Venice

Arrived in Venice at our hotel late yesterday after we had a delicoious dinner (after about a 3 hour bus ride) with lots of beautiful scenery! We do not have internet access, so while the students are off enjoying some relaxation time at the beach, I stole away to an internet cafe to get on-line and catch you up a little bit! No pictures tonight as I have them all on my own computer so I am hoping we will have internet access tomorrow night when we are in Montecatini Terme which is outside of Florence! Tomorrow we get to see the David statue sculpte by Michelangelo which I know all of the students will be impressed with even if they are not into sculpture and art works, as it is truly impressive.

Our day today in Venice was a fun day and I think all of the students had a good time. Venice is an interesting and compelling city with all of its canals and evey different kind of boat imaginable. We started the morning with a one hour boat ride from where our hotel is then walked to where we boarded gondolas. What fun! The last time I was in Venice I did not take a gondola ride, so this was a treat for me!

After the gondola ride we walked some more and finally met up with the guide who took us on a walking tour.

Next it was lunch time. The first thing that I noticed when we arrived at the restaurant was that it was full of local workmen| Now you know a restaurant serves good food and adequate portions when the place is filled with local workers at lunchtime| First we had tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, which was delicious. The next course was a delectable plate of THE best lasagna I have very eaten (and for those of you who do not know me, I am a first generation Italian, so I have eaten my fair share of lasagna over the years!

The final course of this awesome meal was gelato = the Italian version of ice cream! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm good!

After lunch we were treated to a demonstration at a Murano glass store. The glass blower is a master artison who made two gorgeous pieces for us in such a short time, it was amazing. I took a video of it and will include that in one of my blogs when I have free wi fi! I know it will be interesting for you to see!

By the way, two nights ago we slept in a huge barn in Austria in Pavillions. I know you are having a difficult time conceptualizing this, so will also send pictures to you of that! But we also did not have internet that night either and no electricity in the pavillions, so….you get the picture.

I can truly assure you that your children have had some experiences on this trip that they will never have again in their lifetimes!

From Florence, we are on the downhilll slide to home! It is without a doubt that your children will return home with some very mixed feelings – though they will be so happy to see you, their much beloved parents. and their friends – they will long for the excitement of the adventures they are leaving behind!

That is all I have for now.

One more thing -Ms. Patti and I were chatting on the boat coming back this afternoon and we could not help but remark how awesome the students on this trip are! They are A number 1, the best ever, and I know you are so proud of them and their accomplishments!

Blessings and hoping to have a blog with pictures for you tomorrow !!

Ms. Millie

A Few Select Pictures for YOU!!

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I am learning how to do it.  Will post more a little later this evening!  I am off to do room checks now!

Testing Picture Uploading

Some Pictures!

What a Good Looking

Compliments in the Lobby!

After we had dinner at the “Latina Lounge” we returned to the hotel for our last night in Paris.  This was my night to re-pack my suitcase and do some re-organizing, but I also made sure I had time to go down to the lobby!  I don’t remember which  blog I did that night, though!!

While I was in the lobby, there was a large group of young students who checked into the hotel.  After our students went upstairs for room check at 10 PM, a man who had been sitting at the beverage bar (not all alcoholic drinks) approached the table where I was sitting and asked where we were from.  He complimented me on the behavior of our students saying that they were polite and respectful and he found it refreshing to encounter teenagers of any nationality with such wonderful manners!!  How nice to hear such a compliment and when I passed it on to the students, they applauded themselves!!

Our next stop was Strasbourg, France.  What a pretty little  city.  We did a city walk to the cathedral.  The tower of the cathedral is 142 meters high and the cathedral was built in stages over 162 years (from 1277  and then 1419-1439)!  The town is famous for the presence of storks who migrated there from Africa and will not go to any other village in the area.  We didn’t see any sitting on the roofs of the houses, but that is what is the best know feature of Strasbourg!  Our hotel was wonderful and had a swimming pool, so our students were very excited about that and I think all of them spent time in and around the pool, swimming and socializing!

One of the fun things about visiting Strasbourg was that when we returned to the square which was our meeting place, there were 2 guys dressed in costume – one Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the other the “Hunchback of Notre Dame”.  They we quite funny and took great pleasure in scaring some of our girls.  I ended up having a “sword fight” with my cane with the Hunchback to get him  to leave our girls alone, but then I had to give him some coins for his collection so he got get some libations!
Tomorrow is a new day with new adventures!!  We will be on our way to Switzerland with a stop in Lucerne!

Finishing our Visit to UNESCO

June 28, 2010 Day 4

From UNESCO we went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. Dinner was at a restaurant called “The Latina Lounge”. We had cordon bleu which Babs insisted was pork with ham and cheese, while one of the students said the waiter told her it was chicken with ham and cheese. It was excellent whatever it was!! We had a delicious green salad first, and French fries with the cordon blue, then the most delicious strawberry cake!! It was unlike American cake – very European – and was a hit with everyone!!

This weekend, Ms. Amanda from Massachusetts and I are in a hotel in a quaint little town in AUSTRIA called Vocklabruck. We are staying in a beautiful hotel while our students are off on their home stays. We have not been told why we are not having home stays, but will just have to make the most of this experience. There are two teachers who have done all the work arranging the students’ home stays who seem to have taken it upon themselves to make sure that Amanda and I are entertained all weekend. Amanda is going to go running tomorrow morning with one of them, then we will go together to the lake house of the other teacher for a barbecue with them both and many of their friends!

I am looking forward to the time here and to getting to know some of the locals. I think I may have a resolution to my technical difficulties, but will not know for sure until tomorrow if it is a complete resolution or only partial. Stay tuned for that result!!

I am a Klutz

OK.  I just typed a long post and then hit an errant key and lost the post.  It is now already 11:30 and I am exhausted!  I am going to re-type tomorrow.  The students begin their home stays tomorrow afternoon and the leaders are not getting to stay with families so I will have time to get totally caught up on my blogs, AND hopefully will also be able to overcome my equipment problems and upload some pictures!!

Montmartre and Monday Fun

On Sunday we had dinner at a little restaurant in Montmartre called Le Pichet du Tertre, followed by ice cream cones for dessert and then we began our journey back to the hotel. And that was our Sunday!!

Breakfast on Monday was the a little dicey. It was the same wonderful buffet as Sunday, but we were the second group to be in line as well as a lot of other individuals and families not part of the groups. Needless to say, they were out of everything temporarily – trays, imiplements, plates, coffee cups, juice. It was very frustrating. However,once we had all had something to eat, we boarded the bus for a journey to the Eiffel Tower. Little did we know, the work week traffic in Paris is a gridlock. Gino, our chauffeur, gor so frustrated, he got off the highway and tok the local roads to get us there. We joined huge crowds of people all there to ascent to the heights for a view of the city from all angles. I went to the second stage and stayed there as there were several students who didn’t want to go higher and I was just as happy. After the visit to the Tower, we went to lunch at Bienvenue Chez Clement which was the cutest restaurant. The decor was very cute, with spoons everywhere and lots of country things on the walls. We had the best meal of the trip so far at this restaurant, in my opinion. The chicken was deliciously seasoned and the vegetables were exquisite! Dessert was wonderfully smooth and chocolatey mousse. It was quite rich, buy yummy!

Our afternoon activity was an educational trip to the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, where we watched a 12-minute video of the mission of UNESCO then were engaged in a dialogue with a gentleman who has been with the organization for 30 years. He was somewhat dry and had a very soothing voice, so you can only imagine what happened to most of the delegates because the chairs in the little theatre were very plush!!

OK – that is the end of this section of the blog as I am exhausted and need to head to bed. I don’t think there will be much time to blog tomorrow night as we are attending a classical concert, so look forward to me catching up on Friday and over the weekend. I will even see what I can do to get some pictures loaded (maybe).

Tuesday Night in Strasbourg, France

but the blog is from Sunday in Paris.  I have to tell you, too, that unless a miracle happens, I am not going to be able to download pictures until I get home, unfortunately!!  Of course, then you will have the pictures your children have taken, but mine will be a different perspective perhaps!!

Here goes..

Sunday, June 27^th, our second day in Paris.  Breakfast in the hotel was a typical European breakfast of meat, cheese, cereal, bread and a lovely quiche.   There was also a variety of juices and a coffee machine with cappuccino, espresso and “American coffee”.  Everyone seemed to have had a good night’s sleep and was in a good mood – ready for the day to begin.  We boarded the bus en route to our first activity of the day, the Louvre.  We had a few minutes to take pictures while Babs went in to check on our guide.  She then came back out and we took a group picture under the arch outside the Louvre.  The group was split into two with one group going with Eva, our guide, while the other half went off to shop and see all there was to see as a part of the Louvre complex.  Intellectually, I knew that the Louvre was large, but the reality of it is overwhelming.  It has been  that if one person started at the beginning, looked at e very item exhibited and read everything about it, it would take being in the museum from opening until closing for 3,000 days to see everything!!  We literally raced from one area to another to cover the highlights which Eva had selected for us to see. Of course, the highlight was seeing the Mona Lisa.  It is amazing to experience personally what so many others have commented upon in the past, that it seems like her eyes are following you as you move.  We also saw the “Winged Victory of Samothrace” which is over 2,320 years old!  A painting entitled “The Visitation” which was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1491, was also a highlight, as were a selection of works of art from a variety of different periods.  As we exited the museum tk give the other group their time, we passed through what was the moat of the castle when it was occupied.  It was interesting to see the vastness of the walls and realize what a system had been built back in those days to protect the king and his belongings  from marauders.

Then it was our groups’ time to go off and explore.  Everyone was parched by that point, including Ms. Patti and me, so we all headed to cafes and restaurants to get something to drink.  Ms. Patti and I also chose to sit and rest for a while!!  Ms. Patti also took off to find a rest room, but came back very perturbed because she had been unsuccessful at finding it.  So, we took off together and were still not able to find it.  We went off to look in some of the shops and see if we could find a bathroom at the other end of the shopping complex.  Again we had no luck, so we teamed up with some of our students who were the ones who were eventually successful.  We had been so close every time we looked, but because they were also selling “designer” toilet paper, we had thought it was a store!!  The name of it was “PointWC”, so would YOU have thought that was the bathroom?????  And to top it all off, we had to pay one euro each to use the bathroom!  The upside was that it was very clean!!

After we left the Louvre when the second group was finished with their tour, we went to lunch at a restaurant called L’Escaramouche.  It was very quaint and the food was very tasty.  At every meal (except breakfast), we get a salad or some kind of first course.  Then a main course, which is usually a meat and potatoes, sometimes with another vegetable.  They also serve Coca Cola and water, then we have dessert!!  Ms. Patti and I both swear we have put on ten pound already, even with all the walking we are doing.  The only saving grace, really, is that we have not time or opportunity for snacking!!

We were met at the restaurant by our French guide, Vincent, with whom we walked to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  What a magnificent edifice.  I think even the students who are not INTO churches were impressed!!  After Notre Dame we walked with Vincent to meet up with our bus, then took a bus tour to see other highlights and important points in the city.  Vincent then left us and we climbed up to Montmartre which is a very famous area of the city.  It is home to many artists who were very much in evidence in the square at the top of the hill.  A few of the students had their portraits drawn!  After climbing a rather steep hill, we then had to climb two extremely longgggggggggg flights of stairs to get to the top of the hill.   For those of you who are parents of my students, you know this was very taxing for me, but with the encouragement of my colleagues, AND your children, I made it!!

Tomorrow I will tell you our funny blog story, but right now it is late (six hours ahead of you, remember??) and we have a 6 AM wake-up call, so I am going to close for now.  To the parents of the brother and sister from Mississippi – Gus and Mollie are wonderful!!  To the other parents, especially of my delegates, you already know how I feel about your children  – they are the cream of the crop!!

A domani!

Terrific Tuesday!

Well, we had another terrific day, but it is already time for bed check and I have to go.  Will talk to you later.

Millie