Boni Italia

Boni Italia. Merry Christmas in Italian. I spent Christmas in the most beautiful place I have ever been (and remember I've been to Hawaii and Alaska ha), Assisi. The minute I checked into my hotel I heard an American guy talking to the hotel manager about how he's moving from Assisi to Saudi Arabia  I told him I lived in the UAE which struck up a conversation. And before I could even pick up my bag he invited me to go with him and his family and their friend (who was staying at the same hotel) to drive to some of the sights in Assisi that you can't get to without a car. I can't even begin to describe how great Helen and Jack's family were to me. They drove me to the spot where St. Francisco (francis) lived. A church was built up around the original stone hut and the hut was turned into a nativity scene. Then we drove to santa maria church which is the 6th largest churh in the world. Right in the middle of the church is a stone structure that was st. Francis' s first church ever where he served the leper colony. This chapel is actually where he died and is considered even more holy to the Assians than the monastery where he is buried. After seeing all of this the family took us to a nice Italian restaurant and we celebrated Christmas lunch.

After they drove us all the way into the mountains to see the ancient castle that overlooks all of Assisi. And then my favourite spot in all of Italy, a small grotto deep into the hills where St. Francis lived in his later years.  This was his spot throughout his life where he would go to meditate, pray, and seek solace. The chapel built here was tiny, the doorways and hallways made child size but it was the most beautiful place ever. A feeling of complete peace overcomes you there and it is hard to leave.

But we did leave and went to st fransesco, the monks home and St. Francis burial spot. I went with Jeff, the family's friend , who says he has come back to Assisi four times because of a strong pull he feels from this place and from St. Francis himself. Jeff is not spiritual or Christian but he said he couldn't help but to keep coming back time after time. After visiting the tomb of the Saint I understood why. Never have I felt anything like the feeling when down by St. Francis's tomb. In fact I went back there again today and am now heading to St. Clare's after my lunch.

Without Helen and Jack I never would have seen any of these amazing things so  I was so fortunate in these experiences. And to top it off Helen gave me olive oil made in Assisi this year by the seminary!

I threw my coins into Trevi Fountain a few days ago. Legend says give a coin and you'll come back to Rome. But if I ever come back I would spend all my time here in this beautiful town.

To cap off my unique Christmas I was so fortunate to be able to skype home for several hours which was amazing to see everyone.  Made me miss home a lot but regardless it was a special Christmas I'll never forget. Especially since it finally rained. Reminded me of Oregon! Chow for a while.  My next hostel for the next three nights has no wifi (it was super cheap cause it's near the student area of Florence) so I will try to update as I can. Bon Italiano everyone.

Oh, the picture below is the nativity outside San Fancesco. As many of you know St. Francisco created the first nativity so the town is overflowing with them! There are two pictures of the town and one of some famous gelato in Assisi.

Saying ciao to Rome

Today I have spent time saying goodbye to the city which I quickly fell in love with. As I write this I am eating spaghetti and drinking wine on a street restaurant. All of the friends I made thus far went home for Christmas so I got the chance to wander aimlessly around the city. I finally made it to trevi fountain, numerous cathedrals, and all of the piazzo's along the way.

Yesterday I got to go see the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican museum, St. Peter's Cathedral,  and wander around the smallest country in the world, the Vatican. No pictures could describe how beautiful the Vatican is. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel but I stood and awed over it for fifteen full minutes. And once in St. Peter's I went to confession in the church and spent over an hour and a half wandering around the basilica. It was amazing especially since the day before I saw the ancient Roman basilica at the Roman Forum that inspired the Christian world's greatest church. Apparently basilica never meant church until St. Peters.  It used to mean a business meeting place.  Where one would go to hire lawyers ect.

Besides the forum I also saw the majority of Ancient Roman ruins. Alongside these ruins numerous archaeological digs are occurring and I got to to see a glimpse, before these sites have gone public of, the largest discovered roman bath house as well as ancient village ruins that is believed to be where Rome was originally founded before the reign of kings and the reign of emporers throughout Rome.

And while all of the buildings are amazing they are not even what has been captivating me every second. It's the entire country.  Every ordinary apartment building appears to be an ancient architecture discovery. Every street has amazing hidden secrets that I get to uncover such as amazing Italian eateries, gelato, markets, and more. I get lost almost every day and never even try to get unlost. If I hadn't gotten lost I probably never would have found the Spanish Steps, Cathedral of St. Agnes, visited the Collisium at night, had roasted chesnuts (which are gross) and many more things.

I could easily see myself staying forever here like the people who work at the hostel I am staying in. Most of the people who work in the bar and help run the hostel were once just travelers passing through when they fell in love with the high energy hostel and the city itself. That high energy has cost me though.  Last night I crashed after three full days and nights that never seemed to end. I slept twelve full hours and awoke feeling revived! It was then that I realized I could stay here forever but needed to move on in order to see other places. Tonight I will attend midnight mass in St. Peters and then tomorrow morning I am off to celebrate Christmas in Assisi.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. Ciao for now as the Italians say.

When in Rome. . .

Greetings from Rome everyone! It is so beautiful here I cannot get over it and am still having a hard time believing that I am actually here.

From the first moment I landed I have been helped out so much. An Italian girl whom I sat next to on the plane helped me get on the right train to my hostel which was a huuge relief not to be lost on the trains.

Then another Italian lady who spoke no English helped me the the rest of the way. Upon arriving at my hostel I went to a local pizzeria with two of my roommates from that first night. And the rest of my night was spent at the bar that my hostel also owns right next door to the hostel.

After not enough sleep I had to rush to get to my tour for St.  Peter's tomb and some of the ancient pagan catacombs. It was amazing how an entire city is built underneath Rome. I met a lovely couple on the tour from Dubai and got coffee with them and wandered around Rome. Later tonight I wanted to go to see the Trevi Fountain but got onto the completely wrong train and ended up at the Roman Colleseum at night.  Talk about an amazing experience! It was closed but I got some great photos of the Colleseum lit up at night. It is just so hard to imagine what this place looked like thousands of years ago when it was in its prime. This is my first full day in Rome and I kind of just wanted to relax more than anything. So tomorrow I will start actually seeing things who knows maybe even rent a moped;)

Haram Dinner

I cannot believe my first half of teaching is over in one more day. To have a proper kickoff for winter break us teachers are having a "haram dinner" to say goodbye to each other for two weeks. If you remember haram means bad or forbidden. So a haram dinner has alcoholic cocktails, and bacon/pork in every dish! Oh I've missed pork the only place we can buy it is a store called spinneys and it is in like a black market section of the store. Of course they over price all pork products because of the risk and high demand from expat workers. Anyways I am off to enjoy my pork filled dinner and enjoy the feeling of surviving half a year here.

Canadians and Abaya's

I cannot believe that it is already Winter Break here! Two more days with students and then they will be on break  and we have one week more of PD days and then two weeks off in Italy. Time has flown by so quickly here. So much has happened lately that for your sake, and mine, I am going to break into events that I have done here lately.

National Days:
Dubai won the 20/20 expo bid for the World Fair in 2020 so the country gave everyone a day off of school. Then we had our National Day celebrations the next week which was basically a big party. I wore an abaya and a sheila that kept falling off the whole day (I don't understand how these women fuss with it all the time). We walked around and saw exhibits, the girls had henna done, rode camels and horses, and much more. The night before the school's celebration a mother of one of my friend's students offered for us to get our henna done for free in her salon so the three of us went and had it done professionally all the way up to our elbows. It was very beautiful but is already fading off my arms. The boys were very funny they kept telling me "miss you look very beautiful in the traditional clothes. More than your normal." And they kept trying to convince me to wear an abaya every day. Ha I couldn't tell if it was meant to be a backhanded compliment. Regardless it was still cute how excited the kids were to see me dressed up and participating in their nation's celebration as a country. 42. Only 42 years old as a country and the excitement and pride in their nation is contagious. Every car was decorated, every student dressed traditionally, and about a week of lessons lost due to all the excitement. Our middle school boys looked like young men in their kandoras and participated in their traditional dances, and the younger girls who are allowed to show their hair did the traditional female "hair dance" as I call it. They basically flip their hair back and forth to the music. I think my favorite part of the celebrations was when one of the fellow teachers was getting her henna done in a tent her baby was crawling all around and I got to pick up Natalie and hold her for a large portion of the day while I walked around with my girls. Hala teased me that I was going to keep borrowing her baby, but it was so nice to hold an infant it made me think of all my nieces and nephew whom I have been missing like crazy. Below are some pictures of the National Day celebrations at school.

Dubai 7's Rugby Tournament:
Besides National Day celebrations I also recently went to the international Rugby tournament in Dubai a few weekends ago. I got a lot of lip for dressing up as a Canadian so before you see the pictures read my reasoning. My group of friends are all from Canada and I was going with them. None of the American teachers were dressing up. And the Canadians wanted 7 Canadians for the Dubai 7's. Since there are only 6 of them they asked me to join them. So for the fun of it and to help out my friends I did. I told people I was from Vancouver but moved to Portland the last four years (which is partially true ha). It was so much fun to walk around with everyone and meet so many interesting people. My friend Jill and I started a game where we tried to get pictures with as many crazy costumes as we could during the day. We also kept sneaking over to the stand where all the Kenyans were to hang out. She recently got engaged to a Kenyan so it started that we went over there to get her picture with the Kenya flag. Then it turned into our game of pictures with crazy costumes. After the entire day of eating pork, meeting new people, dancing, and mingling with professional rugby players, we went to a place called the Irish Village and danced the night away in our awesome costumes :)

This upcoming weekend I am going to Dubai again but this time for a color run. I started running and working out again the last few weeks and am excited to try a 5K here. Besides running I also have sort of become part of a rooftop yoga club. Me and some girls get together on the roofs at night and do yoga, and it is so peaceful with the stars out, the call to prayer being played over the town. Just very peaceful time to relax.

There is so much more I could write but I have been working two 12 hour days in a row because of parent teacher conferences so I am going to call it a night. I will try to blog sometime after the color run and definitely after Italy! Please keep in touch everyone reading this and let me know how you are doing.

Worst picture ever but this is a Rugby player right
after he won.

Me and most of the female staff at the middle school

Traditional "Grandmother's Mask"

One of the 7th grade girls (most have to wear sheila's)

Natalie and I :)

Random nice cars sitting outside

Stephanie and I (the MS English team)

My boys all grown up. I couldn't touch them or hug them when they had the traditional clothing on so I had to be really careful.

One of the bigger "trouble makers" in grade 7 but also so sweet.

Grade 7 Team (Ridwan looks like an Emirate here)

Boys in their traditional dance