Mother's Day- Sunday, May 12th

Today was Mother's Day, and it carried with it a nostalgic feeling for most of us.  I am very pleased to be in Italy, but its hard to be away from my mom on this day.  Phone calls were made and lots of pictures were posted on social networking in distant celebration.  Let's face it, if not for all of you, we might not have been able to come to Italy! Thank you so much for all you do! We love you.

Besides Mother's Day, it was also a long day of travel for the five of us in Venice.  We woke up for an early morning cappuccino and hopped on a train to Torino.  After a 4.5 hour ride, we were able to spend a little time in Torino again.  It quickly became one of our favorite cities because of its open areas, friendly people, and tasty food.  One of the highlights of my day was visiting the Egyptian Museum.  Many of the group members visited it on Thursday, and I was able to check it out today!  There were great people Sadly, it came time to hop on the train for Rome once again.  After another 4 hour ride, we finally made it home.  The final stretch of the program is upon us, and I am hoping to finish strong!

Happy Mother's Day! 

James Norris

Friday, May 9th--Torino Day 3

Veronika Patrashko

Friday was another great day spent in Turin. We visited one of the most amazing preschools that I have ever been in. It has a big property with a nice garden and a playground. The school is wonderfully decorated inside with kids art work and many other creative posters. I was very impressed by one of the many posters in the lobby that had a world map in the middle and many children around it. On the sides of the poster there were flags of the countries from where all of the children come from and their names under the flags. I found it very creative and inspiring. The children in this preschool do many interesting projects and also participate in the initiatives for contemporary art. All around the school there a many pictures documenting many activities. Another fascinating thing about this preschool was a library where children spend time reading and preparing to participate in the book fair. Also the building of this preschool was built by a famous Turin architect in 1980s. He focused on the open space and structured the building "to be open and not closed to the outside world". There are a few great workshop areas with many different materials that are located at the level of the children so they can easily access them. Personal hygiene and autonomy is very important in this school. All of the classrooms are very intercultural and have mixed age groups. Visiting this preschool and meeting the children was an unforgettable experience. 

After the preschool we visited the biggest market in Turin. It's a huge market where you can find pretty much anything you can think of. It's a very intercultural market and a few of us met some interesting people. 

After the market we walked around Turin, did some shopping, visited beautiful piazzas, and even tanned in the park by the fountain. Finally, before the sunset we went up to the viewpoint of Turin with one of the girls that we have met on our high school visit the day before. It was a gorgeous sunset with the beautiful view of the city. Overall, it was a wonderful day and all of us absolutely loved Turin. Now we're all headed in the different directions for the weekend: Aosta, Venice, Nice, Verona, and Milan. Have a great weekend everyone!"

March 8th, 2014

Ciao from Torino!

Today we woke up early because some of us got breakfast with Stephanie near the hotel/hostel before class. The cornet (croissants) there were to die for. I really want to go back again before I leave Toronio. Afterwards we ended to a preschool that is literally 2 seconds from our hotel. We stayed there for most of the morning. It was really awesome! The preschool basically changed their thinking to be much more of a progressive and intercultural school. They work with children from 0 to 6 years old. They also mix a lot of their classes so you can find four, five and six year olds all together in class, which is super unique in Italy. We watched some of the younger kids paint, before some of the older children joined them. Afterwards we went upstairs because some of the older kids had a surprise for us. They spoke to us in minimal english and gave us italian or american flags that they had made in class. They also sang many songs, including on I knew from girl scout camp, I almost cried from the nostalgia  - I hadn't heard the song in several years. I also met a woman at the preschool who is a special education aid, she told us she is 70 years old. I hope to be her some day.

After the preschool we ran to the market to get some delicious fruit before heading to high school that Stephanie had taught english at. At the high school we spoke to an english class and they showed us many presentations about intercultural programs at the high school. It sounded really interesting, all of the different programs. Their english was superb (even if they told you otherwise). We had a break after the high school to take a nap or walk around the park. At 5 some of us met up to go to the Egyptian museum. I always had a huge interest in Egyptian culture from a young age, so I loved seeing the museum and walking around. We then headed to this incredible pizzeria for dinner before having a chat with a religion teacher and an intercultural mediator. It was quite an intense, long, but worthwhile day.  I can't wait to see what Torino brings tomorrow!

Turin Day 1

Today we all met up bright and early to catch the train to Turin. It took about four hours to get there so we were all pretty tired today. After we got off the train, we checked into this adorable hostel called Tomato and ate lunch. Afterwards, we had a couple hours to relax and explore if we wanted to, so I took a walk to a close by park where there were a lot of people out running by the river.

After we met up, we got a tour of the neighborhood which included a lot of different religious buildings. We were really lucky and was able to go inside a large synagogue which is usually only open to the public one day out of the year. We also saw a large church and then a mosque. After walking around Turin, I have really noticed some differences from Rome. Turin feels a lot more welcoming and home-like, streets are clean and less crowded, and it seems quieter with less tourists.

After the tour we got aperitivo, where you buy a drink and get to eat a buffet, with some members of the Young Muslims group. They were fellow college students, most of which were second generation young adults, so it was really fun and nice to talk to them during dinner. We had some great conversations and got to get their input on what it was like to grow up as a second generation immigrant in Italy. I talked to one girl, Dalia, who was also a psychology major here and got to compare our education experiences and possible tracts for the future. It was a tiring, but really great day!

Tuesday May 6th, 2014

Today was another beautiful day in Rome, Italy which is exactly what I think we all needed! Some of us have been getting sick and the nice weather made me feel better! It was bright blue skies and it wasn't too hot to be in the sun. Since it was Tuesday we had service learning and today Stephanie visited our classrooms which was nice. In my class my teacher went over one lesson about the different sounds in Italian que qua quo qui and had the kids write different words that have these sounds in them. After they wrote different words we went over what they mean in English and then the kids drew pictures of the things (kite, oak tree, eagle etc). 

After service learning Claudia and I went to re-visit the Colosseum and took pictures next to it which was very fun! We took pictures at different angles and it was beautiful. Then we went to grocery store to get some food for dinner. We then came back to my place so I can cook dinner for us and then plan the rest of our time here in Italy. Overall it was very stressful to try to figure out what to do but were going to ask Stephanie a few questions tomorrow to help us! :)

- Shontia C.W.

Today was a typical school day with Italian class in the morning and regular class in the afternoon. This week’s topic of our class is emigration within Italy as well as emigration to northern Europe and America. After the lecture, we went to the National Museum of immigration near Rome Center.

It’s an interesting museum that mainly introduces emigration history in Italy, such as during World War I, World War II and emigration of present days. In the museum, there are old pictures and old suitcases that showed the history of emigration. It was very surprising to me how Italy was once portraited as a hopeless land and full of crimes. Many Italians emigrated to northern Europe during and after World War I, but many Italians later shifted their emigration direction to South American and then the United States for job opportunities. As many other immigrants from other parts of the world, these Italian emigrants are many that had no financial resources or with insufficient language skills, but filled with hope going to a different land. However, something very interesting at the museum that drew me a lot attention was that nowadays, the number of emigration of Italians to other parts of the world is almost equal to the number of Italians who returned to Italy. This is a very interesting phenomenon to me. I wondered about it a lot and it reminded me of the movie “Bread and Chocolate” of how many Italians took the train back to Italy from Switzerland. I also saw many interesting animation pictures that depicted the way to Switzerland and the way to Italy.

After the national museum of immigration, I wanted to go to other museums since I haven’t spent a lot of time in Rome and I haven’t really been to any museum in Rome yet. However, unfortunately, many museums are closed on Monday. This is another interesting thing to me about Italy, it seems many restaurants and museums are closed on Monday rather than the weekend. I think it must have something to do with its high tourism volume during the weekend rather than the weekdays.

The more I learn about Italy, the more interesting I feel about this country. Every country has its own complicated yet interesting history, but Italy, somehow, attracts me a lot. Its contradicted attitude toward immigrants, the relationship between Vatican and the government, the hospitality of Meditereanians, the peaceful atmosphere of a coffee shop, etc., have drawn so much attention from me and I have certainly fallen for this “messy” country.

Natalie Hostetter

Blog 5/4/2014

            Hello all! Today was a beautiful sunny day in Rome! Because it was Sunday we didn’t have any planned group activities so Jessica and I just went off to explore on our own! Saturday my foot got ran over my a moped so I was lagging a little bit behind Jessica (sorry Jess), but nonetheless we went out as tourists to explore this beautiful city. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain, both of our favorite places in Rome and quite possibly the whole world! We hadn’t seen it yet on a completely sunny day and it was just absolutely breathtaking. It really doesn’t get old. We also hadn’t seen it on the weekend and holy moly it was packed!! There were mass crowds of people everywhere we went. After the Trevi Fountain we went back to the Pantheon because we hadn’t been inside it yet! Then we were starving and my foot was hurting so we decided to meander back toward home. Per usual we were craving some sort of American food to get us a little taste from home. We decided to go to a place called T-bone Station right next to our apartment to get our hamburger fix. It’s a little pricey but it was to die for! We’re rested and ready for the long week ahead. Ciao!