Wednesday another good day..

I think it takes a week to get used to living abroad.. I am feeling more comfortable and more willing to try new things..

Today,  I did not teach in the morning because we split the group in two to visit the Aliotti school.. so Jim taught the class in the morning and I took the group.

So as we were leaving Lee Williams, Grad Dean at OU,  came by with his wife, he is on a whirlwind tour of Europe and our advanced program military base sites.  He came with us on the visit.

The visit was quite cute.. Many of the children ages 3 to 5th graders - had been learning english so they were excited to say hello and goodbye and also sing us songs in English.

The school is a private Catholic school where parents pay about 250E a month for tuition, which is considered very inexpensive by local standards but private school is not a high priority.  They are a Catholic institution founded in 1800 by the Aliotti sisters who are not quite aged and now its run by an organization. .

Our guide was Pavlina who is an english teacher and the principal Donata who is very passionate about new pedagogy.  They feel they have a revolution as they try new things like grouping students (ie.. not sitting in rows etc..) which is quite new for Italy.

Our students got to see an inquisition.. which is the way in which students are orally tested in class.   Its a big thing here.. Its funny I looked for references on the technique, and all I got was about the Spanish Inquistion.. (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.. right?? ) Which surprised them..

Also the classrooms were quite small with the chalkboards the size of a bulletin board in a home.  No technology except for a technology lab that still had some CRT's.

The school was vibrant with learning and caring for the kids. Being the month of May, there was a lot of Mary statues and such.

The school was such a wonderful host, and they hosted us both days. It was great!  I found it interesting how even though we are in a foreign country, the kids are much the same.  One big difference is the quality of art.  Art is a national standard here, or expectation.. so there is no art teacher, but each teacher is pretty well skilled at teaching art, as its something that is stressed in their own education from a young age.

After we finished the tour, I offered to take Lee and his wife to see the view from Proti Park, and of course it really started to rain.  We returned to OUA and had lunch at Osteria.  I had eggs with wild asparagus.  The eggs were fried over easy and I was really wanting that for days.

After that they went on their way and I went to relax until meeting Jim and some other professors at a restaurant outside of San Francesco.  Lee was there when we arrived and he joined us and Sean Churchman from Musical Theater.  We had a few drinks and then Sean JIm and I went to Trattoria Divino for dinner.  I had steak with peppercorns (ordered with rosemary).. it was cooked very well. (a bit expensive $15 Euro)

After dinner,  we each returned to our homes, I had some ferraro roche gelato from Crima.. yum.. but the sugar put me right to sleep!!!  

I woke at 3am, and skyped with Brian..  Somewhat of a mistake because I was up for hours because I got my mind going again.. but its never a mistake to connect with those back home.