Hello everyone! Ok so technically this is another 11 days ish, but it also marks three weeks that I’ve been in Italy! And every day here is better than the last. Although I still miss my family and friends (I’ll always miss y’all), I’m really starting to make a life here.
The funny thing about being an exchange student is that it’s a whole lot like being five years old again. You never know 100% of what’s going on, you always need a nap, you have a weird ability to experience every emotion possible in five minutes, and you mess up – a lot. At least I can laugh at myself! Had plenty of time to do that when I missed my bus stop and had a twenty-minute walk home. At least it's pretty!
I’ve realized something else about exchange. too. Going into it, even though I realize this is dumb, I could only think ‘a year in Italy; every moment will be amazing’. And like, yeah, a lot of them are. But some aren’t. For example, when your teacher is yelling something at you in Italian but you only realized they were talking to you by the time they were halfway done and now there’s really no hope of ever understanding what the heck they were trying to say but you still have to reply and it’s painfully obvious you have no idea how to speak Italian. Or when you just sit on the couch after school and realize that you’re doing nothing but in Italy which is somehow way worse than doing nothing in Houston cause it feels like you’re wasting so much time. But like there’s really nothing to do, cause you don’t really have any close Italian friends yet. That happened to me on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday I went to Milan after school with the exchange students and it was one of the best days of my life and I had so much fun and loved every second. It was how I thought every day would be here. And when I got home, this phrase we talked about in CS Lewis popped into my head: ‘This too shall pass’. I know what you’re thinking – I’m on a different freaking continent and you still can’t escape me talking about that class. But that phrase represents exchange perfectly. The bad stuff passes. But so does the good, and I think that’s something I didn’t think about before I got here. Either way, it’s a good reminder. When I’m sad, I know that sometime soon I’ll do something so insanely cool I won’t be able to believe sadness even exists in Italy. But when things are amazing, it reminds me to savor it, because it won’t last forever. And now that I know that, exchange seems so much easier, even though Italian is still really hard and so is remembering to bring clothes for PE.
In other news, a lot of exciting stuff has happened. First of all, I discovered that Italians bring food to share with the class on their birthday which is just the best. There’s also coffee machines all over the school and they’re surprisingly good, and really cheap – one espresso is like 30 cents. I also learned that Italian kids cheat like all the time. It’s kind of impressive how many ways they can do it – talking when the teacher leaves the room, taping cheat sheets inside their calculator covers, getting me to correct notes they wrote in English for the test and hiding the paper under their test so they can copy it, and just straight up getting me to write out the plot from a book so they can copy it during the test. And they really loved it when I introduced them to sparknotes, as not a single one had read any of the english summer reading books.
I also finally recognized something in math (limits) and asked if this class was the equivalent of preacal. It’s not. Apparently in Italy you do a little of all math every year, so for our test Saturday (which I have to take) there’s geometry, trigonometry, and probability. My math teacher isn’t the nicest dude. But my pe coach is – when I forgot my clothes, he said ‘Ohhhh you’re the exchange student! You don’t have to worry about anything this year. Sit in my chair! Do whatever!’. He might be my favorite teacher.
Now for the most exciting parts of the past few days: finally meeting all the exchange students in Varese and my first time in Milan. In Varese, I finally got a lot more pins on my blazer (shoutout to Mexican exchange students for always having the best ones) and it makes me happy every time I look at it. And the weekend was so much fun – there’s 40 kids in our district. 18 from the US (and three from Texas!), 6 from Taiwan, 4 Australians, 3 Mexicans, 3 Canadians and 1 each from Brazil, Belgium, Finland, Japan, France, and Germany. We all speak English together too cause it’s pretty nice to get a break from Italian. And everyone who doesn’t have English as a first language puts me to shame cause they’re all fluent in English and their home language and they’re learning Italian too. It’s pretty freaking impressive.
However, there is something even more impressive: the Duomo. It is so insanely beautiful because it’s enormous but at the same time has the most intricate detailing on every inch. But honestly all of Milan is gorgeous. I cannot help being in awe of practically every building I see, including the Zara, which is like five stories and amazing. And it was so much fun to just talk with the exchange students and walk around because they are all so cool!!! I was also in the best mood cause I got two gelatos in one day which is one of the best things that has happened this exchange. I seriously cannot express to you guys how much I love gelato. And I know this sounds weird but my favorite flavor is actually yogurt. I swear it’s delicious. But I loved everything about Milan. I would really go there every day if I could.
Some other fun facts about Italy: the dogs eat real good. Instead of keeping leftovers, they give them to our dog after dinner. So like this dude gets pasta, risotto, everything. Italy is for sure the best place to be a dog. And also the McDonalds here has a deluxe bakery. I had a muffin filled with Nutella and it was absolutely delicious. On another note, the pigeons at the Duomo are the bravest things alive. They scare me. I tried walking through a whole bunch of them and they just wouldn’t move. Like I had to back away so I wouldn’t step on one. They truly do not know fear. And I’ll leave you with one final fun fact that you’ll find super ironic if you know me at all: my host family said that they think I like every food on the planet. This is literally the biggest scam anyone has ever pulled off. I am so proud of myself. I’ll update you in the next post if they catch me for the picky eater I am.
