First Day of Classes! (FDOC)

 
Hey everyone! I tried to post a video yesterday showing off my beautiful apartment, but it either wasn't working or was taking over 2 hours to load.. hard to say.

Anyways today is NYU in Florence's FDOC and I've had three classes! Well, I've had two. I'm currently in my third. It was rescheduled this week to 6pm tonight instead of 9am monday, so I don't usually have class this late (thank goodness!)

So far I've gone to my Perception Psychology class and my Conversations in Italian class. Perception is okay, the professor is very quiet, the class is very long, and she puts every word she says on the powerpoint slide so there's a lot of information to read through to understand the mispronounced point she is trying to get across. But it doesn't seem too difficult and once you get the point of what she's attempting to say, it's actually pretty interesting. For my Italian class it looks like it will be relatively easy as well, but he's forcing us to speak in Italian, he only speaks in Italian, and we break into conversations a lot so I think it will be really helpful as well. He is also very sweet - he is a 60 year old Italian man who has some sort of leg paralysis, it's hard to tell, he can walk but it seems as though he simply has poles connected to his hips that connect to his shoes, but I saw an ankle so I can't put my finger on it. Earlier we were talking and a girl was telling me that she was taking intro to painting, and asked Massimo Reale how to say painting, and when he told her she asked if that form of painting was the same form of the word you'd use for a painting, and she pointed to a painting in the classroom to see if that was "una pintura". He went up and looked really close and touched it and poked at it before verifying that yes, it was una pintura, and not una stampa (a print).

So far this Intro to Marketing class seems interesting (all my family members are currently distressing over the fact that I'm writing this while in class- sorry!).  The teacher seems very competent, very smart, and his powerpoint slides are good (which counts for a lot more than it may seem).   The problem that I see in each of the classes so far is the language barrier. Ironically, the only class this doesn't effect is Italian. But all of the teachers speak Italian first and English second, so it's harder for them to control a classroom or to be as interesting because their energy is focused the words instead of the emphasis. But like I said, I really like this teacher. Though it does throw me off that he's a 30something professor wearing white jean-like pants to class. I've only seen that in the Office!

A sample of our class right now:

The see-if-you’re-really-a-marketing-expert test
1.     True or false. You can now buy a robotic floor washer that scrubs your hard-surface even when you’re not there and better than you can mop it.  
 
My question - are we talking Italy or America?
 
2. Among the 91% of college seniors owning credit cards, what percent has four or more? 5%, 20%, 35% or 50%
 
Same question. Italy or America? Since the answer to the first one is 'true' and the answer to the second is '35%', I'm leaning toward American statistics. But one final test.
 
3. True or False. The 60-year lifetime value of a loyal Kleenex customer is $994. 
 
The answer was true, so we're definitely talking about America here.  No question.
 
The other thing I'm hoping to get out of this class is the answer to whether or not I really want to enter into business. I'm not hanging all my interest in business on this class, but if I really enjoy the material it's a very good indicator for the direction I'm heading in life! Well that's enough distraction from this - did I mention? -  two hour and forty-five minute class. oh boy. wish me luck!
 
ps. when talking about the good and bad aspects of certain products, and he calls them "benefits and showstoppers" haha, who knows what compelled him to use the word showstopper, but it makes the language barrier that much funnier!