Italian Olive Harvest and an Old Town

Today, my roommates and I traveled about forty-five minutes, by train, to the small town of Mazzano Romano. There we helped a teacher at the school harvest her olives. We helped rake about 29 olive trees of their 37. It is tedious work, but we all had a blast! They treated us to a massive lunch with a local homemade soup, bread, wine, sausage, and bruschetta.

Annie harvesting olives

Annie carving her Halloween pumpkin,
we toasted the seeds later

Tonight we are hoping to find a Halloween Party or something fun to do...more on that later.

Ciao for now,

Kyle

Dinner with Colleagues

Tonight, after school, Jordan and I met a few of our colleagues for dinner at a Roman cuisine restaurant, Mascalzone Latino. There were originally supposed to be about fifteen teachers joining, but that was wheedled down to five.

The food was delicious, but it took a while to order, the menu was in Italian after all! I ended up ordering Saltimbocca alla Romana, a veal dish with thin slices of ham on top. The whole dish was covered in a delicious gravy.

For dessert, I ordered a Torta di Cioccolata e Arance, basically an orange cake with chocolate. It was so good, I also had a bite of a Panna Cotta with triple berries and a bite of Crem Caramel. Everything was amazing!


Overall, the evening was a blast and it was great being able to get to know some of my colleagues outside of the school. We are already making plans for future events!

Otherwise, Ciao for now!
Kyle

The Ancient City in the Morning, Transatlantic Football at Night!

So, today the City of Rome sponsored a free admission day to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Complex in the Ancient City. Needless to say, I was up for partaking, what can I say, free is always a good word to use with a college student!

Anyways, I made my way to the Ancient City from my apartment. On the way, I was crossing Ponte Palatino and came across the remnant of an old Roman bridge, just one of the arches remains!

Part of what is left of an old Roman bridge,
just north of Ponte Palatino

When I got to the Palatino, the lines weren't all that bad, I got in and started to explore the ruins. Pretty quickly, I met a fellow American who was in Rome on vacation for about a week. She had been separated from her friends when they were boarding the train to the Colosseo. We wandered around the Palatino and the Foro Romano for a few hours and got to see some amazing sights!
















After the Palatino and Foro Romano, I walked over to the Colosseo. The line was considerably longer, but the wait was worth it! The monument is amazing, there is nothing to compare!

After a few hours taking in the sights of the Ancient City, I arrived home. Then I found out about the Iowa State vs Texas Football game! I first heard that ISU was winning 11-3, then it was 21-6, finally when I got a chance to log on to the live chat via the Des Moines Register, Iowa State had pulled ahead to 28-6. Then I tried to get a live stream of the game...it took a while, but I finally found one that worked! I started watching around the middle of the fourth quarter as Iowa State was letting Texas closer to the mark! It was difficult to watch! I am extremely glad that I was able to watch a historic moment in Iowa State History!

Ciao for now,

Kyle

Whirlwind of Excitement....and exhaustion

Today, we had our first day at our new school. We met the bus at 7:45AM after having missed two trams to get there....ugh! Then we got a scenic tour of the outskirts of Rome before we pulled into the school. When we arrived, we were supposed to be meeting someone from the Head of School's office, but the office was closed, so another teacher was kind enough to show us all to our cooperating teachers rooms. This kind of screwed up getting ourselves accounts and access to different things in and around the school, but it all worked out.

When I sat down with my first cooperating teacher, I got her schedule and realized that it might be an interesting time for me. Although I am student teaching and I should be taking over classes, I can't really do that with the AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Baccalaureate) classes because of the rigorous testing at the end of the year...problem is both of my cooperating teachers have mostly AP/IB courses! Right now it looks like I will be teaching two main classes and then just observing/assisting in their other classes as needed. Overall, this two cooperating teachers deal is a bit confusing and complicated...

Anyway, after a bit, we did get accounts and access figured out and I got myself a lunch account for the school and internet access and all of the requisite information. Tomorrow, I will be sitting in on one of my teacher's classes for the day, then we have a meeting with all three of us, my cooperating teachers and myself, on Friday morning to discuss where things will go from here!

Ciao for now.
Kyle

Explorations of the Eternal City

Today, after meeting the school bus at 7:45AM to see where it picks up and to let them know we would be starting tomorrow, we decided to take in some of the sights of Rome.

The Pantheon (under construction/cleaning)

We walked up to the Pantheon which was deserted, it was an hour before opening time...lol Then we made our way to the equally deserted Piazza Navona, beautiful still.

The central fountain in Piazza Navona and the Church of St. Agnes in Agony

 After some time taking in the sights of the Piazza Navona, we made our way back to the Pantheon just as it was opening for the day. The monument is beautiful and grandiose, but I somehow expected it to be bigger...Hollywood has made it out to be a larger building than it really is...a feat I don't understand as the monument is massive already!

After we had taken in the Pantheon, we explored our way to the Trevi Fountain, on the way we stumbled upon "The Pontifical North American College" which is the Bishop's office for US visitors to the Vatican...its a ways from the Vatican itself, just tucked away on a back street...lol

When we got to the Trevi Fountain, it had gotten to be about 9:30am, so there were a bunch of tour groups, but we found a section to the right side of the fountain that was relatively deserted where we could take pictures easily...

The Trevi Fountain

After we had each tossed our coin into the fountain, insuring our return to Roma, we found ourselves at the famed Spanish Steps. They were a bit crowded, but definitely worth the walk to get there...

The Spanish Steps, named for the nearby Spanish Embassy

Overall, the day was a resounding success...

Ciao for now,
Kyle

Street Markets and Walks along the River

Today, my roommates and I decided to check out a massive street market which takes place outside our building every Sunday. The market was HUGE and packed tightly with tents for every type of merchandise you could think about. We were totally unprepared for the magnitude of the experience, but we did manage to find a nice cutting board for the apartment for only €5! (The one that came with the apartment is more suited to a doll house than a furnished apartment...lol) We also found a splatter screen to help with some of our pots.

After we walked to one end of the market, we came back down along the Tiber River. The views were fantastic:

View of the Tiber River, looking through Ponte Sublicio.

Overall, things are going great! On Tuesday, we are making a dry run to meet our school bus which will take us to the campus, but we do have to walk a bit or catch the tram to the bus stop.

I am really getting excited to begin teaching again, now I just have to try not to sleep in so often! LOL

Ciao,
Kyle

La Città Eterna...finalmente!

Well, it's official! I'm in Rome, sitting in my flat with my roommates and colleagues. We have just come in from a short walk around the area to get a bite to eat on our first night in Rome. We found a neat little Patisseria (bakery) that also had a Gelatoria window....needless to say, first night in Rome is off to a great start with Strawberry and Chocolate Chunk gelato!

Ciao for now,

Kyle