Will I ever learn this bloody language?

I am a little behind in posting, so today I am posting about what happened on Wednesday.

The company Dutch lessons have eventually begun. Once a week, every Wednesday after work. The first lesson was fun. We were two classes (beginners 1 and beginners 2) merged together, since one of the teachers couldn't come. Unfortunately this reflected in the fact that some were starting absolutely from scratch, while some others could put some words together. We presented ourselves and interviewed each other. The funniest moment was when one (an English guy) revealed that his Dutch girlfriend is not so happy he cannot speak Dutch after living there for some years (6, I think). He was among the best, however.

They say practice makes perfect. I hope these lessons help do some practice. But 1.5 hours a week are not enough in my opinion. A week earlier, Kees, a colleague of mine who is very fond of Italy and often goes on holiday there, accepted giving me a private lesson of Dutch in exchange for a lesson of Italian. Unfortunately he is leaving for a long holiday. Pity. I need to find some other Dutch willing to learn Italian.

Ajacied

Last Sunday, my neighbour invited me to the Ajax match. It was a lot of fun.

Despite it was not a particularly important match (the opponent, RBC Roosendaal, is the last one in the standings), the stadium was almost completely full. It is good that many people go there. In Italy the stadiums are almost always half-empty, and in general they are a dangerous place, because of the violent supporters (not enough is done to contrast them. Rumours even say that in some cases they are encouraged by the teams' administrations). Here it is nothing like that. Supporters are noisy, colourful, but not dangerous. Also when I and other Italians went to watch Netherlands-Italy last November, the Netherlands supporters screamed "Pizza" at us, hugged us, let us take photo of them and us together, and never did anything that could hurt us.

And Marco, my neighbour, really becomes someone else during a match. He a wife and two children, yet he screamed and yelled every time Ajax scored. And he kept complaining all the time Ajax was not doing as good as it should. After 70' it was ahead 2-0, but that was not enough. Only in the last 20 minutes, according to Marco, did Ajax played as it should have done for all the match. It must have been so: Ajax won 6-0.


Yesterday, Ajax did not so well against Inter (2-2 home, it is almost like losing).

Maybe I should resign from being a Cagliari supporter. If my favourite team were Ajax, at leasy my team would win some matches.

The two of us

A few days ago, Elisa joined me in the Dutch adventure. It's the first time we live together: ironic, we had to move so far away from home...

There are many reasons to like her: she knows everything so there's always something to talk about, I like the fact that she, despite being Catholic, can be critical towards the Pope and Church's excessively old ideas about ethics...

We are very similar. That's the main reason why we are together. Sometimes I think that maybe we are too similar, we do not complement each other. And she already plans to come back to her home town (actually, she plans everything about her future), while I do not like to plan forward and tend to take things as they happen. So, if I don't get fed up about Amsterdam (and Amsterdam does not get fed up about me, which is more likely), why come back?

But the thing I am most afraid is myself. Living together can give infinite satisfaction, but it also requires some sacrifices: keeping the house tidier, giving half of the bed space to someone else (three quarters, actually, judging from the first days)... Will I be able to overcome my selfishness and put up with those, and get the rewards?