I’ll Be Layla, You Be Layla’s Mamma

I mentioned in my last post that there is an Italian friend from Layla’s class, Emma, that we have been palling around with.  Emma’s mom, Francesca, has told me that Emma does not like for her to speak English to her.  However, since she’s become friends with Layla she tells Francesca that she will speak English if they pretend she is Layla and Francesca is Layla’s mom!

Last week, I presented in Hayden’s class about making quilts for their Unit of Inquiry on the Arts.  They do a new UofI every few weeks, where they study a subject in depth.  The first UofI was called “Where in the World”, and it looked at the world from different facets – geography, culture, language, etc.  Anyway, I was waiting outside Hayden’s class for my preso time, and I could see Layla’s class outside for recess.  Layla, Emma, and another Italian girl from their class were playing so lovely together.  They were laughing, running around, hugging each other, and kissing their cheeks.  It was so sweet to see, and it was extra special because they didn’t know they were being watched.

No Inglese! Solo Italiano!

I have heard that it is much easier for children to learn a new language than for adults.  I’m not sure of the exact reasoning – the parts of the brain that are still developing are conducive to this learning, they are more open to trying to speak without embarrassment of being wrong, they “remember” more clearly HOW to learn a language because it hasn’t been as long since they learned their native language.  There is a better person than me to argue the best reason.  I’d been told it will take me about a year to really start to understand the language, whereas the kids should be pretty comfortable with it after 8 months.  We are nowhere near the 8 month mark, but they are already on their way to surpassing me – especially Hayden!

I started studying Italian right before we moved, using Rosetta Stone.  So, I had a little bit of a base of understanding but couldn’t really say or understand that much.  In September I started private lessons, and that has helped a lot.  I understand more and more all the time.  I find it difficult to construct sentences.  My teacher told me yesterday that we need to focus more on just communicating rather than getting all the articles and prepositions right, because there are so many of them and I let myself get tripped up on saying things exactly correctly and lose the confidence I need to string the words together enough to be understood without being completely precise.

Hayden has Italian 3 days a week at school, and he also has 3 private lessons a week at home.  His class is about 85% Italian native speakers, so even though the instruction is in English, when his peers talk to each other it is mainly in Italian.  So he is hearing it a lot.  He really wasn’t that interested in the language when he started learning, so I wasn’t sure he would catch on quite so quickly.  Now though it seems he is full of Italian to the point of bursting, because he just can’t keep it all inside anymore.  The other night at dinner, he started asking us what various things are called in Italian, and when we didn’t know he would tell us.  Even though I am probably still a bit ahead of him at this point in my learning, so much of what he is learning is applicable to a kid’s world and are not things I have needed to focus on.  For instance, I am learning more about giving directions, how to order at a restaurant or bar, shopping, and a specialized lesson I requested this week of words that will help me in yoga class (parts of the body and actions such as lift, bend, lower, etc).  Alternatively, he is learning things like scissors, glue, pencil, etc.  So, many of the words he was asking about we didn’t know.  When he gets on these sprees of saying everything in Italian, he starts saying “No Inglese, solo Italiano!” (No English, only Italian!)  The first time he did this, John and I were looking at each other like Where in the world did this come from?  We are loving it, though!  It’s great to see him learning and applying so much, but even better is his enthusiasm.

Layla is coming along as well.  She has Italian once or twice a week through school, but it’s not as intensive as Hayden’s.  She is not old enough for the private lessons, but all the kids in her class apart from one are native Italian speakers, so she is immersed in the language at school through her peers.  We have also made some good friends through the school who are Italian, and she’s had several playdates.  The mom I am closest to here always says how grateful she is that her daughter has met Layla, because their relationship helps her so much with English.  It’s great that it can be two-way like that, because at this point the majority of her Italian is being learnt through play with her Italian buddies.

Venice

The kids had last week of for fall break.  John was in Germany the first part of the week, so the kids and I entertained ourselves in Bologna.  Friday John was back and we took the train to Venice.  Just over an hour from Bologna, it was a very easy trip, and much more scenic than the train to Florence which is strictly through tunnels.

We were in Venice for 48 hours, and we had a ball packing in as much as we could in that time.  What a gorgeous city!  All transportation is by water.  We had a “water bus” pass for the 2 days, so we used that or our feet as our main mode of transport.  There are also water taxis, which were tempting for their directness.  The bus was fine, but it wasn’t really quick due to all the stops in between our destinations.  Luckily, though, the purpose of the trip was exploration rather than specific sites we wanted to see, so we were never pressed for time.

We arrived on Halloween at lunchtime.  We had some lunch and explored a few places during the afternoon.  We brought the kids’ costumes for the evening in case we happened upon any Halloween-ish events.  I was ready to go straight to dinner without going back to the hotel to get changed, when it seemed like there wasn’t a particular reason for the kids to wear costumes.  But Layla was wearing a Halloween outfit that had a tutu at the bottom of the shirt, and she said it was hurting her (rubbing against her skin), so we went back to the apartment so she could change and figured we might as well change them into their costumes.  When we walked to dinner we passed a few more kids who were dressed up, and they seemed to have bags of goodies.  I had heard that in Bologna you could trick-or-treat at a lot of the bars (cafes) and shops, so we tried a few shops.  We found one who was handing out candy.  The kids were excited with their “loot”, but I did feel a little sorry for them that they had missed out on a proper Halloween so the next day we had them pick out a couple of candies from a shop.  They really didn’t seem to mind too much that Halloween was so different this year.

The next day was more exploring!  We had cappuccinos and brioches in the sun in a little piazza near our apartment, then hopped on a water bus to the island of Murano.  Murano is known for its glass.  There was a glass shop near the station where we saw them shape molten glass into a beautiful vase and horse, which was fun to see.  There were lots and lots of shops selling beautiful glass decorations and jewelry.  We walked around a bit, the kids spent most of their energy chasing pigeons, and we found a little cafe in the sun where we got drinks and a wonderful calamari and chips to share.  Then we headed back to Venice, walked around a lot more, and went to a recommended place for gelato (Nico’s) where we could sit by the main canal.  We had gotten the kids some cheap white Venetian masks to color with markers, and that seemed a great time for them to decorate them while we rested.  Then it was time for a gondola ride!  I had been warned how expensive they are (80 Euros for 30 minutes), so I wasn’t sure we would take the plunge but my husband made a great point: We’re in Venice.  You take a gondola in Venice.  It was fun!  We went late afternoon – we wanted it to still be light and hoped that would make good lighting for the pictures.  I’m not sure how much the light mattered in the end, as we asked to mostly go through small canals rather than the grand canal and the buildings blocked much of the direct light.  Afterwards we went to Cafe Brasil for aperitivo.  The kids had done a brilliant job of walking all day, and they were ready for the exploration to be finished for the day.  For dinner we went to Ristorante Rosa Rossa, which I would definitely recommend.  The food was really great and although authentically Italian, not the traditional tourist trap ristorante found easily in Venice.

Our train left at 12:30 on Sunday, so we had a little time to squeeze a bit more out of the trip before we left.  We copied breakfast from the day before (except went to the cafe next door to the one from Saturday, just to mix it up a bit), then got on the water bus to go to the giardini (garden) area.  They have a little playground there, and the kids were really happy to finally get to just play for a while.  It’s not a huge playground, but big enough to have two playground sets – one for toddlers and one for slightly older.  The kids had a great time on the swings and playset, and they even made friends and played tag with a British girl who was about Layla’s age.

A very good trip indeed!  And beautiful weather to boot.  We hope to be able to get back to Venice again before our return to the States.

In order to get any form of cooperation in posing for pictures, I had to start making requests like, stand with your arms and legs out

On the big bridge

In a church spire with its bells, which rang (loudly) while we were up there

Piazza San Marco

Halloween night

Jack-o-lanters

Lovely calamari on Murano island

Gelato at Nico’s

The Hills

We have been lucky in making friends since we moved here.  All of the moms at the school have been very welcoming towards us, and there are a couple of Italian moms in Layla’s class that I have become particularly close with.  We have coffee many mornings together, have done playdates, and have spent some time as families together on the weekends.  One weekend not too long ago we went to a place up in the hills called Ca-Shin for lunch.  It had gorgeous views, a great play area for the kids, a little kid library in a barn, and the food was great!  The service was not the highlight of the place, as it took a very long time for some of the food, but luckily we were not in a huge rush.

A couple of weeks before Ca-Shin, we went to another place in the hills, called Agriturismo Casa Fonsi, for another fantastic lunch.  Sat on a vineyard high in the hills, this place had even more beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately, we were in a bit more of a rush as Hayden had a birthday party that day.  It’s the type of place with very relaxed approach to eating.  It’s family style, which worked for everyone except yours truly (as the only vegetarian), so I had my own dish.  We had to hurry on after that before they served the second plate and dessert.  We will definitely go back to get the complete experience – hopefully before too long!

Danza Classica e Calcetto

The kids started after school activities recently.  Layla is doing danza classica (ballet), and Hayden is doing calcetto (“little” soccer).  

Layla’s dance is with two other little girls from her class, as well as some girls from the next class up.  It started as twice a week, but it seemed like too much as the other two girls were really tired all week from the extra activity, and Layla started asking if each lesson was her last one, which didn’t seem a good sign.  I think she was getting frustrated with the instruction mostly being in Italian and not completely understanding what they were asking her to do.

Hayden only has a couple of other boys in his class, but it really seems the perfect class for him.  The other boys in his school class do calcetto outside of school, but it seems more intense as it’s 2 or 3 times a week.  It is also in Italian instruction which I think would lead to him really hating soccer.  He’s not all that interested in soccer to start with, and if we added him doing it all the time plus not understanding what they were saying it seems a recipe for disaster.  However, this class seems to give him great exercise (his head is always completely wet with sweat when I pick up him) plus seems light and fun (I watch for a few minutes at the end and he is always laughing and enjoying himself).

Hayden also started chess after school this week.  It seems a really popular activity here.  He seemed to like it, and it’s nice that it’s the same day as Layla’s dance.  They have their activities at the same time and can be picked up at the same time.  Before chess started I would get Hayden from school and we’d go to a cafe for a snack and homework time while Layla was in dance.  He’d only get a few minutes of homework in after deciding what he wanted and eating it before it was time to pick her up, and then it was difficult to get him to do more homework when we got home.

Our First Visitor

John’s mom (Nanny, as she’s known in our house) came to visit for a week.  She needed some R&R after a stressful move, and what better place than Italy?  It was a regular school week for the kids, so we took it easy during the days usually while they were in school.  A couple of days, though, we ventured out to do some touristy things around town.  I took her to the Seven Churches (Santo Stefano), the ruins under the Sala Borsa (library), a fancy bar (cafe) for dolchi and cappuccino/tea, and over the weekend we all went up to San Luca for a wander around the beautiful cathedral and grounds.  Since it was still business as usual for us from a school and work perspective, Nanny also had plenty of time to put her feet up while I went to a school meeting, chaperoned Layla’s field trip, had an appointment at the bank, plus after school activities like danza classica and soccer.  In fact, the day Layla had her field trip, Hayden’s class performed at the school assembly.  Unfortunately, the times completely overlapped, so we were really lucky Nanny happened to be here so Hayden had someone in the audience from our family.  She had to hang around the school for a little while afterwards until I came back from the field trip, but when I got to her she was chatting away to 2 or 3 people who do administration or teachers’ assistants – I should have guessed she’d be able to entertain herself (and everyone else)!

Boxes. And boxes.

Our shipment arrived last week, so there hasn’t been much activity on the blog because the days have been filled with unpacking boxes. I sold and donated a ton of things before we left, and yet I found myself spending a large chunk of unpacking time sorting things into piles of keep, charity, and trash. I gave a good dozen or more boxes to our neighbors to donate to their church.

The movers arrived two Monday afternoons ago and delivered boxes until it got dark outside. That night we were completely overwhelmed by stacks of boxes that seemed to reach into the heavens. We had to find sheets for the beds and what the movers were calling the “magic box” which had all the screws and fittings for our furniture, so John and I opened loads of boxes that first night trying to find those couple of things. The movers were here all day Tuesday unpacking, as well as until lunchtime Wednesday. I had to send them home Wednesday because it got to the point where they’d ask me which room something would be unpacked into and I kept having to have them set the box aside as I would need to go through it and think about the best thing to do with it. I had been unpacking alongside the movers, and Thursday I was hoping to really make a dent in the family room. But by lunchtime I stepped back and realized that even though I had been working feverishly, it still looked incredibly messy and as though hardly anything had been done. I changed my strategy of trying to get things out of boxes to get rid of the boxes, to trying to get the things that were just lying around waiting for a home to be found for them put away. By the time I picked up the kids things did seem to be taking shape.

We continued working on things through Friday and the weekend, and again when the week started I was spending all my time while the kids were at school unpacking and organizing. By Wednesday of this second week the boxes were mostly gone, and I was able to start trying to get the kids bedrooms in a proper state of tidiness and organization (John’s mum is coming for a visit starting this weekend so there is added incentive to get things cleaned up).

By Friday the unpacking situation was stable. All of the boxes of “stuff” were unpacked and gone, but there were a lot of flat boxes with pictures still around. We don’t have nearly the wall space we used to to hang pictures, so I was dreading going through them because it would require a lot of decisions about which get hung, which don’t, and what to do with the ones we aren’t hanging. However, I knew it would be really nice to arrivederci all the boxes once and for all, so I summoned the last of my unpacking energy Friday and Saturday and picked my way through the wall boxes. It’s been great now having the house mostly straightened up, although there are still pictures setting against walls which need to be hung, and some boxes here and there that need to be stored. At some point – hopefully before we move back to the US – everything will have a place and there will be a place for every thing.

Post Office

My dear friend Reena had a baby a little over a month ago, and I thought it would be fun to get the little sweetie an outfit with some Italian words on it.  It took a while to find something.  I have noticed that it is easy to buy clothing with English or French written on it, but much less so Italian.  The same goes for home decor.  Lots of American, British, and French things to choose from but rare to find something Italian.  While living in Italy I have no desire to buy anything for the home that reflects any culture other than Italy because I can then have a bit of our time here reflected in our home when we move back.

Once I found something, I then had the task of getting a padded envelop to send the gift and of course conquering the post office.  I can’t believe how difficult it was to find a padded envelop!  I tried the massive post office in Piazza Minghetti.  There were loads of things on offer to buy – lots of things for kids such a books and toys – but no mailing supplies.  There were also about 400 people milling around with seemingly no order.  To prevent my head from exploding, I decided to leave.

I then checked various places people recommended for packaging – tabbacheria, grocery store, paper supply store, school supply store – and came up empty every time.  I was really glad I had gotten the baby outfit in size six months because it seemed like it was going to take every last bit of the remaining five months to find what I needed.

My friend Maddalena finally found one for me at an office supply store and took me out of my misery.  So next was the post office itself.  I knew I couldn’t go back to the chaos that was the big post office at Piazza Minghetti.  I found a smaller one around the corner from our house so I tried that.  It was smaller, so more manageable, but there were still so many people milling around that I desperately wanted to walk out as soon as I got there.  But, I love Reena so much (she really is a fantastic person, you should meet her) that I knew I had to get out of flight mode and into fight mode.  I realized there were numbers being flashed up on a big sign that was lit up and eventually found the ticketing machine (ticket machines for “biglietti” are very big here – they are not just for the deli counter).  There were 3 or 4 choices to pick from of what kind of service you needed, and luckily they were all in Italian with no English option so I really got to give my deodorant a proper test as I started sweating from the confusion and pressure of not taking too much time making my selection with the ever increasing numbers of bodies joining me in this smaller post office. I made my choice and waited for a good 25 minutes for my number to pop up, which was actually a hidden blessing because it gave me a chance to really take in what was going on. The numbering system isn’t straightforward: it’s not in straight numerical order, rather there is first a letter and then 3 digits.  So, I was, say, C045, and they were most recently serving E021 in sportello (service window) 6.  I came to realize (or at least hypothesize) that some windows only did certain services, so if you were there for whatever was happening in category E you seemed to get served quicker as there were fewer of those guys and they had their own window.  Jerks.

So eventually I got my number called.  My time in the window itself really didn’t take long at all, but then I started to worry that I didn’t do it right.  There was no customs form to fill out, for instance.  Anytime I’ve shipped something abroad in the US or UK I have had to declare what it is, so as I walked out I was pretty sure it would never get to Reena since I hadn’t written what was inside the package and it’s value.  BUT, I got the text today, only 8 calendar days/6 working days, that she received the outfit!  I have a renewed faith in the Italian postal system (pushing out of my mind our Amazon delivery debacle) and am happy all the blood, sweat, and tears (ok, just sweat) was worthwhile!

Thunderstorms

Last week John was away for work.  Two nights in a row we had thunderstorms.  The first night they woke me up, so I wasn’t surprised when Layla came into my room.  We don’t normally allow the kids to sleep in our bed, but I could understand how the lightning and thunder would be quite scary for her, so instead of staying with her in her room while it passed as I would do if John were home I had her come into bed with me.  The photo above is her still sleeping as I was getting ready.  When she awoke she looked around and said, “Whaaat?  I’m in your room??”

The next night there were storms again, but I slept through them until she came into my room.  She said she was scared and I said, “No, you’re fine, you’re not sleeping in here again just because you did last night.”  But then I saw the lightning and heard the thunder, so I scooted over and told her she could come in for a while.

Needless to say, the next night there were no storms but she came to me at least twice trying to figure out her angle to gain a snuggle buddy! 🙂  It was nice while it lasted, huh Layla?

Is it possible to decline a gelato after school playdate?  Maybe if I was on fire in that moment, but otherwise I think not!