Today was day two of our J-term classes, and they went well. Mer reviewed the Italian vocabulary the students learned yesterday, as well as added some new words. She also highlighted Italian cinema, looking at clips from Cinema Paradiso, the Italian trailer for A Fistful of Dollars (released in Italy before coming to the U.S.), and more. She also looked at Italian fashion designers like Armani.

In my hiking class, we headed over to Brecksville Reservation, where we were meeting up with a naturalist named Pam. We were supposed to walk the four-mile Deer Lick Trail, but when we got there, Pam strongly recommended against it, citing icy trail conditions (they had had several hikers fall on the ice the day before). Instead, we started around the nature center, where she helped us feed the birds, which were mostly small chickadees. If you held still and were quiet, the birds would come and take seeds right out of your hand. Most of the students had at least one bird land on them, and several students had many, with one having eleven birds land on his hand. The kids seemed to enjoy the experience.

We then hiked the flatter trails around the nature center, and walked over to the gorge on the eastern side of the park. It was very pretty with the snow and ice, and Pam explained about various tracks in the snow and some of the plants around. We finished the first hike back at the bus, which we took to the far side of the park, where we picked up a small section of the Deer Lick Trail, which was still a pretty tough hike in the snow, and we walked down to the Deer Lick Cave, a small hollowed-out cave in a rocky portion of the park. We then headed back the way we came, and got back to the bus. It was a pretty good hike, even if it was not the original plan, and the kids seemed to enjoy the mellower pace after the longer hike yesterday on the Towpath. We now get the weekend to rest up for the five straight days of hiking next week.