the accident.

so. its been awhile. but something happened that is seriously worthy of a post. saturday evening i went to spend the night at court's house. she had just got home from venice and i wanted to hear all of her stories. church was in the morning. so it was perfect. iwoke up. court decided to sleep instead of going to church. so i was by myself. maybe fifty feet later... my over-night bag got stuck in my front tire.. which then came to screeching halt! this sent me over the handle bars... into the street. and of course the only place for the bike to fall was on top of me. it was a warm sunday so the streets were a bit busy. like four people ran over to me right away and picked me and my bicycle up... i was laughing! i couldn't believe it. (by the way... since i was going to church. i was wearing a dress... thankfully tights and boots so the damage wasn't too bad and i wasn't revealed to all of due ponti - the street court lives on).
then the bad news hit... i totally broke my bike! the front breaks were permanently breaking. so i couldn't push it to church. this is when the middle aged man and his wife carried my bike to their front yard. locked it to their fence so they could keep an eye on it for me. and then insisted on driving me to the duomo to meet heather! which i totally took him up on. thank you maure!
and that isn't even the most incredible part of the story!
so then.. we walked to church. and gina drove me back to my house so todd and i could double on his bike (where i ride on the back.. i'm going to have to take a picture and post it. maybe a video would be better? its pretty ridiculous) to go and get mine. when we got there (maybe 4 hours post accident) maure and his wife were leaving... but were happy to tell me they were able to fix my bike! at least enough to make it ridable. can you believe that? how incredible are they? its a little lopsided. and has some new sounds when i ride it.... but it works!

the next morning i woke up to a couple battle wounds. not so funny any more.

this sunday was perfect. i woke up and went to coffee with allyson, heather, courtney, gina, and christian. then we all headed over to church and met vinci and nicholas there. after church allyson dropped me off at home and i cleaned, and then sat on my terrace with a glass of water and the hobbit. and the sun on my face! yes, the sun was out. and it felt so good. then lunch with alle and fosca. and coffee with alle and his friends. afterwards i walked for a bit and took some pictures of the streets that i get to take my bike on everyday. this is one of them. and then seven sweet hours at heathers with helen :) we ordered in pizza and watched shallow hal in italian. a perfect lazy sunday. 

this is Ines. shes the best ever. a little italian brenna may. she's six and loves to play memory. so tuesday we played memory with food flashcards. and she asked me if she could arrange the cards this time. so i said sure. and this is what she did. of course. i loved it, so i had to take a picture.

today courtney and i, joined by gianluca, spent appertivo at wine and wine. talked about russia mostly. which was super interesting because i realized how much i don't know. i love that. and then courtney and i walked back to our bikes and decided to pop into the local sweet shop and get a waffle thats covered in nutella. yum.yum.yum. and if thats not enough. lets sprinkle powdered sugar on top. jeez laweez.

okay tomorrow i have three new lessons, plus the four crazy eight year old boys who i love. vanni in the morning who is a middle aged man who wants to work on speaking. yes. i get to talk with someone for an hour and get paid for it. and then sam who is eighteen and wants me to help her with her homework. and then another seventeen year old who wants the same. and then the boys. last week, i had to sweep the floor after they left because of this:

how four boys bring in this much dirt? in an hour and a half? no idea. 

i live here. and i love it.

the last two days have been really incredible. 

yesterday i woke up and walked into the center to meet gina at the park that's right behind the library. which, by the way, might be my new favorite place to sit and read the hobbit. especially when its foggy. 

then i went for coffee with heather and allyson. went to the office for a bit. met courtney to walk over to yoga. went to lunch. went back to the office and worked till seven. went to the market to get food. went home and cooked myself dinner. and then got ready for bed. strange. i totally live here. like my refrigerator is full of food. proof:

and i have a membership at a yoga studio. and i have friends. and we meet for coffee. and i have students. that now, three weeks in, i'm actually getting to know. all of it. its just incredible to me.
and then today. i had one of my favorite classes. four eight year old boys. andrea, simone, ricardo, and eduardo. from four thirty to six every thursday. they sort of drive me crazy, because they are crazy, but i love em. maybe because when i'm with them i feel like i'm in children's church at mid city. a lot of noise. a lot of running. i'm not ever really in control. and everyone is speaking in a language i don't know.
after classes today gina, courtney, heather, and allyson came over for biblestudy. another miraculous event. that God gathers people. ha! meeting with two other girls from southern california and heather from scotland in carpi italy.
and then after biblestudy, gina, courtney and i went to oficina (a pub in the center) to meet fosca and her boyfriend juliano... we all got to listen to max (my italian brother who lives on the first floor of this apartment) play with his band. i wish i had my camera. and i wish i could've video taped what i got to listen to tonight! what a gift. for how much i freakin love music. to be set up with a family that both of the sons are in bands? max is like on commercials in italy. and newspapers. and plays the drums for famous artists here. he's incredible. and so so so fun to watch! tonight it was just him, a guy on the guitar, and a girl who sang and played the guitar a bit too. they did a version of 'ticket to ride' that blew me away. and then to top it off... max made a little shout out to his american sister and played/sang free fallin! i mean. common. what more could i ask for?
so yes. i guess you could say things are getting along quite nicely :) i'm starting to have a place here, and i'm really loving that. like i love going to the elementary school with gina to help teach an english class and hear in the hallway, 'the blonde one is my teacher' which is a good start. i'm workin towards katie. but for now. blonde girl is fine. i'll totally take that.
okay. off to sleep now. tomorrow i have my first lesson with sam. she's eighteen and wants to practice conversational english.... my job is too fun. getting paid to talk with an italian girl for an hour. mmm. la vida dolce :)

monday reflections.

today i taught two lessons. one of my normal three for mondays cancelled :/ so only two today. the first was rebecca and she brought along her friend chiara. they're in second grade and are honestly just a joy to be with. they're so eager to learn and so fun to be with. we learned about food today. my second class was a group of four three year olds. three girls: camilla, sophia, and linda, and then one boy: alessandro. and they are totally adorable. and make me laugh often. but this lesson is by far the hardest for me. the parents sit in on it, so the entire time you feel like you're being graded or something. and i think its just rough at the beginning because they're three. and they dont know any english. so you're trying to get four three year olds to sing a hello song with you... and you end up singing it mostly alone. maybe one brave soul will join in for the chorus, but for the most part they're just staring at you. and so are their parents. that being said. this week was better than last week. and hopefully it will continue to move in that direction until its actually good. so recent conclusions: elementary school teachers are incredible. and should be paid like rockstars.

here are two pictures of the office. this room so far has sort of been mine. gina mostly uses the other room. but there is the potential for a third girl jumpin in with us, which would be a really wonderful thing. but for now we'll say this is where i work:

snow!

today i woke, looked out my window, and:

snow! so i thought. what a good reason to blog. sorry i haven't, and it seems sort of silly to try and recap three weeks in italy all in one coherent story. so instead i'll just write some thoughts i've had since being here.
first. i love it. my schedule here is so flexible. i work during the week. sort of random hours. but generally in the afternoon, sometimes late morning. so i usually wake up and hang out a bit. sometimes join fosca downstairs for breakfast and coffee. and then leave the house between ten and noon. since mornings are usually free i try to meet heather and allyson for coffee. sometimes gina too. head to the office to organize a bit (gina has been teaching english for nine years now! so she has so many games, songs, grammar worksheets, etc, so i've been doing my best to gather all her materials and put them in in a more standardized order). on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays i go to yoga. sabine is this wonderful french woman who is good friends with gina and fosca. shes the yoga instructor and absolutely kicks my butt every lesson. like to the point of laughter. but its wonderful.
english lessons are going really well. its really a challenge for me though. maybe because i over think it? i try so hard to make the lessons go as planned, and i think i'm learning to go with it more. feel out the situation and do what would be most helpful in that particular circumstance. so i'll keep ya posted. if anyone has fun activities and/or songs for three year olds... send em my way!
anyway... another thing i love about italy....

okay. this is a house. or was a house. i pass it every time i go into the center (which is everyday). and this is the best part. the fence around it is to preserve it. nobody lives there. it wasn't a special office or house of anyone important to the city of carpi or italy or whatever. just a house. and its protected because its old. thats it. and its on one of the main streets. i love that here things like this are seen as something worth protection. just something old. i feel like if this was in america, this would be leveled either because it was ugly or useless or something. 

this is where i live: fosca's house

this place has been such a gift to me. the fact that the entire third floor is my space. in yet fosca and her son max have been so wonderful in welcoming me into their home. and her son alle for letting me live in his room while he's away! fosca is so sweet and always making sure that i'm eating. and getting enough coffee :) and just making me feel apart of a family here. 

this is the main cathedral in carpi, its called the duomo:

the inside of this cathedral is incredible. it honestly makes you speechless when you enter. and what i love is that its at the very front of the piazza (the square thats in the center)

anyway. here is such a small picture of what my life has been like for the last three weeks. and i hope i get to blog more often now that i've sort of settled in. and hopefully more pictures to come as well!
LOVE YOU ALL. and misssss you.
peace

dublin in a day.

unfortunately i was wayyy tired when i got into dublin, so after checking into a hostel at two or so, i was passed out no later than 330 (in the afternoon!) which seemed like a really great idea until i woke up at 245 am ready to go!not much to do in dublin at 3 in the morning... so i watched a movie on my computer in my room until it was time for breakfast. for whatever reason the room i stayed in had six beds...

.. went downstairs and enjoyed a yummy meal prepared by those who work at the hostel. and then i was off! walked the main street in dublin and tried to take a bunch of pictures of all the neat buildings.

sat in a cafe for a bit. ordered tea.

and then got back to my hostel just in time to catch the shuttle back to the airport. of course by this time the luggage i bought for the uganda trip had seen better days! the wheels broke :/

so i was dragging my luggage down the street offering an awkward/embarrassed smile to all those who looked at me curiously. and kept going! until... this irish guy said, i think you're wheels are broke... and then he picked up my bag and said 'where are we off too?' so this super nice guy carried my 44 kg bag all the way to my bus stop! then back on the bus to get back to the airport to get back on a plane. but all of it is so worth it in light of where i am going!

new york new york!

ok. so day one. i flew into new york and had a seven hour lay over! so i talked to the girl next to me on my flight and she had lived there her whole life... was so excited to hear that i was going there for the first time and wrote an entire itinerary for me! so thank you kathy. you are wonderful. i got off the airplane ran to the shuttle took the shuttle to the train station and the train to madison square garden! got off and walked about twenty blocks.. and basically just looked.looked.looked. and took pictures :) like this one.

first thing i thought.... JOSH CUELLAR> and then something totally inappropriate. mufasa! oh goodness. anyway. the lion king is on broadway!

so then i walked all the way to the place where the new years eve ball was dropped. and this is looking out from the bleachers there.

heres the macy's from miracle on 31st ! i think thats the right street? oh well. its the right macys at least.

this was on my walk back to the train... thought of you todd! shoulda bought a bootlegg dvd ;) 

anyway. new york is crazy. i suppose i always thought it was. but now i'm totally convinced. even just walking down the street. everyones walking so quickly.. and i had nowhere to be... and totally caught myself in a slow jog. just keepin up with the traffic around me. 

i couldn't believe how many people there were. everywhere! the sidewalks are crazy. and intersections are crazier. you're either hurrying across the street or dodging all the people coming from the other way. also when i was on the shuttle back this middle aged guy with dreads and a leather jacket and serious beer belly was like the dad or something of all these kids and they had all this luggage. and when they were getting off the shuttle, his wife (?) was pushing luggage on a skateboard and the wheels got stuck. and he just started yelling things. F THIS> F YOU> F YOU SKATEBOARD bahaha! and then throwing all the luggage off the shuttle. and i was thinking.. there are different people here. anyway. off for a bit. then i'll be back to blog about dublin :) love you all. and already miss you!