Advertisement
The Mad Jokers
This is their mascot/symbol guy. They gave me a sticker with it on it because I came and participated in the "pogo" (mosh pit). Well when I posted my last blog entry is wasn't too late in the day--a lot had happened since then.
First of all, Elena dropped Paolo and I off downtown somewhere, where we walked around for a while, him showing me the interesting buildings in town. The funny thing is, after only three or four buildings, he said that was all that was interesting. That is when I had to explain that everything here is interesting to me since it is all hundreds (even thousands) of years old, compared to home where the oldest thing in Eaton that is still standing is probably Eaton High School. (Post a comment if you think of something older in Eaton. I thought the old sugar factory too).
We stopped by this old looking playground surrounded by a big brick wall, where some of his friends were setting up for their concert last night. The band had an English name: The Mad Jokers. Now I thought it was interesting that the name was in English, but I'll get to that later.
Paolo and I walked to meet some of his other friends at a pizza place a ways away. All the while,
Gelateria
Where we got our delicious ice-cream! we talked about different things, what we do, etc. What I found out about the Italian school system was pretty crazy. First of all, there are different schools for what you're interested in. Just like there are specialized colleges, there are specialized scuole medie (middle schools) and licei (high schools). For instance, Claudia goes to a music school, where she is learning piano (which she is "molto buona" in by the way--and she is only 12). Also, in the licei, the students stay in one group--one class of around 25--and never leave their classes. This is because it is the TEACHER that switches from classroom to classroom. So the same students are together in every class. Interesting approach to schooling. However it doesn't seem they have much of an ability to take electives--they can only elect NOT to take certain classes--like French.
After our pizza (which we each got our own, about a foot in diameter, and was cooked on a circular stone in a brick oven and was delicious), we went to the Mad Jokers concert. Now, if you read yesterday's entry, you'd know that Paolo loved Queen. But now I understood why the name of the band
Italian Air Conditioning?
Here is a door. Yes, it is not an illusion--this door is opening from the top. That is because you can open this door two ways--one to walk out with and the other as a ventilation. It's new to me. was in English-- every song but two were in English--out of 26 or so songs. Another One Bites the Dust, Enter Sandman, Holiday, Wish You Were Here, Blitzkreig Bop (just to name a few) were all English songs that the Mad Jokers played extremely well (occasionally I would catch the singer making up some words because not everyone knew them all the way. I think I would be the only one who could sing them word for word I think. But I'll give her credit--learning 24 songs or so in ENGLISH is very impressive.) By the end, Paolo, a lot of his friends and I were up having our own miniature "pogo" (or mosh-pit. If anyone could tell Eli, who I'm sure is not reading this, that I was in a "mosh-pit" (use the quotation marks), that would be gladly appreciated 😊. By the end of the concert, it was nearing midnight, so we got home and went to bed. Finally, after 37 hours without true sleep, I got to go to bed!
I broke two records of mine on this trip already--one, being the longest awake ever (37 hours), and two, sleeping the most time ever (14 hours).
My bedroom!
It's not very big, but I don't care. Yes, if you did the math, I slept until 2 in the afternoon. But that was with much help of the blind system they have in their house, which keeps the room literally pitch black. I'll explain that in a later blog. But I got up, when into the living room, and Elena asked me if I wanted steak, or bacon and eggs, or some other crazy lunch items--I told her cereal was fine (they were like cocoa puffs).
So they then figured out that I was determined to learn a lot of Italian while I was here, so all of a sudden, a flood of English to Italian and Italain grammar books came flooding to the table I was sitting at. I also got a full-blown computer tour of all of the cool buildings in Venice (which I think I'll get to see). By the time our "lesson" was finished, I was starting to get a headache, but I learned how to say my name, where I come from, how old I am, and that I just graduated and want to study physiology and spanish in college. I think I'm supposed to use this in school tomorrow.
My Bathroom
Pretty nifty shower and a sink you could bath a full-sized baby in. Since by that time it was around 8, we went and had a "cena" (dinner) of pizza! (Again). It's very interesting just sitting there listening to them all talk because Italian sounds a lot like Spanish, but I can't understand very much of it. It is a beautiful, crisp language though. I can understand a word or two now and then but that's because they're just like the French or Spanish word for the same word in English (Thank you Tidd and Senora G!).
After the pizza (it was Calabrese--tomatoes, cheese, and spicy sausage--very good), we went and had gelatto (I had one scoop that tasted like lemon, and another that was vanilla mixed with nutella!) and went home.
One cultural note--Italy is very.... American. I mean, I already talked about the music, but the Television and Movies are American too. They know actors like George Cloony, Brad Pitt, etc. and watch TV shows like House (here called "Dr. House"), Fairly Oddparents (Claudia's favorite--Cosmo is her phone's background), Spongebob, and Family Guy (here called "Griffins" apparently). I'm also glad to hear that the Italian public and I have something in common-- despising Hannah Montana and Justin Beiber. Italians
Toilet or Bidet?
Which one do you wash your buttocks with and which one do you do other stuff? Well at first glance it's hard to tell--until you see that one has water already in it and a button in the wall way high above it. know where it's at!
Well just so you know where I'm staying looks like, I am going to start posting pictures of the house every now and then. So I included in this post pictures of my room and bathroom 😊
That's all for today! I have to rest up for scuola (school). So buona notte (goodnight), and arrivederci!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.163s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0664s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Andrew
non-member comment
oldest building in eaton
well i thought the school was one of the oldest building in eaton. but what about the history museum next to the post office? i would think that would be older then the school. and my house is older then the school (most of it anyway)