non mi piacciono i lunedì (I Don't Like Mondays)

Oh, The Boomtown Rats. When you wrote that song, you were really describing a 22 year old away from home with too much time on her hands, weren't you? Thought so.

I told myself I wouldn't sleep past 10, but I fell asleep before I could set my alarm and woke up at 11. I figured I would catch up on some details I missed in my past blogs before showering and setting out for the day.

1) On my first day teaching, I entered each class and gave the same, introductory spiel: "Hi, my name is Sara. I'm from Brooklyn, NY. I just graduated University and I will be here for three months." I then ask the students to ask me questions. This is a slow process. I know they have them, but are too apprehensive about speaking English to actually raise their hands. So if the question-and-answer thing really isn't working out, I start by asking them one simple question that does not have only one simple answer: What do you think of the United States?

I've had a lot of success getting some good conversation from this one question. Some inquiries include:
Do you miss Brooklyn?
What is the weather like in NY?
How old are you? (I'm not telling them)
What do you think of Berlusconi?
What do you think of Italian men?
Do you like Obama?
Did you vote for Obama?
I liked Clinton. Did you like Clinton? (Yes, at least three students asked me this. They were all boys. Call me crazy, I think it has something to do with Monica Lewinski... I didn't have the heart to tell them I was 13 when he was President)
And last, but not least: What do you think of Obama's idea for public health care in the US? (Yes, someone actually asked me this question)

Now that we've covered all the basics, I'm really interested in how the actual lessons will pan out. I also definitely have to rivisitare my English grammar. Second conditional? Third conditional? Present perfect continual tense? What?!?

2) Remember how I said that at the opera, there were groups of old men who were all friends who knew all the lyrics to Don Giovanni? Well, I ended up talking with one of them during the entire intermission, and he kindly offered to sell me a ticket to Rigoletto for tomorrow night, since he had extras and since he got them at a reduced rate since he's a member (or something, didn't understand all the details). If I don't have to get up at 6AM to go to work, then I might go!