Church

Italy is overwhelmingly Catholic and is full of old and beautiful churches. Mass is attended every Sunday but while most Italians claim to be "practicing" Catholics, it's becoming less and less common to attend mass every Sunday. I go with friends Sunday morning. This photo is of The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria, a church near the port of Cagliari that houses a statue of the Madonna that was thrown off a Spanish ship and washed ashore here near Cagliari. It was built in 1324-1329. Today it's a famous landmark in Sardinia.

Six-day Easter break... I like it.

St. Patrick's Day

I was horribly shocked to arrive at school and not see a single person wearing green with the exception of myself. Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day is not a holiday here and I was completely bummed. No leprechauns? No chocolate gold coins? I'm going to have to wait another year now.

For those of you who are familiar with a film called 'A Christmas Story', fra-jee-lay is actually the Italian word for fragile (it's spelled the same as in English though). Who would have thought?

Paris

This past week, I had the great opportunity to go with my classmates on a school trip to Paris. We stayed for 5 days, and had an incredible time seeing all the sites and enjoying a week of break. We had the chance to visit The Louvre, one of the most amazing places in the world, The Eiffel Tower, The Arc du Triomphe and the Notre Dame, as well as enjoying the beautiful museums and streets of Paris. Definitely a place I'd love to see again!

Snow

This past Friday, it snowed in Cagliari for the first time in around 17 years. It was such a big deal that teachers were releasing their classes so that the students could go outside and "enjoy" the snow (it all melted the moment it touched it ground). There certainly wasn't a need for snow plows or anything but it was cause for celebration for everyone else. I just nodded my head and said "yep, that's cool", as we are more than used to snow in South Dakota. Ten minutes later the students came back in complaining about how cold the snow was. Shocker. Not so great is it? Turns out there was a lot more snow up in the mountains so my host family wanted to drive up and see it.

Cross-Country

I had a cross-country on Feb. 9th, and it was a cold, rainy and wet day but that makes for a much more interesting race. I placed 3rd in my race. Here are some photos of the crazy morning...