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 I was so appreciative of my height at the concert! I had a great view of the band and we were three rows away from them in the standing section.

It was a really good concert with everyone. The next day we went for a tour of Bologna and had a taste of typical bolognese food. We went to a restaurant where the waiter offered to make a special dish of all foods from the area. There was curly pasta, thin pasta, and pasta balls with cheese in them. All homemade pasta. Some with meat sauce and some with other sauces. Lunch was finished off with a round of Tiramisu, which means 'lift me up' in Italian. After the meal we hiked a giant hill leading up to the most famous church in Bologna called San Luca. We hiked so high that we were in a cloud. Which is where I found snow for the first time! In Bologna it was a lot colder than Rome and there was Christmas lights in every street. People were selling roasted chestnuts in the street corners and the city itself was pretty.

Back in Rome there's now a giant Christmas tree in the central plaza with lights and ornaments. In the streets there's Christmas lights hung above them and many buildings are all decked out. I even went outdoor skating one day with Anna. We rented giant bright plastic orange hockey skates and went on the rink. There's a christmas market set up by the rink and there's christmas music playing on the speakers. School doesn't end until the 23rd. There's been alot of protests going on downtown and so the city is in confusion alot of the time.

Christmas in Italy isn't as big of an event as it is in Canada, but the streets are still filled with shoppers and many christmas markets to visit. I'll be at the house of my friend from school for a few weeks during Christmas. There's a few typical Italian sweets during this time that you can find in everyones house. These are Pandoro cakes, which are similar to sponge cakes with icing sugar on them, as well as Torroncini. This is a sweet made with honey and almonds.

Today IT WAS SNOWING! Everyone goes crazy when it snows in Rome! It's a big event. If it snows on school days they close the schools. My friends asked me if they close the schools in Canada when it snows too. I laughed.