Monday, September 20, 2010

School!!!!!

Today was my first day of school, and it was awesome! I got there in the morning and chose the classes with the English teacher of my class, and (hopefully!) I will take:

English (I hope I do well in this, if I don't I think people will think I am the stupidest American ever)
Italian (I have no idea what I will do, because they are reading hard books, and I still forget the letters of the alphabet sometimes)
German (Hehe, the first year, with first year linguistic address students. I think it is easier to learn at the same time as Italian than French)
PE (Not happy about this, I better get credit in America)
History (I told the teacher that I would like to take Italian history, but I may take American History if the offer it because that is what America is doing now)
Geography (Because I'm still a stupid American who doesn't know that Africa isn't a country)

So after I chose those classes, my English teacher introduced me to a few more teachers and then showed me to my class, a third year classico (they learn Latin and Greek), and they we really happy to see me, the English teacher had told them I was coming, and they had brought some pastries and a mousse cake to school for me!!!! They were sooooo good! And I was so happy that my class was that excited to see me! My class is really crazy, so I think I will fit in well =D.

I entered class at the hour that they were supposed to be doing PE, so the PE teacher tried to make us eat quickly so we could go to the gym. The teacher told us to play outside so the girls in my class went outside with me and we decided it was too cold so we sat in the locker room and talked the entire time. And apparently this is entirely normal here. I like it =D.

Then the next hour was time for German! My class doesn't learn German so I moved to another class of 1st year students who were having their second German lesson. At first my German teacher introduced me and asked who knew English and everyone was silent and looked away. So the teacher asked me to introduce myself. I said "Mi chiamo Emily. Sono di California." When I said the word "California" the entire room got loud suddenly and everyone started moving over to make room for me. It was quite funny. What would I have done if I was from another state? I have no clue XD. But I ended up sitting between two very nice girls who helped me with the pronunciation chart (Italian equivalents to German sounds make no sense to me =D). And when I spoke in German (all I said was "Ich bin Emily" the German teacher looked at me funny and asked if I had studied German before. She thought my pronunciation was perfect! Haha, she should talk to all the German people I know who laugh when I try to pronounce words! Also good, I understood everything the teacher said, didn't forget that "w" is actually a "v" and even though most of the class had been studying English for 8 years (and most are only 13!) they all spoke English with me (except when I didn't know the word for "paint")!

Then for the last class of the day I was back in my class, but it was chemistry. They were learning about measurements and I told the teacher that I wasn't going to be in the class for a grade and she said I could just listen and that was all. The words were so different, I think I would have understood in English, but I really didn't understand anything! Towards the end of the lesson (very boring, I sat there and stared at the teacher and my classmate's notes) she asked me if I understood everything she had written on the board, she didn't speak English and wanted someone to explain it to me in English, so I just said yes because next week I won't be in her class at that time, so it didn't matter anyway.

I got to leave an hour earlier than the rest of my class so I could go home at the same time as my host sister, they were jealous I think XD. But I talked with them in Italian for a bit before I left (which I am very happy about =D). And then I left. I think I will enjoy this year! My classmates seem really fun and they all want to help me which I am very glad for! And they like to speak Italian with me and when I don't understand they translate. I'm quite happy =D.

1 comment:

  1. My baby's learning German??!! This is tooooo funny. Now you will be able to order food when you visit Milena and Inge!! It sounds like PE hasn't changed much:)
    Yo Mama is also very happy to have you take geography and learn that Africa is not a country (although South Africa is).

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