Month!

Today marks my month in Italy! I love it here and I've grown used to life here. Today, I'm going bowling with my host family, my second host family and a few friends. Hopefully it goes well because well... I'm not the best bowler. Haha! The bowling place is in Slovenia which is really cool. I get to go bowling in another country!
Last night, I went to two exhibits about Gorizian life during the 1800s and 1900s. I went with my tutor, Luigi and his wife AnnaMaria. Yes, it was interesting and yes, I couldn't understand what the leader was saying but it was still really cool. I learned that this was a really poor part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire and for people to get money, they had to give up a lot of their own stuff. It was sad, really. But they had jewelry and clothes that they found a few years ago all set up on display. Then I learned that the art part of my school actually designed paintings and fashion inspired by the exhibit. That was amazing for me!
Afterwords, we went out to dinner at this really fancy restaurant, Rosenburg. It was a 5 course meal, plus fresh bread and wine. Oh my God! It was soooooooo good!! Talk about a major food coma after the meals.
Now, school on Saturday should be illegal. I had school yesterday and I just couldn't focus. Really bad on my part since I have to focus 110% of the time. Then our schedule changed. Now on Tuesdays instead of getting out at noon, I get out at 2 and on Saturdays I get out at 1 instead of noon. But here's the thing, this new schedule isn't definite. So we'll see what happens.
I got City of Bones in Italian! To say the least, it is slow going. I'm only on Chapter 2 but I'm understanding what's happening.
So I have no idea what's going to happen this week but I'll write soon. Ciao!

Life on Exchange

Ahh, Italy! I feel so at home here and it's only my 3rd week here. School is good. I can understand my science classes which is really nice. Thank you science world for making translating easy! The challenging classes are history and Italian. Makes sense right? My Italian teacher, gave me a work book last week for learning Italian! I'm so thankful she wants to help. I've started working in it and that plus talking, I can tell that I'm learning a lot. Watching TV helps too. So far my favorite shows have become The OC, some South American teen shows and Once Upon a Time. (Though, I already love that show.)

Saturday, I got to miss school and I went to Grado for the triathlon. It was amazing! I've never been so impressed. It was truly amazing to see how driven the athletes are. Plus they have amazing stamina to do 3 events back to back. While in Grado, I got to hang out with Vicki, a girl from my training, and walk around enjoying the beach. There's a picture of me handing the first place women finisher her shell medal. I don't have it but I'll put it up when I do. We went back on Sunday for the end of summer festival. That was pretty cool too. 

School these past two days has been good. I was invited yesterday to go get Chinese with some kids from my class on Saturday so I might take them up on the offer. Then today, a girl in my class named Julia asked if I wanted to join her and her friends playing Dungeons and Dragons. You're probably thinking the Internet game. Nope! It's a writing thing where we can create our own stories. I was so happy! Not only is it a great way to get to know more people, it's the perfect way to practice my Italian. Everyone here is so helpful in that way. They always ask, can you understand this? And if not, they say it in a simpler version. Plus they bear with my really slow Italian and correct me when it's not right. I'm so happy that they're helping me in anyway they can.

Today, I finally got to go into a bookstore. I ordered City of Bones in Italian to start reading. I love it in English and I know it pretty well so I hope I can understand it in Italian. I guess, I'm just hungry to keep learning. 

So I've figured out why they call it the Rotary 15. If you don't know how to speak the language then when dinner time comes around, you don't know how to say you've had enough. Hence more weight is gained that way. Plus the food here is really good! Not to mention the chocolate. I've had Kinder once or twice in the States but here, chocolate just tastes better. Yesterday, I had sweet bread which is bread with raisins in it. Add nutella and you have the best combination ever!

Sunday, I'm going bowling with both of my host families so I hope that goes well! Ciao!

School

Yes, I know, I suck at updating my blog. But look at it this way, if I'm not updating my blog then I must be having fun, right?

I had my first day of school on Monday. I woke up around 7:15, showered, had breakfast and then rushed out the door by 8:10. School started at 8:20 but we had to find my class and everything. We made it to school and to say the least, I was a nervous wreck! I didn't know anyone, I speak enough Italian to get by but otherwise I was on my own. Claudia helped me find my class and once we got there, she started talking with the teacher (who's the wife of Nicola's basket coach) while I stood awkwardly in the doorway. After a few minutes, she motioned for me to come in, where I stood in front of the class, told them where I was from and then she started asking who spoke the best English. Thank God, a boy named Beudine (screwed that name up) knows English pretty well so he became my buddy. 

In school, we all stay in the same class while the teachers make their rotations. My classes include: Anatomy, English, Italian, Math, History, Physics, Organic Chem, regular Chem, Religion (Also my free period since I'm not religious), and Gym. Each day our classes change order so I have different classes on Mondays than say Wednesdays. I get out around 1 each day except Tuesdays and Saturdays when I get out at noon. I'm supposed to have another class but we're not sure what that class will be. 

Today, I did get to go running with the triathlon club. We did a Fartlec and it felt like good ol' cross country practice. The coach is awesome and the 4 other people on the team are amazing. The coach wants me to start coming to their swim and bike workouts so I might start doing that. Anything that keeps me in shape here.

So what about that camp last week? It was soooo much fun. We went to Trieste, Udine, Venice, Grado, a beach, a chair factory and an air force base. So in all, I learned a lot and I had a lot of fun.

I'll update at the end of this week to give the load down on how my first week of school was. Ciao!

First week: Gone like the Flash

Well last night was completed my first week in Italy! It's gone by so fast. It hasn't hit me that I'm staying here for a year. Weird but I know it will or it should. I think?
Friday night dinner with Anna and Diego was pretty good. We had pizza and Claudia made about 5. I had a slice of each. Hello Rotary 15. We watched an Italian film and even though for about 3/4 of the movie I had no idea what was going on, it was pretty cute.
Saturday was a lazy day. I finished my first impressions report (turns out it's not due for another 3 weeks. Now my next report is due in October! Woohoo, break!) and just lazed around. Then Claudia, Nicola, Carla and I went into Gorizia to do some stuff before we went out to dinner. At dinner, I met a ton of people. Like 12. A lot of people sitting at a table. We had pizza that night too. My pizza was the size of my dinner plate! And it was all for me! Also, Italians don't eat pizza like we do with our hands. They cut it up. Needless to say, I looked like a 6 year old. Plus there was this cute guy sitting across from me watching me have trouble cut my pizza and then stuff the rather large slice into my mouth. Then he goes, cuts his pizza and eats it like a normal person. Oh well, too late to turn back, is what I thought. I also think I involuntarily signed myself up for a triathlon club. So, we were talking and the girl was saying how she was the only girl on the running team and I pipe up, "I'd love to run with the team!" Then later on they were talking about a race they had on Sunday and I asked, "What's the distance?" Thinking, it's a regular 5k cross race. No, 2k run, 250 meter swim and 10k bike. A triathlon. The team is a triathlon team. Time to learn how to swim well and bike well. It'll keep me busy though.
Yesterday, I went to camp. I know I said language camp but it's really just a summer camp. We're touring north Italy for the week and I'm with 7 others in my group. Two of them are full time exchangers, one from India, one from Australia and the rest are just here for the camp. It's a pretty awesome group though. Plus I can practice my Italian with the vendors and translate for everyone. The girl from Australia has been in Trieste for the past 7 months and is completely fluent even though she came here knowing not a word. Good sign for me I hope.We're in Corovado and there was a Renaissance festival going on. My first Renaissance festival and it's in Italy! How awesome is that? So I got to walk around with the other kids and watch the parade go around and watch some of the games. A little background: The town has four sections and where we were, we were gold and black. In each game/competition who ever won got points. The games have been going on for the past week. So last night at 8:30, the lady who we were with screams, "We won!" It was pretty cool. I think they all partied hard into the night. I left at 11:20 and they were still going at it.
Today, we went to Trieste. We rode the train. A train, yes, a good old train! And we went to a castle that was Maximilian and his wife, Catherine's house. (Maximilian was the emperor of Mexico way back when. To say the least, I want to live there. It was so cool but we couldn't take pictures so I'm happy with my memories. Then in the afternoon we went to another castle and the main church of Trieste. I freakin love castles now. Here they're amazing and I think living in one of them with your knight in shinning armor is the way to go.
I had the biggest gelato today. I split it with two others in my group. It had peach slices and all these magnificent gelato flavors in it. Yeah, I'm pretty happy.
Tomorrow we go to Udine for an air show and then the next day we're in Venice! Venice! The place of my dreams. I can't wait for it. Then we spend the next two days at the beach and then I'm back home, preparing for my first day of school on Monday.