October 2nd: Today I went to school with Grazia again because I don't have a schedule yet. Nobody needed me until 10 though so I sat around and worked on stuff like finding important emails from my UNC account and sending them to my personal email. *boring* I showed one of the teacher's my presentation on North Carolina and she didn't know what Oreos were. I found oreos at the grocery store and my friends on the quidditch team know what they are. I think it's an age difference and the students at school will know. The students asked many of the same questions from yesterday but there were a few new questions. They asked me to speak some Italian so I said something like "My name is Alex, I have a younger brother, he is 18, I am from the USA." Then they asked if my brother was cute (this class was students aged 17 and 18). I said yeah, but he has a girlfriend. I think the girls were genuinely disappointed. One class had only one boy! The students don't switch classes either. I don't know how he does it. I taught 3 classes in a row and it was all basically the same. One class got to hear that awful 50 states song that most kids learn in elementary school (I never did and probably can't name all of the states).
The fun began when I decided to leave at 1:10 with the students since Grazia had a meeting with other teachers. I wasn't sure how to get to the bus stop, buy a ticket, and get off at the right stop. One of the girls (Francesca) in the class offered to show me the way and help. We walked to the bus stop which isn't too far, maybe 10 minutes, and she showed me where to buy the ticket. The guy selling tickets was super nice too. Francesca explained that my bus is orange and the blue busses go to other cities. When it arrived she told the driver that I didn't know when to signal the bus to stop (I had a street name and the description "near the elementary school") but he knew exactly where and said he would tell me. We left at 1:45 and at the second bus stop 20 elementary school kids crowded on. The bus was a public bus but me and the driver were the only non-students. The kids had bus passes or tickets that the driver tore instead of having the kids all stamp the tickets at the machine. My stop happened to be where many others were getting off the bus too. I recognized it and the driver confirmed. I took my shoes off for the short walk to the house (3 mins?) because they're new and I have awful blisters now. ughhh. But, I made it, and confused Gianluca when I walked in the door without his mom. I was proud that I made it and I think I can do it by myself now. woo!
I was confused when I walked upstairs and noticed my bed was neatly made. Usually I just straighten it up a bit but no use tucking in all the sheets when I'm just gonna sleep in them again (this has been my philosophy for years, nobody sees my room anyway). I assumed Grazia tidied it for me yesterday because she went upstairs to put snacks in my room while I cooked tacos for lunch but I know she couldn't have done it today. I asked Gianluca and apparently the housekeeper comes every day and his job includes making beds and emptying my little trashcan by my desk. umm, what? Yeah, I had no idea but it's super nice. I'll have to give him some Reese's or something. I met him my first day here and he carried both of my suitcases for me.
After a nice nap Grazia and I took Aika for a walk. I fixed a small sandwich because I had a slice of pizza at noon and I was hungry again by 6. She lives really close to the edge of town and there's lots and lots of corn fields and other fields with a path through them 3 mins the other way from the bus. It was super pretty and relaxing. I don't think I like cities all that much. This felt more like home. Then I went to work more on my presentation of North Carolina and this blog (which I'm finishing now 4 hours later...). Dinner was pasta alla carbonara. The noodles were really thick spaghetti noodles but hollow....it was super strange and also very difficult to eat. However, it was very tasty. I'm not a fan of the pancetta though, too salty. I'm super slow at eating. Gianluca managed to eat two portions of pasta and most of his double burger with cheese wrap thing before I was finished with my pasta and apple. I didn't want a burger because it's so much food. He barely cooked the burgers and it was kinda weirding me out to look at. Gianluca went to go change outfits so he could watch his friend play soccer and I got my computer to show my host parents my NC presentation. Gianluca saw about half before he had to leave. He helped translate a lot (it's entirely in English) and google translate was quite helpful too. Tomorrow is Friday, huzzah! I'm excited and it's been a great first week. Missing NC after reading a post about UNC things. Link is below.
http://www.bustle.com/articles/38650-i-wish-they-all-could-be-carolina-girls-23-things-only-unc-students-can-truly-understand
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