May 24th - 25th

Monday I was very tired. I did not sleep much the previous night so getting out of bed was difficult. I got up and proceeded to school anyways. We had the first 2 classes off from observing. I enjoy this time because it's nice for the 5 of us girls (Allison, Katie, Laura, Paige, and I) to have time to talk, gossip, and express our feelings about what's happening here. Towards the end of our time off we watched one of the classes involved in the Grease production practice for the performance. For the third class period we went out and watched a class play baseball. The fourth hour we had off again and the last class we went in and observed a third year class review for their final.

After school I went home and organized/cleaned my room. Around 2:25 I left to meet Amy at her house down the street so we could bike to the city center together. Once we got there we met up with the rest of the group for our tour of the Carpi Deportation Museum. During the Holocaust there was a holding camp 3 miles north of the city of Carpi in the village of Fossoli. We saw memorabilia from the camp including prison uniforms, barbwire, and photographs, along with multiple quotes from people who were being held captive. We weren't allowed to take pictures INSIDE, but here's one from outside.


After the museum Amy and I biked back to our houses and I went upstairs and Skyped for a while because nobody was home. When Alle and Asia got home Alle came upstairs and we talked for a while about plans for the next few days. Then she went down to start dinner. I went down there shortly after and watched cartoons with Asia until dinner was done. We had grilled chicken, green beans, and strawberries for dessert. After dinner Alle and I talked for a while she asked me if I wanted to go to a dance recital in the city center but I asked to be excused because I was very tired. After they left I called my mom and talked to her for about an hour. I still have almost an hour and a half on my calling card to use in the next week before I leave Italy! Haha. Once off the phone with her I showered and started watching Pretty Woman but soon got tired so I got ready for bed.

Thankfully I got a little more sleep than usual last night but I was still tired and running a little late this morning. After getting up to turn off my alarm this morning I laid back down and chatted with friends online for a bit. I then got up, got dressed, and went down to eat breakfast. Then I rode my bike to school. This morning we again had the first 2 classes off so we all worked on our Inquiry Project presentations. In case you had forgotten, this trip for me is also a class and we have to do a research project on a chosen topic. We chose to work together and do our project on E-Pals since it is the e-mail correspondence between Italian and American students done right here in Carpi. After working on those projects we went to observe a Math class. The teacher had us read the equations how we would read them out loud. The next class was a third year English class and some of them practiced for their oral exams that they will take soon.

After school I came home and ate lunch with Alle and then she took me to the train station to meet Allison, Katie, Shaun, and Mary Jo. This afternoon we went to Bologna with the pure intention of shopping. We went to H&M and I bought 3 dresses and head band for only 32 euro, which turns out to be about $40!!


Tomorrow I am going to a technical high school to find out how they work and tomorrow night we have our final group meeting followed by pizza and gelato.

Until then, ciao!