Day before the trip

Non Parlo Italiano

In the past, when I prepared for trips to foreign language cities, I spent roughly 3-4 months studying the language there. For my trip to France, I studied french for 3 months & for my (failed) Italy trip last year, I studied for almost 6 months. I never wanted to be "that" American who failed to realize I was in a foreign country and not everyone on the planet spoke English. Now, I leave for Rome tomorrow and have been refreshing my Italian for only about 2 weeks now. I feel as if I am cramming for an exam and have only decided to study the night before. I do know that Rome, like Venice last year, will not require me to know much Italian. They speak English just as well as they speak Italian over there. I have, though, encountered one small problem - all my studied languages are combining into one dialect. I am using English, French, Italian AND Spanish all within one sentence. THAT will confuse anyone - no matter what language they speak. I find myself saying "Hola, Vorrei a hamburger, Merci." I just said "hello" in Spanish, "I would like" in Italian, "a hamburger" in English and "thank you" in french! Actually, when I think about it, that is pretty amazing! How many people do you know that are multi-lingual in only ONE sentence? Not many, probably! I rock.
Anyways, I leave tomorrow for Rome and I can't wait. It is sure to be much better than the failed trip from last year. If I have decent Internet access, then I will be posting as much as I can.