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.