Last Week in Rome!

The beginning of this week has been great! Things at school are slowly winding down because it's our last week. Monday's are always hard because we get home so late but we all made it through the day. Tuesday went really well, I reminded the kids that my last day was going to be Thursday and two of the girls started whispering then they turned to me and said, "Do not go, we decided we like you." Haha glad to see I have their approval. It was really sweet though I would get hugs throughout the day on Tuesday because we weren't coming to school Wednesday so we could go see the Pope, so they knew I only had one more day.

Monday is our "Market Monday" so we always run to the market and do some errands for the week. We all need a relaxing afternoon to recuperate. We went back to Dar Poeta (the pizza place with the nutella calzones nommm) and I had the best pizza of my life. I will never look at pizza the same way. I had pizza with potatoes, pesto, mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it again! And of course we had the nutella calzone, on top of the gelato after school. I think I'm going a little overload on the sugar intake.

Tuesday afternoon I sat down with Max for about 3 hours hashing out the details for when my mom and her friend Gigi visit. We have soooo much planned and you'll here about it all soon! They arrive Monday morning, and I can't wait! Tuesday night we went back to Scholar's pub. Our professors came with us and hung out for a while until the karaoke started. This time allll of us were there for karaoke and we took over the stage. Some of the girls sang a few times and it was so much fun to watch. I only sang once and whipped out my rapping skillz for "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls with Logan and MK. It was such a fun night and we knew it was one of our last times all together.

Wednesday morning we woke up around 9 and met at 9:45 to go out into St. Peter's Square to meet the Pope! He does an outdoor mini-mass every Wednesday at 10:30. You have to reserve a free ticket but there were a tonnn of seats. We knew we should sit close to the side because the Pope rides around in his Pope mobile/Bat mobile. It was really hot out. The sun was beating down on us and I got a nice burn on my back in the most awkward shape from my shirt. Apparently everyone else was feeling the heat also, an older woman in front of me starting throwing up and passed out for a second or two. Before we knew it we were helping Vatican City police officers and nurses and people from her big group move chairs out of the way for the wheelchair to get in. It was actually really scary but apparently it happens all the time because you're sitting outside in the heat for so long. They wheeled her off and some of the people from her group went off with them. It was really interesting to hear all the people speaking different languages around us. The Pope drove around and we got so many pictures up close. He was less than 10 feet away from us. After he got up on stage different Cardinals took turns speaking different languages to welcome us and say a little prayer. Then they did shout outs for big groups from different schools and churches then the Pope did the Our Father in 6 different languages and blessed the crowd. He said all of our friends and family back home are now blessed as well! Your welcome :)

View from our seats, check out those matching hats!

Beautiful view of the sky and the top of the Vatican

He's coming!!

Pretty sure we made eye contact. Pope Benedict XVI

We spent the rest of Wednesday walking around different parts of Rome. Kelly, Dana, MK and I went back to Piazza Navona and grabbed lunch, then headed to the Pantheon to go to this famous coffee shop. They have incredible iced coffee and cappuccino's, but its veryyy different than what you would imagine. It was like a cappuccino frosty. Incredible! We then met up with the group at this apperitivo place near our bus stop to school. It wasn't the best but still a fun experience! You buy a drink for 10 euro then you have unlimited appetizers, sweet deal! After that we came home for an early night.

Ordered a side salad with my lunch...got a head of lettuce.

The iced cappuccino!

Thursday was such a bittersweet day. I was excited to see the kids again but I knew it was going to be my last time seeing these kids probably forever. Well, as soon as I got to school I found out my teacher broke two of her toes during karate, and she wouldn't be back for the rest of the year. My TA Tanya was taking over the class and a sub would come into the classroom to take over her role. I felt so bad, and I was so upset I couldn't say bye. Tanya and I made a game plan in the morning as to what we needed to do that day. We had singing practice with the other kindergarten class for the kindergarten graduation and I videotaped a few of the songs since I won't get to see the graduation, which breaks my heart. The 4th grade was putting on their big singing and dancing performance and all elementary school grades got to go. They put the kindergartners on the floor in front which wasn't the best idea. They are so wiggly and can't sit still and this performance was an hour and half. We took them out early to recess and left the performance because it was becoming so difficult to control them. The performance was precious, it was a global theme and they sang Waka Waka and a bunch of other songs! After recess we had library and PE then came back for lunch. The day was flying by. After lunch I had recess duty so I was outside with them. The kids are just so clever. Alex loves airplanes and his mom used to be a flight attendant so he was pretending I was on Egyptian Air flight 719. He had all these details in his head and then the plane caught on fire but it was okay because he was a firefighter. I miss having that type of creativity. Francesca kept braiding my hair and playing with me, she's been one of the students that seems to be the most attached to me, and she kind of reminds me of myself at that age. We did one last animal walk back to class where we acted out lion, T-Rex, and tiger. We had our math workshop which I was in charge of. We were learning about 3D shapes so I read them a book about shapes and spotting them in everyday life. Then we had 3 stations, one with a scavenger hunt in the room finding cones, spheres, cubes, and pyramids. The other table had a worksheet where they had to find as many shapes as they could, then the table I was running had a bag with the 3D shapes in them and they had to reach in and feel one then describe it to the rest of the table and we had to guess what it was. It was a great way to end the day on top of my special snack for the class! I brought in ice cream sandwiches for the kids to eat and we also had lemonade from the lemonade sale EC 1 was running. Ms. Tanya had the class toast to me and thank me for helping in the class. They all said, "cin cin!" Which is how you say cheers in Italy. Then all the kids brought me these handmade cards they made in class. There were drawings on all of them, then inside was a drawing of me with the child and a little note. I started getting teary-eyed it was so sweet. One boy drew a picture of himself with huge muscles and me holding guns haha. Oh how I'll miss this class.

The kids singing ABC in Motion!

Part of my classroom!

Both the kindergarten classes practicing songs

The 4th grade performance!

When the other girls and I were meeting outside to head back to the bus stop I ran into a few of my boys leaving with their parents. They started whispering and I asked what they were whispering about, then they counted 3...2...1...and all dove onto me for a big hug. It was precious. I got down on my knees to give them a better hug. Kelly tried snagging a picture of this moment but they move like lightning. I told the kids I would try to come back to visit next Friday with my mom so hopefully we have the chance! We jumped off the bus early on the way home to stop at this popular bakery. I had a Napoleon and a fruit tart. Hands down, the best dessert I've had here. I don't think the food can get any better but it keeps topping itself! I was also covered from head to toe in powdered sugar after eating it, but it was worth it! After the bakery Kelly and I bought some swatch watches! We've been talking about it the entire trip and I got a new watch for my summer camp, its bright yellow and waterproof which will be so much fun for the summer.

Dolce Maniera, the bakery we went to. It was sort of underground which made it even cooler!

MK, Kelly, Lori, and Laura eating their sweet treats :)

Mariel with her cannoli and me with my Napoleon!

Thursday night we had our last group dinner at this restaurant down the street. It was mouth watering and looked beautiful! We started off with this artichoke, cheese, fried potato creation with a raspberry sauce. Then we had pasta and risotto with more artichoke. And for dessert we had this amaretto ice cream creation, it was like ice cream but not as icey if that makes any since. After being stuffed we headed out to this summer disco Max planned for us. Kyle escorted us there then lead us inside. It was like out of a movie I've never seen anything like this before. It was outside and there were stages and seating around it was hugeee there was a massive dance floor in the middle and a pool to one side. I felt like a movie star! We also happened to be there on circus night so all of the staff was dressed as clowns or ring masters. The band was even dressed up! Then some weirddd creatures started coming out onto stage to dance. We had a guy doing bike tricks and a girl on skates going around the dance floor, there was an acrobat doing some crazy things on a swing, there were two guys who looked like they were from America's best dance crew doing some isolation dance moves, there were 2 drag queens who came out onto stage to dance one was a ballerina and the other was dressed up in a corset and a red mohawk, there were two girls in leather dancing around on stage, there were at least 4 people dressed as clowns who had dance routines on stage, and someone came out dressed as Jim Carey from the movie the Mask (I still don't get that one). This was like nothing I've ever seen before. I never imagined myself in a place like this but I had a good time. They sang and played a bunch of American songs so us girls had a great time! We left around 1 and headed back home for the night.

Girl on the swing...so strange

Even stranger clown dance with balloons?

Clown Band...Toto, I'm not in America anymore

No words...

Today we're going to any last places in Rome we want to visit! Some people who are leaving early tomorrow morning are going to the Vatican tonight, the rest of us are probably just going to hang out with one another to have some final bonding time!