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!