Venice La Primera Dia...which is probably not actually how you say it in Italian

So I had to wake up at 5:30 and not even for the thrill of travel, which can give ones' lagging pre-dawn spirits a much-needed boost, but rather for school (shudders). I promised one of the teachers I would take her regular class for a unit on American high schools...never doing THAT again! These kids are DIM bulbs, in all honesty. And they have really bad attitudes, so I showed up to try to explain the finer points of English grammar to a class that was NOT feeling it. The one truly redeeming aspect was this project I had given the kinder, to design and explain a potential mascot for the school and explain it. I present to you the fruits of their labors

"old and a little bit dangerous...he also can be angry or afraid,
but you can't see that" YAY repressive whales!

I just think this one is pretty cute

This is a shark...like a land shark, a reference they didn't really get

This chick spent QUITE a lot of time on this frog

MARTIN BUBER!!! This mascot is unoriginal but
scares the crap out of me...or any potential rival team.



I like this explanation, maybe you can't read it.
"because the Cat is sporty and intelligent. Likes all MBO
students"...(as in, he is like) he clearly has a VERY good
impression of himself and the general student body.

This one is cute. I just like it.

But then I came back to the house, looked up my flight time, and realized I had about 30 minutes of down time before I had to get moving, so I tossed everything into my bags and ran out. AGAIN the metal detector got me, and every other woman going through the line as well, which is annoying (TEGEL, RECALIBRATE YOUR METAL DETECTORS!). The flight itself was without incident, though I found it a bit odd that on a flight to Italy, there were no announcements in Italian or anything (whatever). Then a quick run through the baggage claim, which was a little scary since they posted this sign that said "Your bags are probably late because we contract out that service...we no alamo, suckers!" and then mom and dad! Yay!

The hotel is nice, Ca' D'Oro, located in what you would call in German the "Innenstadt" or "inner city (but not like ghetto inner city)", and we went out to dinner at a practically empty but lovely little restaurant in which the owner's small son babbled in italian and drew, his wife hovered over his son, and his mother in law (or maybe mother) yelled in the style of Milhous from the Simpson's Tanta Sophia

Who would chase him around the hills of Italy, hitting him with an olive branch and screaming "IDIOTA!" The food was great though. I was so tired when it was all over though, not to mention because of the soporific effects of the wine and the shot of POWERFUL sangria I was offered, so I just "ausklicked" as they say. Yay Vacances!