Chestnuts at school! Emily’s Asilo (Italian preschool) held a small performance and chestnut festival back in November. The older class of students performed a song and dance, followed by a dance to a fast-paced classical song from the little ones (Emily’s group), where they flapped their arms like little birds, after much encouraging and demonstration from the teachers. Then the whole group sang a cute song about chestnuts together, which Emily will still sing for us when asked. Then we all ate some roasted chestnuts and enjoyed some dessert treats. As far as the Chestnuts themselves, they are huge here in the fall, with many towns in the mountains holding Chestnut festivals to celebrate the nut. Emily will eat anything, so she enjoys a Chestnut here and there, although every time she asked for another, she called it a “Macadamia nut!” Brian does not enjoy any sort of nut, unless it is well-hidden in chocolate, so Chestnuts are a no-go item for him. I struggle somewhere between “I must eat this to set a good example for my children in trying new things” and “I would eat more of these if they were hidden in chocolate!”
Emily is doing great in Asilo. Most mornings she goes in willingly and she is always happy and talkative about her day when I pick her up. She has 3 American friends that she sticks to quite a bit, but the Italian kids always offer her a "Ciao, Emily!" She is learning a little Italian and has the accent down. We joke that her language skills consist of about 90% English, 2% Italian, and 8% gibberish with an Italian accent! I asked her a question in English tonight and she answered me with "Si." She knows most of her colors in Italian (English too of course) and can count to ten in Italian. We are loving that she gets to experience the culture through school while we are here!
Emily and her amica helping to turn the chestnut roaster thingy.
Above: In any playground, Brian can always be found at the very top. Below: sometime that same week, the mountains behind us got their first snow.
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