Orientation Day

After a crazy day of traveling yesterday I woke up this morning feeling better than ever. I went to bed feeling really anxious and overwhelmed about being here, but this morning all of that had changed. It's amazing what a good night of sleep can do to a person...

After getting ready and eating (or not eating) breakfast (the Ferrari's only drink coffee or tea for breakfast), Simona dropped me off at scuola Leopardi, which is an elementary school about 10 minutes from their house. All fourteen girls, Dr. Butchart, Dr. Tolley, Roberta, and Matteo (who both work for Victoria Language) met at the school for our orientation into the program. It was so nice to see familiar faces after being stuck with a family I didn't know and couldn't communicate with yesterday... and even more relieving to hear that every single girl on the trip also felt anxious and concerned about their living situations. One girl on the trip is living with a family who only has one English speaker, the family's 10 year old daughter. Needless to say, my situation could definitely have be more uncomfortable than it already was. After we all talked about our experiences with the families for the first night, we were introduced to Dr. Foundriest, who is the principal of 4 elementary schools and 2 preschools in Modena. The group spent about two hours talking about the Italian school system, which is very different from the U.S. school system. I won't bore you all with details, but one of the biggest differences is that there are two teachers in Italian classrooms and each teacher only works half a day. The other half of the day is used for making lesson plans and learning material to be taught to the students. We also learned that American teachers spend more time working directly with children than any other country in the world (35 hours a week versus the 22 hours that Italian teachers spend with the students). Once we realized how ridiculous it is that American teachers are expected to spend so much time in the schools in addition to making lesson plans outside of school we all decided we're going to become fluent in Italian so we can move here and teach for only half a day (which is considered full time); obviously the other half of the day will be spent eating gelato and pizza.

After our meeting we left Leopardi and walked to downtown Modena for lunch. We ate at this amazing restaurant called Cafe Concerto, which is right in the center of the piazza grande (the biggest square in the town). It was probably some of the best food I've ever eaten AND it was a buffet. Obviously, we all stuffed our faces and went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths. Roberta was nice enough to pay for our meal, so that was a treat.

After lunch Roberta and Matteo walked us around Modena so we can become familiar with the city. Like everything in Europe, the buildings are old and beautiful. There are bike paths on every via (road) and we had a great time walking around... even though the Italians all stared and the teenagers yelled obscenities at us. Speaking of, there are some serious punks in Modena. That's another story...

Since we were such a big group, we decided to split up and a group of us went around the city with Matteo. He's 26 and just graduated from university so he knows a little bit about being a college kid... the first place he took us to was Via del Gallucci, which is a road with about 10 pubs lining the streets. None of the pubs were open at the time (unfortunately), but Matteo assured us that he will take us back for happy hour sometime soon. We're most excited to go to a place called Griffin's, which is an Irish pub where only English is spoken (yess!!). Definitely something to look forward to. Even though we didn't get to experience the pubs downtown, we did meet up for drinks with the rest of the group and Dr. Butchart was nice enough to pick up the tab. A whole day of eating and drinking in Italy for free isn't a bad deal!

After a couple more hours of shopping and sightseeing we finally met up with our host families at Piazza Roma downtown. Simona was there to get me and we went straight back to the flat to change for a bike ride. I was very happy to see Matteo and Valentina at home too-- they were both wearing the Georgia shirts I brought them from home and it was so cute! Apparently wearing American shirts is the cool thing to do, so I'm glad they liked their presents. By the way Mom, they loved the tree quilt... they kept saying 'bella, bella!' It was very sweet. They said to tell you 'grazie mille' (thanks a million).

Once we got on the bikes Simona showed me how to get scuola Galilei, where I will be teaching tomorrow. We actually ran into Matteo's teacher outside of the school too, which was definitely an interesting experience. After a brief introduction, the maestra (teacher) and Simona started arguing in Italian for about 15 minutes. Awkward! I didn't know everything they were saying, but I picked up the gist... apparently Matteo is doing badly in school and the teacher says he's constantly falling asleep and asking to go to the bathroom. Simona yelled back that Matteo is bored in class because the teacher doesn't care if he does well or not, so I got to witness a very intense Italian yelling match between a parent and a teacher. I was just happy to get out of there!

After we left the school we went straight to the grocery store, which was ridiculous. I have never seen so much fresh produce, meats, and cheeses in my life. So delicious! They also had an entire aisle (literally) for balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I want to go back again on my own sometime and take pictures of everything, but it was good to experience it for the first time with Simona because she actually knew what she was doing.

Once we got back to the flat I helped Simona unload groceries and while she cooked dinner I played Uno with Vale and Matt. They were really surprised that I knew how to play! We had a great time and my Italian actually improved quite a bit during the game. We decided that I had to speak Italian and they had to speak English while we played, so it was helpful and silly at the same time. During dinner we kept up the trend and Fillippo joined in too, which was nice. He's hilarious and is so eager to learn English, just like Valentina and Matteo, so it's a lot of fun talking to (or trying to talk) to him. I'm feeling so much more comfortable with the family already and I know things are only going to get better the longer I'm here. My first day at the school tomorrow should be interesting, but I'm excited to meet my teacher and the first graders. I'm off to bed, but I'll write back as soon as I can! Ciao!