Aggiornamento in fretta

Wow.  Seems like all of a sudden I'm super busy all the time.  Which is great, but the blog is starting to suffer a bit.  In honor of soon-to-be-mentioned events, I'm going to do things Nicole Page style (http://nicolestudyablog.blogspot.com/- if anyone's interested in life abroad in Madrid) and list everything I need to catch up on.

 So, in the past few days I:

1) Bought a cute pair of Italian shoes on the oh-so-trendy Via Dell'Indipendenza.  They are grey and blue and purple, therefore matching most of my wardrobe, and after today's test run I can state with confidence that the heels are definitely doable.

2) Took a day trip to Florence and saw Nicole Page, one of my best friends from home and, as mentioned above, my blog rival/role model.  She's been touring the country with a bunch of her friends from Duke, a.k.a the most blonde people I've seen in one place in Italy.  I was there for just enough time to:

• Eat two delicious Italian meals (it's refreshing to eat with people who aren't yet sick of pasta and pizza)
• See Michelangelo's David.  Unlike the Mona Lisa, which I saw with Nicole back in high school and was kind of disappointed by, this was actually greater than I'd expected.  It was huge--much bigger than pictures suggest--and even without the hype, I could tell I was looking at something truly remarkable. 
• Hike up to the Piazzele Michelangelo for the best view of the city--at sunset, of course. You might be thinking that, by this point, I'd be sick of seeing amazing overhead views of Italian cities, but it really never gets old.  
• Convince everyone to skip Florence's branch of Grom and go to a different gelateria on their list instead.  And then wish that we'd gone to Grom.  Still trying to decide how I feel about that being the best gelato I've tasted. 

3) Went to 5th grade and taught English.  Enjoyed being the one who could speak the language fluently for once and realized how grateful I am that I'll never have to learn English. The kids asked me lots of cute questions, such as:

• "Do you like chicken and potatoes?"
• "What are your brothers' names?" (They were really excited that Zack has the same name as a Disney channel character)
• "I like Justin Bieber" 
• "Do you watch X-Files?"
• "How are you?" (this kid seemed to have less vocabulary to work with than the others)

After spending awhile basking in the attention, I helped them with some exercises.  The teacher spoke passable English, and they were working from a book, so I felt like, even as a native speaker, it wasn't my place to question what they were learning.  Still, maybe the various English teachers/enthusiasts who read this can help me out: is "The girl has got brown eyes" correct?  It's definitely a problem when the kids get confused and say "She got brown eyes," but is it otherwise worth mentioning to the teacher?  The other thing I'm worried about is that next week I'm supposed to start teaching from their workbook, which is all about England.  I'm going to have to start studying up on British geography, folklore, and alternative spellings or I have a feeling I'll lose some of my credibility.

4) Finally got my care package from home, which had been stuck in customs for the past few weeks.  Amazingly, mom's meringues tasted better than ever--probably because I've been waiting so impatiently for them to arrive.  A new top, peanut butter, and Aunt Susie Cake-flavored lip balm, among other treats, were also very appreciated.

5) Started my fourth class- a language workshop to help us write and speak academically.  We're reading The Solitude of Prime Numbers, which I read in English this summer and highly recommend, and I'm excited to read it in it's original language and to discuss it in-depth.

Now I must get back to reading for class, but I promise I'll finish my Napoli post soon!