So last week was the first week of the new semester at Scuola Italiana and man was it great to not have to attempt to take any tests! My classes are great because I've already learned all of the material so I can focus on the Spanish and keep from getting too lost! School here is a lot different from SHS. The first difference is that whereas in the US I've got about 500 kids in my class, here there's about 500 kids at the school. There are two classrooms for students my age which makes my class here about 35 students. Last year we started the year with 32 in my Spanish class alone....another major difference is that they don't have individualized scheduals. I stay with the same class all day for every subject and we also all stay in the same classroom. I found myself in awe the other day at my classmates' social abilities...my friends and I run out of things to talk about all the time and we're all in different classes, with different friends, and do different extracurricular activities. My classmates here, most of them have been in the same class with eachother since they were five, know everything about eachother, and don't have different after school activities because school doesn't end until 5, but still never stop talking. Well actually, school ends at 5 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. On Wednesday we end at 3:30 and on Fridays at 1!
Cata and Jorge Luciano and Me Roman
My friends from school are great and I love spending time with them...the most popular things to do are to go to the mall, go to the beach (to play soccer, I'm a lot worse than I thought :) or hang at the Grifo), or have asados (bbq) at eachothers houses. Some of my friends speak english pretty well like Jorge and Cata and others just say random frases! Earlier this week my friends were looking through my photos on my camara and they saw the pictures I had taken of some of the different foods here. They got to the pic that's on my blog of the stuffed tomato and didn't really get why I had taken a picture so I said 'porque hay comida dentro del tomate!' and they thought this was absolutely hilarious. They also love hearing me say uyuyuy which is a native saying from the people who live in the mountains to show excitment or emotion and I think I can best explain it as how some americans from the west-south say weeee-doggy. Anyway, my voice is a lot higher than most people's here and with my american accent and everything even I think the effect is pretty funny. Also my friends (epecially Cata, Cecilia, and Roman) absolutely love the fact that I can listen to their music and tell them what the songs are about and sometimes even write them the lyrics so they can try singing them...although its a little awkward when they ask me 'que significa?' and then say a line from a rap or something and I just start laughing because it's something like Akon's song 'smack that' and i'm just standing there wondering whether i should tell them its about prostitution or just let them keep singing it :) good times good times!
Camila and Camila Me, Nacho, Camila La Extrañas (USA and Italy)
(don't you love my school uniform :)
(I can't figure out how to rotate the pic)
