This Is The End For Them. In More Ways Than One...

Hello everyone!

So, I’m not going to lie, I’ve got no news. For the most part I am again sitting at conferences and waiting for parents to come visit me. I think they must think their children got whatever they deserved because as the year goes on, I get less and less parents at conferences. I’ve had a whopping 3 parents after four hours of conferences.

Anyways highlights from the week include wanting to kill my children, going to a music festival, trying not to kill my kids, chasing kids around the school, skyping with a former middle school teacher’s class, recording children I’m chasing and yelling at around the school, dreaming about killing kids, and writing up students. Fun times.

No but seriously, it’s that bad. Seniors are almost done (next week, humdullah) and their “I don’t care” attitude is rubbing off on everyone. Even me at this point. And from what I understand, kids are used to not doing anything the last month and a half after seniors leave. Boy, are they gonna hate me. We’re not doing that much after they leave but still. After the last week of this month, though, I have no idea what I’ll be doing with my theatre kids. I have an idea but I don’t think they’d really be up to it after having to rush everything they’re doing right now in class.

Seniors are having to do their final next week so they have either a debate or a part in a play depending on which of my classes they are in. Most of the seniors, however, are actually pulling everyone else down with them because of their attitude in class and for this final and if they don’t get it together, they will fail this quarter. Now, maybe most don’t care all that much about it but a lot of them were also getting low grades last quarter either from the same attitude and/or from the Fashion Show that took place. In March. Quarter ended in April (rolls eyes).

Back to highlights of the week: I went to a music festival with my roommate and another teacher, Brittany, last Friday. It was called Trib Fest where almost every act was a tribute to a certain artist or duo. Obviously they weren’t the real music artists as some of them were dead but some highlights were Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and David Bowie. Odd combination but it was pretty fun to just sit and relax all day outside. With a lot of expats in Bahrain. Oh, and there were two local bands that were in the show that my roommate kind of knew as well so meeting them was pretty neat as well.

As for the skype conference I had with the class last Thursday night-it was weird. I’ve never skyped with a big group like that but the internet worked pretty well for the most part. It was just really awkward to talk to a bunch of kids knowing that my face is plastered against a wall when I’m talking. They all had different kinds of questions and some of them were repeats, but I think my favorite question was “What crops do they grow there?” Uh, if you’re lucky you’ll come across real grass and some palm trees haha. I think probably the most interesting question I was “What are buildings made out of?” I’m not sure exactly what she was thinking but I’m wondering if she was thinking it was plaster and wood or something but it’s actually just sand and concrete for the most part.

Anyways, I should go try to be productive now during conferences. I’ll talk to you guys soon! Also, I attached more photos from Italy and some from school recently. Later!

"And Daddy, They Took My Boot!"

Italy!

If you don’t have me on Facebook, the biggest differences that seemed abnormal in Italy were the following: church bells, mutual respect, PDA, skin, ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE!
I’m not trying to be rude about it, it’s just things I am no longer used to. It was quite impressive to see all the changes from one culture to the next and comparing them to one another but, in essence, they were all very similar. I still had a lot of fun exploring and doing all the touristy things I did, but I also missed the feel of not moving around and just staying in one place to experience everything-not just the first impressions. I would say that would be my biggest regret of the trip but it’s not important enough to take away from the fun I had.

On our first day in Rome, we flew in and checked in to our apartment-which was conveniently about 100 meters from the Coliseum. We then went and explored the Forum, Palentine Hill, Capitoline Hill, Pantheon, and the Coliseum. It was a lot of history to take in, especially with Kate who is a history geek, but I had my own things to geek about throughout the trip. The first day was mostly getting a majority of the touristy sites out of the way in order to avoid crowds (It was a Friday) and so we wouldn’t fall asleep too early in the day. I did enjoy a lot of these spots because they were much older and it felt like you entered a different world because they were so big and totally engulfed you. I felt like I was in ancient Roman times and I was seeing differences in our culture and theirs, especially in the architecture (one of my geek sides). And then we would get ambushed by tourists and then I wanted to leave. Such is Europe.

When we were in the Pantheon, we happened to time it perfectly. We had about 30 minutes where we were roaming around and then they made an announcement that everyone needed to get out unless they were attending mass. Kate and I decided to stay and, except for being very tired and hungry, enjoyed it (at least I did). It was a Catholic mass said in Italian so I didn’t understand about half of what was going on or being said because it was so different than ours, but it was very interesting. Afterward, we went in search of a place my cousin said was very good nearby. Eventually we stumbled upon it and found a pizzeria that explored various tastes and styles of pizza (talking about the toppings). I had a potato pizza and a buffalo cheese pizza. We both agreed it was awesome, but after what we did the next week in Italy, we both realized it was very good but not the best (Sorry Colleen).

The next morning, we got to sleep in a little because we had a food tour that didn’t start until 10am. We went to an older part of Rome that was actually the first part to exist because of the placement of the Tiber River. It first started out as a port and grew because of the markets and the location. This part of authentic Rome is called Testaccio. We had a 4 hour trip of taste-testing breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We joined up with quite a few Americans also on the tour as well as a family from Germany to visit generations-old and owned delis, cafes, markets and mini restaurants. We stopped at 12 food places and then 2 random stops to show a little history in the area. One of the random stops was to a cemetery that holds the final resting place of a lot of famous people-the first of which we saw were John Keats, Joseph Savern and Percy Shelly (English geek in me came out). Kate and I both agree that this food tour was our favorite part of the trip both because of the experience, the food and the social aspect. Every person on the tour was very delightful and we became a small family by the end of the trip.

After our food tour, we decided to do a few other touristy things-the Trevvi Fountain, Spanish steps and the Chiesa del Gesu. The Trevvi Fountain and Spanish steps were, of course, filled with people because it was so nice out and they’re extremely famous. We were both in agreement that we should just get in and get out for the most part. We forced ourselves into the crowd, took our pictures, and then left as fast as we could. We didn’t really stick around for a lecture or anything, not even a history note! The Spanish Steps were actually closed for construction for some reason and we didn’t bother to get close to them, we just stood back and let people do their thing. 

We did happen to see a Shelly and Keats museum right next to the Spanish Steps though, ironically. It was totally unplanned for and we had no idea it was there but we went in anyways. I, of course, enjoyed it a lot because it’s such a huge part of my education-the people anyways. The museum was basically the apartment where John Keats and Joseph Savern lived-and Keats died-when they were there a century ago but it also told the story of Percy Shelley because he was best friends with Keats. Anyways, after that we went to Chiesa del Gesu, a church that has a 3D ceiling. They actually have a mirror on the ground so you can look up at the ceiling easier without hurting your neck. This was a really cool place to visit as well, but we didn’t stay or study any sort of history for it so it was just a cool factor of the day. After that we went to dinner before wandering around for a couple hours. We ended up getting slightly lost but quickly found our way back while also visiting a bunch of piazzas and open air markets. We even walked down a street, found a tiny church, and met a Catholic brother in Rome that was from Iowa!

On the third day we took a day trip to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii. It was 14 hours altogether. We had to travel to the far side of Naples and our group traveled to Mount Vesuvius first. We had an hour and a half to climb half the volcano; it was hell. The first part of it seemed like it was going straight up in small sections-which made it feel like it was taking forever-and it wasn’t ideal for hiking at all because it was very easy to slide down the rocks you just finished climbing. The second part of it started going less steep and more just like a hill so it was a lot easier to do. Kate and I never made it to the furthest point (there were 3 checkpoints, we made it a little bit past the 2^nd one), so, because of timing, we had to turn back around and head back down. We were about 

10 minutes late to the bus but we weren’t even the last ones so we didn’t feel as bad. After that we had lunch close to Pompeii and then we had a short tour of it. The guide was kind of funny because he was British and kept making jokes about their lives compared to ours. We didn’t get to see too much of Pompeii because there was so much to do in such a small amount of time but what we did see was pretty cool. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to its expectations but, like I said, I did only see a few parts of the ruins.

The last full day in Rome, we went to the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel D’Angelo. To begin with, we travelled to St. Peter’s and roamed around for 30 or so minutes until our time came to go get our tickets to climb the dome. We decided to pay for the elevator ride up (extra 2 euro) so we wouldn’t have to climb all 554 stairs, instead we went up 323 stairs-but it still took forever and you can get really claustrophobic when in the “hallway” because it’s extremely skinny and even starts curving with the dome. Eventually we made it to the top after much struggle (apparently we were not nearly in shape for this adventure like we thought we might be) but we got to enjoy the view for about 45 minutes before we had to go back down to make it for our appointment in the Vatican Museums. We had previously gotten the tickets online for a certain time so we were able to skip a long line and go straight 

in, although it was very crowded. We were exploring the museums for a good 3 hours or so-they had a ton of things from armory to religious artifacts to pottery. We also had lunch there before resting for a few minutes then heading back to St. Peter’s. There was a lot of stuff we didn’t see and Kate wanted to listen to her audio guide of St. Peter’s. We were there for another hour or so before we decided we were finished and should go to Castel D’Angelo down the street. Castel D’Angelo started off as a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family before it was turned into a fortress for popes.

The 5^th day of the trip, Kate and I travelled to Cinque Terre-specifically the small town of Manarola. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon travelling on a high speed train so we would make it to Manarola by early afternoon. This one-day stop was just to relax and enjoy the view. It is a small fishing town on the coast but it is also gaining popularity and becoming a tourist town. Luckily, though, there was only a hundred or so extra people in town so it wasn’t too full. We had an early dinner and planned the last minute details of Florence before going to bed. The next morning, we only had a couple hours before the train left for Florence so I laid out on the beach for a little bit while Kate read and then we had an early lunch before grabbing our things and leaving. That day, we arrived earlier in Florence than expected so we started wandering around. We only planned to look at one or two places but everything there is much closer and it’s a smaller city. We ended up finding almost everything we would go to later on in the week and went into a few unplanned places as well. For the most part, everything we wanted to see was close to one another so if you wanted to do one thing, you paid for everything. However, we didn’t know that before and didn’t want to buy tickets for multiple places since we didn’t plan on going in all of them. It was also a little cool because I found out that an Irish pub across the street was called Finnegan’s, which is my brother-in-law’s last name. So we went in for a drink at the end of the night.

The 7^th and final full day in Italy we started off with a food tour in the morning by recommendation from our tour guide in Rome. This one was still in the beginning stages of the tours so we actually got a huge discount because it was a pilot. It wasn’t quite as fun as the one in Rome since Kate and I were the only people in the trip but it wasn’t as long or as interesting (food wasn’t much different) but I did try a few odd things like the stomach lining of a cow’s 4^th stomach. That was actually good…well, it was prepared well. I probably won’t eat that anywhere else haha. After that we went to the Duomo where we walked around and learned a tiny bit about the history of it-it has the largest brick dome ever constructed, it is one of the largest churches in Italy and used to be the biggest one. After a quick tour through, we went to the Academia Gallery where Michelangelo’s David statue is. That was about the only thing worth it in the entire gallery. Everything else was either a replica of the real thing or were a lot of paintings/sculptures by much lesser important artists so they were cool to see but didn’t have much for a history.

The last day in Florence was a half-day. In the early morning, I went to check out an auditorium down the road from where we were staying just to see if there was anything cool there. Originally, I had wanted to go to an auditorium/stage where opera basically started and one of the oldest opera houses in the world but you needed a private tour reserved which I didn’t know. Anyways, this auditorium wasn’t actually an auditorium. It used to be a convent but then it was turned into a military base and then back into a convent before being deserted and eventually, a sort of gallery and museum but without the popularity. This was just a quick stop before Kate and I went to the Uffizi Gallery where we saw a lot of the famous paintings in Italy from the Renaissance era (Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci for example) that were a part of the Medici family’s collection. There was a lot to see but we didn’t have the time or will to go through nearly as many exhibitions so we stuck to the important ones and then left. This was the day we sadly had to come back to Bahrain. First we travelled by train from Florence to the Rome airport we flew into because it was also where our return flight was and then we flew from Rome to Doha to Manama. We got in around 2am and my roommate came to pick us up. I spent all day yesterday doing almost nothing. Now here I am, back at school, wishing I had at least one more day to recoup before teaching. But oh well, I’m making it work. Anyways, that’s really all I’ve got time for and this post is already really long, so I’ll catch up with you guys later. Ciao!