GTL Italy Week 1: First Impressions

My first week of teaching for GTL Italy is over. Two more weeks, and then I will be flying back to MIT. GTL Italy so far has been pretty interesting. Not only have I learned a lot about high school in Italy, but also life in Italy. I still don't know much Italian, but at least now I know some of the basic phrases like buon giorno for good morning and grazie for thank you. 

The first day was very disorienting and stressful, mainly because transportation from the airport to the town wasn't super smooth. For context, I am teaching in Breno, a small town in the mountains of Lombardy, a province in northern Italy. The town is 45 minutes north of Lake Iseo, which is a local tourist attraction. I am 2 hours away from Milan by car. Airport passport control and baggage claim were smooth, but I almost missed my bus and train because I didn't know any Italian. The trip to the town was quite lonely, since I didn't really know my surroundings well. But once I saw my host family at the train station, I felt much better because they were so warm and welcoming. 

This will be a long post, as I have so many thoughts about the various aspects of GTL, from my host family to teaching. 

Teaching

My GTL Italy assignment was to teach biology and chemistry to students ages 17 to 19 at Liceo Golgi. The school was named after Camillo Golgi, a Nobel laureate who discovered the Golgi apparatus (fun fact for you!). Originally, I was supposed to teach 18 hours this week, but a few teachers didn't need my help, so I ended up only teaching 15 hours this week. 

In total, I taught 10 sections of class, as some classes wanted me to teach 2 hours instead of 1 hour. Each teacher requested me to teach different topics, but there was a lot of overlap. This week, I taught cancer, DNA, stem cells, and CRISPR cas9. I would say that lesson planning wasn't as bad, since I used material from other classes. Also, I spent 15 minutes of class introducing myself and talking about MIT. 

First day was a bit of a disaster because I ran out of content to teach for one of my classes, so I ended up teaching what I knew about CRISPR on the spot for the rest of the class. From that experience, I learned to prepare more ahead of time like making Kahoot and using HHMI Biointeractive for lesson planning. On a side note, HHMI is an amazing website. It gives me hope that people will stick to the life sciences. Anyways, going back to GTL Italy. 

I wish I didn't have this thought, but sometimes I wondered what was the point of me doing GTL Italy when some of the students didn't really understand me and the teacher had to translate what I said into Italian. I guess having me teach provides a different perspective and lets them meet a college student in the U.S., which isn't an interaction they get that often. I think incorporating more simulations and lab-based experiences will quiet those negative thoughts. The teachers' excitement and enthusiasm for me to come warms my heart. Sometimes, I wonder how much the students benefit from me, but all I can do is try my best to show my passion for the subject. 

High School

Students here go to school from 8 AM to 2 PM. There is no lunch break, so students eat lunch afterward. Before coming here, I wondered how on Earth was I going to survive because I couldn't stand being hangry. Somehow, my body adjusted better than I thought. Another interesting thing is that students stay in the same classroom, with teachers rotating classrooms. This aspect is what schools in other countries also have, such as China. 

It took me a while to understand what the class codes meant, but the first letter is the year. High school is 5 years, so the 5th year is ages 18-19. The letters in the class code mean the following: linguistics, classics, science, applied science, arts, etc. Students here choose a track for high school, so to some extent, it is a bit pre-professional. By doing so, students can have an education that's more technical or arts-focused. I can see the logic behind this, though I wonder if this may further reinforce a fixed mindset in students that students in the humanities track aren't good at STEM. Personally, I think it is better that in the U.S. students regardless of what they are interested in choose their classes. 

Like lots of countries, college results are primarily determined by examination results in the last year. As a result, there isn't really a concept of extracurricular activities because they aren't part of the college admissions process. Based on their responses, it seems like there isn't a lot of participation in music, sports, etc. Maybe it is just me, but I was sad to see only a few of them raised their hand when I asked if any of them liked a) running b) listening to classical music c) writing. Unfortunate. I am sure they have hobbies, just ones that are different from mine. 

I don't know if this is just my school, but I wondered why the classrooms had no posters or student's work. I think that's one feedback I would give to the school, just cause I personally liked it when my high school teachers had inspirational posters, even though some of the quotes were a little cheesy. 

Something that makes me envy the school a bit is how their vending machine has chocolate like Kinder at a reasonable price of 1,00 €. I am sure that the vending machines at MIT have chocolate, but none of them seem too appetizing to me, and even if they do, they are probably slightly more expensive than here. One cool thing is that the school has coffee vending machines where students pay 0,50 € for like 100 mL of coffee. 

It was funny to ask their thoughts on what they think of high schools in the U.S., as a few of them said that they think American high school students have an easier life because their impressions are that they don't have to study that much compared to them. I think this preconception comes from the fact that movies and TV shows portray high school life in the U.S. to be relaxed, which isn't necessarily the case. And while we do participate more in activities, it isn't because we have more free time, but rather well-roundedness is emphasized more in the American curriculum. 

On a more random note, the students here have a better sense of fashion compared to my high school and MIT, honestly. I wouldn't say their fashion sense comes from wearing clothes that are on the more smart casual end of the spectrum. For instance, no one here really wears sweatpants or running shoes. The winter wear is sweaters and jeans, not so much long sleeves. Somehow, rectangular glasses with more fashionable frames are more popular here. On the other hand, I would say I dress pretty casually, like wearing free shirts and running pants. Also, I noticed that the brand Eastpak dominates the high school backpacks and pencil cases here. Kind of like Jansport in the U.S., I suppose. 

Language 

One challenge of GTL Italy was not knowing Italian. I am glad that I know a bit of Spanish of French, as some words in Italian sound like words in Spanish and French. Still, comprehension is an issue. While I can pick up some words here and there, they never come together as a sentence in my head. As a result, I am a lot more quiet and observant here, but I don't find it to be that much of an issue. 

I had a few mind-blowing moments from picking up Italian, which have to do with the fact that the American pronunciation of certain words is different from how Italians pronounce them. For instance, it's pistachio in English, but pistacchio in Italian. We say ch, but in italian it is a k sound (I don't know IPA, this isn't a professional way to explain). Another example is the name Lucia. In U.S., lu-see-a is acceptable, but in Italy it is lu-chee-a. 

Google Translate is now my best friend. It's a blessing that such an app exists. While Google Translate isn't perfect, at least it can translate the main ideas and I can get what the other person wants to say.  Using Google Translate with my host family's daughter is pretty interesting. It's not convenient, but it's one way to have a conversation. 

Host Family 

My host family is wonderful. They are friendly and helpful. This helped me adjust to life here relatively quickly. Living in the apartment is similar to my living situation in the U.S., with a few differences like round outlets that I still find odd (Italy uses type C) and a friendly pet dog. The only issue I would say is that I can somehow hear the people above me, but it's not disruptive, just the phone ringing or people talking. 

Conclusion

I have written way more than I expected for the first week of GTL. I will have another blog with more updates on how teaching goes. Hopefully, it will be better than the first week. I want my students to become more interested in the life sciences and understand that what they are learning isn't just in the textbook -- there are real-life applications and what they study matters. 

Winter Break in London and Cambridge

I am currently in Italy for GTL, but I was in the UK with family for vacation before coming to Italy. I am aware that the original purpose of the LMF blog was for residents to post about their summer trips like MISTI, but I don't think it's an issue for the LMF blog to include IAP trips (GTL, classes abroad, etc.). I could write this on my blogger website, but no one reads that, so I decided to share my thoughts here on the LMF blog. 

My vacation in London was a week long from 12/27 to 1/4, followed by Cambridge from 1/4 to 1/7. On 1/3, I did an Oxford day trip to visit a family friend studying at Oxford, which was fun. 

From my trip, I realized that there are way too many things to see in London and a week is not enough. For instance, my family decided to spend a second day at the British Museum because the museum is so large with nearly 100 galleries, each gallery containing many objects. Likewise, we ended up spending the whole day at the Victoria & Albert Museum. As a result, we did not go to some places on our itinerary such as Tate Modern, Kensington Place, Design Museum, etc. I would like to go back to London sometime in the future and visit those museums. 

The British Museum

Overall, I had positive impressions of London. People joke that British food only consists of pubs and taverns, but there are a lot of ethnic food options such as Indian food, Chinese food, etc. Since my family is Chinese, we ended up going to different restaurants in Chinatown. My favorites were Rasa Sayang, a Malaysian restaurant, and Four Seasons, a Cantonese restaurant known for its roasted duck. We had to wait a while in line, but it was worth the wait because it was an indication that the restaurant had good food. I also liked riding the tube because they came every 3-5 minutes, the stations were clean, and they had lots of transfer options. I wonder when the T will become the tube. Probably not. 

 nasi lemak at Rasa Sayang

London is an international city and I didn't experience much culture shock except for hearing British accents and seeing black taxis on the streets. The double-decker buses are very cool, and I feel like some cities would benefit a lot from a double-decker bus. I am still not used to the fact that the driver's seat is on the right side instead of the left side. The modern parts of London like Canary Wharf (financial district) felt like the U.S., really, with minor modifications like British spelling and British equivalents of American shops. For instance, Tesco is a popular convenience store, whereas Waitrose is a grocery chain. 

What makes London unlike American cities is that it is a much older city with more history. Seeing the 1000-year-old Tower of London in real life was very impressive. So were the Tower Bridge and the House of Parliament. The old storefronts and the quiet streets are nice to walk around. 

The Tower of London  

Not only that, but also I feel like people in London dress a bit more formally compared to us Americans. This is just my impression, not a general statement. For instance, it took me a few days to realize that I was one of the few people who wore running pants not for exercise. This made me feel a bit self-conscious because I felt like what I was wearing was too casual. While I do have jeans, I just like how joggers aren't as tight. Anyhow, I am digressing from the main point of the blog, which is about my travels in London. 

Taking the train from London to Oxford provided a nice change of scenery because Oxford is rich in history. While the U.S. has impressive college campuses, I have to say no college town in the U.S. is the equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge. The highlight of Oxford was visiting Christ Church College because some scenes in Harry Potter were filmed there. Unfortunately, we got there when it already became dark at 4 p.m. (sunset early in the UK), but it was still an informative and interesting tour. 

Dining hall in Christ Church College  

As for Cambridge, I plan to write an article for my column on The Tech about being in the other Cambridge just because it is amusing to compare Cambridge, MA with Cambridge, UK. I loved my three days in Cambridge because of how peaceful and picturesque life was there, though to be fair I was there during winter break, so it is probably not an accurate representation of Cambridge. Nevertheless, I loved how many bookstores and shops there were as well as the River Cam. 

The iconic Bridge of Sighs in St. John's College  

Overall, I enjoyed my time in the UK and would be happy to visit again. Traveling was pretty smooth since the UK speaks English and most things were like the U.S., so I didn't feel lost or confused compared to what's happening in Italy (that will be a blog for later).