Hangin' with My Host Brother!

Yesterday was the first day of summer for many of kids in Grado. My host brother Mario is 10 years old and was very excited for his first day of summer freedom. Mario's cousins have also been in town for the past two weeks and he had been spending nights with them. That combined with the fact that he has had school, Lauren and I have not seen him around the house very often. But because it's summer and Susan wanted Mario to sleep at the house, last night was one of the first times we all had dinner together!

We chatted throughout dinner. Lauren and I used our Italian skills and Mario tired out his English. At the end of dinner Mario pulled Lauren and I into his room to show us something and he pulled out a box of rocks. A box of rocks probably would not interest many people, but because I am an Geology major it put a smile on my face! Before leaving for Italy I packed my rock magnifying glass for our trip to the Dolomites in July. I showed it to Mario so he could look closely at his rocks, because it's amazing how different some rocks look under magnification.


I used my Italian to tell Mario the names of some of the minerals that formed the rocks. He had a small piece of sandstone with black and white stripes. I immediately knew what the stripes meant and I explained the Mario that the rock was deposited at the bottom of the lake and that each stripe represented half of a year. I told him that during the late summer and fall, plants and flowers would die, sink to the bottom of the lake, and result in the dark, black stripe. I then told him that during the winter and early spring, mud would sink to the bottom of the lake, and result in the lighter, white stripe. I felt pretty satisfied with my Italian because Mario understood my explanation.

Next he showed showed Lauren and I his Dinosaur Encyclopedia, which is another subject that he is passionate about. Talking about geology in Italian is not something that I thought I would do this summer, but it was definitely very cool to explain rocks in a different language and to share some coolknowledge about rocks with Mario!

Ciao for now,

Elise