Back to life

Tuesday, vacation was really, truly over. At the elementary schools we taught the kids a few verbs then played at least 30 minutes of Simon Says. I think they liked it. Except at the second school, it was yet again another FML day. During Simon Says these 4 or 5 boys, the trouble makers, were running all over the place, including out of the classroom and down the hallway. The teacher (who did very little, just sat there and looked scary. Totally an empty threat) at one point sat in front of/barricaded the door. Fifteen minutes before we were supposed to leave, we were more than done. I leaned over to the teacher and asked if it was ok if we finished early because the class was going crazy—seriously, you have no idea how out of control it got. She seemed kind of surprised, yelled at the kids a little, something about how we won’t come back if they don’t behave. Then she looked at me like ‘ok, continue’. So needless to say, we didn’t leave early.

The only other thing I remember about Tuesday was uscire-ing again with Enrico. We drove around for a while, then he asked what I wanted to do. Of course I had no idea, so we just went up to the villa and walked around. There we met the rest of the people from the band, and went together to a local pub to sit and chill. It was a little awkward because it was all in seriously fast Italian, and poor Enrico obviously felt like he had to lean over once and a while and slowly explain what had been said. But what made it more awkward was that his brother and his bro’s girlfriend were there, and got into this major fight. As I said, awkward, but also seriously fun to listen to in Italian.

Wednesday we didn’t have the morning free like we usually do. Instead we met up and went down the hill a little ways to meet a bee keeper and find out how he makes honey. At this place there were a few dogs and cats, and this insanely cute puppy. We were all way more absorbed in the puppy then in the honey-making process. Until he started messing around with bees and such, and there were hundreds of angry but smoke-doped bees flying overhead; then we paid attention. Afterward we went to the place where he purifies the honey, which is literally right next to the second elementary school. As soon as we took that turn to the school, there was this collective shutter and feeling of “wait, why are they taking us here? Get me off this bus!”

The honey was good, but tasted way different. I went home after and ate homemade gnocci. It was fabulous, but I was (again) too full to move. I swear, these people are deliberately trying to fatten us up. Like livestock.

After was class as usual. Then I watched two episodes of Greys Anatomy online, which I have missed tremendously. I think now I only have 2 or 3 episodes to go before I’m all caught up. Later I went out yet again with Enrico. It’s nice because it’s something new to do, something to get me out of the house. We drove to Piano Lago and got gelato, then drove around Rogliano for a while, again pretty chill. I can’t tell if this guy is interested or not. I originally thought maybe because he finished almost all his text messages with baci (which means “kisses”). But when I asked Marilena about that she explained that this greeting is super common in Italy and means nothing like it would in America. She said that friends always write that to each other, and it’s no big deal. So now I really have no clue what’s up with this guy. Well there you go, the full update.

And finally, today I didn’t teach at the elementary school. I showed up, along with one other girl in my group of 5, and there was no way we were going in there the two of us. So I went and explained to the teacher that my group was sick and I’ll be back Monday. Then I had a nice free morning! After classes, once I finally got home around 7pm Marilena told me we were having dinner at Carmella’s house. It was good, I stuffed myself again. I don’t try to, but they keep telling me to have a little taste of this, or a small bit of that and at the end I’m a balloon. Kevin and Manuel were being really weird tonight, and I was a little less than patient. So I spent most of the time talking in English to Caitlin. It was nice not to think for a while. Then Kevin started playing a Britney Spears song he had on his phone (not sure why he had it) and the kids thought it was extremely entertaining to watch Caitlin and I sing along in English. They kept playing more and more American songs to see if we could sing along. That was actually a lot of fun. I was supposed to uscire yet again tonight, but I am to exhausted. So instead here I am getting you all up to speed. Ok I think this is enough for now (basta così in Italian), ciao tutti.

*Also a note: Sorry for not putting pictures for you all to see on Picasa, I've been uploading pretty exclusively to Facebook with my precious little internet time. But I'll try and get Picasa all updated so you can see all the new pictures. Enjoy!