Thursday, February 12, 2009

Brain Drain

My mind is pretty frazzled. Things got off to a rough start this morning when just as we were about to start our test, the power went out. We sat in darkness for nearly an hour before the lights finally came back on. Even though I didn't study, I still tried to answer the questions as best as I could. Typical Air Force questions have four multiple choice answers that can usually be narrowed down to two; but deciding between those two is a killer.
The Italian mid-term went much better. I forgot a few past participles of irregular verbs, but my pronunciation was spot on. As promised, here's the report I did on my family. First, in Italian:

La mia famiglia abita nel Kentucky. Mio padre si chiama Dennis e mia madre si chiama Kathleen. Loro sono sposati da quasi quaranta anni, e hanno due figli. Mio padre ha lavorato come engegnere, ma adesso e pensionato. A lui piace andare con la sua motocicletta e sciare. Mia madre lavora in una banca e le piace fare le spese ogni Sabato. Mio fratello si chiama Christopher e ha trentotto anni. Sua moglie si chiama Angie. Hanno due figli, Andrew e John. Mio fratello anche lavora come engegnere, e Angie i un'infermiera in un'ospedale. Non vado spesso nel Kentucky, ma i miei genitori arrivano in Italia in Maggio. Prevedo il loro arrivo.

Now in English:

My family lives in Kentucky. My father is named Dennis and my mother is named Kathleen. They have been married for almost forty years, and have two children. My father worked as an engineer, but is now retired. He likes to ride his motorcycle and ski. My mother works at a bank and likes to go shopping each Saturday. My brother is named Christopher and is 38 years old. His wife is named Angie. They have two children, Andrew and John. My brother also works as an engineer, and Angie is a nurse in a hospital. I don't visit Kentucky often, but my parents arrive in Italy in May. I anticipate their arrival.

So, yeah, it totally sounds like a little kid in the first grade giving a report to his class, but I guess that's an appropriate analogy. I did the best I could considering we haven't covered future-tense verbs and there's really no word in Italian for step-children.
Since Monday is a holiday, we won't have class, so I'll find out how I did on the mid-term next Thursday. As for my other test, I'll get my results when the promotion list comes out in June. But I'm not holding my breath.

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