First day at work

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Hey everyone, thanks so much for your lovely comments and facebook statuses and everything!! Really keep cheering me up and making me feel a bit less homesick (not that I'm quite there yet)!





On Sunday we went to the Villa Borghese which is a really beautiful park which used to be the grounds of the villa itself. In the gorgeous weather and leafy atmosphere it was easy to forget that you were actually in the capital of Rome! We saw beautiful monuments and gorgeous fountains and lakes and just generally took a stroll round the park, taking a relaxing day before starting work the next day.





Our new flat mate joined us in the evening and we all breathed a sigh of relief to meet her and find her nothing like the previous flat mate! Just as excited about Rome as us and ready to jump in all the same!





So on Monday morning I was the first to have my meeting my work placement 'Emporio delle Arte'. I arrived a little early so went and sat in the park opposite. A little old Italian man then decided to come over and ask me if I was cold ( I was sat in a skirt and tee with a little scarf on). I was chuffed that I was able to say that I was actually warm as Italian weather was warmer than English weather and filled with confidence for starting placement.





Well I sat through my meeting with my Italian teacher and boss utterly confused as to what the hell was going on. Then was told that I wouldn't actually start my day till 3pm. My placement boss had very limited English and I had yet to meet any other members of staff, nerves time!!





When I did actually start my day I met the rest of the staff; there are around 5 or 6 members of staff at Emporio Delle Arte and the programme is mainly centred around children and young people with one adult group run once a week. It took us about an hour and a half to get a decent dialogue going with my limited Italian and their limited English but we soon realised that we were all enthusiastic to learn each others language and that google translate is an amazing invention!!





I sat in on the 'laboratory' for drama and dance with the 3 – 5 year olds and was happy to see I could get away with some dialogue with the kids. (Asking 'how do you say it in italian' and pointing at my mouth and then repeating back to them the word for ear, unfortunately a move I have to admit, I learnt from my dad).





I also learnt that 'vai' is a magical word which makes 4 year olds who weren't even listening do exactly what you say! Doubt there's any such word in the English language!





Good old lazy bones then decided to get the bus home (because a 20 minute walk is just far too much effort :P) once again giving me the chance to be shocked by just how easy to use public transport in Rome is!!!



Learning a new language is so much harder than I expected!! I will hopefully pick up more as the week goes on and be doing some actual work by next week. But for now, shadowing the workshops (laboratories) is fascinating!! The differences and similarities between the workshops I'm seeing here and the workshops I've seen and experienced at home are endless!





Can't wait to start learning more about this quirky little venue and it's programmes as my Italian gets better and better!

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Comments

[Siobhan]

Loving the blog entries! So jealous!! :)