Surprisingly Functioning...

After a night of NO sleep…well, about 3 ½ hours of it, I had to get out of bed at 6 am and be at the bus by 7:20.  It was soooo cold when I got out of bed and it was so hard to get up, but I did.  I ate my now usual breakfast…still missing that oatmeal…and started getting dressed.  I had to walk I the rain to the bus stop, and again I say how useful that Columbia rain jacket has been (still have not needed to buy an umbrella).  I waited under the gas station thing while it was still raining, but then was able to stand at the bus stop and read while I waited.  It amazes me the looks that Italian women are willing to give me, even when I am looking them straight in the eye.  I do this so that they will know I can see the look on their face!  I vow to strive to never look at a stranger (again) the way they look at me here.  If I were a less confident person, it might hurt my feelings!  **Insert here that I was wearing a dress, tights, brown boots, cardigan, and rain coat…so it’s not like I was that out of place**

The weird thing about the bus today was that I was sitting there thinking, “I wonder if the bus people (the police I think) ever get on the buses in smaller towns like Cosenza to check for tickets, the way they do in bigger cities??”  Wouldn’t you know that like 2 minutes afterward, two men got on and were checking for tickets?!?!? How crazy is that?? I had paid on the bus again, because heck, if I can save 40 cents a day, that adds up! 

When I got to school, I saw the two sweet girls that are going to be in my Monday morning class.  They were so excited to see me and talk to me, and they sit in the front of the class, so I was excited to see friendly faces in the hallway.  Then I saw one of the boys from one of Lilla’s classes that I met last week and he did the whole cheek kissing thing!  He was the spokesperson for that class and seemed excited to speak English with me!  **I wish I could have a class with ALL of the ones who are excited about English and excited about me being there…perhaps these are the ones I could organize a book club or something special with**

Virginia’s class started out with information about the Celtic people and she had me ask them some questions and listen to their work they’d done.  I tried to make them feel at ease with me by giving positive reinforcement.  That was so important to me as a student, so I want to share it with them!  We eventually moved to the lab for me to talk with them about Halloween.  I think it went really well actually.  I was excited that the roots of Halloween were Celtic so that it related to what they were learning about.  They were interactive, engaged, and seemed to be taking in the information, but most importantly, they were sharing information with me!  We talked about symbols of Halloween, their traditions, our traditions, shared stories, it was great!  They do not celebrate Halloween as much as we do, and as teenagers they just have parties or go to discotecas to dance and sometimes dress up, but mostly scary costumes.  They were so interactive, and seemed to enjoy the time we had together.  Next week, they are going to teach me about Carnivale, which I’d hoped to save until it happens because it is similar to Mardi Gras, but oh well…gotta go with the flow! 

Francesca came in the lab after Virginia left me in there to work some, but Francesca wanted me to sit in with her class.  The computer was not working for Francesca; I’d had difficulties also, but thankfully the IT guy was in there when we arrived with Virginia.  So, Francesca left me alone to talk to the students!  They are very hesitant to talk to me and ask questions, but eventually we were on a roll.  They asked me where I work in the U.S., if I knew famous people, about NYC, if I knew who Bruno Mars was, etc.  The Bruno Mars comment led to them telling me that one of the students is a young Bruno Mars.  After they had run out of questions, he ran to get his guitar!  I was probably not supposed to let them do this, but he started singing and HOLY COW…he was amazing…BEAUTIFUL voice!!!  When another boy took the guitar to sing, Francesca came in and made them stop! I was so bummed because they were so good!  I told her it was my fault because I did not stop them from singing.  All the students were asking if I had facebook, but I told them that I could not be their friend on facebook until the end of the year (though it is doubtful that I will do this even then!). 

After this, I went to look for Virginia to give her the lab key back.  I ran into Marcello and he gave me his son’s name and I wrote down mine so that we could find each other on facebook.  He wants to have me help his son with English, and his son help me with Italian. 

Next up was Angelino’s class.  Francesca and Angelino’s classes are part of the technical school, and everyone has told me that these classes are not as well behaved…though it appears to me as though most of the students are lacking respect for their teachers and their education.  .  This class was very rowdy, disruptive, and really quite rude to the teacher.  They were on their cell phones most of the time and interrupting each other and him!  In the brief question and answer session I had with them, one girl told me that I looked like Kate Middleton (done…you’re my favorite!!!).  I have to disagree with her, but it was a sweet compliment.  The guys kept saying things (in Italian) about how beautiful I was, and Angelino was translating for me).  They said that if I was going to be there to teach, then Angelino had to leave…haha…leave me alone with them…not yet!!  One of them asked Angelino, in Italian, why was I not fat?  He said that I was too thin to be an American and did not look at all like I ate only fast food, particularly McDonald’s!  WOW…stereotypes truly are alive and well in Italy!!  This group continuously got up and down and left class at will.  Angelino told me that the hour from 12-1 was when they could go to the bathroom, go out to smoke, etc.  In Rome they said that the Italian school system was not better, and not worse!  I agree with them, however, I will say that the level of respect for the teachers, other students, and their own education seems to be rather low.  This hurts my heart because I love school, and I can safely say that I would have had difficulty learning in this environment!  I am going to have to work EXTRA HARD to capture the attention of this particular class.  I will have to come up with more hands-on, creative ideas for them!  They are a second year tourism class….so we should be able to have fun with that, right?!?!? 

After class, I ran to catch the bus that is waiting for students in front of the school.  I ran into my resident bus expert and he assured me that this different bus would take me where I needed to go!  I got off at my new regular stop, and went in the grocery store to get a big bottle of water because I was running out of drinking water.  I came home, had lunch (ham sandwich, etc), talked to my momma, and sat down to write blogs.  During this time, the modem was delivered to the apartment, but of course I do not understand the instruction, and it looks a bit different than ours…plus, I do not know where Ernesto put the phone line thing for it!  So, I called Lila and she said she would get back with me about it! 

I made my way to the hotel.  I sat inside today because it was too cold to sit outside…my fingers would have been purple in no time!  I was able to update blogs, catch up on facebook, talk to Nick on facebook, talk to April, Kelly, and Maria on skype phone.  I am so very lucky to have the most wonderful friends!!  Maria is a fountain of never ending support and wisdom.  Now, I need to talk to my Erin!!! I stayed at the hotel really late, came home and ate dinner, spent more time writing, and took a FREEZING cold shower!