Changes

Well a lot has happened all over the world in this last week and there have been a few of those things that have personally affected my life. I guess that I will start with the small thing and lead up to the big thing. (this is going to be like all of my other posts, long hahaha, sorry)

Well the small thing that has changed in my life since my last update was my school schedule. My English teacher and french teacher got together and made up a new schedule for me because there was no way that i would be able to follow the Philosophy, Latin or History classes (actually I was following my history lesson pretty well but my History teacher decided she didn't want to deal with someone who couldn't follow fully that i could stay but she would prefer me to be moved to another class, so i made the decision just to leave because its easier then having a class where the the teacher didn't want me there) so those two teachers got together to try to fix me a personalized schedule. There was also a conflicting problem with changing my Spanish classes. I knew that I wanted to take extra Italian classes with the first year students because there class was all about grammar and I knew that it would help me if I took a class on grammar. So I was given the option that I could cut the amount of Spanish classes I was taking and take French and the grammar class and another Italian class or keep the Spanish classes and only pick up French. So I decided to cut my Spanish classes and take french instead for 2 reasons. 1) It will help me in the long run to take extra Italian classes that aren't literature because I can understand them a little bit and it will help me improve my Italian faster then taking Spanish would. and 2) I take Spanish at home and French is not an option. I know that when I get back I will be able to pick up Spanish fairly quickly because I will speak Italian fluently but I do not have the option to take French in school at home so I figured that I would take another language here while I got the chance so that I could start learning another language. Plus the language classes in Italy are much faster here in Italy so I will learn a lot of French in just one year and I'm excited about picking up a new language.

This change in schedule is good for a couple of reasons. 1) I will understand more during the day because I'm with younger classes and I'm in classes that i find more interesting so I will want to pay attention more. 2) I get to meet more kids because I'm in classes with other kids besides just my class even if they are younger then me. and 3) I have a better chance of getting better or half descent grades because I'm in easier classes. I'm excited to be able to actually be able to do something in class. I miss understanding whats going on in school. I always took language and understanding for granted in the USA like even if i was zoned out in class i could still half listen and understand everything that was said. In Italy i have to concentrate very hard on every word just to get the general idea of whats being said. I can honestly say that I'm not going to ever take that for granted again. So I thought I would give you a look as to what my schedule looked like before the change and what it looks like now.

BEFORE:

Lunadi (monday)
1) Philosophy
2) Spanish
3) French
4) Latin
5) English

6) Gym

Martadi (Tuesday)

1) Science

2) History

3) Italian

4) Spanish

5) Spanish

6) Math

Mercoladi (Wednesday)

1) French

2) Philosophy

3) Art History

4) Gym

5) Science

6) Science

Govadi (Thursday)

1) Latin

2) Italian

3) History

4) Math

5) English

6) Religion

Venerdi (Friday)

1) French

2) Latin

3) Art History

4) Science

5) Philosophy

6) History

Sabato (Saturday)

1) Spanish

2) Spanish

3) English

4) Italian

5) Math

NOW: (the numbers and letters after it are the class I'm with, 1 is like freshmen and up from there)

Lunadi (Monday)
1) Italiano 1C
2) French 1C
3) French 4C
4) Italiano 4C
5) English 4C

6) Gym 4C

Martedi (tuesday)
1) Science 4C
2) Italiano 2D
3) Spagnolo 3C
4) French 3C
5) French 2D

6) Math 4C

Mercoledi (Wednesday)
1) French 4C
2) French 2D
3) French 1C
4) Gym 4c
5) Science 4C

6) Science 4C

Giovedi (Thursday)
1) Italiano 1C
2) Italiano 1C
3) Italiano 2D
4) Math 4C
5) English 4C

6) Religion 4C

Venerdi (Friday)
1) French 4C
2) Italiano 4C
3) Italiano 2D
4) Science 4C
5) French 1C

Sabato (Friday)
1) French 1C
2) French 2D
3) English 4C
4) Italiano 1C
5) Math 4C

So that is my new schedule and I must say I do love my new schedule. I'm excited that I get to learn French and that I'm in extra Italian Classes because it will help me learn the language faster. And I love being in classes with the other kids. SO that is the change that happened to me personally now I want to talk about the big change that has happened in the , well i was going to say USA but that wouldn't really be correct, in the world.

So unless you have been living in a cave for the last few days you know that Barack Obama was elected the new president of the United States of America. I thought it would be interesting to tell you how my view of the last 2 months of the elections were from an over seas point of view.

So these last 2 months every couple of days there would be something on the news about the election that was going on in the States. I would never totally understand what they were saying but I could get the general idea about what they were saying because I already knew what they were talking about. For me it was really interesting to hear about news from the USA so often on the news in Italy because I know for one in the USA most of the news is not international but domestic. So basically for the last two months I have been hearing about the election on the italian news and reading about it on the internet. Then there is when i first meet people one of the first things that they would ask me is "Obama or McCain" Which was interesting to me because people in the states do not usually ask you this question right out because it is generally seen as a more private choice and private matter. So that is what has been happening in Italy about the elections for about the past 2 months. Which brings me to November 3rd.

So on November 3rd In Italy I was very nervous and planned on doing nothing all day but watching American News on the computer so that I could keep updated on what was going on with the election. But with the time difference when I got home from school at 2 pm it was just 8am in NYC so the elections were just starting but it was very very interesting to watch and listen to the news because everyone seemed to have different opinion even though they were all looking at the same data. I have found that since I have been in Italy I have become a lot more interested in government, politics, economy and just the world in general. I'm not sure why this is but i most certainly have. maybe its because I've seen more of the world now and I've gotten to meet other people and now i want to see how the world works together and that stuff, or maybe that's too deep and I'm really just growing up now and i realize i don't live in perfect lala land and I want to see what kind of world I really live in. So I watched the news for a couple hours after school but because of the time difference the good part of the elections 8pm-11pm are in the middle of the night and very early in the morning here in Europe so I did not get to watch any of that news coverage because I was asleep because I had school the next day. So I went to sleep very nervous thinking that when I woke up the USA would have a new president.

When I woke up the first thing that I did was to turn on the computer and open up MSN. That is when I found out that Obama was the new president of the USA. When I went to school no one knew about the outcome of the elections yet so when I told them that "Obama won" every one seemed and was so excited. Italy is very Pro Obama. And that is basically what happened all day. Except people when they would see me felt the need to tell me that Obama won because I'm American. SO i heard it about 10000 times that day. well i will skip ahead one day just to add that even in the Italian news papers something about the elections and something about Obama was on EVERY page of the italian news papers. I found it very interesting how global this election was.

SO that is a semi-foreigner American got to view the election for the history books. Hope you enjoyed reading about the changes in my life that have all happened in the last 4 days. Ciao