Good morning, Prof.!

A wise friend recently told me that if she didn’t know any better, she would think that all I do here is travel, eat gelato, party with the local middle-aged mothers, and bathe. Thus, approaching the conclusion of my third full week in Italy, I suppose it’s time to explain what, exactly, my daily life entails.

Monday through Friday, I wake up early, hop on my bike, try not to get hit by any mopeds, and then catch either the 7:17, the 7:42, or the 8:30 train from Castelleone to Crema, depending on when my first class starts. My train ride lasts for precisely 11 minutes, after which I join the mass of students and workers walking from the station in Crema into the historical center, where most of the schools and businesses are located. From door to door, my commute takes about 40 minutes, and in the course of this journey, I pass no fewer than 20 coffee bars, all of which I hope to try out at least once before leaving.

Once at school, I teach between one and four classes a day. So far, I’ve been teaching Math, Geography, and Film History; starting next week I’ll add on Economics and Natural Sciences. All of these, I teach in English. My school is big into a teaching methodology called CLIL, or Content and Language Integrated Learning – the idea that students should learn a foreign language through content, as opposed to just through grammar exercises, vocabulary, readings, etc. It’s hard, given that the kids need to learn two things – language and subject matter – at the same time, but I like it. Moments ago I just experienced my first ever, class-wide “ooooooohh… I get it!” moment as a teacher, which was heart-warming.

Outside of school, my most exciting pursuit so far has been practicing with a local soccer team. The level of play is far higher than anything I’ve ever participated in, so it can be a bit too humbling, at times, but I plan on sticking with it. Not only is it great exercise, but I also, finally, get to use a real shower after practice! Plus, the practices are at night, which means we play underneath the lights. Which is thrilling.

Living in Castelleone, where public transportation closes at about 9:00pm, I don’t have much of a midweek night life. With the exception of soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I generally spend me weeknights studying, hanging out with my hilarious host mother, wandering around, and, more recently, exploring my host family’s vast movie collection. Italy has a very successful dubbing industry, which makes Hollywood films just as popular here as they are in the United States. It can be disconcerting seeing one of your favorite actors speaking with a different voice, in a different language – try to imagine Morgan Freeman sounding like Roberto Benigni – but you get used to it. Interestingly enough, each famous American actor has a dubber who always does that actor’s films. As a result, dubber’s of the most famous actors – from Woody Allen to Adam Sandler – actually become quite famous themselves.

Two random notes:

1.) Despite that SIGG water bottles – those tall, narrow, metal water bottles that are becoming increasingly popular in the States – claim to be made in Switzerland, the country only 100 km north of where I’m living, not one Italian I’ve met has ever seen one before. Every time, therefore, that I pull my water bottle out on a train, or in the teacher’s lounge at school, or on the street, or in the soccer locker room, somebody asks me what I’m drinking. Every. Single. Time. Before I can answer, they usually ask me, grinning: “Whiskey?” They think this is hilarious.

2.) Italian students generally go to school Monday through Saturday. However, school generally gets out no later than 1:00pm. What this means is that most Italian students have rarely had English class in the afternoon. What this, then, means is that most Italian students think that you can use the expression “good morning” synonymously with “hello,” because for the entirety of their English careers, their professors have walked into the room, said “good morning,” and then begun the lesson.

My school, unlike most schools, does not have class on Saturday. As a result, we meet more often in the afternoon, which means that I often see my students in the hallways in the afternoon. Being diligent students of the English language, my students want to say hello to me in English. So they say what they think is normal: “Good morning, prof.!” When this happens, I usually smile very nicely and then say, in English, “you mean, good afternoon!” They look at me with huge, blank expressions. I then explain, in Italian, that it is afternoon, and that they should use the expression “good afternoon” instead. They usually smile politely, nod, and then walk on. This, too, happens every day.


This weekend, I'm hoping to go to Florence, so if that happens, I'll be sure to keep you posted. (Hah.) For now, time to walk across the street to my favorite panino place and get lunch. Thanks for reading, and be well.




Nate