MN Little Italy 19

[Francasaysrelax]

Hello, welcome, benvenuti

Sounds fascinating

Sounds fascinating indeed.

Would I send DD? Well, she would have to make the choice really. It's not the kind of place you can "send" someone to. And TBH, if your child goes through 3 rounds of selection including 2 very intense days in college, gets in and wants to go, I do not think you can really say no (my parents found themselves in that situation - they never thought I would get in so they let me apply - and within a few months I found myself in Hong Kong).

But it is a great opportunity, yes. Academically and not.

Makes my posh private school look very shabby .....
We have to make a bloomin casetta for the nativity scene at school ( Rosa sobs as she can't do a cake one.....)Or a palm tree or a sheep FGS !
I have a cardboard box and all I need now is inspiration and brown paint oh and that thing called time .......
MR still suffering with teeth very red cheeks this pm and almost like nappy rash under her chin. I have been avoiding putting her in things with collars or anything that rubs and trying to keep it dry ( I have those bandana bibs) but it looks very angry .Loaded it witH Aloe Vera tonight vediamo la mattina.....

Do the students end up having high status international careers?

I'm not sure I'd have been "brave" enough to go, but I'd like my dc to actually be "brave" enough, iyswim...

Rosa, poor minirosa! Have you tried also a bit of weleda calendula cream (the one for nappy rash)? I think it works wonders. Sounds like the skin has been irritated by combination of cold and saliva from teething. Poor thing!

Btw, my new debit card from hsbc has arrived! I need to activate it now...

Some do, I suppose Bum. But then I also know lots of people with international or very successful careers with a more "normal" educational background.

Yes sounds like a great place for the 'right person'.

The independence bit though might sound more an achievement and a novelty to italians whose children do not normally leave home to go to uni. To others, the sharing and responsibilities would come anyway when moving to a uni campus in a different part of the country or abroad.

hello everyone

bookmarking again, back later

Rosa - lots of hugs to your DD again - you never seem to get a break uh?... AND the casetta thing - I am sure when we were at nursery we were just asked to bring a ready made one from our nativity - I am sure my parents never made one!

AIWFCImcNulty, the vast majority of students go back to their home countries after college, although it is fair to say that many do end up going abroad again for further studies or work. On the other side, it is true that if you want Oxbridge/Ivy League/international bank or law firms, the colleges are a very good thing to have on your application form...

Pinco - I have to say I disagree - I went to university in the UK and the level of "independence" and worldliness of the average student at my uni was not comparable to most of my college peers in our early 20s... I found it very hard to adjust to that...

finally cought up (luckily I read a bit during my lunch break yesterday! our connection hasn't been working at night, and been veeeeeery busy at work/home.

Rosa, good luck with the casetta! and hope MR gets better soon. MiniCamo still only 3 teeth!!!

MI, that school sounds great! never knew it existed!! definetly an eye opener I would assume. doubt my parents would have let me go though. they didn't even let me go to bologna after liceo (ha, no bologna, then I'm off to London, bet they regret that now )

DS had his xmas play (well, 3, as they can't fit all the parents in at once), really funny, and emotional.

photobox deliverd GPs presents, now need to sort out the DC and ourselves......

I'm just back from DD's xmas show too, feel all warm and glowy! They did really well, and DS managed to behave too (with the help of half a packet of biscottini).

I think there is a big difference between independence at 16 and at 18 (or even 19, as many students take a year off before uni, or did in my day).

I don;t understand why it is a left wing boarding school, if the kids move on to jobs in international banking..I assumed they would be working for international Ngos, humanitarian organisations, etc. Boh.

Oh, I love Xmas shows....

Hello everyone!
The girl I first came to Italy with went to the Waterford Kamhlaba UWC school! (the one in Swaziland) and I seem to remember her having v fond memories of it. She is now a lawyer in Vietnam.

Still dipping in and out of Meredith Kercher, although some posters' obsessions are a bit The 2 principle posters stuff makes for quite interesting reading. At least it's moved onto general conspiracy theories (mostro) now.....

Finished online Christmas shopping and been (virtually) to Boden sale

Ordered some books for dp- Gomorra, Socci's book about the last Pope, Bill Bryson's History of almost everything, and a book about the Holy Grail lol.

I'd agree on the level of wordliness but I bet that a great deal of that wordliness was acquired at the college not before. Since the average student would go to Uni from having been at home they certainly would be 'behind' in that to those coming from the colleges who had already at least 2 years of 'independence'. I agree it must have felt a step back for you MI.

Thinkin about it I think my ex-flatmate went there and she went on to have a fab career as an internationa lawyer. All the friends that came to visit her were great people from all over the world. It sounded like a great experience.

I do not understand the liberal left connotation either tbh and cannot find anything about it on the website - what do you mean by that? That it is not military regulated or that it is very mixed and that even those from poor background can get a place? (Can they really? Are fees expensive?)

Mostro???? Really???? Fammi andare a vedere.

Hello mie care,
at all the little italy dc who have just starred in their Christmas show. Dd's one is on the 17th and she is keeping the whole performance a secret and is very excited about it all.
Ds's school is not going to have a play, but just a festa. We'll have to wait until the end of the yr when they will have their big saggio di coro... Bless!

"UWC is the only global educational movement that brings together students from all over the world ? selected on personal merit, irrespective of race, religion, politics and the ability to pay ? with the explicit aim of fostering peace and international understanding". This is the "mission" of the colleges according to the website, I find it quite liberal , especially keeping into consideration the current growth of nationalism, regionalism etc in many european countries ! The 2 people I know who went there don't work for international banks. One works for the UN.

I think they mean it is multicultural, you will end up havijng mainly students of one class, no? Great networking.

wow, can't believe that thread is still going strong!
mind you, it's really the same people repeating and re-linking...

yup Camo in need pf a RL methinks...

Pinco. They do seem to have a lot of time in their hands. I'm a bit of that

I've been running around like a headless chicken to get presents for family etc, but I still have a long way to go.

I have to say I am slightly jealous of all those Xmas plays... DD too small but cannot wait for those things!!!! We have done the calendar for GPs at the end too... Definitely a winner.

On the colleges again... They were founded in the 1960s by a Canadian with a view to bring together students from both sides of the iron curtain end educate them together in order to bridge the cultural gap. The point was literally to give kids few or no rules (no drugs was the only rule, really), teach them to high standards, and try to challenge their cultural backgrounds (e.g. make a Russian/American student share a room/share classes and activities and see what happens). Since the Cold war went, the colleges have refocussed on North-South issues - Nelson Mandela became President and set us the goal of reaching out more towards the LDCs and areas of conflict, which is now the main goal of UWC activity - hence the openings of new colleges in India and Mostar.

They are of course expensive, but they are also largely free. With the exception of one of the colleges (long story) you can only get into the college if you are awarded a scholarship - most of which are full (in some countries eg Holland parents are asked to contribute to the scholarship depending on earnings, but Italy only pays full scholarships, for instance). In addition, the colleges raise money to fund students from countries which could not afford/do not want to send students - Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan etc. I believe the only countries which have never sent a student are North Korea and Nauru.

And yes, a large number of students end up in NGOs/ICC/UN/World Bank etc - but I cannot see how that is necessarily better than becoming a speech therapist or a social worker in your own country - which is what the Colleges prefer to see.
And by the way, the vast majority of my former classmates who do work in the development field have all trained in consultancies, international law firms, banks/central banks. That is because it's the fastest way to acquire the skills that NGOs struggle to get - eg fundraising, project finance, programme management, but also legal practice etc...

You won't have to wait very long MI, sooner than you realize your dd will be in scuola materna and you'll be wiping tears away at your first christmas play

Yes, people I know who work for ngo etc usually have a degree in economics.

[checking in quickly in between ogling RPatz pictures dealing with all move related things]

dd1 has her school play next week. she came home with a note that said "minimasseuse has chosen to be a cow". will be saving it to humiliate her at her wedding

i had my leaving drinks at work on wed and ended up rope skipping at 11pm in a dodgy bar in e14. yesterday i was so hungover on my last day at work, prob a good thing as i would have cried non stop otherwise. just said goodbye to my cleaner who has been with us for 8 years. the two of us were sobbing. good job the dds were asleep. i fear for my sanity.