Venezia, Alleghe and Firenze

         I've been very lazy the last couple of days, so thats why this post is a little delayed ... but the last couple of weeks were very exciting! Starting up, on Monday (25^th)  I went to Venezia with my school. Around 8 we met up at the station in Conegliano, and less than a hour we were there. Venezia is so beautiful and we were so lucky to go there with such an amazing weather. The first thing we did was walk to the "Ponte del Rio Alto". Then at 12 we had this   –not so fun-  class about the opera we were going to see later on the day, but  the theater where we had the class as so beautiful thought. After we had lunch and  free time. Walking around Venezia is so cool, there is no other place in the world  like that city! We were suppose to meet everyone around 3 to see a opera, but we got a little lost, is kind of confusing walking around those little tiny streets. We fortunately made it to the “Teatro Malibran” in time, there we saw “Elegy for young lovers”. an opera by Hans Werner Henze.  I have to say, operas are not my thing, but  that one was very well put together. Finishing up, we headed back to the station to take the train back home.

         On Sunday (30th) my host mom and sister took me to the mountain in Alleghe. We arrived early in the morning and again, I got lucky, the weather was so great! The day was beautiful and was not cold at all.  A year ago I went snowboarding while I was in America. I did pretty well for a beginner… but I was nervous this time:  1 because is been so long since I’ve snowboarded, 2 I was afraid I was not going to be able to keep up with my host sister... But I think I can say I’ve done a pretty good job. I mean... I still have to learn a lot, but I’m able to control myself while going down and I did not fall that much. Everything went pretty well, besides the fact that I can't ride the "skileaf" for my life (which for my surprise is not that one you go sitting, is the one you take a cable and put between your legs.. sounds awful if  I explain like this, but is pretty much it) I fell like 300 times. After trying all the possible ways, the guy that worked there asked the ski instructor to take me with him. I never felt so embarrassed in my entire life, but  it worked and I finally made it to the top. My host sister could not stop laughing at me after that, it was so embarrassing but it was actually really funny.  By the end of the day I was so tired, but I had so much fun that day!

        On the next day ( Monday, 31^st) me, my host sister  and another girl from the exchange program met up at Conegliano to take are train to Firenze! We arrived there around 12 and met up with all the rest of the exchange students from WEP. From the station we walked to the hotel, which was not bad… Around 2 we left the hotel, got something to eat and went to the Duomo of Firenze. There we say the "Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore". After walking a little bit more we got to see the  "Piazza della Signoria", “Davide" de Michelangelo (the copy), the "Ponte Veccia" and some other really cool stuff. From there we headed up some really long stairs to see an amazing view of Firenze!  Then we walked back to the "Piazza della Signoria" and had some free time. Around seven  we went to a Pizzeria, then back to the hotel.  The next day we got to do a tour inside the  "Palazzio Veccio", which is magnificent, is  truly so beautiful! The rest of the day we had free time and at 4 we went back to the hotel, got are luggage and went to the train station. Are train was at 5 something, and we arrived in Conegliano around 8. Was really cool going to Firenze for those two days, but it was so tiering! 

            I'm halfway thought with my exchange program and I could not be happier here... and sad at the same time, because it went by so fast. My classmates are amazing and my host family is lovely ! Im looking forward to keep exploring Italy for the next two and a half mouths... I hope time slows down a bit ):. I already know I've made the right choice  by coming here. I'm living one of the best mouths of my life! I'm so fortunate to have been given this opportunity, is not even over yet  and I'm already missing it! 

      

Dance Solo!

         Everything still going great; at school, with my family and new friends. Is starting to feel like I have normal routine, which makes me feel at a home. I could not be happier, my host sister is a lot of fun, we have such a great time together!

         Yesterday me and my dance teacher started to work in a solo, and we were able to finish it at the same day, which is good because the performance in next week. I love it, is really beautiful.  I'm completely destroyed, bruises all over! But was defenitly worth it. I'm looking forward to perform it! 

It feels good being here!

              It has been raining for at least a week here, but today it was really sunny and beautiful! I just realized how blessed I'm to have the opportunity to come here. I'm loving every second of it: the people are really welcoming, the city is beautiful, my host family is amazing... I mean, I could not have been luckier! Today I'm just really happy to be here and be doing this.

        I can tell that my italian is getting better everyday, definitely not fluent yet, but surely improving! Today when me and my host sister went to the center to walk around, I bought my first italian book and also a portuguese-italian dictionary. Hopefully it will help me improve and gain a great knowledge of a few different words. 

            

               

New dance school

       At school everything still going great. My classmates are starting to ask me how to say all this thing in Portuguese, it's really funny! I have this amazing sociology class, the teacher is great, It is so really interesting. 

     Two days ago, I went to check out a different dance studio: Dance Out. I talked to the owner and also showed her a video of one of my dances, she love it! She  already told me about this few showcases that the studio will participate, and that she would like to take me to participate. Yesterday I had my first class there, it exceeded my expectations. I'm looking forward to my nexts classes there! 

It's been officially a week!

        It has been only a week since I arrived to my host family's house. It feels like a lot more, just because I feel so comfortable here. I've meet so many new people in this short period of time, and all of them are super open and friendly. This first week could not have been better!(Is just raining too much)
      My older host brother studies in Spain, but this friday he came to back to Italy and I got a chance to meet him. He is super nice and also (of course) speaks spanish, which is good, because sometimes I say  words in portuguese that are the same in spanish, but not in italian and he gets what I'm saying!
      On saturday afternoon I went  to Corneliano with my host sister and some friends of hers; which is a town very close to where I'm living currently. It's very pretty there.
       My host sister had a birthday party to go on saturday night. So I went to  to the "Taverna" with a friends of hers, after she meet us there. But in the meanwhile, I was really scared that it would be hard to talk to everyone; because every time I had my host sister there to help me out.  I shouldn't have been scared in the first place. I had no trouble talking to everyone, it was great, I had a lot of fun! Later on the night my host sister came, we stayed there for a few more hours and then left. The "taverna" is apparently the place that everyone goes, so I got to see pretty much everyone I've meet this week outside and inside school!

Learning how to ride the city bus

            Today at school I got my final schedule, and establish what "liceu" I'm doing : "Liceu di Scienze Umane". The classes are great, I specially love psychology, philosophy and law (who would have thought that they would have  law classes in high school).

          The first two days of school my host mom took me and picked me up. Tomorrow thought I'm riding the city bus to school, so in the afternoon my host sister took me to the bus stop and we did kind of a test. We both rode the bus to my school so she could show me what I'm suppose to do. I think I got it, hopefully I'm not going to end up in Austria.