Monday, July 27, 2009
Congrats Claire I.!
Claire doesn't like pictures, but I still wanted to applaud her for a job well done. Bravissima, Claire!
Congratulations George!
All the diplomas were printed in the Italian style, last name first and first name last, but with George Gordon and Balin Michael, you wouldn't even notice if ya didn't know them!
A cartwheelin' Kent
As we ran out of acts, we encouraged anyone to get up and put something out there. And Kent offered us a half-baked cartwheel.
Perche no?
A man impressed with his impression
Brian is also our man of many voices and impressions. He did uncanny impressions of Fez from That 70s Show, Jack Sparrow, The Joker, Stewie Griffin and that freaky old cartoon dude.
But the best of all, was Brian's spot on imitation of our beloved art history teacher, Stefano. I will leave you with some gems that Brian picked up on and presented to us.
In the Galleria Borghese, Stefano had his favorite paintings...and his not so favorite paintings: "Ah, Bry-an. You like-a this painting? Why? It's crap-uh"
Or, when Stefano speaks in English he'll be talking and then suddenly insert three or four Italian words, probably the name of a museum or an artist, which confuses all the non-Italian speakers: "So, now we are going to the Pinocateca....la stazione centrale...etc, etc" SO TRUE!
"I am fashion"
Bravo!
Brian does stand up
What's with those sweet old lady's that have super low, man voices?
Would Pirates of the Carribbean have been as successful if Jack Sparrow talked in a nasal, high-pitched Cockney accent?
Ditto for Hugh Grant?
And the thunder rollllllls
Jake's singing was amazing. We had to convince him to get up there, and then when he finished, we were stunned into silence and then the group broke into thunderous applause (as thunderous as 34 people can be). What was especially amazing was the walls that surround the terrace provided great acoustics for Jake's song, sung accapella.
BRAVO!
Something...then nothing
The shyness was starting to get to the crowd, and the show encountered some starts and stops. At first, a gaggle of girls wanted to sing to Lady Gaga...and then it was Avril, and then they decided to pan the whole idea.
We're entitled to change out minds!
Claire O. and Sage sing Sk8ter Boy!
My favroite part was when Claire and Sage sang "slammin' on his guitar," and both leaned back, slammin' on their own air guitars.
Laurie and Kelly do LAZY SUNDAY, the Florence rendition
The girls dedicated their awesome Lazy Sunday rendition to Sarah Gleicher, who left early for a family vacation, and used to enjoy rapping with the girls on their terrace in the evening.
The staff kick off the talent show
To get things started the staff was ready to dazzle! First Antonio started to wiggle....
Abbey Road's Got TALENT
As the program draws to a close, the group has more free time to explore the city, buy last minute gifts, and spend the last precious moments with their new friends, who already seem like old friends.
On Sunday, the students slept in! We had a nice, lazy start and offered just one option for the morning activities, a trip to the Stibbert Museum. The museum houses the extensive armories collection of one Mr. Stibbert, who made it his goal in life to bring an extraordinary collection of Asian artworks and artifacts, along with European coats of armor, weapons, and more to the public eye. Four students accompanied Lindsay and Stefano to the museum. The rest of the students took their much-deserved free time to go shopping and enjoy lunch in town.
Then, in the afternoon, a group of students visited the Uffizi, who had not yet been with the drawing or art history classes.
In the evening, the students split up into their own groups of friends to have a stipend dinner in one of any of their favorite restaurants that they have discovered over the course of this month. The staff also had a lovely dinner together in ristorante, sampling pecorino cheese and fresh honey, avocado salad, grilled vegetables, chick peas, tomato bruschetta, and mozarella di buffala caprese salad. For our main courses, we ordered our own individual dishes, but we shared anyways, sighing at the sheer goodness of it all! Some of these delicacies included: the famous Florentine steak, gnocchi al pesto di rucola (arugula pesto has no basil in it--it's got serious bite!), and fioccheti di pera (tortellini-like stuffed pasta with pear, truffle oil, bechamel sauce, and asparagus). We all agreed that the fiocchetti di pera was the favored dish of all--but it was all so good!
And then came the TALENT SHOW! At 10:30pm, after our long dinners, the group re-convened on the staff terrace to enjoy an evening of talent of their fellow Abbey Roaders. I must say we have a bit of a shy bunch when it comes to performing, but nonetheless, the talent in the handful of acts that did go up exceeded my expectations!
On Sunday, the students slept in! We had a nice, lazy start and offered just one option for the morning activities, a trip to the Stibbert Museum. The museum houses the extensive armories collection of one Mr. Stibbert, who made it his goal in life to bring an extraordinary collection of Asian artworks and artifacts, along with European coats of armor, weapons, and more to the public eye. Four students accompanied Lindsay and Stefano to the museum. The rest of the students took their much-deserved free time to go shopping and enjoy lunch in town.
Then, in the afternoon, a group of students visited the Uffizi, who had not yet been with the drawing or art history classes.
In the evening, the students split up into their own groups of friends to have a stipend dinner in one of any of their favorite restaurants that they have discovered over the course of this month. The staff also had a lovely dinner together in ristorante, sampling pecorino cheese and fresh honey, avocado salad, grilled vegetables, chick peas, tomato bruschetta, and mozarella di buffala caprese salad. For our main courses, we ordered our own individual dishes, but we shared anyways, sighing at the sheer goodness of it all! Some of these delicacies included: the famous Florentine steak, gnocchi al pesto di rucola (arugula pesto has no basil in it--it's got serious bite!), and fioccheti di pera (tortellini-like stuffed pasta with pear, truffle oil, bechamel sauce, and asparagus). We all agreed that the fiocchetti di pera was the favored dish of all--but it was all so good!
And then came the TALENT SHOW! At 10:30pm, after our long dinners, the group re-convened on the staff terrace to enjoy an evening of talent of their fellow Abbey Roaders. I must say we have a bit of a shy bunch when it comes to performing, but nonetheless, the talent in the handful of acts that did go up exceeded my expectations!
No better way to spend a hot day
The students have definitely embraced la vita italiana. From the two-hour long lunches, to the chatting and enjoying one another's company, your students will come back to you as an italophile!
Enough was enough
After an hour and a half of the sun beating down on our heads, Sage, Balin, Taylor and I met up in Corniglia, the third town of Le Cinque Terre, and we b-lined it for the train station. BEACH TIME! We caught the next train to Monterosso, by-passing the longest and most demanding stretch of the hike. Upon arrival, we found our fellow Abbey Roaders comfortably settled on the beach, taking a dip in the water, reading books and generally looking very relaxed. Some had gone in search of a delicious fish lunch.
Antonio, William, Stefano, August, Brian, Dan, George kept going. With both the female hiking enthusiasts having dropped out, it became the MANLY-MAN HIKE! Che maschile!
Janet and Stefano fall behind
It was in Manrolla (pictured here) that I fell behind the group because I wanted a quick snack and the order took much longer than I expected (avoid the foccaceria in Manorolla!)
I encouraged the staff to continue on, but Stefano was kind enough to stay back and wait for me. Good thing he did, because I wouldn't have hiked as far as I did if I was on my own!
Abbey Road hiking enthusiasts!
Antonio, Stefano, William, August, Dan, George, Brian, Taylor, Balin, Sage and I took on the challenge!
The tunnel of Lover's Lane finishes with a bang!
There is a bench for lover's to take pictures and throw their padlock keys away into the ocean. Here, Sage and I expressed our love for one another :)
Lover's Lane also had a short tunnel which was covered in lover's drawings and messages
The artists in the group really enjoyed seeing the graffiti following Lindsay and Stefano's graffiti class.
George
George has done this whole hike before with his family (granted not all on the same day). When we rounded the first cliff, he pointed out to us the fifth town and our final destination, Monterosso. When I saw how far away it was I laughed and knew I had made the right decision to skip out at the halfway point.
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