Worst day thus far

I know not every day during my study abroad experience is going to be awesome. Yesterday (Thursday) was one of those awful days.


Thursdays are the days that we have our tutoring sessions with Elisa for both Museology and History of Costume. All of the students last year absolutely hated Elisa (she made girls cry, etc), but none of us could understand why. Since we've arrived, she has been taking us to all these cool places and being really nice. We thought she had turned over a new leaf... until we had to spend the whole day with her yesterday.

We started with our Museology tutoring session at Il Museo di San Marco, which is an old convent. It was really cool, except that Elisa flew through it. The entire time we followed her around the museum, scribbling furiously while she spoke 100 miles a minute in Italian. Needless to say, we didn't get all the information. A few times, some of us stopped her to repeat dates. She would repeat them, as fast as she could, and continue talking. That didn't help. When someone asked a question, she got angry because we had "interrupted" her. So, we followed her around like little slaves for 1 hour in Il Museo di San Marco (which I need to go back and really SEE on my own time), and then we went to L'Opificio Delle Pietre Dure. I thought this was a really cool museum too, but she did all the same things that she had done in San Marco, so I didn't get to examine much. At this point, my hand was about to fall off anyway, so I was ready to get the heck out. We ended our tutoring session 15 minutes late. That gave us 45 minutes to grab lunch and get back to CLIDA for our second tutoring session (History of Costume). Of course, she held me behind to talk to me about my ICIP. I was really excited, but her talking AT me completely stressed me out and made me soooo nervous. All she did was repeat herself for 15 minutes and tell me how she couldn't help me and didn't have the answers. At 1:30, I walked as quickly as I could to meet the rest of the students for lunch. Next thing I knew, I was lost. I finally made it to our usual sandwich place, got some lunch, and basically ran to CLIDA.

I caught up with the girls on their way there as well, and as soon as I saw them, I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Elisa had been so intense and insincere that I burst. The girls helped me as best as they could on our way to CLIDA. We all arrived at the same time (2:10). Elisa was already in the classroom and she did not greet us, she just began yelling at us as soon as we walked in the door. I'll make a little monologue here. It was half English, half Italian:

Elisa: "You girls need to start acting like adults. It's not right to show up late to class. I'm not late, and you shouldn't be either. That is very disrespectful and I will not tolerate this."

(we say nothing and sit down, Elisa turns to Grace)


Elisa: "You didn't go to class yesterday. That will never happen again. Everyone is to be in class every day. You are to arrive on time, sit down, listen to the professor and write the entire time. You cannot look at the ceiling, you cannot sleep. I don't care if you have to drink 10 espressos or eat 5 bars of chocolate to stay awake. You have to place complete focus on paying attention. I don't care what is wrong with you, you will come to class."

(one of us tells her that we have a really hard time understanding the teacher because she doesn't have a microphone, speaks quickly and has a Florentine accent)

Elisa: "I can hear her just fine. There is nothing wrong with the way she talks. She speaks very clearly. You all just have to listen!"

(Carla tells Elisa that she has to leave the tutoring session early to go to her ICIP with Elisa's assisstant, Maria Cristina)

Elisa: "Are you kidding me!? I sent you an email 10 days ago telling you about this tutoring session. You should have known about it. You can't miss something like this. This is very important! I can't believe you would be so careless! Don't ever do that again!"

 (I take out my small box of chili. At this point, it's 2:30 and I haven't eaten since 7:30 in the morning and I am famished.)


Elisa: "Don't even think about eating in my class! That is rude and disrespectful. You never do something like that. You can eat when I'm finished. Put that away!"

(I put my head in my hands and start to cry right across the table from her. She ignores me and starts the lesson. 10 minutes later...)

 Elisa: "Elsa, if you need a minute or something, just take a minute and go outside."

(I shake my head no)

Elisa: "Was it something I said? Was is about the food? Because you still can't eat in class. It's rude and disrespectful. Go outside if you need a minute."

Ok, so.... that was her rant that lasted about 15 minutes. I cried for the rest of the class and didn't hear a word she said. So much for that tutoring session.

Afterwards, all of us were a huge mess. Fortunately, Grace's mom was here visiting from Chicago and she did a very good job of being motherly and trying to calm us down. No one could understand her horrible, power-trip behavior. People are sometimes late, things happen, Elsa gets lost. So she yells?!?! Grace had missed class because her mother flew all the way from Chicago to visit with her! Carla had to miss because she was going to her ICIP with Elisa's assistant. Um, Hi, Elisa... Shouldn't YOU be the one communicating with YOUR assistant? Thought so. I was so hungry I had a headache, and she tells me I can't eat when everyone else had had the chance to. What if I was a diabetic or something!?

Anyway, we decided that this lady has ALOT of problems. She has a Ph D. And in Italy, a Ph D. in art history is like being God. She has absolutely no emotions, and all she ever tries to do is cover her ass. When Holy Cross called her out on her actions in the past, she made excuses and danced around the whole situation. I guess Holy Cross knows she's "fuori della testa" (out of her mind), but they keep her as an adviser because she has a ton of contacts within Florentine society and knows everything about the program.

Grace spoke with her sister, who studied here last year. She said that Elisa made her cry at least 10 times. She urged Grace to talk to us about trying not to let her bother us. She is going to attempt to guilt us into coming to class, because if we fail our classes, she fails and Holy Cross rips her a new one. Grace's sister wanted us to know that Elisa was not worth the tears, and that we should be traveling and enjoying ourselves, while also getting the education that we want. We are Holy Cross students. We already have a work ethic. Elisa does NOT need to treat us like we are in high school.

We've decided to construct an email to the head of the department at Holy Cross. They told the study abroad students last year that they wished something had been said sooner. So, that's what we're going to do.

Allow me to point out that today, Elisa showed up 20 minutes late to our History of Costume class. We stared her down as she walked through the door. Now, why aren't we allowed to yell at her? And, throughout the entire class, she watched us to make sure we were paying attention.

We had our CLIDA conversation in the afternoon and Gabriella (the owner whose house we went to for lunch on Sunday) felt soooo badly that she hugged me and kissed me and told us that she would make us dessert on Monday. Can we skip University and tutors and go to CLIDA forever?!

I can't wait for Elisa to get put in her place. Someone has to figure something out, because she is out of control. I guess it's funny to think of how stupid she sounds. But she also scares the hell out of me. I'm going to try to not be scared, but it's going to be hard.

I decided to stay in tonight because of yesterday. I'm way behind on my work because she assigned us 70 pages of reading (all in Italian of course) and there is absolutely no way that I can read this all before Thursday. Especially since she tells us to read it 5 times. This woman is a freaking robot.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a little organizing and then going downtown to walk around. I need it.

A domani.