Arrivederci Viterbo

This past weekend, I went up to Viterbo for the last time.  I got a chance to say goodbye to friends and family.  People who I probably won't see for years.  This post is a "who's who" of my Viterbo life.

 

 

The Giuliano's.  Raf and Giusy (with "il principe Luciano"), Vittoria and Giulia down front

Gigi

Myself and Alessandro

Everyone who ever visited knows this guy....Massimiliano of Cafe Bagalino's.  I had one last morning coffee before saying goodbye!

Of course, I had to go and say goodbye to Anna.

And my "niece" Giorgia

Anna thought this was a more fitting last photo....I agree.  This is the way I like to remember her.

A sunny day and I got a last trip to my favorite beach on the west side of Lago di Bolsena.

J and I got to hang out one last time.

Goodbye to Pat S and his family

Elisabeth E.

A last dinner with Yvonne, J and Mario

I'll miss seeing the "VT" on the license plates.  Now that I live in Rome, whenever I see at VT, I know it's someone from Viterbo.  Goodbye Viterbo, I already miss you and the people there that I love.

AOSR Graduation 2012

Right underneath my classroom window, the graduates lining up before they process into the gym.

47 students graduated in what was a 2.5 hour ceremony.

Throughout this year, I've been so nose to the grindstone about work and doing my job, that I didn't truly appreciate the fact I work at an INTERNATIONAL school.  The 47 graduates represented 18 nationalities.

Dr. Beth P., our headmaster getting this started.

The graduation speaker was the US Ambassador to Italy, who himself once attended AOSR.

The valedictorian, Dominic M. (Germany/Japan) and also a student in my BC Calculus class.

Of the 47 seniors, I taught 13 of them in either BC Calculus, IB Math HL or Precalculus. I snapped as many as I could as a memory.  Maddie C. (USA) is shown here.

Filippo C. (Italy)

Levi F. (USA) and on the right, Bebe D. (Brazil/Italy)

Josh D. (USA)

Yuval O. (Israel)

I also had seniors that were from Canada and India for which the photos didn't turn out.  As I reflect on this year, I can't believe it's over.  I was asked today how I feel about leaving.  That's a pretty good question and one that I've pondered.  I am excited for the change, but in the past few months (after a rough start where I was subject to school culture shock) I've grown attached to the school.  However, fundamentally, there are structural issues in the way things work that would, over time, wear at my desire to do a good job and I would settle into mediocrity.

One thing that I know drove me crazy was the schedule.  Teaching math to students every other day (we had 8 periods, but only 4 a day) meant that getting rhythm and continuity was impossible.  Then if a students missed a day of class, I didn't see them for four or five days.  Math needs to be done bit by bit....every day.

The culture of the school, where cheating is rampant, drove me crazy.  I fought it hard, but it was like playing whack-a-mole. There were times when I simply would suspect cheating and was so tired, that I didn't do anything about that.  I could see myself eventually being complacent and letting kids get away with it.  It's SO MUCH WORK to try and police it all the time.

I also have never come across students who cared SO LITTLE about their learning.  I realized sometime in the middle of the year that the range of abilities and perseverance is greater than I've ever had.  I taught some of the top students in my career this year, in fact three of my Calculus students make my top 5 ever.  But the students at the bottom.....are lower in ability and work ethic than I've ever had.  And...it's unfortunate to generalize, but those students at the bottom were predominantly Italian.  Whether or not its the culture or the fact that these are students from wealthy Italian families and thereby the kids know there lives are set for them that allows them to care so little, I don't know, but it's what I experienced.  What I will, in time, remember are all the kids that I loved and found to be interested in their learning and spirited in the way they lived their lives....such as the seniors I pictured above.

I know that were I to come back for a second year, I would have to start with a class policies sheet that would be three pages long.  The "general" guidelines I started with this year was eaten alive by the students.  I simply couldn't keep up with all the ways they would violate the spirit of my "rules" and find ways to get around them.  But, maybe that's just kids and I need to suck it up and accept that it's the way it is to be.

So, the seniors are gone, and I've got a few more weeks of finals and award ceremonies, etc.  I'll certainly continue to reflect on this year and probably leave with some positive feelings.  But this year has been the closest I've ever had to a "job" where I got up and really, at times, didn't want to go to work.  That's never happened before and probably significant in my decision to leave and head to China.

Festa di Addio di Celibato

Bachelor Party for colleague and friend, Niall B.  From left, Chris, Liam (Niall's youngest brother), Anthony D., Brian B. Stefan H., the bachelor and Charles (Niall's middle brother)

 

Niall was forced to sing Madonna's "Material Girl"....so we fellow math teachers were kind enough to provide backup!

Harroo sandwich

Did I mention that this all took place on the French Riviera?  We all met up in Nice.  Here's Anthony giving his approval in Piazza Messina.

The beach in Nice

The "purpose" of the trip was to head over to Monte Carlo for some gambling at the casinos.  We decided to go classy and get decked out....or at least not wear jeans and t-shirts.

And...yes, Brian decided to go "douchebag" and wear and ascot and eyepatch.

Here's Monaco as you step out of the train station, which is built into the hillside.

I found Monaco to be...as one might expect....very much about keeping people out.  Everywhere it seems as though you were gated off or evaluated before being let in.

 

The famed Monte Carlo Casino.  We didn't expect Las Vegas style casinos, but we also weren't expecting such exclusivity.  It cost 10 Euro's just to enter and look at the casino.  To play poker, there was a 1,000 Euro buy in.

I lost about 100 Euro's at the blackjack table.  But more exciting was seeing the city get ready for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix which is going to occur next week. 

Here's a hairpin turn right by the Fairmount hotel.  There were grandstands being erected all over the place.

Near the finish line, down at the port.

The port of Monte Carlo...

.....and the amazing yachts

Italian National Bridge Schools Tournament

This year, I enrolled in a beginning Bridge Class here in Rome.  The culmination of our class was the National Students of Bridge Schools Championship.

The tournament was help in the spa town of Salsomaggiore Terme near Parma.  It's famous for its hot springs....and being the host of the annual Miss Italia pageant.

I took two days off of work...took the train up on Thursday morning.  Things started up right away with a pairs tournament on Thursday afternoon where we played the first of 3 rounds.

Look, there I am, one of the few, if ONLY, players without a vowel at the end of my name.  And I am a member of FIGB (Federazione Italiano di Gioco Bridge) with a number and everything!

How's this for a playing room.  The first year tournament was help in the main salon of the Salsomaggiore Palazzo Congressi

The tournament in ACTION.  It was awesome to play against people from all over Italy.  And it was fascinating to start to guess the accents.  I am now REALLY good at identifying when someone is from Northern Italy.  They talk almost as if they are singing.

I'd never seen this before, an automated wireless bridge scoring system.  It's pretty bulky and my guess is that the technology is at least a decade old, BUT it functions and was a great way to log in scores.

The 1st year tournament had 36 teams.  Right off the bat in round one (hands were pre-dealt) I had a grand slam hand.  I wasn't ready for it and only bid 4 spades, but made the slam.  This first round, I played in a daze...but somehow, my partner and I ended up in 21st place.

Then, after dinner Thursday night, the 2nd round.  LO AND BEHOLD, my partner and I played OUT OF OUR MINDS.  We placed 4th in this round.  All three teams above us were the eventual top teams of the entire competition.

And here's my partner, Gino.  We both attend the same class, but on different nights.  For some reason, he came to my class one day, we played together and have been a pair for a month now.  Life is that way, just as I'm about to leave Italy, I find a good bridge partner.

As the 2nd round was finishing, the results popped, but Gino and I were finishing our last round.  Our instructor, Mario G. came over and (probably a bit surprised at the result) congratulated us.  Then, he said, if we continued to play at that level, we might get on the podium.

And then, the next morning, things came back to reality.  We started badly, and things just got progressively worse, finishing in almost last place in the 3rd round.

Overall, 15th.  Better than I would have expected coming into the weekend.  I'm pretty proud of our placing.  It's still funny to see my non Italian last name on the board.

The second event of the weekend is a team tournament.  Two pairs play as a team.  Gino and I came as part of a 3 pair team, but we found another pair looking for a team and we joined them.  It's Valerio and Eliza from Genoa.

I had to take a picture of the team tournament room downstairs in the basement.  It was echoey and not nearly the charm of the beautiful room of the pairs tournament.

As always ignorance is bliss....and after 3 rounds (of 7) team Nalesso was in 10th place.  The goal is to try to get into the top 6 to make the finals.

After 5 rounds, down to 13th

And we kept dropping....after the 7th round, 16th of 18.  Gino and I played pretty awfully at times and our partners from Genoa must have been having a bad time of it too.  So, into the consolation round for us.

These "ragazzi" are in my class at the school.  This is them finding out that they (in the list above they are EUR Venaccia) placed 7th and missed the finals.  They are bummed!

And then in the consolation, the bottom dropped OUT.  Ugh.

The way the team tournament works is that the lower ranked teams play each other...and get sent to the higher numbered tables.  Here's table 9 in the far corner.  We ended up here a number of times, and every time we walked over, it felt like we were being sent to the "lame table", which it actually was!

Final placings, and we just couldn't rise out of last place.  Oh and the "ragazzi", to their credit lapped the field in the consolation round.

At the prize ceremony, they brought up all the bridge school teachers.  They got a standing ovation!

I had to include a picture of the "arbitro" of the 1st year tournaments.  If she came by and implored "accelleriamo" you knew you were in trouble with her.

I was quietly sitting there at the prize ceremony not really paying attention and BOOM, my name is being called.  And I was up in front of everybody accepting a bottle of wine.  I had no idea why.  Turns out, the winner of each round got a prize and because in that 2nd round back on Thursday, Gino and I placed 4th (behind the 3 top teams) we got the prize for winning that round!

So, I have to conclude by saying this was a most excellent and fun trip.  I learned a ton of bridge and spoke a TON of Italian.  I think my Italian improved by leaps and bounds in this four day adventure.  But the thing I learned most, was having to trust my partner.  I'm such a control freak but sometimes Gino would do something and at first I would freak out (internally) but things would turn out ok.  Yes, he sometimes made some mistakes, but more often than not, what he did was logical and something I could support.  By the end of the weekend, I was much more relaxed and could trust what he was doing.  I guess that's as close as I'm going to get to a relationship at the moment.

The other thing I will say is, even after 96 hands of bridge, I still wanted to play.  I could feel myself getting much more confident and sure of myself as the weekend went on.  It's one of those things were I know I did some good things and played well at times, but all I remember is the few times I blew it and left "points on the table" where I might have played too fast or not thought of something that might not go my way...and didn't.  But, I will say the last hand of the 96 we played, I bid 4 hearts and made it with ease....but I could have made a minor slam had I played it right.  A fitting end...I made my contract but could have done better.