Shoes sales and Venice

Hello everyone back in the good ol' USA.  Well it has been a few days since we talked and what a few days can make.

To start off, there is a crazy shoe sale here in Porto Sant' Elpidio every Thursday and the gals wanted to go check it out.  It is in the center of town and spans probably 3-4 blocks.  They close off the side streets where it is located and it continues through the night until midnight.  The shoes are really nice and the deals can be very good.  All though it is mostly women's shoes there are a few tents with men's shoes and even one that may be endorsed or even owned by Dustin Hoffman, which I found funny.

After all the shoeaholics got there fix we went and re-met up with our party at this little bar in the middle of all the shoe madness and had some drinks.  Our group, of about a dozen or so folks, and another group of 8 or so native Italians sort of took over the patio.  There was a women singing songs who had a great bluesy voice with one guitarist.  Some how it turned into Karaoke and some of the tutors, not this one since they didn't have any Bon Jovi, started singing.  Mayhem ensued and somehow I was dancing the jitterbug with this girl at the table next to ours.  Her name was Christina and she was a pistol to say the least.  Very funny and outgoing.  Nice to see since Italian girls aren't always very outgoing, especially with new people.  It is some culture thing that takes too long to explain and even longer to understand.  After that, one of the camp coordinators took our group on a mission to have the "very best"  gelato.  It is pretty hard to mess up gelato in this country but we walked to the end of the beach board walk and finally had the best.  It was very good!  The next day, thankfully was Friday but we were all dragging a little.

After school that day, myself and two of my fellow tutors jumped onto a train and headed to Venice.  That Indiana Jones was really onto something.  "Ah, Venice!"  It is an amazing city!  A lot smaller then I ever knew or thought.  It is about 4 kilometers x 6 kilometers.  For those not familiar with the metric system, I could run from one end to the other and back and not even have gone 10 miles.  They sure pack it in though.  Not one single car in the whole place.  I knew about the water ways and all that but it is still funny to never see a car, no matter how small a town is.  We walked all over and saw some amazing stuff.  We rode the water taxi through the Grand Canal, "main st.", and saw the Piazza San Marco, and a amazing church called the Biblioteca Cappuccini that was mind blowing.  In churches in Italy they won't let you in if you are wearing clothes that expose your shoulders or shorts too much over the knee, as I talked about in my Loreto post, but this place was ok with it and was even free.

We also took a taxi out to Murano and saw the glass blowing factory.  It was a short tour but did involve a really cool demo of how they make the glass from blowing a vase to using pliers and tweezers, big ones, to stretch and pull the glass into the shape of a horse.  Very fun and a great city.  Of course there was some great food, and we even had Chinese Food at  a place right next to our hostel.  I know, I know "Chinese Food" but eat one style of food everyday 2-3 times a day and no matter how great it is you still want something a little different every once in a while.  It was really good which we couldn't decide if that was cause it was good or just different from our normal menu.  Either way a very enjoyable weekend and now I am back in Porto.  Just had the first day of a new week with my class, mostly same kids plus 4 new ones.  One speaks English really well so she likes to be my helper but she busts my chops too.  Eeehh!  Pics to follow on the next entry and talk to everyone later.

Ciao

Loreto and Mary's House

It feels like we just talked.  Yesterday a couple of the other tutors and I took a short train ride, about 15 minutes, to the town of Loreto.  It is a area most famous for this really old church, about 1295, just a few years older then our country.  It was not only amazing but so much more.  We got off the train and climbed up this fairly long, but doable, staircase to the top of this large hill to where the church is located.  In front of the church is a small cemetery that we speculated was former Popes, Cardinals and what have you.  Before we got in the church though the view was INSANE!  You could actually see several towns over in each direction up and down the coast.  I would have been fine there but we continued on.  Besides being really old and beautiful this church is most famous for housing some of the original pieces of the Virgin Mary's house and the grotto just down from her house.  They have been authenticated by actual scientists and archeologists has being from that time era and that region of the world.  They could not confirm that angels had originally moved them from their first spot.  It was a really big church with lots of painted ceilings, stained glass windows and hand craved alters and other pieces.  You could even got to confession and they were starting mass just as we were about to leave.  I took that as my time to leave before I ignited into flames, te he!  Before you go in there is a sign that tells you to "act with decorum while in the church".  They even make you cover up if you are showing a little too much skin.  No one wants to temp the priests.  The Pope is coming to visit in October.  After you walk out of the church though there is a whole town there with shops and restaurants.  We were all taken aback because we thought it was just the church.  The town was small but had some really nice little shops and of course gelato.  YUM!  We would have explored town more but had to catch our train back to Porto Sant' Elpidio.

I was talking in Italian with one of the stand workers who sells trinkets and religious paraphernalia.  Don't worry Ehren I got you a really nice Rosary.  He had the Tour de' France on and he and I got to talking about bikes.  My Italian is getting fairly decent and grows everyday with new experiences.  I am even looked to to translate for some of my fellow tutors.  Sometimes I think I even can convince locals that I can speak fluent, but we are not there yet.

Well that is all.  This blog is mostly about the pics.  Enjoy and have a great weekend.  I am going to Venice tomorrow and will likely have more to write about when I return.    

Ciao

PS Photos to follow

Photos Of Loreto

Just one of many views from atop the hill.

From here the pictures can speak for themselves.

This is the arch directly over the cemetery.  There were lots of Polish flags at the plots.

That is the Adriatic Sea.

This is the actual church from the back.

Another arch you walk through before entering into the church's main space.

It was tall!

This is the front and where the piazza opens up into the town of Loreto.

Just some casual sidewalk chalk art.  None of my class ever made things this nice. 

They love fountains in Italy and don't mess around with crazy devil fish.

Inside the church.  The main alter at the front of the church and one of several impressive things too see and think about how they did that 700 years ago.

The ceiling about the above photo.

Everything tells a story in this place.  Just wish I could get off the religious channel and find ESPN.

This photo does no justice for the stain glass window in the center.

Even the doors told stories from major events in the Bible.

It is good the be the head Priest.  The plates said "Rollin' with JC"

The whole Square.

Not sure what these were but they had sealed doors and were numbered, tombs maybe.

The clock tower that rings out every 15 minutes.

Bre and Emily, fellow tutors.

The Virgin Mary at the bottom of the hill.

Photo op!

More of me.  I tried to tell them you all know what I look like.

Near the end of our tour.

Italy, Funny stuff and more food

Well we had a couple of low to mid 80 degree days early this week.  I know that sounds SOO HOT to Portlanders but when you haven't gone under 93 for a week and a half and the humidity is also pretty high it is wonderful!  My new class is going well.  I got a group of 8 and 9 year olds all to myself.  The head coordinator explained that I was on my own and everyone else got a partner to work with because I came so highly recommended and had so much experience they had full faith in my abilities.  That was really nice to hear.  All the staff have been very complimentary about how I am working with the kids and that always feels good.  They are quit a group.  Full of spirit and very funny.  Even though we may not always understand each other we get along pretty well and have fun and laugh everyday together.  For some reason I have the most struggle trying to explain active games to them but we sort of got one down and usually just play that when we go outside for a break.  They like it and it runs them around, so I like it.  Everything else though they understand pretty well and if not they try hard to.

A couple of tutors and myself went to "Great American Bowling Alley" the other night for fun.  It was deserted.  Other then us, there were two kids playing some video games and that was it.  They had Budweiser in a bottle, standard operating procedure for bowling, which we finished, while we played a couple of games.  They had to turn on an alley to accommodate us.  It was fun though, especially to do something more "American"  then usual.  The equipment was pretty old but it worked and afterwards we rode our bikes back to our apartment.  The whole place was decorated with paintings of vintage 50's cars and stars and stripes.  We couldn't stop laughing.  We may try to have our whole group go near the end of our time together and just take over the place.

Well other then some great food to look at that is all for this edition.  There will be one to follow directly after but until then hope all is well with you and look forward to the time that comes when we are all together again.

Ciao

Crazy is maybe a better word to describe them, but we keep each other on our toes.

Great American Bowling Alley, with three Americans in it.  Not much else.

I almost did the pledge of allegiance I felt so patriotic.

Trying to beat the British out of them and instill some Americana.

They always complain about crosswords but always seem to love to doing them, and they are fast.

Our one game for outside that they mostly understand, color wolf.  They mixed up the directions but it worked for me so why fight it.

"Please sir, may we take off our jumpers and have elevenses?" No dammit but you can put your jackets away and stop talking like redcoats. 

Some rigatoni with a red cheese sauce.  GRUBBIN'!!

A picture of the group together outside of our daily lunch spot.

Some pork spare ribs and potatoes au grotin.  It is nice that they mix it up every once in a while.  We even had a burger and fries the other day.  Ok tasting, but nice nostalgic value.

Killer Food and What Not

Hi everyone-
Just wanted to put a couple of picks up of some of the amazing food I have had over the weekend.  Just about everyone went traveling and I was left to explore Porto Sant' Elpidio on my own.  Other then being nice to have some time to catch up on some lost sleep from the traveling last week , it also meant that I had the restaurant we eat at for lunch everyday to myself and they hooked a brother up.  Not only did I receive my usual two course meal but I got seconds on a plate today and on Saturday they gave me a bottle of red wine to drink. Then for lunch on Sunday most of a bottle of champagne.  The only reason it was not full upon delivery to my table was because the owner and I did a toast right after I arrived.  Not really sure of the cause for celebration like this but who am I to turn away good, free drinks.

I just found out I will have a group to myself next week.  Should be interesting.  Most of these kids are used to learning British English so they call pants, "trousers" and a jacket is a "jumper".  You better believe I will rectify that problem right away.  U S A, U S A!   Enjoy the pics and have a good Sunday and start to your week.

Ciao

This is the pizza I had for dinner the other night at an open aired restaurant that overlooked the Adriatic Sea while the sun went down behind us.  NOT TOO SHABBY! 

This was my first course at the usual spot for lunch on Saturday.  It was like crepes with the two on the outside filled with spinach and the center with ground beef and sausage.  Then it was covered in a cheese sauce.  You can even just see my little cup of red wine, one of several.  Delicious! 

This is just down the beach from me.  It is called "Kite Beach" for obvious reasons. Just like at home in the HRD.

This was plate 1, serving 1 of 2 of today's lunch.  Linguini pasta with cherry tomatoes, perfectly cooked translucent onions and fresh tuna.  I almost fell off my chair it tasted so good.

The champagne I drank.  Local from Italy of course.  A nice brut, not too strong.  I almost fell out of my chair for a different reason.

Baked tomatoes with what I think was octopus wrapped up in some squid, breaded and with lemon.  Yeah buddy.

The two wonderful people not only keeping me fed everyday but slightly buzzed and very happy.

Week 1 and done!

Well everyone my first week with my class is over and I will be on to a new group of kids next week.  Usually kids are in this program 1-2 weeks and this last group, most of them anyway, were in their second week already.  They were a good group of kids and I noticed good to considerable improvement in the whole class in just five days.  For some of them it is just a confidence thing while others are able to pick it up like they had been speaking English their whole lives.

Our last day was a fun one.  We studied for about the first two hours and then we had a scavenger hunt with both groups, mine and the older kids.  We divided them up and gave them clues for things to look for in english.  The teachers even got involved as one of us was assigned to each group.  They were great!  Then we had a long game of dodgeball and that was really fun too.  Afterwards they all got certificates and I told them they were ready to drop off in Harlem, NY their English was so good.  They looked at me funny as they often did during the week whenever I made references to something.  I started to talk to them about "Sweet Caroline".  They didn't get it so much but they thought the "Da, da, da" and " So good, so good, so good"  was funny.  I tried to explain the Red Sox, but even English to English discussions can be confusing on that subject matter.

It looks like it will be super hot this weekend and I am going to be working on lessening the Oregon whiteness on my underside.  Hope all is well and talk to you later.

Caio

This was the tortellini and ragu sauce I had for dinner last night.  Taste so good make you wanna slap your Mama! 

Clearly most of my girls are not camera shy.

Most of the class, with one late addition running up.  They were lots of fun.  But good luck trying to help an upset kid who doesn't speak a lot of English.

This was lunch this afternoon.  Roasted rosemary potatoes, some Italian sausage and a pork rib.  Very nice!