Begin Again

Here we are, at official Day 1 of the program! Time to watch it begin again.

Yesterday, I started off by picking up all of the keys for our students and TAs, which reception very helpfully divided into some shopping bags based on when they were to arrive. One of the bags was Gucci, so I felt very fancy! The closest I've ever been to Gucci otherwise was when Anne was with me in Milan a couple years ago, and Prada was her real Kryptonite... We welcomed three students, so things started quietly. I got booted out of my room by housekeeping and made the terrible decision to spend those 20 minutes in the back garden. Let me tell you, mosquitoes suck! Literally! 20 minutes, 37 bites. My professor told me today that he didn't need mosquito spray, he would just take me with him and they would bite me instead of him. Offensive.

We had teaching staff dinner last night to prepare for the arrival of the rest of the students, as well as the many tasks we needed to complete today: metro passes, phone SIM cards, cases of missing luggage, delayed and canceled flights, and the list goes on and on! This conversation was made tolerable by the cool plant vibe of the restaurant I had chosen as well as the pink risotto that they served! Turns out, it's pink because of the beets, but I didn't know the word for beet in Italian until well after dinner, when I finally remembered to look up barbabietola, which is SO fun to say!!

I did not sleep well at all, totaling mayyyyybe three hours over the course of the night, but today has been so busy that I've barely noticed my tiredness! The day did include five delayed flights and one canceled flight, as well as one missing suitcase, so I am officially wiped out now. I replied all to one of our delayed students this morning, saying that the program had issued her its first challenge and she was handling it well, and my professor loved that: "Stai diventando una vera professoressa, Katie!" "You're becoming a true professor!" Something about taking a distressing event and turning it into a learning experience...

The day included the fastest lunch I've ever eaten, recorded at 3 minutes and 27 seconds for a plate of pasta I heated up in my room. Couldn't leave my professor to fend for himself when our students kept arriving! I made up for it later by taking a group of students to dinner tonight, for some good Italian pasta, not reheated leftovers. Yum!

And lastly, my fun fact of the day is that one of my students is named Katelyn (spelled the right way!), and she's from Minnesota, somewhere an hour north of the Cities :) Coincidence???

Location: Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is It Over Now?

Image
Coming to you from the Florence airport! After our disappointing Friday rain delay, we had a lovely sunset with pink clouds.  I left Siena yesterday since my flight back to the States is very early this morning, but 20 of my students (plus Professor E) came to say goodbye yesterday morning - some of them are pictured below! I took the bus from Siena to Florence amid another downpour, one strong enough to fell a tree on the highway. We creeped past it thanks to the help of the  carabinieri  patrolling the scene, and I took this nonsense picture of the tree out my window. It made me laugh. I'm not sure why. I got to the hotel that I had booked for my one little night in Florence. It was bare bones and pretty small, but just what I needed, plus a lovely view! The room was air conditioned, too, which I'm not used to at this point, so I froze all night, despite being aggressively tucked in under the blankets. Italy has changed me... I went to sleep at 6:30pm so that I would ge...
Read more

...Ready for It?

Image
It is Palio Eve here, and the city is alight and abuzz! It's been a busy few days, with the reveal of the drappellone (big banner that you win if your contrada wins the race), the racing heats, the assignment ceremony where the ten horses are matched to the contrade that are running, contrada dinners and tours, and the trial runs, not to mention the students' final exams. Tomorrow is the big day, and we'll see what it brings, but for now, the lead up to the Palio, in pictures. Il drappellone: painted by Riccardo Guasco this year, the drappellone  always has to include the Virgin Mary (as she is the one being honored by the running of the race), the contrade (symbolized in the little colored balls), and a horse. At the ceremony where they reveal the banner to the public for the first time, everyone immediately loved it this year - there was clapping and many shouts of "ah, BELLO!" from the crowd. The guy next to me, an older gentleman from the Ram contrada, voiced...
Read more

The Lakes

Image
"Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die..." You haven't heard from me since Monday, and the rest of this week wore me out, so I was ready for a lake day by the time today hit! We had our first full day of class on Tuesday, with Kant's Critique of Judgment causing crises for many students (and perhaps some of us teachers, too). That man did not make his writing easy to understand! Our students had a movie screening that afternoon, so I went to buy new sandals, run a couple errands, and pick up Jack's metro card for when he comes to visit. Do you like my pretty new shoes?? I chatted with Anne Tuesday night and then crashed so that I'd be ready for more Kant and more teaching Italian on Wednesday. The first real Italian class went well - my students are excellent, and I so love to teach languages!! I talked with my mom and dad Wednesday night, then - copy and paste - Kant on Thursday! I did my little bit of lesson planning for philosophy discussion ...
Read more