Gummy and Pingui

Okay, Gummy and Pingui are all set to go and feeling very patriotic. I believe some of the other fellowship participants are taking bears to photograph during the trip. Christmas day flew by and now it is time to read my booklet Destination Toscana and the Endeavour Language Teacher Fellowships: A Guide for Participants - Italy. My son, Travis and my daughter, Nicola are off chasing the sales in the city so let's have a look. Hmmm quite a bit of educational theory. My suitcase is practically packed and actually closes. It might just weigh below the mandatory 20kgs! Let's hope so.

Mercoledì 21

Well, the packing is nearly done at school. One day to go before school finishes. The Australian flag and various renditions of "Advance Australia Fair" have arrived from my federal member Duncan Kerr to take to Italy along with the Tasmanian Devil posters so appropriately entitled "Spirit of the Wild" from National Parks and Wildlife. This dreadful, cancerous affliction decimating our devil numbers will be a major focus of my presentations to Italian schools when discussing our flora and fuana. It is something close to my heart and it is very upsetting to realise that such an intriguing and complex animal could share the same fate as the Tasmanian Tiger. It always gives me a great deal of pride and pleasure to showcase our beautiful state in other countries.

I also have Gummy the Koala Beanie Bear and Pingui the Penguin accompanying me on my trip thanks to the advice of some enthusiastic younger members of our school. It was also a major highlight of our week in Unit 4 at Illawarra Primary School to receive a package of postcards, images, magazines(Azzurro, la tua rivista d´Italiano), video clips made by the students and of course the whimsical Diddle from Davide and his students in Campo Tures in Northern Italy. We have been exchanging mail this year and hope to strengthen our students' friendships and knowledge of both cultures. In term 1 next year we will be presenting an Italian expo at Illawarra Primary School to the local community including plays by students in unit 4, film clips, posters and games. The above winter image (Angioletto nella neve) taken in Campo Tures is courtesy of Davide.

Looking for Italy

Well only 14 days to go before the great adventure in Italy. There is still four days to go at school and a monumental amount of packing to be done both at school as well as for the trip. As our classrooms are being demolished we have to pack everything in boxes (but not the students) though I must admit I am a bit tempted to use massive amounts of bubble wrap with a few of the clientele, ready for transfer to the new units which actually aren't ready yet. I am still trying to review the whole intermediate Italian course in preparation for depature but with little success owing to the chaos at school and normal busy homelife with two teenage children.