I remember in middle school, when the school year was divided by 6 weeks, the end of the six weeks would always come way faster than I thought. And this six weeks went by way quicker than then. I’ve seriously been in Italy for six weeks!!! I cannot believe it. Six more weeks and theoretically I should be fluent! Let’s see if that actually happens.
Ok. Since I last posted, a whole lot has happened. Last weekend was super Italian; I spent all of Saturday with two girls from my class which was so fun. And one of them has one of those shellac manicure machines so I got a free manicure which was amazing. They (and all Italians) are so nice – my friend Ina gave me a kids book in Italian that I could read out loud to improve my pronunciation and vocabulary which is just so cool! And then Sunday I went hiking with my host parents and aunt and uncle which was absolutely beautiful. But it did mean that I spoke only Italian this weekend (because I didn’t hang out with the exchange students) so that was really good (and also hard). My Italian is really getting a lot better now – I can consistently hold a conversation about most things which is like really exciting. Theoretically I'll even be fluent in another month and a half!
This week was pretty normal. Went to school, to Italian lessons, to Como, ate gelato, spent too much money on sneakers (what's new), got another 'gravimente insufficiente' (also what's new), ate more gelato, etc. One very noteworthy thing did happen though: I bought some choco-leibniz cookies at the grocery store and I truly cannot describe to you how good they are. I opened the package a day after I bought them and I had one and then I was like ‘wow this is really good’ so I had another and then, I kid you not, I ate the entire box. They’re freaking delicious.
Speaking of good food, I went to Merate this Saturday with some other exchange students and there, I had the best sandwich I have ever eaten and will ever eat. As you can see in the picture, they literally cut the prosciutto for my sandwich in front of me. It was magical. But the main reason we went to Merate was to see the local chocolate festival. And apparently at chocolate festivals in Italy, people just love to give free samples, so the moment my friend and I walked in one stand called us over and just handed us a plate with biscotti, meringues, some other type of cookie, and then an entire little bag of cookies. Just for free. And then as you walked down the street every person at the stand would call at you to come and try their chocolate. It was beautiful. And Italian chocolate is amazing.
The next day all of the exchange students went to Turino with Rotary. Although the trip was rather unorganized and we spent more time waiting around/eating lunch than anything else, it is just so much fun to be with the other exchange students. Like so much fun. I guess it makes sense – we’re all similar cause we did all decide to do exchange and stuff. I love them all so much. And Turino was really pretty, even though we didn’t see much. We also met up with the Turin district, and I actually met a kid from Waco who I was supposed to meet at a wedding this summer (but he ended up not going cause it was his last weekend in the US). Also, fun fact: there’s a huge Egyptian history museum in Turino, second only to the one actually in Cairo. And thankfully I’m actually going back to see more of the city, because my host mom is from Turino, so we’re spending Christmas there. And when I go back we're going to eat at a restaurant that was built in THE 600s how insane is that. Everything here is so cool.
It’s been really an amazing month and a half here. And so many cool things are coming up too; I’m going to l’isola d’Elba for fall break in about week and I am SO EXCITED because it’s supposed to be absolutely beautiful. And then one month later we have our trip to Rome, Florence, and Pisa which I cannot wait for. Get excited to read the next blog cause it’ll be all about my trip to Elba, which legitimately looks like this. I know even I’m jealous of me.
See y'all soon <3