Ciao Tutti

Ciao Tutti!

I have finally finished my first week of classes. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow morning! And yes, I finally got myself a gelato :)

It's a bit hard to describe my classes at the school ... the students and teachers vary greatly. I am working with 8 different professors for my 16 classes [some I have class with three times, twice, or just once]. The main goal is conversation - to get the students to speak. This week, we did introductions and general discussion on American culture or questions they had for me. Some classes have 10 students, others have 30 with varying English speaking abilities. In both third and fifth years, there are students ranging from ages 15 to 20 ... and then I actually have a couple of 21 and 22 year old's in my fifth year classes. With that being said, although I don't have any class more than once a week and might be able to plan one general lesson plan for all my classes in a week, I expect that I'll have to do a lot of adapting for each class.

One thing I'd like to prepare for all of my classes is a topic list of statements or quotes or opinions with which one can easily agree or disagree. I'd like to use this list as a base to assign homework for my students to prepare opinions or responses at home to have a discussion or debate the next class. Any ideas? I'd really appreciate if you'd comment or email me any thoughts you have ... they can be simple and personal like "What would be your dream job?" or more debatable like "Wars never solve anything" -- Thanks!!

Now to the fun stuff - I walked quite a bit around the city the past couple of days and though I forgot my camera, I saw some interesting sights. I visited the "Piazza del Foro" where the Roman Forum was located when Brescia was known as Brixia and was a Roman city. The city is still in the process of excavating the remains, but I got to see the original columns in the entrance of an important building and half of a theater.

I also had my first gelato! I had a cone of stracciatella [chocolate chip] and biscotti [cookies] in a really cute place in the heart of Brescia. I guess they heard my foreign accent because the owners asked where I was from and I ended up having a 20 minute conversation with them as I ate my gelato! At one point, they asked if I had any Italian friends here and I said - oh no, not yet - and then they said - now you have two with the both of us! Haha. Oh friendly Italians ...