Loving my silly sausages

Every day at school is getting better and better. After the first day, hearing everyone’s stories, I kind of regretted choosing 4 year olds. The older ones speak fluent English and Italian… so they can teach us Italian, but also we can understand them when they speak in English. With my little four year old babies, most of them speak Italian to me and I have to tell them to speak English, they’ll give me the cutest face and say it again in Italian. But today was a big turn around… the kids are starting to warm up to me and not just staring at me like I’m an alien. I also started teaching and getting more involved in the classroom (I just felt in the way yesterday… there are already 2 teachers for 17 kids). Also, two cappuccinos helped keep me wide awake throughout the day. My teacher has bought me one every single day... starting to feel awkward and not sure how to tell her I'll buy my own... but can't turn down a cappuccino :)

I have absolutely fallen in love with this one boy. I knew the very first day he was going to be my favorite, for some reason I’m always fascinated by the trouble makers… the ones the teachers seem to hate. I asked my teacher about the little boy and she gave me the nastiest look and goes “he’s a hit with all the little ladies and I don’t know why.” I adore him. So we were in the gardens (their playground… which is no playground at all) and he face plants in the dirt… scrapes up his face and starts bleeding.. runs up to me and says something in Italian. I ask him if his face hurts and he goes, “Nope, I’m fine.” And off he goes running. These boys are TOUGH as rocks. Today, Alessandro (my favorite little boy) walked in the classroom and speaks in Italian to his parents and they come up to me and said how Ale has been telling them about me and wanted them to meet him. His dad= beautiful. His mom= supermodel. I sware they are the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of Italy. I met all the parents (or nannies) this morning… but his parents were by far my favorite. Oh, and he told me how for a vacation recently he got to swim with dolphins (couldn’t be more jealous!) As he was describing it he said “pretend you’re the dolphin and I’m Alessandro… and I went like this to the dolphin (gives me the biggest hug) and the dolphin kissed me!” Precious. I keep comparing this kids to my mom’s preschoolers and what these kids know is astounding. They’re such worldly kids and know so, so much. One kid speaks four languages (3 fluently)… smart sausage. I find myself talking in an accent by the end of the day… it’s a mix between English (one of my teachers), Korean (another teacher), and Italian (all my kiddos). A few more of my students names…. Fabiana, Gaia (Guy-a), Gianandrea, Federico, Diamante, Leonardo… cutest/prettiest names ever. Oh, and a few things I’m going to come back saying… instead of “clean up” we say “tidy up!” and instead of “good bye” it’s “till tomorrow!”

Favorite little sausage

notice the huge pirate ship

The different teaching styles in my classroom is identical to my mom’s classroom. They are both sweet as can be… but how they interact with the students is night and day. My one teacher (the English one) tells these four year olds “go away!” when they’re misbehaving… or she doesn’t want them in a certain area. She can be so, so rude to them.. it makes me sad. But she can also be the most loving woman with them… it’s hard for me to tell, so obviously they must be so confused. The other teacher (Korean… I think?) is the most gentle, fun loving woman ever. She’s so sweet with them… so I tend to stay with her the entire day.

We were all talking about coming back here and teaching. I seriously want to learn the language.. I am obsessed. I just couldn’t be away from my family… like half way across the world far away. But I guess it would force them to come and visit ;)

After gelato last night (nutella and cookie flavored… is your mouth watering yet?) A few of us decided to venture out and explore Rome last night. We wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain.. and thought it would maybe be a 30 minute trip. Two hours later, we made it to the Trevi Fountain. Guess we didn’t know where we were going after all. We got off the bus wayyyy too far down the road and ended up near the Colosseum.. tried to back track and walked all over Rome. But that’s what we have to do to find our way around this place. The Trevi Fountain was just as packed as it was the first time we visited. Fail.

OH! And the other night, Mary Katherine, Katie, and I decided to go on a run… here are a few pictures… prettiest run ever. We went running for over an hour.. got a little lost, but it was absolutely wonderful. 

We're off for a group dinner and to watch the sunset. Ciao :)