Our presentation was after lunch, so I couldn't focus on other things until lunchtime. I was so nervous!
We did our project on how education can be a potential solution to prejudice against immigrants. My 4-person group taught English at a local Italian high school, and for a month, we had a discussion about immigrants, specifically in Europe and in Italy. We talked about pros and cons of having more immigrants in Italy and in our city Viterbo. We also watched various videos that described lives of average immigrants. We held surveys before and after the month-long project to estimate how much they learned and if they changed their view at all.
All this, we had to present in 15 minutes, without of course boring the audience. L'abbiamo fatta and the audience loved it. The SYA France kids who were there were in fact a bit jealous that we were successful in working with local students. Apparently in Rennes, the French students and teachers were less enthusiastic about working with "American people." I guess this could be one of the perks of attending SYA Italy!! (*cue SYA school rivalry)
After other SYA presentations were done as well, we came back to our hotel and headed out for another city excursion. We saw the famous Golden Lady Statue, next to which there was an inscription in French. Knowing Italian, I attempted to translate bits and pieces and was quite successful (translation confirmed by SYA France students). I love how the Romance languages are so closely related!
For dinner, I ate Tex-Mex (mind you, in Luxembourg) and had so much free time left, so some friends and I ended up walking around the main plaza for 30 minutes (by the end of which we were able to see the entire downtown)! I was quite surprised that virtually all shops were closed by 9 o'clock. I thought that shops close late in cities, don't they?
When we arrived at our hotel, I was so exhausted that I half-ignored other GIN kids that said hi to me. I swear, I'm not a bad person!
