Beaurcracy and Trento (Part 2)

Well I have finished with part 1 so that's good if you haven't read that one then Part one precedes this one! well anyways this part is all about my week in Trento, Italy!!! (<- Click on the link to read a little bit about Trento..Thanks Wikipedia!)

Well I should start with why i chose Trento. honestly when you think of Italy you do not think TRENTO. well i did have a reason i promise. I chose Trento because i am on Sardegna and i have the sea all year round so i wanted to see the mountains and the snow.. ( i know.. ive seen snow but still i wanted to see it again i missed it). I also wanted to see the differences between the north and the south of Italy and there was the fact that i could also go to Venice if i went there and we got a day to play in the snow which i hate to admit but i do miss the snow because I'm used to having snow in the winter but this year i hadnt even seen any snow and i wanted to see it. so i chose Trento Italy because it seemed to be a place that fit in with everything i wanted from my exchange week. (then i found out later that one of my best friends (Kayla) was also going there so i was super happy!!)

Well because I'm on Sardegna (which as you know is an island) I would have to fly to Trento because there are no trains that can cross that much sea. but i found out that i wouldn't be flying alone because one of my best exchange friends, Lilla, was going to be going with me. so we bought our tickets together but we realized that the schedule for these tickets was horrible because the only plane out of Cagliari to Verona was at 750 am and the only return tickets were at 930 pm so we bought our tickets for march 7th and coming back March 15th with the plan for me sleeping at her house the night before and the night after because i live too far from the airport.
On March 6th after school i took the train (with my 9 kilo suit case) to Elmas so that i could spend the night at Lillas house. We were both very very excited because we were getting to leave Sardegna and for her it was the first time since she got here that she was leaving. I helped her get all of her stuff together and then we went to bed a little bit early because we knew we were going to have to get up early.

March 7th
Me and Lilla woke up at 530 am so that we could be at the airport by 600 - 630 am but we were pretty much all ready so it didnt take us long to get ready to go to the airport. Lillas mom dropped us off at the airport and me and lilla went in to the place where we had to check our bags in. I was a little nervous. We both successfully checked in our bags which weighed a TON and then we went through security with out any problems. the only problem was that we were way ahead of schedule. we had an hour before our plane was supposed to leave so we went in and and had some breakfast at the bar and then we finally got to get on the plane. the ride was pretty uneventful and that was nice. when we arrived in Verona we had to wait in the airport for about 3 hours until the kids from Bari got there on thier plane. When they got there a volenteer came and picked us up from the airport and drove us into Trento. All i remember about the ride is that my ears kept annoyingly popping.

Well then they took us in to our families. I had only a host mom and a host dad this time because all of their kids were either in college or they were on there own exchanges so i was the only kid in the house.. when i got there i got to put all my stuff away (but i decided i didnt really want to unpack) and got ready to go out again because they told me that there was this womans day festival thing which sounded like fun so i got ready with my host dad and we walked into town (about 15 minutes) and we walked around all of the tables that were there. it was all hand made stuff that the women had made or were making right then. it was all really cool. everywhere you looked was yellow because that was the color of the day.. Well me and my host dad stayed in the center of town for a few hours and then we went back home and we had dinnner as a family. then me and my host mom and her sister went out and we saw the woman's fair again. it was an ok day but i really wanted to get with the other exchange students!!!

March 8th
Well for most of the day we walked around Trento because I still hadnt seen the city. It is a REALLY beautiful city. i really liked it. everywhere you look you see the Alps and you can see the snow and its just so beautiful. all of the buildings are very old looking but everything is kept in really really good shape. then there's the fact that its SOOOOOO CLEAN. i didnt expect that. like in Sardegna there is spray paint all over but here no. everything is so clean. everyone puts the garbage in the trash can and keeps everything really clean. its really nice. all the buildings are really pretty colors like yellow and red and things and it makes the city look really pretty. there is also this really big river that runs through the city and that was really nice. i liked it alot. they have really nice paths all around it so that you can walk along the river. I've noticed that they use bikes way more then they do in Sardegna. Everyone here uses a bike its really nice to see actually. That night we had a dinner with AFS., so we went to this place in Trento that had a kitchen so that we could all make the dinner. well first we had a meeting which explained what we were going to be doing for the week aand all that jazz. then the host parents left and as soon as they let us get up me and Kayla took our opportunity to run like mad men at each other and give each other a HUGE hug. She arrived late so we couldnt do it before... then we all got acquainted with each other and the kids that live in Trento all the time. there seemed to be about 10 of them .. they were really nice. well we then went down stairs to make this typical Trento dish. it was like bread crumbs and meat and water and stuff. (think Thanksgiving stuffing) then you roll it into balls and you cook it. i didnt like it because I dont like stuffing and it tastes the same as stuffing. well... we all started talking to all of the other kdis that were in Trento. i had already talked to Laura (American) but there were others too. there are 3 chinese boys. but the one i talked to is named Baolong (which means baby dragon) and then there is a German girl, a colombian girl named Cris, and a Mexican boy named Manuel. we all sat down to eat dinner (which i didnt really like).. we kept talking to everyone even after dinner and they were basically kicking us out to go home because we needed to be out of there. but when you get new AFSers together all we do is talk. well we found out that the regular Trento kids had to go to school the next day (except Manuel) and that we were going to go up the mountains to play in the snow.

March 9th
We got to the train station at about 830 so that we could take cars up the mountain. everyone was already there and dressed like we do in Wisconsin when you go for the snow. i had thoroughly forgotten how much i HATE snow pants. i really really really really really hate them. they are so uncomfortable we all said hi to each other and i started talking to Kayla, Ashley (american), Amalia (brazilian) and Manuel (mexican) about how excited we were to go see the snow and how much fun it was to play in it. manuel is used to it because he lives in Trento all year long but still he was excited for us because we hadn't seen it this year. We all got in to 4 cars and we went up the mountains. ive decided that i dont really like how the mountains make my ears pop. its abit uncomfortable. plus you get a little sickish going up the mountains. on my way up i saw this sign that said Sardagna.. and i thought it said Sardegna so i thought it was really funny.. well when we got up the mountain we took our usual group shot of AFS where everyone gives there camera and it takes 20 years to do. well we took the sleds and all the stuff up the little kids mountain and we sledded for a while. We piled like 3 people on one sled and we had sled races it was alot of fun then they told us that we could get our sack lunches and that we should put on our snow shoes so we could start our walk up the mountain. I started talking to Manuel about spanish. he had heard me speak Italian and he asked me if i had taken Spanish before in the states because it sounded to him like i had. Then we started talking about the differences between Mexican Spanish and Spain Spanish are. we both agree that the Spanish from Spain sounds like the people have a lisp lol. and that we prefer the Mexician accent. it was a good thing i had someone to talk to because it was a LONG walk up the mountain. it was a steady incline until.. a really steep hill we had to climb to get to the top. we climbed it and were rewarded. there was a really really really pretty view of this tiny little town buried in the mountains. we all sat down (exhausted) and we started eating lunch. we stayed there for a while and then we started taking pictures then we wlked back down the mountain. walking back down was alot faster then walking up. lol We were all too tired to do more sledding so instead they took us to Sardagna for the landscape view of Trento. it was SOOOOOO beautiful. i loved it. we took a ton of pictures of course and then they took us back down the mountain and we all went back to our families homes.

March 10th

Well today we all got together in the morning because we were headed to this university in a small city close to Trento.Well im not going to go in to too many details because honestly the university was fairly boring. it was a research university and well one.. i hate RESEARCH papers and i know that i could NEVER do general research all my life cause i would die of boredum and then there was the other fact that they were researching things that i find really boring so i thought that for the most part the university was really boring but thats ok... After that we went to go visit a castle that was really really pretty from the outside.. I really enjoyed the castle.. we met up with a bunch of other kids that live in Trento normally which was really cool.. i liked hanging out with them.. well after we went to the castle we met up with all of the other kids which was fun.. we walked around the town for a while with them,then we went back and we had lunch with our families.. it was a very tranquil day.. but it was still fun.. i hung out with all the kids and we talked alot.. i talked alot in English with Kayla, Ashley, Manuel, and Amlia because Ashley didn't speak Italian very well yet..

March 11

Well today was the day that all of the exchange students of Southern Italy realized how shitty (excuse my words but it fits) our schools actually are. One of the local PUBLIC high schools invited us exchange students to come for half of the day to visit the school and then afterwards we would hang out with one of the classes and hang around with them and talk to some kids in Trento. So we went to the school all thinking of OUR schools in Southern italy. Well let me tell you up north they do it SOOOOO much differently. everything in the school was clean and well put together. there was no writing on the walls there were no holes and all of the heaters in the school were there and they worked. all of the windows were correct.. as in not broken.. they actually had a computer lab that worked.. in fact they had 3 computer labs that worked.. at the LINGUISTICS school they had a lab for biology, chemestry and for LANGUAGE with computers where the students can go after school to study with their language teachers.. they actually had a library.. which apparently my school has but i have NEVER seen this library and i dont even know where it is in my school. We all walked around this school with our mouths open.. literally.. we could not believe there were actually nice schools in Italy. We had thought that all the schools were like ours.. but they are not.. we live in the south.. another world.. the south and the north have different priorities.. and obviously the north thinks that the schools deserve more money.. After the tour of the school we hung out with a third year language class and they were really nice. we played "orientation" type games which were fun because the kids were nice and participated.. we all exchanged contacts and stuff.. we had alot of fun with them.

For lunch we went to the college lunch place. The comme of Trento paid for us to all have lunch there. it was really good actually. and here we met up with most of the other kids from Trento. i sat at a table that was all Spanish speaking people (manuel, Cris (colombia) and Ofo (argentina)) so i sat in silence some of the time because i dont speak spanish very well. After dinner we went to this presentation that was really cool about how we would go about going to an Italian University if we wanted to. what tests we would have to take and what we would have to do. and how Italian Universities worked for foreigners. it was actually really really interesting because there were some people that were acutally looking into going to Universities in Italy. so it was really interesting.. well after this presentation we went to the Comune di Trento.. which is usually really really boring but this time it wasnt.. the lady was really cool and we talked about all of the differences that we had from where we normally are (for example sardegna for me) and of Trento and then our countries and Italy.. it was alot of fun. then we all went out with the kids and walked around the town before we went back to our homes for dinner..

March 12 - VENICE

This was the day that i was truly looking forward too on this trip. We all met up at the train station at 830 so that we could get on the train at 9am for the 3 hour train ride to Venice. well.. when we got on the train it was kind of boring .. i sat next to Manuel and Baolong (the chinese boy) and we kinda slept for some of the ride.. then we mostly just talked because there wasnt really much to do on a 3 hour train ride.. well when we got to Venice it was SOOOO beautiful i loved it sooo much.. we walked around Venice in a big group for a while. we saw the old ghetto which is where they kept the Jews during WWII in Venice.. it was interesting but I wanted to go off on my own.. well not on my own.. but off and looking around in a small group like they said they would let us.. when we finally made it to Saint Marks Square they let us go off on our own and i went off with Amalia, Manuel, Kayla and Ashely shopping.. it was alot of fun to walk up and down the streets of Venice shopping for stuff you can only buy in Venice. sutff like the masks and stuff. i knew that i would not want to leave there. Venice was soo pretty but it is sooo easy to get lost. seriously all the streets look the same in Venice. and there's tons of little streets that aren't on the maps.. its not very map friendly. we got lost when we had to go back to Saint Marks Square to meet up with AFS to walk back to the train station. when we did finally arrive at the train station we had missed our train.. so we had to wait for another train that was about an hour later.. well when we did finally get on the train we knew we had about 4 hours so we (my group) all sat together and we talked.. we knew that when Manuel got off the train it would be goodbye for him because he was leaving the next day for his exchange week. so when he had to get off we were all really sad we gave him hugs and we made sure that we would talk again later.. well we finally got home and my host parents picked me up and i went straight to bed..

march 13

Well today we all met up to go to this art museum.. i knew that i would be pretty bored because well to be quite honest i do not like art museums.. i think they are very very boring. and well i was right. it was even more boring because it was the kind of art where the lady tells you what you should see but for the life of you all you can see is a big orange blob.. that your brain CAN NOT MAKE A BLOB IN TO A HORSE.. i just cant do it.. i thought it was just too boring.. i didnt like it. then we had lunch and ... went to another art museum which was really boring again... after the museums we redeemed ourselves by going shopping.. me kayla and ashley and amalia went shopping around Trento for a while before the going away dinner. the dinner was SOO much fun.. we were all in this pizza restuarante which was really yummy i sat at the table with kayla, amalia, baolong, and ashly and some random host siblings which was so much fun.. i wrote on kaylas bag which in the end made absolutely no sense because well honestly i have forgotten my English...lol.. i went into town with some of the kids after dinner so we could hang out a little bit more.. I cried when me and kayla had to say goodbye.. shes my best exchange friend..

March 14..

This was the day that everyone left except for Me, Lilla and the kids from Bari.. we were leaving the next day so me and ashley decided that we were going to go shopping. we had sooo much fun shopping together. i missed shopping.. thats basically all i did all day.. hahaha..

March 15

We left for the airport at about 3 pm because the Bari kids had to leave at 530.. but the only problem was that they left and then.. well.. me and lilla had 3 more hours to wait for our flight.. it SUCKED there was nothing to do and we were all really tired... so we basically slept in the airport lol.. the flight went well and we made it to Sardegna all safe and sound..

That was my AMAZING trip to Trento italy!!! I loved it SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Sorry that this took me so long..