Piacenza

Wow... what a week it is turning out to be!
Although leaving so many new friends from Orientation was sad, I am having such a great time on the job. Not only do I get to teach aclass of my own, but I also feel like I'm in a 24-hour class, learning and absorbing everything I can!

When I (along with the 6 other tutors in Piacenza) arrived at the train station, our host families were waiting to pick us up. All the other tutors were being taken away by middle-aged couples with a small child and a dog. Someone taps me on the shoulder and I turn around. There to pick me up, is a beautiful 19 year-old girl and her boyfriend... which I thought was odd. Luckily, she had studied in Canada for a bit, and is fluent in English. As we drove home in her brand new Audi, she explains that her parents were in England for the weekend because the 9 year-old daughter was in the finals of an international rhythmic gymnastics competition...?

As it turns out, my family (the Podreccas) have seven children living at home and a housekeeper. They're basically the Italian Brady Bunch with long names. The father, Luciano is a CFO at big-time company, so they are fairly well-off. I was given my own bedroom and I share a bathroom with the housekeeper (HAHAHAHA!!!).

Working at the school has been so amazing... I stay up late making a lesson plan each night, then teach it in the morning, using related songs/games/activities, go home, eat dinner, and repeat. Being able to establish a bond with my 10 kids this week has been such a great experience... and has also made me appreciate elementary teachers much more. When they enter the class in the morning and they answer a question using the words or verb forms that I taught them the previous days, I get such a good feeling inside. And they are so affectionate, always wanting to hold my hand or sit on my lap.

Sometimes I wonder if teaching them English for a week is really going to make a difference... but then I realize that it's not really about how much material or vocabulary they learn during the week. It's about showing them that learning can be fun... and to inspire them to want to keep learning more. And even if they come away without improving their English much, I think it is very valuable to learn/practice how to communicate with people non-verbally. Because of the language barrier, they often have to act out what they want to say and use distinct facial expressions. Likewise, so do I! I often try to picture how hard my friends would be laughing ig they saw me talking to these kids. I always tease my dad for talking with his hands so much... but that is nothing compared to what I'm having to do!

The funniest part is that even though they know that I don't speak Italian, they will get excited and run up to me, screaming in Italian at a speed that makes my head spin. And I just smile and look at them, pointing at my ears saying, "You know I don't speak Italian." I don't think they really care though... they just want to say what they want to say to me, and they aren't really concerned with whether I understand or not.

Tomorrow is the last day of English Camp with them, and it will be a little sad to leave them in Piacenza, knowing that I will probably never see them again... but also hoping that I had a positive impact on their education and at least motivated them to want to learn more. Tomorrow is also the final show for all the parents. My kids wanted to do a fairytale, so we have a prince trying to marry a princess in a castle, but he has to fight a crocodile, dragon, and a knight on the way. Then the ladies in the castle tells him he can't take their princess away... then it ends with a song I made up. Coming from a theatre background, it was really fun to be able to organize their ideas into a plot, write a script, block the actions, and hand-make the set, props, and costumes. I can't wait to sit in front of them tomorrow and watch the show, feeding them sporadic English words that they have a hard time saying.

The only part I'm not enjoying somuch is dealing with the trouble makers. I'm not a confrontational person at all, but for some reason that has not stopped me from disciplining 9 year-olds (GRRR!!!). And as much as I hate to enforce gender stereotypes, I think Ican say without a doubt that 9 year-old girls are simply more well-behaved than 9 year-old boys. One of my kids, Riccardo (Ironic that he basically has my dad's name?), makes me want to scream sometimes! He can't just sit still... he is never listening or paying attention, and he constantly shouts at the top of his lungs, running around the classroom like a complete maniac, which gets all the other kids riled-up. I really wish I had some sort of hard drugs to give him or something!

We played water-games today for our afternoon activity. I had to tell him 5 times that we don't start playing until 3:00. At lunch, I'm looking around, counting my 10 kids out of the group (as I do about 100 times a day) to make sure nobody's died yet. As usual, I only count 9... it's always Riccardo who's missing. So I walk into the corridor and I hear him yelling "Taylor, look!". I turn around and see him running out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a bright red speedo. And I'm like "Ahhh, Riccardo! Where are your clothes!?!" I proceed to pull him back into the bathroom, kneel down to eye-level, and scold him firmly. So then he pouts for the next 15 minutes until he decides to play another round of 'Cause Complete Mayhem'. All the other tutors keep saying, "I don't know how you deal with him." ... But I am. And when the day is over, he really just makes me laugh. How many times in my life am I going to be chasing a speedo-wearing 9 year-old through an Italian school, screaming "Where are your clothes!?!"

One thing I've noticed living with an Italian family is how different their dining habits are. First of all, not all Europeans eat slowly. These people eat a plate of grub faster than Pumba and Timon! I'm also not used to having different 'parts' of a meal. My first night here, they set a big bowl of pasta in front of me. I ate it all, satisfied in thinking that it was all I was going to have. Then the mother whips out a second plate for everyone with proscutto (spelling?... they eat it almost every meal) and salami. Then when I think we're done, she'll go get something else. At my house in Missouri, you set all the food on the table at once so people can plan their food intake based on their hunger and the available items. But in Italy, they just keep surprising you by pullin' another dish out of their Mary Poppins bag! So then you have to eat beyond your body's capacity so you don't feel rude.

But I don't have to worry about gaining a lot of weight because I ride a bike to the school and back everyday... and it's a half-hour ride each way (meaning I get up at 6:15). I actually really enjoy the rides though... besides the fact that I haven't been on a bicycle literally in years, it's a nice way to wake up and mentally prepare and energize myself for the day to come. It's almost like a high-active metitation of sorts.

I leave on Saturday for my next location.. I think it's a city called Roi... I can't really remember how it's spelled... or even if it actually starts with an R, but I'm afraid if I go get my papers, one of the 7 kids will overtake the computer. Anyway, I've obviously gotten extremely close to the 6 other tutors here, and it will be sad to leave... but I'm sure next week will be just as exciting! One of the tutors I work with now (Clement, from Great Britain) will also be going to the same spot, so that will be nice.

Favorite quotes of the week:
From my hilarious co-tutor, Laura (you have to imagine these said with a thick British accent.):
"Speak properly, you f***ing American!"
"When in Rome, do the Romans!"
And I can't qoute it word for word, but the second time I ever spoke to my host mother, she tried to explain to me in broken English that the reason she has so many children is because good Catholics don't use contraception...(lengthy awkward silence followed... what is a complete stranger living in your home supposed to say in response to that!?).