Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!

So the past 6 school days I’ve been working on my lesson plan. We started out by reading “The Three Little Pigs and other Stories” like I mentioned in my earlier post.

Day one of the lesson we read the story then started acting it out with our voices and bodies. We were out in the hall so the kids were able to move around a bit more. One of the groups with the higher reading level had the Three Little Pigs. This group has the three girls and two boys; it was a battle to be whichever pig they thought was cooler. And this version of the story was a little gruesome, the first two pigs were eaten and the wolf was boiled to death in a vat. Well…we changed the story a bit haha. The girls didn’t want to die and the wolf wanted to be friends in the end so we somewhat adjusted the plot. Oops. The second group had the Little Red Hen. They each loved the character they got in this story, which cut me a break thank goodness. The third group had Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Unfortunately this group had 4 boys and there was nooo way one of them was going to be Mommy bear, so we changed it to brother bear. And I’m not sure if they ever realized Goldilocks was a girl cause they fought to be her…

Day two I had them color in puppets I had drawn for them. They colored them in really well, I mean we had a green bear but he was a good-looking green bear! This took up the whole rotation time but we had some extra time where I threw together an old box to make a puppet stage.

Day three we acted out the puppets with the stage. I reread the story to them to remind them of how it went and they then acted the story out the way it went, then I let them change the story. Wow. I could not believe some of the plots these kiddos were coming up with. The Three Pigs group had Ali who was the man who sold straw, sticks, and bricks. (I had to add this character so there were enough parts for people). He would say, “Give me all your money!” Every time someone asked him if they could buy something. He also decided to run from house to house warning the pigs the wolf was coming. The pigs fought back and the wolf whimpered but then Maria Cecilia, the little drama queen she is, was the wolf and had a whole dramatic scene where the wolf died then came back to life as an angel. The Little Red Hen group cracked me up too, the boys in this group have somewhat of a language barrier and instead of saying, “Not I!” they would shout, “Me no!” “Me no!” and then “Me yes!” Hahaha I’m going to miss these accents so much back in Amurica. Goldilocks group had a great time acting out the different voices like Daddy’s big voice, and the baby’s voice. They actually stuck to the plot really well until the bears came home and ate Goldilocks. She got what was coming.

Also Thursday was the Crowning of Mary ceremony. All the kids brought in a flower to place near the statue of Mary and they all had practiced songs to sing for the ceremony. It was precious. EC 1 and 2 (3 and 4 year olds) and Kindergarten all did the ceremony together. Here are some pictures! The songs are still stuck in my head…

Most of the group in front of Mary's statue, Preschoolers and Kindergarten!

The fourth day we practiced the plays again then actually performed them for the class! My teacher took videos and I will get them as soon as I can and hopefully post them on here. I was helping the kids on the side if they forgot any part of the plot but they had it down, they were fantastic! We used a table instead of the stage because the stage got in the way as the kids were fighting over it. They’re all divas fighting for stage time. When practicing I reminded them to take turns speaking and I made sure they could identify the beginning middle and end of the story. I really think my teacher was impressed by how well they did and that made me feel so proud.

The fifth day we started a writing prompt where they were to retell the story in writing rather than puppets. They each had a different part of the story and had to write 1 or 2 sentences (depending on which group it was) and draw a picture to go with it. Kyle came in to observe me teaching this lesson. Thankfully, he got to see my highest group who are angels. With every other group there’s so much behavioral management that goes into everything. We had a debriefing afterwards and he said I did really well! Now that my lessons over it really feels like this trip is almost over.

Today I really had to put my foot down with the kids. I have recess duty two times a week and lunch duty once and a day off. Well today was recess duty and they seriously are the most touchy feely bunch and when I was trying to get them to line up they were pushing all over the place, climbing on playground equipment, yelling across the playground, kissing, you name it, it happened. I rang the chime (one of the management techniques) and they did nothing. I raised my voice, which I really try not to do but they weren’t listening. I finally wrangled them into a line and we started walking inside. As soon as we reached the hallway all the high schoolers were walking through the hall…it was chaos. I lost all the youngins in the bunch and had to stop and wait for them. As soon as the high schoolers passed I whipped those kids into shape. I was calling the kids out who weren’t lined up. I rang the chime, I told them they would have to put their head down on their desks when they got inside (which always works like a charm) and I started giving them the talk that they were almost 1^st graders and they had to act like 1^st graders and respect the teacher and themselves. When we got to the room you could hear a pin drop. I gave them another little talk then asked why we were sitting with our heads down. They all gave the right answers and were eager to respond. I then asked what they could have done better next time and they all groaned, “Listennnn”. Well I think I did my job for the day. I really don't plan on teaching kindergarten haha.

We're heading to Elba this weekend and I'll definitely have updates about the island soon!

That's Amore

On Friday we left the good ol' Roma and headed for Venice!

We woke up at the crack of dawn again and headed to the train station to catch our 8 o'clock train. It was a lot easier this time than the trip to Florence, we got the right train and we each had a seat. I sat next to Jo-Elle and we literally had the worst seat on the train. Right in front of us was a group of two women and a man and 3 children. The oldest were two girls who looked about 5 and a 1 year old. They. did. not. stop. talking. The girls were wandering around the aisle the entire time and the baby wasn't necessarily crying but making noises the wholeee 3 and a half hours we were on the train. I kept giving the dad dirty looks like, "Control your children sir!". Then I finally gave in and realized they were actually really cute kids even though I couldn't tell what they were saying at all (spoke very fast Italian). I even tickled the youngin's belly at one point when he was walking by. What can I say I'm a softy at heart.

We arrived in Venice and had a 20 minute walk to the hotel through the tiniest streets I've ever seen. I didn't have much time to look around as we were walking in our Madeline lines again. All I know is 20 girls with suitcases does not easily maneuver through the streets of Venice. Our hotel was incredible! Venice is famous for glass and we had two chandeliers in our room which fit 4 people.

Just a view from one of the bridges we crossed on the walk to the hotel...no big deal.

We then headed out to explore, and within 5 minutes Dana and MK were pooped on by a seagull. Another lucky day! Haha, at least I'm not the only one now. There are literally pigeons and seagulls EVERYWHERE in Italy. No squirrels, just pigeons. It's a huge let down for me specifically. We walked around some on our side of the canal which was much less touristy. We worked our way to this little pizzeria with a really pretty garden. While waiting for a table Kyle, one of the professors on the trip, bumped into the window and broke the window curtain. Pretty sure they spat in our food after that one. It's really hard going to restaurants in such a big group, we only had about half of the 20 but we get looks everywhere we go. 

We then went on a hunt trying to find a bakery we passed on our way to our hotel. You should have heard the ooh's and ahh's coming from the 20 girls walking by all these goodies. I saw this little chocolate fudgey thing and immediately asked for it. It had some raspberry flavor in it to my surprise. (Katie I thought of you with this one!) I also got a strawberry meringue which was hugeee and tasted like a lucky charms marshmallow, it was fantastic! We walked around with just a group of 5: me, Kara, MK, Dana, and Kelly. We walked out onto a dock to take in the view of the canal just laying before us. As I sat down I got a splinter in my butt. Dana helped me assess (bada bing!) the situation and we decided to sit on the concrete part instead haha. We sat there for a while then decided to take a gondola across the river for 50 cents. The gondolier (a new term I learned) fell in love with Kara and said, "Karaaa stay with me." Then pretended to kiss up and down her arm. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We could not pass this place up, they had chocolate sausage!

The strawberry meringue!

We shopped around on the other side of the main canal and went into really cool stores which sold tons of masks, jewelry, basically the same things in every shop though. We found this street painter who had amazing artwork! Then we hopped onto a gondola for a 20-30 minute ride/tour of Venice! It was only 15 euro per person which is pretty good for what i've heard they usually cost. We saw Casanova's old home, Marco Polo's old home, the Rialto Bridge, and tons of old buildings and canals through Venice! It is literally the most interesting city I've ever seen. But most importantly we saw about 10 different couples making out. There is no cultural foe-pa about PDA here. Our gondolier told us that at night we shouldn't ride in the gondola because couples ride them and...well...don't ride a gondola at night unless they've cleaned it recently. Bleh. Not sure if this is completely true but we didn't want to take the chance. 

Our gondolier! He was 40 years old and told us he's lived in Venice his whole life!

Couple #4 making out, get a room!

Such a beautiful view as we rode on the gondola down the small canals

After the ride we started heading back to the hotel. We were stopped at this juice bar handing out free drinks, little did we know it was sangria and strawberry shots....at 5:00. Well it's 5 o'clock somewhere. We kept walking and when we got back we changed for dinner. We ended up just stopping at this little cafe we had passed earlier in a pretty secluded piazza. I had a vegetarian pizza wrap which was delicious and hit the spot. We then had quite a few mini bottles of Bellini's (peach champagne) . I've never had them before and they were everywhere in Venice. We spent like 3 hours just sitting outside this place it was so much fun, then we headed to a Jazz bar we had passed earlier. We found out once we got there it was one of the top rated places in Italy for mixed drinks so I decided to try one...it was very inappropriately named but involved the word Sax. We were only there for a bit then headed home for bed.

The next day I woke up around 7:15 to shower and head out for the day. Kelly MK Kyle and I decided to head to the Doge's Palace. It was only about a 15 minute walk to San Marco's square where the palace was located. It was like stepping into a time machine heading over to this square, after walking through all the tiny streets the whole square opened up to these beautiful marble and stone buildings from century's ago. There was the cathedral, the bell tower, and the palace. It was completely empty at 8 in the morning and we had no line heading into the palace. We walked around without a guide this time just reading the info ourselves. They had a fire in the 1500's which ruined a bunch of paintings in the palace and there were competitions to see who would get to repaint them. It was shocking to find out these were replica's because all the paintings were absolutely gorgeous. It also contains the largest oil painting in the world. It was hugeeee. Every room was covered in gold and very gaudy. Kelly and I tried laying down on the floor in one huge ballroom to look at the ceiling...we were yelled at within 5 seconds. The palace also had a jail attached which we got to walk through, leading to it there is the "bridge of sighs" which got its name from prisoners taking their last look out the window at freedom before entering the prison. There was a room filled with weapons, and rooms filled with absolutely nothing at all with no purpose...wish I had the luxury to have a room dedicated to standing around and twiddling my thumbs.  

San Marco's completely empty, just 2 hours later it was packed with hundreds of people and vendors! And birds of course.

The Bell Tower in the square!

Beautiful, it had rained on our walk over and stopped and started every now and then.

Me standing by the water and the palace!

Inside the courtyard of the palace, as we walked through we walked allll around the building.

Inside the courtyard of the jail portion of the palace

We then walked back to the hotel and got there around 11 or so. Everyone was up and a bunch of girls had already to Murano to check out the Venetian glass. We stopped at one of the markets, which are all over, and grabbed some fresh fruit for lunch. Never realized how much I missed fruit, we rarely have it with any of our meals. We took a water taxi to the island which is famous for glass, there's another island, Burano which is famous for lace. Right when we got off we were pointed in the direction of a glass factory which was showing glass blowing. It was sooo cool. I never actually understood the concept of blowing glass...they literally blow it. This older man started rolling it around then blew on the tube leading to it and within two minutes had a glass vase with intricate detail. Then another guy made a glass horse. Too cool. As their final act they blew a glass bubble and kept blowing it till it shattered with a loud boom scaring the bejesus out of all of us. A little dramatic if you ask me.

The man making the vase!

One of the glass stores with tons of chandeliers

We walked around from shop to shop and I bought a ton of gifts. Everything was so beautiful but every store had the same things. I was starting to get a little warn out with all this shopping and we eventually sat down and grabbed a late lunch. Kyle and I split a hugeee calzone. It was bigger then my head. We took a water taxi back to the mainland and stopped at the hotel before dinner. We had spotted this little seafood place earlier in the week and decided to go back. About 12 of us went and it was fancy shmancy. We had no idea but we walked in and all the waiters were in tuxedo's. I could taste the service charge already. We sat down and they poured us champagne...there was nothing we could do. They then brought us bread and water...another 10 euro gone. I ordered the gnocchi with lobster and it was magnificent. A few of the other girls ordered fish that was, well...disappointing. MK had a mouthful of bones as her first bite. She tried complaining to the waiter when we were done (they barely spoke english by the way). He asked her how it was and she said, "Well, a little boney" and he responded, "Thank you" then walked away. We could only hold our laughter for so long. Then we walked back over to the hotel to a little bar that was right below it. It was pretty americanized and they were playing some Backstreet Boys and some oldies, needless to say we had a bit of a sing a long.

On the island of Murano!

Glass fire oooh

Glass birds by the water, I thought they looked so cool!

Hehe a little glass jewish man, would've boughten it if it wasn't 15 euro

The next morning we got to sleep in a little, check out wasn't until 11. We had heard the day before about this huge kayak event taking place that Sunday down the entire canal. No motor boats were allowed in the morning for all the kayakers. They came from all over the world! There were some themed boats, I saw one where everyone was dressed up as monks, there was some relaxed kayakers, and then there were some with gongs and whistles moving superrr fast. We thought about signing up but it was 100 to rent a kayak and 20 to register...I think I spent enough shopping for gifts haha. We walked around a little more and headed back to San Marco's where we grabbed a panino and people watched. There were the strangest characters I've ever seen in Venice. I guess because it's such a touristy place you really get a motley crew of people. We saw this one woman covered in pigeons...and liking it. We found a garden just along the water and sat there for a bit eating gelato, I felt so Italian! We had just enough time to take our time walking back to the hotel. We left for the train station around 4:20 and trekked back through the eeny weeny streets. It was a lot more depressing heading this direction but it went by a lot quicker. We got onto the train, this time  in the veryyy back of the train away from crying babies. We started out going backwards though and I felt a little queazy but halfway through the ride we switched directions. I sat next to Jo-Elle again on the way back and we were both thankful to have a moment of sleep!

One of the huge teams of rowers! 

Got a pretty good picture of the monks, they gotta be hot in those things

Overall, it was such a beautiful weekend and much more relaxed then any other trips we've had. I absolutely fell in love with the city and the city was filled with love! I can't wait for school this week and for Elba this weekend!

Marymount Madness

Sorry I've been lacking in the updates about school, its just been such a crazy week!

Well Monday and Tuesday were extremely rainy...not good weather for 5 year olds. Everyone was getting so pent up (including myself) and the energy levels were so difficult to deal with. They had indoor recess but not being able to run around starting driving everyone coocoo.

I'm really starting to get into the swing of things at school; we know which bus stops to get on and off on, I know how to get to my classroom, I know how to get to both of the playgrounds, I know how to get to the nurses office, PE Art Music and Computer, and the woman working at the cafe knows my order. Pretty successful week and a half I'd say.

I've started to eat from the cafe because its so much cheaper than the 8 euro gourmet meal. They have a variety of sandwiches and what all us girls call, "the special chips", I don't actually know what flavor they are but there's a picture of a red pepper on the bag but they taste like bbq chips almost...either way, she knows what I like. And during my break each day I'll run down to the cafe to grab a cornetto, a sugar glazed croissant yumm.

I know I look forward to the hilarious things the kids say everyday, so I thought I'd share a few more tidbits.

On Monday I was talking to Francesca T. (she's half australian half italian). She was telling me all about her trip to the beaches in Germany coming up this summer. She was talking about the ocean, and going to her grandma's, and the halter dress she gets to wear. She said, "but I don't like wearing that because it shows my armpits." I asked her, "Why don't you like showing your armpits?" "Because armpits are hairy! My sister has hairy armpits. She has one hair under each, so I'll tickle her to make her raise her arms and pluck the hairs from each armpit so then she has no hairs like me!"....I then asked, "So how old is your sister?" "Nine." I don't know if I just can't recollect, but I don't believe I had armpit hair at the age of nine and I never knew this was a concern for a five year old. At least she appreciates good hygiene.

Now onto 5 year old boys. Maybe because I never was a 5 year old boy I don't fully understand their obsession with bodily functions. I've already mentioned my run in with the pee in the bathroom and in the pants. In class during quiet time the kids are allowed to draw or read a book. I sat to draw with a few of the boys in the class and I asked them what I should do and they said a tiger. I started drawing what I thought to be a fantastic tiger then Lao told me I forgot his piscillo. I said, "His what?". "His piscillo. Pee pee!" He then grabbed the tiger and drew a penis on him. From the penis he drew dots leading to a puddle below him. Then Lao started screaming, "Ca ca!!!" (which is actually poop in Italian...who would've thunk it) as he drew dots coming out of the tiger's rear. That got all the boys riled up and they all started giggling and saying piscillo and caca. Now every time I draw an animal they try to add his private parts...even the puppets I made for a class project.

And the love story of the century, the love escapades of Francesca L. and Alexander. Well last week they were married and planning their honeymoon. They were in gym class and I looked over to see Alex bawling his eyes out in the corner. I went over and pulled him over to where I was sitting to find out what was wrong. He wouldn't say and just sat there with his arms crossed tears running down his face. I look up to see Francesca dramatically reaching her arms out to him calling his name...however Ucheoma was holding her hand. She and Ucheoma had decided to get married instead. Poor little Alex's heart was broken. He was married and divorced within a day! Imagine the torment! He finally caught his breath and I had to keep shooing away Francesca and Ucheoma as they kept trying to come over to apologize and convince him nothing was going on. Alex was ready to join the class again and next thing I know I see Francesca telling Alex she loves him and wants to marry him. Young love. It could kill ya.

Maria Cecelia and Francesca L (she gets around) both pronounced their love for Leo today in class. Poor Alex. They drew his name and a bunch of hearts on an assignment we needed to hang up on the wall so they had to redo it all. These boy crazy little girls have the pick of the litter in the class since there's 3 of them and 10 boys...if only JMU students were so lucky.

The kids have been singing more songs recently, I think it's my teachers attempt to calm them down and give them something fun to do. We sing songs before we eat, as we walk to and from places, and in between subjects. On Tuesday we sang my new favorite song. It's the Three Little Pigs rock. The kids literally jumped out of the chairs playing their air guitars rocking out, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Ucheoma, who is known to not be able to control his body, seemed to have spasms just shaking this way and that. Another song we started singing more is the Aerobic Alphabet. It goes a little something like this, "A Arch, B Bend, C Clap, D Droop, E expand, F flop, G grow, H hop." With such a catchy tune I find it stuck in my head throughout the day (although the world is a rainbow song sticks with me for the whole week ughh). The song has the kids act out each letter and use their fingers to write letters on each others back.

The biggest thing I've noticed throughout my time at Marymount is how extremely wealthy these kids are. I've mentioned their parents which just seems cool, but these kids literally are given everything they could imagine. I was talking to my teacher about Francesco who seems to act out a lot more than the other children. About a month ago the teacher would have to literally pick him up and carry him out of the room because he would just lose it, he would bang his head on the walk, bite himself, lick the floor, all sorts of odd things. My teacher believes this is because he's an only child and everything has just been handed to him. At school there's structure and it's impossible to get everything you want. This has been such a stark comparison to my experience in Waynesboro at a priority school where the majority of the children lived in poverty. Although both groups seem to be extremely needy just in different ways.

I feel like the kids don't fully respect me as a teacher yet, it's really hard to get them to listen to me since I haven't been with them all year long. I think they just kind of see me as the girl that hangs out there and makes playdo pizza's with them. But I actually get to teach a lesson over the next two weeks which is really exciting! It's a lot easier than what I had to do this past semester, but I read 3 stories, one with each reading group, including the Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, and the Red Hen. After reading these I had them practice acting it out. Wednesday I had them color in little drawings I made of all the characters to make puppets...and if I do say so myself my drawings were impeccable. While they were coloring I worked on using an old box to make a puppet stage. I think I'm going to have the kids act out the stories then write their own versions and draw a picture to go along with it. This won't be finished till maybe midway next week so it finally gives me something productive to do! Don't call me a nerd but I missed having work at practicum.

I'll keep you all updated on the going ons in the classroom, and keep my ear out for the funny stories these kids will surely provide. Ciao!

Pizza in Pisa!

It's hard to live up to Saturday's experience, but Sunday was still so much fun! We got to sleep in and had the complimentary breakfast, then some of us took off on a train on our way to Pisa! We hopped on a train and sat next to a guy who just graduated from a college in Seattle and was backpacking around Europe by himself before heading off to law school. He seriously is living the coolest life. He's been EVERYWHERE. He was listing all the places he's been and he's only been traveling around since April and will continue till July. All he had was a small backpack and the clothes on his back. Don't know if I could pull that off...

We got to Pisa and it was raining, bleh, but that didn't put too much of a damper on our excursion. What did put a damper on our excursion was that we were almost pick pocketed. We were just strolling down a street and there was literally nothing open, and no one was outside, except for this small group of 12 year old girls. They had an umbrella and kinda ran past our group, what I didn't know is that they came right back around behind us. I felt a brush on my right hip and with ninja like reflexes I swung around. I saw a taller girl and a shorter girl right against me and my purse was unzipped almost halfway. Luckily nothing was taken, same for the two other girls who were approached by these pick pocketing posers (check out that alliteration). We moved on with our day a little smarter and wiser about da streets and came upon the tourist attractions.

Pisa!

We saw the Baptistry, the Cathedral, and the leaning tower! Obviously we took the leaning picture, a classic. After that a few of us stopped at a cafe around the corner. Something has changed with my appetite while being in Italy because I ate an entire pizza and I was still hungry...lucky for us there was a little vendor right in front of the restaurant. As we said ciao to the waiter we walked across the road to the vendor to buy some pringles. A great after dinner Italian tradition...I swear.

A little off but still holding it up!

We headed back to the train and met another backpacking friend, the JMU alum! He graduated in 2008 and just graduated from the grad school for Audiology. When we got back Mary Katherine and I headed to the Bell tower, even in the rain we wanted to see the beautiful views of the city.

View of Florence! I think this was second from the top level!

We climbed 100's of stairs leading up to the highest point in Florence. I had that belly dropping feeling multiple times. There were four stops on the way to the top and on our second stop the bells started going off! I had the biggest goosebumps. We were looking out on the entire city literally right underneath the bells. MK said she almost cried and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was definitely one of my biggest moments of realization on this trip. I just couldn't believe how many people there are in the world and how I have the chance to see bits and pieces of it.

Me and MK! On the stop third from the top!

Standing over all the lower levels! Creepy!

I'm king of the world! (or Queen of Florence?)

Both of us realized our cameras were dead heading up the bell tower, but luckily old faithful turned on a few times allowing us to snap some pics. We had to let her rest in between takes but she made it to the top with us! When we did get to the top we met 3 americans from Seattle who were traveling around Italy, one was older and the other two were a couple a few years older than us. We started talking about the earthquake and he said yeah I was in the hotel and heard it, and with these two on the other side of the wall I just thought it was them...you know how it is with those young couples. Well. A pretty awkward encounter but interesting nonetheless. While we were walking down we ran into some students from CNU! After seeing the whole city and realizing what a big world it was, I also had the sense that it really is such a small world after all :)

My Lucky Day!

Under the Tuscan sun :)

Warning: The pictures you are about to see are breathtaking. They are real, un-photoshopped and my camera sucks and they still look good. This was one of the best days of my life.

After a good nights rest we got a free breakfast from the hotel including cute little packets of nutella, the staple in our diets. We hopped on a charter bus all dressed in sundresses heading to a vineyard in the Tuscan hills where we were going to have a tour of a castle, have an oil tasting, make homemade pasta, and do a wine tasting! Brace yourself. 

Stepped off the bus and saw this...my mouth was hanging open.

The drive was gorgeous and I had no idea what lay in store for us. We spent the day at Castello Del Trebbio which is the only currently inhabited castle left in Italy. It was originally owned by the Pazzi family in 1184 (pazzi translates to crazy in English). The Medici's were the most powerful family not only in Florence but in Europe all together, and the Pazzi's were plotting to kill them so they could be the most powerful family in all of Europe. There's a room at the castle called the "conspiracy room" where the family plotted their murder. They decided the best way to kill the Medici's unsuspectingly would be to do it at church...by the way the pope supported this. They were able to kill one of the men but another, Lorenzo got away. He had all the Pazzi's hung and took their castle, he also eventually became the pope, I'd say that's pretty good revenge. There was one coat of arms of the Pazzi family left at the castle in the courtyard. The castle has 40 bedrooms and our guide informed us that this is a small castle...pah.

Part of the courtyard! I think I'm going to move here after school...I mean they have 40 bedrooms they can spare one more.

Our guide was Alberto who is actually the cousin of the man who lives in the castle. The castle has stayed in the family for years. It was such a precious love story. A man and a woman met on the train, the woman was from Austria the man was from Italy. They immediately fell in love and got married, the man was 59 the woman was 19. A little icky. Nonetheless they lived happily together and had 5 kids. The husband bought his wife the castle as a gift for giving him 5 children in 6 years...any woman who can accomplish this deserves a castle. Then when they past, the 5 children were left to decide what to do with it. None of the children wanted it except for the 24 year old daughter Ana. She still lives there today, she's now 46, with her 3 children and her husband who runs the vineyard. The property has expanded so much and it contains a vineyard, a shop, a restaurant, and cottages for visitors to stay in. They also have about 20 weddings there a year. Pretty much I'm getting married there.

Us and Alberto outside the castle!

We took a tour of the wine cellar and came up to one of the dining rooms where we had an oil tasting. I really didn't know what to expect from this because I've never thought too much about olive oil, but it was really interesting especially for those of you that enjoy cooking! Alberto explained how they also make extra virgin olive oil with their olive trees. He was telling us that good olive oil has a lot of medicinal purposes and is really good for your health. He also said that most olive oils that you see in the store aren't good for you at all. You have to look for oils that have a acidity level of about .1 or .2% for it to be good extra virgin olive oil. Some olive oils that are suppose to be "good" have acidity of up to .8%. To get olive oils with a lower acidity its all about the time between when you pick the olives and when you squeeze them. The only time you can pick and squeeze the olives is during the month of November and you have to do the squeezing within 24 hours of squeezing. The olive oil they produce is not refined at all and no chemicals added which makes it untouched (virgin hehe). Alberto told us a funny story about how he gave these old british woman a tour of the castle and when he asked what does virgin mean? One of them responded, "Well this group doesn't know...or none of us remember." Hahaha.

Getting ready to make some pasta! Maybe my second time wearing an apron...oops.

After the tasting we went into the kitchen to work with his aunt Adrianna to make some pasta. I've never made homemade pasta before and we got to knead the dough, roll the dough, slice it, then dry it out. Adrianna made the most delicious sauces. She's been doing it for years and made it look so easy! Then we headed outside and across the path to the restaurant on the property. We sat and started drinking some Chianti which the region is famous for. 80% of their wine is made from the grapes that make Chianti. The meal was delicious and one of my favorite meals in Italy thus far.

The meat sauce and fettucini pasta!

The vegetable sauce with thinner pasta! My favoriteee

We had some time after to go into the shop and walk around the vineyard. It was absolutely breathtaking and looked like a green screen. I just sat and tried to soak in as much as I could. I felt like I was in Under the Tuscan Sun! We drove back to the city which was about a 40 minute drive. As soon as we got back it started drizzling, it was actually perfect timing. We grabbed our raincoats and were ready to shop till we dropped! I had a bunch of gifts to get from the market and a leather jacket for myself. Within the first 5 minutes of being in the market I felt a warm rain drop on my head. I was thinking hm...that's odd, and reached up to touch it, it felt kinda gooey then I looked at my hand...it was green. I hate pigeons. We went into one the leather shops as I was freaking out that I got pooped on. An old italian man working at the shop pulled out a tissue for me and told me it was good luck. Little did I know he was right!

Kelly and I dranking zee vino!

Through the haggling expertise of Katie Carlson Kelly and I were able to get jackets for 125 Euro when it was originally marked at 180 Euro. That's what I'm talking about! We got so much accomplished and got great gifts, we stopped for a quick panino at this restaurant called Barbeque right next to our hotel, they actually didn't have any barbeque...pretty sure they were just trying to attract Americans but hey it worked. We then got ready to hit the town!


As we walked down the block heading towards a pub we heard about, we heard "JMU?", we turned around to see a group of about 20 other JMU students studying abroad in Florence heading our way! It was the biggest coincidence ever! I found my friend Jordan who was on the trip and embraced in the streets of Florence! A bunch of the girls on my trip knew some of the people in their group. They are here studying for 8 weeks and got there just 4 days ago. They were heading to a pub crawl so we decided to join. It was such a fun night and we all made it back before we were locked out of our hotel.  We sang the fight song and probably did the J-M-U Dukesss chant 3 times at each pub.


Even more connections, we ran into a JMU Alum at one of the train stations the next day, and I didn't even mention the two sets of JMU parents on both sides of me in the line through customs at the airport in Rome the day I got here. JMU really never leaves you, you're a part of this family for the rest of your life :)

Firenze Calling

A day filled with traveling. We got up at the crack of dawn and caught our train around 8:00. Funny thing is, it wasn't our train. We accidentally ended up at the wrong platform and on the wrong train. We started realizing this when all 20 of us were in other people's seats. Our professors talked to the conductor and there were enough seats on the train for us. We didn't even realize how lucky we were until we got to Florence that the train was actually going to Florence because it wasn't the one we bought tickets for!

After getting there we were all in somewhat of a daze. We walked through the streets and through a market with stand after stand of bags, belts, leather jackets, scarfs, knick knacks, it was totally overwhelming. The Duomo started peaking out behind the buildings and we were in the center of Firenze!

The Bell tower and the Duomo and the cathedral all were the Medici's. To get to the top of the Duomo (dome) you actually walk in between two domes, there's a smaller one on the inside. It was designed Brunischelli. 

Our hotel was such a hole in the wall type of place, it shared a building with a cafe a museum and two other hotels. Not really sure how this worked but our hotel was about 12 different rooms and we took up about 7 of them haha. The people that owned the Hotel Columbia were adorable, a little British woman and a little Italian man. There was even a curfew on the hotel, they locked the doors at 1:30 AM so we were forced to go to bed at a reasonable hour. We met our tour guide outside and began our walking tour. I didn't pay much attention to what she was saying and was just taking in the sites myself. It was absolutely gorgeous, and so much more open and cleaner than Rome! All of us agreed the streets were incredibly easier to navigate as well.

Picture of one of the streets! I really didn't mean to take a picture of this couple...

We headed to the Uffizi Museum which held tons of famous paintings and statues. My favorites were the two paintings featuring Venus.

View from the Uffizi! All the shops on top of the bridge are jewelry shops...48 of them.

After we grabbed a nice dinner. I really felt like splurging on a substantial meal and I got the most delicious spaghetti and clam accompanied with some white wine.

Deliciousssss

After dinner we grabbed some gelato, it was white chocolate, chocolate and mint. I'm drooling all over again. We sat on the steps in front of the Duomo and people watched then headed back to the hotel which was only like 3 minutes away. We all hit the hay early to prepare for our big day ahead!

Roming Around

Yesterday wasn't too eventful so I thought I'd wait till today. And oh do I have some stories to tell.

Last night we wondered the city, hence "Roming around" get it? I got dinner at the most americanized restaurant I've seen so far including french fries and hamburgers. After that we just decided to explore the city and head to the Trevi fountain. Seeing as I'm directionally challenged, any of you that know me well already know this, but we decided that we'd figure it out on our own. Bad idea. We started off on a good note heading towards something that looked old and ruin like. Not the right way. Luckily we asked many people which way to head and I remembered how to say left, right, and straight in Italian. Thank you Professor Fiorello. Anywho, after an hour we finally made it. On the way though we ended up doing our original tour with Fredrica backwards...by accident. We passed the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and a bunch of other checkpoints we stopped at. Everything looked absolutely beautiful at night. We were approached again by these guys trying to sell roses, light wand thingys, and SHARPAS! (that is scarf in Italian and they would yell it in our face) They were extremely forceful and would shove the items in our face as we walked around. I swear these people are everywhere, and seeing as we're a group of white american girls we're a prime target.

Trevi Fountain at night!

School today was fun! I'm learning a lot of different behavioral strategies for younger kids which will definitely be helpful in the classroom. All of the kindergarten classes have these chimes that the teacher rings to get their attention, whether it's at recess, lunch, or in the classroom. The class was having a bit of a rough time adjusting during transitions. These kids have more energy than I've ever seen and they were just super antsy. I think the best way to get them to line up is by doing a dance or singing so I asked the teacher if I could try this sometime and she agreed. I found out my teacher is from Liverpool and my TA is from Australia. All of the teachers are from English speaking countries and most are fluent in Italian so they can communicate with the kids as well.

I've never seen kindergartners that are this smart and I was shocked at the questions they asked. There is much more of a culture shock than I was expecting coming to this school. These children have more worldly knowledge than I did coming to college. They've grown up in a melting pot of language and culture. One of the kids Ali, who I admit is one of my favorites, and I were reading a book and I read the girls name in the story which was Tilba. He then asked me, "What country is she from?" I have never heard a student ask me a question like this before. He then said, "I think she is Asian." Then we turned the page and saw a picture of a young asian girl. He said, "That is what the Asians look like." Ali doesn't speak fluent Italian but he knows some, he is from Kuwait. Alex is from Colombia, Francesca T. is from Australia, Alessandro is from Romania, and Ucheoma is from Nigeria. These kids are absolutely incredible and represent so many different cultures!

Also I found out the tuition for Marymount International School. It's 26,000 Euro a year! And for the preschool its 16,000 Euro. Absolutely ridiculous! That's more than my tuition for JMU.

The villa that now houses administration and business offices for the school! More pictures of the school to come soon!

A wee little anecdote from today...you'll get the wee in a second.

I was watching over the kids at recess as they ran around and they play very physically might I add, they really do touch each other alllll the time. I saw Ucheoma sitting on the ground waving at me upset, then Alex ran over to tell me he was hurt. I went over to see how he was and as I crouched down in front of him I saw he wet his pants. He immediately started a shpeal about how he hurt himself then I asked, "Ucheoma, did you have an accident? Is that why you don't want to get up?" and he said yes, so I took him inside to get a change of clothes. The school had a bunch of extra uniforms so I grabbed some for him to change into and went into a office the TA told me to change him in. She also asked me if I'd be comfortable helping him change...I didn't want to say the truth...um no I'd rather not take off his pants, but I agreed. Not only did I have to help him take off his pants he didn't understand the concept of wiping himself. I had to help him wipe his thighs off and change his clothes. Might I also add that he is related to diplomats from Nigeria so if he ever becomes a prince or someone famous I could say I helped him wipe himself....I could make a lot of money right??

Another pee pee story. Someone has peed on the floor of the boys bathroom everyday for about a month. The teachers have tried to figure out who is doing it but they aren't following them into the bathroom so it's hard to tell. I took a few of the boys to the bathroom and they came running out screaming, "Zere iz pee pee again." And Ali of course said, "Pee pee, Mizz Amby pee pee". I can't teach kindergarten...too much urine.

And after school we got gelato, the usual. I've had gelato everyday after school this week and I don't think this ritual is going to end. Old Bridge is right near the bus stop we get off on and it's one of the best gelato places in Rome. They have homemade gelato and a ton of different flavors. It's only 2 euro for a medium cone and you can get three different flavors. I've made it a goal to eat every single flavor before the end of the month. So far my creations include:

Dolce Latte, Bacio, and Caramel
Caffe, Cookies, and Nutella
Hazelnut, Crema, and Stracciatella

I'll keep you updated on my gelato excursions and my pants size...

The line was around the corner!

Tonight the whole group went to a little sandwich/pastry/pizza shop around the corner from our apartment. We grabbed food to go then walked about 25 minutes to a park nearby (the one we went to a few nights ago with the beautiful view). We also happened to bring a few bottles of wine, it's the Italian thing to do. We sat with our legs hanging over the edge of the wall and again the sunset and the view took my breath away. Truthfully, I found myself turned towards the parking lot most of the time. Italian couples are better than watching soap operas. We saw one couple in a car facing us literally on top of each other making out...for about 2 hours, they barely came up for air. And in the car behind them there was the complete opposite. We heard a car door slam and turned to see a man slam the door on his gf who scooted over to the driver seat to yell at him. He opened the door and they were fighting for oh about....an hour straight. We played my favorite people watching game where you fill in the words. Italians talk with their hands, especially when they're mad, and it was absolutely hilarious. The stories ranged from him being smelly, to her cooking not being as good as his mom's, to her being his mistress. She kicked him in the head, threw a shoe at him, got out and hugged him and then pushed him and kicked his legs, he would lean in for a kiss and she would push his head away. My emotions were on a roller coaster. We couldn't believe that they didn't notice we were watching them but they seemed oblivious. After we thought all hope was lost she finally got out of the car and gave him a hug and a smooch. Being the obnoxious Americans we are we gave them an applause and cheered, they looked over and laughed and waved, the girl got back in her car and flashed her lights, then the man waved and before he took off in his car he showed us some real Italian hospitality by flicking us off. I love Rome.

Again, the picture doesn't do it justice. Now just imagine 20 girls drinking wine eating panino's watching this :)

The World is a Rainbow

After an hour commute we made it to Marymount International School and our orientation consisted of the warning, "they touch a lot and talk a lot". It was definitely true. The school is about 85% Italian and their culture just consists of a lot more contact. I found a few boys that were embracing and even gave a little kiss or too...but I digress. The school has 50 different nationalities but most of the kids in my class were either half italian or full blooded. The school was founded by the Sacred Heart of Mary. None of the buildings were originally meant to be classrooms except for the high school and middle school portion. My classroom used to be a bedroom when it was a boarding school so they're all a little funky shaped.

We took a tour of the campus and the cafeteria is amazing. I had a 4 course lunch including a pasta dish, a meat dish, a salad, and dessert. Why didn't we eat like this in elementary school?? There's also a bar (cafe) in the cafeteria which sells cappuccinos, panino's (sandwiches), and an assortment of other food. I personally had a sugar glazed croissant as a snack.

I was introduced to Mrs. O'Connor's class and the children all cheered. I'd say that's a pretty good start. I took a seat and listened as the teacher explained a book they were about to read about sunflowers. They read the book and later on in the class we planted sunflower seeds and painted a tall flower and each student painted leaves and petals which we taped on. The kids also had snack twice a day, recess twice a day, and said a prayer twice a day. They also sing songs all throughout the day. One of which was called Rainbow, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. There were hand motions such as making a rainbow and stirring the melting pot of the world. The chorus was "The world is a rainbow!" Which couldn't be more true after seeing all the diversity in this school compared to what I'm used to.

It was definitely a challenge first understanding each child's name but more importantly what the heck they were saying. Every single one of them is fluent in Italian and speaks it constantly. They are supposed to use English in school but as these are Kindergartners they are just starting to learn the language. They were able to understand what I was asking but answered in Italian a lot.

Now to my youngin's names:
  -Maria-Cecelia (pronounced Maria Chechelia)
  -Leo (pronounced Lay-o)
  -Edo (pronounced Ay-do, and short for Eduardo-Maria)
  -Francesca
  -Francesca
  -Francesco
         i'm not kidding...
  -Ali (who's a boy)
  -Ramono
  -Alessandro
  -Alex
  -Lao (prounced La-ow)
  -Ucheama (prounced Ooh chema)
  -Ricardo

Whew. I actually memorized their names pretty quickly because they're so interesting and the kids are so darn good looking. I'm not joking these are the most beautiful children I've ever seen. I got the chance to ask a lot of them where they're from and it ranges from Finland, Australia, and parts of Africa.

Now a few little funny anecdotes, and let me remind you that each child has a veryyy strong accent so nothing will sound as cute typed up:

        I took Alessandro and Lao to the bathroom during recess and they were taking a little while so I asked if they were almost done. Alessandro comes out and asks me, "Do you speak Italian?" and I told him I spoke a little. And he was using his hands trying to express something, he was raising his arm up and down saying "he's uhhh, he still has to uhhh" and I said..."Wipe?" "Yess! Wipe hehe, he'll be done soon." I also had to make them both go back and wash their hands. Boys are gross.

       The little boy Ali has to go to the bathroom more than any child I've ever met. He reminds me of the kid from Up just a little more Spanish looking. He's an adorable little plump child constantly saying, "Mizz Amby, Mizz Amby" (in Italian the h's are silent). He also looks at me pointing and says, "Toilet? Toilet?". He gets his point across haha.

        I was helping at lunch pouring milk and water into cups for the kids, they don't have milk cartons and they use real glass plates and silverware. One of the children from the other kindergarten class looked at me and said, "What iz yo name?" and I told him. He said, "No, your name iz Mizz Amburger." Memories of being called hamburger in elementary school all came rushing back. At least it's better than hambooger.

All in all elementary schoolers never fail to entertain. There were a ton of other little things but I won't bore you. Instead I'll inform you of the parents nurturing these dear children. A little more background first, Marymount is a very highly priced private catholic school. Some of the parents of these kids are a professional soccer player (I've yet to learn his name), the owner of Colgate toothpaste, the CEO of Fendi, the creator of BVLGARI, an Ethiopian King's daughter, and tons of Diplomat's children. I will attempt to work my magic and hopefully these children will give me money and make me a princess before I leave.

Rome wasn't built in a day...

Outside the Colosseum before our tour!

We all met up at 11:50 this morning outside in the courtyard. From there we took the train again heading towards the Colosseum. We got off the train and hopped on the metro and landed right in front of the huge structure! We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the metro station before our tour. Fredrica took us through one of the main entrances to the colosseum right where the emperor used to sit to watch the battles. We then walked around the first floor of the colosseum then went upstairs to the second tier. It was such an incredible view especially imagining everything that used to go on there. We saw underneath where the floor of the arena used to be into the elevators used to bring lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) and whatever other creatures they used to fight against (I don't really think they had bears in Ancient Rome...). Fredrica said that up to 200 men would need to work underneath the arena during a fight...that's insane! 

A view from the second tier, you can see people taking pictures on the first level and then underneath where the arena used to be! There's a bit of the floor that's been rebuilt.

We left the colosseum and headed towards the Palatine Hill which is one of the 7 hills in Rome and the most important because it's where Rome was said to be founded. It looked like a park with ancient relics here and there. We walked up steps to the roof of one of the structures where we beheld the city in all its glory. I have never seen anything like Rome, a modern city living side by side so many structures and buildings filled with immense amounts of history. 

One of the views of the Palatine Hill!

We then walked to the Forum which used to be the center of Ancient Rome. It has archs, which represent when Rome had a victory over another city. One of the archs however used to have a donut shop in it back in ancient times...who doesn't love donuts? And another arch held a barber shop. I hear Caesar's haircut was all the rage. Speaking of Caesar, we also saw his tomb!

One of the arch's!

Caesar's tomb!

After this long trek we went met up with Max and headed to what he said is the best pizza in Rome. And he was right. I have never eaten so much pizza in my life. We had 5 different pizzas on our table of 10 and another 5 pizzas on another table of 12. I had a slice of the anchoive pizza, zucchini pizza, zucchini flower pizza, margarita pizza, and a spicy sausage pizza. I had multiple slices of at least two of these pizzas. To finish it off Max told us there was a nutella pizza for dessert. I almost started crying then and there. I watched as they put the finishing touches on the 8 nutella calzones coming out of the kitchen. They were covered in powdered sugar and cocoa with a fluffy crust. I quickly cut myself a huge piece slowly biting down on this heavenly creation. The nutella oozed out of the crust and into my heart. I'm never leaving Italy.

The beautiful nutella calzone

I'm the happiest girl in the world.

We ended the perfect day with a perfect evening stopping on our way home at a park about a mile away from our apartment. From this park we had the most magnificent view of the city. A picture can't do justice but the view literally took my breath away.

Roma <3

Wish me good luck because we're off to school in the morning! Can't wait to meet the yougin's i'll be working with for the next month. I hope they can teach me some Italian and hopefully I can teach them something in return. :)