Italian school

I haven't written on this thing on awhile and I'm terribly sorry, but you must understand that I've been a bit busy.

I started school roughly two weeks ago. Let me just say that it is nothing that I expected, its better. The first day my host dad was nice enough to drive Lisa and I in instead of our usual routine of waiting for that lovely tram. As we approached the front gate I quickly realized that this year is going to be very different.All the kids wait outside until the bell. It was interesting to me that 80% of this city smokes even 14 year olds!! My school here is quite big, about 900 kids. We then went inside and met up with the headmaster who put the three happy little exchange students into their classes. There is me ,a girl from California, and a really sweet girl from Mexico. He was kind enough to escort me into my class,bring me to the front of the room sort of like a show and tell project, and introduce me to my fellow classmates and teacher in what I thought was very very fast Italian.

I'm taking all sorts of "interesting" classes here, Italian literature,philosophy,English language,English literature,latin grammar,architectural drawing,chemistry,gym,physics. I must admit that this is not my favorite lineup of classes to have to sit through and entertain myself for 5 hours but its all worth it because.......I FINALLY GET TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! I can't emphasize how much this excites me and I wouldn't trade this class for all of the duplos in the world. It starts on tuesday so I'll have to let you know how it goes.

When the class was over my desk was sort of ambushed/surrounded if you will by questions/and body heat from my fellow happy students. They were kind enough to speak to me in english as the Italians here speak very very fast. Some of the things that they were interested to know were "What are you doing here", "What do you think of Italy so far", "If you're from America why aren't you fat?" haha that sort of thing.

In Italy, the teachers move instead of the students so you get very tired of sitting in the same chair for about 5 hours.. You do get one 10 minute break though!

Most of my classmates are very nice. Last saturday we all went to see Hancock at the movies and lunch at Mcdonalds. Would you like to see some pictures? I'll write more later..

Valid proof that ITALIANS EAT MCDONALDS!!!!

Some of my Italian friends

My Lovely friend Sheila

week one

This has been quite a first week here. I'm sorry that I haven't posted sooner but you must understand that the days here are just packed. Because I start Italian high school tomorrow things are bound to get even nuttier,please understand that that is how I like it : )

So I've officially been living here a week now and so far I've loved every minute of it. My school doesn't start until tomorrow or sept 15. My host sister has kept me busy with a personal tour of her beautiful city. Although everyday was different, the morning usually went the same way every day. We would wake up around 9 or 10 depending on how long we stayed up the previous night. We would wake up, eat breakfast,and venture out the door into Milano.

I guess you could say Milan is a lot like Manhattan, except I think it's better. The architecture is nicer,the people are friendlier(although everyone smokes : / ),and its much cleaner. My first day here we took the tram which I don't have a picture of it yet ,but just visualize it for now. Its brown and wooden and very much a european version of the San Francisco trolleys. We got off and walked about a block from the tram stop and arrived at the famous Piazza dell Duomo. In it you can find the wonderful Duomo cathedral and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. We also saw Castello Sforzesco which is this huuuge castle that I will load pics of later. It was built around the 14th century but it looks pretty good for its age . Around this time our feet were getting quite tired so we decided to find our way on home.

The next day we walked around a lovely little park about 3 blocks from our house and spent most of the morning walking around there. Italians love walking around which I guess is how they stay so slim and trim after consuming just about their weight in pasta and gelato.

The rest of the week we either spent the morning lying about in the house and then going out into the world or the other way around.

This morning we went to this really cool mall. Everything was outdoors which would have been lovely if only it hadn't been raining. But I still liked it. I got all my school things and hopefully am all ready to embark on another adventure within an adventure.

I love italy!!..some pics from my first week here

This is out of order but I'm still figuring out how to use this silly site.. Anyway this is the Duomo

My "window seat" on the plane.. It was alright though because I got to sit next to a really nice lady who told me lots of stories about  Milano

                                                                                   

                                                               

This would me Minou (say it like "me-new). haha He's quite the comical one as he daily guards "his" bathroom in this location from what he thinks are intruders. He also LOVES drinking out of the bidet which is quite strange in my book but really.. whatever floats his boat

 This is what I wake up to everyday!!! :)

This is one of the many pictures of the inside of the Duomo cathedral                               

Arrivo in Italia

Welcome to clares blog

This is what I will be using to update everyone on what I'm up to in my Italian adventures.

For those of you that don't already know I will be a Rotary exchange student for roughly 10-11 months in Milano Italia!! Since I graduated from high school last june I guess this is what you would call a "gap year" or an extra year squeezed in between high school and college.

Anyway, I arrived yesterday and after a short amount of confusion because of the language barrier I managed to go through customs find my bags and eventually find my host parents.

About an hour later I arrived at the house where I would be staying. I attempted to start unpacking my two huge suitcases but then my body quickly realized that it was 9 AM Italy time but twas 4 AM AMERICAN TIME!!.. After about a 3 hour nap my batteries were all recharged and I was able to take on la dolce vita full force.My host family here is very very nice and although we have a slight language barrier we somehow manage to communicate almost flawlessly with the help of my best friend il mio diccionario. They love listening to the radio and they even have it on during dinner. Speaking of dolces(or sweets) they have these amazing little cookies called duplo here,that almost entirely made out of nutella!! My stomach is in heaaven here and I never can seem to walk out of the kitchen without a smile on my face.. Thats all the time I have for now I'll write more later : )