October 1st: Today was my first day in the classrooms. First off, high school works WAY different than in the USA. The school format is class begins at 8:10 (many students waltzed in late, they were the older students) and you have two, one hour classes, then break. Then two more one hour classes, a short break, and then 2 more 1 hour classes and school is over at 2:10. They go to school on Saturday and the teachers switch classrooms, not the students. Students pick which high school to attend based on what they want to study. I'm at a technical high school where the focus is economics, business, tourism and the like as well as the basics math, italian, foreign language, history, etc. I don't really know the specifics. Teachers aren't at school all day, you can leave when you are finished or show up late if you don't teach until later. My host mom is a math teacher and she teaches for the first 3 hours on Wednesdays. Tomorrow (Thursday) she teaches the first 3 hours and the last hour. Then it changes every few weeks. It is super complicated and all the teachers carry schedules of where to be and when. Oh, and it changes 10 days from now.
So, the first class was a 4th year English class. The teacher asked me to introduce myself and then answer questions from the kids. Oh, the questions. Do I watch Pretty Little Liars, who's my favorite italian actor/american actor, favorite: movie, music, sports, teams, places to vacation? Do I like Italy, where else have I traveled, how is the currency, have I ever seen a celebrity (I mentioned the athletes that come back to UNC games, nope, haven't seen Johnny Depp, other coast), how is the weather at home, where did I study, what did I study, college parties (that was weird to discuss), do I smoke (smoking seems to be more prevalent here), my favorite car (a Ford mustang in case you're wondering)...the list is endless. Most were cultural related but they also had some really intellectual questions. They wanted to know my opinion on politics, Obama, ISIS, 9/11, and if easy access to guns was influencing the mass shootings. I was caught off guard but answered as honestly as I could, making it known that this was my personal opinion and not what all Americans thought. Even though it was early in the morning, my surprise visit was received very well and the kids were shy at first but their English was pretty good (better than my Italian). I want to work more with them but I think they only have this class once a week (I don't understand the complicated schedules).
Class 2 was full of either first or second year students, I think first. They looked really young and really didn't want to talk. I think two brave souls talked to me in English and that was after lots of encouragement from the teacher. This class wouldn't ask questions so I told them a few differences between my hometown and Saronno, a bit about my family and the weather, then we discussed the differences between American and Italian high schools. The grading is completely different, the course structures and materials, basically everything really.
After school (at 11:10 today) we went to the police station to turn in my paperwork. Since we had to pay for parking and there wasn't a line at the station we decided to take a look at downtown Saronno. We also had gelato :D yumm. Then we went to a supermarket so I could get some snacks and some food that I know I'll eat (type of cereal, lunch meats, etc.) I found oreos, ritz crackers, and pepperidge farms Milano cookies. no goldfish :( but now I have plenty of snacks to take to school and eat during the afternoon since dinner is so late. I found taco seasoning and taco shells at the store and offered to make lunch. It was lots of fun! The tacos were well received. I took a nice long nap since I didn't sleep too well last night and woke up so early then did some work and had dinner. We had spaghetti (the sauce had no vegetables, I'm not sure if this is normal or was because I don't like them) then the second course we had ricotta cheese (not a fan) and prosciutto. I also had an apple. The dog came inside for a bit and caught grapes thrown to her. She's adorable. Oh, Gianluca (host brother) loved the Reese's cup and asked for his mom to get peanut butter at the store (we found it today). I don't know what tomorrow has in store but I'm excited. good night everyone (well, good evening. I'm 6 hours ahead of the East coast).
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