Lingua dei Segni Italiana

I did it! I found Italian Sign Language! I'm so excited! After my four straight hours of class...in the same classroom...with the same teacher, I headed off in search of an Italian Sign Language class that I found on this wonderful place called the internet.

I do want to say that even though it is four hours with the same teacher, she is adorable and I think they're going to be fun classes...but mostly, right now I want to talk about sign language.

So...I had been emailing the professor of this class and then the other person they put me in contact with, and they told me that the first class was tonight from 5:00-7:30. I was nervous because I have class through IES until 6:00 and I wasn't even sure exactly where I was going, but I was determined, so off I went.

I was actually getting close to giving up finding the place. Camilla, one of the most amazing staff members ever, had shown me a map, and even though it looked simple, I have a difficult navigating to new places here in Siena. The street signs are confusing and I was told by some random people that I asked that I was on the right street, even though there was no sign to be found.

Anyway, I found the building, and the door was open, so I took a deep breath and went inside. It felt like a really long walk before I found another human being. I had to up upstairs, through some doors, down some hallways, but I found a really nice woman who spoke perfect English.

She brought me over to the classroom. One of the women who knows LIS (Italian Sign Language) told the teacher who I was and I was given permission to join. I marched in and sat down. Two of the girls looked at me and signed "you know ASL?"

I got so excited! We immediately started signing. It was so nice to be able to sign again!

A few minutes later the class started. I was confused because I was over an hour late, but I guess it's pretty casual. I learned how to finger-spell in LIS. It's pretty similar to ASL but with a few important differences that I'll definitely have to practice.

We also talked about numbers. Those are so different! We played some games involving adding/subtracting etc. and guessing letters to spell names.

At the end, I asked the teacher if it would be ok if I just casually showed up every week even though I had to be late every time and couldn't actually enroll in the class, but she was super sweet. Also, she is fluent in ASL so I really felt like I could communicate with her.

All in all, I was skeptical that I would even find the building, but it was highly successful. Wednesdays are going to be busy--6 hours of real class and then straight over for some signing, but I think that it will be worth it.

Sorry about the lack of pictures...more are to come for sure!