Say "Cheese"

I'm posting an "old" picture that I took on the plane about 6 hours into the flight to Milan. You can see 3 of the Clemson students, very sleepy, and so excited! The one at a cafe was the first lunch together of all the American students during our orientation day. We're dining at a cafe on the piazza in Carpi. This is the 3rd largest piazza in Italy, and really charming. Buon appetito.

Later that afternoon in the main church here I snapped a late afternoon picture of a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. The light was perfect.

The indoor picture of my Italian family and me was taken in their vacation home at Lake Garda. The furniture is knotty pine, and charming.

Britta snapped a picture of me holding the OLLI banner under the ancient stone arch behind their vacation house. Proof that I'm really representing OLLI Abroad!

More rain today (May 20). It doesn'tbother me, but the Italians are really getting sick of it. Britta did the laundry and it's draped all over the house (no clothes dryer). She took me this morning to a local place that makes PARMIGIANNO-REGGIANO cheese from milk from a co-op of 10 local dairies. We got a private tour and at the end they cut 2 wedges for me to buy: the 2 year old wedge is the optimum age for nibbling; the 3 year old wedge is considered best for grating, as it's a bit drier. They shrinkwrap it so it keeps for months in the fridge. What strikes me is that of the many pieces of this kind of cheese I've eaten in Italy, they're mellow and full-bodied (can you say that about a cheese?) and none are salty like what we get in America. They sell the lower quality stuff to Kraft. Oh, well.....

Wednesday, it's back to school and on Thursday I participate with some of the other American student teachers in putting on a very simple performance of the American children's book Spot Goes to the Circus at the community children's library, a facility that would put any library I've seen in the US to shame. We'll teach the little kids (who've been invited from the primary grades to come) some basic English words that are relative to the circus: balloons, tiger, elephant, ball, monkey, dog, etc.....and we'll sing songs such as If You're Happy and You Know It (clap your hands, etc.).

Ciao for now, Linda