Today we walked a LOT. Our tour guide Massimo met us at our hotel at 9am. He was very well informed and helped us to cover a lot of ground. However, he didn’t score big points for personality. He was pretty much a stale smelling old man who wasn’t all that friendly. He was also kind of sexist; for example, he didn’t seem to think I could step off of the city buses by myself. That was annoying. Anyway, we did see the Piazza del Campidoglio (I believe Nero committed suicide there), the Spanish Steps, Trajan’s column, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, [View Full Entry]

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more pics :) [View Full Entry]

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It has been a busy few days. Dad FINALLY met me at the train station in Milan at 5:15pm on Sunday. In addition to screwing up his flight, the airline also lost his luggage! (He still has yet to get it!) He arrived none-too-soon as I had purchased tickets for us on the 5:30 train to Florence. I was ready to get out of there. I was tired of hanging out in the train station with all of my stuff fearing that I was going to get pick pocketed at any moment. We got to Florence in the evening and checked [View Full Entry]

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Well today has been a crazy day. After rejecting a few things from my luggage and freaking out a little bit about exceeding the weight limit, I left the B&B to embark on my grand Italian adventure. I somehow did manage to make it through the airport relatively hassle free. It’s weird though, at Stansted they don’t tell you your gate until like 40 minutes before you leave so you have to sit in this communal waiting area which is kind of annoying. Especially for me since I like to go ahead and find my gate and THEN doing anything else [View Full Entry]

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So last night I had a dream. In my dream, I was riding on a bus. The bus driver stopped the bus and refused to move forward until everyone on the bus got quiet! I am thinking that this means I need a vacation, because it is symbolic of my life in the classroom at this point. I love my kids but they are definitely a chatty bunch. Consequently, I am spending a lot of time trying to think up ways I can encourage them to talk only at the correct times. So far, their behavior is just pretty uneven. On [View Full Entry]

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So I realize I haven't written anything since last weekend. Gosh, there is just so much to tell. I made it through my second--and first full--week of school. Sadly, no mass this week. Although I did get a dose of "RE" on Friday afternoon (seriously, who do they have scheduling this stuff?). And in a tragic turn of events, due to some kind of scheduling miscommunication, the kids in year 4 did not get ANY of their weekly "golden time" (this is basically the equivalent of "fun friday"). Keep in mind that they spend all week trying to be good in [View Full Entry]

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Well, I made it through my first "real" Monday. It wasn't too bad since I was only in school half of the day and had my seminar in the afternoon (with a lunch break from 12-2!). A real highlight of my teaching career so far happened today: I got to explain to the kids in my class what a cheerleader was! This included giving a description and showing them a video of a cheerleading routine on youtube. Oh the things we take for granted. I also got to observe in another classroom and it was interesting to see the contrast in [View Full Entry]

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Here are the pictures from Trafalgar Square and Parliament and Westminster Abbey: [View Full Entry]

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So I made it through week number one! We took the kids swimming--apparently each child has to be able to swim 25 meters by a certain grade that I can't remember. We also took the kids to a secondary school to do what looked like something that might be the equivalent of physical fitness testing. The tests were pretty random though--long jump and there was some balance thing that I was really glad I didn't have to do. And on Thursday we had an exciting in-school mass! Gotta love it. Anyway, yesterday I took the train to London for the day [View Full Entry]

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I want to start off with some EXCELLENT news: I am the proud owner of a new "lap tray." I am learning that it is ALL about terminology. Whereas no one seemed to have any clue what a "lap desk" was, after doing some online research (as I was in a panic yesterday thinking I would have to do actual work without so much as even a clipboard), I realized by referring to it as a lap tray I could get through to people. And, lo and behold, there was actually one available at a department store in town! Granted it [View Full Entry]

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