Ben: 1

SO far in Italy it has been fine walking around is kind of boring. The food has also been great. Another thing is that Ethan smells really bad because he has not taken a shower in days. I don't like Rome because its boring and there are too many people. Lastly I cant wait to go home.

From 2019: Home

 

 

That's my first grader's cursivo!

A few years ago, Disney released the movie Inside Out. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my thinking and my brain this week, and this movie has repeatedly come to mind. Like many of Disney's movies, it's a good one for adults and kids alike. The psychology major side of me really found the parts about the inner workings of the brain very interesting. In particular, I was really interested in short-term vs. long-term memory, and how the brain retires old information and memories that are no longer useful.

We got home. I can't remember which light switches to use. And not in an, 'oh, right, that's the right switch' kind of way. In a repeated,*

Oh, and we got a puppy. Less than 24 hours after getting home. It's crazy, and it's not. 

[Again, this post was started in 2019 and unfinished. There is enough here to post, and this is one that I think I remember enough about what I was trying to capture for me to attempt to finish it.]

*In a repeated, "How do you turn this bank of lights on?", walk around the perimeter of the room way. Apparently the location of the light switches in our house was so unimportant that it was part of my memory that went in the 4.5 months we were in Padova. 

The other very weird feeling I had was driving, or taking a car, anywhere. I remember it feeling so strange that I would be in a vehicle for a short trip, like to the grocery store. The first few days it almost made me feel a little sick to be driving instead of walking. (We did rent/carshare a care a few times in Padova, so it's not like I hadn't been in a car at all. It was just that I wasn't used to using one for everyday, short rides.) 

Il Colosseo

Our loft apartment in Rome

 

Ethan has, since we started talking about this trip, wanted to visit the Colosseum more than anything else. Dave looked for tours, but most of the English-speaking tours were selling out faster than he could get tickets. He asked me if I thought we could do an Italian-speaking tour, and whether it would be OK to do one at night. I was more concerned about the time of day than the Italian given that it would only be our second day after the time change, but we decided to try it. 

There are a few less pictures of Ben, as this is the best he gives me for pictures.

We headed out on foot and walked by the Forum. We found a place to eat with very affordable pizzas (8-10 euro). Once we reached the Colosseum, we waited at the gate for our start time, 8:30. There were a lot of other English speakers also waiting, which made me think maybe we were getting the English tour. It turns out that they had the same experience trying to get tickets as we did, but speak less Italian. The tour guide handed out headphones and audio sets so that we would be able to hear him the whole time.

Dave's Italian is pretty good. Mine is functional beginning, to be kind. I could understand about 60% of what the tour guide said. It was helpful that he spoke plainly and used lots of gestures. He also had a beautiful visual aid to help him. We got to walk along the very bottom floor of the Colosseum, seeing the drainage system, where they had elevators and ramps to let animals and gladiators into the arena. He talked about the history of the Colosseum, and how after Rome was Christian there was a little bit of a problem with such brutal entertainment. Ben was a good sport, listening to the tour guide the whole way despite not knowing basically any Italian. Ethan made it 75% of the way, and then used an umbrella to simulate gladiator battles.

Maybe I'll just take pictures of the back of his head.

One happy kid.

Ethan: Rome and Vatican City Trip in 2023

 When we got to Rome I was so excited because I knew we were gonna go see the Colosseum. What I didn't know was that we were gonna see the Sistine Chapel in Vatican city. I was so tired that I fell asleep right away. I had carbonara for dinner one night and some ragu for lunch. One of the days I got almost 20,000 steps.

From 2019: School: Parent-Teacher Conferences

The centrum area outside of the
boys' classrooms.

**The events in this post happened in February. I may back-date posts later after I am done catching up with writing.

In mid-February, I got a notice through the classroom texts among the moms that the boys would be receiving report cards. Right away, we were assigned a conference time to meet with Ethan's teacher and pick up the report card. Nobody was sure whether Ben would receive a report card or not- after all, he had been in school here for only a few weeks! It took a week of talking to the teacher and the room mom (my lack of knowledge, nothing lacking on their part) for me to determine that he would receive a report card. For Ben's conference, I was told that the teacher wanted to meet with all of the parents at one time, and then she would meet with the parents afterwards if they had individual concerns.

Ben's art from Holocaust
Remembrance Day

The conferences were happening on a Thursday afternoon, so Dave made sure to be off of work. We arrived a few minutes early, and I finally (!!!) got another look at the interior of the school and the boys' classrooms. There was work posted in the hallway, including some of Ben's. In general, the classrooms were very traditional and less decorated than is normal in America. Each student has his or own separate desk. They are arranged in rows or pairs, reflecting the generally teacher-centered style of teaching. There were lots of posters and student work, all of it reflecting what the students were studying. There weren't rugs or curtains, so I could understand why the boys felt like the classrooms were really loud when they first arrived. There are definitely lots of echoes.

Inside the classroom

Unbeknownst to me, the reason that Ben's teacher had called a group meeting was because several parents had concerns about the homework assigned and teaching happening in the class. She and her co-teacher (they split subjects, not teaching at the same time) sat up front, and over the course of more than an hour, explained their teaching methods and why she was deviating from the lessons in the students' books.

All of this was done in rapid-fire Italian. I followed as much of it as I could, understanding that her point was that she doesn't teach straight out of the book because a) 21st century students need to be involved, engaged, and interact with their learning and b) the students needed differentiated work in certain areas. The parents then asked questions, at which point I was pretty lost. I did understand when she was talking about Ben and how at times she asked him to demonstrate native English.

More than anything, I came away from the meeting with a lot of empathy for Ben's teacher. Teaching is hard. Before the meeting, one of the moms joked with me that now I'd see 'how Italian moms love and protect their children'. Even with my limited understanding, I could see that the moms (Dave was the only dad there), definitely asked very pointed questions. Ben's teacher chose to call the meeting, but it definitely wasn't easy or stress-free.

Teaching is hard everywhere. Parents love their kids everywhere.

We didn't talk to Ben's teacher after the meeting. Part of that was due to the fact that we had to get to Ethan's conference. Also, while Ben's teacher is very good, I don't think she

Later that afternoon I saw one of the moms at soccer practice and confirmed that my basic understanding was correct. Apparently the norm has been for the classrooms at their school to be very teacher-centered and traditional.

Teaching is hard.

Getting books for Ben
Report Cards
Conferences
The school

[This is another unfinished post from 2019. I'll try to record some of what I left off below.]

Nobody told us where to get school materials for the boys. Actually, more honestly, they may have told us and we didn't understand. We tried shopping for the notebooks that Ben needed at a supermarket, but they didn't have them. It turns out there are special shops to go to for school supplies, and one was right across the street from school. Notebooks for elementary students have extra lines in them and that helps them work on handwriting (tough to explain). We ended up ordering Ben's books for each subject from Amazon.

Ben's school books that came in
the Amazon order

Ah, Roma: The Vatican

Roma... Pigeons, cigarette butts, mopeds, and pushy street vendors. Luckily there are also amazing sights to see and excellent food to eat! 

This morning we got up early for 9:30 tickets to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Dave and Ben left without rain coats, which was a mistake. We quickly doubled back and got them as well as the umbrellas from the apartment. That meant we abandoned the idea of taking the bus to the Vatican, as we were unsure of pickup times and routes. 

I was worried that I'd have to go without a cappuccino before the museum, but we got there five minutes early and there was a bar across the street. My Italian for ordering cappuccinos and food in restaurants is on point! Once in the Vatican, we took it slowly through some of the early rooms and found it uncrowded. There were quite a few pieces of art that featured babies' heads with wings... and no bodies. The museum was awesome- one highlight being the hall of maps, which featured maps of Italy from centuries ago. The Sistine Chapel was amazing as well, and it was not as crowded as I remember. I was also able to get a second cappuccino from the museum cafeteria! 

Weird baby angels

Not the Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed in there)

After leaving the museum, we walked across the bridge of Sant'Angelo and headed back towards our apartment to find lunch. Everyone ate pasta at a trattoria. We are staying near Campo di Fiore, which we walked through after lunch. 

Most people (pushy street vendors) approach us speaking in English, and we try to reply in Italian. I'd like to think that we are not dressed as tourists, though Ethan was an exception after lunch. The boys both wore pants (over shorts) to the Sistine Chapel to meet dress code requirements. The pants unzip into shorts, and the shorts he had on underneath the pants stuck out under the top layer...

We are taking a siesta at the apartment for a few hours. Then we will head out to see the Pantheon, since it wasn't open last night, a dinner snack, and our evening tour of the Colosseum.

From 2019: Home Is (Mostly) Wherever I'm With You

At some point, this started feeling like home. It happened toward the beginning of March, when I was cleaning and preparing the house for the upcoming string of guests. The cave-like green bathroom was my cave-like green bathroom. The ants were invading our spare bedroom...

I anticipated that the trip would be good for our family. What I didn't anticipate were some of the fun family moments...

Ben is growing quickly. I'm afraid that this is one of our last experiences with him being a 'boy'. For example, we were in Trieste checking out the Mar Adriatico off of one of the docks, and a bunch of jellyfish had washed in with the tide. Ben shouted down the pier, "Daddy, I see a jellyfish!" His spontaneity, energy, and lack of worry about how he was being perceived around him were so young, and I want to soak in those moments as much as possible.

At the beginning of the trip, as you may have read, the boys were holy terrors. While they still have their moments, things have calmed down a bit. They get along best when they are talking about video games or pretending to play video games. One of those moments happened in Trieste, where as we were walking down the street I noticed that they had their arms around each other, eagerly discussing the video game they had played that morning. It's a nice change from the first month of the trip, when Ben blamed Ethan for all of his misery.

[Post from 2019, just published in 2023. I can't remember what else I wanted to say here.]

Day 1 1/2: Flights and Rome

 We left O'Hare at 4:30 p.m. on the 29th. The flight took just about 7 hours to get to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, that meant that just when it was getting to be bedtime for us, it was time to land. Amsterdam local time was 6:45 a.m., so nobody got much sleep on the first flight. 

We all rested while waiting for our flight to Rome. I did some gymnastics and caught a few zzzs in the airport terminal. The flight was uneventful, and Ben and Ethan both got some sleep. 

There was a passport check point in Amsterdam, but no customs anywhere. Once we got our bags, we got in a taxi bound for our apartment. Ethan slept through the taxi ride. The kid can sleep anywhere, and today was reminiscent of when he slept on the floor at the baggage terminal in St. John two years ago. Our apartment is a clean, small loft apartment. The most interesting thing about it is that the laundry is up some stairs on the second floor above the kitchen. 

There are quite a few Roman sights to see within a short distance of the apartment. We walked through Piazza Navona, saw the Pantheon (it was closed), checked out Trevi Fountain and walked the Spanish Steps. We took the long route home and saw Piazza del Popolo, which neither Dave nor I had ever seen. Now we are winding down and hoping for some good rest overnight before we head to Vatican City in the morning.

We're Going to Italy (Again)!

 It's June 26, and we are almost all packed up to leave on our return trip to Italy and Padova. Originally we wanted to return sooner, but the Coronavirus and illness backed up our trip until now. 

We are very excited about our itinerary. We fly into Rome from Chicago, and will stay there for two days to show the boys the sights. We have appointments for the Colosseum (which I spelled correctly on the first try), Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We will take a train from Rome to Padova and stay there for about ten days. There are some friends we'd like to visit from our time there, and we will day trip to Bologna, Venice, and the Colli Euganei (hills) near Padova. At the end of the trip we will rent a car to take us to the Dolomites and be staying in a hut in the mountains, doing some hiking. We will take the train back to Rome and fly home through Detroit. The boys and I will get off the plane there, and Dave will continue to Chicago to pick up the dog and the car.

My biggest worry is sleep and adjusting to the time change. My sleep is quite iffy on a regular basis right now, so hopefully I'll be able to adjust quickly. 

I am hoping to blog during this adventure. There are some unfinished posts from our last trip, and I'd like to get some good entries in for this trip. Fingers crossed I can persevere and get the boys to do some blogging while we are on the trip as well. 

Guest Post: Brynn

I am overwhelmed with all this stay at home stuff but i know that this is keeping us safe.
And i know we will make it through this together.
And i know we miss each other.
My school closed i was sad but we will get through this.
Its crazy yeah but we will get used to it soon.