The kids I teach english to have the book The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Now this book has pictures from the movie in it, I have never seen the movie but I recognize some of the pictures from the commercials. Well their Grandma was over at their house today and the little girl, Sara, asked her if she could read it to her. The Grandma, Nonna Lucia as I call her, did what I usually do she looks at the picture and made up her own story to go along with it.... so far this is seems completely normal... but you didn't hear the story I did. What follows is more or less the way she told the beginning of the story:
Picture: A bunch of kids crying and being loaded onto trains (for those of you who haven't seen the movie, like me, the kids are being sent away to a safe place because it takes place in wartime England)
Nonna Lucia: There was a war going on and all the kids were being shipped away, taken away from their families, their mom's and dad's and brother's and so on to go to labor camps. You know the kind where they used the children, young children like you to make war machines for the Germans. These children had to work all day long, got nothing to eat and had no one with them. See (points at the page) that is why they are crying. Wouldn't you cry too if they took you away from you mom, dad and Edoardo (her little brother)...
Sara is just staring at her. I don't think her 5 year old mind could process everything that it was being told.
Nonna Lucia: So they get on the train, because they are forced to, and it's not a comfortable train like we use now, it was a train where you had to stand up all the way and if you had to pee you were forced to pee in your pants, see how lucky you are to have a bathroom... Anyway, they were all on the train to go to their labor camp and work all day and after they finished all their work a lot of them were killed, but no one really knows how many children died because there were no records kept of them
At one point she gets to a picture of a wardrobe and a little girl is looking at it
Nonna Lucia: See this little girl, not much bigger than you just finished building this wardrobe and she is checking it to make sure that there are no mistakes on it, because if there were they Germans would get mad and she would be in A LOT of trouble!
At this point she turns the page and is no longer able to make up her own story so she started reading the normal story, but it was hilarious, at one point I had to get up from my chair and go into the bathroom to keep from laughing out loud! It was so funny. I mean who does that to a 5 year old!!!! It was too funny. I just told Antonio this story and I laughed so hard I started doing my wheezy laugh and crying from the laughter.
On a different note a today a friend of mine said "Cyn, I want your life" to which I responded " If I weren't me... I would want my life too". It's so true though... I'm not trying to be all ' My life is great, everyone should worship me', but I do have to admit that my life is pretty good, and even when some things aren't too great it's ok because I live in Italy. Basically, even when it is bad it can't be that bad! I do love my life though! I am happy!
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