School

School in Italy runs from Monday to Saturday. Class begins at 8:30 and the last bell rings at 12:30 on Mondays and 1:30 Tuesday through Saturday. At first I thought I would like this schedule more than the regular Monday-Friday 8-3 schedule but only having a one-day weekend makes it feel like you don't even get a break. I'm not sure which I like better yet. Another difference with school is how the classes are set up. During the day, the students go to one classroom and spend the entire day there, very much like elementary school. However, the students get different teachers for each subject. It makes it really hard to be tardy for class. This also means that you are with the same 20 or so classmates for the entire year. This has been great for me because I don't have to introduce myself to new students every day. I have classes that I would normally take in America, such as Geometry, Chemistry, Physics, and P.E., and I have some courses that I've never taken before, like Italian Lit., Philosophy, Religion and Latin. My favorite class so far is definitely English. It's basically taking a foreign language course that you are already fluent in, but I'm still learning a lot as we read Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe.

Driving and Cars

After being surrounded by SUV's and well-marked streets, it is quite a change to be traveling on the streets of Italy. The cars in Italy are very small, and very maneuverable, which makes driving pretty crazy. I constantly am worried about my host parents running into a merging vehicle but they don't seem the least bit nervous about any other vehicles on the road. We swerve in and out of lanes and make sharp turns and still have not had any accidents. The markings on the road are more like guidelines than anything else. They're really there for no reason. People drive on the center line or make illegal u-turns and nobody seems to notice. The roads are also much narrower as well, and it would be impossible to drive anything but a tiny car. Buckle up!

Here are some pictures from the Alps, Milan, and Cagliari.

Cagliari

On Thursday afternoon, I arrived in Sardinia in my new home. The weather was beautiful and my host family was very nice. They helped me unpack and drove me around the city. We visited the old city, which has ruins and a great view of the island, and they also brought me down to the beach for sunset. Unfortunately, my camera cord is in my luggage that had to be mailed from Milan but I will have pictures up in the next couple of days. My first day of school was crazy and I didn't understand much of the lessons. My schedule includes English, which I understood well, Italian, Latin, Math, Science, Physics, Gym, Religion, Philosophy, and Art History... all in Italian. Fortunately, I'm picking up Italian quickly and every day it gets easier to talk to my host family. Life seems to be pretty simple and so far I am very much enjoying it.

9/13- 9/14/09 Yesterday I flew out of New York and arrived the next day in Frankfurt, Germany. I met up with the other students flying out to Italy, Spain and Turkey. The kids going to Italy then flew onto Milan, where I'll spend the next three days staying at a youth hostel. Milan is an amazing city with very old buildings.

From September 11th to September 13th, I was in New York. I got to visit Little Italy and had an Italian dinner. It was great. I also got to see Billy Elliot on Broadway and saw Jude Law in Hamlet on Broadway. Both were great shows. Walking around New York, I saw Jack Black in Times Square, went shopping in Soho, and walked by Radio City Music Hall where they were getting set up for The Video Music Awards that will air on Sunday. My aunt and uncle were great hosts and tomorrow I fly out to Italy for a three-day orientation in Milan.

Well, tomorrow's the big day and I'm frantically rushing to get packed.