Since it’ll be a few more days till I go on my murder mystery scavenger hunt, I figured it would be fun to talk about a mini-adventure I’ve been on this past week and a half.

In keeping with being the sort of guy I’d like to date (check out An Introduction if you’re just tuning in), I decided to pick up Italian.  I’d like to date a guy that pursues his interests (so long as they are not illegal.  In the words of Katy B, “I don’t want to be visiting no jail”).  So I decided to pursue one of my interests: learning Italian.

I flirted with Italian about three years ago in preparation for a cinema program my alma mater had in Italy and I LOVED it.  After leaving Italy, I was determined to go back with amazing Italian skills under my belt.  I tried looking into lessons and meet-up groups but nothing worked with my schedule or budget until two weeks ago when Living Social introduced me to Livemocha.  And I’m seriously loving it.

I’ve done a handful of lessons so far and took my first test three days ago.  And I aced it!  Obviously, I squealed like a little girl and did a little shimmy for my computer.  They even have golden stars dance all over your screen to really bring it home.  But the best part was realizing that I’m actually pursuing my interest in learning Italian.  I’m starting to process basic sentences the way I’d process a sentence in English or Hausa (a Nigerian language I grew up speaking) as opposed to reciting it like I did with French in high school.  I’m also getting the speech patterns and stresses down, which sounds so beautiful when you get it right.  Needless to say, I’m having the time of my life.  (If you’d like to listen to a little of what I’ve learned so far, go to: http://bit.ly/wrOfIc.  The translation is “Hello.  My name is Miriam. I’m Nigerian.  I work in New York.  I’m a director.”)

What’s that sound?  Oh, that?  It’s just the sound of me brushing some dirt off my shoulder.  Like a BOSS!  =D

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about Livemocha, check out their website (http://go.livemocha.com/).