Teaching the Italians about Marching Band, and other stories...

Tuesday morning was another trip to la scuola mediale for another lesson about American culture. The teacher had asked us to prepare a lesson about American sports. Since I know a thing or two about American sports, this lesson was no problem for me. We began the lesson by talking about college sports. Danielle, my co-teacher (a student at the University of M*ch*gan) began by talking about traditions at the Big House. Not surprisingly, later that day our history professor would compare the University of Michigan traditions to a fascist rally.

Then it was my turn to talk. I told the students about marching bands- a completely foreign (literally) concept in Italy. I even played the video from halftime at the Champs Sports Bowl. They were clearly impressed- but they were wondering why so many trombone ranks just aren't that good (they specifically mentioned 3, 6, 21, and 23) :)

Next we talked about the NCAA tournament- and how Americans skip work to watch basketball. They were amused by our addiction to gambling on the NCAA tournament. I'm so proud to be an American. Other topics covered in yesterday's lesson included 1) Why everybody hates the New York Yankees (they're the FC Juventus of baseball). 2) Why the Brewers logo is so creative, and 3) Why the University of Wisconsin is always better at basketball than the University of Michigan.

That night, my conversation partner stopped by the Villa. The night was divided into 2 conversation topics (we don't pick these ahead of time, fyi). First, we talked about skiing, and brands of skiis, and how Italy used to be the best skiing country in the world. For the next half hour, we talked about the great dividing issue in America, healthcare. Though I have kept my blog surprisingly apolitical thus far, I will say that he was shocked that a country as big and powerful as the United States left so many of its citizens uninsured. As an Italian doctor, it is his belief that the American health care system will have to change, or the entire country will go down. Well said.

Back to the world of Bracketology and studying for Italian. Booked tickets to go skiing in Switzerland over the weekend- skiing and March Madness- an even better combination than nutella and peanut butter.