This week, I am attending a local high school called Liceo Scientifico Ruffizi (Piazza Dante). So for the next five days, the posts will be about my experience!
The first day at the Liceo Scientifico was, at the very least, eventful. To start off, my host mother thought that we were late, so I did not get to eat anything, but we ended up arriving at the school 30 minutes early... *sigh*
Then, we (the SYA students) embraced each other as we dreadfully walked into our own classrooms. It went fine actually. I soon met the Italian teacher and the class president/leader (I'm not sure how to express that in English). Although I understood when the teacher explained in Italian our schedule for the day, the class president/leader translated everything for me, assuming that I did not know any Italian. Don't get me wrong though, I appreciated it!
I really wanted to practice Italian, but either I didn't understand what the students were saying or they didn't understand what I was trying to say. So most of the time, I spoke in "Itanglish," and the group of students talked among themselves, trying to decipher this exotic language.
The pal who sat next to me was hilarious. As soon as he saw me, he introduced me as Luca and told me to take a selfie with him during class. We did. The teacher saw us and sarcastically commented that he was an exemplar of this class, and I think the teacher was right. The kids constantly checked their phones or ate inside the classroom, and the teachers didn't really seem to care.
The most exciting part of the day was "l'interrogatorio." Ms. Tuzi (our SYA Italian teacher) told us about this brutal testing system before Cinque Giorni, so I saw it coming. But just by watching the teacher pick two random students and ask them questions, of which they did not know the answers, I was appalled. I felt bad for them.
The students were overall curious to know more about me, especially about why I chose to leave the States and come to Viterbo. They all said that they would leave Viterbo in a heartbeat, so I told them about the good and the bad of America.
Overall, I think today went much better than I thought it would. The classes ended at 1 PM, so I got a chance to hang out for a bit with the Italians after school. Also, I found out that a lot of them live pretty close to Bagnaia. So who knows? Maybe we will start taking the bus together every day :)