I feel a little blue today. I didn't help our teacher, Gianni, was just horrible again. Yes, we got stuck with him another two weeks. This time for grammar. I didn't think he could destroy grammar. Well, he is. Today as we were going around the room trying to fill in the correct congugations he was preparing for his next class. He actually sat there with a pair of scissors and was cutting out something. When he's not doing that, he's doodling. I had to leave the last ten minutes of class before I screamed. This may be the best education for me this year as I'm learning exactly what NOT to do when I am teaching.
We are thinking about living in Amsterdam for the month of September. We think it would be a nice break from wonderful but stressful Italy. Last night we were on the steps of Santa Croce talking about this. I started thinking about perfectly organized Holland and how nice that will be but then as I looked around watching the Italian people I wondered how great it really would be. Let me explain.
I think something positive comes out of a rather disorganized, corrupt country- people really need to support each other. People have to be tolerant and flexible. If you are 30 minutes late to an appointment it's OK because you were probably stuck in traffic or you had to help your 95 year old grandmother who lives with you because there are no homes for old people, or you were arguing with the lady at the supermarket because the line was so long but then you ended up liking each her because they both agreed it was horrible or you were simply trying to get your hair just right because "fare la bella figura" (making a good impression) is the most important thing of all. (Although being 30 minutes is not making a good impression at all in my book.) Or the train was on strike and you needed to find a bus. You can see there are many good excuses for being late. We don't have these excuses in perfectly organized Japan where the trains are never a minute late, where the supermarkets are perfectly organized. Japanese will also come with perfect hair and clothes but they will have spent all morning doing that, never waiting to the last minute.
To be continued...