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Student teaching in Italy is officially over I guess… I’ve started to pack my suitcase (a large portion of which is taken up by food) and my closet is completely empty now, except for my last day of school (tomorrow- OH MY GOSH) outfit and my plane outfit.  Although it feels like I’ve been here forever, and the first day of school seems like ages ago, it feels like we just got here; it can’t be time to go home already!

I’m Bad at Blogging!

Well, I knew that I would do this, even though I tried my hardest not to… I haven’t been keeping up with my blog!  It is a lot of hard work keeping a blog.  Finding the time every day, or even just three times a week, like I had previously set as a goal for myself, is difficult (especially if you’re coming home from from teaching 22 third graders, and especially especially if you love to nap as much as I do)!

But anyway, I’ve been lazy so now I have to make up for all that I’ve missed in blogging!  Here is a recap of all of the things I wanted to write about in my blog but never did:

Third grade is awesome!  International school is so much fun!  The highlight of my week last week was when one of our students had a birthday and the class sang happy birthday to her in English, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Pakistani, Russian, and Spanish!  7 languages!! These kids never cease to impress me!

Also, there are a lot of famous parents at this school- for example… one day at pick up I made eye contact with the CAPTAIN of the Roma Soccer team.  Not a big deal or anything.

We have been learning a lot in third grade, like how to write letters, all about adaptation, lots of fun math- I will be adding lessons and pictures to my lessons page shortly if anyone wants to take a look!

And of course we have done a lot of traveling!  Since my last blog post- which was over 3 weeks ago… oops- we have been to Pompeii, around Rome some more, and also to Florence and Tuscany!  All amazing places!

In Pompeii we saw plaster casts of some of the petrified bodies and we saw unbelievably preserved buildings!  I was not expecting the city to be so intact still!  There was even graffiti and political advertisements still on the outside walls of buildings lining the streets.  It was not even difficult to imagine the city as it must have been almost 2,000 years ago!

In Rome we did some casual walking around, just strolling past the Colosseum like it was nothing.  We took a minute to sit down on the field of Circus Maximus, which is where they used to have a HUGE stadium to run the chariot races.  I actually really enjoyed just sitting there and thinking about the spectacle that used to be chariot racing- which was even more popular than the gladiator fight (from what I’ve heard).  Its weird that the Circus Maximus isn’t more of an attraction, but not many people want to go and just look at a dirt ring on an empty field.

And lastly, we spent last weekend in Tuscany in Florence!  So beautiful!  We went wine tasting in a castle (YUM) and saw the Statue of David (OMG) and had a wonderful time (YAY)!  Florence is so beautiful.  The streets are lined with high-end Italian designers’ stores; I’ve never felt so classy and also so poor at the same time!

Less than two weeks until I’ll be back home and it makes me want to cry thinking about how much I’ll miss Italy and my students and colleagues here at the school.  I will miss them so much!  But  those two weeks are still two weeks to travel more and make more memories, which I plan on doing a lot of!  Today we are leaving for Cinque Terre which will be a beautiful 12 km hike around 5 cities- can’t wait!  I will post within the next few days all about it!  And I actually promise this time!  No more slacking on the blog!

Ready or Not, Here I Go

After a semester and a half of anticipation and a whole summer of preparation (and a few nervous breakdowns- oops), it is finally the day that I’ll be leaving on my journey to student teach in Rome.

In case anyone out there is a little geographically challenged… That’s in ITALY!!

As if the thought of student teaching and being fully in charge of a classroom for the first time isn’t scary enough, I’ll also be trying to adjust to a new lifestyle in an ancient city, where I barely know enough of the language to communicate beyond saying “good morning” and “gelato.”  And I ‘m just realizing how incredibly terrifying this is, now that I’ve written it down…

But, whether I’m ready or not, I’m getting on a flight and heading to Europe!  It’s too late to turn back; after all, I’ve already gotten all the “how to pack a Europtrip suitcase” advice from Pinterest and the “how to avoid major international cell charges” advice from a guy at the Verizon store.  My just-barely-under-50 pound suitcase is by the door and I am practically about to explode from excitement and nerves and the 3 coffees I drank this morning!!!

It is really hard for me to believe that I am about to leave the country for the first time on the study abroad opportunity of my dreams.  It is even harder for me to believe that it will all be fun and easy.  I am very aware that I am going to fail… a lot.  I’m going to have absolutely no idea what I’m doing!  But if there’s one thing I love to do, it’s learning, and I cannot wait to learn about the Roman culture, the schools, the language- hopefully, the history, ohhh and THE FOOD!

For the most part, this blog will be about everything that I am learning, the embarrassing things that happen to me (I’m sure there will be many), my reflections and reactions to my student teaching experience, and some summaries and pictures of any traveling that we do around Europe!

To anyone reading, thank you!  I hope you find my blog as entertaining as I do!