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| It has been a long time since i have updated . . . school in full swing (all one class!), overtime at work, church plant . . . where did all my time go!
Anyways, just finished my last problem for my take home test in Advanced Numerical Methods I , which I enjoy, but is time consuming - off to class i go!
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| Oh yeah . . . this has nothing to do with Italy, but I just finished
installing my prehung bathroom door . . . I think it looks great
(although I know there are others who don't - MATT!) - anyways, those
pics will be for another day.
Back to Italy. While there, we taught English classes . . . really, I
would catergorize the classes more as a cultural exchange/discussion
than I would an actual "I am the teacher/You are the student" type of
class. There were three levels of the classes: beginning (they needed a
translator to communicate), intermediate (their english was a little
choppy but otherwise fine), and advance (they spoke very well!). Kim,
Julie, and I were the advanced class facilitators. It was a lot of fun.
What I really enjoyed the most about Italy was not the beautiful
scenery, it was not the great language, but it was just having all week
to really get to know the people in our classes. We (atleast I feel)
were able to build some good friendships by having quality time with
some of the peeps in our classes.
The first day of class, in my opinion, was the hardest because we did
not know what to expect. Our typical day consisted of getting up in the
morning and having a quite time (a little time in the bible and praying
to God). Here are some qt pics - I was able to quickly snap them so as
not to disturb the subjects too much!
Gary having a qt on the balcony of our room.
Luke having a qt on the balcony of our room.
After the qts, we would meet the girls down stairs and then walk across
the street to the cafe for our breakfast. Normally, I would have una
ciocolata calda (hot chocolate) and prosciutto coto con scarmoza (ham
and cheese sandwich) . . . they were very good! Their hot chocolate is
not as sweet as ours and it's consistency is like warm pudding!
Sandwhiches for breakfast did not seem to be a typical Italian
breakfast, but it hit the spot! During breakfast we would share our
bible verses with each other. Here are some pics of our breakfast!
The cafe from the balcony.
Ladies deciding what to eat.
Everyone enjoying breakfast!
And then we would go to the local where the clubs were held and we
would spend sometime with Frank, Paul and company. Then we would plan
for classes.
Look at this pic sideways . . . Beth, Jenn, and Luke are getting ready for the beginners' class.
Erin and Paul getting ready for club sign in.
The class schedule was as follows: for
about 2.5 hours in the afternoon we had an icebreaker and then went
over vocab and idioms; for about 2.5 hours in the evening we had
reading and discussion. I really enjoyed the discussion and icebreaker
times.
Oh boy, this post is getting way too long! Don't worry, the next post will actually have pics of many of the club members!
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| Well, day 1 for me was day 2 for everyone else - darn road closings!
Anyways, I arrived in Turino around noonish (or slightly there after).
Frank (one of the pastors at the church we went to teach English with)
met me there. Gary, one of the pastors from my church, was also there
to meet me. The two of them tried to be sly . . . as I was exiting the
restricted zone, there were a group of people waiting for the arrivals.
Just before he had time to jump behind a pillar, I saw Gary. As I
approached Frank (whom I have never met before, I only knew it was him
because he held a piece of paper with GCM written on it), he asked me
where the rest of the team was. Those sly dogs might have gotten away
with except for the fact that I saw Gary. "I know they're here because
I saw Gary . . . you can't pull one over on me that easily!" I think I
ruined their fun! We promptly headed for Frank's car and headed to
town. We stopped for lunch right next to where the team was staying.
While we were eating, the rest of the gang happened upon us. It was
good to see some familiar faces that could speak the same language as
me (not that Gary wasn't a familiar face . . . and not that either Gary
or Frank couldn't speak English)! We chatted a little. I met their
"guide" . . . his name is fabio - here is a picture of fabio:
This pic is from one of the times Fabio went with Gary, Cory, Luke, and I out to eat for pizza. He was very nice and helpful.
After meeting with them, we retreated back to the hostel (which was
right around the corner) and prepared for dinner. When we arrived at
the restaurant for dinner (it was about 8 pmish, we were told that we
were slightly early . . . Italians don't eat until late! Anyways, I had
some type of pasta for dinner. Here are some pics from the restaurant:
The peeps in the pic are Luke, Cory, Frank's wife, Kim, Beth, Julie, Gary,
and Frank. You can see in the foreground that there are bottles of
acqua natural (natural water). It seems that if you don't ask for acqua
natural, they will bring you carbonated water - appearantly they like
that suff! So, when you ask for acqua natural, they bring you a botia
(bottle) of it instead of doing what they do in the States, which is
fill your glass from a pitcher. Also, they don't like ice like we do .
. . you have to ask for it. And their cups are smaller (as you can see
from the pic). And we never saw a place where refills were free! And if
you don't ask for a check, they won't bring it - they assumed you want
to talk with your friends. Also, they charge coperto - it's like
a sit down tip - if you sit at the restaurant, you pay coperto were as
if you get it to go you don't pay it. Also, you don't tip (that's
something I could get used to!). My goodness people . . . what a
culture change! But ya know, since so much of their life style seems to
revolve around food, i trust them!
Anyways - that was a fun day - boston to paris to turino! My first
impression of Italy was : I loved it! I like the laid back atmosphere.
I like the people. I like the language. I liked the scenery! To tell
the truth . . . one day I would love to live in Italy!
Well, my next entry I will talk about my first day at English class!
But for now I will leave you with a cool website to visit :
http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html
and some pics of the Americans (the italians will come at another time) and our hostel.
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| And so, on May 13th, I traveled from my home in Omaha to my sister and brother-in-law's house in Williamsburg, Virginia.
It was a great flight and so good to see my sister and family. While
there, I went to the last day of the LPGA tournament. I saw a lot of
famous golf ladies, but since i am not a huge follower of golf, let
alone women's golf, I didn't really know who any of them were - but I
did have a lot of fun. While there, we were able to get into the VIP
food tent and so I ate a lot of food! The fam and I sight saw around
town and I played with my neice . . . I had a lot of fun visiting. One
day, my sis and I went to a gym and worked out. She then told me that
she was going to keep the routine up . . . we'll see! Here is a pic of
my neice:
And so, from VA, I went to Hamden, Connecticut to visit my grandparents, aunt's family, and uncle.
It was so relaxing being there, I was
able to read most of the book I was borrowing from a friend, The Da
Vinci Code. I think I am going to wait for it to come out on rental to
watch it though - I heard that it wasn't that great of a movie.
Anyways, I also spent time helping my grandparents with yard work and
hangin' around. Also, we celebrated my cousin and my birthday on
thursday the 18th of May. Here is a pic of grandpa in the yard and my
grandma at the computer:
And finally, here is a pic with my grandparents and me:
I then rented a car and drove from
Hamden to Albany, NY were I ate lunch with my good friend Bart. It was
good to catch up with him since college
And then, from NY I started on my journey to Boston, MA:
And that is where things got hairy! What should have been a 2.5 hour
trip turned into a 5.5 hour trip. A combination of a tanker accident
closing the interstate and flooding closing most other roads, traffic
came to a literal stand still! It was horrible. I called around trying
to find an alternate route . . . but to no avail . . . it didn't help
that my phone went dead! I finally made it to boston, but I missed my
flight! That made a great birthday of sitting on the road and waiting
in the airport! So, I got rescheduled to the next day at 7pm. I rented
a hotel room and the next day I was able to see all the sights of
boston: I ate a Cheers, saw B. Franklin's parent's grave sight, the
location of the first reading of the declaration of independence, the
sight of the boston massacre, the boston harbor, old iron sides, and
bunker hill among other things! Whew, and then off to Italy . . . but
that will be for another entry!
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