Okay so I had my first week here in Castel Rozzone, Italy = 0 !!

So on Monday, September 14th I had my first day of school at my new high school. Luckily my host brother and sister go to the same school. So that early monday morning we did our two minute walk to the bus stop. Now when you think bus and school you probably think big, emarrassing yellow school bus. But this bus was the kind that are super long and you see in the city. Okay so we took the very crowded bus to school, and my host brother should me the meeting spot for after school (which i forgot where it was cuz all the hallways look the same) and my classroom. Normally I would be doing my senior year but since italian schools are more advanced I am in my 3rd year of school. Its okay becuase I am young for my grade I rather be taking "easier" classes. Luckily I wasnt as neverous as I thought I was going to be. So I walked into the classroom and only half the students were there and they all just stared at me... and didnt really say anything... wicked awkquard! And I dont speak Italian yet so I could kind of introduce myself to them in italian. Luckily a really nice girl came over to me, who spoke english and introduced me to everyone. And told me to sit with her and her friends. My first teacher came in and just endlessly started talking in italian. She didn roll call and noticed that she had a new student. She asked where I was from in english and then continued talking in italian. For majority of my teachers this is what happened at the beginning of class.

So these are my classes:
Science, German, Gym, History, Art, Philosphy, Religion, Enlgish = ) Italian, Latin, Math, and Spanish.

Okay so Science, History, Philophy, Religion, Math, Latin, and Italian dont make any sense to me at all. They are tought in Italian and the teachers talk really fast and basiclly lecture for an hour, some times two hours!! Imagine two hours of math (omg!!) I thought I would at least understand math but no, the numbers look different. For example the 1 looks like a 7. The 4 looks like a triangle. The 5... I dont know what the 5 looks like, just a squiggley line. And the 9 looks like a g. And they way the solve problems.... no idea how they are doing it. The teacher just picks a student and for 20 minutes they are at the white board doing a long problem. At home with math class the teacher takes 20-40 minutes explaining the lesson and how to do problems then we do a worksheet for the rest of class. I have never had a religion class in school before becuase I go to public school. Here they can teach religion buts it your choice to listen in class. The teacher was actually a priest and half the class did other things that hour. I tried to follow what he was saying but at always i didnt understand him... yet.

German class is kinda hard too, the teachers saw my last name which is hofmaier and she sais oh your german, do you speak german? And of course I dont, and that looks bad... Im guessing Im not the only American who doesnt know their nationalities language. Esp when your a european mutt like me and have many different nationalities like german, irish, french, english, austrian.... I think that I would like to learn German when I come back home, its a cool language but right now I really need to learn Italian first!!

I have been taking Spanish for a few year now. My spanish isnt horrible but it isnt as good as the other students in my class. The first day of class we had to each talk about what we did this summer and our goals for the year. Not to hard, but I couldnt understand fully what the other students were saying. And they know a lot of vocab words that I havent learned. And the students can speak spanish so fast. My favorite class is English as sad as that it. Its the only class I understand fully because the teacher is British. She helps me learn new italian words and wants me to do some creative writting and read some English literature instead of American Literature, which I like so that class is good.

Oh and I have school on Saturday! There goes my friday nights going out and saturday mornings sleeping in. School this week was only 4 hours (8am-12pm) But next week it will be for 5 hours. My school in Italy is a lot smaller and the students are there just to learn. There is no school sports teams, mascots, or spirit. Its very serious and kinda boring, but not everything in life can be fun. I basiclly dont understand what is going on my most of my classes right now. Kind of feeling like a fish out of water. At least im a senior and I only have to pass english literature and gym to graduate which wont be a problem here becuase they are my easiest classes.

Ive only been in Italy for a week and I have already had a cold. Kind of a bummer and its ironic that the last time I came to Italy I got a cold as well. Maybe its something in the air my body isnt used to. No worries though, my mama bought me some serious meds that made me feel all better even if they tasted nasty.

Tonight Im going out with some new friends from school so ill write more about my short weekend in my next post.

Oh and good news for me, I have another exchange student from Southern Cananda living 2 minutes walking distance from me. He speaks english, and is a senior but is taking 3rd year classes too. We both kinda in the same boat lol. Until next time...

Arriverderci!