How Do You Spell 'Suppon?

Today for language arts we read a story about a creature named Something Else who had no friends until he met another strange creature named Something. At first Something Else rejected Something, but then he realized he was doing the same thing that was done to him. Very touching indeed.

We are focusing on story beginnings, middles, and ends so after the story was finished, my students had to go and write what happened during each part of the story. Since they are only grade two, this is not always easy for them and I am trying to encourage them to write independently instead of telling them what to write.

This practice holds true for spelling as well. I prefer they try to spell it as best they can so that I can see there level of letter awareness and such and learn what they still need to be taught. Nonetheless, I still get many children asking me how to spell words, or translate words for them from Italian to English. Sometimes I know what they are talking about, and other times.......no clue.

Like today for example: one of my kids came up to me and asked me how to spell 'suppon. Having never heard that word before, I immediately assumed he was asking for an Italian word in English: the closest word I know to 'suppon being sapone, which means soap. So, I asked him if he meant soap. He said no, 'suppon. I thought maybe he didn't know what soap was, so I repeated myself and made washing actions. Again, he repeated the word. I guess he felt the need to elaborate due to my cluelessness because he then added "You know, like 'One 'suppon a time'"

Too funny. Now why didn't I make that connection???

But You're...Canadian?!?!?

With all that time spent away in the sunny south, I have forgotten just how terribly cold winter can be: brutal wind, plummeting temperatures, precipitation left, right, and centre. Just plain miserable.

I am so cold during the day you can find me with about 3-4 layers of clothes on: tank top, t-shirt, sweater, sometimes another sweater, and my scarf draped around my neck. And this is indoors!

And at night? Forget it. Right now I have 4 layers on my bed. 4!!! Top sheet, duvet in duvet cover, fleece blanket, and down duvet. Plus I sleep fully clothed: socks, flannel pj pants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. And I still wake up in the middle of the night freezing!!! Although it could have something to do with the fact that they turn the radiators off in the middle of the night so by 5 am they are stone cold. Only in Italy would they think it stands to reason to turn off the heat during the coldest part of the day when everyone is home. So my great idea to move my bed closer to the rad in hopes of staying warm? Not so great.

In fact, it is so cold here in Padova that today I actually went out and bought a hat! *Gasp* I know! She, who doesn't even properly OWN a hat back in Canada, has gone out and actually bought one! Yes, the stark temperature of 2.7 degrees Celcius is just too much to bear for this little lass.

Sad I tell ya. I am the most pathetic excuse for a Canadian I know. I am almost ashamed to admit I am from the land of igloos and polar bears. What will my dogsled team think of me now, eh?

Oh well. Pathetic I may be, but at least I have a cute hat.

Squish Squash

Today another teacher hosted an American Thanksgiving at her house, complete with turkey and all! It was delicious. This time I decided to bring a squash dish. I know my mom makes great spaghetti squash, so I asked her for the recipe.

After some confusion on how to actually cook the squash in order to be able to follow the recipe, I was off and running. I decided to boil the squash (really it is what passes for pumpkin in these parts, but it is squat, and green and looks nothing like a "pumpkin") whole in a big pot, wait for it to cool down, and then cut it up and scrape it out, which seemed to work fine.

Then I sauteed a clove of garlic and half a medium onion in olive oil until the onions were semi-transparent, added a half a teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of mixed seasoning (it has basil, rosmary, tyme, and some other stuff in it) and some salt and pepper. While that was doing its thing, I diced a large tomato and sliced some canned black olives and added them to the mix just long enough to heat the tomatoes and olives, but not cook them. Then I made a "gravy pit" in the squash like you do with mashed potatoes, poured the mixture into it and: Ta-daa!!!

I must say, the end result was rather colourful and tasty! Thanks mom!!!

How Do You Like Your Eggs?

I think I am over "Europe." That whole fascination that held me for the last 6 years is done. Sad in some ways really. But hey, that's what life is about: having dreams, making goals, reaching them, and revising for the next step.

Let's just say that although I am glad I came, and grateful for the opportunity to be here, Italy is just not all it's cracked up to be.

An End to the Blogging Ban

Reasons for ban???

1) Blogspot ate one of my posts that I had spent about an hour on, complete with pictures and all. Subsequent visits resulted in sketchy connections with the server. So I said, screw it!

2) Honestly, I just can't be arsed lately. Sure blogworthy things have happened, but well......nothing exciting enough to warrent potentially wasting my time trying to blog about them.

But enough about that. I have conceeded to the peer pressure and will resignedly post once again. Tomorrow.

Just Go With the Flow

Teaching is one of those jobs that requires a lot of planning. And I mean A LOT of planning. Every minute of the day is taken into consideration and put to good use well in advance of the actual date so you always know what you are doing when and have everything prepared for when it is actually needed. Otherwise, you can just imagine the chaos: 20 kids, nothing to do. Not a good scene.

However, after having said that, we all know that things rarely, if ever, go as planned. And today was one of those days.

I had 45 minutes after math this afternoon which I had decided to use for a Language Arts lesson (that I was supposed to have done last week) on capitalization in book titles. I got the kids on the carpet ready for the lesson and proceeded to lead them into the topic. I had several books from our class library to show as examples for the children to identify which words had capital letters and which ones didn't.

One of the books I had chosen was The Bear Went Over the Mountain (which as you probably know is also a song). I showed the book cover and rambled on about capital letters, asking the kids to tell me which words were capitalized, etc. What ensued was:

"Oh I read that book."

"That's a song."

"I like that song."

I decided at this point that they had been on the carpet long enough and it was time to get on with the activity. I went over to my desk to get the sheets (always a mistake), and as I did, they spontaneously burst into song!

"The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain..."

Clearly they were not where I was with the lesson.

So I scrapped my plans and just went with it. We sang the song, acted it out, and then sang and acted. And it was fun. It was espeically good because the book/song ends with the bear falling asleep, so by the end of it all I even got them calmed down (which is what I was trying to do with the carpet time in the first place way back at the beginning of MY lesson).

Then they went back to their desks and wrote about what they thought the bear saw when he went over the mountain. Not exactly a lesson on capital letters, but sometimes you just gotta go with the flow!

Time to Bring the Cow

I'm going to Florence and Siena! :) I just booked my bed at the hostel, and bought my 10 Euro Happy Train ticket for Friday evening. I am so excited!

The precursor to my decision to go this Friday follows below:

This weekend was a four day weekend. Yesterday and today were holidays because today is All Saint's Day. For weeks, everyone had been talking about what they were going to do and where they were going to go for the four-day weekend. I, of course, had no plans, and couldn't decide what to do with my four days off. Part of me wanted to travel around, and part of me wanted to just stay home at my apartment (my other two roommates were off exploring) and relax!!!

I considered going to Rome, Florence and Siena, maybe Sicily, but never really decided on anything solid.

So, Friday and Saturday I just ended up chillin' out, but started to feel guilty about living in Europe and not making the most of every minute by seeing as much as possible whenever possible.

By Saturday night I had decided that I wanted to go to Florence and Siena to visit the old "stomping ground" from my trip here in '99. Well of course by that point all the hostels were booked for the next night, and I didn't want to risk going all the way to Florence and not having anywhere to sleep.

Then it dawned on me that I could go on a Friday to Florence and come back Sunday night with a stop in Siena on Saturday, since all I really want to do there is walk around and re-visit the town that was my home for 6 weeks 6 years ago.

I started checking out train fares, and happened across the Happy Train, which takes me from Vicenza to Florence Friday evening for only 10 Euro! Perfect. But could I get to Vicenza in time? I checked the schedule, and indeed I could! So I thought about what I wanted to see and if I had enough time to see it between Friday night and Sunday evening, and indeed I did!

So today I booked my room and Happy Train ticket. :) I am excited to go! It will be nice to stroll through some familiar territory here in Italy. I can go to that cafe in Siena that I stopped at every morning on my way to class. Amble through Il Campo where I spent so many evenings chatting with friends. Trek the hilly terrain that used to be my playground.

Maybe being in my home away from home here in Italy will help ground me and make me feel more "at home."