If you do not know what I am talking about, read this paragraph, if you do know, skip it. Well yes anyway, I live in Italy in the south. Lamezia Terme, <3 but in Italy for exchange students you have the choice to switch your family for a week and go basically where you want. There is a long list of cities and you choose, but once the place is full you can not join in. This exchange week is for the students who are on year programs, if you are not staying in Italy for the year, sadly you can not go. Not sadly for me thou, I went to Bergamo! (North Italy near Milan)
Read here- Yeah I know, people do not like reading that much. As I was saying I was in Bergamo, and I will just tell you all the run down of what I did! This was from March 23-29th.
SUNDAY - Domenica
1- I got on the plane from Lamezia -> Bergamo with Noriko (Japan) and with Katherine (Hondorus) and Noina (Thailand) around 8 in the morning
2- I got picked up, and then went with my host family. Most of the day my host sister Ilaria took me around the city and for Gelato BUONA!
MONDAY - Lunedì
1- I went to an elementary school in the morning. THOSE KIDS WERE SPEAKING ENGLISH! Like amaziing English also, can we give a clap for Bergamo?!?
2- We also had lunch with them, which consisted of a lot of snacks. My host family told me that there would be sooo much food, to just take some for the trip after. They gave me 2 bags LOL. I ended up asking to take popcorn and cookies also, and trust me everyone loved them!
3- Nextly we went on the longest bus ride ever to the Alps! Giant mountains they are! We ended up going to this old archeological park to view some ingaved stones. Personally I could not tell what was on the rocks, looked like plain rocks to me :) We also saw a church, which was up in the mountains and I think no one uses...
4- After this day our feet all killed us, and there was no more food left! If you go on a trip *bring extra!* I ended up buying strawberries as it was the only food near the train station.
TUESDAY - Martedì
1- This day we started off by visiting a middle school. Which I do not remember at the moment, sorry.
2- After what ever I did at the middle school, we took a tour of Città Alta (High city). Bergamo is divided in two: città alta, and città bassa (low city). The city is divided in two by a giant wall. Think - Great Wall of China. It is divided because Bergamo used to be owned by Milan. Back many, many years agos Milan and Venice were fighting and Bergamo happened to be in the middle. So to protect the city, a wall was built.
3- I saw 2 amazing churches that do not even compare to the churches in America. They just radiate beauty!!!
4- Quick little note about Italy, they really did make most of the streets out of stones and pebbles. After walking for a few hours your feet dont feel so good.... BUT at least the streets are pretty, that makes it worth the pain!
WEDNESDAY - Mercoledì (Milan)
1- All 7 exchange students in Bergamo got on a train to Milan bright and early in the morning!
2- When we got off the train and out of the big station the very first thing you saw was the Duomo. You cannot miss it even if you are blind! This is the 5th (or well one of the biggest) churchs in the world and really I thought it was incredible!
3- It is kind of uncommon to go inside this church, but I went inside! Now if the outside was amazing, the inside to me was made for a giant. It was acutally a bit scary! Imagine no light and big columns that you would never be able to wrap your arms around!
4- I also saw the Castle of Milan and the park that goes with it.
5- Nextly, I got to spend the rest of my day avoiding the rain, because it rained when I went! :( No umbrella! But seriously I would take a rainy day in Milan over no milan at all!
THURSDAY - Giovedì
1- I can wrap up this day quickly. I went to the Mountains and made an AFS Intercultura video and got to get a very large Lake that is famous for being one of the largest in the north of Italy. In the video we spoke italian but also had to sing in our normal language.
2- That night was also my host families Aunt's birthday. (Mouth full of words) One day before mine! So we celebrated together and it was so much fun! She spoke English perfectly because she is a English Teacher, she taught me about England. Mainly about the Prince and Princess!
FRIDAY - Venerdì
1- Then my birthday came around finally! 18 years and I have not died yet, which is good! We started the day by visiting a city in the mountains again, but a different one. We went to visit a wall that has a famous painting on it,
2- We also went to a high school for cooking. I got to learn a lot, like how to make ice cream and handmade noodles! Yum!
SATERDAY - Sabato
1- From what I remember I spent most of this day with the host day at a sort of spa, kind of. I completely forget the name, but we were inside hot rooms, boiling rooms to be exact. Then swimming for a while. It was nice to relax after such a hard week of non-top movement.
Well then Sunday I returned back to Lamezia, and that about sums up my exchange week. But can I mention for a second how amazing my host family is, they made me a surprise party! To bad I didnt see it coming, I didnt exactly look pretty! I thought we were just going out to get pizza and then go home. LOL!
My American family also sent me a box, the first one, and it brought tears to my eyes. I miss them like crazy, but I just have to hold on!
Till next time!
| § | XOXO Brystal | § |
