Educators on the Edge: October 2013

Students and teachers at Kyiv International School enjoyed a week-long fall break from October 19 to October 27,which also included a time change on Saturday night, October 26, adding an extra hour to our time off.

Jay and I choose to spend our "holiday" in Italy, three days in Rome and three days in Sorrento. The flight from Kiev to Rome was only three hours and it turned out to be quite entertaining. It seems taking an Italian vacation was a popular idea among lots of Ukrainians, and they were just as happy and excited as we were to get there. We couldn't remember ever being on a plane where so many people were out of their seats during the flight. In addition, there must have been several groups travelling together because it was also the noisiest flight we could remember. The people sitting behind us spent most of the flying time trying to speak Italian and laughing at each other as they translated Russian (or maybe Ukrainian) words and phrases into Italian. It was like a dual language lesson for us! Jay and I called it the Ukrainian Party Plane and we clapped right along with the rest of our fellow passengers when we landed at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport on Saturday afternoon.

A view from above: Islands off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea

Rome

We conquered Rome in three days! However, we weren't sure how much of Rome we would be able to see after finding out that we arrived on Day 2 of several demonstrations taking place around the capital city. In fact, when we asked a policeman for directions from the train station to our hotel, although patient and helpful, he told us that if we needed any further help we were to ask other people on the street, NOT the police. I guess they did not want to be distracted from their anti-riot campaign.

As it turned out, things never did get ugly, at least not where we were. In fact the only sign of any tension was the constant whirring of the helicopters hovering over us as we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon visiting the remains of the Ancient Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.

The Roman Forum

The Temple of Romulus

The Rain Nymphs

The Stadium

"A View From The Top" of Palatine Hill

Another shot of the forum

Examples of Roman engineering

Our first glimpse of the Colosseum as we walked through a park coming from our Bed and Breakfast

"Salut!" to our first dinner in Rome with an awesome backdrop

We stayed at a guest house (B&B) called Domus Diana. This is the courtyard behind the building.

Each room in Domus Diana had an elemental theme: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, etc... We had the water room

Domus Diana from across the street.

Our room was the one on the left with the shutters open and the blue (water) drapes. That's a Trattoria right below us which came alive about 9pm, as did the entire street. We were serenaded by an accordion player begging diners for tips two out of the three nights. It was like the Italian version of Bourbon Street!

Day 2

Going up the steps inside the Colosseum

Listening to our audio tour

It's crazy to imagine what this was like when it was being used to entertain the Romans!

"The Colosseum Cat"

We saw him running around earlier, but at the time I took this picture he sat still with his eyes closed for several minutes as if no one was there while lots of people snapped photos. He's actually a real celebrity; there was a children's book in the gift shop about him!

A street festival on Sunday afternoon. The banner says "street games" By this time the demonstrations had ended and life in Rome was back to normal.

Here's the coin we threw into the Trevi Fountain. I guess we are destined to return to Rome again some day.

Piazza di Spagna - the Spanish Steps

We crossed the Tiber River to find a place called Beer and Fud, a microbrewery and pizzaria recommended by our travel book. The beer was good, but the homemade potato chips and ketchup were even better!

We watched the old movie "Roman Holiday" a couple of weeks before our visit to Rome, so of course we had to stick our hands in the Bocca della Verita (the mouth of truth). I'm happy to report that both of us still have two hands.

Excuses, Excuses...

Yes, a month has passed since I last blogged. I wouldn't believe it myself if Facebook friends hadn't commented on the time lag, and then I saw the date of my last post when I logged on tonight. I could blame it on the fact that it never stopped raining the whole month of September and I was in a funk. I could blame it on the fact that the lousy weather caused a nasty cold virus to spread throughout the school and I had a cold and sore throat for a week that I just couldn't shake. I ended up taking a sick day and slept the sickness away! It actually worked; the next day I felt much better. I could blame my lack of communication on the fact that I've been busy at school with senior college applications, hosting university representatives, and administering the ACT and SAT at our school on the weekends. While all this is true, I guess I just haven't been motivated to write because we really haven't done anything that constitutes being "on the edge". We have fallen into a daily work/home routine for the past few weeks However, we are getting ready to embark on a new adventure so I thought I should share some thoughts and pictures from Ukraine that haven't been mentioned yet.

Perigova-The Ukrainian National Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life

We visited this outdoor museum on a rainy day in September with a group of about 12 other teachers from school-mostly newbees. It was the Ukrainian version of Williamsburg in Virginia or Upper Canada Village in Ontario. We had a great day in spite of the weather and will probably go back again in the springtime.

BIG Ukrainian Easter Eggs!

The Easter Bunny didn't hide these very well!

There were model Ukrainian homes from different eras

One of the many styles of fences

There were vendors set up everywhere

The food vendors were awesome. We ate some delicious, authentic Ukrainian food for lunch.

This "babushka" was making miniature cross stitch pillows filled with herbs. I had to buy one! She was sitting in the back of an old Ukrainian School House; not so different from the one room school houses in the U.S.

It was a good thing I had a scarf with me. It was required head covering to enter the old, wooden, but beautifully ornate, churches.

This artist had many paintings for sale. I couldn't decide between these two. His favorite was the colorful thistles, but I ended up choosing the other one because it was a better depiction of Old Ukraine. Of course now I wish I had sprung for both of them!