Settling In

Off to school riding my bike with Caterina

After making it through the first week, I’m starting to settle into a routine with school, family, and soccer.  Here’s my typical day:

7:00   Wake up, eat breakfast, try to get my brain moving.  It’s hard for me to understand English first thing in the morning, let alone Italian.  This is the one time my mom will use English to make sure I understand anything important for the day.

7:30 Ride my bike to school with Caterina. Caterina goes to a different school, but we bike together to the main piazza and I meet up with my cousins Anna and Cristina. From there we join the masses of bikes to the school.  Of the 1,500 people who attend my high school, at least 1/3 of them bike to school. And if you add that to all of the other students biking to their respective schools, you’ve got a bit of a biking adventure.

 Carpi

8:00-1:00 School.  I have 5 classes a day (except for Saturday where I only have 4)  that range from Physics to French to Psychology. I am able to understand the teacher in some of the classes such as History and Math where the concepts and vocabulary are easier for me, but it is nearly impossible for me to keep up in other classes such as Art History, Law, and Philosophy because I don’t know the vocabulary or concepts in English, let alone Italian! It is interesting to see how English is taught in Italy; they teach British English and it is extremely formal. Also, it is interesting to see how difficult French pronunciation is for Italian speakers (much easier for English speakers).

1:30 Eat lunch, usually at home, with Caterina, Simo, and Luigi, or Uncle Milo. Lunch usually consists of a pasta dish and some cheese and fruit.

2:30-5:00  Soccer training.  I’m still trialing with different clubs. My trial with Carpi FC went really well these past two weeks (they kept inviting me back), but I just found out they can't roster me which was a bit disappointing.  

Dinner out with my brother Simone and sister Caterina

5:30- 11:00 I usually spend this time doing homework, eating dinner (usually around 8:00) and hanging out with my family.   We typically play Wii, watch soccer, or even watch a movie together.

That's it for now.  Ciao, Ethan

Carpi FC night game!

Swimming with Simone and Caterina after school

First Week in Carpi

Making pancakes for my family

I have been in Carpi a total of 7 days now. I’m still in the stage where everything is new and exciting.  Over the weekend, I settled in with my family, I toured the city of Carpi, ate gelato in the piazza, watched the Carpi FC game from my balcony, and met my host cousins Anna (15) and Cristina (17).  I love my family – they are very kind, funny, and supportive!   They even ate the pancakes I made them on Sunday morning!  Together we’ve done many things including going to their club to play soccer, watching Italian Reality TV, and trying out Dance Revolution on their Wii.

Tuesday  I started school….and it was quite different. I am attending the public high school in downtown Carpi which is a short bike ride from my apartment.  All of my classes are in Italian, except for English and French, and classes meet 8am-1pm, 6 days a week.  First of all, the school is quite large with over 1500 students. I’m on the humanities track (there are several tracks: math/science, linguistics, and humanities,). It’s very different from American public schools; you stay with the same group of people for all of the classes, and all of the classes are in the same room (the teachers change classes). My class is comprised of 25 girls and 5 boys including me, and they were all very welcoming.  Oddly enough, I have found myself looking forward to Math class because I can actually understand what is happening!

This week, I also had trials with Carpi FC. As I expected, this is an entirely different level and intensity of soccer. Carpi’s U17’s were just promoted to the top youth league in Italy this year. On Sunday, they played Juventus (they lost 3-0). Players at my age are considered ‘professional’ and very few, if any, are from Carpi (they are from all different parts of Italy). I did my trial with another boy who is from the Napoli area. The first two days, an assistant coach led us through different types of juggling, passing and turning drills to judge our technical skill, separate from the actual team training.   On Thursday and today, I was invited to join their 11 v 11 scrimmage and played center back. It was a great experience and I guess I played well enough that they invited me back next week.

This weekend I am planning on going to the Sassuolo game versus Inter Milan, about 45 minutes from Carpi. I have season tickets along with my host dad and brother for all the Sassuolo home games (Sassuolo was recently promoted to Serie A)! It has been a great first week in Italy, and I look forward to more fun!

Ciao

Benvenuto Ethan!

We just had our first 'Facetime' with Ethan this morning from his new home in Carpi!  He arrived safe and sound at the Bologna airport earlier this morning and was greeted by his new family and a very cool poster that Simone and Caterina made for him.  Ethan was sporting a new Juventus jersey from his family, and they were watching the Carpi game from their balcony.  As Ethan said, "the game is MUCH closer to their home than it appears in pictures".  Based on all the cheering and singing we could hear, it sounded like they were actually at the game.



A huge thank you to the Zanti family for hosting Ethan this year!

Packing

Packing for 9 months in preparation for a trip to one of the most fashion-conscious countries in the world.... Not easy. And after a few days of sorting through new and old clothing, we finally thought that we had everything figured out, only to find that my bag was nearly 20 pounds overweight. Looks like we'll be shipping the winter clothing.