She attended her first class at a centre in Brunswick and learned the alphabet and some conversational phrases. She took home basic English fictional texts to read whilst listening to the book's cassette with a tape recorder. Roberto, Marco, and Angela had started English classes a year ago and were in a more advanced class. They'd lived in Melbourne for two years and had some level of fluency. After they came back from class, Roberto suggested taking a drive to Little Italy's Lygon Street for an espresso coffee and dessert. The breeze was noticeably cool on that autumn evening in April as Valeria strolled along the strips of restaurants and bars with Roberto, Angelo and Marco. The streets were crowded with Italians muttering in their native tongue. Valeria heard some whistling. She saw three men standing outside a restaurant staring at her. She cringed when she realised she was the object of their attention. Roberto, who was walking alongside her, quickly put his arm around her shoulder.
