Mantova.

Today was a very long, tiring, yet exciting day. This morning I woke up and went to school as normal. Laura and I (my classroom partner who goes to school in South Carolina) got to sit in on a P.E. class this morning. It is much like in America in terms of activities (running, then playing Volleyball) but there was much less structure. They were told what to do and then were just kind of left to do it. No rules or anything, just play volleyball. After that we went and sat in on an English class. We listened to 2 of the girls receive their practice oral interrogations. Basically how it works here is that the students taking English get tested at the end of their 8th grade year. They need to study/memorize information on a certain topic, they recite it, then they're asked questions. They have to do all of this in English, and they are graded on pronunciation, information, knowledge, etc. If they don't pass the oral interrogation, they don't pass 8th grade. After the English class Laura and I went to the teacher's lounge and had tea and chatted with the other Americans at Fassi (Allison, Paige, and Katie) because all of our teachers had that class period off. We then all went to watch another P.E. class. Laura and I got a little more involved this time and played some Badminton. True to it's name, I was pretty bad at it. So Laura and I left and went to observe the music class for the rest of the day. This class was so refreshing. The students sang karaoke to English, French, and Italian songs. We tried to sing too, but since we don't know Italian it was horrible. After a while they started practicing on their "flutes" (they call them flutes but they are called recorders in America) for their concert on Wednesday. 2 of the songs they're playing are "Whenever, Where ever" and "All The Small Things." I thought it was really cool that they were playing more modern songs. The students all seemed to really be interested in the music and what they were doing. The teacher was awesome.

After music class I walked home and had lunch with my host parents. A small bit of pasta and a big salad. We eat a lot of salad, but it's usually very good. After lunch I prepared to leave to go to Mantova with a group of students from the U.S. My host mom drove me to the train station where I met 10 other girls. We rode the train to Mantova together, but once we got there split into smaller groups of 3 and 4 to walk around. Paige, Natalie, Tori, and I walked around the city, took pictures, saw the lake, and enjoyed a glass of wine together before heading back to the train station. We only were in Mantova for 2 hours, but it was beautiful and well worth the trip.


My host dad and Asia picked me up from the train station and we came back to the house. I got online and chatted for a bit until dinner was ready. Allessandra was at dance class, so Andrea made he, Asia, and I roasted chicken for dinner. I sat at the table with Andrea talking about random things for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I found out some very personal things about their family, and it was very nice that he was willing to open up to me like he did. He told me tonight that my host mother has cancer. I don't recall the exact name (I know it started with an "E"), but he told me that Americans call it a white cancer? It's not deadly, but even though it was removed, it can keep coming back. She has already had one ovary, part of her uterus, and part of her intestine removed. He said she often is in pain and sick even though the surgery was 3 years ago. It made me feel sad that she was in pain all the time, but so honored to have been placed with this family so that I can know her. She's a fighter, that's for damn sure.

Until tomorrow, ciao!