School and Other Things I Don't Understand.

Hey all. Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, I've been very busy this past week.  I'll give you a run down of my past 2 weeks.

I started school last Monday, and it is by far the most boring thing I have ever experienced.  I don't understand anything the teachers say, so most of the day I am just studying Italian by myself.  Some of the classes that I am supposed to be paying attention in include: Italian (I don't even understand the language, how am I supposed to understand the literature?), Math (I have absolutely no idea what we are studying), English (the only class that I understand), Art History (even though I don't understand what she is saying, this class is pretty interesting), Physical Education (this class is an absolute joke.  I run maybe 3 minutes, then do whatever I want.  Side note, basketball is not a thing here, so when I made a 3 pointer, they thought I was Michael Jordan), Italian History (again, don't understand, but very interesting), and finally Physics (my least favorite of all the classes).  I study each of these subjects for a total of 3 hours week, so my schedule varies depending on what day it is. It may sound like a lot, but they also give me 3 hours of independent study on Monday mornings, and 2 hours on Friday, where I usually study Italian. (That's a lie, I just sleep).

Italian schools are so much different than American schools.  They have five classes a day, each for an hour.  The class is basically ran by the students, and the teachers are simply there to guide their learning.  Nearly all of their grades are determined by oral interrogations.  By this I mean one student gets up to the board and talks about the material for about 25 minutes.  Every week.  I don't know how they do it, but they can.  Their "presentations" are graded on a scale of 1-10; the lowest possible score being 2, and the highest is a 10, but this is impossible.  The average score is a 5, but you need an average of 6 to pass the course, otherwise you have to retake the entire year over.  Insane standards, but these kids are brilliant.

My Italian is definitely coming along nicely.  I still don't know enough to uphold a productive conversation without speaking a little English, but I'm getting there. Hopefully by the end of March I will be able to communicate more than the basics.  Most of my day is spent conjugating verbs, and trying memorize new vocabulary.  I have an Italian course 2 days a week, and that helps a lot.  The tutor asked me today if I wanted to help teach his English course next month, so I think that will be fun!

 I'm starting to settle into my new life here.  I just recently started taking the public transportation alone, and I usually only miss my stop by a kilometer, which is progressive. (The first day I took the bus, I had to walk almost 3 kilometers, almost a mile and a half, in the cold because I missed my stop...).  I'm starting to go out with friends more, but all they do it study, so it's hard.  I have nothing to study, so I mostly just sleep...  I think that I am going for pizza tomorrow with my class, but I'm really never sure what they are saying so I'll find out tomorrow.

I know this blog is a little all over the place, but I am trying to write this while guests are over, so it's hard.  I'll post some pictures at the bottom to show you what it's like here.  Thanks for reading.  Not sure when I'll post again, Time is flying by here, so it could be awhile.

First few days

Well, I'm finally here with my host family.  I arrived in Pescara on Sunday the 1st, but was quite a journey to get there.  I've had some unforgettable experiences, and met some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life.  It's a weird friendship with AFS students.  You really only get to see each other for a few days before you don't see them for months, but they become some of your greatest friends in that short span of time.  This could be a long post; brace yourselves.

On Thursday the 29th, I got out of bed at 7:00 for the rest of the New York orientation.  I wish I would have slept longer. (I'll explain that in a minute...).  I don't remember that day very well, but I remember a lot of sitting around.  Our flight from New York to Zurich left at 6:30pm, so we left our hotel at about 2:30 to head for the airport.  While there, I walked around with a girl Jasmine', who went to France.  She was very fun to talk to.  After waiting for what felt like days, we finally got to board our flight.  On my flight from Minneapolis to New York, I got an entire row of seats to myself, so I felt pretty spoiled.  But that did not compare to this plane.  The seats were incredibly comfortable, and we all had movie screens with all of the new movies on it to watch.  It was only a 7 hour flight, but it was overnight, so it seemed longer. Jasmine' and I watched Boyhood together (it's terrible), and then we jammed out to Hairspray cause how can you not?  We stayed up the entire flight talking, which in hindsight was a terrible idea.  When we landed at 7:00 local time, we had been awake for 19 hours.

This is where the story gets fun.  Pre-read warning - this experience does not represent AFS as a company in anyway. They are incredible.  So when we landed, we went to go through customs and security.  This would be the last time we saw our chaperon, who was supposed to stay with us until we boarded our final flight.  She left us, but we didn't think anything of it.  How hard could this be? (pretty damn hard).  When we got to a splitting point between terminals, the Italy and the France kids said goodbye to each other.  That kinda sucked, but we were all too tired to really care.  We went and found our gate, and began the four hours of waiting.  Our flight was supposed to leave Zurich at 12:30pm, but at around 11:00am, we saw that it had been delayed until 1:30.  Ok, and extra hour isn't that bad, so we waited some more.  I was trying to contact AFS Italy/AFS USA to tell them that our flight was delayed, because there were volunteers waiting for us in Rome.  Well, the only number that our group could come up with definitely not the right number to call.  I think it was the the orientation department or something.  After that, I tried the emergency hotline, even though this really wasn't an emergency, and he told me not to call that number with these kind of things. Alright guy, thanks.  So, at this point, we have 15 overtired and irritated AFS kids with no chaperon trying to figure out who to call.  Then worst case scenario happened; our flight got cancelled.  Crap.  I stopped caring who I was calling then, so I tried the orientation department again.  They put me through to the travel and logistic department (why didn't they do that first?), and I talked to Jodi.  She was at the New York orientation, so I knew that I was talking to the right person.  I acted as a communicator for her and the airline trying to re-book a flight.  By the way, shout out to all the AFSUSA kids.  We da bomb.  I followed her instructions, and about 4 hours and 27 phones calls later, we finally had a flight to Rome.  Buuuuutt is was the next day at 5:30 pm.  The airline put us up in a hotel for the night, and gave us a bunch of free meal vouchers.  We got lunch/dinner at the airport while they transferred our luggage to baggage claim.  (30 francs for a pizza?  Whatever...).  We got our bags, and finally met our "chaperon", who we were all quite fed up with.  We took the shuttle to the hotel, and each got our rooms.  By the time we arrived in our rooms, it was about 7:00pm local time...  We had been awake for about 28 hours.  We were all asleep within an hour...

The next day, I woke up at 4:00am for some reason. Stupid jetlag.  I tried to watch TV, but it was all in German.  PS, if you ever get the chance to watch German Simpsons, take it.  It's hilarious.  I went down to breakfast and ran into our chaperon.  She said that someone from AFS Switzerland offered to give us a tour of Zurich, but we had to be ready to go in like an hour.  I think that I was the only one up, so I woke some other people up, and we scrambled to get everyone out the door.  We ended up leaving some kids behind (sorry) because we were in such a rush.  We met the Swiss volunteers at the train station, and we took a short train ride to downtown Zurich.  We only got to walk around for like an hour, but it was incredible.  If you ever get the chance, hang out in Zurich.  It's really beautiful.  I'll post some pictures at the bottom.

After our tour, we met up with all of the other kids at the airport, and waited for our flight.  Luckily, this one was on time, but we still had to wait for like 5 hours.  I started hanging out with some girls named Rory and Bear (coolest names ever), and a guy named Sam.  We wondered the airport until we had to board, and I realized how incredible they were.  They are so funny.  If any of you are reading this, I had an orange for breakfast this morning.  At 5:00, we boarded our flight to Rome.  It was only an hour long, so I just plugged in some headphones and tuned out.

When we arrived in Rome, we were greeted by AFS Italy volunteers.  They took us from the airport to our hotel about 30 minutes away.  That drive was the only bit of Rome that we got to see.  It was really cool.  When we got to the hotel, we met all of the other kids from around the world.  That marked the first time that I felt like an outsider.  There were 15 Americans, but 62 other kids from all over.  Most of them spoke English, as well as there home language, which made me feel stupid.  Why doesn't America learn other languages?  Sam, Rory, Bear, and I went out on our own and wondered the grounds.  They are seriously the greatest. #wildlemonsforlife.

The next day was the day (Sunday), we got to go to our host families. Rory and I got to go to the bus station together, but had to say goodbye there.  I had a 2 hour bus ride to Pescara.  I just slept most of the way.  That drive was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  We drove through the mountains and got to see all of the tiny villages in the hills.  It was really cool.

When I got off the bus, I was greeted by my family, some volunteers, and some of the other AFS kids.  I was excited to meet them, but really tired.  My family was excited to see me, but it got awkward quick.  In Italy, they do the cheek kiss thing, and I have never done that.  I wish I recorded the first time I had to do it.  I was so lost.  We got in their tiny car, and drove to Francavilla, where we live.  They helped me get my bags up, and then I took a nap.  They woke me up at 8:00pm, and told me the family was here for dinner.  Crap.  Next thing I new I was sitting at a table with all of the extended family talking at me in Italian.  I just smiled and nodded a lot.  They were really nice to me, so I wish I knew what they were saying so I could have conversed with them.

The past few days have been exhausting.  It's a constant flow of new things, and it really breaks you down.  I don't want to get all philosophical, but this is the best way I can explain it.  It's like my entire life was a puzzle, and coming here knocked all of the pieces out of place.  Now I have to try to fit them all back in place, but it's really emotionally and physically tiring.  That sounds negative, but it's not.  It definitely sucks, but I know that I am going to come out stronger on the other side.

I start school on Monday, so I'm sure I'll update sometime next week.  Sorry this was so long, but a lot has happened.  Grazie!