Play...and snow

This morning it was SNOWING....thankfully Reggio has a lot of porticos, and I did not really have to walk in the snow that much!  This was a blessing, but I still had to take my shoes off and change socks...thank goodness I had the forethought to bring a second pair of socks!  I also decided to get lunch at the International Center today because I did NOT want to go out in the snow and search for anything...oh, and breakfast was wonderful as usual!  I sat with my friend that is from a country that I cannot remember, but I do remember that she is working in Dubai.  

When Amelia and Paola greeted us, they talked a lot about the snow!  These two women were so funny all week!  Amelia was funny, kind, and strict all at the same time! She was so animated and just adorable.  Paola has just returned from maternity leave, and this is the first thing she's done at work.  THey were joking with each other about being in bad moods...they joked about the snow...and told us that every year around Loris Malaguzzi's birthday, they get a lot of snow!  These women were so entertaining and endearing!

The morning session was all about play and learning in the schools.  Maddalena did all of the talking.  She talked a bit about the theories that their schools are based on, showed a video of the infants and toddlers doing a light thing, and talked about the international school.  She then moved in to talking about how the international school was set up using their approach, as well as municipal/state standards.  The role of the adult in the classroom was discussed, and then some projects done by the children in the International School.  There were so many things discussed, and I loved listening to Maddalena.  Her accent was really heavy, and at times I would notice how different it was from my Southerners...and that made it intriguing.  The half Italian/half English throughout the week was challenging and exciting for me though!  We of course had our traditional coffee break with good snacks!

**I should also take this moment to say that being in a group of new friends who did not speak Italian, except for Heejung who speaks it much better than I do but was not always with me, really challenged my Italian skills.  I think I did a pretty good job too!  I never panicked; I just used my knowledge and swam in the language.  I wish I could do this all of the time, but I cannot.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun to use my Italian and have people understand me!**

Lunch was good.  We sat around and talked and enjoyed our time.  I bought another book and the dvd that I had been wanting.  I was finished buying though because my stuff was already heavy enough, not to mention these things have to make their way back to the U.S. somehow. 

The second half of the day was 2 hours of discussion groups.  They showed us the dvd that bought, and then we asked questions (well, I didn't).  Once again they collected all of the questions and then answered as many as possible.  It was somewhat informative, but people asked some things that I did not find that relevant.  It was interesting though.  I had Jovanka, a wonderful and beautiful pedagogista; Laura, the 38 year teacher; and another lady that I did not know.

The last part of our day was a visit to the International Schools.  This building/these classrooms...wow!  Everything was brand new and it was beautiful!  It was VERY different from the other schools though!  The others were very monotone and a little old school looking, while this building was clearly state of the art.  They had food for us (and A LOT of it...all of it was good), drinks, and there were people there to answer our questions.  This environment was like The Children's program meets Reggio meets all the money of a NYC private school.  I walked around mostly on my own, looking, taking notes, etc.  I stopped and asked Jovanka, in Italian, about whether or not Reggio had male teachers; they do not have many...and not at the moment!  There was one atelier that was awesome...I wanted to stay in there and play all night!  The International school is part preschool and part primary!  The classrooms were incredible...the projects of the older children looked like so much fun; much more fun than a textbook can offer!  I talked to a lady from Virginia, and some others while I walked around.  The school was beautiful, overwhelming, and I wish i could have taken pictures.  After a while, I found Romy and Lisa and we decided to go to the train station and get a cab! It was snowing SOOOO much, and I really did NOT want soaking wet boots AGAIN!

We agreed to meet for dinner, and we were going with a big group!  So, we all met and went to this place that I found on the first day, and Heejung had been there, and some others had friends recommend it!  It was called Pozzo.  Here is the picture I took the first day:

We all met there are 8.  We were sitting in a backish room with some others ladies from our conference, and then others trickled in.  The inside was really nice...exposed brick...and quaint, but still a good size restaurant.  Once we all arrived, we began the difficult process of deciding what to eat!  I really wanted to try the pumpkin tortelli here, so I decided on that.  Tareka got this truffle thing that we both wanted to try, so we agreed to "share".  Others got similar things and such.  The waiter kept talking to me because he caught on that I understood most of what he was saying.  It challenged my Italian, but it was fun! All of our food was INCREDIBLE...we had some good wine...and GREAT conversation!  We laughed soooooooooo much...all of the others in our area were JEALOUS of how much fun we were having!  We had one of the other "reggio" ladies take our picture.  We had the best time...we were there until midnight.  I had so much fun, and I was so grateful to be there with such wonderful, funny, amazing people.  There are MANY more pictures than this, but so many of them are silly and fun...they are just for us!  I really enjoyed getting to know everyone better! 

Pumpkin Tortelli

The AH-MAZING truffle dish

Connie???

Me, Heejung, Tareka, Lisa, Kookai, Emili, & Romy

 

Almost midnight

 

I am so grateful to have met all of these wonderful ladies.  I had so much fun with them all week, and they made the experience that much more special.  Before we left, a table of people who had been "watching us" stopped me to ask where we were from.  They were SHOCKED when I said all of the places we were from (South Korea, Birmingham, NYC, Connecticut, and Taiwan).  They said that they thought we were from Alaska because there were Asians.  Haha...okay!  THis guy was obviously British, but the Italian lady was still looking at me like I was trash, as she had done when I went to the bathroom earlier.  However, i found all of this funny!

So, we left the restaurant after midnight, and made our way to our hotels.  It was a beautiful, but cold night.  Lisa, Romy, and I walked together and then went our separate ways to sleep!

What a wonderful day/night.