It's All About the Benjamins

Jump to Comments Well, today marks the start of the weekend, and the end of the second week of classes. Alex and I have begun to refer to tomorrow as First Saturday (1. Freitag in neuflang) and the day after as Second Saturday (2. Freitag) since we have these institutionalized three-day weekends.

Basically these classes are welsh five. On Mondays I have Professor Luca Versichelli, University of Siena, for Theories of European Integration.

Okay before I go on I have to tell a story, I’m having a hard time not cracking up right now thinking about it. The director here, Alessandro Gentili, is just this guy, you know. To steal cone-mcnabb phraseology, his vibe is so strong. Very laid back, well dressed, sipping on Gin and tonics, mega well-read, ultra-Italian. Anyhow, on the last day of our language classes (the end of week 0, the second Friday after I got here) he pops his head in the door to announce the schedule for the next week. “Next week you weel meet here on ze first floor,” he says in his Italian accent, really meaning the second floor, because it’s Europe, “and your class will be with Professor Luca Versichelli, on ze tee-ories of Eh-your-oh-pean een-tigration. But, is there any Eh-your-oh-pean integation? Punto della domanda!” He says, tracing a question mark in the air. Oh and he just did the same lean-in move to the doorway of the room I’m in right now while I was writing this. Wearing a polo shirt buttoned up all the way, its collar flipped up, and a sweater tied around his neck. This is how everyone should dress.

Speaking of good dressers, so is Luca. This week he was wearing these burnt orange pants, and last week he had on dock shoes, but the leather was red. Not cordoban leather, but actual real, hover-your-mouse-over-the-iaatb-calendar-bar red. Oh, and he teaches the way I want to teach. He lectures for a little while, and then has us talk about the reading. But he doesn’t assign anybody to do the talking; when prompted to do such by one of the rule-oriented types in my class he just said “why don’t you figure it out yourselves for next week after class.” And we did, and it was the best presentation-discussion of all the ones we’ve had this week. Maybe that was because of who prepared (Aimee, Patrick, and Alex; with me and Chris doing most of the other talking), or maybe it was really because it’s a better way to run class because it’s pretty much those same five people who have been doing most of the talking all week (I mean, of course I’m going to be yammering on in every class. I know no other way.)

Ayhow, Tuesdays are nice with a French Canadian that talks very similarly to Johnna Percell. That class is Politics of European Identity, which isn’t really as bad as it sounds. In the past I’ve often rolled my eyes at the whole idea of identity politics but I think a lot of that has to do with the definitially-overloaded nature of the word “Identity” when it comes to politics and political science. In this way I think “identity” is probably the second-most worthless word next to “liberal” in journalism and other politically-related discussions. Fortunately an article we read for the very first class addressed this very fact, invented some alternative labels and categorizations, and overall was quite a good read.

Wednesdays I have another Italian, this time it’s Giampiero Giacomello from Bologna. That class is Contemporary Issues and Contraversies, aka more readings than every other class put together. It’s nice though. Similar setup as Monday. And then on Thursdays a German and a Dane have geared up for total lady-professor tag-team euro-anihilation in wrestlemania XVII, by which I mean Political Institutions and Policy-making in the European Union.

Oh and then I have to read about a 1000 pages of scholarly-level literature a week. Yeah. So course load is ENORMOUS. But I like it.

The palace is almost finished. I’d write more but it sounds like it’s done raining so I’m going to leave Strozzino and head back to Capponi.

PS Okay so once Foto Pulman opens up today after siesta I’ll have three rolls of stuff to put up in a revived photodump! Photodump: it’s like the Guggenheim, only instead of a toilet-bowl of pretentious people it’s a toilet-bowl full of mediocre photos!

PPS The title derives from the fact that the Mac OS X spellczecher recognizes the first two words but not the third; something I found out while typing up an article review this week. I mean what the heck! Why the two thirds of the French motto but not all of it? Punto della domanda!