Well, I thought I would just publicly announce that I failed my exam in letteratura italiana moderna e contemporanea; I should have known that with such a long course title it was going to be difficult. And it might be a misnomer to say I "failed" the professore didn't even deign to fail me (or my 4 cohorts with whom I took the class). A typical oral exam (didn't mention this--almost all Italian university exams are oral) lasts, oh, maybe 15 to thirty minutes. We we're all kicked out after 5-8 minutes. The thing is, all of us studied pretty hard.
But, the silver lining.
The Italian university system is much different from the American one. A lot of students don't even attend class. They are called nonfrequentati and they just study the materials then take the exam with the professor, if they fail or get a subpar grade they just retake the exam on the next testing date. There is absolutely no limit to how many times you can take an exam. Hypothetically, I could retake this exam I failed 5 years from now (perhaps, I would be able to dazzle the professor by then). I think that this system probably makes the professors have pretty high standards. An F is not the end, just the beginning of improvement, which though I am frustrated da morire by my failure, sounds like a good attitude to have.
Anyway, as a consolation me and my fellow flunkies went out to this fab-o ristorante called Aqua al Due, with a location in Florence, and one in San Diego, incidentally. They have this steak in blueblerry sauce, which is a suprisingly delicious flavor combination.
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