|
|
Day Seven Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on my blog posts so far! It’s very exciting for all of us when we receive new comments on our posts. It lets us know that people are reading and taking an interest in them. I think the blogs are really important because they let people know the impact of IDPS experiences on the students who participate in them. I like using my blog as a place where I can take time to reflect and make connections between my experiences abroad and at home. With that being said, it has officially been one week since we left for Italy. It feels like we just got here, but also like we’ve been here for a long time. Today Padre Pio Middle School in Torremaggiore hosted a concert to recruit students from San Giovanni Bosco and Emilio Ricci for their music programs and they invited us to attend. I thought it was interesting that the only instruments the students played were flute, guitar, piano, and percussion. They played songs we knew like Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus and Believer by Imagine Dragons and some famous Italian songs. I loved watching the students sing along! The Buff State music education majors sang This Land is Your Land and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. The kids started clapping to the beat and the teachers joined in with their instruments. After the performances we visited a few classrooms. The students were excited to meet us, but were too shy to ask us many questions. The last class we visited was a PE class and the teacher invited us to shoot hoops with the students. I think some people would be surprised to learn that Karly and I are terrible at basketball! We are constantly being asked if we play basketball or volleyball because we are tall, especially Karly. Either way, we did not want to pass up the opportunity to play basketball with some Italian kids! Day Eight During the interview process for IDPS Italy Dr. Renzoni and Dr. Weber kept stressing the importance of flexibility, but I never knew just how flexible we had to be until we actually got here. I am very schedule oriented and it was a shock to me when we arrived in Torremaggiore and our plans changed three times on the first day. As Dr. Renzoni likes to say, we are learning to be rubber bands! Katie and I assumed that today we would be in the same class as we were on the first day at San Giovanni Bosco and we prepared our lessons accordingly. We were surprised when we got there and were asked to teach a music lesson! Dr. Renzoni and Katie quickly brainstormed some ideas and we took the students outside to sing songs with them. We sang as many songs as we could possibly think of for an hour. I had a great time singing the songs and the students did too! I think this was a very valuable experience because it taught me to be ready for anything in and outside the classroom. One thing I struggle with as a preservice teacher is being confident in the classroom. It’s easy being confident around the students. I don’t think I could be a teacher if I wasn’t! Mostly, I worry about what the other adults in the room think about me. For example, one time I taught a lesson that I had to videotape for my methods course and a few of the students were distracted by the camera and off task. After the lesson was over the teacher made all the students apologize to me for their behavior. I was so embarrassed! When I found out that we would be teaching music at San Giovanni Bosco I was nervous and excited. I think it's fun to sing and dance, but I didn’t want make a complete fool of myself in front of Katie, Dr. Renzoni, and the Italian teachers. All of these worries washed away after we started working with the students. I realized that no matter what country you are from or what language you speak all children love teachers who radiate confidence. In fact, Dr. Renzoni commented how joyful I was and said that all the students thought I was a music teacher too! I want to be a teacher like Dr. Renzoni who can get even the shyest student to sing and dance with her, Dr. Shively who makes every class feel like a standup comedy show, or Dr. Paterson who dresses up and plays the part of different Harry Potter characters every week. In Italy the students attend school from about 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM six days a week. I like that the days are shorter because students have more time to spend with family and enjoy leisurely activities, but I don’t like having school on Saturdays. I don’t know who would actually like that though! One of the English teachers at the high school kindly arranged for some of her students to take us out. A few of them were only one year younger than Karly and I as another difference between the school system in Italy and the States is that high school goes up to 19 years old. The students met us at the B&B and took us to a restaurant bar. I had flashbacks from when we went out with the students from Universidad Mayor in Chile! Day Nine Sacco and Vanzetti are two Italian immigrants who were accused of murder and robbery and sentenced to the electric chair in Boston, MA in 1927. Vanzetti is from Torremaggiore and is buried in the cemetery there. Many people from the town, including Vanzetti’s 90 something year old niece, met us at the cemetery to show us his gravesite and share the story of the two men. She talked a lot about xenophobia and how it is important to talk about the past to inform others and prevent the same things from happening again in the future. It made me think a lot about the current rhetoric in the United States surrounding immigrants and if the past is, in fact, repeating itself. After the cemetery we went to the Sacco and Vanzetti Association where the members showed us a video and treated us to a buffet. I couldn’t believe that they threw this party for us because we are from the United States…where Sacco and Vanzetti were killed. I thought there would be at least some negative feelings towards us but that was not the case at all. It was very refreshing to see how accepting and forgiving everyone was. A few teachers took us on a tour of the churches in town and we headed back to the B&B for the rest of the night. To no surprise all of the stores and restaurants in Torremaggiore are closed on Sundays. It’s so different compared to the United States where we have some stores that are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week! Day Ten Today was one of my favorite days on the entire trip! We started the day at San Giovanni Bosco. Katie, Dr. Weber, and I ended up in a class filled with three year olds. I am not an early childhood or combined major so this was a whole new experience for me. We sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag” with the children and gave them small US flags to wave around. They were very cute, but I’m sure it would be exhausting to teach preschool all day. At San Giovanni Bosco a lot of the teachers give out pop, candy, and cookies as a snack to the students in their classrooms. This would never happen in the United States because of all the regulations on school food. When we got out of school there were vans waiting to take us on a food and wine tour! As with everything, it was arranged by Mateo, the president (superintendent) of Torremaggiore Schools, and the association for cultural exchange. First, we went to a buffalo mozzarella cheese farm. This kind of cheese is very popular in Torremaggiore. The farm is owned by a husband and wife, and has been in his family for many years. They own hundreds of buffaloes that we got to see and pet. We learned a lot about the cheese making process and were able to sample some cheese before we left. It was delicious! After the farm we went to a winery. This winery is very well known in Torremaggiore for their award winning wine that they create in small batches. We toured the facility and sampled wine. The samples were much more generous than the samples you might receive on a wine tour in the United States or Canada. Our last destinations on the trip were two olive oil factories. Signor Grassi uses olive oil in all of the meals he makes for us and I love it! The family who owned the business took us through the process they use to make olive oil. At the end they gave all of us mini bottles of olive oil to take home and let us try some of their products. I ate so much bread drizzled with oil that I felt like I was going to explode! I'm so grateful for all the people who arranged this excursion for us. The hospitality in Italy and Torremaggiore is unmatched!
0 Comments
Day Five Wednesday was our first full day in Torremaggiore. We started with a great breakfast by Signor Grassi and at 10 we were picked up by two teachers from San Giovanni Bosco Elementary School. They took us to city hall where we met other teachers and different government officials. Torremaggiore and Buffalo are sister cities and there is a proclamation in the Mayor’s office to prove it. The partnership started back in the early 2000s when students from Torremaggiore went to Hutch Tech. They are very proud of their partnership with Buffalo and it feels incredible to know that I am a part of it. After city hall we took a short walk to San Giovanni Bosco and when we got there we saw that the entire school yard was full of students! They were waving Italian and American flags and held signs that said “Welcome to Torremaggiore” and “Circolo didattico Torremaggiore” while music played in the background. It was the MOST special moment of my life and I will cherish it forever. I started tearing up when the students sang the Italian and European Union national anthems. Then they gave us the microphones and asked us to sing our national anthem. I’ve never sung so loudly in my entire life. Lindsey compared our greeting by the students and teachers at San Giovanni Bosco to the scene in the Princess Diaries 2 where Princess Mia buys crowns for all the kids in town and lets them walk in the parade with her. Torremaggiore is the real life Genovia! After the incredible welcome we went into the school and they had a whole spread for us complete with traditional Italian treats. I noticed immediately that the school was decorated for Christmas. There was a nativity scene and Christmas tree among other decorations. In addition, at the front of each classroom hangs a crucifix on the wall. San Giovanni Bosco is named after a saint. This is very different than in the United States where public schools and religion do not mix. Although it makes sense considering that Italy is the home of Catholicism. We took a mini tour of the school and went into some of the classrooms. The walls in the hallway were filled to the brim with colorful paintings and student work. I saw some models that students made for science class and they reminded me of the models we made in Dr. Shively’s science methods course. The models were about the importance of recycling. It was interesting to see that they teach some of the same things here that they do in the United States. I enjoyed distracting the children as we walked past the classrooms and waved at them. They jumped out of their seats to wave back at us. I noticed that there are only about 20 students in each class. In Chile there are up to 40 students in a class and only one teacher. At San Giovanni Bosco some students even had personal aides. In both Italy and Chile the students stay in the classroom while the teachers switch. The teachers only teach a handful of subjects. I like this system because I think it is better for teachers to be excellent teachers of a few subjects rather than good at all of them. After we left the school we explored Torremaggiore and looked for a place to get lunch. We quickly learned that just about everything is closed from 1-5 for siesta. Siesta is a time where everyone leaves work and school to go home, rest, and enjoy lunch with their families. It is a great time to catch up on blogs or create lessons because there is nothing else to do except stay at the bed and breakfast. We made sure to stock up on goodies at the grocery store to keep in the fridge in our room because we can get quite hangry waiting for dinner. Italians eat dinner very late. Luckily Dr. Renzoni and Dr. Weber got Signor Grassi to make dinner a little earlier for us. After another amazing dinner Katie and I stayed up late to create our activities for school the next day. I guess I’ll never stop procrastinating… even in Italy. Day Six I feel like a celebrity in Torremaggiore. After our visit to Town Hall and the warm welcome at San Giovanni Bosco people everywhere have been recognizing us as the students from Buffalo. I’m not sure what gives it away besides the fact that we constantly travel in a big group or look incredibly confused when people start speaking Italian to us. Today we were walking past a boy who was setting off fireworks near the bed and breakfast. He looked at us and said “Americano?” to which we replied “Si!” and he said “Let’s go Buffalo!” We couldn’t believe it! Today was our first day teaching at San Giovanni Bosco and all of the students in our class asked for our autographs before we left. I saw a few of the students writing sentences and drawing pictures around our names. I took a picture of one student’s drawing and translated it when I got home. It said “I will never forget when the Americans came to school.” I feel the love from everyone in Torremaggiore. There are two schools that we are teaching at in Torremaggiore. They are San Giovanni Bosco and Emilio Ricci. San Giovanni Bosco is the school that originally established the connection with our IDPS consortium. However, Dr. Renzoni told us a few months before we left that San Giovanni Bosco closed and combined with another school in the town, Emilio Ricci. We were very surprised when we got to Torremaggiore to see that San Giovanni Bosco was still open! The cohort was divided between the two schools and Katie and I were assigned to San Giovanni Bosco. I’m glad that we were assigned to go to this school because it is much closer to the bed and breakfast. At first I was unsure of what to expect when we got to the school. Before we left for Italy we prepared our bilingual books and some activities. However, we did not know how much teaching we would actually be doing here. I was shocked when we walked into the classroom and the teacher stopped everything she was doing to let us have the floor. She had no idea what activities we had planned beforehand and had complete faith in us to deliver the lesson. That would never happen in the United States! First, Katie and I taught the students a song in English and Italian. It is the song we will use to greet them each day. Then we had the students draw their favorite foods, hobbies, and places to learn more about them. We passed around pictures of our families, friends, and pets for the students to see and also discussed our favorite things. The students asked us many questions such as “What is your favorite place in Italy?” and “Is Buffalo close to New York City?” I drew a rough picture of New York state on the board and labeled Buffalo and New York City. The students copied it in their notebooks and the teacher took a picture. I would have tried to draw a more accurate looking picture if I knew that would happen! One of the students in my class was from China and she doesn’t speak English or Italian. I tried to use Google Translate to help her, but I didn’t remember until after that there are different languages in China like Mandarin and Cantonese. I felt bad for this student because she was confused by the activity and copied the example instead of creating her own. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for this student to sit in school all day without understanding what her teacher is saying. I hope to create activities using the strategies I learned in the IPDS Chile class and EDU 310 to help this student understand and alleviate some of her frustration. After school we wandered around and looked for an open restaurant. We became very hangry and quickly decided that siesta was not for us as we are accustomed to a fast paced lifestyle in the United States. Eventually we had to go to the supermarket because everything else was closed. After we ate we decided that siesta wasn’t so bad and we appreciated the relaxed lifestyle in Italy. I like knowing that I can leave my worries behind in Buffalo and just focus on being in Italy.
I feel like I gained three brothers, nine sisters, and two fun aunts on this trip. It’s fun and crazy to be living in the same house as everyone. We hang out together all day every day. I have definitely become more extraverted throughout the past few months between going to Chile, working at a sleep away summer camp, and now going to Italy. These experiences have helped me to learn how to coexist and work with others. I know these skills will prove to be invaluable when I become a teacher! Today we left Rome and I can’t believe how fast the three days here have gone. I’m looking forward to starting the second leg of our trip. Below is a log of all the things I did in Rome! Day One Our first day was exciting yet incredibly exhausting. Our flight arrived at 9 AM and there is a six hour time difference between Buffalo and Rome which means that it was actually 3 AM. When we got to the hotel we were greeted by Dr. Renzoni and a surprise guest… our Italian teacher Marco! Marco is a grad student at Canisius who taught us Italian on Saturday nights throughout the Fall semester. He is from Italy and was spending time with his family for Christmas when he decided to meet us in Rome. We were all very happy to see him! A little while later we went to the Colosseum. Brittany brought a Buffalo Bills flag and we took a group picture with it in honor of the playoff game later that day. After the photo shoot we went to the Vatican. We wanted to go to the Sistine Chapel, but we found out that it closed early and was not open on Sunday or Monday. We are hoping to go back on the 22nd when we come back to Rome before our flight home to Buffalo. We spent the rest of the day exploring and saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We did not intend to go to the Spanish Steps, but we turned a corner and saw a ton of people sitting on them! I wondered why they are so popular because they are literally just a big set of stairs. I put it on my list of things to look up on Wikipedia later. Alex, Lindsey, Karly, Mary, Dr. Renzoni, and I went out to dinner at a place Marco recommended. I had cacio e pepe which is a traditional Roman dish. It reminded me of a light fettuccine alfredo. It was very good, but I liked Dr. Renzoni’s dish even better. It was bucatini all’amatriciana. Finally, we all settled down at the hotel, hung out, and watched some of the Bills game in Tanner, Nick, and Alex’s room. I went to bed before the game was over because it didn’t end until very late here. I didn't miss anything though because the Bills lost anyway! Day Two On our second day we had breakfast at the hotel. It reminded me a lot of the traditional Chilean breakfast because it mostly consisted of rolls, ham, and cheese. After breakfast we went to a market in the Trastevere neighborhood. It took us about an hour to walk there from our apartment. In Rome, cars do not stop for people unless you literally walk in front of them. Usually someone brave, either Alex or Nick, crosses the street first and the rest of us follow. We’ve definitely had a few close calls…sorry Mom and Dad! ;-) The market was HUGE and there were a lot of souvenirs to buy. I got a few magnets, but the one thing I really wanted was an Italian children’s book. I bought one while I was in Chile and I decided that I wanted to start a multilingual library and buy a children’s book in every country I travel to. The book I bought is about a monster who eats different green vegetables, or at least that’s what I can tell from the pictures! It took me a few minutes to find a book that didn’t have a lot of words on the pages. Dr. Renzoni said that she thinks there are more words because the Italian language uses more words to get the point across. After the market we went to lunch at a bakery and I got pizza. It was delicious, but I had pizza in Italy three times so far and each time was very different than the next. Two of the pizzas I had, including the one at this bakery, were very bready and reminded me of brick oven pizza back home. The other pizza was very thin and reminded me of the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, I do realize that I just compared Italian pizza to the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. I want to know what authentic Italian pizza is like. I wonder if the pizza will be more consistent in Torremaggiore. In Trastevere we spent the whole day shopping. It reminded me of Italy in Epcot! There were narrow cobblestone streets with lights strung in between the buildings above. It felt truly magical. I did not buy anything because I am waiting to find something that I really like for myself or my family. Nevertheless, it was fun walking to the different shops and encouraging my friends and Dr. Weber to buy things that they didn’t really need but HAD to have! Eventually we made our way over to the Pantheon and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our group dinner. The hotel recommended the restaurant to Dr. Renzoni and we all prepaid 12 euros for a pasta dish, chicken, salad, fruit, water, and pop. I liked the pasta dish, but when we got our chicken and salad it was literally a chicken patty and lettuce. I wasn’t sure if they gave us this food because we are from the States and they think we don’t know any better or if the restaurant actually had bad food. We all agreed that the dinner was bad and now it’s a bit of an inside joke within the group. We kept seeing advertisements for this place called the Ice Bar and we decided to give it a try after dinner. It was basically a giant igloo, and they gave all of us a big blue overcoat to wear because it was -5 degrees Celsius. We all looked like Violet after she turned into a blueberry in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a lot of fun and we took a ton of pictures of us hanging out in the igloo and drinking out of our ice cups. We eventually left the Ice Bar because it was very cold and found ourselves at an Irish pub around the corner from our hotel. There were hardly any people there because it was a Sunday night, so the bartender gave Mary control of the music. We had a total blast because it was like a private party. When I first found out there were 14 students going to Italy I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, but now I can say that I am very pleased with how everyone is getting along and looking out for each other. I couldn’t have picked better people to travel with. Day Three Monday, January 6th was the Epiphany. Another name for the Epiphany is Three Kings Day which in Italy is an even bigger holiday than Christmas. We went back to the Vatican to see the Pope give an address. There was an incredible amount of people there, but we made it through security in time to see him. He spoke out of a window overlooking the main area in Vatican City. I took pictures and videos of it, but in every single one the Pope just looks like a little white blob. He spoke in Italian of course so we had no idea what he was saying, but I thought it was very special to be able to see the Pope speak at the Vatican. My Grandma Glowny was a devout Catholic and I kept thinking how proud she would be to know that we did that. After the festivities were over we headed over to Castel Sant’Angelo. Mary and Tanner were our hilarious tour guides despite the fact that they did not know anything about it. At the top we saw a great view of the entire city. It made me realize how much walking we actually did when I saw how far away some of the places we went to were. As the sun was setting we made it to the Altar of the Fatherland which is a HUGE monument in honor of the first king of unified Italy. We climbed to the top and saw amazing views of the city. We went to the roof top bar, ordered drinks, and took pictures. I don’t like wine, but I borrowed Lindsey’s for the picture of course. For dinner Mary, Karly, Sydney L., Sydney W., Katie, Amanda, and I went back to the restaurant Karly, Mary, Alex, and I went to with Dr. Renzoni on the first night. This time I ordered the bucatini all’amatriciana and it was the BEST meal I had in Rome. Everyone loved their meals as well and Mary asked the owner if she could buy a jar of sauce. The owner said no. Dr. Renzoni told us later that people in Italy are very protective of their recipes! The meal was also very cheap. I like how the tax and tip are included in everything here. It makes it much less confusing than in the United States! Day Four
Today we checked out of our hotel and drove six hours to Torremaggiore. The drive was much longer than we expected it to be. Once we finally arrived at the bed and breakfast we unpacked all of our stuff. It feels good to be staying in one place for a longer period of time. We enjoyed the first of our many incredible four course dinners by Senor Grassi. Now I am sitting in our room while Mary is Facetiming her family, Karly is in the shower, and Alex, Lindsey, Nick, and Tanner are playing cards. I feel incredibly grateful to be here and I can’t wait to start doing what we came here to do! Teach! We are currently in the Philadelphia Airport waiting for our flight to Rome! As our Dad drove us to the airport this morning all I could think is that I can't believe we are doing this all over again! It feels like yesterday we received the glorious email that we were accepted to participate in the IPDS Italy program.
Last night I was busy packing and getting ready to leave. I created two binders, one for me and one for our parents, with all of our travel documents. I put our itinerary, flight information, health insurance cards, and photo copies of our passports and debit cards in there. I did the same thing when we went to Chile and I gave me peace of mind knowing that our parents had all the information they needed in case of an emergency. I also thought it would be a good idea to save the information in the event that we find ourselves going back to that country and want to remember the places we stayed and the things we did. I hope to have a binder full of my many adventures someday! This holiday season I am thankful for many things. In particular, I am incredibly thankful to have been chosen to participate in another IPDS program. In June I participated in the IPDS Chile program and I haven’t stopped talking about it since. Every day something reminds me of Chile whether I hear someone speaking Spanish, I look at the Chile flag I have on my bedroom wall, or I scroll through the photos on my phone. The greatest gift IPDS Chile gave me was an increased understanding of the world we live in and I am a better person and teacher because of it. I still can’t believe I went from being someone who never had a passport before to traveling to two different continents within six months of each other. To top it off, I just got accepted to go to Rwanda with the Anne Frank Project this summer! Thank you to Buffalo State and everyone on my college journey who has helped to enrich my life through experiences such as these.
With that being said, I feel like a bit of an IPDS pro now in that I know what to expect and I’ve been able to help my classmates, many of whom have never traveled internationally before, by sharing different tips such as how to make 1 GB of cellular data last three weeks (a daunting feat you can assume). Once again, I’ve taken on the travel role of planner. I really enjoyed working with Dr. del Prado to plan our schedule in Chile. She is the most organized person I have ever met in my entire life. While abroad, she knew where everyone was going to be on any given day, down to what line on the subway they were going to take and who was going to meet them there. Dr. Renzoni said that plans can change on a dime in Italy and it’s important to be flexible. It sounds like both trips will be very different in that regard. Another difference between IPDS Italy and Chile is that we will be staying in a bed and breakfast rather than with a host family. I am excited to share this experience with my friends as there are 14 students going to Italy this year. That is more than double the amount of students who went to Chile! I enjoyed having such a tight-knit group, but I also think it will be fun to have a lot of students on the trip. We have a mix of people from elementary, exceptional, and music education and we co-wrote bilingual books with the music education students. My partner, Katie, and I wrote our book about the Fourth of July. I’m excited to co-teach with her because we have a mix of literacy and music activities. I hope to learn more ways to integrate music into the general education classroom! I am hoping to write a blog post every 1-2 days while we are in Italy. I found it a challenge to keep up with posting in Chile because of our busy schedule, but now that I am home I am very happy to have my blog to look back on. My posts help to remind me of all the incredible things that happened and how I felt in those specific moments. One thing my sister, Karly, and I said very often on the trip was, “Every day is the best day of my life.” I plan to go into this experience with the same attitude. I am very grateful for the opportunity to go to Italy and will not take a single day for granted. Thank you in advance for reading my blog posts and following me on another incredible journey. Here is the link to my Chile blog if you would like to read my old posts... https://buffalostateipdschile.weebly.com/kelly1 |
AuthorCiao! My name is Kelly and I am a junior studying elementary education at Buffalo State. ArchivesCategories |