Crotone and Casarossa

Siracusa! I have been here for 5 full days and am on my 6th. Good to finally meet all two members of my host family, who are absolutely fantastic, and see where I will be living for a year. I also started school just a few days ago, but this will not be the topic of this post. I will wait until I get more settled in and have a better grasp of what school is like. In this post I am going to talk about my last week on my school trip. 

We were in the city of Crotone. The resort that we were staying at was Casarossa. There were only a handful of other guests besides my class. I think that the resort season is over here. I think this not only because there wasn't an abundance of guests, but also because it was beginning to feel colder. More like fall.

A typical day in the resort went as follows. Wake up at eight and eat breakfast. Then until lunch learn various skits/dances. The reason for learning these was that at the end of the week my classmates and I were going to put on a show for the few other guests and the employees of the resort. After lunch and a short siesta (nap), we did more preparing for the show. Then dinner and an hour long classroom like session. During which my classmates learned what it takes to run a resort like Casarossa. This was my first taste of wat school was going to be like. Sitting quietly out of the way trying to fill the time with interesting thoughts, and trying not to look overly bored. Luckily it was only an hour. This daily routine went on for the next few days, with a few minor variances in each day.

One variance that I would like to talk about is following dinner one evening me and Sebino watched a football (soccer) match. It was between Chelsea and Juventus. Juventus is Sebino's favorite team, and for those of you who don't know Italians and soccer, they don't take it very lightly.  An example of this was as the teams were walking out onto the field I made a joke that I was going to be supporting Chelsea. Sebino looked at me, and even though I was smiling and laughing, he just shook his head, looked disappointed and let his gaze return to the game. It ended in a 2-2 draw. Juventus had come back from being 2 goals down, scoring their second in the 80th minute. (out of 90) Making the game very exciting. Sebino didn't seem too disappointed in his team afterward, which was a bit surprising. 

The game occurred two days before the the show. The show was an interesting and new experience for me. It was very different from the show I had preformed in at the previous resort. Although it was smaller scale show I had a much larger role preforming in two dances and two skits. I also had to say one line in Italian. I was most nervous about this. The show went well I only made a few fairly unnoticeable mistakes while dancing, and I think that I pronounced my one line well enough for the audience to grasp the meaning. I enjoyed being a part of the show, but let's just say I don't think that being a performer is my calling. 

The next morning was the seven hour bus ride back the Siracusa. A very picturesque drive at some points I may add. I will post about my experiences here in Siracusa next time. Ciao for now! 

Crotone at night 

Just before the show started 

   

Baia Degli Dei

It's been awhile since you've heard from me. They are keeping me quite busy here at Baia Degli Dei. (The resort I have been at since my arrival) Today was my last day at the resort, and contrary to my earlier belief I will not be going to my host families house just yet. I discovered yesterday morning that me and my classmates would be moving to another town, Crotone, and staying there for a week. Although I am excited to go to Crotone. I was looking forward to finally meeting my host father and moving in.

Now let me get to what I have been doing over the past week and a half. I will opt out of going day by day (like my previous blog), because you would end up reading identical paragraphs for many of the days. I will hit the highlights.

A few days after my first blog I was given the opportunity to preform in one of the shows (Mentioned in the previous blog). I would join most of my classmates in a short dance up on stage. The day of the show we learned the dance and went through it about five times. By the end of the fifth run through I had finally done it correctly. Those of you who know me well will know that I am always nervous whenever in front of a crowd, especially one of about 200. I am also a terrible dancer. This combo would normally leave in an extremely nervous state, but for some reason that evening before the show I wasn't nervous at all. You might even say excited. The performance went well, and I am fairly sure that I went unnoticed in the back.  

The next event worthwhile telling about occurred in the pool. The resort had set up some "olympic events" for guests at the resort to compete in. The only event that I could compete in was the swimming. The swimming contest went as followed. Swim once across the pool. It was large pool so once across was about the equivalent of a 50 m swim. Each contestant would swim one at a time and their times would be recorded. Lowest time wins. Pretty self explanatory.  I showed up late, and this put me swimming in the last position out of about 25. Prior to swimming I thought that I would place near the bottom, because Italians pride themselves on swimming. When my head popped out of the water upon finishing the race I was surprised to find our that I had swam the fastest time. After receiving a round of applause from the people surrounding the pool, and a few "bravos" I walked back to my classmates. The more I thought about my glorious win the less glorious it became. My competitors consisted of about ten people under the age of 14, and 15 overweight, overconfident, middle-aged men.  And if any semi fit 18 didn't win it would have been a surprise. But gold is gold right? 

On the 9th of september our class took a day trip. After about a two hour bus ride we arrived at a mountain village. Apparently well know for its skiing and vast amounts of snow, but unfortunately it is still summer here. Although the air was crisper and I was a bit chilly in shorts and a t-shirt. After about an hour of wondering around the main street, and peaking in stores we left. After lunch at a restaurant about halfway home. At the restaurant we were served bread and meat platters. Which were delicious. After our meal we returned to the resort. It seemed a little ridicules to me to drive two hours to the town and then spend less then two hours at the destination, but we got back in time to catch a quick nap before dinner. 

The next five days went by with nothing extremely interesting happening, but on the 15th we took another day trip. This one was to a different town on the edge of the mountains. We visited an old castle and church. The castle was called Santa Severina and it was beautiful, set atop a foothill. The panoramic view from the top was incredible. (Pictures below) If you want to really see a good view of it though I would google Santa Severina. We were given a guided tour of both, the only fact that I got out of the tour was that the door of the church was over a 1000 years old. This was cool considering is was wooden and seemed to be in rather good shape. The castle was also a burial site for I think Byzantine kings. (Pictured below) Not certain on that though. Next came a meal at a local restaurant. I have never been served so much food in my life. Five different full courses. But more detail about food will come in a later blog.  

That about sums up the last week and a half. I am excited to travel to Crotone. I am more eagerly anticipating getting settled down in Siracusa though, and wearing clean clothes. Thanks for reading, ciao!

The metal ceremony 

The place we ate lunch at after the trip to the ski town 

Panoramic view from Santa Severina

The Byzantine burial site

Church with the thousand year old door 

The first few days.

I'll begin with a little background. I am going to Siracusa, Italy. Siracusa is located on the south eastern coast on Sicily. It is a city of about 130,000 and was once considered the strongest city in the world. That was when it was a part of the Roman Empire making the city extremely old about 2,700 years approximately.

My travels begin by saying goodbye to my family before security and then meeting Andrew Fiegen on the other side. Andrew is the other American exchange student going to Siracusa. Our travel took us through Toronto, Rome, and then Catania. Once in Catania we met up with our respected host families. There to representing my host family was my host mom, Stefania and my host uncle, Marco. They were friendly, although I didn't get to know them that well because as soon as I exited the airport I boarded a bus to take me to a resort is the Calabria region of Italy. Specifically in Capo Rizzuto. As I entered the bus I was greeted by thirteen new smiling faces. Eleven kids from my school aged 16-18, and two teachers. I was immediately peppered by questions. All of which were in Italian. I understood nothing. The students called back the english teacher (the only one on the trip with substantial knowledge in English and Italian). She translated questions for the students, and then translated the answer back for them. This went on until they seemed to run out of questions. Next came the basically incoherent conversation that arose with the mixture of bad english and even worse Italian. We didn't gain much information from the conversation, but what I gained was a friend. One of the boys, Sebino, took a liking to me, and took me under his wing so to speak. Once we got off of the fairy, necessary to bring us from Sicily to the mainland, exhaustion got the better of me and I slept the rest of the way. At the resort we moved into our temporary homes for the next two weeks. The rest of the day consisted of me following around Sebino, and him telling me Italian vocabulary almost all of which I forgot immediately. That night after we ate dinner we watched a musical version of Alice in Wonderland. All of which was in Italian, but I know the story so it was still slightly interesting. After the play I went to bed at the early Italian hour of midnight. For those of you who don't know Italian culture they stay up notoriously late. Due to a rest period of laying around and talking that occurs in the middle of the day.

Day two started at 8 in the morning and was packed full of activities, including my first swim in the Mediterranean sea. This was a delightful experience between my and Sebino, one that I will remember for a long time. Other activities were swimming in the pool, going on a mountain bike ride, playing a pickup game of soccer and another show. The swimming in the pool was interesting in a different way from swimming in the Mediterranean. It was one of my first examples of a cultural difference. When swimming in the pool you are required to wear a swim cap. Not bringing one with me, forced me and Sebino to track down the english speaking teacher and ask where we can get one. I ended up buying one from the gift shop and paying three euros for it. The soccer however was slightly a shocker. Being a pickup game, and that I had played many year of it I thought I was going to be proficient maybe even one of the better players. WRONG! I felt completely out skilled on the pitch. The time that the players had spent with a ball at their feet was evident. I looked like a fool many times, but still enjoyed playing. Then came the show, this time it was a game show they held between different guests at the resort. The only thing that I could tell you about the show was that it involved couples and one of them won. The rest went right over my head. After the show I sat outside with Sebino and three other girls on the trip form my class. They talked for awhile and periodically asked my questions that took a great deal of work to understand and answer. I again called it an early night at 12:30.

Day three was eerily similar to day two with the only major differences being that I played beach volleyball, went on a longer mountain bike ride and the show at the end of the night was different. The beach volleyball was quite fun. Me and an assortment of other guests played a small tournament. My team got third out of four teams. A fairly unsuccessful outing if you ask me. The show was an interesting experience again. This time it was another musical. From what I gathered a musical version of the movie Magic Mike. If you're not sure what Magic Mike is I suggest you watch a trailer.

My Italian has been getting quite a bit better, as well as, Sebino's english. Making communicating easier, but still difficult. Tomorrow I have been invited to go wind surfing, which I am very excited about. Below are pictures from the resort and some of the classmates on the trip. Ciao!

Me and Sebino on the bus 

Swim cap only pool

The volleyball court 

The outdoor theatre 

Classmates and teachers after dinner one night