Paestum

I admit it. I am really bad at documenting the cool things we've been able to see while living it Italy. I feel like the last 3 months have been a turning point for me. I think its a combination of learning Italian and being here long enough that Italy is my new normal. Its not scary or overwhelming anymore. So, naturally, we are getting out there to explore a little bit more. I would like to travel more than we do, but life has its way of taking over. We have church activities, soccer tournaments, birthday parties and sometimes we just want a Saturday at home.  But we are finding our middle ground and slowly, we are getting out there.
Now, if I was a good blogger, I'd go back and blog about all the things we've done, but that's too overwhelming. So I'm starting with this field trip we went on May 18-20th.
 Kate and Clark have been studying ancient Greece all year,  and the third grade took a 3 day trip to an old Grecian city, Paestum , about 3 hours south of Rome. Lucky for me, they opened up the field trip for parents too. In all honesty, I wasn't thrilled about sending my 9 year old twins on a 3 day field trip without either Ryan or I with them.  We don't even do spend the nights with friends, so spending the night in a hotel room with 2 other kids their age, had me worried. Ryan and I wanted them to have the opportunity to go, so we decided that I would go with them.  ( Ryan even agreed to take time off work to be with Charly and JR)
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the trip! The teachers were amazing. They had the kids on task and entertained the whole time. The social studies teacher had been taking 3rd graders on this trip for over 25 years, so she had everything down to a science. So I was able to just tag along and see all cool things there.


Day 1:
4 hours on a bus. But then we got to step off the bus and see these amazing Greek temples.

Clark with some of his friends (Carl, Giacamo, Guilian, Clark, Alon, Francesco)

Me trying to be artistic with my camera. PS poppy's grow wild everywhere in Italy

This olive tree is enormous. It is said to be thousands of years old. 

All of the kids in 3rd Grade

Token Instagram picture

Day 2: We went to another ancient Grecian city, Veila.  The ruins in this city date back to 500 BC.

Clark and his best friend Alon

This archway is famous because of its 'double archway" construction.  Greeks were the leaders in engineering and building

All the kids had journals and we would stop and the kids would sketch the ancient ruins

Kate and one of her besties - Gabrielle

Amphitheater

Beautiful view of the coast from behind the ancient temples

Every evening before dinner the kids got to go play at the beach by our hotel. The teachers were genius and didn't let them touch the water, but no matter- they loved it all the same.

The second night we went back to the temples to see them lit up and get a late night gelato

Day 3: We visited the Paestum museum to see all the artifacts that have been found in the ancient city. 

I was amazed at how well preserved all the artifacts were

 More sketching....

 Similar to the Egyptians, the Greeks believed in the afterlife and decorated the inside of the tombs. These pictures are the insides of their box like tombs. Many of the well preserved artifacts were found inside the tombs.                                      

Alon, Clark and Lucca

Last but not least we visited a buffalo farm. In Italy, the famous mozzarella cheese is made from the milk of these buffalos.  And yes, it is that good.

Kate with Gabrielle and Keun

Fresh mozzarella. Yes, I bought some. Yes, it was amazing. 

This was the cheese counter with all the different kinds of cheese the farm sold. Cheese is kinda a big deal in Italy.