The Rotary Presentation

Yesterday evening, I gave a presentation at a Rotary club about my stay here. I had made a powerpoint presentation a few days ago, but during school yesterday, I decided I wanted to change it. I came home from school, and instead of working on my project, went for a walk in the town center to look for a Christmas present for my host mom. Sadly, I didn't find anything, but that's beside the point. I came home a little later than I expected, but still had time to re-do the project.

When I got on the computer, however, I got distracted by some newly posted pictures on Facebook. Before I knew it, I only had 2 hours to re-do the presentation, shower, blowdry my hair, put on makeup, and write notes to go with the presentation. After realizing this fact, I threw together a presentation, showered quickly, and got out my blowdryer.. but it didn't work. Well, there wasn't any time to worry about it, so I found my sister's, dried my hair, and applied makeup. My hair was a bit poofy, though, so I got out my straightener to fix it. Surprise, surprise, my straightener didn't work either. That's when I realized perhaps it was my transformer that wasn't functioning properly.. so I check the fuse. It's kind of smoky looking inside, so I'm assuming the fuse is dead. I tore apart my room, looking for the extra fuses that came with the transformer, to no avail. Fortunately for me, my sister had a plug adapter, too, and I'm fairly certain my straightener goes up to 220v, so it worked just fine. I checked my blowdryer, and it works too, thankfully, but I digress. I had just enough time to finish making myself presentable to the Rotary club and write my notes. Alberto picked me up at precisely 7:20, and we were on our way to Tradate for the meeting.

Nervousness wouldn't have been a factor had we gone to any other club. But last night, the club we were going to was Misko's club. Misko is the big, scary, President of the youth exchange. No, not really, Misko's very nice, and trustworthy, and all the exchangees know he really just wants us all to feel content with our new lives. I also know, however, that he keeps tabs on the exchange students, knows how we're all doing, who we hang out with, and most importantly, how our Italian is. I've never really been afraid to make mistakes while speaking, not even in front of a Rotary club. In front of Misko, it's a different story.

Alberto told me not to worry, that everything would be just fine, and my Italian is good enough, so I stopped worrying. We walked into the little restaurant, and the evening began. We were some of the first ones there (Alberto is always on time) so I was presented to everyone as they were coming in. Two other Italian girls were giving presentations that night as well, one had gone to the US for a year, the other to Belgium for 2 weeks. When they got there, we broke off into our own little group, and started talking, so I wasn't really paying attention to who was entering the restaurant.

And then I saw her. Galdabini. One of my professors from school. Italian professors have absolutely no sense of humor, and truly like stressing kids out. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, had Friday not happened.. (On Friday, I had her first hour, and I was tardy to school. When I walked into the classroom, there was only one desk left, all by itself, smack in the middle of the front of the room. I sighed, and began to situate my things, when my cellphone rang. Galdabini snapped at me to turn my phone off, and I cant blame her. I get the feeling she doesn't care too much for students in general, but especially tardy, American, cellphone posessing ones.) I kind of gasped, and mentioned to the two other Italian girls that she was my professor, and we carried on our conversation.

We had a lovely dinner, and after dinner, while Misko was setting up the presentations, I leaned over to Alberto and mentioned that Galdabini was my prof. It just so happens that I was seated right next to the President of the Rotary club, and he took it upon himself to announce to the club that she was my teacher. Here's a translation of what he said "Dori has just confessed to me that she's nervous about presenting, due to the fact that her professor is here, the Lucia Galdabini." Of course, he did it jokingly, and the club laughed, but sheesh! Thanks, buddy!

I honestly wasn't nervous about presenting, but I was a tad worried I wouldn't know how to say things. It wasn't a problem at all. I did just fine, and I'm fairly certain the club understood everything I was trying to say. After I presented, the girl who had gone to the US presented, and the girl who had gone to Belgium said a few words too. The evening concluded, and Alberto and I left for home.

I got home at about 11, but wasn't tired at all, so I got on the computer to write in my blog. As soon as I had the page up, I realiezed I was exhausted, so I turned off the computer, and got ready for bed.

Today, school was a fairly normal day. My password to use the school's computers somehow wasn't working, so I went to ask the computer geek guy for help. We fixed the problem, and I went to class. I spend most of the second hour writing notes to Mari, helping her practice her English. Third and fourth hours I had literature, and we read an excerpt from Marco Polo's diary. I didn't get too much of what he said, but I think it was a particularly difficult reading. Fifth hour I "helped" teach English, and by "help" I mean read out of a book so the students can hear my "wonderful accent." Actually, looking back, it was a good day at school. I'm really starting to get to know the students and teachers, and I belive I'm finding my niche. I hope.

Lunch was pasta with 2 slices of American cheese (it's actually kind of gross, but it reminds me of home) zucchine, bread, and a cannolino. After lunch, I went to my little sister's school to again, "help" teach English. Instead of reading, though, the teacher makes me sing. Today, I sang "Silent Night", and the kids sang along. After we sang it together, though, the class wanted to hear me sing it by myself. I was kind of happy, though, because the only time the class was quiet was when I was singing "Silent Night" in my upper register.

I walked home without much incident, until I got to my street. A man had just pulled his car up by a tree, and looked as though he was waiting for someone. Last week, this very man tried to ask me where I was from, and I pulled the whole "I don't speak Italian" thing. Today, he pulled his car up right next to me, and stayed with me as I walked. He kept saying "I wan't to get to know you, tell me your name, you're beautiful." Now, I really honestly try not to be rude to creepy Italian men, but this guy was at least in his thirties. I tried not speaking Italian, but it didn't work, he wouldn't leave me alone. He asked if I had a boyfriend, and I said yes, becuase it's stupid to say otherwise. By then, we had reached my gate, and I opened it an went in, as he drove away. This is probably the only time in my life I've wished I had one of my brothers with me, to look menacing.

Fourteen (or so) days until Christmas! Just 2 weeks!