Post, take 3

I keep writing posts, but then by the time I'm almost finished, the internet is turned off!! Ok, I hope I'll be able to finish the post this time.

This week is going by SO fast!!! I'm only able to get online after 10:30 at night. Last night was no exception. Elena was so busy at the office that she couldn't meet with me so I used the time to go over my notes, organize them, and start a framework for my project.

After we got home about 5pm, both of us took a short break (I'm staying with her family this week - so nice!!) so I could try to send some emails and she could do some phone calls, then we met again to discuss the things we didn't have time to talk about in the office today. Her husband, Italian (Elena is American), came in and started preparing his own dinner because he's busy finishing a book he's getting published soon. He went about cooking it as I watched. Elena was on the phone so he had a whole conversation in Italian gestures with me. I understood everything. :-) Then he whispered, pointing to the pork chop he was making, "un piccolo" squeezing his thumb and forefinger together to indicate that he was going to give me a small piece to try. I ate some of that as well as some vegetables he had prepared and did the Italian gesture, "delicious" - forefinger twisting in the cheek. He gestured "bueno" - the thumb and forefinger together in the position of the American gesture for "fine", the 3 other fingers stretching out to the left, and bringing the hand in a movement from left to right. "Bueno" (I'll have to figure out a way to show the gesture in pictures.

Elena her son Bruno and I went out for Indian food (:-D) and then Bruno was our chauffeur as we did a driving tour of Rome. I don't have time to post all here, but the best part was the view of St. Peter's through a keyhole on top of Aventino Hill. It was a hole the size of a quarter, and the view was as direct as you can get, with a perfectly framed view of St. Peter's. What a find!

Today I observed the 1st, 2nd and 4th grade classes, as well as a LIS class. It was all very intresting and very different from the US. Although ISISS (Istituto Statale d'Istruzione Specializzata per Sordi) is an institution for deaf children, classes are integrated with hearing children. All kids know how to sign and the teacher knows signs as well, but each deaf child has a "deaf educator" that assists in insuring communication clarity. It's very interesting. I've also heard that Cossato, the pilot project of Mason Perkins Deafness Fund, is much more "efficient" in terms of providing communication access. So it will be very interesting to see. The classrooms that I was in this morning did not have ANY technology at all - not even a computer. So I'm wondering what the school at Cossato will look like! Will find out on Monday...

Elena had another meeting at the Hassler so I tagged along and went sightseeing on my own. I walked and walked, saw piazza after piazza, monument after monument. Then I decided I wanted to go see Fontana di Trevi, so off I went, but somehow I was on the wrong street and ended up back at the Hassler. heh. Elena gave me another 45 min to find the Trevi Fountain while she finished up some stuff. Found it. It was VERY BIG in such a small piazza!! :-) So crowded too! I got some pictures and will put them together in a puzzle so that should turn out interesting.

It's my last night here - tomorrow I'm going to Torino for the weekend and then on Monday I'm going to Cossato. Elena and I had the last of the "orientation" tonight and it sounds like it will be an extraordinary experience for me professionally and personally. So tune in next week for more adventures. ;-)