June 2003

House-Moving in Italy

June 26, 2003

We couldn’t have picked a worse time to move: record high temperatures and humidity, with people literally falling down in the streets. In a particularly horrible accident the other day, a man on a street repair crew fainted. His colleague driving the tar truck didn’t see him on the ground, and backed over him. Our [...]

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Italian Brats

June 26, 2003

A survey cited by Zoomata says “a recent poll of 2,500 travel-industry professionals voted Italian kids the most obnoxious and unruly in the EU. … according to UNICEF, only 50% of parents [in Italy] reprimand their kids.” I’d have to agree that many Italian parents are over-indulgent with their kids, and many young Italian children [...]

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Raising a Bilingual Child

June 20, 2003

Our daughter is bilingual in English and Italian, and some people have asked “how we did it.” There really wasn’t much to it. While I was pregnant, I read the only book  I could find on the subject (The Sun is Feminine Amazon UK | US), which happened to be written (in English) by a [...]

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That Vampire Thing: Story of an Obsession

June 20, 2003

I had a thing about vampires long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer came along. It began in the summer of 1978, when I traveled to the US with my folks on home leave. The hit Broadway production of “Dracula” had been made into a movie, with Frank Langella reprising his title role. I was 15 [...]

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Rites of Passage: Italian School Exams

June 12, 2003

The Italian education system is big on big exams. At the end of elementary, middle, and high school, everyone has to take an exam, with both written and oral components. When it came time for Ross’ 5th grade exam, I was terrified on her behalf; the teachers had made such a big deal of it, [...]

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Elementary School: An Italian Experience

June 5, 2003

Rossella’s five years of elementary school took place at Parco Trotter, where she had also done scuola materna (preschool). We had been spoiled by a great scuola materna experience; elementary was… not so great. I’m reaching the conclusion that the quality of education hinges almost entirely on the quality of teachers. And there’s the rub. [...]

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