Run

This was a good exercise week and a difficult program week for me, so we take from the lyrics "darling, let's run, run from it all, we can go where our eyes can take us, go where no one else is."

Last Sunday was run day, so I ran around five miles on the trail that follows the Adige river. It was hot and sunny but felt so nice to get away from the city (and my students) for a bit. I ran halfway and then sat in a park and photosynthesized for a while and then ran back. A nice break!

Monday brought the TA-run midterm review session, which went pretty smoothly. The kids are a bit spastic about the exam, so they had lots of questions. Eventually we cut them off and made them to the exercises that Finlay and I had prepared on the bus a few days before, which proved helpful to them. That afternoon, we had language class, which went super well! I pulled one of the students in the beginning-level class since she has an unprecedented rate of language learning, and she's already thriving in my advanced class. I've never seen anything like it, but she's crushing it, and practicing constantly by speaking Italian with everyone she meets. Go Louise! Then there was a yummy pinsotto - like a pizza sandwich - with mortadella, cheese, and pistachio cream.

Tuesday was our single lecture day this week, and after the kids asked two hours of panicked midterm questions, Professor Erspamer and I went to lunch to hang out together :) We went to a cute little restaurant (his favorite in town) and I had this delicious fettuccine with mussels, one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had, I think! We did some debriefing, some planning, and some coping with the crazy things that our students have been doing and saying. It was lovely! Then I hustled over to the Gallerie Museum to teach my language class. We did a museum-based lesson on the highway construction project and the Olympic games in which we used the current exhibits to practice Italian. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and it was a nice change of pace for me too. I went for a run after class while the students were in their film screening and then called it a night.

Field Trip Friday is contaminating the rest of the week now, so we had Field Trip Wednesday too. We went to Fiavè to visit an agrotourism place and a UNESCO Heritage Site peat bog. We saw the swamp (and made a lot of Shrek references), cows and their babies, a donkey, lots of beautiful scenery, and a guest lecture from a man who stood on top of a playground to teach us. The daily dose of chaos included an accusation of racist comments directed at a student by a host, a very nauseous student with a UTI, and a student who simply decided she didn't want to come on the field trip and played hooky. Highlights of the day included freshly made local apple juice and Professor Erspamer's wife saying "he's not a bad cook, he just chooses to buy pizza instead."

Professor Erspamer exempted me from running the Thursday morning trip to the castle next-door to the hotel, so I got to sleep in and take it easy until running the students' presentation session for a few hours that afternoon. They did a nice job, so I'm proud of them! After spending some time catching up with Kirsten on the phone, I ended up having dinner with a couple of students at a nearby pizzeria. I had the Trentina, inspired by Trento cuisine with sausage and local cheeses.

Field Trip Friday arrived with many more things to handle. First: upon arriving in Val di Non, our most problematic student decided she didn't feel well and simply sat down, cried, and refused to speak. We slapped her on an ambulance since this was the fifth time this week that she claimed she didn't feel well, so we wanted a doctor's note confirming to us that she was actually fine. Poor Finlay got stuck going with her to the hospital and waiting in the ER for hours, since she eventually rated her own headache a 2/10 and was "no longer" nauseous. They finally saw her, prescribed her something simple (like Dramamine) to hush her up, and sent them on their way. The rest of us continued with the field trip itinerary: hiking tour of a canyon with a river and waterfalls, lunch, a short little lesson in the town hall, a beer tasting with a host who was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and an hour-long walk through the fields to get to our big gelato-for-dinner stop. We also saw Professor Erspamer's house, and when he pointed it out, all of our kids went "wowwwwww!" which he liked a lot, obviously! One of our host/guides remembered me from last year and was delighted to find out that I'm going to be married, but he wants us to have the wedding in Val di Non instead of Minnesota... He said he'd provide the space, "room for 500 seated or 1000 standing!" That's a good bit bigger than we're planning...

I crashed hard last night and woke up this morning to go make copies of the midterm exam for Monday morning. I now have 50 black pens, three yellow folders, and 32 copies of the nine-page exam. Lots of grading next week! Maybe I'll just run away.