4 Weeks Down

Wow.. Was I off on my days with that last post? I didn't think it had been so long since I'd blogged but here I am counting day 28, exactly four weeks, and my last post says two and a half.. Oops.

I don't have a lot to say but I'll do my best. This post is for Gabi because she totally made my day today and apparently checks for my posts almost as much as my mom :) Love you Gabs!

The past week has been very uneventful. Monday school was very boring and I was disappointed. I don't know why it was so boring.. I think Mondays are just bad days no matter where you are, even in Italy. But I do seem to have the most boring schedule on that day, so I'm sure that contributes. Anyways, I probably finished 8 or 9 sudokus that day.. Yes, that is what I do during class. Sudokus. Sometimes I doodle or practice writing with my left hand too (I hear it improves your memory, and I need to remember all these Italian words!) but for the most part sudokus keep me entertained during the classes in which the teachers actually decide to teach, which I must admit, isn't as often as you'd think. I wonder where I'll be able to buy another sudoku book here when I finish this one...

Wednesday I was only in class for the first hour. I had felt sick that morning but decided to go to school because I spend enough time at home. By the time my second class came, however, I was sure I couldn't handle any more. Luckily it was english class so I was able to tell the teacher that I wanted to go home and she communicated that to the vice principal for me. I was just going to leave, like I see so many kids do so often, but when I told the english speaking kid in my class (you know, the annoying, spoiled one who "only buys designer clothes") he told me they had a sign out process that I had to go through. The english teacher told me the same thing when she got there so she had to check with the vice principal for me. I'm not so sure they even have a principal here.. I've never seen him/her and the vice principal pretty much handles everything haha.

Anyways the vice principal okay-ed my going home, but when I got home no one was there. Monica had been out shopping I think. So I had to go back to school, but they let me just hangout in the bar until school ended instead of sitting in class. I didn't mind this so much, seriously the bar is probably the nicest part of the entire school. Very comfy chairs at very nice tables :) I put my head down on my bag and slept a little and did sudokus. I also wrote letters to family and friends, which I will be sending soon :)

Thursday I didn't go to school. I still didn't feel well and I knew I needed to rest so I stayed home. It was very boring. One thing that REALLY bothered me was the fact that despite my being sick, my host family STILL expected me to eat a lot. Seriously, they think I'm anorexic or something because I don't ever want five servings of everything after eating the HUGE plate of pasta they give me, so they gave me crazy looks when I ate even less than usual that day. I tried to eat as much as I could but really, there's only so much a sick stomach can handle.

Friday I went back to school. I actually had been told a week or two before not to go because there was going to be a strike (they apparently do that often, on random days) but I went anyways. I was desperate to get out of the house. A girl in my class had told me they weren't sure if they were going to have one or not and to go anyways so I figured I might as well. The first hour there were only five of us. Thankfully Jessica, my favorite friend so far, was there so I hung out with her and the other people. Then, out of no where, the bell rang for the next class and the rest of my classmates suddenly showed up... So I guess it was only a one-hour strike? Glad I didn't stay home. I'm so confused about how this school system works, but I'll figure it out.

Saturday (today) I had a pretty good day. Usually I don't like saturdays because I sit at home, like every day, but I get to think about all the fun everyone is having staying out late while I'm stuck at home. I like school on saturdays though because it's shorter and the classes are good. Today at school was another one of those chill saturdays. Since we have math for the first two hours instead of just one, the math teacher (also the vice principal) usually doesn't come until the end of the first hour. She always comes a little late because she has more important duties to take care of, but on saturdays she usually misses almost all of the first hour. The rest of class wasn't too exciting but it wasn't horrible either. Math always psychs me out here.. Seriously I feel like my little buddy Ella is going to open the door and yell "PSYCH!" sometimes. (I babysat her all summer, she's five, and her favorite thing to do to me on a daily basis was convince me of something along the lines of her mother planning on firing me, someone throwing away something important, etc, and than yell "PSYCH" at the perfect moment when she had me convinced. haha) Anyways, math does this to me because class will start out with easy algebra that I could do with my eyes closed and I go through it easily and quickly. Then, out of no where, the teacher will write some crazy equation that I've never seen before on the board and start doing scary difficult things that I can't comprehend.. This is where the "PSYCH" comes in, and I realized that I've been tricked once again.

After school today I was sitting at home as usual. Thankfully the internet was up today and I started chatting on facebook with one of my lovely new friends, Annamaria :) She is a friend of my liason Sarah, so she's older, but she's very cool and we'd been talking about going to "get coffee" which basically could mean anything.. haha. Anyways we were both bored and so she invited me to go out. I had her talk to Monica on the phone and I was allowed out of my cage for a few hours :) We actually did get coffee, which was sooooo yummy! It wasn't real coffee I guess... I'd had it before. It was cold, still had a coffee taste, but was mixed with chocolate or something. So delicious! The texture was kind of like a milkshake, but not as cold. I love it, and thankfully they only give coffee in small cups here because it's so strong so I don't feel as guilty about having something that is probably extremely unhealthy.. :)

Sitting at the coffee place was a lot of fun. We were sitting at the tables just talking for a long time, and in english because Annamaria is fluent! Well let's just say we got a lot of strange looks and people who were obviously eavesdropping and trying to figure out what we were saying. One lady walked by, then came back, went into the coffee shop, and then came back out so she could listen to us. Finally she came over and asked where we were from and everything. Of course she spoke to Annamaria in Italian the whole time but basically I knew what they were saying :) Annamaria explained that I was from America and that she had studied english... blah blah blah. The lady told Annamaria that her english was "so good!" and she was impressed or something.. haha. English-speaking people aren't common in a small town like Caserta, so the whole walk there and home we got a lot of people looking at us funny. It was kind of fun actually.

After coffee we went to a cute little shop right across from the coffee stand. It was very small, as are all of the shops here, but it had a lot of cute jewelry! It also reminded me of Washington because there were a ton of carved animals and things that reminded me of the Native American influence in Washington. From this store and another on the walk home I was able to pick up a few gifts to send back home which was nice :)

Finally I came home around 8pm. My host family was sitting at the dinner table, about to eat. To my surprise they were having... any guesses?! Burgers! Haha.. well fake, Italian ones, of course, but burgers nonetheless. And apparently tomorrow Mariano is making "breakfast Americano!" which I'm not sure if I should be worried or excited about right now... I'll let you all know how that goes.

I'm looking forward to my next blog because I'll be blogging all about the three days I'm going to be spending in Naples! I have an orientation with AFS so I'll be staying in a hotel in Naples from Lunedi (monday) to Giovedi (thursday) with a bunch of other exchangers :) I can't wait, three days out of the house and I'm hoping to be reunited with a lot of the friends I made in Rome! It will be a lot of fun, I hope, and I can't wait to tell you all about it :) Also, I'm supposedly going to Rome on Giovedi with Monica after she picks me up in Naples. I wish I was looking forward to this but right now I'm not sure... She has a casting thing there (according to her, she's an "actress" but I'm not so sure her career has quite taken off.. ha) so I'm not sure how much time we'll actually be spending sight-seeing but maybe it will be fun. I'll just pretend I'm there with someone else and get lost in the sights. She might annoy me most of the time but atleast I'll be seeing the beautiful city finally :)

Well it's time to go to bed. The internet keeps going out and I'm tired. Plus, I'm getting up a bit early tomorrow so I can finally go to church! I'm so excited. I'm going with Mariano (I prefer him over Monica) and none of the children will be there, so I'll get to have some peace in one of my favorite places :) Oh, how I have missed church! I don't even care that it won't be in english because it won't matter. That's one of the wonderful things about being Catholic; the same celebration is happening all over the world, in the same way. I'll know what's happening even if I can't understand it through words. I also think it will be kind of fun to learn some prayers in Italian. Let’s see.. Noi Padre, qui… art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Haha well I got the first three words at least.. :)

Ciao, buona sera, buonjiourno (because it's afternoon over there), and arrivederci :)

-Zoë