This post is rather late since GTL Italy ended almost a week ago. Anyway, I wanted to write a second blog about GTL Italy because I didn't touch upon some cultural experiences in my first blog. Of course, I will also cover the teaching experience too.
Teaching
After the first week, I kind of got used to the process of preparing my lessons and teaching them to students. One good thing was that I ended up recycling a lot of content since I taught eleven different sections, but all of the teachers wanted me to teach biology. As a result, I taught topics like cancer biology and biotechnology many times. The downside was that I had to spend some time reviewing content like genomes and sequencing because I took 7.03 a year ago. I came in hoping that I would get to use the lab, but unfortunately, it was quite limited. As a result, the only lab I did was DNA extraction.
One frustration I had when teaching was that the level of engagement varied a lot. One class was on the noisier end, but asked lots of questions, which I liked. Some classes were quiet, but a couple asked questions. Others did not ask any questions and some did not take notes at all. To be fair, I used lecture style to teach, which explains why students weren't as interested. I had some games like Kahoot at the end and animations from HHMI, but it wasn't the same thing as doing a live demonstration.
This sounds stupid, but it wasn't until the third week that I realized that some students weren't engaged not necessarily because they didn't like science, but rather because their English proficiency wasn't advanced enough. I'd imagine that throwing a lot of scientific jargon at them in English made learning more difficult. Despite the language barrier, it was nice to see the students brighten up when they got to do the DNA lab activity or play Kahoot.
Food and Dining
Growing up in the U.S., I have had exposure to Italian food, but Italian food in the U.S. is probably not the same as Italian food in Italy. Breakfast consisted of yogurt with granola and fruit. My host family liked eating marmalade on toast and dipping biscuits into coffee or tea. Lunch consisted of spaghetti or pasta as the starch, salad with vinegar and olive oil, and meat or seafood. I got to eat a lot of cheese and some local vegetables, like Italian chicory. I also liked the bread rolls. I was surprised to find homegrown kiwis in the mountains of Italy since I assumed all kiwis came from New Zealand. A pleasant surprise. After lunch, I drank a small cup of coffee (think shot glass size) with my host dad.
Dinner was similar to lunch, except for the coffee part. At first, I wondered how did people in Italy not feel hungry before 8 p.m., but somehow my stomach adapted to the situation. I had a few digestifs (drinks after dinner), which were interesting because they tasted unlike anything I had before. Genepy had an interesting herbal taste, Meletti had a strange licorice taste, and vin santo had a low ABV of 16% but was very strong for me.
One thing I was very excited to try was pizza in Italy, since pizza in the U.S. is so ubiquitous. There were some similarities, but also some differences. For instance, the vegetable pizza had thick slices of zucchini as a topping, which I didn't quite find in the U.S. An interesting pizza I came across was one with French fries on it. I was pleased to not see pizza that looked like Dominoes or Costco, specifically pizza that only had cheese. I liked the pizza crust in Italy a lot because of how thick and warm it was.
An interesting observation is that in the restaurant, each person orders their own pizza. Obviously, pizza is a food eaten by hand, but people also use forks and knives to eat small slices of pizza. I was not used to this concept, as I was under the impression that people would share pizzas already sliced into sixths or eighths. Not surprisingly, eating an entire pizza for myself took a very long time because my stomach's normal limit is say three slices, not six.
Something I got to try for the first time was eating rabbit meat with polenta in Bergamo. I was very curious about what rabbit meat tasted like, and it turned out to resemble the taste of chicken, except the rabbit meat I had was a bit tougher and leaner.
Sights
One small regret I have is that I didn't travel that much, partly because I was far from Milan and the local train only came every hour. Originally, I thought of going to Brescia, but that didn't happen. Nevertheless, I got to see some beautiful places. I had a great time exploring the town of Lovere by Lake Iseo with a teacher and enjoyed walking around the whole perimeter of Monte Isola, an island in Lake Iseo.
Bergamo, a regional city in Lombardy, was an unparalleled experience because I got to see a panoramic view of the city underneath on top of the fortress. It's no surprise that Bergamo was the Italian Capital of Culture in 2023 and a UNESCO heritage site. I was also excited to see where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Bergamo, though I will need to rewatch the film to connect the dots.
In my local town of Breno, I got to visit the 11th century castle on the hill, which was very cool because it was empty and quiet. From the castle, I got to see the town. As a runner, I was happy that Breno had a local river with a bike path, allowing me to run in the countryside and farmland.
Conclusion
Although being a foreigner in a small town in Italy felt isolating at times, I will never forget the hospitality and warmth of the teachers and people I met there. If I have another chance to go to Italy, I will be more than happy to see my host family again and explore more places in Lombardy like Lake Como.
