Everydayness - marzo 21

Here are a few photos from everyday life....the first couple from my walk along Fiume Entella (Entella River, which flows to the Ligurian Sea) and some from our ESL planning meeting at Baia del Silenzo in Sestri Levante.

Fiume Entella. We leave Italy on Monday (tomorrow), and I am going to miss very much walks along the river.

Baia del Silenzio in Sestri Levante

ESL planning meeting on the beach

Must be the best gelato in Sestri

Portofino

We're playing catch up with writing about the small trips we've taken over the past seven weeks, but we also are wanting to write more about our ministry here and the students in our ESL classes. We're going to ask a few of them soon if we can interview them for this blog so you can get to know them a little (they're really awesome).

But without further ado... Portofino...

Parco Botanica Villa Rocca (Joanna)

Beautiful day..

Parco Botanico Villa Rocca

Here are several photos from our little visit to Parco Botanico Villa Rocca (Botanical Gardens) here in Chiavari. It only costs 1 euro to get in, so we walked around and had a picnic lunch. Set on a beautiful hill, with plants from North America (how exotic), a view of the sea, waterfalls, and steps. Joanna will follow up with some of her flower shots.

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)!"

Ci scusate, amici! (Sorry, friends!)

Ciao tutti!

We are pathetically behind on posting! Our next posts are about ESL, upcoming outreach opportunities, and local and extralocal spots such as Parco Botanico Villa Rocca (the botanical gardens here), Santa Margherita and Portofino, Canelli (in the Piedmont region) where Lee Walti preached on a Sunday, Pisa, Viareggio where we went for Carnevale, and Moneglia.
While you wait for the aforementioned posts, here is a video of the family pet for your viewing pleasure :)

Lily, Abby's Italian gerbil:

Living in Italy - the 411

• Three words: No sales tax.
• Italians will observe and point out your lack of socks or any other wardrobe taboo: dress accordingly.
  
• Pay for your coffee after you drink it.
• Don't try to buy anything between 1-3 pm - nothing's open.
• Chocolate chocolate chocolate
  
• #1 gesture to learn: the no no finger wag (using no wrist motion)
• Wear a parka until the Spring equinox
• Plan your showers.
• The hello-goodbye baci (kisses): left cheek, right cheek
  
• motorino motorino motorino
  

To: Dad

Thank you for helping us with all the details of this trip and for helping us keep track of our taxes and scholarships and everything else while we are away. And thank you for your love and prayers. You're the best.

We miss you!

Love,
Joanna

We found a place :)

Hey guys!
It's Joanna. We've been having a great time here. We walk around Chiavari every day on errands, and it's been really interesting meeting the people here and talking to them (with our limited vocabulary).

Some really exciting news for us is that we now have an official place to hold the free English courses we'll be offering to the community! The owners of a local pizza restaurant are very interested in what we're doing and are letting us use their top floor on weeknights for our basic, intermediate, and advanced level classes. It's a beautiful place - I am so stoked about this working out. We will be starting classes next week, and so we're going over the lessons and getting prepared. Outside of class time, we will be getting together with the students over coffee and for different events to get conversation going and to build friendships.

We're going to try and keep this page updated as the weeks go by - we'd love to hear from you!

Love,
Joanna

We're here!

Ciao amici!
Wish we could have posted before we left, but there was just too much to do! We landed in Genova on the 3rd and were picked up by the Walti family at the airport. We meandered around Genova for a bit of sightseeing and cappuccino. Then we drove into Chiavari (our town now) and it is beautiful! A coastal town of 28,000, with narrow streets, a river walkway to the beach, and a million mopeds! Even though we barely slept on the plane the night before, we stayed up until bedtime so we could adjust to the time difference. Friday and Saturday were a bit of a blur of settling in, walking around town, going to the market, walking to the beach. Sunday we went to Cinque Terre (a string of five coastal towns) for my birthday. Today was a low key day: housework, grocery shopping, the 30 Day Shred, and babysitting with Hannah.
We love staying with the Walti family. The typical day includes the kids going to school, housework, studying Italian, playing with the hamster/gerbil Lily, walking around town, having family lunches and dinners, and watching movies. We will start teaching English soon, once the location is final.

Anyway, on to the photos! Here are some Joanna and I have taken so far:

2/2/11 - Atlanta airport

2/3/11 - Almost to Rome

Rome airport

Getting on the plane for Genova!

Italian coastline

Genova

View from the apartment in Chiavari

Walking to the beach

Chiavari coastline

2/5/11 - Mr. and Mrs. Walti

The river

Sock buns!

2/6/11 - My birthday

Lily

Mr. Walti

Heading out to Cinque Terre

Joanna and Hannah

Elijah and Abby

Jacob

At Riomaggiore

View from Riomaggiore

View of Manarola

View of Manarola

The sea from Vernazza

Abby

Vernazza

Monterosso