It's Christmastime!

Buon Natale a tutti! J Christmas is only five days away and I am SO excited to experience it in Italy. I’ll be going up to a village in the mountains with my host family (they have a house there) to celebrate, and it’ll be wonderful to get some mountain snow this year. The holiday season has been pretty busy for me, tomorrow is the Christmas choir concert and last weekend was the Rotary Christmas lunch. I’ve gotten some good travel opportunities in as well- the other day I attended a lecture on belcanto (classical Italian singing technique) in Venice, and one evening some exchangers in our district took the train to Verona for our exchange friend’s birthday! As for what I’ve been up to on a daily basis, here is an outline of my average day as an exchange student here.

Every day I go to school and recently I’ve started tutoring in English. I really enjoy teaching English, which is making me think that ESL may be a good career choice for me! Today I helped three girls prepare for their English oral exam in January. After school I come home for lunch, then usually practice piano (tomorrow I have my first piano recital!). I’ve started doing some different after school activities: zumba (a type of dance with latin-ish music, very fun), choir (of course), and Italian class (I’ve been improving!). We eat dinner at around 8:00 and I usually go to bed pretty exhausted.

I’m hoping to do some winter hiking during the Christmas break, so we’ll see if that works out… I’ll post a bit later when the break finally gets here. Only one more day of school, thank goodness!

With a street performer in Verona

Christmas lights in Verona!

Shopping in Verona!

Decorating the Christmas tree with Marco :)

The view from my window at school... and the reason I have trouble paying attention in class when the beautiful snow covered alps are so close

This is "lardo"- instead of bacon with meat, it's just the fat. The white part is the fat, and the pinkish strip is the meat. I was a bit skeptical at first but it's S0 yummy!!

Little treats from the Pasticceria... aka my Italian substitute for cakewalk :D

Headed to a voice workshop in Venice with a friend from choir!

A Lesson Learned

Stay with me people, this is going to be a long post! Ignore what I wrote about changing schools in my last post- it turns out that I won’t be switching after all. On Tuesday I woke up in the morning and took the bus to the linguistic school, where a really nice girl (a friend of one of my classmates) took me in and introduced me to the teachers and students. They showed me their class schedule, and as I looked at it I realized the linguistic school taught the exact same subjects as the scientific school, expect for an extra hour each day of Spanish. Oh well, I thought, at least I get to take Spanish here. But as I was sitting in my desk, quietly listening to the teacher’s lecture, I began to get a bad feeling about changing schools. The more the day progressed, the more I realized that this “linguistic” school was academically almost identical to my old school- but socially it was stricter and more cliquey. The atmosphere was even more rigid and formal, and there was less of a sense of community like I had noticed in my old school. As I looked at the other kids around me I began to miss my former classmates. I thought about the reasons for switching in the first place- to take classes that were more interesting to me- and suddenly I realized that a school change was not going to accomplish that. My problem with the science school was that I sat through 5-6 hours of lectures every day, hardly understanding most of what I was hearing. I was surprised at what teachers used their class time for- they just talked at the students, who sat taking notes for the whole hour. We never did any discussions or activities, and the only time the students were allowed to speak was during “interrogations” (oral tests where one person is interrogated by the teacher in front of the whole class, ant then the teacher tells them their grade and usually gives some harsh feedback). I guess I thought that it was just my old school, and that other schools would be different. Wrong.

The public education system here in Italy is very different. It is much more formal. So far I have gotten in trouble for talking to the person next to me (when the teacher wasn’t talking), stretching my arm, singing (after class), yawning, drinking water, and eating. When a professor enters the room all the students stand up as a sign of respect. Once my classmate was telling a story to her friend and was imitating some character from a movie by talking in a funny voice, when suddenly the teacher walked in the room, saw her talking in a funny voice, and reprimanded her. It seems to me that the teachers demand respect from the students that they do not reciprocate. All of these things I didn’t like, and wanted to get away from- but in fact you can’t escape it because all schools in Italy are like that. My little host brother, who is 10 years old, asked the principal of his school if he could switch classes to be in a class where all of his friends had been placed. The principal said no and told him he was a “spoiled child” for having asked. At the end of that first day at the language school, I went to the secretary and asked to return to my old school, even though there are still things about the science school that I don’t like. But hey, if I’m going to school in Italy for the whole year, I’d much rather it be with my original classmates at the science school, who are so friendly!

So in conclusion to this whole story, yes, it was silly of me to change schools for one day and then switch back. But I’m glad I at least tried the other school, because it has taught me this: sometimes during exchange there are things about my host country (ahem the oppressive public education system in Italy) that I really don’t like. Yes, there are so many amazing things about Italy- the delicious food, the old architecture, the friendly people, the beautiful language- but just like the culture of the US, there are also things I don’t like. I think accepting that is part of living abroad- not just being a tourist, but experiencing everything about the country.

Basta with speculations about exchange. In other news, this weekend we took a fun trip to Cremona for the torrone festival! Torrone is a typical dolce (dessert) of northern Italy, made with a marshmallowy substance and almonds. The festival was beautiful, with a medieval wedding, fire jugglers, dancers, classical music performers, and lots of Italian food. Here are some pictures!

A church in Cremona

Medieval wedding!

With the giant "torrone" 

A giant violin... made of torrone!!

Beautiful view of the city from the tower in centro

A day trip to Venice, and changing schools soon..

Well, tomorrow marks a big change for me in my daily life here in Italy! For the past two months I have been attending a scientific school, but tomorrow I will be switching to a linguistic school. As nervous as I am about changing schools, I know it’s the right choice for me. At the new school, I will get to take Spanish, German, Italian, and English, instead of heavy loads of math and science classes. The only problem is that changing schools at this point in the year means missing the senior trip L Each class of students in their last year of high school gets to take a trip together, to a city of their choice in Europe. My new class at the language school has already taken their trip (they went to Barcelona!) and my classmates at the scientific school were planning to go to Berlin in March! Now that I’m changing schools, I won’t be able to go with my old class to Berlin, and I’ve missed the trip to Barcelona with my new classmates. Pretty disappointing. However, I’ve had plenty of travel opportunities with Rotary and my host family, so I can’t complain too much. Yesterday I got to Venice for the first time, and it was unbelievable! We really lucked out- it was a sunny, crisp fall day, not a cloud in the sky, and a family friend who works in Venice gave us a great tour of the city! He told us lots about the unique history and architecture, which was very interesting to me. It still blows my mind that Venice is a thousand years old, and that it was built on the water. One thing that really stuck out to me about Venice is that it is impossible to have cars in the city (the streets are either canals of water or narrow sidewalks), which means that to get around you must either walk or take a boat. I think it was the first time I’ve been in a city completely without cars- there is something beautiful and particular about it. Venice is extremely crowded, of course, but with people, not vehicles. Looking at ancient buildings that have existed for centuries, and being unable to take buses, trains, or cars… it all made Venice feel less frantic than other cities. The atmosphere was more relaxed- maybe the word to describe it is timeless. Anyhow, I loved it, and I plan on going back for a day of wandering as soon as I can! The other day I remembered the quote “Not all who wander are lost”. That’s becoming my motto in Italy.

One note about Italian culture- Italians and Americans have very different ideas about which things are healthy and which things are unhealthy. For example, the other evening I had taken a shower and was just lounging around with my hair still wet. My host mom asked me if I was going to blow dry my hair, and I said no, I was going to bed in a few hours anyway so there really wasn’t any point in blow drying it before I went to sleep. She looked concerned and responded that I would get a cold if I didn’t blow dry it! Apparently it is common knowledge here in Italy that if you leave your hair wet and just let it dry you’ll get sick. They also do not eat ice or drink water if it’s too cold, because they think it’s bad for your stomach. I’ve never been taught those things, so I guess some of my habits are considered unhealthy here. To me that’s ridiculous though, because Italians smoke all the time and eat cake for breakfast! Smoking is way worse than eating ice! Ah well.  

Another new thing is that I’ve started studying at the conservatory of music here in Vicenza! I sing in the choir and will soon have an audition for voice lessons. Apparently the voice teachers here each specialize in a certain type of music (there is one who just does Baroque singing) so you have to sing for the teachers and then they’ll help you decide which type of singing you want to do, or which type is best for your voice. I’ll be interested to see where I end up. The other day I went to a history of music class with my friend from school as well. I like the environment of the conservatory: it’s much more like a university campus, and everyone is so friendly.

Allora, adesso devo dormire perche sono stanca.. but I will write a new post once I’ve experienced a few days of my new schoolJ

Ciao a tutti!

The city center of Asiago, a little city in the mountains. Ellen and I took a day trip here on weekend!

Getting friendly with the local cows in Asiago :)

A specialty cheese shop- look at how big those cheese wheels are!

The courtyard of the conservatory of music in my city

On a bridge in Venice

Beautiful Venetian glass windows

The water spills onto the sidewalks in Venice

Houses on the sea in Venice

November in Italy

This weekend we didn’t have school on either Friday OR Saturday (a downright miracle in Italy), which made for a great three days! Not that I don’t like school, but sometimes it can be pretty boring because I still can’t understand about half of what is being said. Also, many of my classes, namely physics, latin, and math, are pretty uninteresting to me… however, this week I took a test in English class and got a perfect score! Hehe I know it was my native language but I was still impressed at how advanced the test was for foreign language speakers. It was on Romantic poetry (specifically William Wordsworth’s poems) and one of the questions was, “Which line in the poem The Rainbow is paradoxical?” In my language classes in America, we definitely didn’t have literary analysis questions like that on our tests. So I think my classes here are the equivalents of AP classes in the US.

Anyway, this weekend without school was molto divertente as I got to do some more traveling! J Thursday was Halloween, so that night I went to a Halloween party with Davide and Ellen, and met some kids from my class there as well. What a party! It was at a popular discoteca near Vicenza, and there were more than 1000 people there. About half of them had dressed up in a costume (in Italy a Halloween “costume” is much more simple and involves putting on just one or two accessories, like a bit of zombie makeup or a hat or something).  I’ve discovered that at parties or social events in Italy, the first hour or so is spent greeting everyone you know by saying ciao, kissing them on the cheek, and chatting for a bit. So for the first hour we talked and greeted everyone, and after that we danced. Italians listen to a lot of American pop music, so many of the songs were familiar to me! We danced and hung out at the discoteca until pretty late, and then Ellen slept over at my house that night because of our plans for the next day! We got up early and caught the morning bus to Asiago (a city in the mountains about an hour away, famous for its Asiago cheese) for some scenery and hiking. The weather was much colder up in the mountains, but it was still a beautiful fall day. We packed a lunch and walked along a path in the green hills, and found a herd of friendly cows who all had name tags on their ears! One of them, named Rebecca, let us pet her. It was great to get out of the city for a bit- as much as I love living in a bigger city like Vicenza, I need some nature time every once in awhile. On Saturday the exchange students in my district took a day trip to Verona for some sightseeing and shopping. Verona is such a beautiful city- and this time while we were in the house of Romeo and Juliet, this guy proposed to his girlfriend on the balcony! She said yes and everyone cheered and clapped for them as he put an engagement ring on her finger. It was really sweet, although I still think it’s a bit funny that everyone considers Verona to be the most romantic spot in the world because of Romeo and Juliet. It’s supposed to be a lucky, happy place for love. Tons of couples come to Verona just so that they can kiss on the balcony, but in the story, Romeo and Juliet only knew each other for a few days, and they both ended up dying so it wasn’t even a happy love story. Oh well.

Last weekend I got to go to a great concert with my Rotary tutor (an older woman named Pasqualina)- we saw the singer Albano! He was really dramatic and Italian, and he talked to the crowd a lot. The people sang along with him on the songs they knew. Towards the end of the concert, he invited random people from the audience onstage, set up tables for them, and poured them all glasses of wine! It was SO Italian J  

That’s all for now. Today is Sunday and I’m resting after my tiring weekend. Until my next post, ciao tutti!

This is from "cioccolandia," a chocolate festival that took place one weekend in my city! Vendors set up huge booths selling every kind of chocolate imaginable. I bought some delicious truffles. 

View from a bridge in Bassano, a nearby city

Marco and I with a funny street performer

A street musician in Bassano- one of the many things I love about Italy is that the music of violins, accordians, harps, and guitars are like a soundtrack to walking down the street

The apple pie that I made! :)

My host mom showed me this public park in Vicenza that has TONS of bunnies hopping around in it! I took some pictures of them but this one is my absolute favorite. It looks so angry. 

AND SOME OF THEM ARE SO CUTE! I couldn't get over the fact that there are random wild bunnies roaming around this public park and they look so domesticated.. I think someone must be feeding them.

Sailboats in Slovenia

Yesterday we exchange students from district 2060 had quite the adventure! After school on Saturday (hmpf. The 6-day school week here is taking some getting used to) we boarded a train to Trieste for a sailboat race and festival called Barcolana. We ended up taking the wrong connecting train from Venice to Trieste: we took the regional train that stopped at every town along the way, so the ride lasted an extra two hours. Despite this setback, though, we had a great time listening to music and hanging out in the train car that we had all to ourselves! The conductor was very friendly and we had a good conversation with him as well. Finally we arrived in Trieste, which is a gorgeous seaside city, all lit up at night, and joined the others for dinner at a pizzeria. After spending the night with a Rotary host, we got up early the next morning and drove to Slovenia (about 20 minutes away, isn’t that convenient!) to board a boat. That day was one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever experienced! The sunrise over the Slovenian sea was breathtaking. The air was fresh and salty, the sky was clear and blue, and the ocean sparkled in the sun. We sat on the deck of the boat, watching the multi-colored sailboats and occasionally spotting white and pink jellyfish in the sea. In the afternoon, the sailboat race began, which was incredible to watch! Teams of sailors had to maneuver their boats to turn at three different points during the race, and a big crowd of people in smaller boats had come to cheer them on from a distance. Helicopters flew above and policemen rode around on jet-skis, yelling at the spectators to move their boats so the sailboats could get by. Many people were just lounging in the sun on their boats and enjoying the perfect weather. I sat on the deck and took turns staring down at the ocean, over at the sailboats, up at the blue sky, and out at the mountainous coast of Slovenia and Italy. It was the first time I had seen the ocean in years, and I realized how much io amo il mare! At the end of the afternoon we had to leave the boat and catch the train back to Vicenza, but it was an unforgettable day. I went to school today (Monday) pretty tired but I didn’t mind. Right now I am considering switching schools, which would be a big deal, from a scientific high school to a linguistic school. At the moment I have lots of science and math classes that don’t really interest me, and at the linguistic school I would get to take five languages, with limited math classes! The only problem is that I get along really well with my current classmates- they are so helpful and friendly (and patient with me when I don’t understand what’s going on) so it would be tough to switch… we’ll see how it goes. I’ll have to decide this week. Until then, ciao!

Hiking at a lake near Vicenza with my little host brother :)

On the train on the way to Trieste!

Our boat in the morning

The racing sailboats, from afar

Americans on the boat!

I took this picture of a sailboat and then edited it!

Weekend trips

What a beautiful past couple of weeks! I don’t have time for a long post but I’ll post lots of pictures. The past two weekends have been full of sightseeing and meeting new people!  Last weekend I went to a Rotary orientation in Brisighella along with 108 other exchange students, where we got to know each other and attended orientation sessions. This past weekend Ellen, Brock and I (the Rotary students here in Vicenza) joined a group of Rotarians from Tuscany on a tour of Vicenza and the surrounding area. We toured lots of beautiful villas that are very historically significant- for example, we saw the room where Hitler and Mussolini met for the first time, and a bedroom where Napoleon slept when he visited Italy.  Standing in the rooms, it was strange to think that Hitler and Mussolini had been in the exact same place years ago…   It never ceases to amaze me how old Italy is! I love it! Being in Italy makes me want to be a photographer because I want to capture the beauty of it all. The only downside to the tour was that it was raining almost the whole time so we were pretty wet by the end of it. However, we got to eat at some amazing restaurants (in the past month I have eaten the best food I’ve ever tasted in my whole life- pasta, zucchini, cheese, potatoes, all kinds of roasted meat, tomatoes, tiramisu, and so much more)! Adesso devo andare, ma ecco le foto J Ciao a presto.

All the exchange students in my district! 

In front of the beautiful view on the hillside of Brisighella

Stone statues

Red-head exchange student buddies :) 

The ancient "teatro olimpico" in Vicenza!

A beautiful church in Monte Berico (near Vicenza)

Napoleon slept in this bed. No big deal

A ballroom in one of the villas- beautiful detail

A little snail I found on a leaf :)

One of the rooms in the villas

Rainy day

Brock, Ellen and I at one of the estate gardens 

20 giorni!

Well, I have now been in Italy for 20 days! Everything here is becoming more familiar to me- I can feel myself adjusting to my new culture (and language). There have been many moments where I’ve felt confused and frustrated because I don’t understand something, but also many times where something just clicks, and I get it. I am definitely becoming more patient (because I have to be) with myself as I learn how to live in Italy.  At first I got angry with myself every time I made a mistake, but little by little I am seeing my mistakes as 1) funny and 2) an example of how not to do things. Making mistakes ends up being a good thing because I always learn something about the language. The other day I was trying to tell my host family about the factory farms in the US, and when I said, “i mucci en la farmacia” (what I thought meant “the cows on the farm”) they burst out laughing! Apparently “la farmacia” means “the pharmacy” and the plural of “la mucca” (the cow) is “le mucce,” not “i mucci”. I started laughing too, because I realized how weird "the cow at the pharmacies" must have sounded! Now every time I make a singular word plural I remember to get the gender right.

I am also working on the virtue of patience at school. Most of the time I have no idea what’s going on… but today I finally had an “aha” moment where I could understand what the teacher was saying and participate a little bit in class (don’t get too excited, I only was able to get out about one sentence)! In history we were discussing the difference between colonialism and imperialism, and the teacher asked me what I had learned about the topic in the US. I’m pretty familiar with the history about the English colonization of America, so I told her about the colonies that later became the US. Unfortunately we weren’t really learning about the US so what I said wasn’t exactly relevant, but my teacher was happy that I was trying, and it was still nice to feel like I at least was grasping the main idea of the lecture. The problem is, my school is very academically prestigious, and sometimes I understand the words being said but not the material. For example, in philosophy we are learning about the theories of famous philosophers Kierkegaard, Kant, and Hegel. Since we learned these same philosophies in my AP Literature class back in the US, it’s safe to say that I never really understood them in English, so even though I can sort of comprehend the Italian vocabulary, I’m pretty lost when it comes to contemplating the existence of humankind in Italian. Oh well. There are some classes where I’ve just accepted that I’m not going to know what’s going on (such as Latin). The kids in my class have studied Latin for 4 years and during class the teacher reads ancient Latin literature aloud for almost the whole hour. At first I was trying desperately to figure out why I didn’t understand ANYTHING she was saying, but then I realized that she wasn’t even speaking Italian! Ha! I really don’t have any intentions of learning Latin this year, so during that class I study Italian.

Outside of learning the culture and language and other such things, I have been having lots of fun living in Italy in general! There’s a yoga studio in the hotel right next to my house, so I’ve been doing yoga on Monday nights. On Tuesday nights I have church choir, and this Saturday I went to a really fun birthday party where we dressed up and danced. This weekend is my first Rotary event- all the exchange students are going to a city near Bologna for three days, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Here is a video of what it’s like to walk through the center of Vicenza, my city… Dovete guardarlo, é bellisimo J

La Scuola Italiana

Last week I started school at the Liceo Quadri science school in Vicenza! Even though we go to school on Saturdays here in Italy, I really enjoy school so far J The kids in my class are all very friendly, and my teachers have been patient with me as I learn. School lasts from 8:10 am until 1:00 or 1:40 depending on the day. There are five years of high school here, so I am in the fifth year, in class 5ALG. At the beginning of high school each student is placed in a class with a group of kids they stay with all day every day during high school. They are placed according to interest (my class, 5ALG, is a “linguistic” class). Each school in Italy specializes in a certain area, and my school is a science school. However, there are also other subjects besides science offered at the school, and after talking with my school counselor, she decided to place me in a “linguistic class” (one that takes foreign languages) because of my interest in German. Quindi (therefore), I stay in the same classroom with the same kids for the whole day, and the teachers move from room to room to teach us the different subjects! My schedule includes English, Math, Physics, Art History, Religion, History, Italian Literature, German, Physical Education, and Latin. I don’t really understand the schedule yet, but my classes rotate each week. The lectures are often very difficult to understand- not only because the Italian is spoken VERY fast but also because the material is advanced! I try to listen and understand as much as I can, but for now I end up either jotting down random words that I recognize or ones that I look up in a dictionary later. In art history my teacher kept saying the word “flamboyant” (it sounded kind of French when he said it) but we were studying a painting depicting Dante’s Inferno, which doesn’t really match my interpretation of the Inferno… so that’s about how much I understand at this point! I know I’ll improve in the weeks and months to come, so I’m patient with myself. (Also in Latin I’m completely lost). Ah well. I like my classmates a lot, many of them are interested in music, theatre, and languages just like me! On Sunday I went to church with my host mom, and after the service I talked with the choir director there and signed up to be in the church choir! Tomorrow is my first rehearsal.

Sidenote about Italy: the bus system is very different from the US. There are too many students for the buses, and there is no “maximum capacity” for any of the buses, so people just pile in until the doors can no longer close! It’s crazy! Also, this week I ate the best food I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I know I tend to exaggerate but this is no exaggeration. In Italy there are restaurants called “agriturismo” which is a farm/restaurant that produces its own food and then serves it at the restaurant. We went to one of these restaurants and I had pasta with carmelized onions and ham, tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate cake!

Here are some pictures from this week:

     This is a picture of the hotel my family owns! My house is right behind it. I took this picture while sitting at the fermata dell'autobus, the bus stop.

                                               Look at this chicken! LOOK AT IT! :)

                                         Eating at an "agroturismo" restaurant with my family

A typical bus in Italy- I don't know if you can see from this picture but the people are crammed in there pretty tight

My little host brother with the ukulele I brought :)