Catching Up

Hey Everyone! (if there are any of you out there who still read this!)
Sorry I have been so neglectful of my blog for so long, the end of last school year got really crazy, and I didn't seem to find the time.

But, perhaps my neglect is the best description of what the end of the year was like! - listen closely all you uwc-bound youngens! - The fact that I didn't take the small amount of time to write on my blog tell a large group of friends out there what I've been up to, shows how busy, sleepless, emotional, stressful and incredibly fun the last two months of school were!
Regardless, I'm sorry. I have a goal this year to improve the regularity of my updates (and possibly to make them a bit more entertaining), so keep checking it out!

To summarize the events of the last 5 months however, I better give you a bit of a rundown:

I think I last posted on my blog in like.... March (sounds pretty bad putting it that way), and we had about two months of school left.
During this period we had lots of exams, the second years had all their IB exams throughout May, and a study period before, so they weren't in class most of that time. I also was taking the SAT's for the second time, as well as planing things for the summer, and organizing acts for the IB Show (show we did at the end of the year when the secondi finished their IB exams) as well as doing some concerts with "Sitting on the Sidewalk," a band some second years started that I was playing bass for - can't remember if I told you all about that yet or not - but it was great.
Anyway, the end of the year sort of drug on forever/went way too fast, and May 28th showed up, at which point everyone left, which meant about three sleepless nights of packing up/saying goodbye to people (who conveniently left at all hours of the night on buses - so that we sat out on the street all night saying goodbye to them, often for the last time)
Anyway, as you can imagine, this was all very emotional and stressful, and, rather fun.

Then, I spent about a week after school finished (at the end of may/beginning of june) traveling in Slovenia and Croatia, with Keleigh and Lorenzo. We also met up with Caterina (Slovenia), Urska (Slovenia), and Uny (Hong Kong) in Ljubljana and traveled to this lake outside of Ljubljana and had a great time! Then, as Lorenzo was forced to return to Duino due to a minor bike accident, Keleigh and I took a train to Pula, Croatia, and spent one night there at a hostel on the beach!
Lorenzo and Keleigh returned to the College for a conference on Climate Change which involved students form loads of UWC's, which sounded very cool, whilst I returned home, via two days in Paris, and slept the large part of 3 days upon arriving.

Now, I know this is a blog about my experience about UWCAD, but I will give a quick summary of my summer... if you want to get back to Italy quickly, skip down to where it says VIESTE!
This summer I spent two weeks at the Colorado Suzuki Institute Chamber Music of the Rockies, partaking in intense classical string quartet training. Basically, I played viola for 7 hours a day (and played ultimate frisbee for the rest of them!).
I then had a week during which I visited my seconda, Lucy, in Durango, which was a blast.
I then spent another week playing music of a different genre: Western Swing! I got to go to a camp that famous swing musician Johnny Gimble puts on each year. It was really fun, and tied into the topic of my Extended Essay (EE) which I should probably be writing right now, instead of going to the beach in 10 minutes!
I also spent two weeks looking at colleges, mostly on the East coast, and in Ohio, where I also got to visit Cassie, a friend from Suzuki Camp. I visited 10 schools, and liked most of them, so now all I have to do is decide (and put in all the applications, to add to the crazy work load I'll already have this fall)!
Anyway, I was also at Ghost Ranch for a week with my mom and Anne Caroline, Bo and Malia Reeves (fellow Taoseno and seconda form UWC - Atlantic, Wales), helping with a workshop on social justice and peacemaking! We also spent a few days camping, swimming, and diving off of large cliffs!

About a week after that, in which I tried to see all my friends that I hadn't gotten to see all summer, I left for Italy again! I know, that was brief summary of my summer, as we're already back for my second year. I left home on August 10th, and spent three days getting from Albuquerque, to New York (where I spent the night with good family friends), to London (where I spent a not-so-good night in the London Airport), to Milan, then by train to Foggia (a city in the mid-southern part of the country, near where my friend Vittoria lives).
Upon arriving, I met Vittoria and her father, Michelangelo, and we drove to Vittoria's town, Vieste, where I have been for the last 6 days!





VIESTE

Vieste is small, beautiful town located right along the coast of a very beautiful sea with lots of beautiful beaches.
It's beautiful.
It is hot, and different from the Northern part of the country that I've seen. Upon arriving, actually, it reminded me quite a lot of various parts of Senegal and West Africa which I haven't seen in a long time (which was a fun thing to remember!). I guess it was partly the heat, but also the smell, and the white buildings... the climate in general, I suppose. I believe it is safe to say that the culture is quite different, but the region has a similar feel.

So far, I have spent a lot of my time on the beach (there are wide, sandy beaches almost the entire length of the town - which isn't that small)! Other time has been spent going dancing at night, which then requires even more time to recover by sleeping. During this part of the summer (most of August, actually), there are a lot of tourists, and therefore a lot going on at night. But, as Vittoria tells me, apparently everyone goes out dancing every night during the summer, even when there aren't as many tourists. So, pretty much every night I've been here, we've gone out dancing! And, as Italians eat dinner at home around 9:00pm, that means you go out around 11:00pm, or later, and stay out dancing until somewhere between 3:00am and 6:00am the next morning. I actually have been finding it a bit exhausting, but I suppose it's a cultural experience!
Anyway, I've gotten to know a lot of Vittoria's friends, who are very nice, and I'm having a good time. I've also been doing some work on my Extend Essay (EE), mostly transcribing interviews with Johnny Gimble and fellows that I did this summer. I've been to church a few times, with Vittoria, when she plays piano, I've practiced some viola, taken pictures, played guitar, sent important emails, and gotten to relax a little bit!
Vittoria's family could not be nicer and more hospitable, and my Italian is somewhat coming back! I haven't been doing my Italian homework just yet (which will hopefully help me remember all the grammar I forgot), but it's becoming more comfortable to speak, and I am learning a few words in the local dialect!
Today we got up early and took a boat ride that goes to Le Grote (the caves) along the coast to the south. There is a very neat series of caves and arches/rock formations along the coast that we drove by (I took lots of pictures - see above) and then stoped at a nice beach for a little while and swam!

Well, I believe that is a sufficient catch-up-summary. I will be here for 7 more days, Vittoria and I take an overnight train to Monfalcone from Foggia on the 26th. I'm really looking forward to going back, seeing my friends, meeting my first years and getting back into the swing of things. I miss UWCAD!

I hope you are all doing well in your various parts of the worlds!

Ciao da Vieste!