Back to School Blues

Week three: the start of school.
By this point I am decently knowledgeable of the schedule and life rhythms of the family Carpaneto during the summer.  I figured that school would be a change [of course] but a good change because there was a more defined schedule.  Despite this, I expected the first couple of days to be pretty high stress because that just seems to be the nature of change, stress inducing. Uh, hahaha, yes. 'Twas certainly high stress for a couple of days, in the boys more than anyone else.
We has a task Monday and Tuesday to organize and declutter the boys' rooms in the afternoon: every child's favorite thing to do, particularly after the first day back at school after an awesome summer vacation of both lethargy and adventure. On Monday, post-cleaning, the boys went over to their friends Pietro and Giovanni's house [they too are brothers and the exact same ages at Fil and Ruggi] for a couple of hours.  Silvia, their mother, told me that I could go and do whatever I wanted/needed while they were there, so I traversed the city a bit and relaxed in the house.  I traversed very little because I am so incredibly prone to getting lost as many if not all of you know and I didn't want to be late to pick the boys up. The free time was marvelous though, breathing in the changing air filled with school supplies, falling leaves, and the chatter of haggling Italians.
I picked them up for dinner with Nonna Mariucia [Alberto's mother] at our place. It was an Italian dinner, language and food wise. Alberto translated this and that for me, but I tried desperately to hold my own....I did pretty okay.  Pretty very okay for only 3 weeks out.

Tuesday a friend of Fil's, Francesco, came over to play and we made bread clay! Have you ever made it? Well we didn't do it very well....it was way more like bread than clay, but they were content so there you go. After Alberto and Patrizia got home I joined Lindsay and Torino native Andrea for a reading/presentation in Teatro Regio (AN OPERAHOUSE!!!! :D it was amazing!!) with John Berger and Arundhati Roy. It was absolutely fascinating--I took 4 full pages of notes.  The questions were asked in Italian, but as John Berger is British and Arundhati Roy is Indian (from India) both of them responded in English. It was man, amazing.  They talked about the current global happenings in regards to renewable resources, war and destruction, the role of storytelling in one's life, exploitation in capitalism [this topic I wish I had heard and understood the question...]. Man, I mean just awesome. I love stuff like that!!

Wednesday was the first day that I picked up Fil from school, and even though I had a map, had walked it on google maps, and had specific directions, I got lost. :( Quite a frustrating thing, let me tell you. But somehow, miraculously, I was only 2 minutes late. No clue how that happened, but Filippo was hanging out with a schoolmate that he knew before--no harm no foul. Wednesday was also the first day that Filippo came home at 1:30 whereas Ruggi had school until 4:30, so we had lunch, just Fil and me. Behavior-wise, Wednesday was a stressful day. An extremely stressful day. But after Ruggi finished school the three of us went over to Silvia's house and hung out, me with the moms in the kitchen with delicious plum cake which has no plums in it at all...go figure...and the boys with the house-full of friends.
Thursday I started  class! I had my first Italian class! I chose to take a conversation course at a language school not far away from where we live, and it was well rated and reviewed on many a language school website.  :D I was so happy to go back to school!! And the class was awesome--all foreigners and the only language we all have in common is Italian, of course, and thus we just chatted with prompts here and there by the teacher for 2 hours in the morning! :) 'Twas marvelous.
I decided after talking with my parents and witnessing the stressful (lets just stick with this adjective, eh?) behavior of the boys all week long that the missing link was responsibility and incentive to behave well. So I went onto Supernanny.com to get some tricks and behavior charts so that they could behave well, working towards a reward that they really want and choose.  This reward cannot be a toy or really a purchased item at all, the idea is to move them away from that, but instead time with Mom/Dad/Everyone, a special afternoon, a special cake, a special music lesson etc. So I printed this out and developed my plan with the aid of Supernanny.com on Thursday before going to get Fil from school.  Thursday, thankfully and unlike the rest of the week, was absolutely gorgeous so we passed the afternoon outside at the park all the way until dinner.

Friday after the first week of school! The plan was to go to Lerici for the weekend! Hooray!! I was utterly exhausted on Friday, both physically and mentally, and honestly emotionally.  It had been a terrible week of behavior, and try as I might I couldn't continue to tell myself that it was back to school stress enough in order to stay calm and patient.  So I very very seriously considered sticking behind in Torino for the weekend instead of going to Lerici, but the beach won out :).  I am so glad that I did.  It was absolutely gorgeous weather Friday evening and Saturday.  Oh my gosh! Saturday morning, Marta (cousin who joined us), Fil, Ruggi and I walked all the way over to the next town on the boardwalk, made a volcano in the sand complete with a trapped burning leaf so it looked like it was smoking, and leisurely walked back gelato in hand. In the afternoon we drove to a private beach---drop dead gorgeous.  The beach took up the inner part of a cove that had rocky and tree covered cliffs as bookends. The ground immediately dropped off almost as soon as you dipped your feet in the water, and the water was warm! There was a dock out in the middle of the cove's water, with sailboats and yachts bright as the summer sun gliding on the crystal blue water. It was heaven, and the sun smiled warmly down on us the whole afternoon. For dinner we ate outside in the open air but parentless (took a mini date night) and poor Ruggi, who drank zero water all day long, was as sick as a dog....and just in case you were wondering rice and cheese is too too rich for a dehydrated stomach...

Sunday morning I got up early to go to mass--there was a baptism!! It was perfect because I still wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go to little baby cousin Federico's baptism the following weekend because i went to Cinque Terre. [If you are confused by the tenses, I am sorry. Unfortunately it is more confusing because it happened a little while ago...] It was very cool, but something that is very strange about mass here is that they don't use music! The language that basically invented musical notation doesn't really use music in their mass! In their celebration of God. Strange.
Pretty much right after mass it started raining, so we packed up early and headed back to Torino.  That afternoon I went out for aperitvi/dinner and drinks with the newest aupair to come to Torino: Katherine. Check this out: she is best friends with Irina!! She's from NoVa, just graduated from Tech, and knows many JMU Ambassadors thanks to the lovely Irina.  Talk about small world!  We went to an English Pub intown and got to know each other.  Veramente una buona ragazza. Very cool girl.
Sunday September 20, 2 days before my 21st birthday. :D