Celebrity Game at ESL - aprile 5

This post is a little out of order, but we need to post some more pictures of ESL among all these travel pictures. At our Intermedio class on April 5th, we played the Celebrity game. All our students speak Italian, but for this game, each student had the name of a famous person on his or her back, and had to circle through the room asking the other students yes or no questions in English, in order to find out who they were. We wanted to emphasize the difference between the verbs "to do" and "to be." They asked questions like, "Am I a woman?" "Do I sing?" "Am I dead?" "Am I an artist?" "Do I have blonde hair?" "Am I black?" "Am I a scientist?" After everyone figured out their identities, we took some pictures of the students with their names. Here is part of our Intermedio class:

This is sweet Eluvia. She is Guatemalan, but moved to Italy to get married and now she lives in Chiavari. She is part of one of the local churches, which is how we met her through a mutual friend.

This is Velina. She is from Bulgaria, so she is working on her third language (I think). She is very good at English, and she is the most dedicated and enthusiastic student.

The two ladies together

This is Mario. Mario is a nurse (woot!), and has quite the sense of humor! He (together with Cristian [below]) is a riot.


This is Cristian. He is Romanian and very funny. He always makes jokes (especially bald jokes) and he and Lee Walti have a bond of recent nose surgeries.

This is Alexandru. He is Cristian's son, so he is also Romanian. He gets along with everyone. Abby likes to tease him a lot, but he has been very patient and good-natured about it.

This is Joanna -- you all know her.

This is beautiful Soukayna (or Souky). She is Moroccan and speaks very little English, but she is trying! She is very sweet and we have had good times at the beach and the boardwalk.

This is Achraf and Alexandru. Achraf is Souky's younger brother, and he really only knows how to say "Hello," "Bye," and "I think you are a very beautiful girl." That's really all you need, right?

Souky and Achraf

This is Giosue. He is part of one of the local churches, and we met Eluvia through him. Despite the crazed picture, he is actually a really chill and kind person.

This is Samuele, Giosue's oldest son. He is picking up English very well and he likes to play with the Walti kids.

This name was just a joke of Cristian's, as April Fish is a sort of April Fool's thing in Italy.

Too good not to put up

And some of you know Hannah Walti, our lean, mean, Italian-speaking machine. We've had SO much fun with her these past few months.

ESL: Bowling and Pizza

A few weeks ago, we went bowling in Sestri with a few of our ESL students. Here are several pics from Jo's camera:

L-R: Jacob, Hannah, Rachel, Aziz

Jeannette and Alessandro (and Hannah)

That's the way she bowls...

Abby, Jeannette, Lee, Elijah, Jacob, and Aziz

Joanna and Hannah

Jacob

And this past Tuesday, after our Base and Intermedio classes, some of the students stayed for pizza at O Sole Mio Ristorante (where our classes are held.)

L-R: Mario, Elijah, Rachel, Jacob, Hannah, Aziz, Christian

Ordering

Joanna and Mario

Waiting for pizza

Luce

The whole group

Rachel, Hannah, and Abby

L-R: Rachel, Hannah, Abby, Alessandro, Aziz

Jacob

We plan to go bowling again on Tuesday with a few English students. We've also begun to meet with some of the students for coffee, where we just talk about life, and help them with their English while they they help us with our Italian.
Tomorrow we're heading to Milan for the day, and on Sunday, we're having a couple families over for lunch. :)
I'll end with an Italian phrase that, although not the best for ending a blog post, we use all the time when saying bye: Ci vediamo! (Chee ved-YAH-mo) It basically means, "We'll see you (later)!"

I see Monaco, I see France

Good morning American friends!
On Feb. 18th, we drove up the Italian riviera into the small country of Monaco, then up the French riviera into Nice. Both are SO very beautiful; here are a "few" pics:

On the way to Monaco and Nice

Monaco

Steps to the theater and gardens

A great lunch spot :)

The Monocan coastline

Melodie

Hermes

St. Nicholas Cathedral (where Grace Kelly got married)

The palace

Nice, France

Opera theatre

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We also started our Base, Intermedio, and Avanzato ESL classes this past week. We've been busy prepping lessons and teaching, and so far it's going very well! The students who attend are quite friendly and open, and some of them are pretty funny.
Here are a couple pics from our Base and Intermedio classes:

Days of the week

Some of the Intermedio class

View of the upper and lower levels of the restaurant

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Since these pictures, we went to the Parco Botanico Villa Rocca here in Chiavari, and on Saturday, Santa Margherita and Portofino.
We are also starting our second week of ESL classes.
More posts up and coming!