some random pictures that I have...

This picture is a panorama view of the sea from on top of some mountain...

This is a picture of a random soccer game that one of Costanza's friends plays on one of the teams.. watching this game made me miss playing sports and soccer so much!
This is me on top of the mountain overlooking the sea with the Duino New Castle in the background.
This is a picture of the Duino New Castle... I didnt go in it.. but i am told that i will sometime..
This is an overview of the sea/beach that i went to one time..
This is a picture I took on the way to school one morning...

Update

Yesterday was my last day of my second week of school... Things are going great with my family and friends.. but for school they still have to change my schedule around and i still dont have any books... also i havent started tutoring lessons yet..so thats not good. I do have some good news though... my host dad found a good book for learning Italian from English.. so ive started that.. and i might take an italian class for non-italian people at a school... also i met my liaison finally.. her name is Lorenza (sp?) and she went to USA (specifically Detroit) 3 years ago on AFS.. so shes in her early 20's and she goes to some college and plays basketball (as you may not know, the sports arent connected to the schools here) so if i decide to play basketball i could be playing/ practicing with her... but as far as sports go right now, they are non-existent in my future.. unless my school gets their act together and my schedule is figured out, i get my books, and i start tutoring lessons..

Other than that, I went to Udine for the day this past friday to celebrate European Day of International Language with AFS.. so 3 other exchange students and I were welcomed to Italy and we got some books on all the history of Italy (needless to say they were big books, cause Italy has a LOT of history!!)..

Also, last night (Saturday night) Costanza, a friend of hers, and I went to Trieste! It was my first time going to Trieste.. It was sooo beautiful!! we went around 5ish by train.. so when we got there, the sun was starting to set, it was gorgeous.. we walked around for a while and they told me some of the history (i forget it all now, but it was cool)... then at night there was a market, so we walked around there for a while looking around at stuff... it was a fun night! and if you ever have a chance to go to Trieste, DO IT!!! it is so different and beautiful, especially with the sunset in the background... i was really mad, because i forgot my camera.. but my family says we'll definitely go back again.. so next time ill get some pictures and post them for you...

i'm looking forward to my fourth week in Italy.. hope all is well at home..

ciao for now!

school...

I have good news! i was able to stay in my class... cause they realized i already had friends in there and that i liked that class, so they didnt move me!!
My classes i am taking this year are: italian, english, german, spanish, latin, chemistry, math, gym, history, and history of art.. yes that is correct 5 languages... ugh.. its going to be really hard! but i might switch out of latin and take another italian course instead.. not sure yet... then italian tutor after school (maybe)... oh yeah and the good news- all those language courses are based in italian!! so it makes them that much harder!!!

my school day is different each day.. on three days i have 6 hours of school and the other three i only 5 hours.. but in school the hour is like 45 or 50 min.. and then a 10 minute break between periods 3 and 4.. so i start school at 8 25 and end either around 1 or 2 (depending on the day)... so a lot shorter than Granby.. but i think i still prefer granby hours compared to going to school on saturdays... oh well...

School Cont.

Ah.. What a first day... it was very different.. the thing that was the most different was the fact that the students stay in one classroom and the teachers change classrooms. also they dont have any technology (computers, tvs) in the classrooms except for maybe some of the science ones... today i had 6 periods each of which are an hour. i started the day off with latin. next i had 2 hours of italian, in which the teacher didnt know i was not from Italy and didnt speak Italian. so he just started the class and did not stop until it was over; so while everyone has pages and pages of notes, im sitting there with not even one sentence... the same thing happened in history because he is my history teacher also... so needless to say, i will have to talk to him about that, but i dont think he knows english... after italian i had spanish, that teacher was very nice. also this is the first year that my class has taken spanish, so we will be learning all at the same pace (but then again spanish is close to italian, so maybe not)... after spanish was ENGLISH!! as much as i am a math person and dont like english class, i never thought i would actually really look forward to english class, but i will for the next year!! haha.. and finally after english was history...

i made some friends also, about 5 or 6. they are all very nice and tried to help me as much as they could with translating... which they could do pretty well considering they have been taking english for about 9 years...

so after this fun first day of school, i was looking forward to going to school for the next 10 months in italy, but then i find out right after school that they put me in the wrong class.. so i might have to switch classes and completely change my schedule and try to make some new friends... ugh.. why couldnt they just get it right the first time.... anyway ill let you know what happens with that...

bye for now

School

I start school tomorrow... I'm pretty nervous.. Although I know I have many people willing to help me, so thats always a good thing... I will let you all know how the first day of school goes...

Italy

I made it in Italy.. after a 7 and a half hour flight to Zurich.. then 4 hours in Zurich.. 1 and a half hour flight to Rome.. two day orientation in Rome.. im finally at my host parents house.. i got here on sunday night...