This week has been both sweet and sour (mostly sweet!). Thursday started out miserable because it was the day after the Intercultura camp. I felt very “friendsick” that morning because I missed all of my new exchange friends so much. Once I got to school things started to get better. Everyone welcomed me with kisses and “Ciao Sienna!” It felt good to know that my classmates missed me during the three days I was absent from school. I also found out that day that I passed my physics test I had taken the week before! Everyone clapped when the teacher told my grade to the class. That was a very high point of the day :) After school I went to my Italian lesson. I got a new Italian teacher because my old one didn’t have enough time in her schedule to teach me. I really like the new teacher though, hopefully I will learn a lot from her. Oh and I found out the Netflix came to Italy! I’ve been watching shows in English with Italian subtitles ;) Pretty exciting

Friday was pretty normal: I went to school, ate lunch at home, took a nap, and watched some Italian tv. Saturday was a lot more fun. After school, instead of taking the bus home, an Intercultura volunteer picked me and Giulia up. Giulia is my friend who lives in Cittiglio (a 20 minute drive from Angera). She went to Austria last year as an AFS exchange student. Anyway, the volunteer person took us to her house and we ate a barbecue lunch there with her family. The food was incredible! Her husband cooked barbecue ribs, pork, bell peppers, zucchini, and then we had Italian coffee afterwards. I also got to try a new fruit called “kaki.” It looks just like a tomato but tastes a lot sweeter and you eat it with a spoon. After lunch, the three of us (the volunteer, Giulia, and I) rode bikes to an intercultura meeting. It was an informational meeting about the purpose of Intercultura and why being an exchange student can be so rewarding. The meeting was for Itanian teens who were thinking about becoming exchange students next year, but Giulia and I were invited as well to talk about our experiences. Also our friend Valeria came too because she went to Canada for three months over the summer as an AFS exchange student. After the meeting, we rode our bikes back to the volunteer’s house, and then she took us to the ferry boat dock. We took the ferry to the other side and then Giulia’s dad took us to their house in Cittiglio. Giulia made us delicious pasta pomodoro dish for dinner, with coconut gelato for dessert! Then we got ready to go out again, so I borrowed some of her clothes because I hadn’t planned to go to her house after the meeting. We took the ferry back to Verbania and meet Valeria there. Giulia brought a tiny chocolate cake and a candle because it was Valeria’s birthday. It was pretty hard to light it though because of the cold weather and wind, but we managed after a few tries :) We started the night off by going the the local market, and then we just walked abound Verbania. The town looked so beautiful at night with so many lights and things happening. It’s pretty normal to go out on Saturday night here, so we bumped into many people we knew from school on the streets. I even saw some of my classmates there: Natalia, Debbie, and Giulia (yes, Giulia is a very popular name here)! After a couple hours, Giulia and I caught the last boat at midnight and went back to her house where I stayed the night. Then this morning, Giulia’s aunt drove me back to Angera, and now I’m at home writing this post! Arrivederci!