The American Overseas School of Rome

Here you go........day before school starts campus tour.

The address of the school is Via Cassia 811 and is located at the northwestern corner of the city, very leafy and almost suburban feeling.  The school is across the street from this bus stop, which is where I get off when I don't ride the school bus.

The main entrance to the school with the guardhouse.

The first thing you see on campus, not a great first impression, is the school parking lot.  Watch for a coming post when I blog about the school bus system.  This parking lot will be featured PROMINENTLY.

Up the stairs out of the parking lot and you come to the corner of the quad.  Here at the NE corner, the two wings of the elementary school intersect.

This is the wing (the eastern side of the quad) that has the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade classrooms.

On the western side of the quad, is the oldest building on campus (it used to be someone's residence) called the Villa.  The Villa houses the Middle school (grades 6-8) and administration.  Behind the villa is the athletic field.

The two story high school building is on the southern edge of the quad.

This breezeway (the SE corner of the quad) connects the Villa with the main entrance of the High School.  The gym is on the other side of the wall of art.

The classroom I've been assigned is the first one you come to one the first floor of the HS building.  My name plate was attached to the door today.  It's the first time I've ever had my name on a classroom door in 16 years of teaching!  I do, however share my classroom.

My classroom is assigned the name "HS0", yeah I teach in Room 0.  The history behind that is that the room has 2 doors. The room across the hall is Room 1, and in the old days, the other door to the room was used as the entrance, so the room was Room 2.  But the former teacher, wanted the entrance door changed, so it became Room 0 and there now is no Room 2.

The southern edge of the campus sits on the edge of a greenbelt, which is what my classroom looks out on.  Along the steep slope, the school has built an outdoor amphitheater, which is right outside HS0's windows.

On the ground floor, right below the room in which I teach, is the school cafeteria.  Teacher's lunches are subsidized by the school so we only pay 30 Euro cents to each lunch!

Vancouver 2011

Generally the Chen family goes to Vancouver, BC for one reason......Chinese Food.  It's not like we can't find Chinese food in Seattle, but, well, it's just BETTER in Canada.

King Crab (Boy am I looking more and more like Chester)

Marlene, two EC's and the crab

Coming it at $46 Canadian a pound, this six pound crab was eventually turned into three separate dishes.  The first, was the legs cooked with LOTS of garlic!

The top dish, was the goop inside the shell made into a sauce with rice and the bottom dish was the body of the crab (cut into amazingly easy to eat pieces) cooked with more garlic

The real reason for the trip to Vancouver (and thereby my going through the pains of getting my passport card) was to see Carlos' movie, which I financially backed and was filmed at both Chen households in Seattle

Director J.T. on the left and Producer Carlos on the right

The two guys on the right are Brent Corrigan (Sean Paul Lockhart) and Charlie David

Richard Harmon (going to be majorly famous mark my words) was the younger Danny Reyes in the movie.  Turns out, I hung out at his house having drinks the night before the showing of the movie.

Myself and the actor who played the good guy, Sean in the movie.

Check Judas Kiss for more information and where it's going to play near you!

Everything Goes My Way

Mom Summer 2011

Everything goes my way, that's what my Mom said during my month long visit to Seattle.  It is pretty much 100% true.  Here's a rundown of the chores I had to take care of while home and the result (there's a pretty good example of "getting what I want" near the end, so read through if you want to be amazed.

First off, the second day I was home, my Dad had scheduled a meeting with his financial adviser at Fidelity.  Since I use the same guy, I tagged along and reviewed my financial plan.  It appears everything is in working order and I am one of those who has been little affected (in terms of day to day living) by the financial downturn. 

Second task.  Refinancing my home in San Francisco.  Turns out that Chase owns my mortgage, which means that I could go to the same refinance guy my sister used and things went smoothly.  One hitch was that the underwriters wanted to see a copy of my condo agreement.  Not a problem EXCEPT it is locked in my fireproof safe, which at the time was under the stairs at my sister's house, BUT there was no key.  With a little sleuthing on the internet and a phone call, it turns out that the safe I own does NOT require a notarized letter of ownership to get a replacement key, I simply needed to give them the code on the lock itself and pay for the shipping and I had the key!  BONUS.  After answering a few questions about my employment in Italy (it was confusing that I am changing jobs within the country) I have been approved for a new 20 year fixed mortgage, that increases my monthly payment by $88, but takes off six years of payments.  Once it is all approved stateside, I will sign documents here in Italy.

Third task.  Payment of my taxes.  Or.......non payment.  Turns out, I will pay no taxes EITHER to the United States NOR to California.  The main reason is that of my investment in Judas Kiss, my friend Carlos' movie.  The trip to Vancouver to see the movie will be in the next post.  Turns out, because I get to deduct that amount of my investment (my tax adviser point blank stated, "if you can do this again, DO IT") and so my total tax burden is $0.  OK, there is ONE thing that turns to not be in my favor.  Because I essentially have no taxable income (foreign earned income is not taxable) I am not allowed to contribute to my Roth IRA.  Therefore, I had to ask Fidelity to withdraw my 2010 and 2011 contributions.

Fourth Task.  Obtaining my Italian Visa.  This was predicted to be a huge task.  On the 28th of July, my "Nulla Osta", or permission to work in the country of Italy, arrived in the mail.  On the 2nd of August, I had an appointment with the Vice-Consulate of Italy posted in Seattle.  Because I have gone through this process before, I knew that Italian's LOVE paperwork.  They ask for a copy of something, I knew to bring 5 copies.  The vice-consulate stamped my paperwork, application, my "nulla osta" and swore that I had presented myself in person to him.  Then I sent all the the documents to the San Francisco Consulate of Italy.  The great thing here is that I did it ALL BY MAIL.  I did not have to fly to San Francisco.  The fact I did this by mail, turns out to be critical to a later task.

Fifth Task.  So, when I was looking over my personal items, I realized that my California Drivers' License expires on my birthday in January, 2012.  It would have been easy to renew my license by mail, but all the mail going to my San Francisco address gets returned because I no longer live there.  I could have tried to use a friend's address to do it but that meant changing all my mail to go to a new address.  So, it came to me, why not just use my parent's address (I have a built in forwarding service) and in the process become a Washington State resident.    I go to the Office of Licensing, wait only 45 minutes, and because I had a Washington State license when I was younger, I was still in the system and I got my old license ID number, registered to vote and became a resident all within an hour and a half.  On a final note, the clerk at the office was giving me lip for moving back in with my parents at 41.  I informed her it was because I lived in Italy......then she shut up.

Sixth Task.  It's a small one, but indicative of my luck.  I have a pair of beloved sandals that were falling apart, both the straps were ripped and the soles were completely worn down.  Got them fixed!  And a pair of my favorite shorts had a broken zipper.  Mom found a place to get it replaced. 

Seventh Task. (more like.......well, it was a gift).  For some reason, Mom thought my white MacBook was REALLY old.  Not sure the number of years she was assigning to it, but, she was under the impression that it was rickety and almost non-functioning.  Truth be told, it was a mere three (maybe four years old).  But it was working just fine.  Maybe needed a tune-up.  To my sister's chagrin, I got promised a new computer.....and I am now the owner of a new MacBook Pro.  THANKS, Mom.

Eighth Task.  Medical Appointments.  It's been 9 years since my accident and my Dad made an appointment for me to see Dr. B, the one who reconstructed my feet.  I took x-rays, he looked at them for 20 seconds and declared everything just fine.  No problems, except for random bone spur on the top of my right foot, which is caused by two of my bones fusing and causing another to push up.  It doesn't affect my walking, but it does explain why when I tie my shoes too tight, by the end of the day, the top of my foot hurts.  Saw the eye-doctor, who now has, on-file, an up to date prescription for me.  So, if I need new contacts, I can just order them and have them sent over.  (FYI, I'm one of only 5% of contact wearers who wears hard contact lenses, who knew!)  And I saw the dentist, who says I definitely need to floss better and to get a periodontal cleaning.

Ninth Task.  Getting to Vancouver on August 13th to see Judas Kiss.  This is the "I get what I want story."  Two things were working against me.  I need a passport to get into Canada, BUT my passport was in San Francisco for my Italian visa.  There are enhanced driver's licenses available, but they take two weeks to obtain and I had three days.  I went to the Canadian consulate and asked whether or not I could enter Canada with a photocopy of my passport.  They said they would, EXCEPT that the US wouldn't allow me back in with only a photocopy, therefore, their regulations say that if the home country won't let you back in, they won't let a person in.  Things were looking BLEAK.  But then, I was thrown a lifeline.  As I was leaving the Canadian consulate, one of the women, stated I should look into a passport card.  What is a passport card?  It is a card that allows for land and sea travel in North America.  BINGO.  I went to the passport office in Seattle, and got the information on what I needed to obtain.  Application, check.  Photos, check.  $115, check.  Copy of Drivers License, check.  And a copy of my birth certificate, CHECK.  Lucky that my Dad is so organized that he had it in the family safety deposit box.  I obtained the passport card on Friday the 12th for travel to Vancouver, BC on the 13th. 

Lastly, I got to spend some time on Cape Cod before heading back to Rome.  I flew from Seattle on the morning of the 19th and landed in Boston and spent time with my friends Keith and Paul at their Cape vacation rental!

Everything turned out just how I wanted it......and somehow I always get what I want.