So. TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Every morning one of my host parents comes in to wake up Maria at 6:15, because she goes to a private school in Monza which is 20 minutes by car, and longer by bus, which she takes. And usually I wake up, vaguely note what happened, and promptly go back to sleep, fulfilling all expectations of exchange students who spend all their time sleeping. But today I actually had to get up, which was kind of difficult until I remembered that OH MY GOODNESS I HAVE TO GO SCHOOL TODAY.

So then, like every morning, I had an enormous bowl of tea and ate a few biscotti (breakfast is very low key here. Everyone gets a nice caffeine jolt from tea or caffè latte, and eats a couple of biscotti or these mini-toast-like thingies with marmalade.) Then, because the bus system here seems very complicated (although that might just be the language barrier) my host parents and I pored over the bus schedule trying to figure out which one I'll be taking. But it didn't really matter for today, because my host dad was planning on driving me too and from for the first day.

So we got in the car and drove to Merate, where Liceo M.G. Agnesi is (a route which conveniently takes us past the extremely lovely Montevecchia, which is even prettier in early morning sunlight). The teacher who we had met the first time we went to the school, last week, met us again, and then one of the English teacher's took me up to the 4^E classroom.

VERY VERY luckily, my first class today was English! Everyone was sooooo friendly and welcoming. In Italy, students stay in the same classroom with the same students all day, while the teachers rotate. I'm in the second to last year, since Italians have five years of high school, in a class of 14 girls and 2 boys (who sit together in the back of the room). I'm sure I'll forget something, but I believe my class studies Inglese, Matematica, Fisica, Biologia, Storia d'Arte (art history), Storia, Spagnole, Chimica, Filosofia, Italiano, Religione, and Educazionale Fiscia (gym, but only twice a week and I think I have supplementary Italian lessons then :D). Five classes a day, with a 10-15 minute break at 11. The day goes from 8-1 six days a week, and then everyone goes home in the afternoon to eat lunch with their families (today it was.......pasta! Acutally, "pastasciutta", because the word "pasta" refers to any pastry\doughy object. They eat lots of Italian food here, in case anyone was wondering). My school is rare in that it does offer some extra-curriculars, so in the next couple of weeks I might see about joining something like at Classical. And there's a girl in my class who does ballet at a school in Merate!!!

So, back to the school day. First was English, so the teacher introduced me to the class and they asked questions about the US, which I got to answer in English, and then I asked them questions about the school. Then the teacher had them all talk about their impressions of the school (Latin is hard, Spanish is easy). And she also mentioned that there's a school trip to Florence in March!!!!!

After English was PE, but I didn't have any clothes to change into. It didn't matter at all though, because the gym teachers were totally relaxed and let us stand in a big circle and talk for 45 minutes. Everyone was really curious and had lots of questions, so we talked all about the US and Italy and Twilight and Harry Potter (almost all in Italian!).

Matematica was next, which besides English will probably end up being the easiest class. Math is universal, but the way they learn it here and how in-depth they go to topics is different, so right now they're covering trigonometry. It still takes a while to get used to the different names for everything and the way methods for solving problems and approaching equations differs, so still lots of to learn.

And if I was worried about school being boring after Matematica, Filosofia delivered a nice blow to my self-confidence. :) Non ho avuto capito NIENTE. The girl next to me, Serena, explained afterward that it was hard to follow the discussion even in Italian, but seriously, besides the name "Locke," I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Hopefully that will change once I have a book and know more Italian? And hopefully the teacher won't interrogate me (daily oral exams) until sometime ideally in May. Maybe June. Or better yet, not at all!

The Italian teacher, however, was very gung-ho about jumping right in (admittedly the best way to learn). Mainly they've been reading Dante, which is compulsory in all of Italy for fourth-year students, but today they were discussing a reading from the 1700s about the death penalty (la pena di morte). It was easier to follow than Filosofia because the arguments weren't totally different from what we might say in a US classroom, although it was really interesting to listen to some of the students' perspectives on the US still allowing it. And then the teacher asked me what I thought! In Italian! Oh man. Excellent practice in learning how to not mind making a total and complete fool of yourself!

I don't have any textbooks yet so I can't really do any homework tonight....

A presto!
Baci