Where do I begin? One can only reflect on the experience with a smile since the gathering (it was clearly not an orientation as one would expect)is really a comment on Italian life. It was complete chaos. It's a window in to understanding why the empire fell (albeit a mere glimpse). For example, would it have been difficult to have a welcome table set up directing people to the various classrooms or areas where their grade would be congregated?Or, would it have been difficult to have name tags indicating who who was in the administration? (Or for that matter, any name tags at all) Once we realized we were completely on our own, we mingled and connected with a 1st grade teacher who was extremely nice and really tried to assist us in finding Avery's "transition" teacher. The problem was she didn't know the names of the transition teachers - despite having been at the school for 20 years. We ending up roaming over to the Middle School/High School area where there were fewer families congregated, and we did meet the MS head (along with his wife and two children).
Mr. Waanders was also very nice although he didn't know too much about the logistics of having children in both the lower and upper schools. He did walk us upstairs and show us where both the transition and 3rd grade classrooms were located (5th floor!) We noticed the hallways were littered with partially unpacked boxes of school supplies. (Looks like our villa), and along the way we met the gym teacher - who looked just like Popeye. All of the teachers we met were extremely nice and seemed to geniunely love their work. They each knew a lot about their own classrooms, while knowing very little about how the school was run in general. For example, we had just received an email stating that Avery's grade was to be picked up at noon on Monday and Thursday of the first week. But his teacher wasn't sure about the pick up times the first week and said we should check with the office because she overheard someone saying the pick up was at noon EACH day the first week.
We came away with a good feeling about the place. Although it was extremely inefficient, everyone seemed nice and very willing to be helpful.
The whole experience was a little comical. But, we did learn the following:
- Charlotte will get her daily schedule on Monday, the first day of school.
- Charlotte will need to choose a second language to study besides Italian. If she chooses Mandarin, she may have one course after school each week because they couldn't fit it in to the daily schedule.
- Charlotte's 8th grade class is one class of 24 students. The largest in the school
- Olivia's class will have 19 students, only 3 of which are native English speakers (all three Americans)
- Olivia's teacher is English and has been living in Italy for over 20 years, teaching at RIS for 18
- Olivia will take Italian, 3 times per week with 2 other American children. The Italian teacher is Ilana and is great.
- Avery's teacher is Greek but from South Africa; his assistant teacher is Scottish
- His class will also have 19 students, but with 2 teachers
- Italian lessons for native English speakers do not begin until the 1st grade so if we would like formal instruction for Avery, we will need to hire a tutor.
All in all, the kids seemed to like the place. They played in the playground on their own until an hour past the time that everyone else had left.
Josh dropped us at home for lunch and went about seeing the manager at the bank regarding the missing 90euros from our account (did I mention this issue previously?) The Italians are all about fees but 90euros!?!? In any case the bank manager said she will investigate and get back to us on Monday.
Everyone was pooped from the morning outing...and heat!! So we bummed around the house for a while.
Finally we got the energy up to go visit the Villa Borghese gardens - our neighborhood park. But first, a gelato break. Once in the park, we rented a four wheeled bicycle thing. It was a blast riding around the Villa Borghese and the kids really loved it.
We changed for dinner (third clothing change of the day; and recall the washing machines are small!) and went to Trastevere to meet Josh's friend Jules and his family for pizza. Josh and Jules went to the same high school in LA but actually had never met before this evening. They had a mutual friend, also from Grant High, who connected them once he learned we were considering a move to Rome. Jules took a leave from the IMF a year ago when his wife, Carol, was posted to the American embassy here. Now, Jules is consulting to the Italian MOF. They have two boys. It was nice to make new friends and we shared a very pleasant evening, walking around Trastevere after dinner.
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