H 2 No

We have no water. And when I say "No water," I mean NO WATER. Not a drop.

This was the nice welcome home I had yesterday upon my return from civilized Canada.

I got out of the van yesterday with all my luggage, my thoughts on having a relaxing shower and changing into my pj's before starting to unpack. Just then, Alison and Eric came out of the building on their way to buy bottled water. They helped me with my luggage, and told me how there has been no water since they returned from Germany on Friday.

Lovely.

So I spent what remaining energy I had running up and down three flights of stairs filling up bottles and pots with water to heat on the stove so that I could pour water over myself in the shower stall in a most Victorian way and have a semi-bath. While heating up water, I burnt my thumb* because in my dazed state, I forgot that pots that have been on the stove are hot and thought it would be a good idea to pick it up. Ouch!

This morning we told the director about our situation. Alison and Eric had been calling him all weekend, but he was away on holidays. Apparently the last tenants had not paid the water bill last June, so 8 months later the water company finally got around to cutting off our service. Nice.

They will be around tomorrow morning to turn the water back on. YAY! Who ever thought I would be so happy to have running water (in ITALY)??? In the meantime, I have been showering at another teacher's house that is just up the street from me.


* Cold egg whites are great for burns. George told me this a long time ago. I somehow remembered this advice and ran to the fridge to slather my thumb in egg. I let the egg whites dry on my thumb and left it there for about 15 minutes. It stopped the pain immediately, and I had no pain at all later on or the next day.

Toronto

My trip home was great--albeit too short. Even though I had a great time, I am not entirely sure going home to Toronto from Italy for a week is a good idea given the jetlag, and massively long flight. But anyways, I am totally glad I got a chance to go home and see all my family and friends, and would do it again if given the chance.

Saturday, 18th February:

I arrived after an almost 9 hour flight. Did you know that returning from Europe takes longer than getting there? From Paris, the flight path takes you over England and right up under Iceland and Greenland before arching down over Newfoundland, Montreal, and finally Toronto. From Toronto, you just fly straight over the water to Paris, so it takes less time. Stupid flight paths.

Anyways, I was really excited to be home, but also exhausted. I think I went to bed at around 7:30pm TO time, which was 1:30am Italy time. My mom surprised me with tacos (yum) for dinner, which was lovely.

Sunday, 19th February:

I went to my dad's around noon for our late Christmas celebration. My step-mom's family came over as well, and we had yummy Chinese food for dinner. It was just like Christmas, except for that it was in February.

Monday, 20th February:

Met Newhomeowner for lunch for some overdue girl time before going to the doctor. After my appointement, I met up with Jen and we went to Yorkdale to shop. I was jetlagged, so unfortunately I couldn't muster up too much shopping enthusiasm, which is rare for me. Then Jen came over to my house and we had dinner together and watched some Olympics on TV.

Tuesday, 21st February:

Met Erin for lunch for some more overdue girl time before going to get my hair cut. After that, I went to see George's sister-in-law who was in Toronto visiting her sister who lives there. We had Dominican lunch and got to chat about what has been going on lately. Later on I went up to my dad's house for the night.

Wednesday, 22nd February:

I stopped at Staples to get some much needed school supplies to take back to Italy with me. You would be amazed at what you can't find over here, such as standard-size staples, index cards, spiral notebooks, and lots of other teacher supplies too, like sentence strips and construction paper. Most strange.

I spent the rest of the day and evening with my mom and Gordon. My mom made me pork tenderloin for dinner, and then we watched two very good movies: In Her Shoes, and Crash (or maybe it was called Traffic?)

Thursday, 23rd February:

On my way to my dad's, I stopped at Bayview Village to try and exchange the backpack I bought there in August that is now falling apart, but when I got there I found that the store had gone out of business. Maybe it has something to do with the shitty backpacks they were selling???

Once my brother and sister got home from school, my dad drove us over to the science centre to see the BodyWorlds exhibit. It was so fascinating. I thought at first it would be gross to see real, dead, plastinated people, but it actually wasn't. Although I must admit that once you have seen one dead, plastinated person, you've seen them all. But is was a great exhibit. Most educational!

Friday, 24th February:

I went to the store with my dad in the morning to pack up and ship off my deffective backpack to Mississauga. I had called the company and told them what happened, and they said for me to send it in and they would send me a replacement. Now, since it is an e-Bag, which means it has a special laptop pocket, that solution wasn't of much help for me to take my laptop back to Italy the next day, but I managed.

Then I went home to start packing. I had a lot of space in my suitcases for going back to Italy since I had brought presents and my heavier winter clothes with me, which I left in Toronto. So I filled up all that space with food, food, glorious food! 5 boxes of cereal, tonnes of granola and fruit bars, cookies, 2 dozen bagles, peanut butter, you name it! Even a 2kg bag of frozen perogies! I am surprised they didn't stop me somewhere to ask if I was opening up a store!

Later that night I met my friends for dinner at Milestones before some of us headed off to The Maddy. I had THE BEST time that night! I must say that it was so nice to be out in a bar where you know "the game." Everyone speaks the same language, and you know the rules for just being there and mixing with members of the opposite sex. You just know the way things go. You know that no one is going to grab your hand and make you start dancing with them (a terrible version of merengue to a rock song mind you), no one is going to play with your hair, or start tickling you, or start bumping you just because they think you are cute. It was most refreshing indeed.

Then I went home, finished packing, and went to bed at around 3:30am.

Saturday, 25th February:

Last day at home! Boo.

I got up early. Gordon drove me to my dad's store and dropped me and my luggage off. My dad met me at the store with my brother and sister. We rented a movie to watch and went home. I spent the afternoon doing last minute things and watching a movie with my family.

The airport limo came to get me at 4:30pm, and off I went. My flight left at 7 that night, and since I was so tired from the night before I slept most of the way to Paris.

Sunday, 26th February:

Arrived in Paris, barely made my connecting flight, and slept all the way to Venice. Once I got there I was so happy that I had arranged for pick-up service from the airport to my house. I got in the van and arrived at my apartment at 1-ish Italy time.

I had a great visit home. It was the first time I have been home since moving away in August 2003 where I felt like I had never left. Ususally when I go back to Toronto, I have to readjust a bit to things. But this time I felt like I had always been there. When I was looking back on the past 6 months here in Italy, it felt like it never existed. Almost as if I had dreamt the whole thing and had been in Toronto the whole time.

It was the same way with my friends. When we were hanging out, I felt as though I had just seen them the week before.

And when I left, well it was the most upset I have got about leaving.

Home Tomorrow

What a whirlwind of a month February is turning out to be! Verona, Torino, Toronto, and when I get back, Vencie for Carnevale. *phew* I can't wait until Saturday, March 4th when I can actually stay in bed and sleep in for as long as I want!

It's going to be a busy week back in Canada for me with all the running around and trying to get stuff done. And it's probably going to be cold. Much colder than in Padova, but maybe not as damp. And I know for sure it will at least be warm inside because we Canadians know how to insulate.

I have booked the airport shuttle service to pick me up and take me to the airport, and vice versa. Even though it is quite a bit more expensive than public transit, who can be arsed to drag two huge suitcases down the street, to the bus stop, and then to the bus station? Not me!

Anyways, I better get back to packing. Ugh.

I can't believe I am going to be home tomorrow! YAY!

Good As Gold

There is nothing like being there to watch your country win a GOLD MEDAL in the Olympics.

It was truly AMAZING.

In fact, my whole trip was pretty amazing:

Friday I went to Milan for the night so that I would be able to get into Torino and then out to Sauze d'Oulx in enough time for the competition on Saturday. My good luck started right away at the metro station in Milan when I was trying to buy a subway ticket from the machine. The machine only took 5 and 10 Euro notes, but all I had was a 20. I wanted to buy three tickets, so the lady behind me put in her 5, took one ticket, gave me two tickets and a Euro so I could buy my third one, took her Euro change, and wished me goodnight.

Then I took the transit out to my hotel. It was a little further out than I thought from looking at the map, but there was an available taxi right there when I realized I couldn't walk from the subway station. And if you've ever tried to catch a taxi in Italy you know that this is a rare thing since you can't just flag them down in the street.

On Saturday morning, I woke up early and left the hostel. I had to wake up the guy so I could pay and leave. I owed 20 Euro, but only had a 50, and he didn't have any 10's to give me change, so I got a 10 Euro discount. Score! That more than made up for my arrival issues from the night before.

Then it was off to the train station. Caught a tram right away, and got to Milano Centrale with about 5 minutes to spare before the 8:18 am train left. I had decided to take my carry-on bag with me to Torino and leave it at Left Luggage there as opposed to Left Luggage in Milan even though I was planning on returning to Milan on Saturday night. And it's a good thing I did because on my way out to Sauze d'Oulx, I got a message from my friend Stacy, whom I was meeting Sunday in Torino to get a ride back to Padova with, that they had an extra bed where they were staying in downtown Torino since her boyfriend was sick and couldn't come. Score!

Once in Torino I got on another train and then a shuttle bus to the competition venue out in the mountains about an hour and a half outside of Torino.

Once inside the venue, I met up with Gliz and Neve, the 2006 Olympic Winter Games mascots!

Then it was off to find a good standing spot! I found one right at the bottom of the hill, a little to the left, and maybe three rows back. It was great. I could see the hill, the jumbo screen, and the socreboard. My dad taped the event, and said that I was even on TV twice! It was a good spot indeed.

The qualifying round was great. People were cheering and waving flags! The enthusiasm was catching. And I had a really great view of the athletes as they made their way down the hill.

The Qualifying Round ended with Canada's Jennifer Heil in first place! Now I was even happier to be staying in Torino that night as it meant that I could stay to watch the Finals. If I had been returning to Milan, I would have had to have left after the qualifications to make sure that I was in Torino in enough time to make the 2 hour journey back to Milan without arriving in Milan too late.

During the 2.5 hour break between competitions, I met up with my roommates Alison and Eric, and a few other friends from school who had come to Torino Saturday morning. Alison, Eric, and I went to get something to eat from one of the snack bars. We saw three Canadians in front of us, so we started talking to them. Turns out one of them was Jennifer Heil's mom!

The lady next to me is the Gold Medal Mom. They gave me the flag I am holding as I, sadly, did not have any Canadian paraphernalia with me. *tsk tsk* The other lady and man are GMM's best friend and husband.

To watch the Finals, I joined the others who were standing on the side of the hill so that I could make a quicker exit. The Olympic guidebook warned of long wait times to catch shuttle busses from the venue back to the train station. I still had a good view, but with the sun having set, it was SO COLD!!!

There were 20 laides in the Finals, down from 30, and all 4 of Canada's athletes qualified. But there is only one gold medal, and as you know, it went to Canada's Jennifer Heil!

After the competition was over, we made a quick escape to the shuttles and back to Torino. I met up with Stacy and her parents, and we headed back to the place where they were staying. It was actually someone's apartment. Apparently lots of people that live in Torino are renting out rooms in their houses since there is such a high demand for accomodation. Not a bad idea really.

This morning we woke up. I went to the train station to sort out my ticket home since Stacy didn't end up driving on account of her boyfriend being sick. Then I wandered around the city to catch some Olympic Spirit (and do a little souvenier shopping of course).

Then it was back to the train station to pick up my bag again, jump on the train, and begin my long trip back to Padova.

Now I am home and exhausted, but it was totally worth it!

What an experience!

GGGOOOOOLLLLLDDDD!!!!

We won GOLD in the Ladies' Freestyle Moguls!

It was awesome!!!!

I only have 5 minutes left on my internet here in the cafe in Torino so I will post more with pictures when I get back to Padova tonight.

What a way to start the Olympics.....GOLD for Canada on the first day!

GTC!!!!!

5 Days to Go

Well I finally have my Olympic plans settled. I am going to take the train to Milan Friday night, get up early Saturday morning and go to Torino. From Torino I will head to Sauze d'Oulx for the Freestyle Skiing competition. Then I will go back to Milan for the night.

Sunday morning I will head back to Torino and meet up with another teacher, her Italian boyfriend, and her parents who are here visiting from the states. We will hang around the Olympic Village for the day and have lunch before heading back to Padova by car.

All in all it should be fun. I am super-excited about it and can't wait! I have just finished booking everything, EXCEPT for my ticket for the games. I am going to go to the bank and buy it tomorow during lunch time.

YAY!

Torino 2006, Here I Come!

I'm going to the Olympics next weekend!

YAY!!!

I am so excited!!!! The details are not quite worked out yet, as in I don't actually have tickets for an event, but I have checked the availability online. I want to go to the speedskating event, but the tickets are temporarily unavailable online. Maybe tomorrow they will be available again. If not the speedskating, then I will go to the luge instead.

The main thing is that I have a place to stay for the night. There was nothing in Torino, so I decided to stay in Milan instead. It is only about 1 1/2 to 2 hours on the train from one city to the other.

Again, I say YAY!!!

In other news, my roomies and I took a field trip to Verona today. What a beautiful little town!

Way better than Padova! I ask you "Of all the towns in Italy......" But no matter because it is still Europe, and on a lesser scale Italy and it means I can go to the Olympics! :D

But back to Verona:

It was lovely. We saw the Roman arena (think Colosseum here, but smaller) and were able to wander around inside it and climb up to the top.

Trust me those stairs were a workout. The bigger ones are about 45cm high. I opted for the "wee stairs" when I had the chance. Then we went to La Casa di Romeo e Giulietta (Romeo and Juliette's house). We saw her balcony and a statue of Juliette. I even touched her right breast!

How cheeky! Actually, it is supposed to be for good luck, you know like rubbing the boar's nose in Florence, or throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain in Rome, dropping a penny off the CN Tower in Toronto........oh wait---that's not for good luck!

Before heading back to Padova we went to McDonald's (*gasp* Oh the horror! I know, I know. But after 6 months you would get pretty sick of pasta and pizza too!!!) for a bite to eat, where we discovered further proof of Italy's backwards state of being:

They STILL use styrofoam containers!!! And with all the progressive recycling efforts: 4 categories for waste. *tsk tsk tsk*

About To Do My Head In

I really am!

I am *trying* (operative word here) to write progress reports. Joy. All I have to say is "Augh! Italian progress reports!!!!!" Or rather "Italians and their weird grading system!!!" Really.

You try having to determine if a student is:

-insufficient (non-sufficiente)
-sufficient enough (appena sufficiente)
-sufficient (sufficiente)
-more sufficient (sufficiente piu)

*and those are just for the failers!*

-good (buono)
-better (buono piu)
-distinct (distinto)
-more distinct (distinto piu)

OR

-optimum (ottimo)

That's like, 9 possible grades times 19 children. We are looking at 171 different possibilities here. Times that by 6 subjects and you get 1026 possible grades. GAH! I am not even sure I can make 9 different differentiations (how's that for redundant) between the ability level of one child. What is the difference between sufficiente piu, and buono, really? A few spelling mistakes?

Whatever happened to good ol' NS, S, G, or VG? Nice and easy: 4 choices. Either you get it, or you don't. None of this "Well if Venus is rising and Saturn descending, and the placement of the clouds just covers three quarters of the half moon, then congratulations! You are distinct." 9 choices is just too many.

In addition, we have to write in comments for every subject (English, Math, Science, History, Geography, Art, and Social Skills) in blank boxes. No format, no rubric-style checklist with curriculum objectives. Nothing. Nada. Neinte. Rien (I am out of foreign languages with which to say "nothing" or I would keep going). I mean, if you are going to ask me to write 7 comments per child (133 comments total. *eyes bug out of head* I better get cracking on these things!!!), at least give me something to go on!

*sigh* Back to work.

P.S. You can grade my post if you like: Which of the 9 grades would you give me?

Success Is Mine

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Limewire has provided me with, albeit a few, episodes of Corner Gas!

YAY. I am now about to find out what is so great about the show........