Yes, my students are better than yours. And no, I'm not ashamed to say it.

Monday's are always my hardest teaching days because usually people have a really hard time waking up and remembering they're at school at not at home on the couch.  So, today I got a lot of blank stares (the Monday stares, as I call them), but after only 2 reminders that we're at school and it's time to engage, people pretty much woke up.

Mondays I teach three classes of two different levels.  The first two are the same level, back to back sections.  It's funny because the first class is mostly girls and they are hilarious....somehow everything always relates back to travel in Italy, not acting like an idiot, and the traffic on 35.  The second class is more boys than girls and they somehow were talking about a kid who impaled himself on a pole running away from a pitbull and fried beer.  Oh, and the crazies in Dallas who accost you until you buy "their" CD which turns out to be Ludacris's latest album.  Whoever says classes don't have personalities is a liar.

And then there are my babies.....my little 1020s.  I'm always a little worried I'm going to lose them.....they are usually just this side of a total breakdown but we do a good job of keeping eyes dry and the hyperventilation to a minimum.  And some days, like today, you just cannot accomplish anything.  Each class has their day when they need a day off and it was today.  It was clear from the moment I walked in there would be no Italian today.....instead it was a venting session.  What they hated, what they liked....about me, Italian, and life in general.  And student W who usually looks like he's trying to make my face melt off when he looks at me smiled and said today was the best day he'd had in a long time.

So yes, my students are better than yours.  They are cuter, funnier, and pretty much just better all the way around!  You should be jealous, and you can't have them.  They're mine!  All mine.  Today they tried to tell me I couldn't wear heels to the Texas State Fair.  We'll see about that.  Have they ever seen me in anything but?  Last summer someone told me I couldn't climb a mountain in sandals and I did just fine, so we shall see.  Do your students try to protect your footwear?  I doubt it.  Do you students keep you updated on all the gossip in the dining halls?  I think not.  Do you have a running tab of who's dating who in the dorms.  No.  But I do.  It's ok to be jealous.

Furthermore, people who take Italian are extra special.  It's the people who decided to take a new language, work a little harder and not rely on what they learned in high school, so you already know they'll be pretty special.  Add that to the fact that I see them pretty much everyday and that we travel in packs around DFW to the opera and to restaurants and stuff, yes, we end up like a creepy crazy little Italian family.  Tomorrow is our first Italian Club meeting of the year and I can guarantee that someone will laugh so hard they snort, someone else will throw some wicked insult and spend the next two weeks trying to apologize and get out of the doghouse (when the person insulted is really just milking the whole situation and was never really offended in the first place) and finally, there will be a love match that begins tomorrow.  Oh yes, Italian is its own soap opera.