spanish on subways today. I am using a new book that I am pretty happy with: Advanced Spanish Grammar by Rogelio Alonso Vallecillos. In it he goes into detail about some subtler language issues that have been confusing…
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