AND NOW WE BEGIN WEEK ONE - READY WILLING & MOST ABLE

Monday June 24th is the first official day of teaching. We all sat down at breakfast, and as we ate, we discussed what today was going to bring. Charlotte shared her journal from yesterday, and Nate shared the beautiful quote of the day " ti amo vita".  Since the school that serves as our classroom for most of the classes was closed due to exams, we spent the morning at the Hotel Clio with our students.  

Shortly after breakfast was finished, we went to the conference room to wait for our students.  I met the three little girls, and began my task at hand, while Emily helped an older girl with her exam studies, and the adults conversed with the older towns people.  After a while, Christina, Nate, and finally Emily wandered in. The girls seemed very shy at first, but they quickly warmed up when Nate became very interactive. The adults seemed to have very much enjoyed themselves, as well as the company of the other adults of Monopoli.  

We finished in time for lunch at Hakuna Mattata, a local restaurant, that has a tavola calda - a hot table.  This is sort of like a cafeteria, where we selected our food on a tray and sat down to eat.  Some items were familiar, while others, such as fried zucchini blossoms were new to some of us.  In the afternoon, some of us retreated to the beach, while others enjoyed a siesta before the afternoon tutoring classes.

Overall the first day was not as scary as it seemed, and turned out to be very enjoyable.