Bella Notte in Italy: Barcolana

Hey everyone!
Last Sunday, I got to watch Barcolana. Barcolana is this huge boat race in Trieste. According to my host father 1000 boats participated while only 20 finished in the time limit. So yeah, it's a big deal.
I know I posted that I was going to watch it from a boat but that didn't happen because I was taking the train back to Gorizia and there was a train sciopero (strike) too. The good thing: I got home without the sciopero effecting me. The bad thing: I didn't get to go on a boat! Instead, I sat a restaurant near Miremare and watched the races from afar. Plus I ate a lot. I mean I ate almost all day. Good thing it was awesome food! It was a beautiful day too! The weather forecast had predicted rain and no good stormy weather. Instead it was warm and no wind. Warm=Good. No Wind=Bad.
I should have been prepared for boats going slow since there was pretty much no wind. But since I'm used to watching cars go over 200 mph, I thought the boats would be going a bit faster. No such luck.
On Saturday, after school I got all my stuff and then headed off to Trieste. That night I stayed with the exchange students from Verona and a small town that I can't remember the name of. We got to meet the students staying in Trieste and we went out to dinner at an English/Italian pub. Then afterwards, we walked around the main piazza, listening to the concert and just talking. On the way back to the appartment building, Noah, Emily and I got a bit lost. Before we'd left, out host parents for the night said just look for the church steeple. Well we looked and still were lost. Turns out we were a street over and were walking in circles for a good half hour. Oh well.
Some clarifications about my running situation. On the days I'm not training with the triathlon club, I'm training with the track team. So I'm still running everyday just with different people depending on what day it is. And yes, the track team is extremely fast and extremely good. Time to step it up!
I learned that interrogations in class are kind of like the Reaping in the Hunger Games. You can volunteer as tribute, I mean first to go, and then it rolls on from there. I almost fell out of my seat when I learned that.
On Thursday, Nicola had a basket game. I went and watched it and left knowing a little more about basket than I did coming into the game. Such as; if the dads aren't yelling at the refs they're yelling at each other. Did I mention this is a game with 15 year old boys playing? Still it was pretty fun. I met a girl who's about my age and who's brother is on the team as well as in Nicola's class at school. A friend for the next game.
Friday, I went to another basket game. This time it was a game to honor the grand opening of the new basket/volleyball gym that took 2 years to build. Let's just say, it's a very impressive place. Very state of the art in form. The basket was veccio glory or old glory. So we have men from 40-65 playing basketball. Yes it was kind of boring and yes I was afraid one of them was going to have a heart attack but it was really cool seeing how into basketball the Italians are. I've come up with: If they're not watching Formula 1 or soccer then they're watching basket.
I think that's it for now. I have some pictures of Barcolana for your enjoyment.