I ♥ MY SCHOOL

I am so lucky!!
My school here, in Catania is amazing! I can say that even if I have to study now as all the others do...My subjects are: English, German, French, Italian(it is a linguistic school), Math, History, History of art, Biology, Geography.
Talking about the school it is important to say how the students study here. They learn nearly everything by heart. First, they read the text( which is usually like 3 pages long) and then they do their own notes - they write down the most important things. Sicilian students study everything into details. E.g. the italian literature, or italian artists, who are all famous, so you can imagine how long it takes to study them all ;)
And THEY DO STUDY A LOT!!!!! First, I was wondering: Where do all the students dissapear after the last bell rings!? Now I know :) Hunderts of pages every single day - this is one of the aspects of student's life here ;)

Sicilian specialities: arancini and cannolo

What is same and what is different......

Ok, to be honest, Catania is completely different from Slovakia. In which way? Soooo, for example: people here are so open-minded and friendly. First I thought it is only klise, but it is true! They would go out of their way to help you, to welcome you and everyone in my school wants to be my friend, they invite me to their homes for a dinner, it is amazing!
Secondly, a family is the most important thing here. When somebody has a problem, it is discussed among every single member of a family. And parents need to know everything about their children. When I go out, they need to know when, with whom, where and how and when I will come back. It is extremly important that family has dinner together.
And also big parties at weekends where you can meet like every single member of a family are very usual here.( mamma, papa, nonna, nonno, zia, zio, ciugina......)
I do not want to talk abot food a lot here, because it will make me hungry and I am pretty sure that I would go to the kitchen and make me sth...., but I will do it anyway, so :)
Italians do not eat pasta as a second meal as we in Slovakia do, but as the first meal. This is the first big difference. Then, sicilian food consist of many many many vegetables, fishes and of different kind of seafood. And also sweet cakes are popular among sicilians.
It is good to know that it is impolite when u leave food on your plate. It might mean that u do not like it, and sicilians may be offended:(
Architecture is splendid!!! I cannot discribe it with words, I think it would be better if u have a look at he pixs, which I have posted here.)
The traffic, on the contrary, is awful!! Drivers do not respect the traffic sings and from 2p.m till 9p.m it is sometimes really dangerous at the streets :)
As far as fashion is concerned, girls wear to school only jeans and t-shirt and ....trainers. That's all. Nothing more and nothing less. They dress beautifuly only for Saturday night.
And people warned me before I went to Catania that it is typical for italians to speak very loudly and that I should not panic when their conversation would seem to me as a quarrel....OMG they speak REALLY LOUDLY!!! And when speaking to you, they are very close.
According to a southern way of life, I got used to it! Italians have a lot of time and ALL THE TIME!They seem they are never in a hurry and they are always late. ( exept at schools, there they are punctual)

Just an (extra)ordinary day.....

I have spent an amazing day with my super classmates. After the school we decided to go to the chinese restaurant. We had a lot of fun! We were speaking about the school(OMG I feel so cool when I am able to speak with them about the school staff and everything:)They are incredible. We spent the whole day laughing, italians are having fun all the time!
What I appriciate about my italian friends is their patience. The way they listen to me when I am trying to explain something in italian( trust me, I am trying really hard all the time:)is unbelievable. And when I make a mistake or when I apologize for what I have just said, they always tell me : tranquilla, tranquilla. I cannot translate it, it means something like calm down, do not worry.
Their mentality is just sooo different from ours, I feel it everyday, everywhere..e mi piace!! :D

A beautiful day at the sea

First days at school

Well, I think I can say that I have already been through the scariest part of every foreign student stay in a host country > first day at new school! To my amazement, everything went very well. No, great. Everybody gave me a warm welcome and asked me many questions like : where I am from, how old I am, what is same and what is different from my country....my classmates are excelent. The school which I attend is SO different from my school in Slovakia. Everyday the school starts at 8:30 and finishes at 13:30. They do not have breaks between lessons, there is only one "big brake" - that's how I call it :) from 11:15 till 11:30. Through this big brake you can meet like everybody outside the school. There is also a small shop,in which you can by something to eat.

Teachers at my school are incredibly nice to me. They are trying to help me in every possible way - all the time. The lessens are much more fun than in my country, I am laughing nearly all the time ;) But now the school for me is becoming more serious. I do homework every day, read books for school.....like a normal student!:)
My classmates are very friendly, we speak a lot. They always ask me : What did you do yesterday? every morning - you see? Then we have so much to speak about!! Of course in italian :D I am happy for this fact, because that is the way how I will learn italian more quickly.

But what is really strange for me about a student's life in Catania is that when the school finishes, the students just rush out of the school, jump on their motorbikes( it is as popular as bikes in Amsterdam) and go home. Some of them, but very few, go to Bars, what means here usualy a little shop in which you can choose from thousands of different types of cakes, breads...it is AMAZING! Like all the food here! I have never eaten such many cakes, pieces of pizza, delicious italian pasta in my whole life! You simply cannot resist! But this is, of course, one of many ways how to learn something about the sicilian culture and about the people as well. If everything here is as good as the food I do not know.....;)) It would be better to show you some pictures, so you would be even more jealous :D But inicially I wanted to speak about the school :) It is absolutelly great and everybody there is so nice. To be honest, sometimes I have no idea who is the person who is greeting me:)But I have a good reason for defend myself:)...I do not have classes only with my class - 4AL but also with other 4 classes and in every class there are like 15 studets. Moreover my school attends about 1000 students! Enough?:)

Rush hour in the centre

Elephant-symbol of Catania

St. Agatha

The centre of Catania

A view from a terrace of my house

My house and street in Catania

Ariival, amazement, first days

As I walked out of this room when you usually pick up your luggage at the airport, I saw my host family and a feeling of enormous happiness had arrived:)I was screaming:" I have found them, I have found them!" I could not have missed them as they were holding a huge transparent above their heads saying: "Kristina benvenuta in Italia." After warm welcome we directed to the parking. Exactly from this moment I knew they will be kinda funny, as my host papa(Paolo) did not remember where he had parked his car :))Anyway, after arrival to my new home, there was a typical big Italian dinner. The food is incredible! And the worst thing is that I cannot resist like anything, because everything looks and tastes so delicious. Moreover, Italians offer you everything constantly as they always think you do not have enough:)

As far as Catania is concerned, I AM AMAZED! It is beautiful. Have you ever experienced the feeling when you arrived somewhere and you feel that this is the place where you supposed to be? The place you have been searching but did not find till that day? So this is how I am feeling right now. ( I will post the pictures as soon as possible.)

Well, I managed quite a lot these first days. I was at my new school with my host mama(Agata) and my host sister(Noemi). O God, everybody here is so warm-hearted, also the teachers. Hopefully they will remain as enthusiastic as the first day for the 10 months:D
My family takes part in a local Salesian theater. It was so funny to listen and watch them practising, also with other Italian friends. The best thing is that majority of Italians cannot speak English..so we communicate with our hands, legs..and they find it funny when I cannot find the right word for expressing what I want to express:) But they are very patient and listen to you until you finish and they try to help you as much as they can.

I also managed to go to a local centro commerciale. A whole family!(mama, grandma, grandpa, sister,papa was at work) Yes, it is typical here that you always go together. I like it, it is just different and it is amazing how it helps to keep the family together as you share all your experiences you have come through the day. And the way they care of me is great...we do everything together. And just then I feel that slowly but surely I am becoming a new member of the family.