Thursday Blog
Ciao! After spending Wednesday evening with the Inter ‘ultras’ at the San Siro everyone woke up pretty tired ahead of another busy day. Thursday was back in to the coaching and the usual routine that we had gotten in to earlier in the week. Here’s a quick look at my day in Milan:
• 07:30 – Wake up and jump in the shower. Got everything ready for the day ahead like for our Italian lessons and anything needed for school.
• 07:45 – Head down for a typical Italian breakfast. Usually followed down by everyone else other than Mr Savage who’s in there at 7:30!
• 08:15 – Everyone meets in the common room of the Hostel to set off for the school (Anyone late loses shopping time!). We then set off for the Metro station, a short walk away from the Hostel. A quick journey of 5 stops and we’re off at Conciliazione which is around a 10 minute walk away from Collegio San Carlo.
• 09:00 – Go down to the PE office in the school to meet all of the teachers. We’re usually told what teacher’s we’re going to be with and in which location. Today we were observing each other’s sessions so Lauren and I went off to the infant room in the basement of the school to watch Paul, Jack, Tessa and Charlie’s session. We had to fill in a sheet on strengths and weaknesses of their session to feedback to them.
• 10:00 – It was now our turn to lead our session and we’d chosen football after planning it on Tuesday night. I was in a group with Lee, Lauren and Emma. We focused on passing and dribbling with 10 year olds. I felt that the session went extremely well and the kids enjoyed themselves throughout. We were observed by Matt, Sam and Antonia who made us want to do even better and to take on the feedback from the previous sessions.
• 11:00 – We started work on the plays we had to perform to the younger children. One was ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and the other was ‘Little Red Ridding Hood’. We were split in to two groups of six and started to prepare props and sort out the roles for each person. I took on the role of narrator (obviously the most important part!) along with Elle, so we started chopping the story down and deciding what we were going to read.
• 12:00 – Lunch time! Down to the school cafeteria for what is usually some typical Italian food we all love. Today was burgers, salad and risotto which went down well with most of the group. After lunch we’re given a bit of free time; most days are spent in the school bar. Paul has made friends with the guy who works there so today we talked about the match the night before and if City would win. For me it’s usually a quick read of the Gazzetta Dello Sport!
• 13:15 – After free time we meet at the Metro station again for our journey to our Italian lessons. We start with the Metro to San Babila, in the centre of Milan, and then a bus from there which stops at our Italian class on its journey.
• 14:00 – Italian lessons start and the first few minutes we have a chat with Louisa, our teacher, about what we’ve done in the morning. We also spoke about the game and she asked us if we’d sung the Pazza Inter song that she’d taught us the day before. (Unfortunately we didn’t as we got there as the team’s were coming out)
• 17:00 – Our Italian lesson finishes and it’s back to Milan’s public transport. We have the same journey back including a full 10 stop trip on the underground and stand up the whole way!
• 18:00 – Luca arrives with our dinner which we have in the breakfast room in the basement of the Hostel. Tonight was cheese burgers, yellow risotto and yoghurt which were very nice.
• 18:30 – This is usually when Matt and Greg give us feedback from the session that we’ve lead in the morning. We got good feedback and were given some good things to work on the next time we do a session.
• 19:00 onwards – This time is usually spent doing work downstairs. Tonight we had no sessions to plan as Friday involved swimming and performing our plays (which Elle will talk about tomorrow!). This meant we could work on our plays and do a few rehearsals.
• 21:00 – Work finishes (usually earlier, depending on what mood Matt and Greg are in!). It’s then chill out time for everyone which is spent either in the rooms, common room or in the work room on the Wifi. Today, Simmo and I tried watching the City match on a stream. We caught the first 2 goals before ditching it thanks to the dodgy connection!
• 23:00 – Everyone is in to their rooms and its lights out and to bed. Our room is usually laptop city at this point, watching movies and doing work for the course.
Hopefully that gives you a little insight in to our daily routine out here in Milan and what we’ve done today.
Ciao ciao!
Joe
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Day 8
Ciao!
Firstly we travelled to ‘San Carlo College’, the school where we are coaching the Italian children a range of different sports. We all met at 8.15am in what Greg and Matt like to call the ‘Common Room’, and from there we travelled by the Metro-link. This week we have been observed in coaching our lessons, and therefore today Matt & Greg both picked a few groups they were going to watch, and from there they wrote the strengths and weaknesses of our performance as a leader, and areas in which we need to improve on. The feedback was constructive and everybody agreed with what could be changed but also we were able to say where we thought we had gone wrong, and how we would change it to ensure it would not happen in the future.
Today we completed only 2 hours of coaching, and this was because we were set a task to do which was ‘Story Time’. The 12 of us were split into two groups of 6 and we were both given a fairytale which we have to act out over the next few days to the younger children at the school. The story’s we were given were ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Goldilocks’. To start off, my group was given ‘Goldilocks’ and I was assigned to the role of ‘Baby Bear’ (probably because of how small I am, lol!). Considering we only had an hour or so to plan what sort of equipment we would need, paint colours etc. it went really well and everybody worked well together as a team. Not forgetting 1 in ALL in!
Next, it was time to visit the school for our Italian lessons where we have been learning Italian for 3 hours; Monday to Friday... yep that’s right 3!! Extremely tiring yet enjoyable. Here we learnt a song for the game ‘Passa Inter Amala’, which in the end we didn’t even get to hear at the match, gutted. We all had to laugh though as Paul had been practicing it during the day, even went on to youtube and converted it to an mp3, then transferred it to his iPod!!! However, we made up for it at the Metrolink coming home as we bumped into some Italians who played the song on their phone and we all sang along which made our night.
Moving on to the Football Match, Inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich. Well, not to mention the journey getting there and attempting to dodge through the crowd but hey we made it. We split into two groups of 6, and Greg and Matt both went with 1 group each, it was an incredible atmosphere and you didn’t have an inch to move because it was that packed!!! Shame Inter Milan lost though, 1-0.
That’s all to say on today’s note, so roll on these next few days...
Baby Bear, Lauren
Firstly we travelled to ‘San Carlo College’, the school where we are coaching the Italian children a range of different sports. We all met at 8.15am in what Greg and Matt like to call the ‘Common Room’, and from there we travelled by the Metro-link. This week we have been observed in coaching our lessons, and therefore today Matt & Greg both picked a few groups they were going to watch, and from there they wrote the strengths and weaknesses of our performance as a leader, and areas in which we need to improve on. The feedback was constructive and everybody agreed with what could be changed but also we were able to say where we thought we had gone wrong, and how we would change it to ensure it would not happen in the future.
Today we completed only 2 hours of coaching, and this was because we were set a task to do which was ‘Story Time’. The 12 of us were split into two groups of 6 and we were both given a fairytale which we have to act out over the next few days to the younger children at the school. The story’s we were given were ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Goldilocks’. To start off, my group was given ‘Goldilocks’ and I was assigned to the role of ‘Baby Bear’ (probably because of how small I am, lol!). Considering we only had an hour or so to plan what sort of equipment we would need, paint colours etc. it went really well and everybody worked well together as a team. Not forgetting 1 in ALL in!
Next, it was time to visit the school for our Italian lessons where we have been learning Italian for 3 hours; Monday to Friday... yep that’s right 3!! Extremely tiring yet enjoyable. Here we learnt a song for the game ‘Passa Inter Amala’, which in the end we didn’t even get to hear at the match, gutted. We all had to laugh though as Paul had been practicing it during the day, even went on to youtube and converted it to an mp3, then transferred it to his iPod!!! However, we made up for it at the Metrolink coming home as we bumped into some Italians who played the song on their phone and we all sang along which made our night.
Moving on to the Football Match, Inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich. Well, not to mention the journey getting there and attempting to dodge through the crowd but hey we made it. We split into two groups of 6, and Greg and Matt both went with 1 group each, it was an incredible atmosphere and you didn’t have an inch to move because it was that packed!!! Shame Inter Milan lost though, 1-0.
That’s all to say on today’s note, so roll on these next few days...
Baby Bear, Lauren
Day 7
After waking up from Monday night we noticed that yet again the weather was not on our side with little sunshine and no signs of warming up; however, on the upside, there was no rain today just a constant cold breeze so we all dressed appropriately. Our journey began with 12 blue hooded Smurfs and the two leaders heading towards once again the Metro. After successfully passing the ticket machine we headed down the stairs and decided to miss the 8.21 train because of so many people cramped, and got the 8.25 instead which was very spacious. After the train we headed towards the school and several of us continued with our game ‘mini digs no rebounds’ causing one or two of us to gain a ‘dead’ arm.
Lesson one was only an observation but we did take the warm up and decided on doing ‘dome and dishes’, this did work but there was a problem demonstrating. After this, to make the warm up a bit more enjoyable and fun, we decided to do ‘tiggy scarecrow’ which the kids enjoyed. In lesson two we got to work with the younger ones and this was great! We did several activities such as ‘tiggy scarecrow’, running, hopping; all the children enjoyed them and wanted to continue with the activities but due to the session only being half an hour they were unable to. I found that working with the younger children a great experience and I am looking forward to do another activity with them tomorrow. In lesson three we assisted a gymnastics evaluation for 14 year olds, this was good to see as it allowed us to gain knowledge of a new sport.
After a tasty lunch at the school we headed towards out Italian lesson; the focus of today’s lessons was football as we were going to watch Inter Milan Vs Bayern Munich the following day. At the beginning of the three hours we just went over basic phrases such as ‘dye’ (hurry up). We then went into the computer rooms where we went over the Inter Milan’s song ‘Pazza Inter Amaila’. This was very funny as it got into the mood for the match and allowed us to show our groovy moves to one another.
Once getting back to the hostel we decided to have a chilled night and we put another film on called Step Brothers; however, because we became so tired we missed the last half an hour and planned to catch up with it two days later. Overall the day was a very good day!
Charlie
Lesson one was only an observation but we did take the warm up and decided on doing ‘dome and dishes’, this did work but there was a problem demonstrating. After this, to make the warm up a bit more enjoyable and fun, we decided to do ‘tiggy scarecrow’ which the kids enjoyed. In lesson two we got to work with the younger ones and this was great! We did several activities such as ‘tiggy scarecrow’, running, hopping; all the children enjoyed them and wanted to continue with the activities but due to the session only being half an hour they were unable to. I found that working with the younger children a great experience and I am looking forward to do another activity with them tomorrow. In lesson three we assisted a gymnastics evaluation for 14 year olds, this was good to see as it allowed us to gain knowledge of a new sport.
After a tasty lunch at the school we headed towards out Italian lesson; the focus of today’s lessons was football as we were going to watch Inter Milan Vs Bayern Munich the following day. At the beginning of the three hours we just went over basic phrases such as ‘dye’ (hurry up). We then went into the computer rooms where we went over the Inter Milan’s song ‘Pazza Inter Amaila’. This was very funny as it got into the mood for the match and allowed us to show our groovy moves to one another.
Once getting back to the hostel we decided to have a chilled night and we put another film on called Step Brothers; however, because we became so tired we missed the last half an hour and planned to catch up with it two days later. Overall the day was a very good day!
Charlie
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Day 6
Oggi (today) was Monday, and the thought of teaching two full classes in Italian was both exciting and nerve racking. As ususal breakfast was plain, apart from a good cup of tea ;) and then we were ready to set off to school.
The Metro was extremely packed so everyone spread out to try and get on the Met. Unfortunately only half of us made it on the Met and the other half had to wait for the next one. As we were spread out Jack was unsure where to get off and got off one stop to early. Once Greg got his attention he ran like a crazy man back onto the metro; it was funny. We all eventually arrived at school in one peace and ready to teach our sessions. I really enjoyed this experience as I was able to work with 3 year olds and I rarely get this opportunity in England. Everyone seemed to have a good time coaching and are settling in well, except Greg!!!
We were all dreading our Italian lessons due to our bad experience last week (when our Italian teacher did not speak any English!), however we were shocked to find that we really enjoyed the lesson and are getting more out of it as its now specific to coaching. The homework given was also relevant as we learnt how to say phrases that we didn’t originally understand when coaching - this will help us further ourselves in coaching Italian. Another good point which I’m extremely excited about is tomorrow as we are being taught a song for the inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich match : D WOOP!!...this will make sure we don’t look too English and can attempt to fit in.
Turkey was served for lunch and was apparently really tasty but I don’t like turkey so didn’t eat it. The pasta which was also served was really tasty and not too filling. Some people ate olives but not many, apart from that it were lovely. Finally we planned our sessions for tomorrow which again I’m excited about and hopefully will improve due to feedback.
CIAO CIAO!!
I like egg :D
Tessa
The Metro was extremely packed so everyone spread out to try and get on the Met. Unfortunately only half of us made it on the Met and the other half had to wait for the next one. As we were spread out Jack was unsure where to get off and got off one stop to early. Once Greg got his attention he ran like a crazy man back onto the metro; it was funny. We all eventually arrived at school in one peace and ready to teach our sessions. I really enjoyed this experience as I was able to work with 3 year olds and I rarely get this opportunity in England. Everyone seemed to have a good time coaching and are settling in well, except Greg!!!
We were all dreading our Italian lessons due to our bad experience last week (when our Italian teacher did not speak any English!), however we were shocked to find that we really enjoyed the lesson and are getting more out of it as its now specific to coaching. The homework given was also relevant as we learnt how to say phrases that we didn’t originally understand when coaching - this will help us further ourselves in coaching Italian. Another good point which I’m extremely excited about is tomorrow as we are being taught a song for the inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich match : D WOOP!!...this will make sure we don’t look too English and can attempt to fit in.
Turkey was served for lunch and was apparently really tasty but I don’t like turkey so didn’t eat it. The pasta which was also served was really tasty and not too filling. Some people ate olives but not many, apart from that it were lovely. Finally we planned our sessions for tomorrow which again I’m excited about and hopefully will improve due to feedback.
CIAO CIAO!!
I like egg :D
Tessa
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Day 5
Waking up next to a window isn’t so good, especially on a day like today. Its Sunday and its raining! But this didn’t stop us, as we were on a voyage to the home of George Clooney and Donatella Versace, Lake Como.
We all put on out water proofs, grabbed extra jackets and pegged it onto the coach that was taking us up to the lake. When we arrived we were given a guided tour of Como; it was full of tall building some of which were built in medieval times, scary! We walked around by the lake and posed for many pictures so we could show off when we got home. Even though it was raining the lake looked really nice and you could just about see the beginning of the French Alps in the background underneath the low clouds.
Emma
We all put on out water proofs, grabbed extra jackets and pegged it onto the coach that was taking us up to the lake. When we arrived we were given a guided tour of Como; it was full of tall building some of which were built in medieval times, scary! We walked around by the lake and posed for many pictures so we could show off when we got home. Even though it was raining the lake looked really nice and you could just about see the beginning of the French Alps in the background underneath the low clouds.
After walking round in the rain and looking at some nice houses and a massive cathedral, we went for lunch in a posh place :D We had a lot to choose from and it was really niceeeeee :P After lunch we pegged it to the coach again (it was still raining!) and drove up the mountain to a little town where we had coffee. Some people had a look round the shops but not many were open as its a summer town.
After having an energy boost we took a long coach ride home back to the hostel where we had tea and finally some chilling time! We all had showers and chilled and chatted in our bedrooms before falling asleep ready for the next day! :D
Day 4
Ciao!
To start the day off we walked to the Metro stop QT8 and we got off at the station Conciliazione. The Met wasn't as busy today as the week days but it was still quite hectic. We then walked to the building where the 'Last Super Painting' is. The painting was bigger than we all expected! We all had pictures taken outside of the museum with the groups which was nice!
Then we walked towards the castle and we stopped for ice cream which was 'delizioso'! The castle was really big and the museum was very interesting the tour guide filled us in on lots of facts about the pieces in the museum. Then we followed the tour guide to the oldest part of Milan, and there is an old building where you and someone else can stand on opposite sides of and you can whisper into the corner and apparently you can hear what each others say, I dont think we seemed to manage to make it work!
Then we went split up for dinner and 7 of us went into a cafe, it was realllllllly nice and we all managed to order the same thing! We also got to put some of our Italian into practice which was great! Then me, Emma and Antonia went shopping on a hunt for the Abercrombie shop and took a wrong turn and ended up down a street with all the designer stores so we had a look in and was amazed by the prices!!! On our way back to find the Abercrombie store we casually bumped into Donatella Versace, LITERALY! I was so happy, I nearly fainted! We had gone the wrong way and on our way back we bump into one of the worlds most successful fashion designers! AND then found the Abercombie shop after all of this!
Once meeting back up with the others a magician was doing a show on the street which was funny to watch even though we had no idea what he was saying because he was speaking in Italian! After we got the Metrolink back home and then walked to the Pizza shop where we got to choose whatever pizza we wanted, they were YUMMMMMMY :)
When home and all ready we went into one room and projected The Dark Knight onto one of the walls and all sat together and watched it which was a good way to end such a good day!
Buona Notte!!
To start the day off we walked to the Metro stop QT8 and we got off at the station Conciliazione. The Met wasn't as busy today as the week days but it was still quite hectic. We then walked to the building where the 'Last Super Painting' is. The painting was bigger than we all expected! We all had pictures taken outside of the museum with the groups which was nice!
Then we walked towards the castle and we stopped for ice cream which was 'delizioso'! The castle was really big and the museum was very interesting the tour guide filled us in on lots of facts about the pieces in the museum. Then we followed the tour guide to the oldest part of Milan, and there is an old building where you and someone else can stand on opposite sides of and you can whisper into the corner and apparently you can hear what each others say, I dont think we seemed to manage to make it work!
Then we went split up for dinner and 7 of us went into a cafe, it was realllllllly nice and we all managed to order the same thing! We also got to put some of our Italian into practice which was great! Then me, Emma and Antonia went shopping on a hunt for the Abercrombie shop and took a wrong turn and ended up down a street with all the designer stores so we had a look in and was amazed by the prices!!! On our way back to find the Abercrombie store we casually bumped into Donatella Versace, LITERALY! I was so happy, I nearly fainted! We had gone the wrong way and on our way back we bump into one of the worlds most successful fashion designers! AND then found the Abercombie shop after all of this!
Once meeting back up with the others a magician was doing a show on the street which was funny to watch even though we had no idea what he was saying because he was speaking in Italian! After we got the Metrolink back home and then walked to the Pizza shop where we got to choose whatever pizza we wanted, they were YUMMMMMMY :)
When home and all ready we went into one room and projected The Dark Knight onto one of the walls and all sat together and watched it which was a good way to end such a good day!
Buona Notte!!
Day 3
Buon giorno!! Today we got up early to make sure that we would arrive at San Carlo School on time, however felt a lot better after having a good nights sleep and knowing what today would consist of. We observed in our groups for the first session, and for the second session we lead a number of activities with the support of the teacher as there were a few words in Italian which we didn’t know. We all really enjoyed our time at the school as we all got involved.
After our lunch we had a bit of free time so a group of us walked around Milan and took some random photos with us sat on yellow bikes! We then made our way to our language school so that we could have our three hour Italian lesson - FUN! As we had arrived early we were able to have a bit of free time to get a drink etc. When we got to our Italian lesson we found that we had a new teacher who couldn’t speak English. This made it difficult for us to understand at first but we soon got the hang of it! She shouted at us for having drinks on the table so Jack offered her Smarties! Haha! After 3 hours of learning how to speak Italian we then made our way home on the bus and metro where are dinner was waiting!
We had baby octopus which freaked some people out as they still had there tentacles and heads on. After our dinner we then got into the groups we were going to coach in on Monday and planned our session. We all worked as a team so that the work got done and voiced our plans to Greg and Matt so that they knew what we were doing. After this we had free time where we all just chilled and gossiped! Overall it was a really good day!! Ciao Ciao!
Antonia Michael
After our lunch we had a bit of free time so a group of us walked around Milan and took some random photos with us sat on yellow bikes! We then made our way to our language school so that we could have our three hour Italian lesson - FUN! As we had arrived early we were able to have a bit of free time to get a drink etc. When we got to our Italian lesson we found that we had a new teacher who couldn’t speak English. This made it difficult for us to understand at first but we soon got the hang of it! She shouted at us for having drinks on the table so Jack offered her Smarties! Haha! After 3 hours of learning how to speak Italian we then made our way home on the bus and metro where are dinner was waiting!
We had baby octopus which freaked some people out as they still had there tentacles and heads on. After our dinner we then got into the groups we were going to coach in on Monday and planned our session. We all worked as a team so that the work got done and voiced our plans to Greg and Matt so that they knew what we were doing. After this we had free time where we all just chilled and gossiped! Overall it was a really good day!! Ciao Ciao!
Antonia Michael
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Day 1 & 2...Wednesday and Thursday
We all met at Manchester airport at 8am. Everyone said that they were tired, that it had not really ‘hit them’ that they were going on holiday yet and that they were not very excited. We made our way through passport control with no trouble and only a few metal detectors went off. We then looked around a few shops and went to a cafe whilst we waited for our gate to open.When our gate opened we all got free samples of Toblerone which Greg dropped because of Lauren, which really upset him. We boarded the plane and had a reasonably short flight to Milan. When we arrived we collected our cases and got in two mini vans which transported us to the hostel. Having arrived we unpacked, looked around our rooms and went for a walk where Greg and Matt got us lost because they not find the supermarket. We then went back to the hostel and ate our dinner - which consisted of lasagne followed by chicken and potatoes – before then going to bed and having an early night.
The next day we all woke up and had cereal for breakfast. We got the Metrolink to San Carlo school - where we were going to be coaching – and had a guided tour round before shadowing the teachers in their P.E lessons. Different people went in to different lessons, and whilst it was difficult to start with as most of us did not speak much Italian, we got more involved as the lessons progressed and mine and Jacks team beat Joe’s and Paul’s team in a football match (it was close but thanks to Jack’s keeping skills we won).
Lunch came around quickly and we ate pasta, chicken and carrots before moving on to another school where we were going to be taught Italian. The teacher went a bit too fast to start with we all struggled a little and, whilst it was only our first lesson and we were all tired after our first full day, we did learn some new things. We went back to the hostel and found the supermarket where we all bought our snacks and what we wanted to eat. We got back had dinner (pizza) and then made our language CV’s which are part of the course.
Sam Miskelly
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Milan here we come
The Stars team are off to Milan tomorrow with 12 young people to participate in a Leonardo Mobility project.
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