Sunday was so much fun, I got to visit the San Giulio Island (the island on Lake Orta). It was so amazing! My new host dad, Pigi, took me and Tiantian to see it. Tiantian is a girl from China who my family hosted two years ago and she’s now going to a university in Milan, she comes to visit Marisa and Pigi once and a while :) We visited the Basilica of San Giulio, the monastery, and walked around the little shops on the island. It was so interesting to learn the history of these places. We also visited part of the land next to the lake – The Orta San Giulio, where we saw The Santa Maria Assunta, a Catholic church, and the town surrounding it. And we took a whole bunch of beautiful pictures that are now on Facebook!

Monday I went to school. I got to carpool with two girls who live in Pettenasco and go to my school Cobianchi, Giada and Marilù. Giada’s dad drove us to Omegna, and then we took the bus from Omegna to Verbania to school. Then after school we took the second bus back to Omegna because the first bus was full. The buses are crazy here! Whenever the bus comes, there are literally 50 people trying to get on, so if you want a seat you have to push everyone aside and not look back. I’ve actually gotten quite good at it, so I usually get a seat :) I guess I’m a true Italian now! Yesterday I also had my first lesson of crew! I signed up to take lessons every week with my next door neighbor. The first lesson was just conditioning though, so we had to run over hills outside for an hour and then do gym exercises for another hour. Tomorrow we will start rowing on the lake. I’m so excited!