Women's Day

It was a beautiful morning.  When I left for work, I watched the garbage men use this crane thing to get all of the garbage because it was blocking the ENTIRE sidewalk and it was in the street, so they had to bring out the big guns!

Yes, I thought this was worthy of a picture.

Then I started walking.  When I got to the piazza closest to my apartment I noticed all of these people out selling these little yellow flowers.  I mean they were EVERYWHERE!! I had no idea, but of course planned to ask when I got to school.  I passed one of my students holding some of the flowers, and then as I got closer to school I noticed a lot of guys AND girls with these flowers.  I had to know...

As I waited for all of my students in my first class to arrive, one girl, who never says ANYTHING, came in and handed me a thing of flowers wrapped in some paper that said, "Happy Woman's Day".  I was so incredibly touched!  This girl is so quiet and never says anything.  I was beyond words!  Plus, I had my first clue as to why everyone had these flowers.  At this point, if you know what this day is, and you are judging me for not knowing...well then...stop...

So I finished the "Southern Comfort Zone" lesson with them (i.e. we went over the homework, etc).  We also talked about random stuff.   I asked Patrizia about the Women's Day thing, and she explained that it had to do with the factory where the women were killed.  At this point, I realized that this is the holiday I learned about many years ago in Italian class.  I was really excited to finally experience it!

I had an hour break. On this break, I went to Corso Mazzini to walk around a little bit because it was so beautiful outside.  I took some pictures on the Corso.

I saw this one sweet man sitting there holding flowers.  In my overly romantic mind, he was waiting for his wife; his wife to whom he has been married for 40 years and has had a faithful, loving, beautiful relationship with in that time.  I imagined that she would be touched to receive the flowers from him, just as she was every year.  This was my idea of what he was doing.  I think I am right about this!  Anyway, so I took a few pictures, and then I went back to school for my second class.  

Linda's class was great!  We finished the "Southern Comfort Zone" lesson and then talked about their comfort zones.  They missed the point a little bit, but it was still a GREAT conversation.  I was so proud of them for speaking up and being insightful!  Have I mentioned that I love these students?

I had a second break.

Rosina's class was good!  We did "Southern Comfort Zone" in the lab...which took FOREVER to get opened and then started with the lesson.  It was difficult to hear and we had to use a student's speaker set from his backpack because it was better than the computer speakers.  It was quite comical!   We discussed some of the meaning, but I had to leave them with the homework, and the assignment to think about what the song means and we would talk about it next week.  This class is great!  For the most part they are very attentive and try very hard.

I had a great afternoon.  After school I went home to eat lunch, and was able to talk to David (ETA in Naples) about his plan for picking up his girlfriend Kayla at the airport. He asked for my input about some things, including a song to be playing on little speakers.  It was so sweet of him to ask, and I LOVE helping with stuff like this!  I am such a romantic at heart...though if you have met me, you probably already knew this! The afternoon was gorgeous and sunny.  It started to rain right as I went out to enjoy the day, but not so much that I could not walk around for an hour or so!  I did see some kids on skateboards, and Nick was very excited about this!

My dinner:

Fresh pasta with pesto and a wonderful salad!

Later that night I found out that Matt was proposing to Erin on Saturday, and so we worked out a plan where he would let me know, via facebook, when he had done it so that I could call. Erin and I had talked about how she wanted me to be the first to know, so I had to be able to call her.  So, he gave me an approximate time, but would not tell me anything else except that it would be on the beach!  On the beach...perfect for my Erin!

I spent the other time writing blogs and talking to Nick.  It was a wonderful Friday!