My first week in Italy

Buongiorno from Italian class! Currently I am trying not to fall asleep while the Professoressa (teacher) talks. Of course, she’s speaking in Italian so I’m not learning too much so I’ve decided to write about my first week before I forget. 

We got home from the airport late Sunday night, I unpacked and ate dinner which was homemade “hamburgers”, it was a beef patty with mayo, they serve it different then what we're used to in Canada, and salad, after dinner I went to bed. The next day we woke up at 6am and got ready for school and ate breakfast which was chocolate cake… my kind of breakfast. Then to make my day easier, Gioia’s sister, Gaia, drove us to school.  School is… different but I like it, more on that later. At school we did an hour of English (I’m a pro at this class) then two hours of gym which was basically just warming up, passing around a volleyball and trying to understand everyones questions. In Italy they learn English like how we learn French, so, everyone tries to practice their English on James and I by asking questions and talking to us. After Gym there is a 10 minute break where we can walk outside in the school courtyard, talk with friends and eat. After this we had an hour of Italian/ history and an hour of computer class (I think that’s what it is at least, Idk they call it Infomatica). 

After school we went home with James and Nicola and ate lunch. I went outside and enjoyed the warm weather with my cappuccino and took some pictures of Gioias animals. My favourite part of Italy so far (besides Gioia, Gaia, and all the new friends I’ve made) is all of the pets Gioia’s family has. In total there is 27 cats, 3 dogs, 5 chickens and one bird. I walk outside and get swarmed by animals wanting attention. I also love the bright yellow house and the plants everywhere. We ate dinner around 8 and I went to bed early.

The next day I followed the same routine but this time Gioia and I had to be ready in time to catch the bus. The bus stop is about a 5 minute walk from Gioia’s house so we leave a little earlier. The bus is packed since it’s a public bus (not a school bus) so anyone can take it although it’s mostly kids trying to get to school. We got to school and I ordered a cappuccino from the bar beside the school (they call cafes bars). After school we stopped by a bakery on our walk home from the bus stop and got pizza bianca and pizza rossa (white and red pizza… not the same as the pizza we can get in Canada, it’s like pizza crust with or without sauce). After lunch I finished some homework while Gioia did hers then made dinner and had another early night (its exhausting eating pizza and pasta all day).

By Wednesday I was used to the school day morning routine, or so I thought. I slept in past my alarm so Gioia woke me up. I rushed to get ready and grabbed breakfast and ate it on the way out. We ALMOST missed the bus but we ran and made right before it left.  After school, Gaia had lunch ready when we got home. I was so nervous all day because later I would be joining Gaia to her arial dance lesson. Gaia goes to a gym in a town called Velletri, the town we go to school in, she participates in Arial dancing. If you know me, you’d know I am not an athletic person, I do not gym class in school and I do not participate in extra curricular sports but before I left for Italy I told myself that my #1 goal was to try everything. When Gaia asked me to go with her to the gym, I hesitantly said yes. It turned out to be pretty fun, I have no upper body strength so it was difficult but I was able to do some beginner stuff.

On Thursday I woke up earlier so we wouldn’t have to run for the bus again. At school Gioia had some problems with the principle, apparently the school lost James and my documentation and we weren’t aloud at school. After lots of yelling she convinced them to let us stay. The next day at school, Gioia brought a note saying we could be there. I’m not to sure what actually happened but I’m pretty sure its all sorted out now. Friday night Gioia and I went out to a “bar” (same one I drank a cappuccino at beside the school). We drank aperitivi (I think it was like an aperol spritz) and met up with some of Gioia’s friends. I think it’s common to sit at a caffe with friends on Friday nights because there were lots of other kids there. For dinner we went to McDonalds, it was a bit different from our McDonalds, I ordered a chicken burger with avocado and red cabbage. It was molto buono (very good). After that we met more people and went to a place with tons of pool tables. I am proud to say that Gioia and I won my first game of pool in Italy. Then we walked a couple kilometres to an ice cream shop just to find out it was closed so we walked a little farther to a bakery and someone bought me a chocolate croissant which was also molto buono. We got home around 1:30 am and I didn’t wake up until 11 the next morning. 

Overall it was a good first week in Italy, I tried many new things and food and met tons of great people. This weekend we are supposed to Rome so I’m super excited and looking forward to taking lots of photos. I hope everyone at home is doing well and I miss you all!

Ciao dall’Italia!