I've been really into posting my photos and have lost track of the real purpose of this blog: to share my thoughts on my teaching experience. Here are some things that have been going through my head:

• the meaning of the word "stupid": I have had at least two teachers call one of the students stupid. At first I was a little shocked, but then remembered that "stupido" does not mean the same thing in Italian as it does in English. Stupido in Italian is more like foolish, and is not necessarily a criticism of intelligence, but more how you act. However, I would still hesitate to use the word. Annoying and rowdy, yes. Stupid, definitely not.
• Student/Teacher boundary: On Friday afternoon, one of my students gave me a ride to the train station in his car. I wouldn't have gone willingly, but it was suggested by another Prof. At first it was a little weird, but it saved me a bus ride, so I got over it pretty quickly.
• The Trinity Exam - one of my main tasks is preparing the students for the Trinity Exam, an oral exam in English. I teach this test prep class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; Tuesday is prep for Level 7 and Thursday is prep for Level 6. I have some preparation manuals, but the students are still extremely hesitant to speak up, which is problematic, it being an oral exam and all. Finally, I had to start my lesson this past Thursday by writing three rules on the board:

1. This is an ORAL EXAM. You must participate.
2. If you do not understand, tell me. It is a waste of time for me to constantly ask if you understand or not.
3. If I ask you a question, you answer. You do not tell your friend to answer for you.

I stated these rules out of absolute necessity. Sometimes I break them up into groups of two to have discussions, and they decide to write everything down instead of speaking about it. Then there are times when I ask a question, and they stare at me or at their notebook and don't answer. Finally I ask them if they understood, and they say "no". And yes, it happens every day that I call on someone to answer a question and the student answers, "No, lui", indicating that their friend will answer instead. It makes me crazy.
There are a couple of students that I know will pass the exam, because they are very comfortable speaking. I ask a question, they can respond, and ad lib accordingly when they need to kill time while trying to figure out how to answer a question. This is 75% of the exam. Then there are others that know very little English, and I think are only taking the exam because their parents are making them. And then there are a couple of students who really just do not care, which is interesting, since the course isn't mandatory ...
However, as much as I complain, it is incredibly interesting to see the difference between teaching conversational English and teaching literature and grammar from a textbook. There are some prime expressions that I know they have translated right from Italian. For example, if they are don't speaking, they say "and stop" ("e basta"). Instead of "right now", they begin with "in this moment/period" ("in questo momento/periodo"). It's actually adorable.

Off subject, but one thing I love about having alone time is being able to listen to lots of music on my iPod, especially when I'm out walking around by myself. I've been favoring Arcade Fire recently.

The big news of the moment? I am FINALLY in my real apartment! It's absolutely lovely. Here are some pictures:

this couch folds out to a really comfortable double bed.


my own bathroom!
and here is one of the animals, Brigitte:



Mirella, the woman I rent the room from, had set out a little tray with teas, cookies, chocolate and some coffee. I came home today to this mess:



Turns out Ronny, the dog, had gotten into the chocolate. Hence, un casino. I was cracking up and showed it to Mirella. She was completely unphased by the incident and replied, "Si lo so, è una bestia!"

I was greeted by this when I woke up this morning. Carino, no?
I really have to get some work done. I woke up at around 9AM to try and start to prepare for my lesson this morning, but I got sidetracked editing my blog and researching photography courses for this summer. Looks like I'll have to do it tonight and tomorrow morning!

Here are some photos from the weekend (p.s. - I'm trying to figure out a way to embed a slideshow into my posts, so I don't have to post photo after photo. Any suggestions?)




As you can see, I finally climbed to the top of the Duomo. It was the perfect day for it, too. Best 5 euro I ever spent!

beautiful jams and other confetture at the top floor of La Rinascente department store.

Beautifully crafted and ridiculously expensive marzipan.

Going on a ride at this fair near the Castello Sforzesco. The ride was called "You Can Dance".

Enjoying gelato on the steps of a 500 year old church in the warm, Mediterranean sun. This is what Italy is all about, in my opinion.

par-ee-gee

I spent a few days in Paris, which was absolutely lovely. I've decided that next time I up and take off to live in Europe, Paris is definitely where I'll be. I pretty much love everything about it. It's a great city to be in by yourself, and I spent most of my time wandering the streets, picking up pastries, seeing the few museums I wanted to see, and generally just taking everything in. I spent a good deal of time in cafes drinking chocolat chaud or cafe au lait and reading.

Luckily, however, I did have some friends to meet up with. Three Smithies, to be exact: two Poofs and a Fried member. It was absolutely wonderful to see them, and now they've gone and followed me back to Milano (I kid, this was all planned ahead of time) so I guess I'll be spending the rest of the weekend with them too ... as well as attempting to detox from the massive amounts of sugar I consumed over the past three days.

Here are some of the pictures from my trip. First, pictures of delicious food:


The best falafel ever from L'As Du Fallafel

Macaron!

This sandwich was the first thing I ate when I got to Paris. I was famished, and had nearly given up hope after going into every Boulangerie along Rue Saint Antoine in the search for a sandwich that was sans both mayonnaise and cheese. Then, as if a mirage, I saw this outdoor market, and was immediately drawn to a stand where the scents of paella, stewing sausages and charcuterie perfumed the smoggy Parisian air. This andouillette, caramelized onion and mustard sandwich really hit the spot.


The famed almond croissant! Reason # 1 of 2789374 on the "Why I Love Paris" list.

Jars of delicious things to put on crêpes at Créperie Des Arts.

And now, pictures of culture:

the Louvre on a beautiful, sunny Friday

Monet.


Boltanski exhibit at the Grand Palais (Thanks for the tip, Aunt Lisa!)

cool graffiti in the Marais

wtf

that's a sugar packet I found in a Bar. That sugar packet has a man in black face on it.
Oh, Italy. Fashion forward, yes. Politically correct, not so much...

advntures in baking and confetti throwing

confetti di carnevale

confetti like this is all over the city

Internet success!
My Wind experience was fairly painless, even if the saleswoman was kind of a stronza. I then walked back down towards the Duomo, since it is so beautiful and sunny out today. Here are some of the pictures from my walk:

I know, I'm a creep for taking this photo, but this chorus line of tipiche ragazze italiane just called to me! I couldn't resist!

beautiful buildings on Corso Venezia

Hello, weekend!
The sun was shining yesterday, a rare treat in Milan in winter, so I took the opportunity to walk down Corso Buenos Aires, one of the big shopping strips, and buy myself a Wind Internet Key. I was guaranteed that the one I chose would work with a Mac, and it does, to a certain extent, but I keep getting this message that it "cannot connect with the remote PPP server", so I can't get on the internet. I have no idea what that means, so it looks like I'll be heading back to the Wind store this afternoon.

To unwind from my Wind experience (haha), I went out for aperitivi and music with Rachel, a fellow Smithie alumna doing the Lombardia teaching program. We got aperitivi at Frida, a delightfully commie spot literally around the corner from my apartment, and then went to Wasabi, a nocturnal music spot a few doors down. Here are some pics:


These guys played CCR, Crosby Still Nash & Young, and The Band covers, and they kept referring to Woodstock. It was awesome.


I love the line-up of guitars here!

I will be attempting to bake for the first time this afternoon; I'm anticipating some desperate down time after having to deal with this internet business. Why is getting internet access so hard in this country?