Friday evening, like I mentioned in the last post, I went to Asia's class festa. A festa here is like an end of the year celebration. The parents, students, and teachers of that class all get together and go out to eat. The kids play, the adults socialize, and in this case.. the Americans sit there and play games on their Blackberry that doesn't have service. haha. We went to a fairly nice restaurant and had Digelli again. It makes sense due to this being an extremely easy meal to make for large groups. My host father also ordered us a bottle of Lambrusco, which is the wine that the region Carpi is in is known for. If any of you remember in my first post I mentioned how my first night here my host parents had a family over for dinner.. well the son of that couple is in Asia's class so they were there and the mother spoke English so I was able to talk to her some. It was nice. We got home around 1030, and I packed and prepared for Florence before going to sleep.
Saturday morning I woke up and got ready to leave for the train station. I shut down my computer thinknig it would not need to be on for the duration of the traveling, then shortly after realized I needed to get something off of it. Well... that didn't work out because my monitor no longer works. The computer itself still turns on and makes all of the noises, etc. but the monitor is completely blacked out. I talked to a girl on the trip with me named Christina who said she had the exact same thing happen to her last year. Apparently it was something with her switch board, which is why my computer has been BURNING UP hot all the time even if I'm not using it. So I'm without a computer for the rest of the trip. Thankfully there are computers I will be able to use.
Anyway, yesterday we came to Florence. We went to the Uffizi museum and got to see a ton of awesome/famous art. Then we came back to the hotel and hung out for a while. Last night we got ready and then went out for dinner. I had spinach and ricotta ravioli. It was really good. After dinner I was tired so I came back to the hostel.
This morning we got up bright and early and went to our Accidental Tours. When we first got there we did a wine tasting. I bought my mom and dad Olive Oil and Wine. Then we walked around took pictures. After that we drove to another location and went out on our hike. We hiked for 3 miles. Hideous and hot. Then we went back and met the girls who had done the cooking class. They had made pasta so we had that and a vegetable quich among other things for lunch. It was delicious. After that Natalie, Tori, Amy, and I took a cab back to the hostel. We brought all of the wine/oil that other people had bought but didn't want to carry when they went out to do other things.
Tomorrow we will be shopping and going back to Carpi for our final 2 days.
Until next time I get internet, Ciao!!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
I was behind so this is LONG.
On Wednesday I went on a visit to the Leonardo Divinci Technical High School. They chose to have me shadow a Chemistry teacher who spoke very good English. The first class of the day had 9 students, was a fifth year class (high school here is 5 years), and they all spoke pretty good English. Of course, this school was mainly males so I definitely got a few looks as I was walking in, as I'm sure my blonde hair and bright purple shirt stood out among the few other females. When we got to the class he had them take a test but it was written completely in English. Because the class was all boys it seemed to reduce some of the stress/pressure of coeducational classrooms. Although, when one of the boys asked me what the word "penny" meant and I went to help him many of the boys whistled or made remarks about the boy asking me for help. Soon after though, many of the students were asking me to define words for them such as "bond", "shared", and "gained." I have to say it is kind of difficult to come up with simple enough examples for them to understand but still explain the word. - Also, there was a boy in his class who looked just like Ivan when he had long hair, except he was white. Ivan<3.
During the second class period 2 of the 5th year students took me on a tour of the school. Their names were Gabrielle and Lorenzo. For those of you reading who know them, Lorenzo would be the child is Tyler Sevy and Brian Bland reproduced together. They took me around the school and showed me the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology labs, and I also met the English teacher. They also showed me the gym and the Mechanics lab. I guess the students in the Mechanics lab have been building one of those soapbox race cars that runs entirely on Hydrogen. It goes abut 40 mph and when they raced it they got 19th place in all of Europe. Anyway, on our walk back to the room Lorenzo was telling me about how the teacher in the class at that time was very mean. (I blew the statement off until she yelled at him for his mistakes in a paper in front of the whole class.) When we got back to the classroom, right before walked in Lorenzo kissed me on the cheek and told me how much he enjoyed meeting me and asked for my last name so he can add me on Facebook to "keep in touch." I don't know why these Italian guys feel this is an effective way of hitting on an American girl. So I told him if he wanted to keep in touch he would figure out my last name. Then I walked away.
The third class of the day I went to observe in a gym class. This was a bit more difficult because the teacher didn't speak English. Trying to explain what you're doing somewhere with a language barrier is difficult. But luckily I had a note and my schedule for the day so he then understood. Once again the class was all bys, but this class was freshman. They were pretty eager to peer around corners and talk about me because they thought I would not understand them. All I did was watch them play t-ball for 45 minutes. What was interesting about this class was that there were boys named Alex, William, David, and Charles in this class. These names just seemed to not be very Italian to me. Not to mention, three of four are the names of people I've dated. haha. All of these boys wore very short athletic shorts with soccer jerseys and tall socks.
Following gym I went to observe in a Chemistry lab. These boys were 16 and 17. The lab instructor didn't really speak English but there was a student who was very good at it and he was able to explain what they were doing. Basically they were extracting substances from flowers so they could test whether they were acids or bases. They used ethanol to extract the pigments from the petals to assess the pH of this every day substance. There was also another experiment having to do with red cabbage. They cut it into slices, boiled the slices in water, and then tested the substance for something. It was much more interesting than I expected. Oh! And there was 1 girl in this class.
The last class of the day I was pulled out to go observe an Italian class. All I could really figure out was that they were talking about Machiavelli. This class was again all boys. They stood for me when I walked into the room. The entire time I was in the class I felt completely lost. There was no English in this class whatsoever, only Italian. I concentrated on trying to pick out works that sounded similar to something French or English that I already knew. That actually didn't work as well as I'd hoped, but it was okay. Sitting in that class made me sad for students who have to do this every single day. How can we fix this? What programs need to be implemented? How can we make sure that every single student gets to be a part of the action and not back being a part of the scenery?
Overall, I still find their high schools, as a whole, interesting. The ideas of the teachers moving between classes makes sense but I have a feeling causes boredom. And the fact that they choose their job for the rest of their life at the end of 8th grade so they can go to a certain high school for it is nuts to me too!! How could you possibly know? And what happens if a student changes their mind? Overall, the visit was good and informative.
Wednesday evening we had a our final group meeting. We met at another middle school in Carpi. We gave our group inquiry project presentations. This was a very long process but we learned a lot about Italian culture. The presentation topics ranged from government, religion, teaching strategies, and SPED, all the way to the E-pals project (and more!). We were also given information on our trip to Florence this weekend, our final party, and Jared gave a speech on his program "Call me MISTER." Call me MISTER is a program based in the South which recruits black males to teach. He said something during his speech that I will never forget. "After being in Italy I can honestly say that after 21 years this is the first time I have just been treated like and American and not an AFRICAN American." It made me sad and happy at the same time. After that we finished up our meeting and went out for Pizza at a Pizzeria named Charlie's. Mary Jo, Shaun, and I split wine. Afterward we walked to the Gelato place across the street. Alle and Asia met me there and I bought them gelato. After that I went home, cleaned, and went to bed.
Thursday morning I got up for school as usual but during the day we went on a field trip to an elementary school with one of the 2nd year classes. While there we taught them Simon Says, Red Light/Green Light, a few dances, and they taught us their favorite hand clapping games. We also had pizza for a snack. We got to go home once we got back to school so I got home 15 minutes early!! Once I got there I began my packing process. My hope is to get everything I need for the France portion of my trip to fit into my duffle bag so I can open my suitcase as few times as possible. Then my host mom drove Amy and I to the bus station to meet our group for an activity. We drove about 15 minutes to another town to a neighborhood called Coriandoline (Italian for confetti, I think!). Basically it's a neighborhood where the homes were designed by children. They had 10 main requests: transparent, hard outside, peaceful, playful, soft inside, decorated, cozy, big, child centered, and magic. There were unique things to this neighborhood including slides next to steps in houses, fun house mirror elevators, and a secret place for just the children to go.
After leaving there my host mom picked Amy and I up, drove us home, and then she left for dance so I had the house to myself. I watched some TV online, made dinner, and then went to sleep fairly early (yes, 11:15 is early for me these days!). I got up this morning, chatted online for a bit, then went to school. We taught/watched them play baseball ALL DAY. I came home for lunch after school and we had veal and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately I have broken out in a heat rash. :(
Anyway, Tuesday is our only day left at Fassi and tomorrow we leave for Florence until Monday. But first, tonight is Asia's class Festa!
Ciao!
During the second class period 2 of the 5th year students took me on a tour of the school. Their names were Gabrielle and Lorenzo. For those of you reading who know them, Lorenzo would be the child is Tyler Sevy and Brian Bland reproduced together. They took me around the school and showed me the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology labs, and I also met the English teacher. They also showed me the gym and the Mechanics lab. I guess the students in the Mechanics lab have been building one of those soapbox race cars that runs entirely on Hydrogen. It goes abut 40 mph and when they raced it they got 19th place in all of Europe. Anyway, on our walk back to the room Lorenzo was telling me about how the teacher in the class at that time was very mean. (I blew the statement off until she yelled at him for his mistakes in a paper in front of the whole class.) When we got back to the classroom, right before walked in Lorenzo kissed me on the cheek and told me how much he enjoyed meeting me and asked for my last name so he can add me on Facebook to "keep in touch." I don't know why these Italian guys feel this is an effective way of hitting on an American girl. So I told him if he wanted to keep in touch he would figure out my last name. Then I walked away.
The third class of the day I went to observe in a gym class. This was a bit more difficult because the teacher didn't speak English. Trying to explain what you're doing somewhere with a language barrier is difficult. But luckily I had a note and my schedule for the day so he then understood. Once again the class was all bys, but this class was freshman. They were pretty eager to peer around corners and talk about me because they thought I would not understand them. All I did was watch them play t-ball for 45 minutes. What was interesting about this class was that there were boys named Alex, William, David, and Charles in this class. These names just seemed to not be very Italian to me. Not to mention, three of four are the names of people I've dated. haha. All of these boys wore very short athletic shorts with soccer jerseys and tall socks.
Following gym I went to observe in a Chemistry lab. These boys were 16 and 17. The lab instructor didn't really speak English but there was a student who was very good at it and he was able to explain what they were doing. Basically they were extracting substances from flowers so they could test whether they were acids or bases. They used ethanol to extract the pigments from the petals to assess the pH of this every day substance. There was also another experiment having to do with red cabbage. They cut it into slices, boiled the slices in water, and then tested the substance for something. It was much more interesting than I expected. Oh! And there was 1 girl in this class.
The last class of the day I was pulled out to go observe an Italian class. All I could really figure out was that they were talking about Machiavelli. This class was again all boys. They stood for me when I walked into the room. The entire time I was in the class I felt completely lost. There was no English in this class whatsoever, only Italian. I concentrated on trying to pick out works that sounded similar to something French or English that I already knew. That actually didn't work as well as I'd hoped, but it was okay. Sitting in that class made me sad for students who have to do this every single day. How can we fix this? What programs need to be implemented? How can we make sure that every single student gets to be a part of the action and not back being a part of the scenery?
Overall, I still find their high schools, as a whole, interesting. The ideas of the teachers moving between classes makes sense but I have a feeling causes boredom. And the fact that they choose their job for the rest of their life at the end of 8th grade so they can go to a certain high school for it is nuts to me too!! How could you possibly know? And what happens if a student changes their mind? Overall, the visit was good and informative.
Wednesday evening we had a our final group meeting. We met at another middle school in Carpi. We gave our group inquiry project presentations. This was a very long process but we learned a lot about Italian culture. The presentation topics ranged from government, religion, teaching strategies, and SPED, all the way to the E-pals project (and more!). We were also given information on our trip to Florence this weekend, our final party, and Jared gave a speech on his program "Call me MISTER." Call me MISTER is a program based in the South which recruits black males to teach. He said something during his speech that I will never forget. "After being in Italy I can honestly say that after 21 years this is the first time I have just been treated like and American and not an AFRICAN American." It made me sad and happy at the same time. After that we finished up our meeting and went out for Pizza at a Pizzeria named Charlie's. Mary Jo, Shaun, and I split wine. Afterward we walked to the Gelato place across the street. Alle and Asia met me there and I bought them gelato. After that I went home, cleaned, and went to bed.
Thursday morning I got up for school as usual but during the day we went on a field trip to an elementary school with one of the 2nd year classes. While there we taught them Simon Says, Red Light/Green Light, a few dances, and they taught us their favorite hand clapping games. We also had pizza for a snack. We got to go home once we got back to school so I got home 15 minutes early!! Once I got there I began my packing process. My hope is to get everything I need for the France portion of my trip to fit into my duffle bag so I can open my suitcase as few times as possible. Then my host mom drove Amy and I to the bus station to meet our group for an activity. We drove about 15 minutes to another town to a neighborhood called Coriandoline (Italian for confetti, I think!). Basically it's a neighborhood where the homes were designed by children. They had 10 main requests: transparent, hard outside, peaceful, playful, soft inside, decorated, cozy, big, child centered, and magic. There were unique things to this neighborhood including slides next to steps in houses, fun house mirror elevators, and a secret place for just the children to go.
After leaving there my host mom picked Amy and I up, drove us home, and then she left for dance so I had the house to myself. I watched some TV online, made dinner, and then went to sleep fairly early (yes, 11:15 is early for me these days!). I got up this morning, chatted online for a bit, then went to school. We taught/watched them play baseball ALL DAY. I came home for lunch after school and we had veal and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately I have broken out in a heat rash. :(
Anyway, Tuesday is our only day left at Fassi and tomorrow we leave for Florence until Monday. But first, tonight is Asia's class Festa!
Ciao!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
May 24th - 25th
Monday I was very tired. I did not sleep much the previous night so getting out of bed was difficult. I got up and proceeded to school anyways. We had the first 2 classes off from observing. I enjoy this time because it's nice for the 5 of us girls (Allison, Katie, Laura, Paige, and I) to have time to talk, gossip, and express our feelings about what's happening here. Towards the end of our time off we watched one of the classes involved in the Grease production practice for the performance. For the third class period we went out and watched a class play baseball. The fourth hour we had off again and the last class we went in and observed a third year class review for their final.
After school I went home and organized/cleaned my room. Around 2:25 I left to meet Amy at her house down the street so we could bike to the city center together. Once we got there we met up with the rest of the group for our tour of the Carpi Deportation Museum. During the Holocaust there was a holding camp 3 miles north of the city of Carpi in the village of Fossoli. We saw memorabilia from the camp including prison uniforms, barbwire, and photographs, along with multiple quotes from people who were being held captive. We weren't allowed to take pictures INSIDE, but here's one from outside.
After the museum Amy and I biked back to our houses and I went upstairs and Skyped for a while because nobody was home. When Alle and Asia got home Alle came upstairs and we talked for a while about plans for the next few days. Then she went down to start dinner. I went down there shortly after and watched cartoons with Asia until dinner was done. We had grilled chicken, green beans, and strawberries for dessert. After dinner Alle and I talked for a while she asked me if I wanted to go to a dance recital in the city center but I asked to be excused because I was very tired. After they left I called my mom and talked to her for about an hour. I still have almost an hour and a half on my calling card to use in the next week before I leave Italy! Haha. Once off the phone with her I showered and started watching Pretty Woman but soon got tired so I got ready for bed.
Thankfully I got a little more sleep than usual last night but I was still tired and running a little late this morning. After getting up to turn off my alarm this morning I laid back down and chatted with friends online for a bit. I then got up, got dressed, and went down to eat breakfast. Then I rode my bike to school. This morning we again had the first 2 classes off so we all worked on our Inquiry Project presentations. In case you had forgotten, this trip for me is also a class and we have to do a research project on a chosen topic. We chose to work together and do our project on E-Pals since it is the e-mail correspondence between Italian and American students done right here in Carpi. After working on those projects we went to observe a Math class. The teacher had us read the equations how we would read them out loud. The next class was a third year English class and some of them practiced for their oral exams that they will take soon.
After school I came home and ate lunch with Alle and then she took me to the train station to meet Allison, Katie, Shaun, and Mary Jo. This afternoon we went to Bologna with the pure intention of shopping. We went to H&M and I bought 3 dresses and head band for only 32 euro, which turns out to be about $40!!
Tomorrow I am going to a technical high school to find out how they work and tomorrow night we have our final group meeting followed by pizza and gelato.
Until then, ciao!
After school I went home and organized/cleaned my room. Around 2:25 I left to meet Amy at her house down the street so we could bike to the city center together. Once we got there we met up with the rest of the group for our tour of the Carpi Deportation Museum. During the Holocaust there was a holding camp 3 miles north of the city of Carpi in the village of Fossoli. We saw memorabilia from the camp including prison uniforms, barbwire, and photographs, along with multiple quotes from people who were being held captive. We weren't allowed to take pictures INSIDE, but here's one from outside.
After the museum Amy and I biked back to our houses and I went upstairs and Skyped for a while because nobody was home. When Alle and Asia got home Alle came upstairs and we talked for a while about plans for the next few days. Then she went down to start dinner. I went down there shortly after and watched cartoons with Asia until dinner was done. We had grilled chicken, green beans, and strawberries for dessert. After dinner Alle and I talked for a while she asked me if I wanted to go to a dance recital in the city center but I asked to be excused because I was very tired. After they left I called my mom and talked to her for about an hour. I still have almost an hour and a half on my calling card to use in the next week before I leave Italy! Haha. Once off the phone with her I showered and started watching Pretty Woman but soon got tired so I got ready for bed.
Thankfully I got a little more sleep than usual last night but I was still tired and running a little late this morning. After getting up to turn off my alarm this morning I laid back down and chatted with friends online for a bit. I then got up, got dressed, and went down to eat breakfast. Then I rode my bike to school. This morning we again had the first 2 classes off so we all worked on our Inquiry Project presentations. In case you had forgotten, this trip for me is also a class and we have to do a research project on a chosen topic. We chose to work together and do our project on E-Pals since it is the e-mail correspondence between Italian and American students done right here in Carpi. After working on those projects we went to observe a Math class. The teacher had us read the equations how we would read them out loud. The next class was a third year English class and some of them practiced for their oral exams that they will take soon.
After school I came home and ate lunch with Alle and then she took me to the train station to meet Allison, Katie, Shaun, and Mary Jo. This afternoon we went to Bologna with the pure intention of shopping. We went to H&M and I bought 3 dresses and head band for only 32 euro, which turns out to be about $40!!
Tomorrow I am going to a technical high school to find out how they work and tomorrow night we have our final group meeting followed by pizza and gelato.
Until then, ciao!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Weekend Recap.
Saturday I woke up and Skyped. After doing that I got dressed and went out with Andrea and Asia. First we went somewhere for Andrea to pay a bill and then we went to a small store that sold mostly educational toys to buy Asia's class gifts. Apparently they have "end of school" parties and then bring one male girl, one female gift, and one unisex gift. While at the store an American woman came in and I had a nice conversation with someone fluent in English who was outside of our group for the first time since leaving the US. She was from California and moved here 9 years ago to teach English, fell in love, and have been here since. Her 3 year old son (who spoke English) told me I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen because I had blonde hair. After talk to them I wasted for Andrea and Asia to finish by playing with the Etch-A-Sketch and Kaleidoscopes they had. This reminded me of my brother so much that I considered buying him one but I didn't. After leaving the store we went back to the house and ate lunch. We left around 215 to take Asia to her swimming lessons. There was a bar in the athletic center (by bad I mean a snack bar type situation that serves coffee because that's what bars are here) so I sat at a table and worked on the papers/assignments I had to do for the trip. Once the lesson was over we sat around for a while so Asia could have pizza. I don't know what was going on at the pool but there were a TON of 20-something Italians in Speedos. I talked to a couple who spoke English for a while and one even asked for my e-mail/if he could add me on Facebook. This is the FOURTH time this has happened to me since I've been here. I don't know why these boys think that's a logical thing to do. Haha.
After we left the pool we went to the grocery store store. While I was there I went to the Pharmacy and picked up a few things including Melatonin and an Italian flu medicine. Then we went to pick up the cousin Georgia because she was going to Milan tomorrow. When we got back to the house I read for a while and then we got ready to leave for dinner. For dinner we went back to the same friends' house we ate at on Thursday. We had Digelle for dinner. Basically it's small bread resembling Pita and you fill the middle with cheese and cold cuts, and eat raw vegetables on the side. Beings that I'm not a huge fan of cheese and I wasn't very hungry, I didn't eat much. But I did eat was good. After dinner Andrea explained the importance of food by telling me some of Italy's WWII history. Then he and Stefano (the dad of the other family) went to watch the rest of the soccer game in the other room. I guess the Italian team from Milan (even though there isn't even ONE Italian on the team!!) had some type of cup game against Germany. They won. God, I hate soccer. Meanwhile, the mom's were talking/cleaning up, the teenage girls were chatting on Facebook and continuously giggling. Asia, Georgia, and Francesca were in the other room doing only God knows what, and I just sat and read because I was exhausted. Oh, and I saw a bunch of HUGE bugs. SOOOOO GROSS!!
Last night I finished reading Perks of Being A Wallflower for the 18th time. Literally. Every time I read that book I get something different out of it, something epic. This time I realized that I am way too up tight about the way I love my life. That I need to have a little more faith in people. From now on I plan on living life with the mind set that I have always claimed to have. I can't continue the way I have been, not trusting anyone, because it's pushing people I care away.
Anyway, this morning I woke up and got ready. My host family (plus Georgia) and I were driving to Milan. I had been awake since 6:30 with no luck falling back asleep so by the time we got on the road at 9:30 I was already tired. Alle let me sit in the front seat so I would have a better view of the road and scenery. I'm sorry to report that I did not take advantage of this. I was continuously dozing off. If I wasn't doing that I was trying to keep myself awake or turning my head to a certain way so that Alle and Andrea didn't know I was sleeping. Haha.
Once we got to Milan I was more awake. We found a parking spot and proceeded to walk to the Duomo, which is this huge Cathedral that is really famous. It actually has one of the nails said to have been used to crucify Christ in it. Pretty epic.
There were a ton of pigeons outside of the Duomo. It was one of the grossest things I've ever seen. After leaving there we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant. I saw "Roast Beef American" on the menu so I ordered that expecting a big hunk of meat. Unfortunately I had briefly forgotten where I was and when a plate of cold cut-ish roast beef and tomatoes came out, I was slightly disappointed.
After leaving the restaurant we walked through an old castle's courtyard. There were tons of men there selling knock off purses, sunglasses, etc. I wanted to buy a pair of sunglasses but Andrea kept insisting it wasn't a good idea. I told him that I've purchased knock offs in NYC before so I understand what was going on but I didn't want to upset him so I just didn't buy anything.
After the castle we went to ride the Metro back to the parking garage so we could drop off our bags but I ended up keeping mine. Then we walked to the theater for "La Bella E La Bestia." My seat was in the FOURTH row, and the entire show was in Italian. Thankfully I obviously knew the story so I was able to keep up with what was going on even if it was in a language I didn't understand. The actor with the best voice was definitely the beast. Belle was good but she seemed like an Alto trying to sing Soprano as some points, and we all know how painful that can be. My favorite numbers were definitely "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and The Beast" at the end. We then walked back to the car and drove back to Carpi. Once we got back we stopped and had pizza for dinner. Then we came home, I showered, and now I'm going to sleep because I have school early in the morning.
Ciao!
After we left the pool we went to the grocery store store. While I was there I went to the Pharmacy and picked up a few things including Melatonin and an Italian flu medicine. Then we went to pick up the cousin Georgia because she was going to Milan tomorrow. When we got back to the house I read for a while and then we got ready to leave for dinner. For dinner we went back to the same friends' house we ate at on Thursday. We had Digelle for dinner. Basically it's small bread resembling Pita and you fill the middle with cheese and cold cuts, and eat raw vegetables on the side. Beings that I'm not a huge fan of cheese and I wasn't very hungry, I didn't eat much. But I did eat was good. After dinner Andrea explained the importance of food by telling me some of Italy's WWII history. Then he and Stefano (the dad of the other family) went to watch the rest of the soccer game in the other room. I guess the Italian team from Milan (even though there isn't even ONE Italian on the team!!) had some type of cup game against Germany. They won. God, I hate soccer. Meanwhile, the mom's were talking/cleaning up, the teenage girls were chatting on Facebook and continuously giggling. Asia, Georgia, and Francesca were in the other room doing only God knows what, and I just sat and read because I was exhausted. Oh, and I saw a bunch of HUGE bugs. SOOOOO GROSS!!
Last night I finished reading Perks of Being A Wallflower for the 18th time. Literally. Every time I read that book I get something different out of it, something epic. This time I realized that I am way too up tight about the way I love my life. That I need to have a little more faith in people. From now on I plan on living life with the mind set that I have always claimed to have. I can't continue the way I have been, not trusting anyone, because it's pushing people I care away.
Anyway, this morning I woke up and got ready. My host family (plus Georgia) and I were driving to Milan. I had been awake since 6:30 with no luck falling back asleep so by the time we got on the road at 9:30 I was already tired. Alle let me sit in the front seat so I would have a better view of the road and scenery. I'm sorry to report that I did not take advantage of this. I was continuously dozing off. If I wasn't doing that I was trying to keep myself awake or turning my head to a certain way so that Alle and Andrea didn't know I was sleeping. Haha.
Once we got to Milan I was more awake. We found a parking spot and proceeded to walk to the Duomo, which is this huge Cathedral that is really famous. It actually has one of the nails said to have been used to crucify Christ in it. Pretty epic.
There were a ton of pigeons outside of the Duomo. It was one of the grossest things I've ever seen. After leaving there we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant. I saw "Roast Beef American" on the menu so I ordered that expecting a big hunk of meat. Unfortunately I had briefly forgotten where I was and when a plate of cold cut-ish roast beef and tomatoes came out, I was slightly disappointed.
After leaving the restaurant we walked through an old castle's courtyard. There were tons of men there selling knock off purses, sunglasses, etc. I wanted to buy a pair of sunglasses but Andrea kept insisting it wasn't a good idea. I told him that I've purchased knock offs in NYC before so I understand what was going on but I didn't want to upset him so I just didn't buy anything.
After the castle we went to ride the Metro back to the parking garage so we could drop off our bags but I ended up keeping mine. Then we walked to the theater for "La Bella E La Bestia." My seat was in the FOURTH row, and the entire show was in Italian. Thankfully I obviously knew the story so I was able to keep up with what was going on even if it was in a language I didn't understand. The actor with the best voice was definitely the beast. Belle was good but she seemed like an Alto trying to sing Soprano as some points, and we all know how painful that can be. My favorite numbers were definitely "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and The Beast" at the end. We then walked back to the car and drove back to Carpi. Once we got back we stopped and had pizza for dinner. Then we came home, I showered, and now I'm going to sleep because I have school early in the morning.
Ciao!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Baseball burns.
Today I got up and went to school like usual. The first 2 hours of the day I spent attempting to teach the same lesson that I taught on Wednesday to another class. Today didn't go as well because the teacher Cinzia (Chin-see-uh) had to leave the room and once that happened the kids lost focus and kept side talking. We got through the book but I skipped right over the Q&A session about my University because they weren't focusing well enough on me talking to do it successfully. Instead I went right to handing out the letters and having them read them and write back. Unfortunately they were all most interested in talking to I actually had to get stern and halfway raise my voice at them to get them to work. When Cinzia came back she was very disappointed in their behavior.
After that class we took an hour break, and then Laura, Katie, and I went to another class and taught them how to play baseball. First we drew a diagram situation on the board:
After explaining things inside we took the students outside and played. They caught on pretty quickly. We did the same lesson type thing in the last class of the day. But unluckily for me, it was hot and sunny today so I am red like a lobster now. :(
This afternoon we went to the Carpi Civil Museum. It's basically a bunch of stuff about the history of the city and the city center, etc. It was informative, but it got boring at times. If you didn't know though, Carpi is one of the major fashion production cities in Europe. Here are some pictures from the museum and the art exhibit that was in the building too.
Andrea is coming home from out of town late tonight. Tomorrow I finally get to sleep in. Tomorrow night we are going out to dinner, and on Sunday Alle, Asia, cousin Georgia and I are going to Milan to see Beauty and the Beast (IN ITALIAN!).
Ciao!
After that class we took an hour break, and then Laura, Katie, and I went to another class and taught them how to play baseball. First we drew a diagram situation on the board:
After explaining things inside we took the students outside and played. They caught on pretty quickly. We did the same lesson type thing in the last class of the day. But unluckily for me, it was hot and sunny today so I am red like a lobster now. :(
This afternoon we went to the Carpi Civil Museum. It's basically a bunch of stuff about the history of the city and the city center, etc. It was informative, but it got boring at times. If you didn't know though, Carpi is one of the major fashion production cities in Europe. Here are some pictures from the museum and the art exhibit that was in the building too.
Andrea is coming home from out of town late tonight. Tomorrow I finally get to sleep in. Tomorrow night we are going out to dinner, and on Sunday Alle, Asia, cousin Georgia and I are going to Milan to see Beauty and the Beast (IN ITALIAN!).
Ciao!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Living and Learning in Italia.
This is a picture of a picture that I have of our whole group 2 days after arriving here in Carpi. In this picture are also our directors from the US and our directors from Italy. Sorry it's blurry!! :(
Last night I set my alarm for 9:00 this morning because we didn't have school today due to it being a holiday. My body woke me up at 7:00 am anyways because that's what it's used to now. GREAT. Anyway, most of the shops were open and there was also a market in the square to celebrate the holiday where there were tons of people selling clothes, shoes, purses, flowers, housewares and many other things.
The past few days I've felt as though I've been exposed to a lot more of the Italian family dynamic. After meeting some of the other American's families last night, today we went to Alessandra's parents house for lunch. Her mother was out of town, but we had lunch with Grampa and 2 cousins, Georgia and Francesco (Frenchy for short). Grampa didn't speak English but we did the best we could to communicate using the little Italian and French that we know.
RANT ABOUT COMMUNICATION
Listening to entire conversations take place in a foreign language is an exhausting task. On top of feeling excluded because I don't understand, I'm constantly listening for words similar to French so it is always a cycle of translation. Italian to French to English, and by the time I understand what they're saying that part of the conversation is long past gone. I definitely am looking forward to being in France and only having to use 1 translation in my head, and I'm even more so looking forward to the USA if not only for that reason alone. It will be so nice to have a simple conversation not be such a mentally exhausting task.
END RANT
Back to today... While Alle prepared the lunch I went to walk around in the market. I bought a pretty black and white scarf for 1 euro!! And on my way back to the house to eat lunch I walked by an Italian man playing Dear Prudence on the guitar. I gave him 50 euro cent just because I love the Beatles and was in a good mood. After eating the pasta with salmon that Alle (short for Alessandra) prepared, I rode the grandmother's bike back to the house bacause Alle had to stay and help Frenchy with his homework and then go to dance until 7:30. So I went back and watched Now and Then. For dinner we went to a family friend's house. They have a young daughter around 9 or 10 who was very helpful and changed the TV to English so I could watch. Granted it was the Disney channel, but still very nice. (If anyone is interested, I just wanted to let you know, Disney Channel "in English" is really weird to watch. All of the voices are English but they either have an Italian accent or a British one. It's semi annoying. End of story.) The other daughter was a young teenager who said hello and turned back to Facebook and chatting on MSN without even telling me her name. This reminded me that no matter what language you speak, teenagers are the same where ever you go. Monica, their mother, made a delicious dinner of cheesy rice as well as ham and cheese on toast. This family's home was very different from ours because they live in the country about 10 km from Carpi. It's a very large house but they only seem to use half of it. And the rooms were either very empty of wall to wall with very old furniture. While we were there, the youngest daughter Francesca and Asia drew me a picture:
Now I am sitting on my bed doing this and trying to figure out my plans for the next week or so. I'm also getting really frustrated with the fact that all of the host parents are treating the Americans like we're 12. No, we don't really speak Italian but we aren't stupid because of it. It is a constant battle of reporting in to our host parents all the time (which for me is quite difficult because unlike most of the other students here they either had theirs from home or their host parents gave them one to use), having to be driven/taken everywhere, and not having any alone time for fear of offending the host family if you by chance want to watch a movie alone (in English!!) or something. Thankfully my host mom understands this a bit more lately and has been okay with me taking some time to myself because I've been tired and sick. I CAN say that I am glad that Alle and Andrea speak fairly well in English. Alison Wolfe's family came to the family pizza party and none of them really spoke any English. So she's having a harder time than most of us communicating with her family. I couldn't imagine being homesick, physically sick, stressed AND not even being able to speak English to my host family if I wanted to.
Anyway, tomorrow I will be teaching my lessons again so that should be fun. We're also going on a tour of one of the museums in Carpi in the afternoon, and a group of us are supposed to go out to celebrate the birthday's of a few of the girls tomorrow night. Also, some of us are also talking about maybe going to Verona on Saturday but we're not sure.
Write again soon! Ciao!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
First lesson!
So here's the scoop. Normally I set my alarm for 6:46 to get up and get ready for school. This morning I decided to give myself a few extra minutes and set it for 6:56. My body woke up at 6:46 on its' own. FAIL. Anyway, I got dressed, ate, and rode my bike to school. I taught in a third year English class this morning. It was a double block class, so I ended up teaching for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I combined my 2 lesson plans on Missouri and middle school. I had the students read a book about the main cities/monuments in Missouri. We then discussed the University of Missouri and college life. After that I handed out letters from middle school students in Columbia talking about American schools, and I passed around my 8th grade yearbook and talked about my middle school experiences having to do with school and activities. They then started writing letters back to them. Obviously I ran into a few minor bumps in terms of words that I had to explain. This was difficult without knowing what words were in Italian, haha. Some of the things that I needed to explain in more detail were Truman Sports Complex, the different degrees you can get in college (Bachelor's, Master's, and PHD) and the No-Touch-Policy. Haha. They were also very interested to know how many people went to Mizzou, what majors there were, and what the rules were in college about touching since there is the No-Touch when you're younger. Then after all the discussion, they started to write letters back to the students who wrote to them. Hopefully they will finish the letters soon and I will be able to take them back to Columbia. Even if there is no way to get them to the students until August, I am still going to try to get them to the kids who wrote in the first place just because I think it would be really cool. After this class we took a break, and then we went to another class where we helped the kids finish up their e-pals messages and figure out how they were going to send their pictures to their e-pals (a video vs scrapbook pages with their pictures, etc). I got home from school around 1:00. Alessandra made Asia and I pasta with red sauce and tuna for lunch.
This afternoon I had a meeting with all of the other American students like we do every Wednesday. We got there and spent time reflecting on our teaching and family life. We also split off into our inquiry project groups. My group is doing ours on the e-pal project at Fassi. It's nice because we have first hand experience with it. After our meeting we walked to the Pizza place. This week was "sibling" week but unfortunately Asia had dance class so she couldn't come. A lot of other girls had their siblings there, so the ones of us who didn't have ours there just interacted with them. Alison's host brother ate 2 WHOLE pizza's! HE'S 12!! AND THE SKINNIEST KID I'VE EVER SEEN. It was crazy. After dinner we went to gelato. I had a small strawberry cup. It was good, but I like the more citrus-y flavors better I think. After gelato Laura and I went to wait for her host parents. Laura lives 3 or 4 blocks from me so her parents took me home so that Alessandra wouldn't have to worry about Asia missing her bed time. Problem was, Laura's parents thought we were meeting at one place and we thought we were meeting at another, haha. So it took us 20 minutes of walking around and making weird phone calls to find them! Eventually we did though and we walked to their car. We saw a HUMMER while walking to the car, which Laura and I thought was weird because all of the cars are so small here. Anyway, I got home.. said hello and goodnight to Alessandra and Asia and now I'm watching Hairspray waiting to fall asleep.
Ciao!
This afternoon I had a meeting with all of the other American students like we do every Wednesday. We got there and spent time reflecting on our teaching and family life. We also split off into our inquiry project groups. My group is doing ours on the e-pal project at Fassi. It's nice because we have first hand experience with it. After our meeting we walked to the Pizza place. This week was "sibling" week but unfortunately Asia had dance class so she couldn't come. A lot of other girls had their siblings there, so the ones of us who didn't have ours there just interacted with them. Alison's host brother ate 2 WHOLE pizza's! HE'S 12!! AND THE SKINNIEST KID I'VE EVER SEEN. It was crazy. After dinner we went to gelato. I had a small strawberry cup. It was good, but I like the more citrus-y flavors better I think. After gelato Laura and I went to wait for her host parents. Laura lives 3 or 4 blocks from me so her parents took me home so that Alessandra wouldn't have to worry about Asia missing her bed time. Problem was, Laura's parents thought we were meeting at one place and we thought we were meeting at another, haha. So it took us 20 minutes of walking around and making weird phone calls to find them! Eventually we did though and we walked to their car. We saw a HUMMER while walking to the car, which Laura and I thought was weird because all of the cars are so small here. Anyway, I got home.. said hello and goodnight to Alessandra and Asia and now I'm watching Hairspray waiting to fall asleep.
Ciao!
pictures!! :)
i have decided to post an entry that is made up entirely of my favorite pictures that i have taken so far. there aren't that many because you have to upload them one at a time, but i still hope you enjoy them!
i will update later tonight. i taught my first and second lessons at school day!
also, here is a link to my photo sharing account for this trip:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v446/babyhelmsy23/ITALY/
i will update later tonight. i taught my first and second lessons at school day!
also, here is a link to my photo sharing account for this trip:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v446/babyhelmsy23/ITALY/
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
updateeeee!!
This is a picture from Venice that I stole from Mary Jo (the girl who took the picture). This is me and 3 of the 4 girls I hung out with there (Mary Jo was the other!).
Today, I was tired when I woke up. Alessandra had left early for the sports competition she was going to with a deaf student for the day, and like I said, Andrea is out of town.. so I had to get up and get myself ready and fed breakfast on my own. It was kind of nice to have a little independence in my eating. Although I shouldn't complain about Alessandra's cooking because that in combination with my bike riding and walking has led to 6.5 pounds of weight loss already since I've been here!! Anyhow, I biked to school this morning and got there around 8. All of the teachers we shadow had off the 1st and 2nd blocks so we hung out in the teacher's lounge until 10. After that we all went to a first year class to help teach them how to play baseball. We described the rules and such in the classroom and then went outside to play. 3 of the 5 of us were wearing dresses so that made things a bit complicated. Here is a picture of the students playing:
I also went to a music class where the teacher was teaching the students rhythm by teaching them simple 8 counts of dance moves. It was fun. But we danced to Greensleeves which I thought was odd. Plus I couldn't stop singing it in my head. After that I helped a second level English class write their final e-mails to their pen pals in Kansas. Their English is actually pretty good. I'm teaching my first lesson by myself tomorrow at the school and I'm very excited. I'm teaching the kids about Missouri and the main cities, lakes, monuments, etc. I have a book that is narrated by Truman the Tiger about it and I labeled the stuff on a map of Missouri. Hopefully things go well. I'm actually really excited about it!!
After school I came home and had soup and some cold cuts for lunch. AKA: things I didn't have to cook since I was on my own for figuring out what to eat. Since then I've been laying in my bed being lazy and watching movies. After today, Thursday is my only school day off left before I leave Italy. Which means the next couple of weeks will be VERY busy.
I'll write again tomorrow after I teach my lesson.
Ciao!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Venezia.
Saturday morning we woke up early and left on a train for Venice at about 7:45. We rode the train from Carpi to Modena, from Modena to Bologna, and then Bologna to Venice. I slept most of the way. Once we got to Venice we soon realized it was POURING down rain. If you know anything about Venice, you know that there are no cars or anything.. it's all walking. So we walked in the rain to our residence. Unfortunately the directors were confused so we got a little lost, but we finally made it there. Once we got there we found out that 2 of the rooms were not ready so 10 of us girls had to leave our stuff in another room until later. After that we all kind of split up and did our own thing with our groups. I was with Allison, Shaun, Mary Jo, and Katie. We stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant that had Mario in the name. The food was good. It was a pasta with a ratatouille sauce. The wine was better. :) After lunch we started making our way to Piazza St. Marco to meet the rest of the group who was going on the Doge's Palace tour as well. Little did we know, when it rains this hard in Venice... the square floods. There was about 6 inches of water on the ground in certain places. It was hideous. Unfortunately I had on tennis shoes so I stopped and took my socks off so at least those would be dry later.
Then we went on the tour of the palace. It was very old and beautiful. And we got to go walk through the jail cells in the basement too. It was interesting. After that the 4 girls I mentioned earlier and I started our walk back to the hotel. We stopped and shopped a bit, got gelato, and bought a bottle of wine on our way.. so we got back around 7:00. Once we got back we organized things, cleaned up, drank our wine, and then we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. I had spaghetti and meat sauce and wine. Mary Jo and I also split some french fries just to have a little taste of home. Then we went to a Jazz Bar and sat there for a little while. It was interesting to hear songs in English, and this bar hung bras on the ceiling.. haha. At around 11:45 we headed back to the hotel and I went to sleep almost instantly after getting into my bed.
Luckily, on Sunday, the rain had stopped. The weather was quite nice, sunny with a light breeze. We got up early around 845 and met Dr. Bradley to check out of our rooms. We turned in the keys and left our bags in a special room they had for us so we wouldn't have to carry them around. Once back on our way we stopped for croissants and coffee for breakfast. We walked around town taking pictures and shopping until noon when we decided to stop for lunch. I had ravioli and white wine for lunch. It was very good. After lunch we went back to the Piazza St. Marco to see it without the flood. Little did we know, some of the water would still be there in addition to a mass amount of people. At least this time our shoes didn't get wet. After this we started heading back towards the hotel/train station. We stopped and had gelato again (haha) and then picked up our bags at the hotel. We then walked to the train station where we sat and waited for everyone else, as well as let our shoes from the day before sit out in the sun to dry. I am so glad I took 2 pairs of shoes to Venice.
Our train from Venice went to Bologna, then we rode another train (in reserved seats!) back to Carpi. Overall, Venice was pretty.. but it reminded me a lot of the touristy parts of NYC. All of the stores had the same thing, and there were soooo many people.
Once I got back to the house, we ate dinner, I showered, then I Skyped with Stacey, Jessica, and Hannah. Then I Skyped with Cesar. After that I went to sleep because I was very tired.
Today I went to school. For the first 2 hours Paige, Allison, Katie, and I went to watch the athletic competition off campus, but it got started late so we didn't get to see anything. Once we got back to Fassi we sat in on 2 music classes to listen to them practice for their concert on Wednesday night. Then we went to Censia's third year English class (8th graders). Censia is the English teacher in charge of this program for this school. We listened to the students present their information on Independence Day and Thanksgiving in small groups helping them with pronunciation and such.
After school I came home and Alessandra had made lunch. We had salad, cold cuts, and hot bread. Andrea left for Athens today on business and won't be home until late Saturday night. She also told me that she has errands to run and choir practice later so I will be kind of on my own tonight, which I don't mind. Asia will be with her grandparents so I'm going to go to the pharmacy, bank, and post office here in a bit and then just relax and watch movies. Tomorrow I will be on my own too because Alessandra is going to the regional athletic competition where one of her students who is partially deaf will be competing. I'm excited to cook lunch for myself as bad as that sounds.
Ciao for now!
Then we went on the tour of the palace. It was very old and beautiful. And we got to go walk through the jail cells in the basement too. It was interesting. After that the 4 girls I mentioned earlier and I started our walk back to the hotel. We stopped and shopped a bit, got gelato, and bought a bottle of wine on our way.. so we got back around 7:00. Once we got back we organized things, cleaned up, drank our wine, and then we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. I had spaghetti and meat sauce and wine. Mary Jo and I also split some french fries just to have a little taste of home. Then we went to a Jazz Bar and sat there for a little while. It was interesting to hear songs in English, and this bar hung bras on the ceiling.. haha. At around 11:45 we headed back to the hotel and I went to sleep almost instantly after getting into my bed.
Luckily, on Sunday, the rain had stopped. The weather was quite nice, sunny with a light breeze. We got up early around 845 and met Dr. Bradley to check out of our rooms. We turned in the keys and left our bags in a special room they had for us so we wouldn't have to carry them around. Once back on our way we stopped for croissants and coffee for breakfast. We walked around town taking pictures and shopping until noon when we decided to stop for lunch. I had ravioli and white wine for lunch. It was very good. After lunch we went back to the Piazza St. Marco to see it without the flood. Little did we know, some of the water would still be there in addition to a mass amount of people. At least this time our shoes didn't get wet. After this we started heading back towards the hotel/train station. We stopped and had gelato again (haha) and then picked up our bags at the hotel. We then walked to the train station where we sat and waited for everyone else, as well as let our shoes from the day before sit out in the sun to dry. I am so glad I took 2 pairs of shoes to Venice.
Our train from Venice went to Bologna, then we rode another train (in reserved seats!) back to Carpi. Overall, Venice was pretty.. but it reminded me a lot of the touristy parts of NYC. All of the stores had the same thing, and there were soooo many people.
Once I got back to the house, we ate dinner, I showered, then I Skyped with Stacey, Jessica, and Hannah. Then I Skyped with Cesar. After that I went to sleep because I was very tired.
Today I went to school. For the first 2 hours Paige, Allison, Katie, and I went to watch the athletic competition off campus, but it got started late so we didn't get to see anything. Once we got back to Fassi we sat in on 2 music classes to listen to them practice for their concert on Wednesday night. Then we went to Censia's third year English class (8th graders). Censia is the English teacher in charge of this program for this school. We listened to the students present their information on Independence Day and Thanksgiving in small groups helping them with pronunciation and such.
After school I came home and Alessandra had made lunch. We had salad, cold cuts, and hot bread. Andrea left for Athens today on business and won't be home until late Saturday night. She also told me that she has errands to run and choir practice later so I will be kind of on my own tonight, which I don't mind. Asia will be with her grandparents so I'm going to go to the pharmacy, bank, and post office here in a bit and then just relax and watch movies. Tomorrow I will be on my own too because Alessandra is going to the regional athletic competition where one of her students who is partially deaf will be competing. I'm excited to cook lunch for myself as bad as that sounds.
Ciao for now!
Friday, May 14, 2010
OCTOPUS.
Today was an interesting day. We found out this morning that the teacher that Laura and I were assigned to at Fassi doesn't really want us anymore. Or at least he's not acting like it. He ignores us all day, never even finding us to take to his classes with him.. but then asks other people why we aren't there. Anyway, Laura and I were both kind of upset at first. We came here to get this experience of learning how an English teacher teaches English in Italy, and after meeting us he doesn’t want us to be in class anymore. It kind of sucks. Thankfully though, the English teacher who is charge of this whole thing has been very proactive about finding us other classes to go into and observe. Today in one of the classes the students asked us questions about Thanksgiving and Independence Day, in another I helped students with an English worksheet, and in the last class I got to help a class with their internet pen pal assignment. I felt useful so that was nice. She's also going to let me teach my Missouri lesson next week to 2 different 3rd year English classes!! 3rd year here means 3rd year of middle school, so 8th grade.
I came home and we had cured ham and salad for lunch. This afternoon I went with some of the students from home to a professional high school here in Carpi. They have Electronics, Mechanics, and Fashion classes. We got to see the dress rehearsal for the end of the year fashion show, and to look at some of the projects for the Electronics classes. It’s interesting how they get to choose their high schools based on what career they want. I don’t think I could have chosen what I would do forever when I was 13 or 14 though. I guess this school was more similar to a vo-tech school.
Afterward, I came home and watched Grease in my room. Andrea and Alessandra are very understanding of my want/need to have alone time sometimes, especially today because I was very homesick. After the movie I started a load of laundry and then we had dinner. Tonight we had OCTOPUS! It was kind of strange. It didn't taste bad, but the circles on the outside made the texture a little different. I'm a person who finds texture of food to be very important, so this was a bit of a turnoff. But obviously I tried it and finished what I was given. Apparently Octopus is quite common here. For dessert we had strawberries because Alessandra knows they are my favorite. :)
I am leaving for Venice tomorrow morning. The train is at 7:15. I still need to pack, and I would like to watch a movie. Ciao!
I came home and we had cured ham and salad for lunch. This afternoon I went with some of the students from home to a professional high school here in Carpi. They have Electronics, Mechanics, and Fashion classes. We got to see the dress rehearsal for the end of the year fashion show, and to look at some of the projects for the Electronics classes. It’s interesting how they get to choose their high schools based on what career they want. I don’t think I could have chosen what I would do forever when I was 13 or 14 though. I guess this school was more similar to a vo-tech school.
Afterward, I came home and watched Grease in my room. Andrea and Alessandra are very understanding of my want/need to have alone time sometimes, especially today because I was very homesick. After the movie I started a load of laundry and then we had dinner. Tonight we had OCTOPUS! It was kind of strange. It didn't taste bad, but the circles on the outside made the texture a little different. I'm a person who finds texture of food to be very important, so this was a bit of a turnoff. But obviously I tried it and finished what I was given. Apparently Octopus is quite common here. For dessert we had strawberries because Alessandra knows they are my favorite. :)
I am leaving for Venice tomorrow morning. The train is at 7:15. I still need to pack, and I would like to watch a movie. Ciao!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Mantova.
Today was a very long, tiring, yet exciting day. This morning I woke up and went to school as normal. Laura and I (my classroom partner who goes to school in South Carolina) got to sit in on a P.E. class this morning. It is much like in America in terms of activities (running, then playing Volleyball) but there was much less structure. They were told what to do and then were just kind of left to do it. No rules or anything, just play volleyball. After that we went and sat in on an English class. We listened to 2 of the girls receive their practice oral interrogations. Basically how it works here is that the students taking English get tested at the end of their 8th grade year. They need to study/memorize information on a certain topic, they recite it, then they're asked questions. They have to do all of this in English, and they are graded on pronunciation, information, knowledge, etc. If they don't pass the oral interrogation, they don't pass 8th grade. After the English class Laura and I went to the teacher's lounge and had tea and chatted with the other Americans at Fassi (Allison, Paige, and Katie) because all of our teachers had that class period off. We then all went to watch another P.E. class. Laura and I got a little more involved this time and played some Badminton. True to it's name, I was pretty bad at it. So Laura and I left and went to observe the music class for the rest of the day. This class was so refreshing. The students sang karaoke to English, French, and Italian songs. We tried to sing too, but since we don't know Italian it was horrible. After a while they started practicing on their "flutes" (they call them flutes but they are called recorders in America) for their concert on Wednesday. 2 of the songs they're playing are "Whenever, Where ever" and "All The Small Things." I thought it was really cool that they were playing more modern songs. The students all seemed to really be interested in the music and what they were doing. The teacher was awesome.
After music class I walked home and had lunch with my host parents. A small bit of pasta and a big salad. We eat a lot of salad, but it's usually very good. After lunch I prepared to leave to go to Mantova with a group of students from the U.S. My host mom drove me to the train station where I met 10 other girls. We rode the train to Mantova together, but once we got there split into smaller groups of 3 and 4 to walk around. Paige, Natalie, Tori, and I walked around the city, took pictures, saw the lake, and enjoyed a glass of wine together before heading back to the train station. We only were in Mantova for 2 hours, but it was beautiful and well worth the trip.
My host dad and Asia picked me up from the train station and we came back to the house. I got online and chatted for a bit until dinner was ready. Allessandra was at dance class, so Andrea made he, Asia, and I roasted chicken for dinner. I sat at the table with Andrea talking about random things for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I found out some very personal things about their family, and it was very nice that he was willing to open up to me like he did. He told me tonight that my host mother has cancer. I don't recall the exact name (I know it started with an "E"), but he told me that Americans call it a white cancer? It's not deadly, but even though it was removed, it can keep coming back. She has already had one ovary, part of her uterus, and part of her intestine removed. He said she often is in pain and sick even though the surgery was 3 years ago. It made me feel sad that she was in pain all the time, but so honored to have been placed with this family so that I can know her. She's a fighter, that's for damn sure.
Until tomorrow, ciao!
After music class I walked home and had lunch with my host parents. A small bit of pasta and a big salad. We eat a lot of salad, but it's usually very good. After lunch I prepared to leave to go to Mantova with a group of students from the U.S. My host mom drove me to the train station where I met 10 other girls. We rode the train to Mantova together, but once we got there split into smaller groups of 3 and 4 to walk around. Paige, Natalie, Tori, and I walked around the city, took pictures, saw the lake, and enjoyed a glass of wine together before heading back to the train station. We only were in Mantova for 2 hours, but it was beautiful and well worth the trip.
My host dad and Asia picked me up from the train station and we came back to the house. I got online and chatted for a bit until dinner was ready. Allessandra was at dance class, so Andrea made he, Asia, and I roasted chicken for dinner. I sat at the table with Andrea talking about random things for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I found out some very personal things about their family, and it was very nice that he was willing to open up to me like he did. He told me tonight that my host mother has cancer. I don't recall the exact name (I know it started with an "E"), but he told me that Americans call it a white cancer? It's not deadly, but even though it was removed, it can keep coming back. She has already had one ovary, part of her uterus, and part of her intestine removed. He said she often is in pain and sick even though the surgery was 3 years ago. It made me feel sad that she was in pain all the time, but so honored to have been placed with this family so that I can know her. She's a fighter, that's for damn sure.
Until tomorrow, ciao!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Pizzaria.
Today I woke up early again. I got ready for school, had breakfast, and then Allessandra took me to school in the car even thought it was her day off. As I was walking into the school, kids were hanging out the windows of the top floor and yelling "American, American!" It was kind of embarrassing that they know exactly who (or I guess WHAT) I am. Later in the day, one of the students had made us a welcome cake as a present. It said "Welcome to Italy" in chocolate frosting on top, haha. It was nice. As it turns out, none of our teachers that we shadow have classes the 4th or 5th hour of the day, so Jamie, Paige, and I got to leave early (the others will leave early next week). Jamie went home, but Paige and I walked to the small grocery store next to our school and she bought taco shells for when she makes her family dinner. Then we walked to a small book store for her to buy a journal. The woman spoke no English and we spoke no Italian, but she knew a little French so we worked it out. After that we walked back to my house. We took the long way because it was very sunny and nice outside for basically the first time since we've been here. Paige went back to school at 1:00 to be picked up by her host dad (we were finished at 11:00 instead of 1:00 like normal today) and Allessandra made Asia and I spinach and ricotta cheese tortelli. It was very good. After eating I was very tired so I came upstairs to lay down and take a nap. I ended up watching a movie instead though. I had a meeting at 4:00 with the rest of the program so we left at 3:40 to ride to the school where we were meeting. It was right by the city center which is a 10-15 bike ride from my house here. After the meeting we went to the pizzaria for pizza. I had black olive and pepperoni pizza, the pepperoni was very spicy though! We went for Gelato afterwards, I had the Limoncello (Lemonade) flavor. It was veryyyy good. After we all ate our Gelato, I had to ride my bike back to my house alone, in the dark. I rode on the main streets so it was well lit, but the route was a bit confusing and I didn't have a cell phone so it took me a little longer than it should have because I was making sure I wouldn't miss any turns, etc by going fairly slowly. I finally made it back home after a fairly long ride and came inside. I am very tired.
Tomorrow I will go to school from 8:00-1:00 and then a group of us are going to Mantova in the afternoon.
Ciao.
Tomorrow I will go to school from 8:00-1:00 and then a group of us are going to Mantova in the afternoon.
Ciao.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Ciao, bella.
i didn't sleep well again last night. i don't think it's jet lag anymore, but i'm definitely not used to this bed. hopefully i get used to it. the 4.5-5 hours of sleep i've been getting a night just isn't working for me. today was my first day at the Fassi school. i'm partnered with another American student named Laura. she's a SPED major at Clemson University. she seems really nice. it's definitely nice to have an English speaking person (aside from the English teacher we're shadowing) to talk to. she's been just as homesick as me, so we made a pact today to help each other through it by letting the other bitch about it until we get over it, haha. today was good though. the teacher we're working with is fluent in English, but he is VERY strict. he's an older man and has been to almost every state in the US which i thought was cool. he's directing a rendition of Grease that my host mom is choreographing, haha. we will get to see the rehearsals and we met the girls playing Sandy and Rizzo today. they speak in mostly Italian and sing in English. all of the Italian students were very excited to meet us. there were even girls screaming and jumping up and down because "the Americans are finally here." haha. we are basically celebrities. :D even the teachers are very nice. Laura and I had our cappuccino bought for us and were given bread during our break. so that was nice. it's raining here today, so i had to carry an umbrella. i am semi retarded though and scratched the hell out of my chin with it. don't ask me how because i don't really know. haha. we get done with school at 1:00 every day so Allessandra and i came home and she made chicken salad for lunch. later today i had a meeting with all of the rest of the program members (Americans) at an elementary school to go over our lesson plans. after that i came home and did some work for the class portion of the trip. observation worksheets and whatnot. i organized all of my papers for my class. i didn't realize how many papers i'm supposed to be filling out as i go (or that i was supposed to have already filled out! haha). luckily, i am all caught up now. i also went through and labeled the map of Missouri that i brought with me. today at school i talked to my teacher about my planned lessons and he thought they were great ideas so by labeling the map, i wrapped up all of the preparation i can do before i teach the lessons. i'm nervous about this idea, but.. i'm hoping that it will go well. :) after i labeled the Missouri map i got out my map of Carpi and marked out the bike route to the city center and the train station just so i have it and don't have to ask my host mom for it all the time. the train station location was especially important because the MU and KU girls (there's 13 of us total) are planning trips to Modena and Bologna, both of which we will need the train for. Modena is a larger city nearby here (about 22 km according to google), while Bologna is a little further away (71 km-ish). it's nice that there are other cities so close by train for us to take afternoon trips all together. also, one of the girls (Paige) from KU is turning 21 on the 18th. we're all very excited because we will get to have a night out on the town together in order to celebrate. she won't be taking shots or anything, but we'll probably go to dinner and drink. bars here aren't like bars at home, they are mostly for purchasing coffee. but either way it will be nice to celebrate. the trip is fairly segregated in terms of MU/KU and Clemson/College of Charleston. we all kind of stick to our own. i'm glad that Laura is in my class though because it makes me feel a little more connected to the other people even though i know the MU/KU girls better. hopefully this will change as the program goes on. it would be nice to get to know everyone.
CIAO!
CIAO!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Magic Markers.
Today was our first day with activities to participate in together while we were here. First we met at the city square. We then walked over to the municipal building to learn about the education system within Carpi and go over the program calender. After our meeting we went to a cafe for lunch.
After lunch we went to the town's library, then to the bank to exchange our US dollars for Euros. After that I went to buy an international calling card to call home. Once that was over, a lot of us walked around and some people shopped.
After that I came home, Skyped, ate dinner, then called my mom. Haha.
Tomorrow is my first day at Fassi. I'm excited, but nervous about the students not understanding me!
After lunch we went to the town's library, then to the bank to exchange our US dollars for Euros. After that I went to buy an international calling card to call home. Once that was over, a lot of us walked around and some people shopped.
After that I came home, Skyped, ate dinner, then called my mom. Haha.
Tomorrow is my first day at Fassi. I'm excited, but nervous about the students not understanding me!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
ARRIVED!
I have been keeping a journal on my computer so I could copy/paste the entries I've made so far. Here goes:
May 7th-
Today was the day of traveling. We left KCI a little bit after 10:00 this morning. We flew from there to JFK airport in New York City. We were the first of the groups we were meeting to arrive. We were meeting people who were flying from STL and from ATL. Once we got to JFK we ate lunch and sat around to endure our 4 hour layover. We sat around. A lot. Finally at about 5:30 they started boarding the plane (our original departure time was 6:00). Once we were on the plane we were all very excited to leave, only to find out that there was something wrong with the intercom system on our plane. We didn’t end up taking off for almost another 2 hours. Once we finally got into the air, things were fine. I had trouble sleeping on the plane, unfortunately. The dinner that we were given on the plane made my stomach upset so I wasn’t very comfortable through out the night. Plus things were a bit loud, because even though I have rad headphones.. my iPod called it quits during the flight. It won’t even turn on now. Ridiculous, right? First my camera, now my iPod. It seems as though technology just hates me in Europe, so hopefully my lap top can stick it out with me for the whole trip. Here goes nothing...
May 8th
Once we landed in Milan we took a bus to Carpi. Our host families picked us up at the bus station. My host dad Andrea, host mom Allessandra, host sister Asia (which I’ve found out is pronounced Oz-e-uh), and Andrea’s parents all came to meet me. They signed a waiver taking responsibility for me for the next month and we were on our way. Asia went with her grandparents to her swimming lesson and Andrea and Allessandra drove me home. Once we got here they gave me a tour of the house, showed me where things were, cooked me lunch, and then I took a shower because after 20 hours traveling I felt gross. I went over my schedule with Allessandra and then when Asia got home we went to the mall. The mall here though isn’t quite the mall we have at home though. There were very few stores in the “mall,” the largest being the one we went to, which was their version of a WalMart super center. I got shampoo and they got me some things to eat for breakfast (cereal, fruit, bread/jam for toast). Steak at this store cost 24.90 €/kg. A kg is about 2 pounds and 1 € is equivalent to about $1.30... do the math. Ridiculous.
After we left the shopping center we came back to the house and prepared to have dinner guests. Andrea and Allessandra had invited over their friends and their 3 kids. So while the men went to get the pizza, I had to sit at the dining room table with Allessandra and her friend Melissa, while listening to 4 children all of the age 6 or under play games and run/chase each other around the house. This on top of being exhausted, and already having a headache SUCKED.
They sent me upstairs around 9:00 because I was so tired. I got online to check Facebook and now I’m trying to put off sleep just a little longer so I will feel awesome when I wake up tomorrow morning.
Ciao!
May 9th
Today is Mother’s Day and I’m halfway around the world. That in addition to the fact that I can’t understand a WORD of what anyone is saying is making me really homesick. Don’t get me wrong, my family seems to be really great and they’re trying to make me feel comfortable, but I miss home. I miss my bed. I miss my Gramma pillow.
I have my own room here. It’s not very big, but it’s my own. It’s nice to come up here and get away, but it makes me kind of lonely. And I’m still really tired so all I want to do is sleep, but I can’t. I guess the 12 hours of sleep I got last night were not enough.
The only channels they have in English are CNN and Fox (both international channels), so I’ve been watching a lot of CNN news reports to hear some English. Hopefully it will be better once I start doing the school thing and will be around some American students.
I have constant internet access since Andrea works from home when he’s here, but due to the time change the only time I will be able to talk to anyone will be when I get up at 7:00 am to get ready for school (midnight in Missouri) or in the evenings when it is early afternoon there.
Today they had cousins come over for lunch. They had bruchetta and steak. It was good, but I was full so when they brought out the strawberries and gelato, I didn’t want any. Andrea told me that I don’t eat enough and that if I eat more then my metabolism will be faster. That seemed weird to me, but I guess they’re the tall lanky ones, not me. Haha.
Last night I also heard Allessandra call Asia a “potato.” Apparently that’s what they call girls who are a little bigger. I think when I get back I’m going to call girls “potatoes,” just because it will be funny AND they will have no idea what I’m talking about.
This afternoon we took a bike ride to the city center. Thankfully I remembered how to ride a bike because it was about 2 miles round trip. Riiiiiight.
May 7th-
Today was the day of traveling. We left KCI a little bit after 10:00 this morning. We flew from there to JFK airport in New York City. We were the first of the groups we were meeting to arrive. We were meeting people who were flying from STL and from ATL. Once we got to JFK we ate lunch and sat around to endure our 4 hour layover. We sat around. A lot. Finally at about 5:30 they started boarding the plane (our original departure time was 6:00). Once we were on the plane we were all very excited to leave, only to find out that there was something wrong with the intercom system on our plane. We didn’t end up taking off for almost another 2 hours. Once we finally got into the air, things were fine. I had trouble sleeping on the plane, unfortunately. The dinner that we were given on the plane made my stomach upset so I wasn’t very comfortable through out the night. Plus things were a bit loud, because even though I have rad headphones.. my iPod called it quits during the flight. It won’t even turn on now. Ridiculous, right? First my camera, now my iPod. It seems as though technology just hates me in Europe, so hopefully my lap top can stick it out with me for the whole trip. Here goes nothing...
May 8th
Once we landed in Milan we took a bus to Carpi. Our host families picked us up at the bus station. My host dad Andrea, host mom Allessandra, host sister Asia (which I’ve found out is pronounced Oz-e-uh), and Andrea’s parents all came to meet me. They signed a waiver taking responsibility for me for the next month and we were on our way. Asia went with her grandparents to her swimming lesson and Andrea and Allessandra drove me home. Once we got here they gave me a tour of the house, showed me where things were, cooked me lunch, and then I took a shower because after 20 hours traveling I felt gross. I went over my schedule with Allessandra and then when Asia got home we went to the mall. The mall here though isn’t quite the mall we have at home though. There were very few stores in the “mall,” the largest being the one we went to, which was their version of a WalMart super center. I got shampoo and they got me some things to eat for breakfast (cereal, fruit, bread/jam for toast). Steak at this store cost 24.90 €/kg. A kg is about 2 pounds and 1 € is equivalent to about $1.30... do the math. Ridiculous.
After we left the shopping center we came back to the house and prepared to have dinner guests. Andrea and Allessandra had invited over their friends and their 3 kids. So while the men went to get the pizza, I had to sit at the dining room table with Allessandra and her friend Melissa, while listening to 4 children all of the age 6 or under play games and run/chase each other around the house. This on top of being exhausted, and already having a headache SUCKED.
They sent me upstairs around 9:00 because I was so tired. I got online to check Facebook and now I’m trying to put off sleep just a little longer so I will feel awesome when I wake up tomorrow morning.
Ciao!
May 9th
Today is Mother’s Day and I’m halfway around the world. That in addition to the fact that I can’t understand a WORD of what anyone is saying is making me really homesick. Don’t get me wrong, my family seems to be really great and they’re trying to make me feel comfortable, but I miss home. I miss my bed. I miss my Gramma pillow.
I have my own room here. It’s not very big, but it’s my own. It’s nice to come up here and get away, but it makes me kind of lonely. And I’m still really tired so all I want to do is sleep, but I can’t. I guess the 12 hours of sleep I got last night were not enough.
The only channels they have in English are CNN and Fox (both international channels), so I’ve been watching a lot of CNN news reports to hear some English. Hopefully it will be better once I start doing the school thing and will be around some American students.
I have constant internet access since Andrea works from home when he’s here, but due to the time change the only time I will be able to talk to anyone will be when I get up at 7:00 am to get ready for school (midnight in Missouri) or in the evenings when it is early afternoon there.
Today they had cousins come over for lunch. They had bruchetta and steak. It was good, but I was full so when they brought out the strawberries and gelato, I didn’t want any. Andrea told me that I don’t eat enough and that if I eat more then my metabolism will be faster. That seemed weird to me, but I guess they’re the tall lanky ones, not me. Haha.
Last night I also heard Allessandra call Asia a “potato.” Apparently that’s what they call girls who are a little bigger. I think when I get back I’m going to call girls “potatoes,” just because it will be funny AND they will have no idea what I’m talking about.
This afternoon we took a bike ride to the city center. Thankfully I remembered how to ride a bike because it was about 2 miles round trip. Riiiiiight.
Monday, May 3, 2010
FOUR.
Hi, I leave for Italy in FOUR days!
Time has gone by so quickly this semester. I feel like it was just last week when I was saying "I leave for Italy in 93 days!" and now it's FOUR.
Lately, I've been focusing a bit more on the tail end of my trip, which is when I'm going to France. I will be there a week. I'm going to visit my exchange sister Elodie and her family for 5 days. I will be then be going to Paris for 2 days and 2 nights. This is the hotel I will be staying at:
http://www.hotel-royalphare-paris.com/index.html
It's located a 1/4 mile from the Eiffel Tower and is within 15 minutes on the Metro of EVERYTHING I want to do. Not to mention, a lot of things are within walking distance so I won't even have to take the Metro! I'm really excited about this leg of the trip.
Like I was saying, I leave on Friday morning at 10:00. I fly from there to NYC where we have a layover at JFK. Then on to Milan. After Milan, we'll be taking a bus to Carpi. As far as I know, that weekend's plans are just to recover from jet lag and prepare for our school orientations on Monday.
Now that the trip is upon us (basically) I will be updating a lot more. I am considering getting a photo-sharing account to post the pictures on during my trip. That way people who are paying attention and reading my blog will see them before I post them all on Facebook when I get back.
Anywho, I have a final on Wednesday afternoon and I have to turn in a paper Wednesday also and then I'm done with my 3rd year of college! Exciting? Haha.
Post again soon!
Ciao!
Time has gone by so quickly this semester. I feel like it was just last week when I was saying "I leave for Italy in 93 days!" and now it's FOUR.
Lately, I've been focusing a bit more on the tail end of my trip, which is when I'm going to France. I will be there a week. I'm going to visit my exchange sister Elodie and her family for 5 days. I will be then be going to Paris for 2 days and 2 nights. This is the hotel I will be staying at:
http://www.hotel-royalphare-paris.com/index.html
It's located a 1/4 mile from the Eiffel Tower and is within 15 minutes on the Metro of EVERYTHING I want to do. Not to mention, a lot of things are within walking distance so I won't even have to take the Metro! I'm really excited about this leg of the trip.
Like I was saying, I leave on Friday morning at 10:00. I fly from there to NYC where we have a layover at JFK. Then on to Milan. After Milan, we'll be taking a bus to Carpi. As far as I know, that weekend's plans are just to recover from jet lag and prepare for our school orientations on Monday.
Now that the trip is upon us (basically) I will be updating a lot more. I am considering getting a photo-sharing account to post the pictures on during my trip. That way people who are paying attention and reading my blog will see them before I post them all on Facebook when I get back.
Anywho, I have a final on Wednesday afternoon and I have to turn in a paper Wednesday also and then I'm done with my 3rd year of college! Exciting? Haha.
Post again soon!
Ciao!
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