Today the program is over and I am so happy. This has been a wonderful experience and I have learned many things that just cannot be taught to someone. I have gained the experience of being in another country for an extended period of time and not being on vacation.
I have been able to gain a new perspective of teaching and how teaching differs all around the world and I will hopefully be able to take some of the things I have learned home so that when I become a teacher I will be able to teach with the best techniques.
I have learned that the stupid girls that were mean as a little girl that my mother said would grow up and learn that they cannot treat people that way, never really grow up and will be skanks forever.
I have learned that I am capable of meeting people that are not judgmental and drama-oriented. I have met some of the best people here and I really hope I will be able to continue being friends with most of them for a long while.
I have learned how to navigate a subway system that I absolutely hated.
I have learned that Europeans need to wear more deodorant and that wearing deodorant does not mean that you are gay. If you thought wearing it was gay then, you should not wear such tight pants; that really does mean your gay…
All things that cannot be taught in a classroom and all things that even though I have wanted to go home most of the trip I will miss but will carry these lessons with me forever.
But most of all,
I will miss Dr. Wright!
;-)
Monday, August 2, 2010
July 30, 2010
Today is the last day of the program. This last week has really flown by. Today we did not have to be to school until noon to take the test. I was so happy I was able to sleep in for a while. Well not really sleep in but lie in bed and relax. I always wake up around 7 and after Im awake I can never really fall back asleep.
Once everyone was up, we all reviewed and compared answers for the study guide. Some of them were difficult and we never really could find the answer. After reviewing and getting ready Chelsea and I headed for school. Once at school we took the final. Chelsea laughed hysterically at the bonus question. I thought is was really funny too and I think it made Chelsea and Jenifer feel special.
I thought I had done well on the final until I was talking to everyone on the bus ride home and we compared answers and I realized I think I did really badly. I’m really mad I even answered one question wrong that I knew. It was just as soon as I saw the answer as one of the options I picked it not reading the question was asking which car was not an Italian car. Oh, well lessons learned.
After the test I went back to the dorm and took a nap. When I leave I’m going to miss my afternoon naps. They have been so wonderful but back to reality when I get home. When I woke up I did a lot of packing and rearranging. I was so worried everything was not going to fit in my bag and really most of it did not fit and I had to shove it in the bag. It is going to be a miracle if everything makes it home still intact and not broken.
After packing I got ready for the farewell dinner. I realized that while most people think they gained weight while they had been here, I feel like I have lost some weight or at least done enough sit-ups in the gym downstairs to flatten my pudgy out a little. I will be so excited to go home and get on the scale; on the other hand im going to be really sad if I go home and haven’t lost any weight. Anyway when I put my dress on for the dinner I that’s when I realized I thought I lost weight. After I got ready we went to dinner, and well, you know what happened at dinner.
Beyond the ridiculous service I have never felt angrier and felt my blood pressure go up faster than when Allison started talking shit about the stupid wine bottles. The diversity within this entire group and the unwillingness of them to be more open and less like skanky bitches is beyond me and I will not miss it at all. I really do not appreciate when people act like that and it pretty much just shows their ass.
Once everyone was up, we all reviewed and compared answers for the study guide. Some of them were difficult and we never really could find the answer. After reviewing and getting ready Chelsea and I headed for school. Once at school we took the final. Chelsea laughed hysterically at the bonus question. I thought is was really funny too and I think it made Chelsea and Jenifer feel special.
I thought I had done well on the final until I was talking to everyone on the bus ride home and we compared answers and I realized I think I did really badly. I’m really mad I even answered one question wrong that I knew. It was just as soon as I saw the answer as one of the options I picked it not reading the question was asking which car was not an Italian car. Oh, well lessons learned.
After the test I went back to the dorm and took a nap. When I leave I’m going to miss my afternoon naps. They have been so wonderful but back to reality when I get home. When I woke up I did a lot of packing and rearranging. I was so worried everything was not going to fit in my bag and really most of it did not fit and I had to shove it in the bag. It is going to be a miracle if everything makes it home still intact and not broken.
After packing I got ready for the farewell dinner. I realized that while most people think they gained weight while they had been here, I feel like I have lost some weight or at least done enough sit-ups in the gym downstairs to flatten my pudgy out a little. I will be so excited to go home and get on the scale; on the other hand im going to be really sad if I go home and haven’t lost any weight. Anyway when I put my dress on for the dinner I that’s when I realized I thought I lost weight. After I got ready we went to dinner, and well, you know what happened at dinner.
Beyond the ridiculous service I have never felt angrier and felt my blood pressure go up faster than when Allison started talking shit about the stupid wine bottles. The diversity within this entire group and the unwillingness of them to be more open and less like skanky bitches is beyond me and I will not miss it at all. I really do not appreciate when people act like that and it pretty much just shows their ass.
July 29, 2010
Im getting more and more excited about the program ending and being able to go home. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed being here and being able to make some great friends that I cant wait to go home and go out with I just don’t think I prepared myself for being here. On top of the excitement of being able to see Michael in a couple days; it all is just so much to handle.
Today we had lecture. We met at school for our last lecture of Cinema. It was an interesting lecture although it seemed like of all the lecturers this lady had the heaviest accent and was the hardest to pay attention to because she kept stopping to find the right words. It was very distracting. After lecture, Heather, Teresa, Susie, Stephanie and I went to Luini’s for a last calzone thing. They really are delicious and I think I’m going to go home and practice until I can imitate the recipe so that when our café opens I will be able to sell them. I think they would be a hit with fat Americans like me. Anything inside of a doughnut is going to be good.
After Luini’s we made our way back to the dorm. Heather and I stopped for gelato first though. We talked the entire bus ride home about everything. It was really nice to be able to talk to someone that doesn’t judge people. In fact this whole trip it has been nice being able to talk to a few people that a really nice and do not judge you like so many of my friends do. Hopefully this trip and being able to meet these great people will be the start of something new.
Once back at the dorm, everyone in the bella suite took a nap. It was so quiet in our rooms it was so nice. When everyone started waking up people started working on their papers again. I realized today that I am absolutely horrible at writing papers and taking tests and really It’s a surprise that I am making it through college. It has been such a struggle for me and getting through college since no one in my family has gone to college and nobody understands what the workload is. Hopefully, me making it through college will really pave the way for mine and Michael’s future and hopefully I will be able to help get my mother and her finances on track. I worry about her all the time.
After I finished writing my paper I went to sleep. I am growing more and more annoyed of how loud everyone is while Chelsea and I are trying to go to sleep. It seems like them talk louder when they know were sleeping. Oh, well at least the program is ending very shortly.
Today we had lecture. We met at school for our last lecture of Cinema. It was an interesting lecture although it seemed like of all the lecturers this lady had the heaviest accent and was the hardest to pay attention to because she kept stopping to find the right words. It was very distracting. After lecture, Heather, Teresa, Susie, Stephanie and I went to Luini’s for a last calzone thing. They really are delicious and I think I’m going to go home and practice until I can imitate the recipe so that when our café opens I will be able to sell them. I think they would be a hit with fat Americans like me. Anything inside of a doughnut is going to be good.
After Luini’s we made our way back to the dorm. Heather and I stopped for gelato first though. We talked the entire bus ride home about everything. It was really nice to be able to talk to someone that doesn’t judge people. In fact this whole trip it has been nice being able to talk to a few people that a really nice and do not judge you like so many of my friends do. Hopefully this trip and being able to meet these great people will be the start of something new.
Once back at the dorm, everyone in the bella suite took a nap. It was so quiet in our rooms it was so nice. When everyone started waking up people started working on their papers again. I realized today that I am absolutely horrible at writing papers and taking tests and really It’s a surprise that I am making it through college. It has been such a struggle for me and getting through college since no one in my family has gone to college and nobody understands what the workload is. Hopefully, me making it through college will really pave the way for mine and Michael’s future and hopefully I will be able to help get my mother and her finances on track. I worry about her all the time.
After I finished writing my paper I went to sleep. I am growing more and more annoyed of how loud everyone is while Chelsea and I are trying to go to sleep. It seems like them talk louder when they know were sleeping. Oh, well at least the program is ending very shortly.
July 27, 2010
Today we went to Turin. We had to be downstairs early so that we could catch the train out of town. It was about a two hour train ride but it was a beautiful as are most of the trains that are out of Milan. Once in Turin we had to walk a good way so that we could reach the cinema museum. On the way to the cinema museum we stopped and ate at a little shop along the way. I often wonder how the little store owner feel (I assume happiness) that they go from having no one in the shop to having fourteen people mostly all eating. That really must make them happy.
Once at the cinema museum we were able to see how modern cinema started and where it came from. It was really neat to be able to see what TV used to be like. Once we finished the tour we were able to take the elevator to the top of the building to get a view from the top. I was so scary getting in the elevator and Lupita did not make it better. She kept saying that the lines were breaking and that the elevator was swaying. I could’ve killed her. The entire way both up and down I was sweating and even on the way up I had to close my eyes. I guess I’m afraid of heights or just afraid of shifty looking elevators taking me way to high for my comfort.
After we finished the elevator and the museum tour we went searching for food and the chocolate coffee drink. Sagan ended up finding these little fried things that were very different however they were kind of gross because they were really greasy and they weren’t that good in my opinion. Finally we found a place that served the chocolate drinks. The man that made them was so sweet. He gave us samples of the chocolate and he was just an overall sweet man. The drink was as fabulous as Dr. Wright had said. Although I could only handle one of them at a time I gave her kudos for being able to have two. I would’ve had a heart attack.
After the chocolate drinks we shopped around for a while then headed back to the train station to go back to Milan. I slept part of the way but I really enjoy the train rides. They make me forget about how much I do not like Milan and the country is just so beautiful. After we got home, I worked on my paper a little bit more and went to sleep.
Once at the cinema museum we were able to see how modern cinema started and where it came from. It was really neat to be able to see what TV used to be like. Once we finished the tour we were able to take the elevator to the top of the building to get a view from the top. I was so scary getting in the elevator and Lupita did not make it better. She kept saying that the lines were breaking and that the elevator was swaying. I could’ve killed her. The entire way both up and down I was sweating and even on the way up I had to close my eyes. I guess I’m afraid of heights or just afraid of shifty looking elevators taking me way to high for my comfort.
After we finished the elevator and the museum tour we went searching for food and the chocolate coffee drink. Sagan ended up finding these little fried things that were very different however they were kind of gross because they were really greasy and they weren’t that good in my opinion. Finally we found a place that served the chocolate drinks. The man that made them was so sweet. He gave us samples of the chocolate and he was just an overall sweet man. The drink was as fabulous as Dr. Wright had said. Although I could only handle one of them at a time I gave her kudos for being able to have two. I would’ve had a heart attack.
After the chocolate drinks we shopped around for a while then headed back to the train station to go back to Milan. I slept part of the way but I really enjoy the train rides. They make me forget about how much I do not like Milan and the country is just so beautiful. After we got home, I worked on my paper a little bit more and went to sleep.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
July 25 & 26, 2010
Sunday and Monday have been some of the best days of my life. I have literally done nothing, besides work on my paper, sleep a whole heck of a lot, and talk to my family. I also went to the gym both days but it is so exciting to be able to not do anything because unless im sick, I never even get this opportunity at home. Both days I slept until at least 230 in the afternoon, however I did wake up for breakfast eat and went back to sleep. Once up I went to the gym, came home talked on skype and worked on my paper. So, unfortunately this is a short blog, these two days were the greatest.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
July 24, 2010
Today we woke up at 5 am and got ready to head to Florence. I got up and took a shower and so did Chelsea. I felt bad because I called Michael about 10 minutes before we left and they pretty much left without me so I had to cut Michael off and run out the door. We headed to the train station and I couldn't help to notice that both Jenifer and Chelsea were very grumpy about something. The train ride was nice. I fell asleep on the way. When we got to Florence, Pita and I decided that we needed breakfast. When we met back up with Chelsea and Jenifer we asked them if they wanted breakfast and they both snapped at us.. so, we grabbed McDonald's on the way out of the train station. Breakfast was so good. I was so excited when they had the MC muffin, hash browns and coffee! Today was going to be a great day!
After we grabbed breakfast we started off toward the Duomo. While Pita and Jenifer climbed the Duomo Chelsea and I decided to head for the Ferrari store. While we were almost to the Ferrari store we saw a Guess store and I told Chelsea we should go in since it was so big. Chelsea ended up finding a new purse, wallet, and bracelet. Go Chelsea!
We finally ended up at the Ferrari store were she bought her boyfriend cologne and on the walk back to find Jenifer and Pita, I bought a few scarves. When we met back up Pita really wanted to go shopping at this huge market so we did. I grew very quickly annoyed because there were so man people and I was really really hot. Finally we came across this church the Jenifer wanted to go into so we sat outside while she went in. After the church we decided to get lunch at this place that Chelsea had eaten at a few years ago and absolutely loved.
We got to the lunch place and found out that they had a max coca cola which of course meant that we had to order it. It was huge. Probably about 4 cans of coke in one glass with a lot of ice. They really knew how Americans liked their coke. I found that they had lasagna also so I ordered that. When it came out it tasted like chefboyarde from the can but it really wasn't. It was really good though.
After lunch everyone decided to go into another museum but I decided with my diminishing funds I didn't want to waste 4 Euro on something I would probably think was boring. So I sat outside and waited for an hour ( or did a great Italian pass time and I people watched for an hour) until they came out. After the museum they decided to stand in line at another museum ( i was starting to get angry because they wanted to see so many museums and I was going to have to wait outside) but I decided to go inside of this one. I was right I did find it extremely boring but I did get to see the birth of Venus which was really cool.
After the museum we started to head back to the train station to head home. Everyone was really tired. On the way back to the train station we found a gelato place and got some gelato then finally made it to the train station. We bought our tickets and sat for an hour until the train came. I slept on the train for about 30 minutes then stayed awake the rest. I saw the sunset and I actually really enjoyed seeing the country and how beautiful everything was. Once we got home I called my mother to tell her how much I missed her I also washed my feet because they were filthy then went to bed. It had been a great day and I really enjoyed Florence although I wished I could have seen Tuscany.
Friday, July 23, 2010
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