December 14 2016

Hello! It's been a while and there is a lot of catching up to do :)

Thursday, December 8

We put up the christmas tree. It was my first time assembling a fake one, and having matching ornaments. We always get a real tree at home and have an unusually high amount of Fairy ornaments (My sister and I went through a REALLY long and intense fairy phase).

I tried my first Panettone. It's the typical Italian Christmas dessert and it seems that every other add on Tv is for panettone. 

Ana from Brazil arrived for a one month exchange. She is living downstairs with my cousin Anna. The names can get confusing! 

To celebrate Ana's first day in Ragusa a few of Ana's friends came over for pizza.

Our dessert Pizza!

Friday, December 9

During the week I have three classes with 5F and have been getting along really well with the girls.

After school I took Ana down to Ragusa Ibla for some gelato.

The view never gets old. 

Even though she had just had gelato, Ana also had to try a cannoli. 

After a great afternoon I got on a plane and headed to MILAN!!!!!!! My oldest host brother, Luca, had just bought a new apartment in the city so we headed out to go see it.


Saturday, December 10

Day 1 in Milan!

One of the things I have been missing is berries. They are really hard to find in Ragusa. So I was really excited when Luca offered me a few blueberries!

Milan Duomo.

Arc de Triomphe

We did a little street shopping.

Some really amazing pasta with yellow, plums, tomatoes, bacon and cheese.

We ended the night with sushi. Davide had also come to visit! (Bruno, the middle brother came the next day, but I forgot to get more group photos).

Sunday, December 11

I was able to meet a few of the Italian Rotary students who were on exchange in the Minnesota/Wisconsin district last year. We had spent time together during all the orientation. 

Once again I am waiting for someone to send me the group photo, this one was taken after I had to leave. 

Sadly I was only able to spend about two hours with the rotary exchange students. I met up with the whole family for lunch. Sadly I forgot to take photos.

This was an amazing street performer, who preformed free style rap. I was so amazed at how quickly his mind could come up with rhymes.

 

Monday, December 12

My favorite part of my trip was meeting up with Francesco! He was an exchange student in my school last year. We were part of the same group of friends and spent a lot of time together. It was nice to spend time with someone I've know longer than three months. I still remember him teaching me how to count to ten in Italian by holding up different playing cards, and now we spent the whole day talking in Italian.

Walking in the city.

We went to visit Lake Como.

Even though it was foggy and we couldn't see too much, it was still beautiful.

Getting Pizza.

Looking at the different christmas stalls.

We got a ton of black licorice! It's one of my favorite candies and not very easy to find in Ragusa.

Saying goodbye. It was a great day!

Tuesday, December 13

Giovanella and I got up early to get on the plane home. It was a slow restful day after the excitement of Milan. I met to do my blog, but for some reason the photos didn't want to upload. 

Wednesday, December 14

Today I was back in school, I'm gone so often that no one is surprised anymore with my constant disappearances.  

I thought the light on the way to school today was particularly pretty.

I was back in 5F, and while we were waiting for the art teacher to come, they put on some music and started dancing. The two girls in the photo, Ottavia and Sofia, invited me to go to their dance class tomorrow!

And that's everything! Hopefully now I can get back on track with my smaller blogs every few days.