Ciao,Italia!

I;ve been in Italy for almost a month!
Italia,officially known as the Repubblica Italiana.
Time really flies when you;re having fun.=)

Italy is divided into the northern region and the southern region,plus the islands near the Mediteranean sea.
I am at the northern part of Italy,and in the region of Veneto.
The provinces in the region of Veneto are Belluno,Padua,Rovigo,Treviso,Venice,Verona and Vicenza.

Here in Italy,I;m back to being a high school student again! =)
The school I go to is Liceo Linguistico A.Veronese in Montebelluna.
In Italy schools are divided into many types,they have linguistico schools,(like the one I go to) which focuses on languages and social science,istituto teknik,which they teach you a particular skill,istituto scientifica,which is where they do the 3 sciences,biology,chemistry and physics.

In Italy,school starts from Monday to Saturday,8am to 1pm.
Most Italian students take public transport to school,either trains or buses.
We take the train because it is a lot cheaper than the bus.
The train station is about 1km from the school so it is indeed a sight to behold when school;s over and all the students walk towards the train station.

The subjects I study are science,maths,French,German,history,Latin,Italian,English,physical education,religion and philosophy.
Every week we only have 2 hours of science and 3 hours of maths.
5 hours of French,3 hours of German,4 hours of Italian and 3 hours of English.
Now you can see clearly that our school focuses more on languages.
Which is great,cause I get to learn Italian,and a little bit of French and German.
But they are all very different from each other.
Italian grammar is a lot tougher than english grammar.
And french grammar scares you,seriously.=)

In Italy you don;t wear uniforms to school,you can bring anything you want,and the students here do enjoy a lot more freedom than students in Malaysia.
The things we have in common? We use the blackboard and chalk in school,and we do not have lockers so Italian students all have really heavy school bags.
Oh,and we did something in common in English Literature,they study about Sonnet 18 too!
But they do a lot more,like Macbeth,Hamlet,Romeo and Juliet,Othello....
It;s a lot more interesting.=)

In the christmas holidays we went to Florence and Pisa by caravan.=)
Here in Italy it is quite common for a family to own a caravan.
They use it a lot during summer,to go on exotic travels like my host family who went to Morocco and Turkey by caravan.

Also,in Malaysia we hang up stockings for Father Christmas.
Here in Italy they hang up stockings for La Befana,a witch who comes on the 6th of January,bringing sweets for good children and coal for bad children.
Il sei gennaio e Epifania.
And so the 6th of January means Epiphany.=)

Italy and Malaysia are very different,and I;m having a great time here.=)
Also,it;s winter here,about 5 degrees.
After a month,it might sound weird but I kinda miss wearing only tee shirts and shorts,cause over here everyone wears multiple layers.=)
It gets really cold in the mornings and when I walk from the train station to school while putting my gloved hands into my pockets so they don;t freeze,I think about Malaysia;s weather.But then I can only be in the cold for 3 more weeks so it;s going to be memorable.=)

My best wishes to everyone who started college in Penang,Kl,Australia,UK,all around the world.
And of course,my fond greetings to everyone in Penang.
I;ll post about Italian food in the next post!(just thinking of it gets me excited)
Ciao!