And then there were 62.../Uncle matt you have a lot of time on your hands...

hey everyone! i know bay village power is out, so you might not get this for a bit. but i had a great weekend in piacenza! it was a lot of fun, but more about that later. so on saturday i ended up going to school, i walked in during the middle of math class,becuase i had to go to the police station before school, so i was abit late. the math teacher was surprised that i already knew the quadratic formula, so that was good. then we were supposed to have spanish but the teacher didn't show up, so we just played pictionary and talked because apparently they dont have substitute teachers?? We also planned a class trip to Milano so we can all go shopping around christmas, so i'm excited for that. Then once i got home on saturday we left for piacenza. It took us like an hour and a half to get there, and we got to the house in time to drop off all of our stuff, then we went to the town over from piacenza and went to a medieval festival. The town we were in is like all medieval ruins, so every year they have a huge medieval festival with food and a parade. We went down to the valley of the town and got food, then hiked up the cobblestone streets through the ruins to sit and wait for the parade. Before the parade there were all these 'shows' with people on stilts and whatnot, so that was really cool. Then the parade came at like around 10, and people from all over europe come to this town to be a part of the weekend, how awesome is that? we left after the parade, because it was getting cold. The girls and i didn't end up going to sleep for a while though, becuase we watched 'willy il principe de bel air' aka fresh prince. and even the theme song is in italian, which was so cool. Then we got to see the end of some french film called 'la Boom' or something? but in italian they call it the apple times? it was good, and hopefully we're renting it this week. On sunday artemio came back into italy (from a trip to the states for work) and we all went shopping and out to lunch. i got this awesome pair of boots for the winter, they're like brown and slouchy. Then we went to this nice restaurant for lunch. It was very different, becuase the waiter doesn't give you a menu, she just recited it to us by heart, and there weren't as many choices. But all the food was great, so it didn't really matter. Then we came back to the house and artemio went to Bologna (where he has a flat, becuase he works there and he leaves for Japan on saturday) and i found out that one of our orginial 63 americans has left italy already. She was really nice, but i guess things just didn't work out. So noew we're down to 62. sorry this is messy and not very long, but i have limited time online, because its not working very well. On monday i recieved my first homework assignment!! Its a mini lab report for chemistry, and the lady said i could write it in english, since not all of the science words are easy, and they're not in my dictionary. After she told me that, i was asking a question/ explaining a concept to her, and she was like what did you say? and asked eleonara (who's name i now know how to spell!!!) to translate. so i realized that i can pretty much write whatever i want, because she doesn't speak english. But i already did it, and it is quality work. so thats good. And i found another difference, they don't have lockers, we just carry everything in our backpacks. but since we don't switch classrooms, we really dont need lockers. So today during break some kid randomly walks into our classroom and writes BANG! on the board. i was like ummm okay? and i was going downstairs to buy a water with eleonara and she stopped to talk to this girl. The girl asked what class she was in and eleonara says oh i'm in 3P. and the girl goes, wait you have taht american girl in your class, whats she like, is she nice? and eleonara goes, well this is jessica, you can meet her. so that was a little bizarre. and eleonara commented on the stares today. I'm still not used to being stared at this much, and people whisper in italian when i walk by, but i'm assuming its becuase all the girls and i speak english. but i do stick out a lot with the reddish blonde hair. In gym we played volleyball for a bit, which was fun. and we were in the big gym today. and in that gym up against the wall they have about 10 mats, a set of uneven bars and (!!) a trampoline! i was like PLEASEEE tell me we use those. but apparently we dont very often. or not at all, i got mixed answers, but the girls want to ask the gym teacher if i can teach them some 'cheerleading' during a class. so i might need a tape of the rockettes to show, if anyone is willing to send that to me! And in gym we had bigger changing rooms, which was nice. and one of them had a vault in it, so that was exciting. and i had to pee, so i went into the bathroom only to find these like closed off little rooms (like all the rest of the bathrooms) so i go in one and find this like toliet seat on the ground with water running through it down this hole. so i'm like ummm girls what is this? and they were all laughing at me beucasei had never seen it before. but basically they do that so it doesn't get messy in bathrooms that aren't used a lot i guess? i dont know. i have to take a picture of it, it was very bizarre. i ended up not using it becuase it reminded me of the bidet and it freaked me out, so i was like i'll just go back into the school and use that one. Some of the girls asked me to go out with them this weekend, but we might go to Verona for the weekend, so i'm not sure if i can. but i want to go out with them, so we'll see what happens. and i have more differences. Like almost 95% of the graftti is in english, which i found surprising. Gas isn't self serve; i have seen a bunch of american hotels, like best western and holiday inn; theres a place called lodi out here!; i learned nutella is made by and italian company; the girls in my class thought dribbling was a really weird word. like dribbling a ball; hannah montana in italian is so funny!; I'm addicted to this reality show called veline, its like a dancing show, but really funny, so we watch it at night. youtube it, it might be up there?!?!; i saw a legit mini van and a mercedes yoder loader!; no one uses turning signals or stop signs and the they have toll booths, but there isn't nayone in there to take the toll, and so everyone goes flying through them at like 95mph. So i have a picture of the thing i was talking about, its called a turca. http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.azzurraceramica.it/public/azzurra_av_turca.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.scostumata.splinder.com/tag/paradossi&h=300&w=300&sz=31&hl=it&start=2&usg=__jZUtUWa1_TBlS9wirsDxbdNL56Q=&tbnid=K7MjuJraN4-kXM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dturca%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dit%26sa%3DG kind of long, but its the 3rd picture down. and there are no lines on the highway, so everyone just drives where they feel like it. Thanks for all the comments uncle matt, they're enjoyable. and yes, i do know sarah palin. tina fey does a damn good impression of her, and i enjoy the tina fey version more. you would have quite a ball out here, everyone is for obama. you'd be politically fighting with almost all of italy trying to make them like mccain, but they're hardcore obama. Thanks for the college FB update, i was just about to look and check on my buckeyes. OH! good news! i am not as far from the swiss border than i thought, i guess we're only a half hour out by car. and there is a huge outlet mall in switzerland close to the border, so i think we're going there soon. And switzerland uses the franc, which is equal to the dollar, so i am not losing money like i am when i buy things here. I'm having problems with my bank card, i can't withdrawl money anywhere, so i am slowly running out of euros. So We'll see how that plays out. I got my outlet converter to work, but the bank thing is becoming the next big issue. and i still can't figure out how to get my pictures onto the computer. but check out the turca.. and picture my attmepts to figure it out, which shall be good for a laugh!! I have to get off, but hopefully everyone is doing well, and i will update as soon as i can!! Ciao, Jessica