MOLLY
Elementary Education &
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) |
MOLLY
Elementary Education &
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) |
Currently, in my gorgeous Italian apartamento, the window is cracked open, with a gentle breeze flowing through the window. The sun has just begun to set, and nothing but natural light fills up the space around me. Birds chirp softly, a dog barks from a nearby garden. I stare out the window at a neighboring home, painted a golden shade of yellow. In the sliver of space between this home and our terrace, you can see the silhouette of Cypress trees and the outline of a hill in the distance. As I glance around the place I now call home, I cannot help but wonder whether our plane crashed on the way here and landed in Heaven. For the past five days, I have been overwhelmed with the beauty that surrounds me. Whether it be the medieval city architecture, the stunning Tuscany countryside, or simply the view out my bedroom window, I am constantly in awe. I have similar feelings about the school I am lucky enough to be student teaching at for the next eight weeks. The energy at the International School of Siena is unmistakable. The joy radiates from every student, teacher and staff member. They all just seem genuinely happy. When we asked a teacher why this place felt so joyful, she simply pointed to the window. The view alone is enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face. On our first day, we went on a tour of the school, and stopped in a few classrooms to see what they were working on. In a sixth grade Italian class, I witnessed a student describe that day’s lesson topic in fluent Italian, and also explain it in English immediately after. She spoke with such eloquence and confidence about how much better her current school experience is compared to her previous school, where she spent so much time sitting in a chair and barely had a voice. I could name countless examples of students at this school who spoke with such maturity that I often questioned whether they were elementary school students after all.
In just the two days I have spent here, I have met students from Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Spain, China and Finland. I have interacted with students who speak two, three, four or even five different languages. In describing the diversity of the students to our host mom on the way to school, she smiled and said, “The world is in your classroom.” It is absolutely beautiful to see. I honestly find myself feeling intimidated by these students. In many ways, they are smarter than I am! Being around students with such strong charisma, knowledge and confidence has made me wonder how many teachers underestimate their students. They are capable of so much more than we give them credit for.
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Here I am, sitting at the Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., eagerly waiting for our flight to depart to Frankfurt. I wish I could say this has been an easy travel journey. What should have been a 3 hour layover in D.C. turned into an over 12 hour delay and ultimate cancellation of our connecting flight to Zurich. After being shuffled around the airport by frantic airline workers, we ended up being literally the last people on our Zurich flight to have our trip rerouted and set up in a hotel overnight. While it’s been an inconvenient and tiring start to our trip, we’ve had a lot of time to relax and reflect about our upcoming adventure in Siena. While not ideal, spending this much time in an airport has been fascinating. Here, time and place is absent. Everyone and everything is in transit. Excitement and anticipation lingers in the air. There’s a certain energy about traveling that brings about the worst and the best in people. You walk past loved ones with tears in their eyes as they say farewell for who knows how long. You can hear the stress in the voices of those making last-minute travel changes on the phone. You walk past people who are running, with sweat streaming down their faces as they rush to catch that flight home, that vacation, that business trip, or in our case, that connecting flight to start our student teaching experience in Siena, Italy! Despite our unforeseen delays and hiccups, Patty reminds Sarah and I that “You are always exactly where you are meant to be. Everything that happens to you makes you who you are.” While the first day and a half of our journey hasn’t been smooth, I am grateful for the people I have had to enjoy it with. Here’s to going with the flow and trusting that it all will work out.
Siena, here we come! -- “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” –Anthony Bourdain |
AuthorWhile studying abroad in Europe as an undergrad, I became infected with an ailment that makes one eternally propelled to discover and explore cultures other than their own. Many call it the "travel bug," and fortunately for me it is incurable. Archives
May 2019
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