it's a small world sometimes...

It really is a small world sometimes... and this showed a number of times while I was recently in Spain.

The Librarian working at the American School of Madrid, whom I met with last week to learn about a resource... she moved from Denver, Colorado when she moved abroad (me too!).

She also went to the University of Denver for her Masters in Library and Information Science (me too!).

A high school science teacher that taught at the same school as I did in Vietnam (we began together and both left after our two year contract was completed)... now works at the American School of Madrid. I grabbed a ride to school with her in the morning and we were able to catch up a bit.

A teacher from my current school called me early Monday morning to see if I could cover his after school club, as he was not able to make it to school at the last-minute... I told him that I would have but was in Madrid... he then said that he knows someone there...

...turns out the guy he knows used to work at our school in Milan ...and has now been teaching at the American School of Madrid for a number of years ...he put the two of us in touch and I met up with him and some of his friends that evening in the city!

Finally... during my visit at the American School of Madrid, I was having lunch with some of the teachers. Turns out that the guy sitting next to me grew up just north of the city of Denver... having gone to elementary school where I began my teaching career!!!! He went to Leroy Drive Elementary in Northglenn, Colorado. No way!

Crazy, small world sometimes. Wow.   : )

that weekend in Milan when Kat visited...

Last weekend I took a train to Florence to see my good friend Kat! We met in Vietnam and spent two years hanging out, laughing, drinking tea, talking about boys, and sipping many lattes! Pretty amazing/weird/awesome that we both ended up in Italy this year.

When Kat moved from Saigon to Florence... she came by way of Milan and spent a weekend with me!

Below are some photos from that weekend here in the city:

The lovely Kat with a morning cappuccino and brioche at my favorite cafe in Opera:

Not sure what this white sofa is doing in the Navigli Canal... but I like it!

KATtack along the Navigli

We had a snack while waiting at Centrale for Kat's train to Florence... and some pigeons decided to join us in the restaurant... Uhhhhhhh. Yeah.

same-same... but different! - Florence

I love the two photos below. ...I specifically love them together.

As we often described things (...or described LIFE!) in Vietnam... they are "same-same ...but different!"

Haha!

There was a garbage truck emptying dumpsters... and it got in the way of my photo-ing of the Duomo's dome!

Here's a link to one of my favorite posts from Vietnam about same-same ...but different.   :P

fav. student moments as of late

Sidetracking from my family's visit and travels for a bit...

The students have been cracking me up lately! I love the small, unexpected moments that make me laugh with them... kids are pretty awesome.

One elementary boy told me that he had eaten Korean soup over the Winter Break... and it had red broth the color of my hair. The noodles were "the curly-kind noodles"... just like my hair. So... when he was eating his soup, he kept thinking that he was "eating Ms. Stacia's hair!" Hahaha.

...It reminded me of the child in Vietnam when I first arrived, who called my hair, Noodle Hair.

And it does seem fitting... especially in one of my favorite photos (taken by my friend Marc Hughes from Denver at a past Crawfish Broil get-together). Marc took a great photo of me and my good friend, Andy Lynes... and then I cartoonized this bit of it:

Yes, I can see the "curly-kind noodles!"

ALSO - a favorite moment of my first week of 2014 back in school... an Italian kindergartener, who is pretty fluent in English as well, made me laugh out loud at this one:

We were reading a story and the end had a comment about mustard. (Mo Willems' book, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!) Most of the students did not know what mustard was... so I said,

"Come si dice 'mustard' in Italiano?" (How do you say 'mustard' in Italian?)

"...Senape..."

And we discussed a bit about what it is like... most of the kids got it by then...

One boy pipes up --> "Ms. Stacia! ...I am an EXXXXSSSPERT in Italian! ...Because I was born in Italy!"

The way he said it... and with such enthusiasm... AND the fact that he used the word expert to describe his level of proficiency in his first language... made me crack up. I loved it. Kids are awesome.

Next stop? --> MILAN!

This blog is a continuation of my "Adventures from Vietnam" blog, which I've been keeping for over two years now.

Due to a reduction of force in the school district where I was teaching just north of Denver... my position was terminated in budget cuts the spring of 2011.

Without a job... and without much holding me to Denver, CO (other than my love for that city!), I decided to focus on moving abroad to continue my career as a Teacher-Librarian.

Now... more than two years later... I have recently landed in Denver, CO for a summer visit (also to my hometown in Upstate New York)... after living, teaching, and adventuring in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

When the end of my contract in Vietnam was getting near, I attended a job fair for international schools/teachers in London... which is where I signed up for my next big adventure!

Next month I will be moving to Milan, Italy... for a 3-year teaching contract at the American School of Milan. I'm pretty stoked!

From what I know about the school... my position... and the city, I think I will love it. I hope to want to stay longer than the initial 3 years I'm signed on for... but we'll see!

For now... I'm still in the process of obtaining my work visa (I'll be making a trip to Chicago soon for the Italian Consulate General)... and really, I'm happy to live life along the way step-by-step.

It was great to keep the blog going while in Vietnam... and I've created this one so that the URL isn't specific to the country... I've found that keeping a blog has made the distance of being abroad seem not quite so far (until I don't have Internet access) and my friends/family can come along on the journey with me if they'd like. It's been pretty cool to see so many others check into my blog here or there... so hopefully this one continues!

...Let's begin!