So, i spent this past week up north in a city called Reggio Emilia =) Famous for it's parmesan cheese which is apparently the best in the world! I've got to say it was probably the best week of my entire exchange (so far anyways) I had a blast! 10 days, no school, awesome food, hanging out with other exchange students, being on my feet all day instead of at home studying it was just AMAZING! I wish we didn't have to leave!
Okay so i'll start off from the beginning, I left friday night (the 18th) at around 6pm and was expecting an extremely boring 14 hour bus ride ahead of me, luckily, turns out there was another afs'er (Jena from Ohio) that was getting on my bus, about 4 hours after i did so that made things a whole heck of a lot better. Yeah, we didn't sleep very much but that's no biggie, that's what saturdays are for! So after multiple snack breaks a tube of pringles, chocolate bars, ice cream at 3:30 am and aprox 2 hours of sleep, we finally arrived in Reggio Emilia a little later than expected, around 8:45. We were met by our host families for the week, who took us home. As soon as i got there, i had a quick breakfast then a 10 min shower (yes mom, i've mastered the art of showering in under 30 mins haha) and then went straight to bed. I woke up and turns out it was already almost 3! My host sister brought me to the main part of the city in the afternoon and we walked around a bit with her friend then we went back home for homemade pizza! (My host mom was an AMAZING COOK!) Then i somehow managed to get ready and we went out to the DISCOTECA...until like 2am!! woooo that was really fun, i wish they had them in Canada...like for us non legal people haha. Here they just let basically everyone in.
Sunday was pretty chill, got up, dresses showered again (had to wash my hair)
then finally finished reading the 1st Harry Potter in Italiano! Yay me!
Then we went to another "suburb" called Dipignano for "la Fiera di San Giuseppe"
i didn't but anything but it was cool to just walk around and stuff.
Then we went home for another delicious supper =)
(my room)
(Dolci)
(toys)
(a mansion type thing)
(salsiccia)
okay...i'll finish later...must sleep!
buona notte =)
xoxo
Okay i'm back haha
So where was I...
Monday all of the people in Reggio for the week met up and we went for a walk in the center (did i spell this wrong?? it's saying i did) anyways, yeah and saw about a million churches haha then we got a tour of a theater (also spelt wrong?) then we went to like city hall which is where the italian flag was born and we met some of the people staying in Reggio for the year/6 months. Then we went to Barbara's house (a volunteer) and had gnocco fritto for lunch omg sooooooo goood! Then we went for Gelato with the other people from Reggio and it was delicious!
(in one of the churches)
(La piazza)
(inside the theater, the boxes are all original)
(il centro)
(il comune...the city hall)
(yumm, me, nicole-costa rica, francisca-chile, arna-iceland, 李欣原-china, jng-thailand)
(Il mio gelato che sembrava merda...my friend was convinced it was shit =P)
We spent most of tuesday morning at a "preschool/kindergarden" for kids between 2-5 and we told stories and stuff they were super cute! (these kind of school here are world renouned (can't spell sorry). Then we went for a walk in a park and jus kinda chilled it was nice =) We all went home for lunch then met back up at Barbara's house in the afternoon to make I Tortelli then all the other people with afs came later and we had a big supper.
(Arna telling about iceland's 12 Santa Clauses)
(Francisca and me...stolen from Jena's awesome camera)
(Tortelli!)
(Yummm)
(aren't we good cooks =P)
(all the volunteer's from Reggio)
Wednesday was spent at school woooo! haha The schools in the north are about 10000000x nicer than here in the south. We weren't actually in class we were in the medialab all day where a class presented the history of Reggio to us. It was kinda cool, one of the guys in the class (he was 17 or 18) models for Dolce & Gabbana ;) We got back together in the afternoon for an "apperitivo" we met up at a bar and ate a bunch of food lol and that was wednesday.
(Yuki-Hong kong, Me, Jena-USA, and some guys from the class)
(...a toilet)
(Francisca trying to figure out how your supposed to use it =P)
Thursday was pretty much the best day of the week (even though i had to get up at 6) because we went to VENEZIA!!!!! (for anyone that doesn't know what that is... VENICE!!!!!) So after a laugh filled 3 hour train ride, we finally arrived and all i can say is it was absolutely AMAZING! It's so Beautiful! Everything about it is awesome it seams like something out of a fairytale! it was great to have a day to act like tourist instead of normal people haha we laughed so much and just had a great time! We even got to take a ride in a gondola! I want to go back so bad! 5 hours wasn't enough we were all so sad when we had to leave...but somehow, in five hours, we did manage to get 2 gelato's hahaha
(Left to right: Jena, Yuki, Arna, Francisca, 李欣原, Simona, Me, Tobias)
(So cool!)
(me)
(basically no streets just canals)
(YUM)
(Yuki, Me, Arna, Jng and the church at Piazza San Marco behind us)
(Jena, Jng, Yuki, Me, Gondola man 1, Arna, Francisca, Gondola man 2!)
(Yay Gondola!)
(I want to live here)
(Funny picture!)
(More gelati!, me, tobias, and jena's)
(this pretty much screams Italy haha)
(Me and Emil...from here and on for the venice pics i stole them from Jena lol)
(Just crusin along)
(Tobias, Yuki, and Me)
(funny picture!)
(Posing with the Gondola man)
(Piazza San Marco)
(More gondola fun)
(AFS...Another. Fat. Student xD)
(Yes i'm cool like that...foot cramp...ill just take of my shoe)
(same as before + Arna)
(io)
(more San Marco)
(ouuuuu le maschere, che bello)
(End of our day)
Fridaaaaaaaay...you know what we did...we learned how cheese is made =P Not the most exciting part of the week but it was interesting...and the cheese was good =) After our factory tour, we went to a school for people who want to become chefs (it's one of the many kinds of highschools here) and a class made us an international breakfast with pancakes, doughnuts, eggs, toast, pizza OJ and a bunch of other stuff =) Then for supper we had a huge potluck with everyone from Afs (i made cookies) in Reggio Emilia and their families and i ate waaaaay to much haha but no biggie it was good =) (turns out i like cheesecake...who knew?)
(milk mixer/cooker)
(Parmigiano Reggiano il più buono nel mondo!)
(The cheese formers!if you ever buy parmesan cheese numbered 101 it's from here)
(taking a nice long soak)
(le vacche rosse, purebred used only for this cheese)
(1st real breakfast in 6 1/2 months!)
(my cookies...still can't get them to work here- .-)
Saturday was out last full day in Reggio and i've got to say it was pretty amazing, we drove out to the mountains and got a tour of a castle then went father into the mountains to "la Pietra di Bismantova" you'll see the picture, it's like a really big rock that's flat on top, some people climb it, others commit suicide from the top...apparently? yeah we on the other hand just hiked, and we were all dying by the time we got to the top =P but it was good to get some exercise out in the fresh air =)
it was a full day process so we had to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the day, but not forever, only until rome! Saturday night me and Yuki went to one of the guys from Reggio's b-day party, and then out for pizza it was good, then we got lost in the main part of the city cause it was dark and we didn't recognize anything haha.
(the caslte)
(the group...Back to front, left to right: Back/ Jonathan-Australia, Batuhan-Turkey, Emil-Denmark, Yuki-Hong Kong. Middle back/Arna-Iceland, Francisca-Chile, Me-Canada =P, Simona-China, Mary-USA, Jng- Thailand. Middle/ 李欣原- China, other girl from thailand, Jena-USA, Volunteer. Front/ Volunteer, Rosario
(Tower where above pic was taken)
(from the castle)
(la Pietra di Bismantova)
(Emil already down and this was only after the steps to the base haha
Emil...while on the ground "Damn i really need to stop smoking!"
2 seconds later.... "okay i need to buy some cigarettes!")
(youuuuuu!)
(Epic fail on my part)
(=D)
(me and francisca)
(yeah! ...from here on is also stolen form jena =P)
(So pretty!)
(the alps!)
(Me: Jena you wanna race me?
Jena: uhm...not really...
Me: Fine i'll race myself!)
(at the castle)
(can't wait for conditioning camp!)
(I believe i can fly!)
(JUMP!)
And that pretty much sums up my amazing week, sunday i packed and slept then had another wonderful 14 hour bus ride with more ice cream at 3:30 am...YAY
Basta Gelato, i'm officially over junk...for real, i honestly just don't want it anymore.
Buona notte!
oh and guess what??
i said guess
only 102 more days! =D Thats INSANE!
Miss you all!
Ciaooooooo!
xoxoxoxoxo
