We went on a fieldtrip on Friday. If you've ever tried to keep 9 Italian 6-year-olds quiet on a subway train or put 45 6-11 year olds in a large park and then tried to get them to follow a rule or not throw dirt then you know exactly what that was like. We got to see a really cool old castle though and the ceiling in one of the rooms was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. That was very nice.
Today (Saturday) was AMAZING. I went with a bunch of tutors to a flea market sort of thing in another part of town but we got thoroughly rained upon so we left fairly quickly for the cover of the subway station. Then I went with Eanna and Dara (two tutors) and Eanna's host family to central Milan and climbed to the roof of Il Duomo Cathedral and saw a beautiful if very cloudy view of Milan. Then we watched a rehearsal for the ballet (Romeo and Juliet) which is opening next weekend at La Scala. It was sooooo cool!!! I never dreamed that they would let us see a rehearsal but they sent us right into a box and we had a great view of the stage and the GIANT chandelier and the whole business. Then we looked around at some very old instruments and some paintings of very old opera singers etc. at the La Scala theatrical museum. OH HOW I WISH I WERE ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES.
Eanna's hosts, Riccardo and Olivia, are absolutely wonderful people and wonderful tour guides. After Il Duomo and La Scala they took us out for gelato and tonight Riccardo made us fresh pizza. YUM. Today was just superb.
Also I live with two children. One of them has head lice. The other also has head lice. I think I might have head lice. I will worry about that later.
Tomorrow I'm going to see the Italy-New Zealand game in Venice!!! It will be rainy but I don't care.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sono Stanchissima!!!!!
Three days of school. Feels like it's been three weeks. Actually not. At all. But I am TIIIIIIIRED!!! I have ten very very wonderful students who can also be very VERY difficult. And camp is very very loooooong. I am always exhausted by the end but that's not really the problem. Just to be exhausted is fine. The really tough part is that while I'm exhausted I have to entertain and motivate ten exhausted kids. The kids run around and play games for sooooooo long that by the last hour of the day all they want (and all they need) is to take a good solid nap. But NOPE it's time for sports!!! Oy.
The other really tough thing is (obviously) these kids don't speak English. So even if I come up with a very good idea for an activity I sometimes find out that it's just going to be impossible to explain in a game of desperate charades so I have to improvise very quickly and give them something new and easy and fun and educational to do. VERY quickly because 10 seconds of dead air or any sign of uncertainty on my part generally means that all hope of control is lost for at least 10 or 15 minutes.
But DAMN these kids are cute. Ohhhhh my goodness. And even after the first three days they're starting to pick up more English. It's the most gratifying thing in the world to hear them singing the songs I've taught them when they are running around at recess or painting in the Workshop.
Today the kids played "dodgeball" although I think in this case it could be more appropriately called "unrestrained chaos" but that's a different story. Anyway, while they were playing, Giacomo fell down and hit his chin on the floor. I ran over and helped him up and as we were walking out of the fray he held on to me and kept repeating in Italian "Ow. Ow. The Giacomo fell down. The Giacomo. The Giacomo fell down. Ow."
Mattia is a really sweet kid who is just a little too immature for this camp. He doesn't really understand the concept of rules and class activities and the meaning of the word "no". He can be really crazy sometimes and especially when he and Francesco get together it can be bad bad news. They seem to be the two youngest kids in the camp so they are both a little unruly, and they are best friends so together they can make the whole class descend into utter chaos in seconds if I'm not constantly watching them.
They are both extremely cute though and once in a while they can be really sweet and cooperative and take a sudden interest in English. They are a bit behind most of the other students as far as vocab goes so they are much better with one on one time but unfortunately I don't have the luxury of being able to give them that very often.
I get along with the other tutors well, especially Christina. She has the age group just above mine so we work together a lot of the time. She is a good teacher and has a lot of good ideas.
The night after the first day of school I went with all the tutors down to il Duomo in central Milan and we watched the Italy-Paraguay World Cup game on a giant screen in a giant crowd of
Italians. Exhilarating to say the least. That's absolutely the way to watch a soccer game. It might have been a little more exciting if it hadn't been a 1-1 tie. But it was still really fun.
Soccer at il Duomo.
The picture of my class with the most visible faces. Left-Right, Back-Front they are
Leo, Valentina, Alice, Giacomo, Luca,
Irene, Mattia, Mario, Gabriele,
Francesco
The Anemoni Tutors: Me, Eanna, Fatma, Christina, Dervla, Tara
The other really tough thing is (obviously) these kids don't speak English. So even if I come up with a very good idea for an activity I sometimes find out that it's just going to be impossible to explain in a game of desperate charades so I have to improvise very quickly and give them something new and easy and fun and educational to do. VERY quickly because 10 seconds of dead air or any sign of uncertainty on my part generally means that all hope of control is lost for at least 10 or 15 minutes.
But DAMN these kids are cute. Ohhhhh my goodness. And even after the first three days they're starting to pick up more English. It's the most gratifying thing in the world to hear them singing the songs I've taught them when they are running around at recess or painting in the Workshop.
Today the kids played "dodgeball" although I think in this case it could be more appropriately called "unrestrained chaos" but that's a different story. Anyway, while they were playing, Giacomo fell down and hit his chin on the floor. I ran over and helped him up and as we were walking out of the fray he held on to me and kept repeating in Italian "Ow. Ow. The Giacomo fell down. The Giacomo. The Giacomo fell down. Ow."
Mattia is a really sweet kid who is just a little too immature for this camp. He doesn't really understand the concept of rules and class activities and the meaning of the word "no". He can be really crazy sometimes and especially when he and Francesco get together it can be bad bad news. They seem to be the two youngest kids in the camp so they are both a little unruly, and they are best friends so together they can make the whole class descend into utter chaos in seconds if I'm not constantly watching them.
They are both extremely cute though and once in a while they can be really sweet and cooperative and take a sudden interest in English. They are a bit behind most of the other students as far as vocab goes so they are much better with one on one time but unfortunately I don't have the luxury of being able to give them that very often.
I get along with the other tutors well, especially Christina. She has the age group just above mine so we work together a lot of the time. She is a good teacher and has a lot of good ideas.
The night after the first day of school I went with all the tutors down to il Duomo in central Milan and we watched the Italy-Paraguay World Cup game on a giant screen in a giant crowd of
Italians. Exhilarating to say the least. That's absolutely the way to watch a soccer game. It might have been a little more exciting if it hadn't been a 1-1 tie. But it was still really fun.
Soccer at il Duomo.
The picture of my class with the most visible faces. Left-Right, Back-Front they areLeo, Valentina, Alice, Giacomo, Luca,
Irene, Mattia, Mario, Gabriele,
Francesco
The Anemoni Tutors: Me, Eanna, Fatma, Christina, Dervla, TaraSaturday, June 12, 2010
Tutor Training, Football, and yes more gelato.
I had my first day of training yesterday. The first few hours were pretty rough. Lots of repetitive speeches about the purpose of the camp and lonnnnnnng lectures about how we should keep the children active and moving around rather than sitting in chairs for long periods of time so that they enjoy camp and actually learn better. Excellent advice that could have been better applied at the actual training. But the rest of the training was much more interesting and useful. We went over what our schedule will be like for each day of camp and started working on activities for the first day. Alice in Citta, the organization I work for runs multiple summer camps around Milan and the training session is for everyone working at allll of the camps. But after today I'll really only be working with seven people.
There are four other tutors in my camp: Christina, Eanna, Dervla and Tara. They're all from Ireland and Christina, Dervla, and Tara all know each other from college, but they are all very friendly and we get along well so far. Chiara is our camp coordinator and she has two assistants, Fatma (my roommate who does not have an "I" in her name it turns out) and a girl named Silvia (who I have not met yet because she is sick apparently).
Training does not take place at the school where we'll be working, so on our way home from training Fatma, the other tutors and I got lost for an hour or two because Chiara wasn't there to tell us where to go and none of us had paid very close attention to which bus stop we got off at, which bus stop we got on at, or how we got to the bus stop at all. But we made it eventually. However we're all still pretty confused so getting back to training this morning will be another adventure. Except this time we have a map which should help.
Last night Fatma and I went across the courtyard to the apartment where Eanna is staying to watch the USA-England world cup game. They tied 1-1 but it was a fairly exciting match. Then my host family came over (with gelato Emma will be happy to know).
I have to get going now. Breakfast and training await.
There are four other tutors in my camp: Christina, Eanna, Dervla and Tara. They're all from Ireland and Christina, Dervla, and Tara all know each other from college, but they are all very friendly and we get along well so far. Chiara is our camp coordinator and she has two assistants, Fatma (my roommate who does not have an "I" in her name it turns out) and a girl named Silvia (who I have not met yet because she is sick apparently).
Training does not take place at the school where we'll be working, so on our way home from training Fatma, the other tutors and I got lost for an hour or two because Chiara wasn't there to tell us where to go and none of us had paid very close attention to which bus stop we got off at, which bus stop we got on at, or how we got to the bus stop at all. But we made it eventually. However we're all still pretty confused so getting back to training this morning will be another adventure. Except this time we have a map which should help.
Last night Fatma and I went across the courtyard to the apartment where Eanna is staying to watch the USA-England world cup game. They tied 1-1 but it was a fairly exciting match. Then my host family came over (with gelato Emma will be happy to know).
I have to get going now. Breakfast and training await.
Friday, June 11, 2010
First day.
I'm here. It's beautiful. And muggy. It was a long long long long flight but it wasn't too bad otherwise and I got some sleep. I even got to lay down on the NYC-Milan leg of the trip. It was kind of frustrating trying to get in touch with my hosts via Italian payphone and across the language barriers but I finally made it and they are really sweet. Their names are Carla and Fabio and they have a 10-yr-old boy, Matteo, and a 7-year-old girl, Chiara. They are both lovely children. Chiara is very talkative and sweet and Matteo is awesome at foosball. In Italian foosball is called calcetto which literally means "little soccer". That is just one of those little linguistic facts that makes me smile.
The flat is clean and nice. I'm staying in the kids' room with a girl from Turkey who is interning at the camp where I'm working. I've only just met her but she seems nice too. Everything is pretty much lovely and nice except the mosquitos but it ain't no thing.
I did a lot of settling in and resting today, then this evening I went with Fatima (My roommate) and Carla and Chiara (My hostesses) to see the school where I'll be working. It's a very short walk from the flat, very convenient. THEN I had my first truly Italian gelato. DELIZIOSA! Training starts tomorrow at 9am (midnight California time). So I'm off to get some sleep.
I'll report back when I have some more detailed/exciting/photographic updates.
CIAO
The flat is clean and nice. I'm staying in the kids' room with a girl from Turkey who is interning at the camp where I'm working. I've only just met her but she seems nice too. Everything is pretty much lovely and nice except the mosquitos but it ain't no thing.
I did a lot of settling in and resting today, then this evening I went with Fatima (My roommate) and Carla and Chiara (My hostesses) to see the school where I'll be working. It's a very short walk from the flat, very convenient. THEN I had my first truly Italian gelato. DELIZIOSA! Training starts tomorrow at 9am (midnight California time). So I'm off to get some sleep.
I'll report back when I have some more detailed/exciting/photographic updates.
CIAO
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