Ragu.

Last night Paola taught me how to make ragu. It's really very simple but oh my goodness does it taste so much better than that store bought 'Ragu' brand ragu. Really. Mom, we are never buying ragu or any other pasta sauce, for that matter, at the store again. Wow. I've become a ragu junkie. I had it for lunch and ate to much and had to go take a nap.

There's a whole lot to talk about other than Ragu so here is a list I made (I actually made it in storia today) of things that are different in Italy.

Boys: Whenever anyone talks about Italian boys they make it sound like all Italian boys have the looks of gods. Not true. There is just about the same ratio of goodlooking boys to strange looking boys. The thing that makes the better looking boys look much better than American boys is that they just dress SO classy. It's nice that they like to be classy.

Juice Boxes: Everyone and I mean EVERYONE drinks from juice boxes. Usually with flavored tea in it. My favourite is peach.

Oral Tests: Once a month in school the teachers give the students oral and written tests. I thought that an oral test was going to be a little question they ask you and if you answer right you get all your points. Wrong. It's a 15 or 20 minute long interrigation peroid. I saw my first one yesterday and I was blown away. It was in Spanish and basically the teacher called 2 people up to the black board and threw continious questions at them for 20 minutes. It was crazy. I'm pretty sure that if a teacher did this to any child at Bear Creek all hell would break loose and also that if any Bear Creek child witnessed this they would shutup about the homework load and be thankful they don't have oral tests. Also I asked my classmates if it was hard and they said it was very easy; philosophy and latin are the hardest oral tests.

Showers: No one in my family takes a shower everyday, except me. They told me I could use the shower as much as I wanted to I don't feel bad about it. But it's not normal for people to take showers once a day.

Alarms In Showers: In every shower I have been in in Italy there has been an alarm in it. You pull the string and the alarm goes off (I haven't done it, thats just what I hear). I asked the boys about it the other day and they said they used it when the needed something in the shower when they were little.

Last Names: Many teachers call there students by there surnames. My math teacher does, but she calls me Isabelle because she doesn't want to pronounce Shively. It's actually pretty funny because barely anyone can pronounce Shively, alot of times they ask me. So all of my classmates and I sit there and are like SHI-V-ELY. But many times I don't even hear my name in roll-call because I don't understand it was my name they called. My friends have taken to answering for me in roll call.

Bikes: Biking isn't really a sport. It's a way to get somewhere. Also the bikes are all very cute with baskets (:

Fashion: Italians are known for being very fashionable people. Again I see the same ratio of fashionable to not fashionable people in Italy. Something i've noticed is that many of the 'fashionable' people ride bikes. Pretty cool. However there is a definite 'cool' style for Italian teenagers. Here is what you need if you want to be a 'cool' girl:

1. a Hard-Rock Cafe shirt or Abercrombie & Fitch shirt
2. a pair of converse tennis shoes (doesn't matter which colour) but white goes with everything
3. a pair of skinny-jeans, preferably with some funky bleaching going on
4. some sort of jumper, Abercrombie & Fitch is perfect
5. atleast one bracelet and if you like, a watch
6. eastpak backpack (any colour)

There you go. You're cool now. It's actually a pretty cute style; it's just not my sort of style. Though I do have an eastpak backpack.

Lunch: Is always pasta. Yum (:

Christ in Schools: Though schools in Italy aren't christian schools. There is a rule that there must be a cross in the room. My classmates get very worked up about it when we talk about it. They think that church and school should be seperate. I think thats fair.

Pizza: Is thin and much more delicious. That's it.

Sparkling Water: Most water is sparkling. The other day we had a pretty heafty run in PE and on the way to the bus stop I decided I would stop at the grocrey store and get a bottle of water. I got it and hopped on the bus and took a giant drink. It was sparkling. My bad. I didn't even think to check to see if the little bottled water was sparkling or not

Cakes: Both of the cakes I have had have had no frosting.

Calculators: No one uses calculators in math. You can they just choose not to. I don't know how they do it.

Bugs: The bugs here are creepy. I had an intense battle with some sort of stinky beatle last night and today I saw what I think was a praying mantis. I got a picture. So i'll upload it later.

Music: 95% of the music I have heard is American. Francesco likes 50 cent.

Mother: The mother is the head of the house, not the father.

Smoking: Everyone here smokes. I just don't think that someone who's wearing braces and is 13 years old should be smoking. But it's their decision.

Done with differnce's. Now here are my cravings:
1. Ixtapa Salsa and chips
2. Target salted pretzel with cheese
3. Chocolate and Oat fiber plus bars
4. Cream Cheese Frosting
Good stuff right?

Something I don't miss: Ice.

Something I miss: My family and Tula.


Ciao (: