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!