Yes, I know - this is an ITALY blog - says so in the title! However, after 15 years of going to Italy (yes, friends - since 1995, with Baylor - the first Baylor in Italy group), I am finally branching out and heading to France this week!
First of all, thank you, Mlle. May (http://spienfrance.blogspot.com/) for your French talk with me earlier this week! I can't wait to share this experience with you and whatever random other person wants to see ME in culture shock. Yes, kids - I do expect it - remember those feelings you had at the beginning of the Italy trip, and you wished I could sympathize? I did, and I REALLY will this time - the only phrase I really have down is "je ne parle pas Francais", and maybe "ou sont les toilettes?". Maybe "je voudrais deux croissants, sil vous plait".
Upon our arrival, Jay and I immediately head to the Loire Valley, where we join family and friends at the end of their week's stay at a chateau - www.loirechateau.com - and I can't wait to see what is in store for us in this experience! Already have done a few firsts:
1. Pre-reserved train tickets. Craziness to me. And bigger craziness that the price changes, like airfare, as you get closer to the departure? No more 18E 3-hour a/c'd bus rides for us - we're paying over 10 times than that for a two-hour train ride!
2. Accepted the fact that I'm not the super-tourist. My mother-in-law found some rockin' awesome fares and trains which would get us into Tours a few hours' earlier, but, upon realizing that I'd never navigated CDG, nor the shuttles, nor Montparnasse Gare, I knew I couldn't make those trips in the time given. AUGH
3. Set important goals for the trip. I'll be teaching an English class along with my Latin classes in the next academic year, so I have a novel to complete. Also, knowing the delicacies France has to offer, I MUST have a cheese and wine every day. Crepes will happen sometime during the trip, but probably not every day - I'm saving myself for fromage. Also, we are there for two Sundays. I'd love to be able to attend Mass or Vespers at least twice during our stay - one Sunday is in Avignon, after all! I was thinking it would be fun to pick up some papal stuff during my few days in Avignon (we are there two days during the cruise), but I hesitate, being the self-respecting Roman I am ("City of the Popes" belongs to one city only, thank you!!! At least St. Catherine shares the same opinion)
Our second night is in Villeneuve des Avignon (SP?), at a BEAUTIFUL hotel which Nancy (suocera mia) found - http://www.hostellerie-la-magnaneraie.com/ - and, yes, I will be doing some pool time there.
So, see - we all have the fun of newness for this summer! I hope to find a computer - our boat is wireless - and get a posting or two during this trip! But until then . . .
Laura :)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Il giorno ultimo!!!!
Buon Giorno, Tutti!
Wow - I can't believe it's our last day in Siena! How time has REALLY flown by!!! Yesterday was a "free" day for the kids - some did a little shopping at the market, some enjoyed hanging around town, some caught up on e-mails.
Today, the kids will be taking a test in class. I absolutely LOVE how they handle examinations and grading here (it's how I think we should do it) - the teacher scores the test, and considers the student's improvement as an individual (not on a score of 1 - 100), and decides if the individual has been putting in the effort to learn something.
Can I just stop and say how many times the kids' teachers have told me how impressed they are with our group's performance this year?
This afternoon, we all return to our homestays to get everything packed up (mettere - it's such a great verb - with one verb, you can make the bed, pack your suitcase, clean your room, and organize papers) before we meet at 4:45 for the festa di pizza, where we'll make pizzas and dessert from scratch, then enjoy it together. It's so much fun, and we'll be getting lots of videos and pictures of the kids making everything. Oh, and they can enter the kitchen, only after they are able to conjugate the verbs "to have" and "to be". What a great last-night-in-Siena experience!
Tomorrow morning, we meet at the train station at 8 AM, and take a private bus (thank you, SPI) directly to our hotel in Rome, which is in an AWESOME location (thank you, again, and even more, SPI). We will tour all the ancient stuff of Rome tomorrow - the Imperial Fora, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Mamertine Prison, the monument to Vittorio Emanuele, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Forum Boarium, the Bocca della Verita) - it's a sweat fest, but very interesting. When I used to get homesick when living in Rome over the summers, I'd always find comfort by sitting in the Forum, reconnecting myself with my ancient Roman family. Friday night, we'll eat at a great restaurant - Pancrazio - which is located right over the foundations of the Theatre of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was really killed (not in the Forum, as according to Shakespeare).
Then, on Saturday, we get to take a nice morning stroll through the center of town - the Mausoleum of Augustus, Piazza del Popolo, the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), the Cappucin Crypt, Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, and then stop for lunch at the Piazza Navona. Everyone gets Saturday afternoon to do their own thing - I'll encourage most people to go to the Vatican museums with Dana, but I've got an idea for those few others who have already been to the Vatican. In the late afternoon, we'll meet up at the Vatican to suffer the security lines and enter into the beautiful Basilica, then return to the hotel for showers and a last night's dinner at a great pizzeria, Montecarlo.
Oh, and Tartuffo at Tre Scalini will happen sometime in there, too.
Then, the flight home on Sunday!!!
I want to thank all of you for blessing me with such a great group of kids this year - really, this has been the best experience for me, in all seven years I've done this. I can't wait to show them around Rome - my second home.
Grazie tanti,
Laura
Wow - I can't believe it's our last day in Siena! How time has REALLY flown by!!! Yesterday was a "free" day for the kids - some did a little shopping at the market, some enjoyed hanging around town, some caught up on e-mails.
Today, the kids will be taking a test in class. I absolutely LOVE how they handle examinations and grading here (it's how I think we should do it) - the teacher scores the test, and considers the student's improvement as an individual (not on a score of 1 - 100), and decides if the individual has been putting in the effort to learn something.
Can I just stop and say how many times the kids' teachers have told me how impressed they are with our group's performance this year?
This afternoon, we all return to our homestays to get everything packed up (mettere - it's such a great verb - with one verb, you can make the bed, pack your suitcase, clean your room, and organize papers) before we meet at 4:45 for the festa di pizza, where we'll make pizzas and dessert from scratch, then enjoy it together. It's so much fun, and we'll be getting lots of videos and pictures of the kids making everything. Oh, and they can enter the kitchen, only after they are able to conjugate the verbs "to have" and "to be". What a great last-night-in-Siena experience!
Tomorrow morning, we meet at the train station at 8 AM, and take a private bus (thank you, SPI) directly to our hotel in Rome, which is in an AWESOME location (thank you, again, and even more, SPI). We will tour all the ancient stuff of Rome tomorrow - the Imperial Fora, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Mamertine Prison, the monument to Vittorio Emanuele, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Forum Boarium, the Bocca della Verita) - it's a sweat fest, but very interesting. When I used to get homesick when living in Rome over the summers, I'd always find comfort by sitting in the Forum, reconnecting myself with my ancient Roman family. Friday night, we'll eat at a great restaurant - Pancrazio - which is located right over the foundations of the Theatre of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was really killed (not in the Forum, as according to Shakespeare).
Then, on Saturday, we get to take a nice morning stroll through the center of town - the Mausoleum of Augustus, Piazza del Popolo, the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), the Cappucin Crypt, Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, and then stop for lunch at the Piazza Navona. Everyone gets Saturday afternoon to do their own thing - I'll encourage most people to go to the Vatican museums with Dana, but I've got an idea for those few others who have already been to the Vatican. In the late afternoon, we'll meet up at the Vatican to suffer the security lines and enter into the beautiful Basilica, then return to the hotel for showers and a last night's dinner at a great pizzeria, Montecarlo.
Oh, and Tartuffo at Tre Scalini will happen sometime in there, too.
Then, the flight home on Sunday!!!
I want to thank all of you for blessing me with such a great group of kids this year - really, this has been the best experience for me, in all seven years I've done this. I can't wait to show them around Rome - my second home.
Grazie tanti,
Laura
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Homestay Experience
Buon Giorno, Tutti!
Seeing as we'll be leaving for Rome on Friday morning, I thought I'd give you two more entries, today and Thursday!
When your child returns home, you can probably have a week's worth of discussion about their homestay family, experience, and communication lessons. I know that I have a LOAD of them, just from my own homestay, and I thought I'd share a little about my own with you!
My homestay mom is generous, loving, caring, and hospitable. She wants every person who stays in her home to be comfortable and well-cared for. She's also an excellent Italian teacher, always wanting to help us improve in our speaking (seeing as that's our biggest goal here). She has had a blessed life, but not without difficulties - her husband passed away around 11 years ago (I think), and she just lost her son - who is just a little older than I - about a year and a half ago. Seeing as I have stayed with her for five years out of the past six (took one year off to get married to a WONDERFUL, UNDERSTANDING husband - I love you, Jay), I have seen her life go through changes, and appreciate her even more now that I did at my first stay. And she has seen me go through changes, too - going from single and dating, to married (and graciously inviting my husband to stay with me and enjoy living in her house and eating at her table). She's been with me through many challenges with students (I haven't said enough about how wonderful your kiddos in this group are), and with my inability to communicate with her as well as I wish I could.
Just as in any house, there are quirks with the house. The shower head leaks if you don't push the handle all the way up against the hot direction, or else the hot water drips out and is wasted (miscommunication on my part the first year - I took cold showers the entire time, thinking that she didn't want me to WASTE the hot water), and the button on the upstairs handle needs only be pushed a few millimeters to work, or else the toilet quits working (not good, when you have post-travel tummy fun). When, in my third year there (and my husband's first year), I thought she was upset about our both taking showers every day, but it turns out she just wants to be able to clean the shower between each person's use, to assure good cleanliness in the house! Even this year, I have had more misunderstandings, all on my part, but care for Dina so greatly that I want to make sure there's always peace in the house.
When we eat, well, it's a beautiful and miserable experience, all at once. Dina is a great cook, and her food is always delicious. She generously serves us HUGE servings (cracks me up to see our roommate get served the large bowl of pasta - and he eats it all!), and talks about the fact that if you don't eat well, you can't study and learn well. At the end of dinner, every night, we have to go for a walk after dinner, because a human can't sleep well with as much good food as is on our stomachs (Jay learned that in his first year).
While I'm really happy that we're going home on Sunday, I do leave behind a little myself with Dina every year. I care greatly about her, and wish her well, hoping that I get the privilege to stay with her again the next year. She's my mama Italiana. ;)
L ;)
Seeing as we'll be leaving for Rome on Friday morning, I thought I'd give you two more entries, today and Thursday!
When your child returns home, you can probably have a week's worth of discussion about their homestay family, experience, and communication lessons. I know that I have a LOAD of them, just from my own homestay, and I thought I'd share a little about my own with you!
My homestay mom is generous, loving, caring, and hospitable. She wants every person who stays in her home to be comfortable and well-cared for. She's also an excellent Italian teacher, always wanting to help us improve in our speaking (seeing as that's our biggest goal here). She has had a blessed life, but not without difficulties - her husband passed away around 11 years ago (I think), and she just lost her son - who is just a little older than I - about a year and a half ago. Seeing as I have stayed with her for five years out of the past six (took one year off to get married to a WONDERFUL, UNDERSTANDING husband - I love you, Jay), I have seen her life go through changes, and appreciate her even more now that I did at my first stay. And she has seen me go through changes, too - going from single and dating, to married (and graciously inviting my husband to stay with me and enjoy living in her house and eating at her table). She's been with me through many challenges with students (I haven't said enough about how wonderful your kiddos in this group are), and with my inability to communicate with her as well as I wish I could.
Just as in any house, there are quirks with the house. The shower head leaks if you don't push the handle all the way up against the hot direction, or else the hot water drips out and is wasted (miscommunication on my part the first year - I took cold showers the entire time, thinking that she didn't want me to WASTE the hot water), and the button on the upstairs handle needs only be pushed a few millimeters to work, or else the toilet quits working (not good, when you have post-travel tummy fun). When, in my third year there (and my husband's first year), I thought she was upset about our both taking showers every day, but it turns out she just wants to be able to clean the shower between each person's use, to assure good cleanliness in the house! Even this year, I have had more misunderstandings, all on my part, but care for Dina so greatly that I want to make sure there's always peace in the house.
When we eat, well, it's a beautiful and miserable experience, all at once. Dina is a great cook, and her food is always delicious. She generously serves us HUGE servings (cracks me up to see our roommate get served the large bowl of pasta - and he eats it all!), and talks about the fact that if you don't eat well, you can't study and learn well. At the end of dinner, every night, we have to go for a walk after dinner, because a human can't sleep well with as much good food as is on our stomachs (Jay learned that in his first year).
While I'm really happy that we're going home on Sunday, I do leave behind a little myself with Dina every year. I care greatly about her, and wish her well, hoping that I get the privilege to stay with her again the next year. She's my mama Italiana. ;)
L ;)
Monday, July 6, 2009
Dolce Senesi
In the midst of all the trip business I've been sharing with you, I have completely overseen the priorities - DAILY LIFE, which is so beautiful in Siena!
First of all, the Campo is the center piazza of the city. Siena is situated on two hills (and surrounding areas), with the Campo in the center (they call it the "drain", and there really is a central drain in there). When it rains, it's a crazy-good drainage system.
And rain, it has. It has rained on us practically every day. In other places, and on other touring experiences, this may seem like a hindrance, but the kids have learned to really appreciate it. Often, the day starts off stifling and warm (when you have A/C nowhere, your body learns to handle the weather differently), then the clouds blow in, and we get a little cloudburst (this stay, usually with some thunder, even we rarely see lightning), then it's cool with a nice breeze the rest of the time. The weather groups say that this is supposed to stop tomorrow, and it'll get a little warmer, but that's fine - we can pit out our clothes this week, and bring them back home for cleaning in our washing machines at home. Dirty laundry is the best packing material for pricey gifts - no one's going digging through that!!!
And the kids are learning to appreciate the sweets of Siena. We're still on the search for the best gelateria (I know my favorite one, but often students challenge me on this by the end of the trip), and we have some avid seekers. But, in Siena, baked goods are the BOMB. There are:
Ricarelli - soft, sweet cookies which are dusted with powdered sugar. I bring these home every trip, but they often harden before you can serve them to family, so they're probably not coming home with me this time (sorry, Mom);
Cantucci - really hard cookies which look (and are made) like biscotti. Caveat: if your child brings these home, don't eat them straight up - you'll break your teeth on them! They're intended to be served with vin santo, a very strong after-dinner wine - you fill shot glasses halfway with the vin santo, then put the cantucci in the glasses to soak, before eating them. I guess you could use regular wine to serve these, if your kiddo brings them home without vin santo, but it's just not the same . . .
Panforte and Panpepato: I am not the biggest fruitcake fan (even though I AM a fruitcake - parrotheads!!!), but this is something completely different. It's a small, round cake, but far thicker in consistency than cake, with nuts and candied fruit in it. I serve this in small slices to friends and family - a little goes a long way. The ingredients differ a little between the two, but they both have the same intent, which is totally accomplished - YUM
If your child brings anything else home (ciambelli or ciambellini - little cookies; dolci tipici - typical sweets), feel free to share on these, or ask questions! Above are the standard, common ones.
Of course, there are Baci ("kisses"), which are sold throughout Italy. It's something I encourage kids to buy when we're hanging out in the international lobby, waiting for our flight, to bring home to you. They're a little bigger than Hershey's kisses, and always have little bits of hazelnuts in them. Several of the kids on the trip have discovered their love for Nutella (seriously, Alex, Nutella on goldfish?), so you may see some containers of that in their bags, too. Please know I DON'T enourage that! :) It sits right next to the peanut butter at home . . . DUDE
This week, the music school in town (Chigiana - originally sponsored by the Chigi family) is hosting the beginning of their summer music program, and they have concerts every night. Each concert (like at home) is sponsored by a different group or company, and sometimes they give great discounts for students (i.e. our kids), so I encourage students to check out the concerts, if they're interested. Actually, during our last night (when we have our pizza-making party at the culinary school), they have a concert in La Piazza di Jacopo Della Quercia, which is pretty much an open locale. They have a small amount of seating, but the public can sit on the steps by the Duomo and still enjoy the beautiful concert. We may just go there together after our fabulous dinner of pizza, to enjoy our last evening in Siena!
Then, there's always the option to just hang out at home or in the Campo in the evenings, an absolutely enchanting experience!!!
Grazie tanti!
Laura :)
First of all, the Campo is the center piazza of the city. Siena is situated on two hills (and surrounding areas), with the Campo in the center (they call it the "drain", and there really is a central drain in there). When it rains, it's a crazy-good drainage system.
And rain, it has. It has rained on us practically every day. In other places, and on other touring experiences, this may seem like a hindrance, but the kids have learned to really appreciate it. Often, the day starts off stifling and warm (when you have A/C nowhere, your body learns to handle the weather differently), then the clouds blow in, and we get a little cloudburst (this stay, usually with some thunder, even we rarely see lightning), then it's cool with a nice breeze the rest of the time. The weather groups say that this is supposed to stop tomorrow, and it'll get a little warmer, but that's fine - we can pit out our clothes this week, and bring them back home for cleaning in our washing machines at home. Dirty laundry is the best packing material for pricey gifts - no one's going digging through that!!!
And the kids are learning to appreciate the sweets of Siena. We're still on the search for the best gelateria (I know my favorite one, but often students challenge me on this by the end of the trip), and we have some avid seekers. But, in Siena, baked goods are the BOMB. There are:
Ricarelli - soft, sweet cookies which are dusted with powdered sugar. I bring these home every trip, but they often harden before you can serve them to family, so they're probably not coming home with me this time (sorry, Mom);
Cantucci - really hard cookies which look (and are made) like biscotti. Caveat: if your child brings these home, don't eat them straight up - you'll break your teeth on them! They're intended to be served with vin santo, a very strong after-dinner wine - you fill shot glasses halfway with the vin santo, then put the cantucci in the glasses to soak, before eating them. I guess you could use regular wine to serve these, if your kiddo brings them home without vin santo, but it's just not the same . . .
Panforte and Panpepato: I am not the biggest fruitcake fan (even though I AM a fruitcake - parrotheads!!!), but this is something completely different. It's a small, round cake, but far thicker in consistency than cake, with nuts and candied fruit in it. I serve this in small slices to friends and family - a little goes a long way. The ingredients differ a little between the two, but they both have the same intent, which is totally accomplished - YUM
If your child brings anything else home (ciambelli or ciambellini - little cookies; dolci tipici - typical sweets), feel free to share on these, or ask questions! Above are the standard, common ones.
Of course, there are Baci ("kisses"), which are sold throughout Italy. It's something I encourage kids to buy when we're hanging out in the international lobby, waiting for our flight, to bring home to you. They're a little bigger than Hershey's kisses, and always have little bits of hazelnuts in them. Several of the kids on the trip have discovered their love for Nutella (seriously, Alex, Nutella on goldfish?), so you may see some containers of that in their bags, too. Please know I DON'T enourage that! :) It sits right next to the peanut butter at home . . . DUDE
This week, the music school in town (Chigiana - originally sponsored by the Chigi family) is hosting the beginning of their summer music program, and they have concerts every night. Each concert (like at home) is sponsored by a different group or company, and sometimes they give great discounts for students (i.e. our kids), so I encourage students to check out the concerts, if they're interested. Actually, during our last night (when we have our pizza-making party at the culinary school), they have a concert in La Piazza di Jacopo Della Quercia, which is pretty much an open locale. They have a small amount of seating, but the public can sit on the steps by the Duomo and still enjoy the beautiful concert. We may just go there together after our fabulous dinner of pizza, to enjoy our last evening in Siena!
Then, there's always the option to just hang out at home or in the Campo in the evenings, an absolutely enchanting experience!!!
Grazie tanti!
Laura :)
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