Chapter 10: Exploring Caltagirone at Night

Me, Ture Lo Bianco, & the Wonky Eye Man

So Sunday night was one of the best nights that I have had in Sicily so far. Alessia and some of her friends surprised me with a tour of the old part of the city, where we don't often go because the local teens consider it boring. Ale, both Giulias', both Tures' (Salvatore), both Simos' (Simone, pronounced See-moh-nay), both Andreas', Matteo, Sara, Pepe, Marvin, Davide, and I climbed all 142 steps of the Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte (up and down), visited the piazza (square) and the villa (a beautiful garden, pond, and plaza with a gazebo in the middle), and hunted around the city for street art. 

First off, climbing those stairs was a work out! Each step is about 2 feet in length, so you practically have to lunge all the up. My thighs were still on fire all day Monday, haha, I should probably start going back to the gym again as soon as possible. Each stair has a different design on the "rise" (the front part of each step), so that makes for 142 different ceramic tile designs. Unfortunately I was too busy huffing and puffing my way up all the stairs to stop for any pictures, so I encourage EVERYONE to come visit this lovely city and see this magnificent staircase for themselves. 

One adorable little apartment in the old neighborhood

Along and at the top of this staircase is a beautiful, and very old neighborhood where all the street art can be found. This neighborhood was picture perfect and completely took my breath away. I'm pretty sure all my friends were teasing me a little bit because I was looking all around with my jaw nearly hitting the ground and commenting on every little apartment, staircase, alleyway, et cetera. 

This is probably my favorite piece of street art that we found.. It was spectacular and giant, it literally took up the entire side of an apartment from the ground all the way to the roof. I'm not sure why this piece caught my attention, but something about it really got me. I wish I was able to capture the whole mural, but unfortunately I wasn't able to.

This one is on the other side of the building that has the cool bearded face.. I can't help but to image how cool it would be living in one of these decorated houses. As far as I can tell all of these pieces were done in spray paint, which totally blows my mind considering all of the detail and shading. If you ever find yourself in Caltagirone, which I hope you do, I absolutely recommend hunting for all of these art pieces. They are truly amazing!! As I am sure you can tell. 

Ciao ciaoo. Until next week, dear readers. 

**If you are interested in seeing the rest of the pictures from my adventuring night, they are all on my Facebook page in the album "Exchange Year!!"**

Chapter 9: Arizona

Ever since I got to Sicily, I have probably been asked "Di dove sei?" over a two hundred times, and with every reply ("Io vengo da Arizona," or "Arizona")  I become a little bit prouder of being able to claim this beautiful state as my home. 

I have a new appreciation and love for my life in beautiful northern Arizona. Man, oh man, I know that when I return to Arizona in 9 months I will be so happy to see the brilliant blue sky, the bright stars at night, listen to the monsoon rains on my metal roof, and embrace the smell of the pine trees. I am excited that returning to Arizona will be an adventure in itself, because I know I will look at my hometown with brand new, worldly, eyes.

 Like wow, look at how beautiful my hometown is, you cannot deny how gorgeous this place is.

So here is a short little hometown appreciation post. Next time, a host town appreciation post. 

Ciao ciao. xx

Chapter 8: "Palermo", Mormons, Stereotypes, & Paying for the Bathroom

Okay, so about a week and a half ago I had to go to an AFS camp in "Palermo," although apparently it wasn't actually in Palermo, it was in a tiny city an hour away from Palermo but ya know. Anyway, the camp was reaaaaaaaaally long and awfully boring but it was fun to see all the other AFS kids. We basically just spent all 4 days talking about our feelings and answering questions like "Are you happy? Is everything ok? Do you like it here? etc." For those of us that didn't have any complaints or problems this camp wasn't all that useful and was very time consuming. On the positive side, we all learned some new dance moves and were treated to some interesting/fantastic talents in the annual AFS Talent Show. (Shout out to you Yuma. You rocked our world kiddo.)

Me, Danielle (USA), Annette (Mexico) Baddest babes on the bus.

Danielle, Magnea (Iceland), me. Best exchange friends a girl could ask for.

The highlight of this camp for me was hanging out in the bus station before and after the camp. We ate at one of the few McDonald's in Sicily and Danielle and I (the other girl from the US) were teased by the other students that the golden arches must make us feel at home. After finishing our MickyD's Danielle and I were heading to the restrooms when one of the volunteers ran up to us and asked excitedly if we were the girls from the US, we said yes and she pointed at two blonde, non AFS, guys standing next to her. I immediately recognized them as missionaries of the Mormon church, but Danielle was glancing at my confusedly. They introduced themselves, asked us if we were Mormon, and talked with us about their experience here and how ours is going so far. One of the guys was from Utah and the other was from Michigan, and they both had only 6 months left of their 2 year mission. This whole situation was just hilarious to me, because never once did I think that I would run into Mormons in Sicily. They reminded me of Prescott, where the LDS church has a huge presence, and the experience made me chuckle every time I thought about it for the next few days. 

Now, I'm not sure about you all but I have never had to pay to go to the bathroom before.. But in the Palermo Centro Station, it costs 80 cents to use the bagno.

Alright! Now onto the deep stuff. At the camp we had to make posters representing our countries, and then we were all asked to write what we know/thought about every country on StickyNotes and stick em onto all the posters. Japan's poster was full of StickyNotes that said things like origami, sushi, anime, and even atomic bomb. Brazil's was full of carnival and "big booty". And the Scandinavian countries all had plenty of tall, blonde, and beautiful notes. When each country was called the students from that country would stand up and read what the StickyNotes on their poster said. Immediately after the activity was explained, Danielle and I knew that our poster was gonna be embarrassing. Sure enough our poster had multiple "stupid" "ignorant" "fat" "fast food" "hamburgers" and "McDonalds," notes, and unlike all of the other posters our poster didn't have a single "nice people" or "friendly people" note. Of course we sort of expected this, because honestly, the US has an awful reputation for being arrogant and way too into itself. But still, it wasn't all that fun to stand in front of 65 other students and multiple volunteers and read the stereotypes that people have about our country. 

I think that for me, and possibly Danielle, it was kinda hurtful to read those things because here we are, exchange students, trying our hardest to learn a brand new language, live in a brand new country, and completely immerse ourselves in a brand new culture; we are the exact opposite of the stereotypes that were written on our poster.

Anyhow, I think these stereotypes stem from the lack of education in the US about other countries and world history. Seriously, in my experience in the public and private school systems, I have learned extensively about US and Arizona state history, but very little about any other countries. For example, my freshman year in high school (2012/2013) I took a World History class that spent one whole semester focusing on ancient, ancient Chinese history, while the second semester was a jumble of Mesopotamian, Roman, and Greek history. Not once have I ever learned about any of the Scandinavian countries, Germany (besides its involvement in both World Wars), Russia, or ANY countries in South/Central America. So, basically I can give you a brief summary of what an aqueduct is and how the wheel was invented but I probably can't tell you who the preceded Putin as the president of Russia, or who is the current prime minister of Norway. This is pretty dang sad considering many of the kids I have met through AFS can name more than 10 US presidents, what they are known for, and can describe the difference between the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. This is even more impressive considering many kids in the US only know the current president, Abe Lincoln, Washington and maybe Kennedy. Don't get me wrong though, this isn't the fault of the students, it's the fault of an entire education system. And that's what has seriously got to change in the US; kids need more history, more languages, more access to culture. 

Eventually I hope that exchange students, and educated people, can help to get rid of these stereotypes because the USA is a pretty great overall place to live and visit. Coming to Sicily has made me appreciate Arizona and the US, more than I ever thought was possible. And I hope that one day the US is known for things other than fast food.

PS. I didn't mean for this post to seem negative, because there were notes on the USA poster that said "Apple" "Steve Jobs" "California" and "Grand Canyon" (holllla!) and other positive things. I just felt a need to write post pointed out some of the common stereotypes that people have about the US, and how we should work to change them. Also, I want to add that not a single person has been anything but kind to me during my time here. Everyone has been molto dolce to me. 

Lots of love! 
R

Chapter 7: FOG

 Ok y'all, fog stinks. The first few days of it were really cool, and I took a bunch of rad pictures but once the third day of fog rolled in, I had had enough! I miss the brilliantly blue skies that I was blessed with my first few weeks here.

What can I say? I've been totally spoiled, growing up under the gorgeous, blue, northern Arizona skies so this fog thing is very new to me. It also has been dramatically affecting my mood and energy level. Well, fog + tons of carbs + my brain working overtime trying to understand everything = sleepy, sleepy Regan, so I feel bad for my family and friends who have to put up with me yawning ALL the time. Also, I apologize to all my teachers for when I yawn in your class and my eyelids droop, I swear that I am really trying to stay awake and alert, but it's incredibly difficult to maintain focus when you have no clue what's going on. 

Anyway, I really don't have anything else to say about this week and like usual, I'm sleepy. So, buonanotte! 

Chapter 6: School

This week marks my third week here in Sicily and a month since I have been in Arizona. It's so crazy that it's already been that long since I started this adventure, it seems like it was just yesterday that I got the email from AFS/Intercultura telling me that my application had been accepted..

This week I am going to write about my daily schedule and school! So get ready for a pretty long post. 

Six days a week I wake up at 7am and start getting ready for school. This basically just means I grab the first pair of jeans I stumble across in my closet and a random clean T-shirt, and put on the two rings that I brought with me, one that was given to me by my mom and the other from my grandmother. Then I go to the kitchen/casual dining room and make myself some breakfast. About the same time I sit down at the table my sister Alessia wanders into the room, bleary eyed, and sits in the seat my right. We each take a few fette biscottate, similar to toast, spread honey all over them and dunk them in our bowls of milk. This process definitely took some getting used to, and I have a new appreciation for soggy foods because of it. Mornings are generally pretty quite in my home, because no one in my family is a morning person.

School here is very different from in the US, for starters our school days are only about 5 hours long; we go 6 days a week; it takes 5 years to graduate instead of 4; and we don't change rooms for each class, instead the teachers come to us. So the class that you get put into your first year at liceo (high school) will be your class for the rest of your high school career. School starts at 8:30 ish and we have 5 class periods each day. Although that doesn't always mean that you will have 5 different classes, double periods of the same class are very common.  

The view from my classroom window on a foggy day

I am currently attending the 3rd year at a  Linguistic High School and so lucky for me, most of my classmates speak proficient English. The classes and course load here are pretty much equal to that of a community college in the US. Students here take roughly 10 classes, and its a pretty busy schedule. My class is taking Italian Literature, Spanish Literature, English Literature, French Literature, PE, Science (Biology & Chemistry), Physics, Math (Algebra 3/4 & Pre Calc), Art History, Italian History, Religion, and Philosophy. Most of the kids in my class can understand/speak a minimum of 4 languages, so I feel really behind academically. Also, shout out to Sara, Erica, Roberta, and Simona, who are the lovely ladies that help me survive the day.

Sara, me, Simona 

After school is over, my sister; cousins, Agneze and Federica; and I are picked up and we all go home for lunch with our families. Lunch is a big deal here, as it is considered the main meal of the day. Lunch usually includes some kind of pasta, bread, meat, fruit, and sometimes, gelato for after the main dish. Another important part of lunch is coffee! Although don't confuse Italian coffee with coffee in America. Here the coffee cups are approximately the same size as a shot glass. (Auntie i, if you are reading this I suggest bringing your own coffee cup if you ever visit Italy).

After lunch the house gets pretty quite, and for the next hour or so my family members relax, sleep, or play video games. After this period of rest, my Papa goes back to work and Alessia and I start on our compiti a casa (homework). Except on Sundays where we can just hangout in our pajamas all day long and relax the entire day. 

In the evenings when Ale (pronounced Al-ay) and I don't have tons of homework we go out with our friends for a couple of hours before dinner at 8:30 or 9ish. This is my favorite time of the day because the group of friends we go out with are some of the sweetest and most hilarious folks I've ever met and I love spending time with them. As I have said in previous blog posts, I already feel like these are some solid friendships that will last for years to come.

Now, Saturdays and Sundays are a tad bit different. On Saturdays, we still wake up at 7am and go to school but later that night we are free to stay out pretttttty late with our friends. This is the highlight of almost every teenagers week, because it is the only night that they don't have to worry about school and homework the next day. Sundays are pretty typical; sleep in, relax, eat lots of food, freak out last minute about the homework that we forgot to do the night before, and go to bed early because we have school in the morning. 

That's pretty much my basic everyday schedule. If I skipped anything that you are curious about, feel free to ask me and I'll add whatever topic you're interested in onto my next post. Ciao ciao!