Part #2 from a while go

So where did I leave off yesterday? Oh right, the party. The party was so much fun. It was the first night in Italy I felt like I really just got to be myself and have fun not caring what anybody else thought (Nick always says my natural habitat is the dance floor. He’s totally right). The party was on the driveway of Mike and Brandon’s house and even had a DJ. Their host dad was out there dancing away like there was no tomorrow, it was one of the funniest things to watch. One of the other host parents told us that if we got him drunk enough, he would do hand stands. By the end of the evening Enzo had danced on chairs and done handstands. My friend Mike claimed at one point that he didn’t know how to dance so I taught him all my best nerdy dance moves, a.k.a. Wax on wax off, Q-tip throw it away, bus driver, monkey, and the sprinkler. He, in turn, taught me how to head bang. After the head banging and nerdy dance moves he asked me to teach him how to spin and dip a girl so we practiced that a much (he only dropped me a few times though I thought it would happen more). The rest of the evening was spent dancing and being ridiculous. After the party ended Enzo brought out fresh steaming hot croissants filled with Nutella for everyone. That croissant was one of the best things I’ve had in my entire life. Amazing. After that we decided to walk up to the bar in Rogliano and hang out, but once we walked all the way up there we saw that the bar was completely packed with people celebrating that the Milan soccer team had won the championship so we ended up leaving and walking home because it was just too crowded.

Sunday, I got up early to go to the Sunday Market in town. It was sunny and gorgeous outside (finally) and it was a lovely day to walk about the town. We walked around for an hour or so before coming back to the house to have lunch. After lunch we had to write an essay that was due on Monday and that took absolutely all afternoon. The essay was 3 pages in Italian about our impressions of the monuments in Rome. Crazy. After dinner we went and chilled at Mike and Brandon’s to use the Internet. Ended up staying there for too long, watching tv shows and hanging out. By the time we left my cold had gotten much worse so when I woke up Monday morning I was very sick and very miserable.

Monday was the day I had to register. Boy was that stressful. I got a ride over to Mike and Brandon’s (MB from now on) and set up all my class schedules so I could register when it opened to me. Of course as soon as it was time to register my classes got messed up and I ended up not getting into a single class I wanted. I couldn’t get into Italian because since right now I’m registered in “foreign study” the website wouldn’t believe that I had the prerequisites to sign up for 201. So that messed up my schedule and then I tried to sign up for Communications 201 and that was closed so I tried Comparative History of Ideas: Biocultures and the quiz section I wanted was full so it wouldn’t let me sign up for the class. Ended up having to register for Psych 101 and CHID: Intro to intellectual history. Then I emailed the Italian department so they could place me into an Italian class. Then after that I figured out how to get into the CHID class I originally wanted. It of course only took me over an hour to finally get my schedule right but now it’s set and I’m not changing it! After that it was time for class so Enzo drove Brandon and I to the Casa Della Cultura (which is the town’s library and where we currently have classes). After class we went home and had dinner and almost immediately after dinner I went to bed because I was very very sick, coughing up a storm. I haven’t been this sick since I had bronchitis in September! Managed to prop myself up with enough pillows in the middle of the night though that I managed to sleep without coughing and actually felt better on Tuesday. On Tuesday we had class in the morning, watched a movie called “Il Gattopardo” in Italian culture with Ruggero. It’s an Italian movie but the main actor is American, Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity anyone?). It’s a really well done film about the dying age of aristocracy in Italy when Italy became a unified country in 1860. After class we went home to eat lunch then off to MB to use the internet and chill. Brandon and I downloaded virtual Gameboy advanced onto our computers so now we can play Pokémon Red Version on our computers. We are now in a competition to see who can do the best hahaha. After that home to eat dinner, play with Francesco for a while (who won’t stop talking about Stephanie ever since I showed him her picture, “belllaaaaa” is what he said). It’s very cute. He told me last night he wants to write her a message and I told him I would translate it into English for him. Then everybody went to bed and I went to MB to hang out. Then home to bed. Woke up feeling much much better this morning. Today was our first day of teaching at the Elementary school! I got to teach 1^st grade with two other people from my program. It was so much fun!! I always forget how much I love little kids until I’m around them again. We worked on colors, names, and the weather in English. Now we have to figure out what to teach on Monday. I was thinking maybe an easy kids song (like really easy. They’re still learning Italian). If anybody has any ideas let me know!