Birthdays in Roma!

Yesterday was so much fun! At school we mainly rehearsed the dances for the festival (which is this coming Thursday). I had a late lunch and had to go by myself. I went down to the usual cafe and had some chicken, zucchini, and pasta. It was, as always, delicious! After lunch we had a 4th grade class and after watched 30 mins of the royal wedding and handed out fabric for their kilts I got to teach a little 10 minute lesson and that was fun. They grasped onto the idea of the task and ran with it. They're really bright kids and a joy to teach! As they were leaving the room Dr. Robinson came in and told them it was my birthday so they sang to me and that was cute. After school Dr. Robinson took Lauren (my roomie and fellow music ed intern), Paige (one of the music teachers) and I out for some drinks to celebrate my birthday. We went to this park in the middle of town and it had a bar on top of the hill. It was a beautiful little place! We had champagne and chatted for a while. It was fantastic! Then Paige dropped us off at our dorm and we showered and changed and got ready to go to the city for the opera aria performance. We got a late start and then weren't sure exactly which bus stop to get off at. We guessed correctly but then started walking the wrong direction for the church. Eventually we found it (20 mins after started), got our tickets, and sat down for 1 aria before intermission. I wasn't too happy at first because we were late and I had a persistent migraine so I felt awful. As soon as we sat down and they started playing I was SO glad we went! It was amazing!!! To be sitting in a beautiful church in the heart of Italy, watching Italians performing opera arias was just incredible! They were amazing! After the concert we had to get some gelato (duh!) and as we were walking down the street we passed a bar and decided to have some wine (our first glass since being here). We went up to the bar and ordered our wine and this guy sitting there turned to us and said "Americans?!" He was in Rome for a few days before heading to Belgium for work (he's from Kansas) and was excited to find some fellow Americans. We sat and talked to him for almost an hour and had two glasses of wine. He was funny and it was fun to chat with an American for a bit. Then we found some gelato (AMAZING!) and went to find a bus that would take us home. The bus stop was in front of this beautiful building and as we were taking pictures our bus drove by. If you don't jump out into the street to flag it down it doesn't even slow down. So we missed that one....so we sat on the steps waiting for another. It was getting close to midnight and that bus stops at midnight so we thought we would have to take the late bus (starts at midnight). While we were waiting I really had to use the bathroom and we figured it would be at least 10 minutes till the late bus would come. We went back to the gelato place and I used their bathroom. As I was in there Lauren saw our bus drive by....doh! So we went back to the steps and waited again....Out of nowhere our bus drove up! We got on and found our stop just fine and made it back home! Luckily the guy was still awake and was able to let us into the building (it was about 12:30am).

We got upstairs and found a few people awake and we started talking about our Florence plans. Before we left for the city we booked train tickets for this morning to go to Florence for the day. Lauren and I had really wanted to stay at least one night and do more of a Tuscany trip than just seeing museums in Florence so we were a little bummed at the plans but were going to make the most of it. We were supposed to be leaving the dorm at 6am to get the train. When we got back one of the girls was awake and talking about going to Florence next weekend and staying in a villa in Tuscany. She had been doing research and found very reasonable places to stay (and BEAUTIFUL!!) We decided to postpone Florence until next weekend and make it a real weekend trip. The rest of the group still went to Florence today but 9 of us are going next weekend. We slept in this morning and are just relaxing for now. Lauren and I are going to go to Trastevere tonight for dinner and check out the night-life. Hopefully it won't be too crowded because of everything going on this weekend (the Beatification and this huge annual rock concert). Tomorrow we might take a day trip out somewhere close by.

As I was sitting here typing this (and Lauren is finishing a paper) one of the guys that works here at the dorm came in and tried to fix the TV in the living area. He speaks very little English and he's sitting here now chatting with us. We keep using Google Translate to communicate and it's a lot of fun! He's a nice guy. None of us have used the TV since we got here but he came in and tried to turn it on. We've been talking about music and clubs. He is showing us a video on his phone of Shakira right now hahaha. They like a lot of American music here, which I find funny because they don't understand the lyrics! But music can be appreciated by all, that's for sure.

Guess that's about it for now! Ciao!

Do I have to go home??

Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday but there wasn't anything terribly exciting to tell! I got to make a kilt in the morning (yes....a kilt for music class haha) as an example for the 4th graders for their dance festival costumes. These kilts are to be decorated with inspiration from the circus...so that's why it looks the way it does :) Last night everyone but Lauren and I went to the Vatican for a tour. Lauren was getting sick and I didn't feel like going downtown so late (the tour started at 8:30) so I stayed behind with Lauren. We had a relaxing evening and ventured down the hill to find Lauren some medicine and dinner. Apparently all the pharmacies and supermarkets close at 8pm so we missed that....lol. We wandered into a little bar down the street and got some paninis. Of course no one speaks English so it's always interesting trying to order food and pay. We managed and the food was delicious (as always) and then we got some pastries for dessert. They were AMAZING!! I'm going to be so disappointed in the food when I go home haha. Italian food is forever ruined for me unless it's REAL Italian food lol. Then the group that went to the Vatican got lost coming home and didn't get back until around 2am. I'm kind of glad I didn't go because they all looked miserable at school today.

Today was good. I didn't get to teach at all today but observed some more dance rehearsals and sat in on some of the younger music classes. We always get lunch at this little cafe a few blocks away and I love it there! The people are so nice. None of them speak English so we always have fun trying to communicate with each other. They recognize us interns now because it's the third day we've had lunch there. The food is SOOOO good! I might have to go there every day! They always have different things. I usually get pork (however they've prepared it that day), broccoli if they have it, and potatoes (they are SOO good!). Today I got this egg dish instead of the broccoli and it was delectable! After school I sat in on the 4th/5th grade choir rehearsal. They are going on "tour" next week so it was on of their last rehearsals. Dr. Robinson sat in with me (I know you're reading this ;) and it was so great! The kids are fantastic! They really WANT to learn! They were focused and even had suggestions to make things better. They really understand the singing concepts! Paige then asked me to conduct one of the songs and of course I was happy to! It's always fun sight reading music in front of kids and hoping you don't make a fool of yourself! They were wonderful and very patient with me when I missed a few cues. Dr. Robinson jumped in and gave them a few suggestions which is always fun to watch! I LOVE these kids! They're so wonderful and their attitudes were just amazing! It blew my mind. They actually were NOT like putting ants in a bottle. They stood on the risers without complaining for a whole hour. Even college students have trouble with that sometimes. Tomorrow I'm teaching a 4th grade lesson and giving a little intro to a new unit for the 5th graders (which I need to study up a little on my Roman history for!). Excited to actually get to teach the kids a little!

Everyone is pretty wiped out after their adventures last night so I think we're all staying in tonight and not doing anything exciting. I'm ok with that. Tomorrow is my birthday and then we're hopefully going to Florence/Tuscany for the weekend so I don't need to over-exert myself tonight. I'll definitely be doing SOMETHING tomorrow night.

I am absolutely loving the experience here and I really hope I can have the opportunity to teach internationally when I graduate. I would love to come back to Italy but I would be willing to try other places as well (Germany, Spain, France, England, etc.) Anything would be a grand adventure :) Well, I should write my daily log and pursue some dinner shortly.

Ciao!

First day of school!

Today was interesting. We went to the school at 8am this morning and all scattered with our respective teachers. It's a little different than I expected. There are two music teachers and one little bitty classroom. I am officially with the 4-8 grade music teacher and Lauren is with the Nursery-3rd grade teacher. Their day is split up between the two so they can use the room so there is a lot of down time when we're not actually teaching a class. That's kind of nice. It isn't go, go, go like back home when you have about 6 minutes between each class and that's it all day haha. Caroline (my supervising teacher) took me to a great little cafe for lunch and we chatted about things and talked about International teaching. She's from Sweden and went to university in England. She's wonderful! Another thing I wasn't expecting is that they are preparing for a dance festival next week. All grades and all students participate and the music teachers are in charge of it so instead of teaching music we are dancing for now. It's fine, just not what I expected. I will get to teach the middle school choir for a bit on Monday and then after the festival I'm teaching the 5th grade classes their graduation song. Seems like this is not going to be as stressful/as much work as I thought it was going to be. It's definitely going to be educational and unique but I think it is going to be more enjoyable than stressful.

We're talking about weekend plans. I really want to go to Florence/Pisa/Tuscany so we might do that this weekend. I'd love to stay in a hostel for a night. I hope we can do that....what a way to spend my birthday weekend!! Not too sure what we're doing Friday but whatever it is it will be fun :) Don't get to celebrate a birthday while in Rome all that often!

Well, it is approaching that time of sleep....Looks like we have one class of 4th graders tomorrow and that's it....so tomorrow should be pretty easy! No plans yet for the evening but we'll think of something epic, I'm sure :) We didn't go out tonight because we didn't get back from school until 6pm (after an after school rehearsal followed by an adventure of 45 mins on a bus just to get home). By the time we got home we were exhausted. Some people went out to do some shopping but I stayed in (to avoid wasting money and just to relax). Night, all :)

Day 2!

Today was insanely long! We left the dorm at 8:30am for the open air bus tour. It was raining when we woke up this morning but seemed to be clearing up.....until after we were on the bus for a bit. It started raining as we left The Vatican. We had umbrellas but still got soaked. We stopped for lunch near the Trevi fountain. Some people wanted to eat at the Hard Rock but it was very expensive and didn't open until noon (it was 11:15 and we were HUNGRY!) so we wandered until we found an open restaurant. The pasta was AMAZING! After lunch we were standing outside and noticed that right next door was the Cicacica Boom club. Great photo op! After lunch we got back on the bus (finally stopped raining) and continued on to take our group photo at the Colosseum. That's where we went our separate ways! 5 of us started walking from there and got some gelato (I will not be happy if I don't get at least 1 gelato/day) and walked to the Pantheon. Unfortunately it had closed at 1pm (today was a holiday) so we couldn't go in. That's definitely on the list of things to do after school one day! We also got a brochure for a show called Li Piu Belle Arie D'opera (Enchanting Opera Arias) and one performance is tomorrow evening and another is Friday evening. Lauren and I definitely want to go to one of them! After the Pantheon we walked to the Trevi because Vanessa hadn't been yet, then we came back to the dorm for a rest. We planned on going back for the night-time bus tour after dark but it was raining after our nap so we stayed in and ordered pizza (no it is NOT like Pizza Hut or 5 Star). I don't think I'm ever eating American pizza again....it's so disappointing compared to this stuff!

I'd love to ramble on some more but it is 11:30pm and we have to get up at 6:30 to get ready for school tomorrow! YAY! Tomorrow is strictly observation so that will be fun. I can't wait to meet all the cute Italian kids! Attached are a few pics from today :)

Ciao,
Erica

Exhausted but excited!

Hello all!

Arrived safely in Rome at about 8:30am local time! Flight was fine but not very comfortable. Slept but not well at all. I kept waking up. It was an Italian airline and I was one of the few Americans on it....so I got my feet wet in the culture! Arrived and found my shuttle driver and other participant who arrived this morning. Dr. and Mrs. Robinson were at Il Faro (our dorm) waiting for us. Two of the girls were also here so after Mario and I showered we went out to explore the city! They have arrived yesterday and the day before so they knew what to do. We took the tram to the historic center of the city and just wandered around for a few hours! We ate lunch at a little cafe and I had a panini....DELICIOUS! The bread and cheese were so fresh...amazing first meal! Then we wandered to a few monuments (Trevi, Spanish steps, Colosseum). Had some gelato sometime in there....AMAZING! I might have some every day!

I walk around Rome and think about how much we take history for granted at home. Maybe it's because America doesn't have anything old. We think 200 years is old.....try 2,000+ years! The architecture is beautiful everywhere! No steal buildings, different colors on every building. It's just beautiful everywhere you look! Looking at something knowing that it was around 2,000 years ago is just a surreal thing. It kind of puts you in your place. It's also kind of fun to be completely out of my comfort zone. Communicating is not always easy! I think they realize we're Americans from our blank, scared looks on our faces haha. I'll have to get a little more comfortable and have more confidence.

Well, we're probably going to dinner soon....(hard to think it's only noon back home! I'm ready for dinner and BED!) I sure will sleep like a brick tonight! Tomorrow we're doing an open air bus tour for the day! We go to the school Tuesday to start working! Can't wait to meet all the kids! Still learning how to use this blog but I'll try to attach some pics to each post! Enjoy! Arrivederci!

Ciao, Italia!

Hello all!

I was thinking of ways to keep in touch with people back home and share my experiences overseas over the following weeks and I thought a blog was rather appropriate! That way I don't have to tell all the same stories a million times and whoever wants to hear said stories can follow along...and if not then no big deal! Not a whole lot to report today other than I'm TIRED and ready to be in Italy! I know that all of this exhaustion will be worth it when I get there! Just waiting to board the flight!

Last night was awesome! Mom, Dad, Brian and I were all home at the same time! We had a little Easter/Birthday "party" when Dad got home from the airport. Mom and Dad lit sparkler "24" candles. It was good to just be home with everyone, even if only for a few hours.

Well, looks like we're boarding! I'll update you following my arrival in Roma!!

The weary, but excited world traveler,
Erica