Weeks 15 & 16, 7-2-22
Hello, friends!
I am happy to report that I FINALLY got boosted last Thursday, and was able to return to work on Monday (1 week ago), although not without a few bonus bureaucratic hoops. I was hoping to share the whole process, from the other side, along with broader reflections on the simultaneous functionality and dysfunctionality of the government in relation to immigration and nationalism, but they are still brewing -- next time! Instead, I have some funny stories from the classroom. I have missed it.
Before I jump into that, though, a quick COVID update. We are on the downswing of Omicron, as is the US. And almost anybody who is eligible for a third dose has received it. The vaccination rate pre-Omicron was already significantly higher here in Italy (we were in the NYT for having a high vaccination rate!), so few cases are severe. It's more an inconvenience that the classes are disrupted by being sent home for isolation/close contacts. Nobody, at least none of my students and none of the teachers, are severely ill/hospitalized.
The contact tracing methods here are quite robust. If a class has a positive case (quick reminder that students stay in the same classroom with the same students all day), any student who is more than 4 months out from their most recent vaccine can stay in-person, but everybody else must do distance learning (DAD - didattica a distanza) for 10 days. If more than one person is positive, they send the entire class home. It creates a weird dynamic when the class is split. I had 2 classrooms where the entire class was on a video call, with 2-3 students in person, sitting in opposite corners of the classroom. I also had 2 totally empty classrooms this past week, and I was getting utter silence on the video call. (It was disheartening and exhausting, I have a new level of empathy for the teachers who did this all last year.) The rest of my classrooms were completely full. And, because I'm not technically a teacher, I am not included on communications about whether or not my classes are remote. So it's a fun game every day. I never know whether I'll be walking into a full classroom, a totally empty classroom, or a classroom with 2 students in the back row. All that said, I am very happy to be back.
An empty classroom -- this time because of distance learning, not a strike. The strike was more fun.
A screenshot snapshot of messages to my co-teachers while I was gone, and when I returned (the first one).
I have developed a habit of going up the mountain more regularly. I didn't realize how much I crave silence, and trees. Mondragone is no city, but it's very noisy. In this picture you can see St. Anne's Monastery, on the left. The path I was on last week ends there -- that's my next stop.
Spotted while I was out running errands -- if you look closely, to the left of the driver of the tractor (which, yes, was going right down main street, much to the chagrin of all the other drivers), there is a good old pup sitting in a crate, just watching the world go by.
Word pictures
- Walking into the grocery store for frozen veggies, noticing a sign that said "OFFERTA: 'TOFU' 1 €" -- 'tofu' was in quotation marks, as if to convey the doubt/skepticism about this non-Italian food in the grocery store.
- Pretending that I didn't understand Italian -- and failing. In order for my co-teacher to accompany me into the vaccination site (the first one, from 2 weeks ago), she told the Army medics administering the vaccine that I didn't speak Italian, and she needed to translate for me. However, once things started to go south, and multiple people were standing around me speaking, in Italian, about what was going to happen next/what else I needed to do/the fact that I'd in fact not be getting vaccinated that day, I started to react. One person who was part of the conversation, next to me, and about my height definitely noticed that I was following and gave me a weird look.
- Speeding down a one-lane country road, between greenhouses and fields on the way back from the vaccination site. I, being the cautious paranoid driver that I am, would have never driven that fast. It was soothing, zen, in a way. I'm not planning to make a habit of it, though.
- A man in his 50s who refused to wear his N-95 on the train -- he took every opportunity to slowly sip on his water, or scratch his nose, or clean his glasses, or stare out the window with his hand blocking the lower half of his face (very inconspicuous, random man). Eventually the conductor came by and told him he had to wear it, so he wore it with the chin of the mask crunched up right under his lower lip. It looked like a beak. He was acting like a petulant child, and he looked absurd. It was irritating but funny.
- Overheard from the passenger seat of a car driving through downtown Napoli: "Le strische sono solo per bellezza" -- that's "The lines on the road are just for looks." Ack!
- A beautiful 8-mile run on the morning of my birthday -- I ran into 3 teachers and had a lovely encounter with a stranger. She had cheered me on the 3 times we passed each other, and then we stopped at the end together. She asked me what distance I was running, and after talking a bit she pointed out my accent, and said "You're not Italian." (That is typical, I have enough of an accent that people can pick up on it, but it's not immediately identifiable as American.) I explained how/why I'm here, and she said "Oh, you teach? I thought you were piccolina, about 13 or 14 years old!" So I was mistaken for 14 years old on my 24th birthday. (This happened the next day, too. Goodness.)
- Giancarlo, the 10 y-o in my host family, running over to knock on my door to wish me happy birthday as soon as he'd woken up, wearing his Simpsons slippers, FIFA pajama pants, and an unzipped winter coat (that his mom definitely told him to put on as he was running out the door).
- Playing Wordle with a class that was doing remote learning -- the students were not responding, so the co-teacher and I played Wordle together, screensharing to the entire class. The co-teacher guessed it on the second try!
- Walking to school carrying an empty cereal bowl for a vocabulary-related basketball game. We did get scolded for being too loud (in multiple classrooms), and I've never seen my students more engaged.
- A lesson that started 30 minutes late due to tech problems, so we just talked instead. They asked if my favorite color is yellow (my phone case is currently yellow and I was wearing a bright yellow cardigan), I menitoned that I play the piano and they said "That's how you type so fast!" A good moment of connection with my students, after 7 weeks without a proper lesson.
- Being asked to repeat "Gossip Girl" during a conversation with students about TV shows and free time, so they could hear and mimick my accent.
- The pile of iPhones on the desk during a written exam. Alllll iphones.
- A child (12 years old, max) smoking a cigarette next to a grown man wearing a "Wyoming Law" sweatshirt.
- A very small old woman wearing a very oversized rain poncho to walk to the corner store for pasta.
A selfie with the sunflowers my parents sent me for my birthday - they were longer than my torso! And very beautiful.
I had a conversation this weekend how silly it is that we celebrate birthdays. My birth was fairly passive (for me) -- there are many other significant days in my life that I'd rather celebrate. However, my birth was NOT passive for my parents. So in honor of my birthday, here's a shoutout to them!!
My new setup -- after 3 months of trying to play the piano at someone else's home, I gave up and turned to Facebook marketplace. I won't be playing Chopin or Debussy on this keyboard, but it's enough to scratch the itch!
Got my booster on the same day as Cassie, and we took Zoom selfies to celebrate! They did not give me a band-aid, I added my own for the selfie.
Storytime!
This one is a little vulgar, apologies to the nuns.
When I finally went for my vaccine, part of the process was an overview of my medical history. I was speaking in Italian, with my co-teacher by my side for any translation needs. But I had already looked up all the words I needed, so I was prepared! When asked about pre-existing conditions, I looked the doctor in the eye and said in Italian, "I have a blood clotting disorder, but I've never had a blood clot." He nodded, signed off on my form, and sent me to the next checkpoint. I proceeded to say this same sentence to 4 more people before receiving my vaccine.
Two days later, while recounting the entire vaccination saga to a friend, I was immediately interrupted at this point in the story because I said, again in Italian, "Ho un disturbo della coagulazione del sangue. Ma non ho mai avuto un trombo." I was then informed that trombo does not mean blood clot. Trombosi is blood clot. Trombo is the first person conjugation of "to fck." I then had the verb conjugated for me, in this cafe, well in earshot of other people while my face turned as red as a pomodoro. "Trombo - I fck. Trombi - you fck. Tromba - he/she fcks. Trombiamo - we fck." Etc etc etc. While I'm obviously embarrassed, and confused why NOBODY CORRECTED ME, this is my best and funniest language fck up yet.
No Regina update this week because Giancarlo, the 10 year-old in my home (whose birthday was the day after mine!) got a kitten for his birthday. His name is Yichael (yes, I am also confused, this is not a typo) and he is 2 months old. Regina is not the biggest fan of Yichael yet, I'm sure she will come around. [UPDATE - Yichael is a girl and has been renamed "Lila."]
The beach on a windy day (post-run, naturally). The wind was blowing water off of the crests of the waves. My camera didn't pick it up well, but it was mesmerizing.
I received a request last week for more food pictures, this was my dinner one night this weekend! Gluten free gnocchi with mixed veggies, artichoke, avocado and pesto.
Sitting at the train station on my first post-booster trip to Napoli, I noticed this crack in the wall that REALLY looks like a dinosaur -- to the point that I'm genuinely unsure if it's chipped paint or the work of a child left unattended with a pencil.
One final update -- I'm having some IT band pain, it's been persistent for a few weeks. I'm taking at least a week off, which throws off my training for the half-marathon which is 3 weeks from now. I'm going to test the waters again next week and try adding some distance back in. But if my true goal with distance running is sustainability, I am expecting that the right move will be to skip this race and plan for another one later in the year. Sad, disappointing, but I am practicing rest, even when I really don't want to!
Con tranquillita` (and more antibodies!),
Antonella
Appendix: Ground Rules
- This is a time for me of reconnecting with a number of practices that have been interrupted by the pandemic; by the 3-part-time-jobs, recent-humanities-grad, gig-economy work routine that I've just left; and by the inevitable ebb and flow of intersecting needs. This is just that -- a practice, a practice of connection, a practice of reflection, a practice of synthesis, a practice of perspective.
- This is not meant to replace my 1:1 interactions!
- This should serve me. There is no right or wrong way for me to structure these. Like my bullet journal, if the structure becomes cumbersome, it means my needs are shifting and I need to re-evaluate what I am including and how I am preparing to write.
- This is not a finished product, ever, by any standard. I will not fret over punctuation, word choice, or syntax. There are many spaces in my life where those things do matter, quite a lot, but they are not a priority here.
In case you missed it!
Here is the link to the archive of my past newsletters.