Navigli—these are the canals that I wrote about last time. There are several here in Milan. I always thought of Venise as the canal city, but Milan certainly has its fair share too. The last Sunday of each month (even August, the month to vacate the city) there is a flea market on the Navigli. JL was visiting from France and we went this weekend. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect. I didn’t find much that I needed, but I did find some adorable alcoves where art galleries and art dealers are hidden away. Lunch on the canal was less than exciting. It was good, but not great. After the market JL and I went to the Duomo. We went inside, but I really need to go with my family historian to fully appreciate the inside. The roof view was something I could appreciate on my own however. After some initial confusion as to how to get to the top, we took the stairs. It ended up not being too long of a walk to the top, very doable and cheaper to boot. The views of the city were impressive, but even better was the view of the Alps in the distance. After some gelato and a stroll down Monte Napoleone to see the couture shops and manhole covers described in the NYT’s 36 hours in Milan (NOT WORTH IT!) we headed home.
Lavatrice—washing machine. I posted on FB that I may have set the world record for washing time at 4.25 hours. Turns out I beat my own record yesterday. 10 hours!!! (OK, I was asleep most of it.) As of now, it is not clear if my washing machine is broken or if I just keep using the settings that must be forwarded by hand. The landlord is going to check tomorrow. She thinks it could be that I just have to wash synthetic materials on the advance-by-hand-cycle and that cotton should keep going on its own.
Pranzo—lunch. This is very important because lunch is a major meal here. Teachers here eat lunch in the cafeteria everyday because it is so worth it. It is nothing, I repeat, nothing, like pranzo in US schools. Tell me when the last time your teachers were treated to Prosecco, Carpaccio, fresh cheese, roasted veggies, stuffed squash leaves, stuffed noodles, fresh fruit, and homemade tarts, and tiramisu? And, oh yeah, I forgot to mention the real lobster (shell and all) linguine. So we don’t eat like that every day, but the food is truly remarkable. Everything is made by hand with fresh food, not from a can or frozen and reheated on site. There are pasta choices every day. Right now, it looks like I will never have to make pasta at home because I get it every single day at lunch. Salads have become my dinner because they are fast and easy and less caloric than my lunches. Teachers are warning me that they gained 10 pounds there first year. However, I have lost weight so far since I walk around 4 miles roundtrip every day. (I think I hold my breath about 5 minutes every walk because of the “fresh” fertilizer being used on the corn fields.) Perhaps when my shipment with my bike is allowed to be delivered and I bike more often, I will see those 10 pounds appear. Right now I’m thinking totally worth it!
Stress-- Another one of those words that is the same and sucks in both languages. I have been working like crazy to get my classroom ready for the first day on September 1. Ugh! What a nightmare. Some of the “disasters” so far: 1) no pencils have arrived. As of Thursday there will be no pencils in the school for our students to use. No one in the office staff has deemed it worthy enough to go to the store to buy 2 packs for every classroom. 2) Our elementary school secretary—and keeper of all lower school information-- is sick this week and our brand new principal cannot answer any questions or lead many meetings until she is back and able to give him the info he needs. I feel terrible for the principal because he must feel even more confused than we do. 3) We have new interactive white boards. This is pretty cool since they promise to fix them if they freeze up like my board did last year. The problem is that we got training that psyched us all up, but they forgot to mention that none of them in ES were hooked up yet. The momentum is quickly draining. In fact, my computer was not even able to be set up until today. I have been scurrying around the school looking for empty computers that will meet my printing needs since I have only one poster for my classroom. On a whim, I shoved it in my suitcase before I left. What luck! Anyway, my computer was hooked up today as was my smartboard. Perhaps I will have a chance to play with it one of these days….
Ciao!
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