So I've been here nearly three months and its both flown by and felt like forever at the same time. If that makes sense. I'm not really sure what to write here since I've put it off for so long, so I guess I'll just try to sum up what I've done.
On October 13th I went to Cesenatico for an AFS camp thing. If you don't know what Cesenatico is, its a city on the east coast of Italy with a bunch of beaches and discos. It was pretty cold when we were there so we didn't get a chance to swim at all, but that doesn't mean we didn't go into the sea! Overall it was a really enjoyable experience and I made a bunch of friends too. It was cool really meeting everyone from all these crazy far off places, and being able to use Italian (or at least try) to communicate with everyone. I realized there that I wasn't speaking nearly enough Italian, so it was kind of my turning point with learning italian. Immediately after I got home, I talked with my family and decided that everything would be 100% Italian. Which has been working out great. The only downside here is that my region only gets together once every few months, as opposed to in the States when the exchange students see each other much more. I'm pretty sure we're not doing anything together again until February.
Anyway, on Halloween weekend (and All Saints I guess) I went to Milan with my host family. It's an awesome city, but everything is much more centralized around one area than Chicago is. We left Saturday and came back Monday, so it was nice having a long weekend to see the things Milan has to offer. Saturday we went downtown in the Duomo area but we were only there for maybe 20 minutes, because we had to get to my host grandparents' house for dinner. That was when I had my "Whoa. Milan. Right here." moment. After dinner, which was very Italian and awesome, we went to spend the night with some other relatives who also live in Milan. We started Sunday off by going to church at the Duomo (Cathedral. It's big.) of Milan. It was an insanely cool experience, with the huge echoey dome and the virtually the whole mass being said in Latin and what not. Then later on Sunday we had lunch with everyone before my host parents went home, and then Andrea and I went to see more of Milan and just chill. On Monday we met up with some friends from school and hung out with them all day. We took the train home got back real late, but it was definitely an amazing weekend in what is now my second favorite city! (London remains first)
I had a really cool birthday weekend, including Ferraris, a disco, and a couple of crazy Chileans. I had a party at a disco (club) called Mamma Orsa for my birthday. I had all my classmates there, and also some other people. It was a craazy night - Italians know how to party! So, concerning the Chileans, there's one from Mantova that came to my party, and his friend from Poggia, which really far south. We picked them up and made our way to Maranello and the Ferrari museum before the party, which was incredible. It had a whole lot of rare Ferraris, including the first Enzo ever made. It was an amazing museum, and the cool thing as that this where it all started! After the museum tour, Marcello took us to where he works (right next door actually) and he let us all take pictures in a California and a 458. Being inside a Ferrari is a pretty cool feeling. I wouldn't mind having one myself. Take note mom and dad!!
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That was all written about a week ago, so since I kept putting off blogging I felt like I should add this extra bit of notable things done here in Italy. Thanksgiving passed and here it wasn't really a big deal because we didn't do anything. I did however get to watch the Packers beat the Lions on Thanksgiving! I Facetimed my whole family and Roberto, which was nice seeing everyone again. Looked like a real chill party with lots of turkey. when we went to the supermarket a couple weeks ago we got some chips and salsa which aren't really common here. It's quite the football watching snack. I started going to the gym with Marcello and Andrea, so that's good because I have something to occupy my time with now. I successfully got a sax, from my AFS counselor, so now a lot of the time I'm chillin' at home playing Careless Whisper or Christmas music on it, which is most enjoyable. I've also started to play the sax in band, which I'm enjoying a lot more than playing trumpet in it. Next Saturday (I think the 10th) I'm going to the Bologna Motor Show with a bunch of Italians and friends from AFS. Super pumped for that! I read an article that there's gonna be a new limited edition Maserati there, which makes it even better!
So as a final note here, which ultimately is probably the most important thing in this post, I'm gonna start using Twitter to update little things on here. Not huge posts like this one, but random thoughts I have that'll happen real time. Like if I see a goat eating pasta or something, I'll probably mention that. I figure I'll post on twitter about little things a good number of times in a day, so hopefully that'll liven up the blog. I've literally got no idea how to configure things on here, so if you see a problem with the twitter box thing on here, let me know!
That's pretty much it.
Bye, Ciao, and happy almost holidays!
On October 13th I went to Cesenatico for an AFS camp thing. If you don't know what Cesenatico is, its a city on the east coast of Italy with a bunch of beaches and discos. It was pretty cold when we were there so we didn't get a chance to swim at all, but that doesn't mean we didn't go into the sea! Overall it was a really enjoyable experience and I made a bunch of friends too. It was cool really meeting everyone from all these crazy far off places, and being able to use Italian (or at least try) to communicate with everyone. I realized there that I wasn't speaking nearly enough Italian, so it was kind of my turning point with learning italian. Immediately after I got home, I talked with my family and decided that everything would be 100% Italian. Which has been working out great. The only downside here is that my region only gets together once every few months, as opposed to in the States when the exchange students see each other much more. I'm pretty sure we're not doing anything together again until February.
Anyway, on Halloween weekend (and All Saints I guess) I went to Milan with my host family. It's an awesome city, but everything is much more centralized around one area than Chicago is. We left Saturday and came back Monday, so it was nice having a long weekend to see the things Milan has to offer. Saturday we went downtown in the Duomo area but we were only there for maybe 20 minutes, because we had to get to my host grandparents' house for dinner. That was when I had my "Whoa. Milan. Right here." moment. After dinner, which was very Italian and awesome, we went to spend the night with some other relatives who also live in Milan. We started Sunday off by going to church at the Duomo (Cathedral. It's big.) of Milan. It was an insanely cool experience, with the huge echoey dome and the virtually the whole mass being said in Latin and what not. Then later on Sunday we had lunch with everyone before my host parents went home, and then Andrea and I went to see more of Milan and just chill. On Monday we met up with some friends from school and hung out with them all day. We took the train home got back real late, but it was definitely an amazing weekend in what is now my second favorite city! (London remains first)
I had a really cool birthday weekend, including Ferraris, a disco, and a couple of crazy Chileans. I had a party at a disco (club) called Mamma Orsa for my birthday. I had all my classmates there, and also some other people. It was a craazy night - Italians know how to party! So, concerning the Chileans, there's one from Mantova that came to my party, and his friend from Poggia, which really far south. We picked them up and made our way to Maranello and the Ferrari museum before the party, which was incredible. It had a whole lot of rare Ferraris, including the first Enzo ever made. It was an amazing museum, and the cool thing as that this where it all started! After the museum tour, Marcello took us to where he works (right next door actually) and he let us all take pictures in a California and a 458. Being inside a Ferrari is a pretty cool feeling. I wouldn't mind having one myself. Take note mom and dad!!
-
That was all written about a week ago, so since I kept putting off blogging I felt like I should add this extra bit of notable things done here in Italy. Thanksgiving passed and here it wasn't really a big deal because we didn't do anything. I did however get to watch the Packers beat the Lions on Thanksgiving! I Facetimed my whole family and Roberto, which was nice seeing everyone again. Looked like a real chill party with lots of turkey. when we went to the supermarket a couple weeks ago we got some chips and salsa which aren't really common here. It's quite the football watching snack. I started going to the gym with Marcello and Andrea, so that's good because I have something to occupy my time with now. I successfully got a sax, from my AFS counselor, so now a lot of the time I'm chillin' at home playing Careless Whisper or Christmas music on it, which is most enjoyable. I've also started to play the sax in band, which I'm enjoying a lot more than playing trumpet in it. Next Saturday (I think the 10th) I'm going to the Bologna Motor Show with a bunch of Italians and friends from AFS. Super pumped for that! I read an article that there's gonna be a new limited edition Maserati there, which makes it even better!
So as a final note here, which ultimately is probably the most important thing in this post, I'm gonna start using Twitter to update little things on here. Not huge posts like this one, but random thoughts I have that'll happen real time. Like if I see a goat eating pasta or something, I'll probably mention that. I figure I'll post on twitter about little things a good number of times in a day, so hopefully that'll liven up the blog. I've literally got no idea how to configure things on here, so if you see a problem with the twitter box thing on here, let me know!
That's pretty much it.
Bye, Ciao, and happy almost holidays!
