Emily Out Of Water: September 2013

Monday 30 September 2013

Photos of Last week

Here are some general photos of last week :)

First Italian hot chocolate in Cesena - molto, molto, molto buono

After school hot chocolates

Marta and I out for dinner with the family

I made Pavlova for my host family

Day trip to Ferrara

I eat these for breakfast everyday and lets just say breakfast is my favourite meal of the day

First rainy day in Italy!

It's raining so exciting

Jannie was excited for the rain too!

Rain in Cesena

Fran, Ida and I going to Italian lessons

Smurf shaped piadina!

Jan's a bit of a rebel ;)

Afternoon tea/Italian lesson

These mini trucks are called Ape and you see so much in this photo but they fit one person in the front. They're tiny and so cute I love them so much!

Cesena

Cesena Fountain

Jan, Fran and Ida having pizza before Italian lessons

Washing seashells for dinner - doesn't get much fresher than that!

First iced coffee, Italian style

Iced coffee con Ida

After school yoghurt

yoghurt with strawberries and chocolate mmm

I like these seats at the yoghurt shop haha

We went to an American restaurant with some of my classmates from school. Everyone at my school is obsessed with this new American restaurant, it's crazy!

Duff beer :O

Each ice cream has a different cartoon on it

I made dinner for my host family - Mexican style

Sunday 29 September 2013

Third week as an Italian - and loving it :D

Three weeks have gone by so fast and I now really feel like I have a home in Italy. I get up in the mornings, I go to school, I talk to friends, I eat (amazingly) and sleep. I don’t think “Oh wow I’m in Italy” as much as “What books do I need to take to school tomorrow?” which sounds strange but it’s so true. I feel so at home here and of course I think about NZ and my friends and family over there all of the time but it’s so strange how fast something new can become the norm. Now that it is seeming so normal to me it’s hard to know what to write in the blog because it’s hard to realise what’s actually different but luckily I kept a list at the beginning so I’ll post about that and the highlights of this week.

So the highlight of my week would have to be on Thursday when it was my friend from AFS’ birthday. Ida, Jan and I went on the train to Forli where she lives as a surprise and we had dinner and slept there the night. It was so much fun, and great to see another Italian family, and another town. Fran had been worried about what her birthday would be like in Italy since she hasn’t been here long and didn’t know what her host family would do for it but they were all so lovely and made such an effort for her I think she had a great time.

She lives in a family who take people in when they’re in need and that sort of thing. There must have been about 17 people at dinner and they were just family members, and a couple of people from the neighbouring houses which are families doing the same kind of things. The atmosphere at dinner was just the best thing! Everyone was talking and laughing and with so many people, some being really young kids it was so happy and loud and just SO nice. When her cake came out and everyone sung Happy Birthday in Italian it was the best thing ever! Just such an amazing, happy atmosphere!

After dinner we went outside for a bit with the older kids in the family and suddenly a bunch of the girls broke out in the cup song on the outside table and it was really good! I think Italians really like the cup song, I’ve heard about it so much here. After a while they all went to bed and it was just Jan, Fran, Ida and I for the rest of the night. We had so much fun and were up most of the night watching videos, listening to music, talking and some other things that just made it one of the best nights ever. I don’t think I’ve laughed that much since I got here, it was great.

The next day we all had the day of school because Forli isn’t too close to Cesena where Jan, Ida and I go to school. We slept in, had breakfast and then went into Forli. We looked around the market and town, had a coffee and then caught the train into Cesena where we had lunch, gelato and then went to our Italian lesson all together. As I said in the last post I’m terrible at remembering to take photos but I will be better I promise!

Here are some of the differences, or just things that happened which I thought were strange, which I’ve found after the first 3 weeks:

. The food is very separate, like we’ll eat one thing, then the next, then the next. We don’t put a whole bunch of different things on the plate at once like we would in NZ. For example; we’ll eat pasta (which never has any veges in it), then something like meat on a new plate, then salad on a new plate, then bread and then fruit.
. Oil is added to EVERYTHING! I was starting to think this was just my family but I’ve heard it from everyone else too. First the food is cooked in way more oil than we would use in NZ, then the oil is on the table and it’s added to the meal – no matter what it is. It’s put on the top of an already oil soaked pizza, on SALAD and even on soup!
. There’s always bread with dinner, even at restaurants. Just always.
. This is something which there is probably an alternative to in NZ, or just in the English language in general but if you have a conversation with an Italian, even if it’s the shortest conversation ever you hear “Allora, Allora, Aspetta”. Aspetta means “wait” and Allora, according to Google Translate means “then” but whenever I ask someone here they say there isn’t really a translation for it.
. This could just be in my town but the traffic lights turn off at 9pm and don’t come back on until morning!
. When you greet, or say goodbye to someone here you don’t just choose one thing to say like “Ciao”, or “Arrivederci”, or “Grazie" or whatever, you say “Ciao, Ciao, Arrivederci, A dopo”. Most people use about 4 or 5 phrases straight after the other!
. This isn’t really a difference between NZ and Italy, just something I found funny and quite cool. My host sister and I saw a sign in a field and I asked her what it was. It had heaps of writing on it and she read it and told me it was a poem about abortion. She said that when the farmers have done their work and they’re bored, they write poetry and put it in random places for people to read! It’s so cute, and she said they’re normally really bad but this one was quite good.
. Last night we went to my host Mum’s friend’s house for dinner and it was kind of chilly so I kept my coat on when we went in. Within the first couple of minutes I was told at least 5 times that I could take my coat off if I wanted, like I was crazy for keeping it on. At the time I thought they were just letting me know in case I didn’t know where I could put it or something, but then I realised that they really wanted me to take it off and it’s rude here to keep it on inside. In NZ people wear their Kathmandu’s like jumpers if it’s a cold day and they’ll wear them for the whole day regardless if they’re inside or out.
The timing of everything here is completely different. Dinner is around 8-8:30 then you could be going out with friends at 10ish – even on a week night! Also my host sister does football and she gets home at 10:30 and then sometimes goes out again. Also school here finishes at 1 so you have at least 7 hours before dinner which is like a whole day so there’s so much you can do in the afternoon. I really like the timings because it makes the day seem so much longer but I know I’m going to get so tired.

There’s heaps of other really big differences, but because they don’t seem so big now it’s hard to think of them. There’s also heaps of small differences like stinkbugs are everywhere. I can’t have a shower without having to get rid of at least 3 from the walls but this could just be because there’s a window right above the shower and not so much because I’m in Italy… Also there’s McDonald’s branded tomato sauce in the supermarket!

Monday 23 September 2013

School life and 2 weeks in Italia

So much has happened since I last wrote on the blog but I think I’m just going to post about school because that’s probably the biggest thing since then.

I really like my class at school, the first day I wasn't sure because they weren't like my friends back home but now I think I just needed to have more of an open-mind. Sure they’re different to my friends in NZ but that’s good because this whole thing is about doing new things and meeting new people. The class has about 25 students and only 2 of them are boys which seems crazy but it’s a human science school and apparently most guys choose technical, or science/math schools.

Everyone in the class is so lovely and they were all so interested in New Zealand. I brought in the yearbook from my school and suddenly the whole class was a swarm around my desk because they all wanted to have a look. They all speak some English but there’s only one girl who I can have a normal conversation with because she spent 3 months in England last year. I've been asked about 10 times how Australia is, or what my school is like in Australia especially on the first couple of days hahaha. My teachers all seem nice enough for now too.

The school gym

The actual school is very plain and boring because it’s very focused on academics and nothing else. There’s no sports in the school or any clubs, it’s literally go to school, learn and go home. I guess it’s good because the teachers can put everything into the academics but then I like school in NZ because it’s not just about the grades it’s about the whole thing, there’s so much you can do and so many more opportunities. The classrooms here are so bare. There’s a blackboard, a cross, a map of the world and a no smoking sign and that’s literally it on the walls. It’s very boring and again I guess it’s so you focus on your work but every little thing helps to make it more interesting and I think that if these kids went to school in NZ, or another country, for a day they would never want to go back to Italian school. For me it’s okay because I’m here to learn about the differences, meet the people and learn the language but for the kids who have had to come here every day for years and who actually have to try and learn from their teachers I don’t know how they do it.

One day at dinner my host family were asking me about school in NZ and when I had finished explaining the differences my host Mum was like “and do you like school in NZ?” and when I thought about it I actually kind of did. I didn't jump out of bed every morning excited about school but when I was there I don’t think there was ever a day where there wasn't some laughing and actual interesting lessons so yeah I think I did like it really.

I don't want to make the school sound really bad because it really isn't. It’s just very, very different to what I’m used to and I think it's going to take some time to become accustomed to it.

These are some differences I've noticed in the school so far:

The teachers are the ones who move around classes, not the students. Also the students stay with the same class for the whole 5 years of high school.
We have school on Saturday!!!
There’s only one building at my school and it’s 3 storeys high (I’m on the third floor so it means a lot of stairs every day!). It sounds like this is what it’s like at most schools which means you’re stuck inside all day.
There’s no technology in the school so it’s just a blackboard in the class for the teacher. None of the students have laptops with them and some of the teachers have iPads but apparently that’s a new thing this year and barely any of the teachers even use them. I never thought Smart Boards were useful until now that we don’t have one and I realise how great they were to have in the class!
There’s no posters or anything in the class, it’s just bare. Also only 2 windows so it’s pretty dark and they always seem to have the lights on.
Only 2 boys in the whole class of about 25!
The most popular brand of bags is ‘Eastpak’ and almost everyone in the school except me seems to have them.
The desks are in rows so there’s no table groups like we have in most classes in NZ.
They have no smoking signs everywhere which is kind of strange because you wouldn't think they would even need them. Being a school it seems kind of obvious…
The teachers just talk the whole lesson! There’s never handouts, or activities, or group work or going to the library, or ICT or anything it’s literally teacher comes in, talks for 45 minutes and leaves. The other day one of my teachers just read out a book the whole lesson! There was no point her even turning up haha
Instead of choosing subjects at school, you choose your school. There are scientific schools, linguistic schools, human science schools, classical schools, art schools etc.
It’s pretty strict no phones. In NZ we’re not allowed phones but that doesn't mean we don’t use them and most of the teachers don’t even mind as long as we do the work but here I haven’t seen one person on their phone! It’s good I guess but I feel like at the schools in NZ if you’re given more freedom you learn to make your own decisions whereas if there’s heaps of rules and it’s all so straight forward you don’t learn life skills and whatnot you literally learn maths and English and go home.
Most of the teachers call the students by their last names, other than my English teacher who likes to point at people and say “him” or “her”.
There’s no tuck-shop but there’s a vending machine which has the cheapest iced tea ever! Only 0.80 which is about $1.50NZ for a bottle! I think a lot of my money will be going on iced tea…

I really like my class and I’m so happy with it all but it’s very different to my school in NZ. I do however think the whole system could be improved so much, it’s incredibly old fashioned, but then there’s endless things that could be improved at my school in NZ too, I guess it's just because I’m use to them that I don’t see them as easily.

I’m starting to understand way more in class but I think because at the start I barely understood a thing I've learnt to block out the voices because they’re useless and don’t make sense to me and now that they actually do make sense I have to tell myself to focus and listen instead of daydreaming all lesson. It’s like the cicadas, you learn to block the noise out because you’re so used to hearing it and it’s so pointless to listen to and you really have to focus if you actually want to hear them. Well the cicadas are my Italian teachers haha.

I'm really bad at remembering to take photos but here’s some of other things I've been up to in the past week: