Week 3

It is hard to remember everything I was able to do previous to the earthquake but I am going to do my best!

On Thursday night Laura and I went to aqua gym together. It is basically aqua aerobics which this girl is no good at. The teacher kept yelling Vi! Vi! Vi! Vi! which means Go! Go! Go! Go! All the ladies in the class took it super seriously but I laughed the entirely time because I was struggling so much and knew how ridiculous I looked. It was a great time though and we had planned to go again the next week. Anytime I ever went to a "club" as they call it (which is essentially a YMCA) I can't say people got fully nude in the locker room. Therefore, I was not really prepared for what was in store for me when I was in there. At first I was a little uncomfortable but then realized I looked really awkward and just went with it. All I'm going to say is I now feel super close to my host mother. That night we went to the little Japanese place across the street from our house to try the food. I wanted to see how different it would be from the American-Japanese version. We ordered vegetable fried rice, Cantonese chicken, chow mein, and a shrimp dish. As we waited for our food we got a delicious appetizer and free vino on tap! The man told Laura in Italian that if I helped him work on his English he would pay me in wine. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to take him up on the offer. The food we had that night was honestly the best Japanese food I've ever had.

On Friday I went to school as usual and that afternoon I went to Gabri's end of the year tennis party where they played different games and gave out awards. He did great in the little tournament they had! On my way to the club I ran into Gina. She runs the Language for Life school in Carpi which teaches English to students. I got to tour her school and meet all of her wonderful interns. Everyone was really nice and I hope next year I can go do an internship with her. That evening Emily got dropped off at club Gardino where we were for Gabri's event. Her and I were going to have a sleep over so we could go to the Sacro Coure school party the next day together. We both got a good laugh out of having Emily's  mother drop her off with my family; we felt like we were 9 years old again. We had asked if we could possibly go meet up and have drinks with some of the interns from Gina's school. Alessandro said no because we were going to a church event to have dinner.

This was definitely one of the most fun and interesting church events I have ever attended. We had a dish which looked and tasted like amazing Hamburger Helper, Gabri ate wurstel (hotdogs) and fries, and there was country line dancing happening. Emily and I thought we were back in the United States. At the event we also drank a lot of Lambrusco and Limoncello. We had a great time bonding as a family and with Emily while Gabri played with all the other little boys. I honestly don't think I have laughed that much in my entire life. At one point I turned around to see a monk taking a shot of limoncello and a priest smoking a cigarette. The priest is from one of the local churches that isn't Laura or Alessandro's but they call him "The Rollex" because he wears a Rollex watch which they find suspicious haha. Laura then told Alessandro to take Gabri home because the girls were all going to go out. We went to a couple local bars and had a great time. The next day we took it easy because we were all pretty tired from the night before.