i've lost my wisdom...
teeth that is...so after my month of "surviving the italians" - i took a week off and instead of going out and relaxing - i got my wisdom teeth taken out *in my boss' words "boy you sure know how to party"* all 4 teeth and i didn't get knocked out. my dentist froze my mouth (i didn't think to ask first, i just assumed everyone gets knocked out) and i was wide awake for the entire jaw-bashing experience...
this is the wierd thing that i've always wondered - why do dentists try to have conversations with you when you're elbow deep in your mouth trying to wrench your teeth out? i can't answer you without biting you!!!
i think i'm a little grouchy from the meds and the silly food choices...
surviving the "Italians"...
so what else is new - i've temporarily dropped off the face of the earth and now has wandreed my way back after a lot of emails and msn messages going "where are you?"
the last month has been interesting - culturally as well as in the area of "office politics". the office politics i'll have to keep out of here but i'll run with some of the cultural bits.
part of my new job is to work with incoming field school groups, in this case - it was a group of 64 italians from milan. warning bells should have gone off at this point - my first mistake is my failure to do background research on the group and rather simply believe what the group told me...
1. what they told me: the university that the students are coming from is the top univeristy in milan.
truth: the university is the top university and milan
AND it is the most expensive univeristy in milan = the kids are from very very very rich families and they act that like it...
2. what they told me: the students that qualify for this exchange program are the 10% in the school academically.
truth:i don't know how they became the top 10% of the school but i know that cheating probably had something to do with it. during the final exam, i found 7 students out of a class of 32 that
DID NOT cheat - 4 of these students were the canadian students that had enrolled in the class...the way they were cheating wasn't even very creative - notes in the dictionaries, notes sticking out of these backpacks, notes in their long sleeve shirts, sitting on the notes, text-messaging, just outright talking to each other...
a few more cultural differences:
1. it is okay to talk over top of each other. during the class and special lectures, the students literally talked WHILE the lecturer was speaking - my question is "who's listening if EVERYONE is talking?" i spend a good 15 minutes after the lecture apologizing to the lecturer...
2. it is simply unheard of in milan to ask the students to wear the same clothing that they wore to class to another activitiy in the afternoon. a waredrobe change is absolutely necessary in between every activity.
3.
EVERYTHING is negotiable.
4. cheating in exams is highly frequent and kinda accepted in a "unspoken" way...
5. afternoon lunch generally consist of an appietizer, a main course, a second course, a beer and a dessert...even if you have only 1 hour to eat that lunch in
6. time is not an issue. being late is the more fashionable thing to do.
there are a few other things that went on but i'll leave those for beer nights...
in the end, i did have fun with the group - once you learn to work the cultural differences. i laughed a lot - because what else can you do but laugh after you're group is already 30 minutes late and 1/2 the group is missing because they decided they
needed to have coffee midway? the students were real characters that i sincerly have grown to love and i'm looking forward to the group next year...this time i'll be more prepared.
