Vita è Bella!

Professors

Before I post on the northern trip, I thought I'd take a minor detour. It's at about the halfway point for the semester, so I think it's about time I copy my sister and make a post about my professors here at school. Two of them are probably two of my favorite professors in my college experience, and two are among my least favorite... and the third is simply very nice, and amusing. So here goes.

I'll start with the two who I can't seem to warm up to, for various reasons. This is not to say that I don't like them as people! I just dislike their styles of teaching. The first is my professor for Philosophy. Class begins at 8 AM, so every day, no matter what, I am there at 8 AM. The others usually start to roll in at around 8:05, and the professor is usually there by 8:09. He takes a few minutes to get settled, then sits and waits for us to quiet down for a little bit. He then begins to talk, usually by saying, "Can anyone tell me what we were talking about last lecture? Where were we at?" At this point he always looks at me for guidance, because I take scrupulous notes. We've been covering Machiavelli's "The Prince" for several weeks now, so I usually just glance down, then say, "We were on Chapter 17, and were going to start Chapter 18 and his theories behind successful lying," or some such comment, to which he responds, "Oh, yes!" He then proceeds to repeat information from the previous lecture for about twenty minutes before venturing into new territory. Today I was eager to see if I could predict how he would open, so I started writing down what I thought he would say, in order. Sure enough, I was right! It gets quite tedious. He's a nice man, and well-intentioned, but he's extremely unorganized and I grow tired easily in that class. The fact that we meet at 8 AM doesn't help... but hopefully once we get done with this section it'll get better. Who knows.

The other is my Italian professor, a woman we call Rosa. For most of the girls in that intro class, Italian is still quite new for us. Most of us have had a single semester of Italian, and listen to her directions with eager anxiety. She tries to slow things down for us, but grows frustrated when we don't understand things that she thinks we ought to, so the classroom atmosphere can seem rather strained at times. The class is two hours long, which is a stretch, and she does a good job of varying the exercises and activities we take part in, but I don't learn as well when working out of that textbook. Professor Checca, my first Italian professor, ran his class with the utmost efficiency, and forced us to stay awake by asking us questions and having us talk with one another and repeat things aloud. Rosa usually just has us do exercises out of the book or write up summaries of readings, which are harder for me to retain. It doesn't come as easily as it seemed to with Professor Checca, for whatever reason... oh well. We have fun sometimes, in spite of this description!

My Art History professor is named Professor Economopolous, which is probably one of the most amusing names I've ever had to say! A lot of the girls here have various nicknames for her, mostly just terms of endearment, because she's well-liked. Professor Economopolous is from Greece and has thick, dark brown, shoulder-length curly hair and big blue eyes. She has a doctorate in Art History, and can list random information off the top of her head just about anywhere you go. She often seems to be in her own little world, and will rattle on about a piece during lecture for five minutes before noticing my friend Lauren and I waving our arms around in the air, trying to ask a question! I think it's the artist in her... it's not that she isn't interested in her students, because she's a very nice woman. Just a little... preoccupied, I suppose. Her accent is adorable, and my friend Ellen does a fabulous impression of it! Common phrases are, "Allora," with a long, drawn out 'O' sound ("Allo-o-o-o-ora!") and the transitional sound, "Emmmmm," also in a long, drawn out tone. I wish I could convey it better through words! She's wonderful though, and I enjoy her class.

One of my new favorites, though, is a man by the name of Riccardo Riccardi. The very first time he introduced himself, he informed us that he likes his first name, and he likes his last name... just not together.

Oh, the stories I have about Riccardo.

Riccardo is our Music Appreciation professor, and a lifelong composer. Like Professor Economopolous, he seems to live in the preoccupied world of the artist, but he tends to share his world with us much more openly than I ever expected. He is one of the funniest men I have ever met, perhaps because of his accent. Again, I wish with all my heart that I could have a little sound byte of him speaking on here for you to listen to! If you could only hear some of the phrases and pronunciations we get to hear every class period... you would instantly understand why there are days when I literally have to bite my hand to keep from laughing aloud. I don't intend for that to sound mean in any way! He's often just as amused as we are by his English blunders, and even calls my friend Theresa his designated "English teacher" because she gently corrects him. His most common phrase at the beginning of class is, "Do you remember sahmthing of yesterday?" or "Do you remember sahmthing of motets?" He sounds almost German, though he was born in northern Italy, and the result is one of the funniest accents I've heard in all my time here. One day, he started saying what sounded like, "Jaws is one of the most important musical contributions of the United States. Do you know sahmthing of Jaws?" We all just stared at him, confused. (My friend Lauren later said, "I was just sitting there thinking, 'I had no IDEA that movie was so important to music! Weird...' ") Someone finally asked, "Do you mean... jazz?" to which he replied, "Yes, of course! Jaws!" It was amusing. Another time, he said, "Do you know the difference between a mass and a MASS?" and he pronounced 'mass' in a loud, emphatic voice that actually made a few people jump. I love listening to him talk!

I can't even explain what it is that makes Riccardo so funny... there's just this sense of frankness and earnestness in him that's endearing, and he has such an open and oddly insightful approach to life that I can't help but be intrigued every class. You never know what he'll say next! One minute he makes a completely random, hilarious comment, and the next he says something so deeply profound that everyone just stares at him in bemusement. The other day, he was talking about his time studying in Los Angeles in college, and he said, "It was as though I was in a movie, and everything else was in black and white... but I was in color." That comment struck me on a number of different levels, because, in a sense... that's exactly how I've been feeling here. It's hard to explain. Anyway, another time, he was talking about his children and he said, "I haf a son whose in high school. He's quite tall, and he calls me a dwaf (dwarf)... he hates me." Haha! I don't think that's true. It would be hard to hate Riccardo. And yesterday he came into class and said, "Today on the way here I was thinking of your smiling. Keep doing it! I know it's not always possible to be smiling all your life... but we try, no?" :-)

Now then, on to one of the smartest men who I've EVER encountered:
Father Mark Attard.

This man is brilliant. Completely, mind-boggling brilliant, and I can't sing his praises loudly enough! He's a short, fit man who seems to be in his sixties, with short gray hair and laughing, intelligent dark brown eyes. He used to be the head of the entire Carmelite order, but now teaches at a good number of different locations, usually for seminarians. We're lucky to have him! When he strides into class, he carries no notes. Just a watch and a cell phone, both which he sets on the table to help him keep track of time. He normally wanders around for a while, conversing with us as we start to quiet down. Then he stands for a few moments when the room falls silent before beginning. He has a pleasant voice, and is one of those people who you can sit and listen to for hours without ever losing interest in what he's saying. He never uses any notes or guidlines for his lectures, but rather goes through an entire sequence during class. He doesn't just lecture about random things that pop into mind, but follows an impeccable lesson structure each day. He always remembers exactly where he left off, and never seems to miss a beat. I've seen him hesitate just once this year, when trying to recall the name of a document, and even that was only for a few seconds. Father Mark is... amazing. Honestly. Every time I go into that class (which I've dubbed my "Happy Time with Father Mark") I'm torn between wanting to just sit and listen and wanting to scribble down every word he says. Needless to say, I really look forward to it!

I could keep writing about him for some time, but I'm quite hungry and it's dinnertime, so I'm going to go eat. I might add more later, but that should be all for now. We're working on taking videos during class, just so everyone from home can hear these professors' accents! So be on the lookout, and if they really get them online I'll post them for you.

Ciao!

posted by Sarah @ 6:20 PM