Photos, Frog Legs & Films

Hey all!

I have a quick update!

If you look to the side of the page I published some pictures from my trip so far. So check them out I added captions to explain too. As I update pictures I'll update that too. I hope you like them as much as I do :)

So today I just had my longest day of class ever, but no worries I only have one more day like that and then my schedule is so easy. Today I had Italian 1 from 9:30am-1pm and then Conversation from 2:30-4:30 and THEN my first day of Cinema from 4:30-6:30! I feel like I'm back on a High School schedule!! But most days aren't like that so I think I'll manage my stress free life just fine.

I really like Cinema so far. My teacher mostly only speaks Italian but she explains things in simple terms and uses English if necessary. There are only 4 of us from Italian 1 in that class and everyone else is more advanced so they are helpful too. We had to identify a bunch of famous Italian actors, actresses & directors for the first part. Then we talked about the important terminology and what films we would be watching this semster. She also explained the history to a few. I'm excited because I at least know one of the films: Life is Beautiful. It's such an amazing movie but so sad...I've only seen it in English so I'm really excited to see it in the language it was made in. For those of you who don't know Life is Beautiful stars Robert Benigni set during the Holocaust in which a father makes up a game for his son to keep him unaware of the horrible conditions they are living in.
We watched part of a movie today called Sciuscia which means shoeshiners and is about two young boys who do various jobs trying to earn money during the war. The movie was in a Naples dialect so we watched it with Italian subtitles. But I actually followed along just fine! I was pretty excited about that :)

During my lunch break today, I got a very unique experience! Me, Kaitlin, Matt & Alex went out for lunch to eat Chinese food...in Italy! We went to a restaurant with red lanterns out front and baby pink walls covered in Chinese artwork inside. Kaitlin and I ordered the "Tourist Special" which was Wanton soup, fried rice, and sweet & sour chicken. Note of warning if you plan on trying this some day: the chicken is slimy not fried so be warned. Matt got duck, which looked really good but I've had it before and loved it! My new experience came in the form of Alex's meal. He ordered frog legs!!! And he was generous enough to let us try them. It was an iteresting taste of something between chicken and fish. But the weirdest part was picking the meat off the tiny bones. You could even still see the feet! But now I can offically say I've eaten frog!

Last night we planned to go to happy hour, which starts at 8pm here and you get fed tons of good food with your drinks. Lauren & I were busy chatting and ended up being late. But the night turned out really fun because we met the girls at a cool German restaurant called KB. The waitresses there were so nice & they liked us because they let us request songs: the music was coming from what they decided to play on youtube on a laptop haha. Anyways now we have another new place to hang out. Oh they also had delicious hot pretzels!

This weekend we are off on our first offically independent adventure! We are going to Florence! There are about 12 of us going I think so it should be really fun. Also I GET TO SEE KATIE!!! She just got here so we've been texting to make plans to meet up. I can't wait to see her :) Katie is my old roommate who moved back to Seattle FYI!

One last note I might help with teaching/giving a presentation to High School kids about Twain! I figure being an English minor, it would be a really cool opportunity. We have a meeting about it tomorrow so I will keep you posted!

That's all for now! Miss you and love you. But right now I'm really missing Cheeze-its & Dorritos! I must look into getting snack food other than Nutella. (Buy some now if you've never had it...it's my lifesaver over here!)

Hugs & Kisses <3 Kalyn