May 27, 2009
This morning the alarm went off at 5:45 am and I did NOT want to get up but somehow I made it out for a bit of exercise. It felt a lot cooler getting to school this morning and in fact today turned out to be not as warm as it has been.
I was sort of sleepy during the first hour with the 3rd class. We were discussing a short passage about dangerous jobs and careers. There is this one boy in the class who is kind of weird. He’s a cute kid but the other day I looked over to where he was sitting and he was stroking and playing with the hair of the boy sitting next to him. I was like, “EH?” But then today he was sitting next to another boy who has some facial hair and he was trying to feel his face. Then…he was blowing kisses at another boy from across the room. I was SOOOO weirded out. Anyway, class was interrupted by the same announcement from the other day about guys not wearing shorts that are too short. The kid that always dresses like a hippie wanted everyone to wear short shorts tomorrow as an act of protest.
The next class was the 4th class. Professor M. handed back a test and explained the corrections. Then we read some short stories about traveling and started up a discussion. One of the students obviously wasn’t paying attention so Prof M. asked him, “What has been your longest journey?” The student’s answer was, “Eh, No?” The whole class laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh either. Oh, patience!
After this we had a prep period so we went to the teacher’s lounge to get some work done and there were a group of teachers talking amongst themselves. There was one teacher who seemed upset and apparently she had just found out that she had lost her place at the school and had to look for work elsewhere. I think so far 4-5 teachers of Italian at the school have lost their jobs. I think they decided by “points”. Prof M. explained to me that each teacher gets certain points according to how long they have been teaching, the sort of classes that they teach, and the sort of schools that they teach at. It was interesting watching the teacher unload how she was feeling about all this. I felt bad for her, it seems like a really sticky situation.
The next class was the 2nd G class. The student that had been caught cheating yesterday had left his whole test blank. Prof. M. lectured the whole class some more on how badly they are doing in school. He told them that they need to laugh less and concentrate more. Does this help? Does any of it get through to any of the students? Maybe.
The last class was the 5th class. We reviewed the Victorian age again. I was so bored that I started practicing writing with my left hand. From the beginning of the class period I could tell that the students kept trying to make the teacher go off on tangents. I know this because I got really good at it when I was in high school. A student asked why all English teachers suffer from hysteria. Professor M. was like, “I don’t know why don’t you ask her?” referring to me of course. I was like, “Maybe all Italian English teachers but certainly not American English teachers!”
The day ended quickly enough. This evening I called up my cousin Kohleen and we talked for a while. I miss her a lot! Its hard being away from your family and everyone you love, but I’m having a really nice time here in Italy and I am very grateful for this opportunity.
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