The Italian Emergency Room

First -- I'm fine.

Second -- I had an interesting experience going to the emergency room for the first time... and in Italy, no less!

Last Thursday at work, my laptop fell on my foot... sideways, so that not only did do I have a nasty bruise but it also sliced me a bit. Definitely not the smartest moment of my day -- placing the laptop hanging half off a shelving cart.

Upon the fall, my stomach turned from the pain and it took me breath away for a few moments.

The entire area that was hit turned white, while the rest of my foot turned red.

A minute or so later, the swelling and bruising began.

I went to get ice and then thought about how many bones are in a foot. Ugh. I really hoped I hadn't fractured a bone. That was all that was on my mind from then on.

I taught an 80-minute period sitting in a chair and icing my foot most of the time. Then went back to the nurse and we agreed that I should get an x-ray just to be sure that there were no fractures.

The lovely middle school secretary drove me to a hospital south of the city and so my first experience to an emergency room began.

I was put into a wheelchair while I waited to be checked in. About 30 minutes later, I was checked in and given a wristband. I was then sent to sit and wait in the area that was supposedly for foot/ankle injuries. Everyone was limping around.

After waiting a little under an hour, the doctor saw me. He poked and prodded my foot and we spoke a mixture of Italian, Spanish, and English -- turned out he's from Madrid.

I was then sent back to the chairs to sit and wait to be called for an x-ray.

After another hour or so, they took a few x-rays and then it was back to the waiting chairs.

The process is actually very well set up. There's a television screen that displays how many people are waiting, how many are in the process, and even the level of emergency (3 different color-coded levels) for each. The estimated wait time is updated now and then as well. Maybe this is how it's done in the States too, not sure since I've (thankfully!) never been.

After about 20 or 30 minutes, I was called into another room, where the doctor was. His first words to me as he looked at the x-rays were that there were NO fractures! My response to this: "Perfetto!"

He poked and prodded a bit more and then said that I should ice it and take ibuprofen for the next couple days.

I was off!

...Well... I made that sound really easy. Along the way, there were many little things to figure out as I bumbled my way through figuring out how a hospital works in Italy. Leaving, I was to pick up documents from the "front window" as I understood it. This took me a while to find... but I did it!

Here are pictures of my foot on Day 1 and Day 2:

The saga continues...

Since the injury happened at work, there was documentation from the hospital to give to school. When I handed that all in Friday morning, the HR Manager saw that the documentation said I was to be out of work for one week -- through June 2nd. The paperwork was all in Italian and I hadn't even tried to read it but the doctor never even mentioned this to me! The doctor had simply said ice and ibuprofen.

So... I was kicked out of school and have been home since. It's actually been a gift of time, especially at this time of the year and so much going on in my personal life as I prepare to move back home.

Thankfully, I can walk on my foot alright. It's been tender and sore but is feeling better and better. The bruise is now more yellow/green, which I take to be a good sign. Since I've been home, I have been able to keep it elevated as much as possible.

I had a check-up appointment with my doctor yesterday. This was so that the documentation process can be closed. Hilariously... she read through the papers and never once looked at my foot! I had loosely tied sneakers on and they never came off. She wrote a note and said that should be sufficient.

Overall, I'm fine. It was a silly accident that gave me an interesting experience in Italy towards the end of my time here.

back on the bike!

I'm SO happy to be riding my bicycle to and from school again! That is one piece that I've missed from when I lived in Opera. I haven't ridden to work since being in the city this school year because there has been construction along the way and I'd have to be on a busy road for part of the ride. Now that the bike path (shown in the first picture below) is complete, I am absolutely loving the ride!

The ride is about 5 miles each way and takes me less than 25 minutes. It's faster than taking the bus! I miss my reading time on the bus but am enjoying the exercise and the ride even more. Because I'm on the path and don't have to worry about traffic, I listen to music along the way too. It's just a very enjoyable way to start and end each work day.

(There has been one day so far that I've forgotten to pack my work outfit! Ha! I ended up in leggings and my jacket all day. Thankfully, they actually looked like a decent outfit together.)

Some days are foggy... super foggy...

Last Saturday morning I rode past school and out to Opera to go to the morning market! I was hoping to pick up some curtain material for my mom but they don't have the specific style anymore. I still enjoyed the ride to and from... 

The past couple of weeks have been fabulous with the trees blooming... and poppies along the way too!

The set of four pictures below is from my ride from school to IKEA on a Saturday after keeping score at a basketball tournament. I took a bit of a detour to go by an abbey in Chiaravalle called Santa Maria di Rovegnano. It's gorgeous!

Mostly recently -- just this past Thursday, the two pictures below show the difference in weather between my ride to work in the morning and my ride home in the afternoon (not everyday is like this... but sometimes!) --

It's not often that I'm gifted with the lovely view of the mountains... not many days are clear enough to see them. ...But then a day comes along that is clear and the mountains are amazing! A picture really doesn't do it justice.

Funny enough -- I've been seeing the same people on the bike path each morning. As I'm heading to school they are heading into the city, presumably to work. We are on the same morning schedule. There's one man that bikes past me in the morning... and in the afternoon! Haha. Last week I smiled and waved a couple times -- it's funny to see each other every day to and from work.

When I rode the bus each day it was kind of the same thing -- seeing many of the same faces. There's a difference though, being on the bike path instead of public transport. It's ok to be more friendly and wave, acknowledging that we see each other every day.

A photo from a usual morning on the bus to work a month ago or so:

Winter Concert - Santa Maria delle Grazie

Soooooo my school's winter concert was in the Santa Maria delle Grazie -- which is the church where THE The Last Supper is! The Last Supper is painted on a walk within the refectory building, attached to the church. Amazing!

The entire program was absolutely stunning. The choir, string orchestra, and band played. The mix of holiday music was well done and I am always so impressed with the students' talents. I was blown away. All of this, within such a great structure -- the inside of this church is very beautiful.

The pictures above were taken by staff at school and posted onto ASM's social media sites -- they are not my pictures. The two below are ones that I took during the concert with my phone : )

antique and first edition books

A mother of two high school students collects antique and first edition books. She brought some in (wrapped and packed safely) one afternoon and I oogled over them!

The book covers and illustrations inside were really beautiful to see. So much detail -- even in the edging and design on some of the book spines!

The illustrations in this book were actually glued onto each page:

The Lunch Date: Short Film

Garth Stein is a best-selling author. His novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for 3 years! The director at my school loves this novel and contacted Garth last year. He is now set to be an author-in-residence at ASM for a week this February!

He seems to do it all: best-selling author, film producer, playwright, amateur racer, cook... etc.

Before becoming a writer, Garth was a film producer and has a Masters in Fine Arts degree in film. He co-produced the short film below. It won an academy award in 1991! I really love this film. It is worth 10 minutes of your time to watch.   : )

The Lunch Date

Handmade Ziplining, Corn, and a Castle

Our head guide, Gunther, told us that we would be making a zipline one day during the week. I wasn't sure what he meant. I figured that we might 'make' a zipline and then take it down, not really using it.

In the end, we walked along here:

...Played some team games in the forest:

...And went to a lovely spot in front of a waterfall TO BUILD A ZIPLINE!

I am still amazed that this worked and we were actually able to use it. Gunther had a group of students on each side of the river and he bounced back and forth, helping set up ropes with carabiners. That was really it -- ropes and carabiners. (Thankfully, a helmet was also involved.)

I wasn't sure the first student would make it across! The kids were great -- they took turns up top being the 'brake' while a student zipped across and others caught the student at the other end, pulling his/her feet up to a large boulder to climb down from. It was GREAT fun! Overall, it sounded like this ziplining activity and the mountain biking were the kids favorite parts of the week.

A lovely castle:

All the churches in this area have red steeples like this one:

Out of 39 students, 3 did not know how to ride a bicycle. Since my knee was hurt from the long hike a couple days before, I stayed with them while the rest of the group went mountain biking. Part of me would have loved to have gone on the ride but it all worked out and we still had fun.

We took a walk through the cornfields and the town and... sang about corn. It was quite hilarious. What started as a joke kept going and we all sang about corn. We still do when we see each other in the hallway at school!

One of my favorite photos from the week and my non-biking buddies:

"CORN!"

The longest hike I've ever done

Once the sun was up and we had a clear blue sky, we set off on the day-hike. I knew I had a lot ahead of me... but even when we stopped for lunch and I asked how much further we had to go, I was surprised when the guide said we were (only!) about halfway. Yikes!

Thankfully, the new hiking boots I bought for the big day were comfortable enough. Since we had taken two chairlifts UP the mountain, most of the hike was downhill. I hurt my knee throughout the day and it bothered me quite a bit for the next two weeks. Now (over 5 weeks later) it's fine.

I'm glad I did the hike... but I'm not really yearning to do it again anytime soon. I usually enjoy a 3-hour hike or so, not really 10 hours! Troppo! (Too much!)

39 ninth graders and a 10-hike... GO!

One of the guides taking a group photo of us (his photo is the one after):

The group!

Not sure if you can see it in the photo above but atop each mountain peak, there is a cross. Each cross is different and even made of different materials. We took the photo standing around the cross.

Below, we are marching to our lunch spot. Top of a mountain, 360-degree view!

(We may have been the group of stragglers and Gunther, in the middle, was pulling us all along the final steps!)

I had a bad cold all week and was really feeling it the day of the hike.

It was tough to keep the kids going while I wasn't feeling up to par myself.

I took a much needed nap after eating lunch.   :P

Just. Stunning.

(Ok, maybe I would do this hike again. Ha!)

Almost to the refugio! (There are refuges along hikes, where you can get a bike to eat, sit and rest, and even spend the night at some.) We enjoyed a rest and some snacks before the final decent to get to the bus.

We did it! We were all exhausted by the end of the day. Some students soaked their feet into the cold water of a stream while waiting for the bus. They were already worried (and complaining) about the "Night Hike" scheduled for the next evening. I felt the same! Haha. In the end, it was worth it and we all bonded along the way.

FIELD TRIP WEEK - South Tyrol, Alto Adige

Last school year for Field Trips Week (end of September), I went to Berlin with the 11th graders. This year, I was assigned to the 9th grade trip... to the Dolomites! I was really excited, as the Dolomites have been on my wish list of travel spots.

After about a 4-ish hour bus ride, we were in the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) area, very close to Austria. It actually felt a lot more like Austria than Italy and they speak German much more than Italian.

It felt so good to be up in the mountains with fresh air and cool weather. The sun was out for the week, raining when we got on the bus for the trip back to school on Friday (lucky!).

What a school field trip!! We had 39 students and activities included: mountain biking, high ropes course, handmade ziplining, forest games, bouldering, rock climbing on the side of a mountain, a 10-hour day hike, a night hike, waking up to watch the sunrise while on top of a mountain... ummmmm YES!

The view from my hotel room. I meeeeeeannnnnn... amazing!!

After checking into the hotel, we went to a high ropes course. It was quite expansive and I like how it was set up. We watched a video about clipping in and the harnesses were double-clips, so we could do it all individually instead of having a guide belaying each person one at a time. It was a lot of fun -- and all students participated and got up there!

Definitely a high-light of the week for me was watching the sun rise from behind a mountain while we sat at a cafe atop a mountain. Wow!! Definitely worth the 4:30am wake-up. From there, we went on a 10-hour hike... yikes!

We were on top of a mountain (having taken two different chairlifts up... and up!). The views were amazing. 360-degree view, surrounded by expansive mountains.

Two thumbs up!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween 2015!

I decided on a last-minute costume of sorts for school on Friday... and glad I did! It was pretty funny surprising people throughout the day. I scared a few students, even though it wasn't supposed to be a scary costume. I shocked many when they walked past my desk and said hello to my 'normal side'... then got a surprise when they saw the rest! Hahaha. And others just stared or said hello to me after a double-take and some giggling.  :P

So many books, so little time. Frank Zappa

I have started my 7th year of teaching! Just finished the first full week back with kids. It's great to have the students back. The past week was a good one... but exhausting! It feels as if I'm more like 3 weeks into the new school year.

Last year, I developed a digital literacy course, which I taught to the 10th graders. This year, there are 5 teachers for digital literacy, all teaching my ideas and lessons. It's daunting and interesting to figure out the best (and smoothest) way to make this work. All-in-all, I want the students to learn skills that will help them in their other classes, throughout university, and in the real world.

Recently, I read a book about the flipped classroom, a rather new concept in the field of education. Reading the book made me excited and energized to try pieces of this strategy. I'm not fully flipping the classroom with this digital literacy course but I do want to use videos for some core lessons. This way, I can teach what I specialize in and the other teachers can share the video with their students.

Anyway, below is a video that the film teacher helped me create. I had a vision and tried to explain it to him in words. HE GOT IT! I love the outcome. He completely "got" my vision.

My plan is to use this quick video as the opening to each of my video lessons...

Note: the book I read is, Flip Your Classroom: Read Every Student in Every Class Every Day, by Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann. (For my Colorado friends, these two authors met and taught together in Woodland Park, Colorado!)

that day I hid in the book return bin

Why had I not thought of doing this earlier?!

Somehow, I came up with the idea of crawling into the library book return bin. As an elementary class of students returned their library books, I popped the books back out! Hilarious fun.

I'm ready!

Having 'serious' conversations with Zamira.

Another randomly fun thing that came up was sewing a hole closed on a student's backpack.

He was so happy with the result that he had me do another one a few weeks later!

Apparently I'm a librarian of many trades  :P

Participating in the teacher vs. student tug-of-war competition during Spirit Week:

*Yes, teachers won  : )

My parents gave me the Lego Librarian for Christmas! She's a hit in the ASM Library.

more school fun - IB Art Show

The senior students that took IB Art in 11th and 12th grades showcase their work from the past two years in the IB Art Show set up in the school's atrium each year. I really enjoy seeing the students' work. It's great to see how talented these young adults are and how each person's personality shines through in their set of work. This year's show was exceptional.

I want one of these necklaces that she made!

The stories and personal meanings integrated into this piece below were really fantastic. The artist created this about his two closest friends.

This girl's entire collection was book-themed. I loved it!

She was so cute when she told me about it and borrowed the books to go with her pieces.