Friday, March 22, 2019

A Back to School Friday


Friday, 22 March, 2019

Well, I started a countdown for Laurie's arrival in Lombardia yesterday which was fun for me.

So why not start another one today?

In only . . .

. . . more days our son Michael lands
at Milano's Malpensa Airport

I was hoping to also fly out our oldest son Andrew for a week or so this Spring but his work schedule would not allow it.

Damn.

Mike will be here for eleven days during his Spring Break.

As you may recall, we helped at a local school for immigrant students from ages 16 to adult over the past month.

On those four Friday afternoons, I aided either Skorpions Coach Dario D'Adelfio or Skorpions Strong Safety Giulio Bonfanti in teaching the great game of American flag football to some of the young men and women who are students at the C.P.I.A 2 Varese school.

One day, at the end of one of our classes I was approached by Maria Egyed who teaches English as, at least, a THIRD language to the students. Her students come from the four corners of the earth so thus they speak their native language to be sure plus the common ground language of their class, Italian.

Now they are all learning English too.

Remarkable, resilient young people.

Maria asked if I would be interested in coming to her two classes, one in the mornings and the other in the late afternoons to talk about my American football experiences in Europe and answer questions that her students might have for me.

Why not!

It would also give me a chance to talk up the Skorpions and perhaps find another player or two for the future.

Not what the heck does C.P.I.A. stand for?

Ah, I see it know

It translates as "Provincial Center for the Instruction of Adults."

With the school's amazing teacher
Maria Egyed

We are ALL immigrants in Italia
in this classroom

Most definitely including me.

Here is the list of the questions that this class prepared for me:

QUESTIONS FOR CORSO A – IN THE MORNING
1. Among all the countries that you visited, which one do you like most?

2. How old are you and at what age did you got married?

3. How do you play American football, what rules do we need to respect? Have many players does each team have?

4. What differences did you find between Italy and California?

5. How is your feeling with the American football players? In Varese and also in other places where you have been around the world.

6. You are a coach only or you were also a player? If yes, in which team?

7. In Italy is a new sport. Did you had many difficulties when you train Italian teams? Did they understand straight away how to play the game and the rules?

8. Do your sons like or practice this same sport?

9. What does this trip around Europe represent for you?

10. What is the final goal for you, what do you have in your mind for those that you are training right now in Italy? If you leave how will they go on with this sport?

11. Why did you choose CPIA Varese and Skorpions to coach?

12.  It is a sport for boys only?

13.  Did you ever coach a female team?

These questions ought to keep me busy for a large chunk of class time.

Marco from Sri Lanka sporting
quite the new haircut

That reminds me, I need to get a haircut before tomorrow's game.

Marco was one of the stalwart's of our afternoon P.E. classes over the past month.

From left to right, these young ladies
are Raine from Sri Lanka, Vivian
from Nigeria and Pavneet from India

From left to right, Lucas from Brazil
and Ali from the Ivory Coast

I had a good time with these interesting students and look forward to meeting the students in Maria's afternoon class next week.

Now about that haircut . . .

My hair stylist from last season
in Venegono Inferiore

I got a good haircut and an outstanding beard trim last month in downtown Varese for a whopping 38 Euros!

This month, now that I had a car, I drove south from the C.P.I.A. 2 school for about 15 minutes to my 2018 stomping grounds, Venegono Inferiore to get this month's equally good haircut and outstanding beard trim.

In Venegono Inferior the going rate for this operation was a mere 15 Euros.

MUCH BETTER!

On the way back to the Villa Skorpion II, I stopped by the Iper Simply Super Store to buy some needed supplies for tomorrow's big home game against the 1-1 Palermo Sharks.

NO, these were not the needed
supplies but I wish they were

At 5:00 p.m., I joined several Skorpion players and Giorgio Nardi  at Skorpion Field to line the natural turf well before Saturday's 11:30 a.m. kickoff time.

Skorpion OT Niko Moruzzi painting
lines with DT Raffa Nardi aiding

I wonder if the Rams players and Head Coach Sean McVay do this before Rams home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum?

Regardless, Saturday is . . .

GAME DAY!

The 1-1 Palermo Sharks visit Skorpion Field to play the also 1-1 Varese Skorpions with the kickoff scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

Unfortunately, the game has been blacked out on TV and/or live streaming throughout the known universe.


Go Skorpions GO!

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