Roma!
We took a school trip to Rome and Milan for 8 days from November 13th to 21st. The entire student body along with the staff and other guests made up a traveling bunch of about 250. We had almost an entire train to ourselves on the overnight trip to Rome!


In Rome the students stayed in two monasteries at the heart of the center, within walking distance of all the famous places: the coliseum, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican, etc.

It was really amazing.



We saw the Pope on the first day, and had a private audience with President Giorgo Napolitano (of Italy). At the Papa Benedetto's appearance 5 of us or so got to go up to the front row of everything and see the pope from about 5 feet away. It was really a neat experience. There were other events; a conference on Eastern Europe, a recital by ex-music scholars, and various cultural visits and dinners; but besides these, we had lots of free time to see the city and get to know the area. I feel pretty confident now that I know my way around central Rome!
I took loads of pictures.
It's hard to say what I liked the most about Rome because there was little about that part of the trip that I didn't like. I guess highlights include lunch at Circo Massimo with Shashank and Ammar, taking pictures of the Coliseum at sunrise, taking pictures in general, having American food at Hard Rock Cafe with Heidi, Diana, Salma and Elroy, getting lost with Urska on multiple occasions, cozy cafes, and just wandering around Rome in general.
On the last day I got to see Lucy's sister Nora who is on Rotary in Sicily, and got to have dinner with Lillian, an old friend from Senegal who's been in Rome for about a year.

Then, on Monday (Nov. 19th), we all took buses to Milan where we stayed with host families! We had a meeting with the Mayor of Milan and other important people, but the best part of the experience in Milan was, for me, the host families.
Adesso parlo italiano!
Now I speak Italian! This is a little bit of an exaggeration because I am still very far from being totally comfortable speaking, but I can communicate now and after about 1.5 days with my family/host sister and their friends, I was communicating quite comfortably.
La mia sorella italiana si chiama Beatrice. My italian family couldn't have been nicer and more hospitable and invited me to come back and stay when I'm in Milan next!
I loved hanging out with Italian teenagers for the first time and really speaking the language for a while with people my own age.

Both the cities were lots of fun, I had a great time in general.

We took buses back to Duino on Wednesday, and had school off on Thursday to recover. Coincidentally enough it also happened to be thanksgiving so the Americans spent the afternoon cooking and we had dinner at Anne and Jean-Paul's flat (teachers and residence tutors of Pala) because Anne is American. They had a 25 lb. turkey (which I of course didn't eat) and we had loads of other nice food.
It was fantastic.
Then we had school on Friday, and the weekend again!

I realized that tomorrow I will have been here 3 months and that yesterday we only had 3 weeks left until winter break!
It's weird how fast it's gone but how I still feel like I've been here forever. It will be nice to be back home for a while though to see my family and have some familiarity, but it will also be hard to be away from the people here for so long.

Ciao!

November 12, 2007

Ciao Tutti!
We had a show for the 2nd years this weekend called the EE Show which is celebrating the 2nd years' finishing their Extend Essays (a 4,000 word essay that factors into your IB score, on a topic you choose).
The show was stressful to put on because, at least I, put a lot of time into it. There were some great organizers (Samantha, Lilly, Diana) who did loads of work that I'm really glad I wasn't involved in, but I did do lots of acts, my band played, I made some movies, etc.
The show was Friday night and was sooo much fun to do. It was know as the "Red Carpet Affair" and was movie themed, so the 2nd years came in assigned couples dressed as assigned characters. The whole event was just fantastic. We put it on in the new school auditorium, which was great, and it would have reminded those of you who know, of the shows at UWCAD. Lots of skits, dances, LOTS of music - classical to vocal and rock.
I have been getting much busier with school in general. I feel like I need to study outside of class in order to keep up, and it's very hard to do with so much going on!
On Saturday, I went to Aviano with Heidi (USA) and Diana (UK). Aviano is an American military base N.E. of here, at the base of the dolomites. One of the residence tutors and wife (Anne) of a teacher here was really nice to drive us (about an hour) so we went and bought American food and went to a Taco Bell and payed in American Dollars etc. They have a sort of strip mall on the base for the soldiers that has a big grocery store, a general wall-mart-like store and some fast-food restaurants and a barber (I got a hair cut/buzz). It was really fun and really different to be back around Americans and American food and products.
You can only enter the base if you have an American Military ID (which Heidi does because her father is in the military) or if you are a guest of one of said people.
Anyway, it was lots of fun, we came home, made Fajitas, and today I ate Bagels and Cream Cheese for breakfast and Digiorno Frozen Pizzas and Ranch Dressing for dinner (with Heidi, Diana and Kristina (Canada)). I also bought things like egg waffles, cheddar cheese, tortillas and grape nuts cereal that I just miss being here. It's nice to have the familiarity also.
Anyway, that was a nice little trip back to the U.S.

In general here things are going well, the weather has been pretty nice lately (still cold though) and I have been mostly playing soccer for exercise. I've been playing guitar more (with band) and viola less.

I've been hanging out a lot with Urska, Lucy, Diana, Heidi, some with Lilly, and, of course, with lots of people all the time in different contexts. I reiterate that everyone here is exceptionally interesting, fun and nice.

Tuesday we go to Rome and Milan for 8 days with the school as part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations. It's impressive what they've done to mobilize 200 people!

I'll write about that trip when I'm back, I won't have my laptop on the trip because the school is allowing us to bring them in light of theft, and power problems with all of us plugging in at the residences we'll be at.
I will have my cameras though, so there should be lots of good media!

Hope everyone's doing well!
Ciao!

Here is the video I made for and of the 2nd years, enjoy.