hooked on phonics

So apparently hooked on phonics when you are in college, learning a new language, and in a foreign country is the new modern thing to do. Today all 21 of us in Italian 101 had to take a 3, yes 3, hour "lection" (all the words I place in "" marks from here on out will be words used from Giovanni Beve l'Acqua-drink the water in italian fyi- an italian actor from Rome that came to teach us 3 phonetic lessons while we are here in Siena…) to learn the sounds of the italian "music" (language). The "lection" (his combo for lesson and lecture that I feel is a good addition to my vocabulary…) consisted of the strangest combination of meditation/yoga style exercises to teach us 3 different vowel sounds during the course of the lesson. Wow. I had the chance to visualize myself as a "bland of grass" (blade…) blowing in the wind when making the "eee" sound, a dark, stormy cloud for the "ooo" sound, and a calm sea for the "aaa" sound. Each of my sounds have their own color, and their own movement. At the beginning and end of the "lection" we had to lay down on the floor and feel our "birth" (breath…). Feel the air coming in and out, and the movement of our body. "Feel it in your "ends" (hands…) to your feet" mr. beve l'acqua says. Then we had to visualize in our abdomen a ball that would suck up the air when we inhale and let out the air when we exhale. We needed to visualize the color of our sound filling the ball and feel the change of the color when we switched sounds. It was a very very strange experience. I really wish I had a video camera to tape us all "blowing" in the wind like little "blands" of grass singing italian vowel sounds in unison. During the "lection" we would "play" with each other--making a motion to each other that represented one of the vowel sounds then the other person had to make the sound. We frequently mirrored Giovanni's actions and repeated the sounds he said. We jumped, we sang, we made strange hand motions, we swayed, we laughed-a lot- and we "birthed" a ton. I hope that the above description carries with it to you at least some of the strangeness/ridiculousness of the whole experience. I am off now to practice my sounds while I visualize their "color". I think I will work on my golden "bland" of grass first...