Gelato, gelato, gelato!

Retrieving my bike from the school this morning was a success, yay! I walked to school and met Fillippo and Matteo, who were already sawing off the bike chain when I arrived at Galilei. By that point there was a small crowd gathering to see Fillippo fix the American girl's bike. I guess locking bikes to the rack isn't as common of an occurrance as I thought? When he finished everyone started to clap, so I guess they don't get to see someone bring a saw to school too often. Now I am not only 'the American girl,' but also the girl who locked her bike to the rack. I'm not noticeable in Italy at all!

School today was incredibly boring and the hours I spent in 1st grade seemed like days. I was very happy with Angela and Patrizia came to rescue me from Paola. They also gave me my first cup of Italian coffee, which was ridiculously strong. Patrizia warned me that it would probably make my heart beat very fast because I'm not used to coffee in general, especially Italian coffee. She was right; I was jilted on coffee for the next 5 hours.

All of the teachers here are so weirded out by the fact that I don't smoke or drink coffee. They always say, 'Oh Mariel, you are such a pure American girl!' Literally everyone drinks so much coffee and smokes here it's crazy. One teacher told me that everyone in Europe can distinguish the Americans from other tourists because our teeth are so white. Italians generally have really poor dental hygiene, and the cigarettes and coffee stains don't help things. Elizabeth, you would be so grossed out at these teeth. Stay in America.

Natalie and I decided to stay and eat lunch at the school again today. The lunch was delicious, but we realized today that every time we eat at school it costs €5. We thought it was free. It's not bad food, but it's definitely not worth €5.

After lunch Natalie and I rode our bikes to Piazza Grande and walked around for a bit before meeting the group around 3. Once everyone was together we walked to Scuola Superiore Sigonio, which is basically a high school that's specifically for future teachers. It was very neat because we got to talk to several students who currently attend the school and discuss the differences between American high school and Italian high school. Also, the high school was located in a convent that dates back to the 1500s... it was ridiculous! (Just for the record, high school in America is nothing compared to Italy; Italian students study every night from 1 P.M. to 1 A.M. and they take Italian, English, Latin, and French, in addition to core classes. Definitely not Lakeside to say the least.) We also met a girl at the school named Tonia, who moved from a small town in Southern Missouri to Modena to do a semester of high school here. She's been here for four months and she's already fluent in Italian. It was a lot of fun to talk about the differences between America and Italy with her, because there are plenty.

After our meeting at the school, Tonia and some of her friends showed us the way to Slurp, a gelateria that is owned by a girl on our trip's host brother. It was by far the best gelato I've had since I've been in Modena; Tonia said it was the best she's had in Italy. Max (the owner and host brother) gave us all gelato for free and there were about 20 of us in all... it was very nice of him!

Once our ice cream was finished (which didn't take long), Natalie and I walked back to Piazza Grande and rode our bikes back to her host family's house. Earlier in the trip a little girl named Bianca (who is in Natalie's class at Galilei) invited Natalie to have dinner with her and her parents. Natalie accepted the invitation, but her host parents and Roberta were hesitant to let her go to their house alone. Last night Natalie called and invited me to go to dinner with her at Bianca's house, so this evening we headed to their house and had the best meal I've had since I've been in Italy. Another boy from the class, Mamadou, and his parents came as well, so there were eight of us in all. We all ate so much tigello, which is a traditional dish from Modena. Tigello is essentially little round pieces of baked bread that are cut in half and filled with meat and cheese for dinner and nutella for dessert. The family made the tigello at their home, so it was hot and fresh and delicious! They also gave us pieces of parmesano reggiano cheese drenched in 20 year old balsamic vinegar... by far the best thing I've ever had in my life. After dinner came more gelato and then Bianca and Mamadou somehow got us to play tag with them outside for a while-- not a good call after eating so much. We had a great night with lots of good food and conversation (what we could understand anyways) and I'm very glad Natalie invited me to join! It has been yet another long day and we have an equally long day tomorrow so I am heading to bed now. Ciao!!