Little Italy 25

[Rosa]

Greetings, Ciao , Welcome , Benvenuto

Brrrr che freddo at swimming in the scottish sea ! You were brave Gio!

The most beautiful beach I remember was on the Scottish Island of Iona, it had cowrie shells. When I was little I would swim anywhere, no matter how cold!
Yes full of mozzies here Gio. We had zanzariere fitted and the work really well, but somehow they are getting in anyway. The lift is full of them, I think they follow us in through the door.

Brrr BananaGio, how could you swim in the sea there...

The most stunning beach on the west coast is Achmelvich in my opinion.. it's a pity I can't post pictures here... Oldmanshore is another one, near Kinlochbervie and I like the one near Strathy Point too..
They all seem tropical beaches... unless you're in the picture wearing a coat :D

Ouch, another kind of zanzara in Italy? Like we didn't have enough after the summers spent indoors because of zanzare tigre!!
Yes it's amazing, my mum has zanzariere installed too at home, no way, they find a way to get in!!

One day we cAn do a MN trip to the Scottish Isles ...would love to go, in fact I would love to tour Scotland...one day one day.
Dh just sprayed a mozzie. Beasties.. Today at 2 it was 26 degrees plus humidity but no the Venetians are in jeans, brogues or trendy trainers and jackets...boh. Went to a meeting at Dd1 school were they basically said the reforms have meant they have cut the hours and so we can do hardly any uscite, labatori etc as we don't have the staff. So the genitori asked what they could do to help - niente basically we can't volounteer to help with labatori or uscite. We can't help to escort the children to and from the play area - which it turns out the commune has put at the disposition of the school since theirs is closed for renovation. The teacher of the prima non si sente to walk 100m from the school to the play area with 21 bimbi da sola. Not even if 2 parents stood on the corner as they 'happened' to be passing.... So for me they were basically trying to scaricare the responsability saying there is not much they can do..... They did say they will do the best they can for the children whatever which was midly comforting!!! However as I abruptly put it' please tell us what you want to do to help? Anyway it seems in the future that most primi statate will be going modulare or semi modulare....

Think we were at the same meeting today Rosa. Same talk re cuts, giardino at the school been closed for lavori for 2 years with no idea when it will be done, teachers asking us to contribute with materials. I have offered to do something with English every so often. Felt sorry for teachers who were talking about how it was 7 years ago, with madre lingua english teacher, music teachers etc. but how can there be money when the likes of that bastard fiorito are examples of who we have in local government.
Looking back i was brave swimming . i remember being bundled up in a towel straight afterwards and being given flasks of heinz tomato soup to defrost me.....didnt realise it the time, would never do it now!

Rosa that sounds really frustrating that parents aren't able to help. Certainly the feeling of lack of motivation and sort of acquired helplessness was my experience of Italian teachers when DD was there, certainly I can understand why many of them were like that.

Merlin, the beaches sound amazing, I would love to do a MN tour of Scotland!

Sorry that you had such dispiriting (does this word actually exist) meetings Gio and Rosa, it is the bloody Gelmini reform, btw, the one I have been complaining about since more or less coming back

Btw there is plenty that genitori can do, apart from taking the children to outings. First of all check out your school's Associazione dei Genitori, attend the meetings etc. Here in Milan some schools have excellent associazioni dei genitori, which mainly find good ways of raising money to get - in agreement with the preside - stuff the school needs.
For instance our association kitted out a room with computers for informatica, and set up a library (we have a commissione biblioteca I am part of which keeps the library open 3 mornings a week), and even replaced some toilets

It is not true there is not enough staff to go to gite, my dc have always been on nice outings and last year ds even went to scuola natura for 5 days. But I am not sure how schools outisde Milan are doing in terms of personnel to be honest.
Keep in mind that hard working teachers and committed presidi manage to offer a variety of experiences to their pupils even with lack of money, but tend to be all doom and gloom at the beginning of the year.

Ah, and my last tip: take with a big pinch of salt the gossip you will hear in the playground.

And Gio at 2 yrs to re do the garden. It took our comune 5 months to re do ours. Write letters, bombard the fuckers with letters!!!

Sorry for the long rant, but I do feel for our school system, I am so sad to see it ruined by yrs of bad policies. There is a good number of committed, hard working teachers out there, such a shame that it is all going to waste.

and here for a good anno scolastico, it is an emotional roller coaster!

So sorry to hear what's going on in the schools now. But it's been like that for years. University was a shame even before Gelmini. I could never get a degree in Italy, it was always a matter of asking for money and more money (not just referring to tuition fees here). Now I'm getting one in Scotland, at 40.
It's even more hurtful to read that when it concerns primary schools. How can it take 2 years to re-do a garden?????
What I can't stand it's the policy behind these choices, there is such a lack of jobs that the contractors pretend to get long contracts even thought the work could be done in 2 months.

Sputnik, despite what I've been told about the Italian teachers, I think they're a lot more committed than in other countries. They've to face so many difficulties, problems, the disfunctional and corrupted political system... God bless them, sometimes to us pupils they seemed lights in the dark.
Of course, there are those who teach at school just to get a wage... but I think that's the same everywhere, it regards people and not just teachers....

Well, toast to a good anno scolastico!! (anche per me, all'uni )

Good luck with the Uni Merlin, how exciting!
I'm sure there are plenty of committed teachers out there, but my (albeit limited) experience was of the other kind. DD was bullied at scuola materna and only told us about it in the last year or so (she's 8), the teacher ignored it. In the end one of them hit her with a rolling pin, she had to have an ecografia. I can still remember the whiny teacher saying well she is "diversa" as if that was some kind of justification.
Aargh, sorry, it just really upsets me to think about it.

what a shit thing to say, at that teacher! I agree, there is a good number of bad apples.

Good luck with Uni Merlin, what are you studying? at being asked for money, where were you studying?

I have to say though that my yrs at University (in Milan) have been amazing. I've never been asked for money or harassed or anything, I actually I had some fantastic teachers and incredibly interesting compagni di studio, we had such a great time together.

Ah, today I took ds for prick tests for allergies as at the end of the summer he had a very bad rhinitis (for the 2nd year in a row) and it appears he is allergic to ambrosia and artemisia.

Sput that is terrible and for a materna teacher as well ! Franca what is artemisia? Ambrosia I am presuming its a kind of rice ( As I think back to my youth !)
I should study as I know I will regret it in the future but I don't seem mentally ready as yet.
Apparently in a few weeks we should have the class elections for rapprestante and I will put myself forward. I raised a fiar bit of money with the materna but will see about the elementare.
I raced to terraferma this morning to get a regalo for a teacher that has had a baby , she said she was coming over after lunch to get a load of stuff I have , she is now waiting for the baby to feed and then she is coming over , I could have had a quiet noodle wok lunch da sola with a book ...Never mind.
It was foggy fgs this morning as well....
Ikea next week dh has promised...

Rosa, bravissima for wanting to be elected rappresentante di classe! , well done!

artemisia
ambrosia is similar. The peak of allergy is Aug-sept- beg october

Sput that is horrendous. Poor DD. Bet you wanted to punch the teacher.

Well by that time it was nearly the end of the year and we had already organized the new school, otherwise not sure what we would have done.

Sputnik, so sorry to hear your story!! But in my days being bullied at scuola materna was the norm... maybe that teacher was an old-fashioned one? At that time, teachers were just dividing us when something bad had really happened, otherwise they considered the bullying as children's arguments and nothing more.. I remember I was a "diversa" too, not only because I was coming from a very poor family and didn't have expensive clothes (despite everything I was living in an area surrounded by rich people's villas, that was the time when rich people were starting to buy in the country), but I was also quite strongly opinionated since I had started talking...
Anyway, I got "stoned" several times for being a "diversa" , meaning that other children were punishing me throwing stones at me... .

I started having respect of teachers from primary school onwards. Maybe I was lucky but my teachers were all wonderful and respected too.

Franca, I'm studying towards a BA (Hons) in Scottish History. I actually started a module in January 2012 as a trial, meaning I wasn't sure if I was able to deal with the university workload. I had a chat with few wonderful, enthusiastic lecturers before applying for it and I said "I'm going for it". All the opposite of what had happened in Italy.
Everyone tries to discourage you from the beginning to apply for it, whether for a reason or another.
And I'm sure about it because I've a friend that applied for a degree in world economics (she has a triennale and wants a specialistica) who's attending this year 2012/2013 at Cagliari. She had a nervous breakdown even before starting the academic year!!

University environment is quite corrupt anywhere, although I wanted to study at Florence. I never started. First they asked for money to apply for. Then it came out a long list of taxes. Then, and that was me out of it, teachers of the course I had chosen being notoriously corrupted. It was "known" they asked for money to 'let' you pass the exams..no money, no pass mark, even if you had been superb!! I was utterly disgusted and never tried again to apply for a degree in Italy.

Merlin, I am sorry to hear this.

Merlin that is so sad. Kids can be such little sods!
Franca I see c'e il solito razzismo being spouted elsewhere.....

Indeed, Gio. I find it rather upsetting, to be honest.

It make me fume so it must do you. Was going to ignore but had to post. It was the same attitude that would me up with the Meredith case. This generalising of the entire country as village dwelling, wife dominating, arse touching, en masse daily mass attending mammone! Well may give them mammone - with my son as a prime candidate! . The thing that is ridiculous is that all the stereotypes they use are sooooo dated. Now if they wanted to talk about colpo d'aria obsessed hypochondriacs then I may have to take a step back...

Gio, I adore you! Yes, I feel the same.
Just sweeping judgements of people who have no idea as to how varied and different behaviours, attitudes, moral values are here. Plus our legislation in terms of parental rights is very much gear to protect the mother (thankfully).

Oh Banana and Franca, are you talking about another thread... I don't even care anymore... anytime I say I'm Italian the usual stereotype about spaghetti e mandolino comes out... shrugging my shoulders and leaving...
Not to talk about trying to make me meet with other Italians? "Or did you meet other Italians, there are many at the church!" - who gives a rt's ase!! I'm in Scotland, why can't I have people of any nationality as friends?
"Oh I thought that Italians are always in groups with families and same nationality friends" - WRONG, I've been here on my own for years so it's evident it isn't like that.
I hate stereotypes!!

When I graduated as a chef, an elderly lady told me "Hey, can you take a picture of me and my niece, then you can go back to your country" - I dropped everything and left, fuming of course!

Some people seem unable to see other countries as complete and diverse entities, they pick a few ideas from the odd film, advert, holiday, hearsay and create a country based on that! Having said that I have met the odd Italian who is disappointed to find I don't stop for tea at 5 every day and that my Mum isnt in her pinny waiting for her bowler hatted, umbrella carrying husband to come home from the city .

Merlin, have you judt said you are a chef????