Hi my dudes! I cannot believe I arrived in Italy a whole month ago (plus four day sorry I will never stop procrastinating). It’s definitely been one of the craziest months of my life – everything I do is mind-blowing. I never thought I would take a train from Lake Como to Milan, but I do it once a week!
Then again, there are some more negative things I’ve done that I never thought I would. First example: took a physics test on Saturday (yeah I know 6 day school week) and I literally did not write a single answer. And this teacher does not give partial credit. So I will get a literal 0 for the first time ever. But they always say exchange is about trying new things so maybe I’m on the right track! Other new things: found kinder flavored gelato, went to a birthday party (yay for Italian friends!), bought a black leather jacket (now I’m really Italian!), and started Italian lessons, which I’m always excited for cause I get gelato after every time.
Even though I’ve been here for a month, I still find things every day that are just surprisingly different from America. For one, my English teacher pulled up sparknotes in class and said it was a great resource for analyzation and then the entire class period was just to read sparknotes. And then we were done with the poem we were reading. But then again, this makes sense cause English is not their first language. Other different things: my math teacher says your grade to the entire class as he hands you your test (even the absent kids he's pretty mean). And also, every person has really good handwriting. Girl or guy. And their notes are perfect – they all use rulers and white out. And then there's me, with doodles and messy handwriting and also minimal note taking as my classes do not count for anything.
I also thought I’d give some insight as to what my real life here in Italy is, in the form of a list of things I’m either really good or really bad at:
1. Good: missing my bus stop! Also, running after the bus. Did it twice yesterday!
2. Bad: I am so horrible at volleyball. And the kids in my class are so good. It’s weird. And slightly scary/intimidating.
3. Good: tangling up my headphones and then taking like an awkwardly long time to untangle them while waiting for the bus stop.
4. Bad: resisting the lure of gelato. Like I’m really bad at this.
5. Good: On the other hand, I’m really good at eating gelato.
6. Bad: saving my money. This is probably the thing I’m worst at. Actually, definitely the thing I’m worst at. This ties in with numbers 4 and 5, as the main reason I spend so much money is because I cannot hold myself back from gelato.
7. Good: failing math and physics tests, unfortunately. But the math one was mostly just cause it was over what they learned last year and if you didn’t notice, I was not actually in Italy last year. The next math test I should ace, cause they're learning limits now. Been there done that for sure.
In the past two weeks since I posted on here, I went to a birthday party, ate a lot of pasta (all day every day), went to the grocery store for the first time which was really exciting, spent too much money at said grocery store, climbed five stories just to go to the bathroom, went to Milan two more times (I love saying that so much), spent too much money in Milan, marveled at how cheap the school coffee is (0.35 euros!), and just hung out in Como a lot. I think I officially have a life here, in the sense I can almost go a whole bus ride without falling and that it's now normal to eat a piece of focaccia next to a cathedral from the 1400s. It is so weird but so dang cool that I'm used to that. I love it so much.
I'll leave you with the running total of gelatos I've eaten, which is 17, and the amount of times I've run into Amal and George Clooney, which is 0.
Love you all and see you soon.