Over this weekend I got to go to an Intercultura (AFS) camp! It was so amazing and I had so much fun! My host parents drove me to Novara (about 45 minutes away from Angera) on Sunday, where I met a few other exchange students. Then we took an hour long train ride to Turin (Torino), and then a bus ride to the hotel. There were a total of 51 exchange students from all around the world! I got to meet people from almost all of the continents, and only 6 of us were from the USA! It was so incredible meeting all of these people because they all had such different stories to tell. Everyone could speak english which was nice. It felt good to speak my native language again and take a break from Italian. It was so funny to listen to everyone talk because they all had different accents!

The first night of the camp, everyone gathered in one room and played games to get to know each other. We played “Bang”(?), where everyone stands in a circle, and one person in the middle points to someone and shouts “bang!” and that means the two people next to that person has to shoot each other. Whoever shoots first wins and the other has to sit down. There are other components of the game such as shouting “washing machine!” or “hot dog!” so it got pretty confusing. Everyone got really into the game though so it was super fun and intense. We played it Monday night as well, and I was one of two people to go to the final round! I was proud of myself :) We also played a game where we had to try to kiss each other on the cheek. That got pretty intense too.

On Monday we woke up at about 7:30, ate breakfast, and then went for a walk in Turin. It was a beautiful day and it felt nice to walk outside to get some fresh air for the fresh new day. Then we went back to the hotel and split up into groups of about 15 people each. My group was the yellow group. In our groups we talked about our experiences in Italy so far and any problems we might be having with our host families. It was pretty helpful to talk to other exchange students to get their opinions on certain matters. It was also fun to here their stories about unusual/funny things that happened to them so far. We found that many of us have experienced the same things already! Then we had a pasta lunch with fish, and then free time for a bit. During the free time is when I bonded with other students the most. We would go out on the balcony and talk, play games, teach each other native dances from our countries. We would always play this game called “Werewolf,” which is the same as “Mafia” but with different characters involved. Instead of the mafia there are werewolves. Instead of the angel there is a witch. There are other characters like “the one who can see everything,” “the hunter,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “the little girl” (who I still have no idea what she does haha). After free time we went back to our groups and talked some more. Then we had dinner and played games again, and then went to bed at about 11:30.

Tuesday morning we woke up the same time, ate breakfast, and split up into our groups again. This time we talked about school and the differences between Italian school and school in our native countries. There are so many differences! And it was really fun to hear about schools in other countries as well. After that we had lunch, and then free time to practice for the talent show that night. We all had to be in it, and we all had to prepare something for it. We had the choice of doing anything for the talent show, so people prepared dances, skits, music, ext. It was extremely hard for the U.S. students to come up with anything because we don’t really have a native dance or a native talent that we’re known for, so we decided to team up with a Turkish girl and learn a Turkish dance. It was pretty successful in the end because the dance looked super cool, and a whole bunch of people joined in. The other talents were amazing too! My favorite talent was when some students from Thailand danced their native dance because they wore special clothing for it too. It looked really exotic and unique. I videotaped many of the talents before my phone died, so I can post them in my next youtube video. After the talent show, we all went up to the balcony and looked at the non-existent stars. Then we talked for a while, played games, learned Russian dances, and went to bed. I don’t think anyone wanted to leave the next morning, so we tried to savor the last day by staying up until 2 or 3am.

Today was a very sad day, because I had to say goodbye to all of my new exchange friends and go back to my Italian family. I love my family, but it was really really hard to leave my friends. It’s amazing how close I got with some of them in only three days. They are some of the most incredible people I have ever met. The next time I will see most of them is in June, but hopefully I will get together with some of them sooner than that. Until next time :)

Good news! Yesterday I found out that I will be going to an Intercultura (AFS) camp from Sunday to Wednesday! That means I get to meet other exchange students in the area and bond over funny exchange student stories! Lol. Anyway, I’m super excited and can’t wait to tell you all about it in my next post :)

This week has been pretty normal. Monday I had school and then flute lesson in the evening. Tuesday it rained really hard, so after school I just stayed at home the whole evening and read, watched tv, and studied. Wednesday I had my first test in school. It was in my Italian class, and the teacher gave all of the students three pieces of paper with documents on them. They were all in Italian (obviously), but luckily, the teacher gave me a general idea of what they were about. Ironically, they were all about people migrating to different countries and how they felt when they left their original homes. The test told everyone to analyze the documents and find similarities and differences between them (I think?), but I was told to just write about my own experience with leaving home (since I couldn’t comprehend the documents completely). The teacher told me it would be okay if I wrote in english, but I decided to take a leap of faith and write in Italian. I used all of my knowledge of vocabulary, conjugations, and tenses, and I think it turned out pretty well! Although, my grammar was pretty rough. I was trying to use the past tense for most of my writing, but there were some irregular verbs that I hadn’t learned the past participle for (such as avere and andare), so I kinda just guessed on those. I looked up the participle later that day and realized that I was totally wrong on some of the verbs haha, hopefully my teacher will still understand what I wrote. Anyway, I was proud of myself for writing in Italian :) After school I went to my Italian lesson, and then my host family took me to the cinema (movie theater). We watched “Everest.” It was an amazing film, and I could understand a lot of the Italian! During the movie, I remember watching a really dramatic part where everyone was holding their breath because it was so intense. And then all of a sudden, the movie just stopped and the lights turned on! I thought something had gone wrong with the projector, but then on the screen, the word “intervallo” showed up. Then I realized it was intermission! It’s so fun to see the little differences between America and Italy.

Today I had a physics test. I didn’t realize we needed calculators for it, so I didn’t bring one to school. Luckily my friend Natalia lent me her extra one. The test went alright. The teacher let me use my notes for the first part where I had to describe the differences between different kinds of forces (gravity force, elastic force, friction force). The second part was solving equations. It went pretty well because I had studied the night before, but there were some problems that I didn’t understand because of the Italian vocabulary. Today was really cold and rainy, so after school I went straight home. I ate lunch, watched tv, and worked on my new Youtube channel. I decided to make a Youtube channel where I will post monthly videos of my time here in Italy! The videos will basically show small clips of my life here. I uploaded my first video today, so check it out with this link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7laU0MFrmdg

Until next time, Ciao tutti!

Over the weekend, my host family took me to see the great mountain of “Monte Rosa,” which is one of the Alps near Switzerland. It was the most incredible places I have EVER been. Saturday morning, we woke up at 7, took a 3 hour drive to the mountain, stopped at the market for some cheese, bread, and wine, and then arrived at the camp site at 11 o’clock. The drive up was pretty long, but it was worth it in the end because I had the most amazing time! We drove through the cutest town called “Champoluc,” and I got to sit in the front seat for part of the way so I took a whole bunch of beautiful pictures of the town and the mountains :) I posted all of my pics on facebook so check them out!! None of them are edited by the way, it’s just that beautiful here <3 There were a total of 11 of us who went on the trip: Me, Camilla, Martino, my host mom, host dad, Giulia (friend), Alberto (friend), Andrea (Camilla’s boyfriend), and three other adults (I don’t know their names).

When we arrived to the campsite, we got settled in, and then ate a HUGE lunch. I had two servings of homemade “pasta pomodori” (pasta with tomato sauce), bread with fresh cheese and salami, a whole bunch of grapes, two cups of Italian coffee, and “torte cioccolato” (chocolate cake) that Camilla made. It was so delicious but I ate way too much and had a stomach ache afterward. It’s okay it was worth it. After lunch, everyone kind of split up and did whatever they wanted. Some of the guys went hiking, the adults stayed at the campsite, and Giulia, Camilla, and I went on a hike together up the mountain. I’m not lying when I say that it was the prettiest hike I have ever been on. The trees up there were “molto belli” (very beautiful) and they were all different colors. There were light green ones, dark green, yellow, orange, I think I even saw a purple/red one haha. We hiked up to the top of one of the mountains where there was the “Lago Blu” (blue lake). It was so beautiful! I took the most beautiful pictures there because the view was amazing! It was picture perfect with the blue lake being crystal clear, gorgeous trees surrounding it, and the tall, snow-capped mountains in the background. Giulia, Camilla, and I climbed on top of a huge rock and took a whole bunch of pics. And Giulia taught me how to say “to sun tan” in Italian. It translates to “prendere in sole” which literally means “to take in the sun.” I also learned slang words like “ecco” and “dai” that are used by everyone here all the time. After the hike, we all gathered together and ate another HUGE meal! For dinner I had bread with cheese and salami again, ribs that were cooked on the barbecue, potatoes with some kind of green herb on them (I was excited because I though it was parsley like how mom makes them…but it wasn’t), “pepperoni” (bell peppers), three cups of Italian coffee, and some more of Camilla’s cake. I was SO full after but it was SO worth it because it was SO good! We didn’t end up finishing dinner until midnight, so then we went straight to bed after helping clean dishes. We all slept in sleeping bags on bunkbeds in one room. I didn’t sleep very well, probably because of the 5 cups of strong coffee I had had that day, but also because there was this one guy near me who snored really loudly the whole night! I think the others were also bothered by his snoring because I kept hearing them trying to wake him up with loud noises. I probably didn’t end up falling asleep until 3 or 4 in the morning…oh well!

The next morning we slept in till about 9, and then ate a breakfast of bread, nutella, and tea. Then we just hung out at the campsite for a couple hours. I took a walk and listened to music, and some of the guys chopped wood in preparation for winter. I then helped my host mom make lunch. For lunch I had carrots with lemon juice, salad, a rice dish with meat and vegetables mixed into it, fruit, bread, and two cups of coffee. After lunch we packed up the campsite and headed out. It took a while to pack up and clean the cabin, so we didn’t end up leaving until about 4.

The whole trip was so amazing and TOTALLY worth missing school for! I had the most amazing time and made so many memories. It was a good bonding weekend for all of us too; I think I became a lot closer with my host family and friends. I thanked my host parents for taking me up the mountain and they said we might go again in the winter! I would definitely say that it was the best day I have had so far in Italy :)

This week has been pretty fun! Monday I had school and then a flute lesson afterward. I’m glad I signed up to take flute classes, I think I will be very grateful after this year when I go back to the USA for my senior year and play flute for the highest level band.

Tuesday I went to school and had a few classes, including PE, and this time I felt super prepared! I wore black leggings with a T-shirt, a ponytail, and tennis shoes. The first 10 minutes of class we stretched, and then ran around and around the gym for 10 minutes. I noticed that I have a huge pet peeve for sow runners. Almost all of the girls in my class are really slow (or just lazy) and they just jog around, dragging their feet. They don’t even run! Either they’re really slow or I’m just really fast because I kept passing all of them every 30 seconds! Anyway, the next hour we spent playing games. We played this one game called “four balls”(?) where there are four teams; three of the teams stand in three different corners of the room, and one team scatters in the middle. The three teams in the corners have to run around the room and get back to their starting point as many times as possible. It’s kind of like baseball where there are safe places and a home base. Meanwhile, while the three teams are running around and around, the team in the middle tries to get them out by hitting them with the ball. It felt really dangerous to me, so I didn’t run around that much. I mostly just stayed in the safe places lol. We also played dodgeball where we all just try to hit everyone else with a ball, and if you get hit, you have to sit down. I lasted a while, but then got hit with the ball and had to sit down. There was one guy in my class who was running backward trying not to get hit, and he ended up tumbling over me, knocking me down! It was okay though, I didn’t get hurt. The rest of the time in PE we brought out the huge jumprope and started jumping. There ended up being like 10 people in the middle jumping all at once! It was pretty fun I’d have to say.

Wednesday was a beautiful day! It was sunny, warm, and not a cloud in the sky :) After school I decided to go for my first bike ride here. It felt good to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful town of Angera. For lunch I had this amazing pizza with ham and cheese, and then Italian coffee afterward. I LOVE Italian coffee! It’s a lot stronger than American coffee and has a very bitter, but really distinct, yummy taste. I like to put a lot of sugar in it to make it sweeter. Also, because it’s so strong, Italians use tiny little cups for their coffee. They look like little teacups for doll houses! I love it!

Thursday in school, my tedesco (German) teacher never showed up, so we had a substitute. This is the fourth time a teacher hasn’t showed up to school, apparently it’s pretty normal here! That hour was spent talking to classmates, and watching them battle out this card game called “scopa.” Apparently everyone knows how to play it except me. My host brother taught me the first week I came here, but I already forgot! So I watched them play the game, and then slowly remembered the rules as they played. It’s a very complicated game, but hopefully I will get better at it soon! After school I ate a pasta lunch and then relaxed at home. I didn’t really feel like going out, so I studied some Italian, translated some notes from school, and watched Italian tv shows. I’m really enjoying the cooking channels here!

Today has not been such a great day. This morning my stomach really hurt, and continued to hurt until the end of school. It rained the whole morning and it was super cold even with my jacket and rain coat! School was really boring today because I had three hours of down time. One hour in tedesco (German) and two hours in francese (French). My class had a two hour french test today, but I didn’t have to take it because it was material they had learned over the summer. I just doodled the whole time. It was still raining after school so I used my umbrella while I walked to the bus stop. Then I wasn’t fast enough to get on the bus because people kept pushing me out of the way. I ended up being one of the last ones to get on, meaning I had to stand for 45 minutes, holding on for dear life while the bus went around roundabouts going 30 miles per hour. When I finally got home, I ate fish for lunch, took a nap, and then watched more Italian tv. Now I’m writing this blog while I wait for dinner.

Tomorrow I’m not going to school because my host family is going to take me hiking up a mountain! I’m really excited and can’t wait to take a whole bunch of pictures and tell you all about in in my next blog post. Ciao!

Yesterday marked one month of being here in Italy! Time has flown by so quickly! I feel like I have already learned so much Italian since I’ve been here, I can’t wait to see how much I know in another month.

Yesterday I was able to Skype my family for the second time since I’ve been here. It was nice to see their faces again :) I also went to a birthday party yesterday for Camilla and Martino’s grandma. It was the third birthday party I’ve been to this month! The party was held at her house and the whole family came over. And when I say the “whole family,” I actually mean the WHOLE family. There were aunts, uncles, cousins, sons and daughters of those cousins. It was crazy, but apparently it’s pretty normal for the whole family to get together every Sunday. I asked my host grandfather about it and he said, “It’s like having Thanksgiving every week!” Each family brought some kind of dessert for Nona (grandma), so there ended up being five or six desserts on the table after everyone had came! There was chocolate cake, pistachio cake (?), gelato cake (basically like ice cream cake but gelato instead of ice cream), waffles (made by Camilla), and someone even brought a huge bowl full of chestnuts! I never knew you could actually eat them, I thought they were just some kind of made up nut from the Christmas song “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire.” Anyway haha, I ate my first chestnut about a week ago at the Festa dell”Uva with my new friend Giulia, it was very tasty! I was very happy to see the huge bowl of them yesterday :)

Ciao ragazzi! School has gotten more boring for me. It’s very hard to stay attentive in class when I don’t know what the teacher is saying, when I don’t have the textbooks, and when the teacher just stands in front of the class and talks the whole time. On a brighter note, I feel like I have really bonded with some of my classmates this week! I always look forward to snack time in school because that’s when I have a chance to talk to my friends and get to know them better. Today was the first day we had math class, and I was very proud of myself because I understood everything the teacher was writing on the chalkboard! We are learning algebra right now, so it’s kind of a review for me.

Today was pretty uneventful, I went to school, had some gelato with friends while waiting for the boat (we missed the first one), ate lunch at home, took a nap with Micio (the cat), and now I’m about to eat dinner. I don’t know what we are having for dinner, probably pasta, some kind of vegetable like eggplant (although we had that last night), bread, and of course fruit. I’ve noticed that Italians eat a lot of fruit. I eat it during every meal, even breakfast! My favorite fruits here are peaches and kiwi. I never ate kiwi in Phoenix because I though they were too hard to peal, but after I actually tried it, I realized that it’s just like pealing any other fruit! And they are SO good here! Italians also eat a lot of bread here, they always buy those long baguettes. That’s the only kind of bread they eat! There is always fruit, bread, cheese, wine, sparkling water, and natural water at the table. I really thought I would like the cheese here since it’s natural and fresh, but I found that I can’t stand the smell! I definitely like American cheese better even though it’s fake :) I brought a box of kraft mac and cheese here and made it for my family. They laughed so hard when they saw the tiny bag of cheese in the form of powder! I wish I could have gotten it on tape! Anyway, dinner is almost ready. Buon appetito!

Ciao! I can’t believe it has already been three weeks since I’ve been here in Italy! I guess time flies by when you’re having fun. Yesterday I didn’t have school because it was Sunday and because it was a holiday. Every year in Angera, they hold a festival called the “Festa dell’Uva” which means “festival of grapes.” So I went to church with my family in the morning, and then the festival in the evening. It was really exciting! There was a parade and everything! A whole bunch of people dressed up as farmers, and a lot of people were drinking wine to celebrate the grapes. There was even a competition to judge whose float was the best. People took the competition VERY seriously. I can post pictures on Facebook later tonight. Their floats were so extravagant with amazing decorations, music, and people dancing. I even saw a couple with REAL food glued onto the float. And some of Camilla’s friends were in charge of one of the floats, so I got to tag along too for part of the parade.

At school today, my teacher finally came back from Canada, so we got to have english class! It was fun for me because the teacher kept asking me how I would spell certain words in english. Apparently he is from England so they spell words differently than Americans. During our snack break today, some of my classmates asked me what people in Arizona are called, so I replied “Arizonians.” Then they came up with a new name, so now I am an “Arizoniano,” because Italians are called “Italianos.” Yay, I have an Italian name! ;)

Buona sera tutti! (good evening everyone!) I have officially survived my first week of Italian high school! This week has been one of the most memorable, exciting, terrifying, fun, exhausting weeks of my life! Here is why:

Monday: I already told you about my first day… so keep reading ;)

Tuesday: My first class was filosofia (philosophy). The whole hour consisted of talking with the teacher and chatting about our summers. My next class was Italiano (Italian). We talked half of the time, and then the teacher gave us a list of books to buy. My third class was Tedesco (German). This was the first class in which the teacher actually taught us something. Well not me since I’ve never taken German before, but the other students learned something…I think…maybe. My last class of the day was storia (history). We just talked the entire time in this class. Oh and then the teacher tried to figure out where Arizona is located in the United States, but he had to pull out a map because he thought it was in the northern half near Pennsylvania…kinda weird since he’s a history teacher. Should I be worried? haha Anyway, school let out at 12:20 again and I ran with Camilla to the bus stop. Okay, here’s when the exciting part happens. When we turned the corner to see the bus stop, we literally saw like 80 people trying to squeeze themselves up into the tiny door of the same bus. Then we realized that it was our bus! So we ran into the crowd and started pushing people. I felt like I was being squeezed to death by a million bodies at the same time and that my ribs were crumbling inside me one by one. I’ve never felt so claustrophobic in my life. Camilla somehow made it on the bus, and I was right at the door when the bus driver yelled: “Non piu!” Which means “no more!” in Italian. So I stood back and watched Camilla drive away. Luckily, I was not alone. Some of Camilla’s friends were also left behind, so they called Camilla on her phone. Then 10 minutes later Camilla magically showed up out of nowhere! I guess she got off at the next bus stop and walked back; and what a sacrifice she made because we had to wait a whole hour before the next bus came! That time we actually made it on the bus, and then drove home.

Wednesday: This is the day I had the scariest moment of my life, so listen closely. Or should I say “read closely” lol. The day started out normally with getting to school 30 minutes tardy because the bus is ALWAYS late, and then heading off to my first class. My first class was supposed to be Inglese (English), but then the teacher decided to take us on a field trip to another school instead! They wanted us (my classmates) to practice our English with Americans who were visiting our town. It was a short bus ride to our destination, but a long, exhausting walk in the rain. We were all very thankful to get inside the warm school. During our 2 hours in the school, we got a chance to meet the Americans and ask them questions. I mostly just listened while my classmates practiced their English, but it was interesting to hear the many stories the Americans had to tell. Then we got back on the bus and drove back to our school. The only problem was, the bus was late getting back so we didn’t arrive at school until 12:45! I knew Camilla must have been worried, but I didn’t have her phone number or a phone that had service at the time, so I couldn’t contact her. When we arrived at school, I jumped out of the bus and ran inside to find Camilla. When I couldn’t find her anywhere I thought, she’s probably at the bus stop since she’s not at school. But no, she was not at the bus stop either. She probably took the first bus then, so I can take the next one, I thought. So I tried to figure out when the next bus to Arona was, but the schedule was all in Italian! This was when I got very very worried. I was stuck at a bus stop with a whole bunch of Italian students, waiting for a bus I wasn’t sure was even going to come, and I was without a phone with service or internet to call any of my host family. It was the first time that I felt like a total outsider. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my entire life. What am I going to do? Am I going to have to sleep here tonight? Would this count as an emergency where I could break the AFS rules and hitchhike back to Arona? There were a million thoughts going through my head, but then I realized that not one of them was going to help me get back home to Angera. I decided to take a chance, and put my small list of Italian vocabulary to good use. I asked a girl next to me if she spoke English, and she said “un po” (a little). So I explained my situation to her in English at first, but she didn’t understand, so I switched to Italian. Finally after about 5 minutes of a speaking rough Italian with a whole bunch of hand gestures and pointing to my phone, I think she finally understood what I needed. But it didn’t matter anymore because in that moment a miracle happened – I saw Camilla come around the corner and start to head towards me. When we saw each other, relieved smiles came across our faces. I can’t describe how relieved I felt to finally know that I was safe. I was so happy I almost cried.

Thursday: My first class was storia dell’arte (art history). This class lasted two hours. The first hour we just talked about random things and told stories, and the next hour the teacher went through presentation slides while we took notes. It was difficult to write down notes since the presentation was in Italian, but I translated it all when I got home. My next class was Tedesco (German), so I just doodled the whole time. Then I had storia (history) as my last class. This class was very difficult because the teacher would say something, and we would have to write it down. Luckily, my history class is in French, so I knew most of the words and knew how to spell them. Again, I translated my notes when I got home. Then Camilla and I got on the bus and went home.

Friday: In my Italian school, they require all of the students to take PE one day of the week. For me, that day was friday. I had PE for two whole hours. My class was supposed to meet in the gym that morning. However, I was never told that information… so I ended up in an empty classroom for 10 minutes until two of my classmates came and found me. In PE we played volleyball. However, our teacher is apparently not coming until November (??) so most of us just sat and watched. I played for like 10 minutes, but then sat down when I realized I couldn’t even hit the ball correctly. My next class was English but the teacher is still in Canada, so we had a substitute teacher who just talked in Italian for an hour about who knows what. Finally I had French. The teacher just talked in French the whole time so we didn’t learn anything significant. After school, we went home, had lunch, studied, ate dinner, and then Camilla, Martino, and I went to Camilla’s boyfriend’s birthday party. It was held at his house outside, and it was pretty fun! I got to see all of their friends again. There was food, dancing, etc. The party lasted pretty late, so we didn’t get home until around 1:30 am. It’s pretty normal in Italy to start parties late at night and end early in the morning.

Saturday: I had school today. Yes, I will have school every Saturday. It’s an Italian thing idk. My first class was matematica (math), but the teacher wasn’t here so we just talked the whole time. Then I had fisica (physics). That was probably the hardest class of all of my classes so far. The teacher talked very quickly in Italian, and we had to write down everything she said. It was very difficult for me, and I got really frustrated with myself. I looked at one of my classmate’s notes after class but didn’t have enough time to write down everything. Hopefully my teacher will understand since I’m not fluent in Italian yet. My next class was Francese (French). Again, we just talked with the teacher about random things the whole time, so I didn’t learn anything. My last class of the week was Italiano (Italian). Thankfully, instead of talking the whole time, the teacher wrote down notes on the whiteboard, so I just copied down everything in my notebook and translated it at home. After school, I had lunch with my family, took a nap, studied, and now I’m typing this blog post :)

This week has been so full of different emotions and events I can’t even count all of them. Overall, I think I really learned a lot from this week. Not just about school related topics, but also myself, my fears, and my abilities. I’m so grateful to have this wonderful opportunity and I’m excited to see what next week will bring. Talk later!

Today was my first day of school! I woke up at 6:15, drove to the lake, took a 5 minute boat ride across the lake, walked to the bus stop, took a 45 minute bus ride to Verbania, and finally ended up at school at 8:00! I was really nervous at first to go to school because of classmates, teachers, the fact that I don’t really know Italian, etc. But it actually wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. The students in my class were really nice to me, and they helped me understand important information the teachers were saying. Most of them actually spoke english really well, so that made it easier for me to talk to them.

My first class didn’t start until 9:00 today because it was the first day of school, but in the future, classes will start at 8:00. My first class was Italian. Just like we study English in America, they study Italian in Italy. During this class, we had an activity where we wrote down one positive and one negative thing we did over the summer. I wrote: “Io va a l’Italia” (I go to Italy) for the positive – I haven’t learned past tense yet lol. And then I wrote “non lo so” (I don’t know) for the negative. The rest of the time was just the teacher talking about something; I couldn’t understand him. Then the bell rang, and all of the students started tumbling out of the classroom and running downstairs. I was very confused the whole time and had no idea what was happening, so I just followed them. Apparently, since Italian schools only last until about 1:00 every day, they don’t include lunch in their schedule. So instead of letting students starve for 5 hours, they put in a “snack break,” which is a 10 minute break where students go to the little cafeteria place and eat a snack. However, if you’re only one person out of 2,000 people who wants a snack, it takes a very long time to buy something from the cafeteria, and then you end up only getting 30 seconds to eat your panini. It’s a very stressful time for tired, hungry students. My next class was physics. Again, the whole class period was just the teacher talking so I was really bored the whole time. My last class was supposed to be English language class, but the teacher is apparently in Canada right now (huh?), so we joined another classroom and sat in on another Italian class. School ended at 12:20 today, so some friends, Camilla, and I went to eat lunch at a caffe down the road from school. Then Camilla and I hopped back on the bus, the boat, and then the car to get back home at about 4:00.

Another thing that happened today, I had my first flute lesson with Camilla and her flute teacher! It went pretty well, we started with scales, and then moved on to pieces. I will be taking lessons every Monday evening.

Tomorrow I have school again, and then an Italian lesson that evening. I can’t wait to see what my other classes are like! I will update you all at the end of the week. Buona notte! :)

Ciao everyone! I’m still in Italy and am staying with the best family ever! We went to the Expo again yesterday and it was super fun! We woke up at 6, rode a train to Milan, stayed there till 11, and then hopped back on the train and got back the the house at 12. It was an exhausting, but really exciting day. We got to see more exhibits for many countries like Austria, Belgium, Chile, Columbia, Côte d’Ivoire, Korea, Ireland, Italy, Iran, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, and Vietnam. Wow I didn’t realize how many countries we saw until now!

Yesterday I got to meet my Italian language teacher. She is really sweet and I’m excited to take lessons from her. I will be taking lessons on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school. School starts on Monday so my next post will probably be about that. See you then!