Italy: The Daily Grind

Hello! It's been a couple weeks since you've heard from me so I thought I would let you know what I have been up too. I am all set up in my new home which is a two story apartment in a small apartment building. The location is nice because it allows me to bike into the downtown area with ease. Siracusa seems fairly compact for a town of about 130,000 people. The city comes to a peninsula the juts out into a bay. The tip of the peninsula is actually an island, but it is only separated by a thin stretch of water. The island is called Ortigia and it is the oldest part of the city. Ortigia is a compact island filled with old churches, barracks, and on the very point a castle. I was lucky enough to get a tour of Ortigia and learn some of the history of the buildings. One place in particular that I liked was the underground tunnel system. The tunnels were originally built for various reasons, aqueducts, cellars, and so on. But In the late 1930s, at the beginning of the second world war, they were transformed into a complete tunnel system. The system once linked every building in Ortigia and had caverns large enough to hide the entire population of Ortigia in case of a bombing. Many of the tunnels have now collapsed or been sealed off, but I got to see a small portion which was under the main square in Ortigia.

I have also settled down into a school routine. After school tomorrow I will have completed three full weeks. Wait but tomorrows Saturday. Yes I have school on Saturdays here. Although, I am not overly fond of this, the school system compensates by ending school each day at 1. Making for a short five hour school day with a break in the middle. I bike to and from school everyday, it's only about a mile from my house which is quite nice. I spend the entire day in a single classroom, and the teachers move from classroom to classroom. I'm in class 5A with the oldest kids in the school. They have been very friendly to me which makes school much more enjoyable. The school is is poor condition, and it reminds me of a prison, with bars over the windows on the lowest two levels. Each classroom is equipped with a blackboard, and that's it. The teachers also don't seem to put in very much effort. An example is when notes are to be taken the teacher calls up a student to write on the board for them while they lounge in their desk. The teachers almost never leave the desk and often read directly out of the textbook. The textbook is normally borrowed from a student. At 11 the whole school gets a short break. In this time some people get food, some coffee, but most procede outside to the parking lot and smoke cigarrettes. After the break we return to class for the last two hours. My description of school makes it seem like it's not the most enjoyable place to be, but it's not all bad. It has been an excellent place to meet people and practice my Italian.

Outside of school I have begun playing for a local handball team. The team seems fairly intense and reminds me a lot of hockey. Because this is a club team though the ages of the players range from 16 to about fifty. Which is a new experience for me. We practice four times a week at a gym that is within biking distance of my house. I am still learning some of the fundamentals of the game, and figuring out the rules. The people on the team are super friendly and always willing to help me improve my skills. I look forward to it everyday I have it.

The past two weekends, or sundays I should say. I have been lucky enough to go the the beach. The first weekend it was just me and my host father Andrea. We spent all day either at the beach or at my host grandparents house that is near the beach. It was a nice relaxing day, and I taught Andrea how to play frisbee. Which he picked up rather quickly. Last weekend I went to the beach with Andrea his nephew, Simone, and Andrew the other American exchange student here. We did a bit of snorkeling here which was fantastic. To bring out many fish Andrea would use a piece of bread. He would crush it underwater and let the pieces form a smal cloud of bread debris. The fish would swarm to get the bread. It made for some pretty goo action. Hopefully I will get to go to the beach again this weekend. It might be my last chance before the weather gets too cold.

Ciao for now!