And it's officially over, my days as a Rotary Exchange student have come to an end. I arrived on the 11th to our home and native land completely exhausted but happy to see everyone again. The night before was in Rome spending it with friends who I've acquired throughout the year. It actually turned from a night outing to a morning outing as well and I got to see my first and only sunrise over the city of Rome!

The flight was nice and… Read More...

Right now I´m sitting in my friends house in Germany and its becoming the last few weeks of my exchange. During the past few weeks I´ve been travelling around a bit to try and see as many places and people as I can before I leave. I´ve had the chance to see Barcelona Spain, and a bit of Belgium as well as Sardenia and a few days also in Rome. In Barcelona it was a… Read More...

One of the most mixed up months ever, full of new sights sounds and surprises. After my trip to Spain, I arrived in time to celebrate Passover with my host family. I can't say I would win the best participant award for sure, considering that the evening was conducted in Hebrew.. but I did try my best and really enjoyed the holiday the same. We had two dinners with homemade foods each representing an important… Read More...

Summer's here! At least it feels like it. I officially got my first sunburn the first week of April!

The month started out with a class trip to Spain for five days. The trip was to the southern part called Andalusia, and we visited cities called Malaga, Siviglia, Cordova and Granada. I really enjoyed this trip because I learned a ton of new things! The cities we visited had all been lived in by the arabs after… Read More...

The month is almost over and it just began! This month was one that went by easier than a few others. It was really nice in the beginning because we were able to organize with some other exchange students from the north to come to Rome for a few days to visit. Like this we toured around together and the all of the exchange students from Rome got to test our knowledge of the city… Read More...

As I said before I used to live in the center of Rome at Piazza Del Popolo, it went well. Life in the center was really fun! I lived exactly at the end of the best shopping street in Rome, coincidently right when the after Christmas sales just started happening. In the center I walked around everyday probably on average for three hours a day and it was just beginning to become nice and warm… Read More...

I just realized now how fast time went by this month! It feels like Christmas was yesterday! I've done a lot since my last blog.

A few days after Christmas me and my host family and Anna went to Napoli for the day together. It was about four hours by train. In Napoli there were more palm trees than Rome and it had a bit more of a tropical feeling. It looked alot like typical Italian… Read More...

I changed houses last week and now I live at my friends house from school with her mother and their dog Jack. I switched on Tuesday night and didn't even get a chance to settle in until Friday! Every night last week there was either a Christmas Party or a birthday party of one of our friends to attend. On Tuesday after school their was a social lunch for anyone… Read More...

These past weeks have been very busy!

Our trip to Bologna in the beginning of December was one of the most fun weekends of my exchange. Anna and I went to visit our other exchange friends and go see a Kings Of Leon Concert. We also met up with two other exchange students who live in the north of Italy. One from Louisiana and one from British Columbia. We all went to the concert together and… Read More...

These past few weeks have been pretty busy and exciting! There's been a reform constantly going on against the government to protest against the new law being passed to take away more funds from the schools here. This means that there's been countless manifestazioni's as well as occupations as well as autogestioni. As I said last time my school was doing an autogestioni week which was really fun! I learned alot… Read More...

These past few weeks I have learned a ton bout the current situation with the government in italy as well as how the youth today are responding to it. Each day I always feel like i've progressed more than the last and I'm learning so much! This week at school is called autogestazioni. This means that the students together organize themselves for the week full of courses and lessons different from… Read More...

So.. As I've mentioned before, the government system in Italy is not the best. In recent years the government has cut the funding to public schools in all of Italy and the students and teachers didn't take it so lightly. Almost every single Friday of the month there's something called a Manifestazioni. This is basically a huge protest of students that gather together to protest against the government. I experienced… Read More...

I just arrived home yesterday after our weekend trip to the fashion capital of the world. We went to Milano for the weekend to stay with one of Renatos' cousins who is actually married to a Canadian from Toronto. Me and the family took the train there for three hours and arrived in the city, which was much colder than Roma. We were greeted at the train station by Renato's cousin… Read More...

I find it very weird that it doesn't feel like I'm across an entire ocean. I'm so happy that there is a thing called the Internet. I've been talking to my family and friends almost everyday on Skype or through an internet free calling service. I don't feel very disconnected which is strange I think. There was about two weeks in the beginning month when I felt frustrated and missing… Read More...

Okay I know I said I'd write "as soon as I return" so I apologize for the delay. I feel like the time change I'm experiencing is making minutes go by faster than seconds too! Time is flying!

We returned from Sardinia on Monday evening after a four hour ferry ride. I really didn't know weather I should feel guilty for not wanting to come back to Rome so soon because I think many people have… Read More...

This week I went to every day of school from eight in the morning until twelve. The first week we ended early but starting next week we'll go from eight until two. I still don't understand much of what goes on in class but sometimes I read my little book entitled Italian For Travellers. It teaches me the most common verbs and how to perfect my grammar. I've noticed that… Read More...

This past week was the last week of summer holidays for Italy.

Although school started a whole week later than the Canadian school I attend, the summer still felt so incredibly short!

The weather is still very nice in Roma. It's been around 25-26 degrees each day and very very sunny. And I mean extremely sunny. Considering that it's been so nice out, we try to take advantage of that fact before it starts to get… Read More...

Last week me and my host sister Amanda left to go to Paris the same day as her sister Ariela was leaving on her exchange to Canada. The night before she had a going away party and I got to practise my skills (or lack there of) with all of her friends. Lots of them asked me to do their english homework for them, we made a deal that if they… Read More...

I thought I'd be okay with my 30 something pound carry on.... but it turns out I wasn't. This nice man at the boarding gate said that it was to big and that they would check it and send it straight to Roma. Except … Read More...

This week came with many surprises! Some big, and some small. .. but mostly big.

The first piece of news came in the form of an e-mail from my host mom saying that my host sister was going to Paris to visit her relatives. Since my host mom… Read More...

In exactly 10 days from now, I imagine I'll be crying.

Most likely for one of two reasons; either because I'll be moving away from my family to a country where I know no one and nothing, or, because I had to leave half of my stuff behind due to the fact that it weighs over the 50 pound maximum weight! Who knew I had so much stuff!

I've been trying to pack up my room for… Read More...