Snow...

When I learned I was going to Italy, I was really happy because I thought I would have a year without snow. That was true, until the eighteen of December. It was fun to have a little bit of snow out side to play with and it melted really fast. So I started thinking, this may be my first Christmas without snow. Happily, it snowed on the 24^th of December. At the end of January, all the snow had almost melted.But then, the thirty-first of January arrived. The day before, everybody was talking about this big snow storm that was coming, but nobody really thought it was true. It started snowing at noon, but only started to accumulated it’s self by 3 pm. So from February first to the eight, I didn't go to school. It was fun for the first 2-3 days, but when you are 14 in a house, it gets really hard to endure everybody. On the second day of snow, you couldn't get out of your house by car and all the streets we’re filled with snow.

Because we are so many in the house and that we all wake up late, the mom decided to add a rule: breakfast before 11am. I don’t mind the rule, but I don’t really like how I learned it. Practically, I woke up on the third snow day at 10h45 am. I felt bad because I knew that it was late. So I took the time to dress my self before going downstairs to eat breakfast. I was about to grab cereals, when the mom stops me to tell me this new rule. I look at the clock and it was 11h02 am. So I was two minutes ‘’late’’. I ewas starving because I didn’t eat dinner the day before because I was not hungry! For every other day, I woke up at 10h30am.

After eight days without school and going outside to move all the snow, I finally returned to school. Everybody was asking me where I’ve been and if I felt at home with all the snow. It was funny to see the faces of people when I told them that compared to my home town, there wasn’t a lot of snow.

The morning after, I woke up and the streets we’re white! After 30 minutes asking with other kids in my house if we we’re going to school, we decided that if we would go, we wouldn’t be able to go back home in the after-noon. So I had an other for days without school.

Scuola!

School here is really different from school in Québec. The biggest difference for me would have to be having 6 days of school per week! Here, they don’t know what it means T.G.I.F. They sing the song that Katy Perry did, but they have no idea of the meaning of it.    ahaha

So school starts at 8am and finishes between noon and 2pm. I’m really lucky because I finish at 1pm Monday to Thursday and at noon Fridays and Saturdays.

I don’t how your high school worked, but at mine I could choose from so many options and in my last year. Here by choosing your school, you choose you classes. So every school has the same basic classes. Then there is Classical, Scientific, Musical, Psychology, Cooking, Art... So depending of the school you choose, you get different classes. I have the ‘’joy’’ of being in a Scientific school. This means I have more classes of math, physics and chemistry. So I always end up doing Sudoku, reading a book or just being on internet with my phone.

Here, the people with whom you start your first year of ‘’liceo’’ (which would be our high school) are the same people you finish with. That means, if you have a school trip of two classes of the same grade, you won’t mix with the other group, because you just don’t know them even if you have been at the same school for 5 years.

Now let’s talk of exams. Here they do oral tests and written exams. Basically, for oral tests, depending on the subject, you go sit in front of the teacher and answer her questions or talk about a subject that the teacher wants. For math and science classes, you go to the black board, the teacher gives you a problem and you work on it. It is a little bit stressful, because everybody is watching your ‘’each and every’’ move. Written exams are really similar to the ones we normal do, the only difference, they do two per year per subject. At the level I am at school here (superior school, grade 4), they don’t write text in their mother tongue where you normally try to have the less mistakes possible.

It’s funny how I always hated how school works in Québec, because it is different from English Canada and USA and because we end up doing one more year before going to university. But now that I’ve seen how school works in Italy, I’m in love with my school system. Italians always tell me: Yeah, but we arrive at home between 1h30 and 2h30 pm. It’s real that it’s fun not having school in the after-noon, but having in on Saturdays and waking up really early because school starts early isn’t that of an advantage.

BlaBlaBla...

It has been a long time since I wrote on my blog. I think I only did it once or twice since I’ve been in Italy. I am already holding a daily journal, so writing a blog would be repeating my self. But now I’ve decided to continue writing it and to add articles every week or so.

            I feel like what I am living is amazing and that I will only be able to live this once in my life, so people should be able to read about it to have a part of my experience abroad.