Less Fear in Their Hearts and Better Dressed

Oh my goodness, today was sunny! And even a little warm -  what is this insanity! Today we had specified time to go to il mercato but again - nothing but poofy jackets and fur. And flowers - there were lots of flowers. Megan's favourite kind are cabbage flowers (those of you hoping to hit on her take note - although you'll have to compete with her boyfriend), which they had. I might have decided tulips are my favourites. Not that there are flowers in my future (near or distant), but either way.

Because it was sunny, we sat at a restaurant in the Campo - Megan and I ate our lunch in the sun, Kate and Krissy sprung for cappuccini (it's super more expensive in the Campo) - and pondered what to do with all our free-time this semester. Looking at the calendar, it looks super short considering everything we're doing during the weekends: next weekend, we're going to the Alps, the weekend after is our first free-weekend, then cheese tastings and the opera, then carnivale, then our ten day break, then an art excursion to Florence, then a day trip to Rome, then another free weekend, then our farewell aperitivo and a hiking trip, and the next weekend we leave. Woah. But it also feels like forever, and it's super super intimidating. Especially talking to people back home - things are moving more slowly for them, but also more quickly. Me not being there means I have no control over my American life, and that's a little freaky. It's also annoying because I'm trying to find a way to stay in Portland, but job hunting via email is no good (surprise, Mom! I still love you though, even if I don't want to come home). People want to meet you, and are hesitant to hire people they can't meet face to face. And then there's the concern that my Portland life might be completely different if I do manage to get a job - there might be no one there, no where to live, and so forth. So we shall see, I suppose.

But the truly exciting news from today is that I went to my very first class - as a teacher! The school here really likes if you agree to volunteer somewhere - with an ambulance, at a retirement community, with people with disabilities, a soup kitchen, or a school! And the school is where I wanted to volunteer, so today was my first day trying to teach English to the kids. It was a bit of a disaster. See, I didn't really have anything planned, and they're all in grade 5, so from 10 to 11 prolly. I don't think they minded, but it was intense standing up there for an hour and a half and having to control 13 loud, rambunctious kids. Italian kids are essentially the same as American ones, but with less fear in their hearts and better dressed (see what I did thar? It's the title of this blog!).

They were supposed to ask me a bunch of questions, but that deteriorated very quickly because they couldn't really ask anything other than, "What is your favourite [insert thing here - number, animal, colour, etc.]?" So I drew animals for a while and had them call out the names in English. Then we played hangman, and pictionary and I asked them about their lives and the things they liked. They were super adorable though, and they seemed to like me okay. Oh, and for all of you who like Hawaiian pizza - I told the Italian kids (great great great etc grandkids of those who invented pizza) that in N. America, pizza with pineapple is very popular. They were all extraordinarily disgusted. One major point for me.

One thing I definitely have to learn, though, is how the heck to control them, because they do not stay sitting down, and they all talk over each other. I was extraordinarily overwhelmed. Mike, the guy who is in charge of volunteering and especially the schools (he organizes a huge number of students to go to a huge number of classes at a huge number of schools), warned me it would be intense but essentially said I can do whatever I want, as long as I don't (and I quote) "bring in any porn". He said it would, in theory, be awesome if I could do all of the classes/talking in english, because they'd learn more (or whatever) but that it would be impossible because their english isn't good enough and they would talk to me in Italian regardless. And he was right. I did a lot of talking in english, but I had to keep switching back to italian, because they just don't know enough english. And this is a great way to learn the third person plural verb form, since I almost never use that one.

Anyway, relax on the, "You've found a new calling, a career, hooray" because it was one day, and I am SO exhausted and it is definitely too early to be making that assessment yet. I almost fell asleep at our little restaurant, Zest, because it was just so intense. My heart was pounding with adrenaline and I was thoroughly worn out. I even ducked out of dinner early - I usually try to talk to Maura for at least half an hour, if not more, but I just couldn't do it today. And I have to go meet another class tomorrow - I only get to go every other week, so instead of having one hour long class a week, I have two every other week. I was covered in chalk dust today after all the drawing and writing. But I felt super impressive to write on a chalkboard and not just be drawing pictures of dudes picking their noses or funny shaped people for sillies.

But it was a very nice evening after that. We sat at Zest for almost 2 hours, worked our way through a bottle of wine and a plate of prosciutto and bread (we go their regularly enough that the dude knows us, and gives us the prosciutto complimentary - I pretend he only does it for us). So that helped with the relaxing and unwinding after the intensity of being in that classroom.

The contemplation of my navel continues. I've been here almost 3 weeks, which is almost 1/3 and makes just over 10 left. Things are being put in motion, in my life and myself - I hope to return more cultured and with a plan.

Changes keep falling, like the sunshine, like the rain... (Don't look that song up - I know it from a weird educational tape from grade 5 that you definitely don't want to see).

<3