April 10th

Today was a late start, but a long day. We all headed off to service learning individually around 12:30 since it takes about an hour to get to our schools and the teachers expected us there at 1:30. I was running a bit late, but made it there on time and thankfully they had things a bit more squared away at the preschool than the last time we were there.
I got to be in the same classroom I had ended up in last time which was really great because I had really liked the teacher even though we really can't communicate since I don't speak much Italian and she doesn't speak much English. However, we make it work. I felt like preschool was a bit chaotic today though. All of the kids definitely were just doing their own thing and not listening to the teacher. She had to count down a bunch of times in order to get the class to be quiet. It was nice to be in a 'dysfunctional' classroom though, it reminded me of my preschool I volunteer in back in the States. I can't wait to see how the next couple of months there progress.
Afterwards I headed back to the Rome Center to meet up with the rest of the group since we were watching a film with some of the other programs there. It was called Shun Li and the Poet. The film was about a Chinese woman in Italy and centered around the fact that she was trying to bring her son to Italy. It also centered around a friendship she made with an elderly Italian man who frequented the cafe she worked at. After the film, the Rome Center had asked the screen writer to come to the viewing to do a Q and A. So for about a half an hour afterwards people were able to ask him questions which was quite cool. It's not something you get to do in the states that often.
My group headed off to Manka's apartment after the film to eat some Indian food before all heading back to our apartments for the night. I'm really excited for this weekend! I'm heading to Prague and I know there are some girls headed to Naples and another group headed to Florence and Cinque Terre. I'm super pumped to hear about everyone's adventures.