I Am An Exchange Student

"I am an Exchange Student. 

How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one? How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one? How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears? How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word? How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world?

How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn't like it? How do you know what's autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself? How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it? How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said "I am so far away"?

How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends? How do you know what is patriotism if you never shouted "I love my country" holding a flag in your hands? How do you know what is true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one? How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one? How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realising how much you have accomplished?

How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast? How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones? How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally? How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours, to see what there was on the other side? How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home?

How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?"

Michael

Semester Final Concert & Goodbye Louisa

 Last Wednesday we had our last concert for this semester at school. First Jazz Band, then Symphonic Band and last Wind Ensemble, which I play in. At the very end we played a Christmas song all together, with marching band too. It was really fun, as always, I had really good time with my friends. Here are some pictures from that amazing night :)

At the same time it was sad because of friend, Louisa, a really good friend. She's an exchange student from Germany and she'll leave on Monday since she did just the first semester. I hope you'll read this.

What I wanna tell you is thank you, you're an amazing friend, I'm so glad I met you and this month with you have been the best ever. You've always been there for me and living and going through the same things as me you've always understood me as nobody else. Thank you, I hope to see you in Europe when I'll be back too. Safe journey, I'll miss you so much ❤︎

Michael

Finals Week - Comparison Between American & Italian Scholastic System

Today I'm gonna talk about these five days of finals exams, with some inconvenient for the snow. First I'm just gonna say how it works here and how it works in my country, some differences I hadn't talked about in the scholastic system post, and then I'll talk about my finals week :)

So in the United States the high school is divided in two semesters, in general August-Decemeber and January- May. Since to graduate you need credits from different classes at the end of the semester you have exams, which consist of 20% of your grade, and if you pass the class you get half-credit. Why can't they just give one credit at the end of the year? I'll just make up an example: let's say that for english you need 4.5 credits, then the last year you take english just for the first semester. In the US to pass a class you have at least to have a D-, which is 59.5%. Also here if you fail a class you just have to take finals for that class the following year, but you don't fail the grade. Once you reach the number of credits you need you just partecipate to the ceremony and do the famous Walk on the stage, which I'm gonna do to!!!  I'm gonna say something about how it works in my country for curiosity :) 

In Italy we pass the class if we have more then 60% in every class and based on our mean we get a certain number of credits (max of 8 in XI-XII grade and 9 in XII grade) for a maximum total of 25, which it's 1/4 of our grade for the graduation exams of the last year. Then we have an oral where we bring all the classes, which is 30 points, then the written tests it 45 points (15 for the Italian one, 15 for the thematic one, based on what kind of high school you are in (Greek or Latin for me since mine is an humanistic HS), and 15 for the 'third test' which can be of different types and it's about 4-5 of your senior year classes). And if that is below 60 you have failed and you have to do the senior year again. We have generally 5 years, the credits start from the third year, we don't have name like freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, we just say I,II,III,IV,V year of high school, I use them sometimes because it's easier when I write in english. If you fail a class you have to take classes in summer and take an exam in September, however, if you fail more than 3 classes, you fail the year and you have to do it again, same thing if fail the September exam. To be admitted to the final you are required to have at least 60% in every class, and not just as mean. That's it, sorry It was long hahaha

When I go back to Italy I'll have to take exams in the classes I don't take here (Greek, Latin, Italian, Philosophy, History of Art) to have a grade for the mean based on which I'll be given credits for my graduation exams. The year abroad, by law, it's recognised in Italy so I can't fail the year as long as I pass here, the exams are just for the credits, I'll talk about it when I go back and my school will tell me more precisely what they want me to do.

Now, let's talk about this finals week. On Monday I had Math and World History, which went both good. On Tuesday, which is today, it snowed so school has been closed, the wind reached 40 mph that created this beautiful thing in the back yard. We have to go on Friday too, we were supposed to finish on Thursday. Wednesday PE and Band (Tomorrow night concert!!!), which are gonna be just normal classes actually hahaha, we'll have finals for PE a week earlier since it's a big class and we needed time. Thursday Spanish and English, both easy probably, and then Friday, the most scary one, AP Biology. I hope it's gonna be easy haha I'll let you guys know, wish me good luck! ;)

Italian Translation

Oggi parlerò di questa settimana di esami di fine semestre, con l'inconveniente neve di oggi. Parlerò semplicemente di come funziona qui in relazione all'Italia e poi dei miei esami. Nel post in inglese ho speso diverse righe spiegando gli esami di stato e particolari del sistema scolastico italiano di cui non parlerò qui assumendo che in quanto italiani li sappiate ;)

Negli Stati Uniti l'anno alle superiore si divide in due semestri, in generale agosto-dicembre e gennaio-maggio. Per diplomarsi servono un tot di crediti da specifiche classi e alla fine di ogni semestre ci sono esami, che consistono nel 20% del tuo voto, se passi il tutto è mezzo credito. Perché non darne solo uno intero a fine anno? Invento, diciamo che per inglese per diplomarti hai bisogno di 4.5 crediti, all'ultimo anno farai inglese solo un semestre. Qui si passa con la D-, cioè dal 59.5%, e se non passi una classe devi solo rifare gli esami finali l'anno seguente, senza essere bocciato. Quando raggiungi il numero richiesto di crediti devi solo partecipare alla cerimonia con la famosa 'camminata' e lancio di cappello, che io farò!!! Nel post in inglese ho poi parlato dell'Italia, di come noi veniamo rimandati a settembre, dei crediti assegnati a fine anno nel triennio e di com'è strutturato l'esame di maturità. Risparmio a voi tutta la spiegazione in quanto non vi serve, e a me risparmio la fatica di tradurre hahah Torniamo ora al post...

Quando tornerò in Italia dovrò fare esami per le materie che non ho avuto qui, come greco, latino, filo, storia dell'arte, italiano, perchè devono avere un voto per ogni materia per assegnarmi i crediti. L'anno all'estero da diversi anni a questa parte è per legge riconosciuto come valido in Italia, quindi se vengo promosso qui sono senza dubbio in quinta quando torno. Parlerò meglio di esami etc quando tornerò e la mia scuola italiana mi dirà di preciso cosa vogliono che faccia.  

Infine, la mia settimana di esami. Ieri ho avuto Matematica e Storia e sono andati entrambi molto bene, sono passato. Oggi avrei dovuto avere educazione fisica e banda, anche se avremmo fatto solo normale lezione, ma è nevicata e la scuola è stata chiusa, c'era un vento a 40 km/h che ha creato questa cosa stupenda nel retro, guardate la fotografia! Rovescio della medaglia dobbiamo andare a scuola venerdì, la scuola doveva finire giovedì. Domani avrò educazione fisica e banda (domani sera concerto!!!). Giovedì spagnolo e inglese e venerdì biologia avanzata, che è il più difficile e si vedrà, speriamo sia una prova facile. Vi farò sapere, auguratemi buona fortuna! ;)

Michael

 

"Shoot All The Bluejays You Want, If You Can Hit 'Em, But Remember It's A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird"

Hey there! Today I wanna talk about the book 'To Kill A Mockingbird' since we read it in my english class this semester and in these days I've been doing a project about it that I'll present next week.

This is an awesome book that you should read if you haven't already. I read in middle school my first time, in tenth grade the second time and this semester the third time, but first in english. In Italian the title is different, and it's Il Buio Oltre La Siepe, which means The Dark Over The Hedge, referring to the Radley's place and the mystery about Arthur. I prefer the original one since it's more related to the main theme and it's definitely a good metaphor for the injustice of the period when this happened because, for those of you that don't know that, this is a true story. What we have to do for the project is to choose a character and think about what shoe he/she likely wore and why, draw in and add some information about him/her like age and family information. It was related to something Atticus said about considering thing from another person's view to understand them and not to judge them.  I think this quote from Atticus, and the book in general, is really amazing and it made me think a lot, so if you have some time, think about it. This experience is helping me a lot become more mature, change my point of view, it's teaching me not to have prejudice, not to make stereotypes, understand why people do what they do. So maybe this book may be a good Christmas Present that I'm sure will be appreciated ;)

"You Never Really Understand A Person Until You Consider Things From His Point Of View"

Italian Translation

Ciao! Oggi parlerò del libro Il buio oltre la siepe visto che l'ho letto nella mia classe di inglese questo semestre e in questi giorni ho fatto un progetto che presenterò settimana prossima. Questo libro è davvero fantastico e dovreste leggerlo se non l'avete già letto. Io l'ho letto alle medie, alle superiori e ora qui in inglese. In inglese il titolo è To Kill A Mockingbird che significa Uccidere Un Usignolo e si riferisce a una frase che Atticus dice, cioè che è peccato uccidere gli usignoli perchè non mangiano le sementi e non fanno niente di male, ed è una metafora per il periodo di discriminazione e ingiustizie contro le persone di colore. Il titolo italiano si riferisce alla casa dei Radley e al mistero riguardo Arthur. Questa è una storia vera in caso non lo sapeste. Il progetto che ho fatto era di scegliere un personaggio e pensare a che scarpe avrebbe indossato, disegnare una scarpa e scrivere alcune informazione sulla persona. Fa riferimento a una frase che Atticus dice riguardo a considerare le cose dal punto di vista del prossimo e non di giudicarlo. 

Penso che questa citazione e il libro in generale siano davvero straordinari e mi fa sempre pensare molto. Questa esperienza mi sta aiutando a maturare, a cambiare il mio punto di vista, mi sta insegnando ad andare oltre pregiudizi e stereotipi e capire perchè le persone fanno quello che fanno. Magari questo libro potrebbe essere un bel regalo di Natale che di sicuro sarà apprezzato ;)

Michael

City Rock - Climbing & Class Ring

Hey guys, I know I've been posting a lot lately haha, I have just a lot to talk about since I haven't written for a while. As I guess you know I am a climber, I love climbing. Since I've been here I've never climbed but I've recently found about a climbing gym close to the church where we go so I went last Tuesday and it was amazing, I actually got really tired since I hadn't climbed forever but it was really good. Hopefully I'll go again sometimes, here are some pictures by the way. The first picture is me on a slack-line, which is an important exercise for climbers to improve the balance. I think it's also a good metaphor for the life tho. In our life we have to find the equilibrium in what we do, we have to do right importance to thing and be able to take appropriate decisions, so choose wisely ;) The other picture is my class ring, the two sides, that arrived yesterday but it was the wrong size so I gave it back to have it fixed, It'll probably arrive before Christmas. It says my name, the italian flag, my graduation year which is 2016 if it works out and then there is the school name and symbol, which is the Scorpion. The letters SC stay for Sand Creek, my school. I think it's cool, I really love it and it's gonna be an awesome memory for this experience. Well I guess that's it, I hope to be able to write soon :)

Ciao ragazzi, so che ho postato diversi post recentemente haha, ho avuto molto da raccontare. Credo sappiate che sono un amante dell'arrampicata e che da quando sono arrivato qui non ho avuto l'occasione di arrampicare. Di recente ho trovato una palestra vicina alla chiesa dove andiamo e quindi lo scorso martedì ci sono andato ed è davvero bello, mi era mancato moltissimo. Mi sono distrutto in pratica non avendo arrampicato per un po ma spero di tornarci presto. La prima fotografia sono io su una slackline, un esercizio molto importante per l'arrampicata in quanto migliora l'equilibrio. Penso che sia anche una bella metafora per la vita. Nella nostra vita dobbiamo trovare il giusto equilibrio in ciò che facciamo, dare la giusta importanza alle cose ed essere in grado di prendere decisioni appropriate, perciò scegliete con saggezza ;)  L'altra foto è il mio anello di classe, i due lati, che è arrivato ieri ma ho dovuto darlo indietro perchè la taglia era sbagliata, spero che sia pronto prima di Natale. Sopra c'è il mio nome, la bandiera italiana, l'anno della mia maturità qui negli Stati Uniti, il nome della scuola e il simbolo, che è lo scorpione. Le lettere SC stanno per Sand Creek che è la mia scuola. Penso che sia davvero bello, mi piace un sacco e sarà un ricordo prezioso di quest'esperienza. é tutto, a presto spero :)

Michael

When You Have The Best Parents Ever ❤︎

Yesterday we were about to eat when somebody ringed the bell. I didn't really think about it, people often come, friends, coworkers or whatever. It was a delivery tho and Katherine, my host sister, came inside with a box in her hands, it was from Italy! My parents sent me some stuff for Christmas, a little tree, a calendar, some Juventus gear and food :) Just wanna say thank you again, you're the best!

Michael

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving!!! Of course this is what I'm gonna talk about in this post, then I'll tell something real quick about the preparation for Christmas, which is gonna be in 21 days!!!

First of all for whoever didn't know it, Thanksgiving is a festivity celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November originally to give thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Today represent a day to be thankful for what we have, and most important is 'A day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens' (Abraham Lincoln), meaning be thankful to God. It was a really amazing day when I really felt part of this culture, this world, this reality. Since my host family is hispanic and catholic I think it's also been more important since more related to religion. The food was awesome, I gained more weight than I had already. We had a party here in our house with friends and family, we prepared all the food and decorations and for dinner we celebrated it. As tradition on Thanksgiving day people eat a turkey, which was delicious! Thanksgiving is also the day that starts the holiday season which leads to Christmas, which is in 21 days!!! Here are also some pictures about the Christmas decorations.

I'll take the occasion of Thanksgiving to say thank you, in the first place to my parents who did so much for me, who are the best parents ever and I'm really proud of them, and I hope they'll be of me too one day, and thanks again for this wonderful experience. I want to thank also my host family, such nice people who welcomed me in their house, treated me like a son and be really good and open with me, thank you for all this! :) 

Italian Translation
Ringraziamento! Questo è ovviamente ciò di cui vi parlerò e poi dirò qualcosa di veloce sulle decorazioni di Natale che è fra 21 giorni!!! Prima di tutto per chi non lo sapesse il Ringraziamento è una festività americana che si celebra il quarto giovedì di novembre per ringraziare in origine il raccolto e l'anno passato. Oggi rappresenta più un giorno per ringraziare quello che abbiamo e soprattuto 'Un giorno di ringraziamento e preghiera al nostro padre onnipotente che abita nei cieli' (Abraham Lincoln), cioè Dio. é stato davvero bello festeggiare questo giorno, sentirsi parte di questa cultura, questo mondo, questa realtà. Visto che la mia famiglia ospitante è ispanica e cattolica penso che sia stato anche più intenso in quanto maggiormente legato alla religione. Il cibo era fantastico, sono ingrassato parecchio hahaha. Per tradizione si mangia il tacchino che era davvero delizioso! ll Ringraziamento da anche inizio al periodo delle festività che porta al Natale, che è fra 21 giorni!!! Ecco alcune foto delle decorazioni.

Prendo l'occasione della festa del Ringraziamento per dire grazie prima di tutto ai miei genitori che hanno fatto così tanto per me, che sono i migliori genitori di sempre e di cui sono veramente fiero, e spero che loro lo saranno di me un giorno, e grazie ancora per questa fantastica esperienza. Voglio anche dire grazie alla mia famiglia ospitante, persone davvero gentili e carine che mi hanno accolto così calorosamente nella loro casa, trattato davvero bene e considerato come un figlio, grazie davvero! :)

Michael

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

Here are some pictures of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert I've been lately, it was amazing! Coming next post about Thanksgiving :)

Michael