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 by being their tour guides. We went to the Vatican Museum which was the first time for me, and we saw the Sistine Chapel. The art in the chapel is absolutely mindblowing. I really can appreciate art now that I have a better understanding of the history behind it. Another neat thing we did was we went to a museum of a house from imperial Rome (which is actually 8 meters under Modern Rome) There was glass on top and we could see under the glass to the different rooms of the house while the lights above highlighted certain areas and the audio tour told us about the history of it.. in Italian); I can't believe how interesting history is to me know compared to when I first came. It's a whole different learning now.

I spent/spend alot of time studying the history of Europe now to have a better understanding of it. My Italian friends spend two to five hours a day studying for school so I thought I'd try and blend in a bit more with the culture and study too. I actually had the chance to present Italian culture to another Canadian when my friend was in Rome in March! We had the chance to visit some of the monuments and also round two of the vatican museum. Unfortunately it rained almost the whole week so we didn't see everything we wanted to but we were lucky enough to have one day of sunshine when we took a sporadic trip to Florence. We just by chance were at the train station and found some 17 euro tickets to Florence (6:30AM though) so we did what teenagers do, and bought them without thinking. Which actually.. very, very surprisingly worked out pretty well. When we first arrived with our backpacks we were a little confused.. just walked around in circles for a few minutes, bumped into each other, looked side to side and tried to think smart. We took a left turn, then a right turn and used this technique until it brought us to a city map. Which was helpful. We managed to see alot of things like the marlet places, churches, piazza di pitti, The gardens of Michelangelo and the most important one was the Duomo. When we turned the corner and saw it, we literally stood with our mouths open ice cream dripping on our shoes for minutes starring at it. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. It's HUGE, and colourful like a candy cane with red, green and white marble. That day we learned alot about the Renaissance Period and how a major city for the period was Florence. We visited Michelangelos' "David" even though it wasn't the real one it was still impressive. The day in Florence was finished with a warm Tuscan meal of Lasagna, and a giant meatball-type thing, kind of meatloaf like.

I tried to show my friend all of the aspects of Italian culture; meaning art, history, architecture, language, day life, night life, school life and food. In order to show nightlife I decided to take her to see Italians in their natural nightlife habitat at the disco. I warned her before we went, but she got to see for herself how sometimes Italians can be.. not so shy. I don't think she'll miss their constant wandering eye syndrome when she's home for sure!

As for Rotary we'll be going to the meeting on Thursday night and I'm looking to see if there's any action for the Japan Earthquake. If not us exchange students want to ask to do a fundraiser with the club to help for it.

I'm trying hard with the language and study the grammar everyday to remember it. I can understand everything but it's just harder to speak it because all of the grammar gets mixed up in my head. But the exchange is definitely alot more enjoyable now that I can communicate with people!