Buon giorno!

Ciao,
I have just finished a long weekend. We had Friday and Saturday off school because it was carnival weekend. On Saturday afternoon at about 3 in most towns there is a parade around the town. Anyone can get dressed up for it and join the parade. Francesca and Marvin got all dressed up crazily and walked with the parade. Everyone throws around confetti and sprays this sticky stringy stuff! Its quite fun to see. The Arsago parade is quite small. The grandma took Stefano and I to Busto to see their parade. It was much bigger and they didn’t just have people walking, there was a horse and cart and then heaps of trailers, with lots of people dressed up. Each trailer had its own theme. On most of the trailers there were huge models of different things. There was a Harry Potter trailer, all the people on that one were dressed as wizards and they had made a model of Harry and the 3 headed dog and then castle walls around the outside of the trailer. There was a Ratatouille (the movie) trailer, with 2 huge models of rats! As you will see in the photos! It was good fun.
Thursday night I went out with 8 girls from my class, which was heaps of fun. We had pizza for dinner, it was very nice just to sit down and have dinner with group of friends. We then went out and had a look around Sesto Calende. Sesto is the town where our school is and where most people live closest too. I had a look at my first bar. They are quite different to Tassies! Well I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been in one, but from what I can see! People from the age of 14-15 can buy alcohol here. The bar I went to was a café where you could then buy alcoholic drinks. Luciana and I shared a “Sex on the Beach” cocktail! It was very nice! Friday there wasn’t anything planned. I went for a shortish bike ride in the morning and got some nice snowy mountain photos. I watched a movie and then got some lovely sunset photos. On Saturday night we had people over for dinner and that was quite boring because there wasn't much of the conversation that I could understand!
On Sunday we went to a lovely little town called Stresa. Stresa is on the edge of Lake Maggiore. It was quite old, we went for walk through one of the little streets and then back along the side of the lake. The street we walked through was very narrow and the buildings were very old. Of this one lane way really, we went up a few other even smaller lanes. There are so many people and so much traffic! Trying to get out of a car parking spot and then keep driving can take quite a while or a bit of road rage! I saw quite a bit of road rage and angry drivers. That’s when I realised it is so much better to travel by bike! I would love to do Italy again with my family on bikes!
I was back at school today, it wasn’t too bad day. I did my first test today, it was on the computers and we had to write out a letter and set it out all correctly. I got 8 for it. They mark up to 10! I was happy! I really don’t know how I am going to get my results. Or they're going to be really bad!
I am going to Florence next Wednesday the 20th and spending the night there with STS with all the exchange students that came here in January. It should be really good. We only have to pay for the train ticket and STS pays for the Hotel and Dinner. I will be getting train to Milan from Gallerate. Gallerate is about 20km from Arsago. From Milan I will get a train to Florence, it’s a 4 hour trip or something. There will be other exchange students so it shouldn’t be too boring! I have a few hours in Florence before I get a train home on the Thursday so hopefully I’ll be able to see a bit of Florence. I am a bit scared getting the train to Milan from Gallarate though! I should be fine. I am learning Italian so fast, I am doing those extra Italian classes. I had one today and the teacher I think was very surprised at how much I have learnt. "Non a Capito" means "I don’t understand!" I am still saying that a fair bit though! Hehe but I am getting there. I have just spent the afternoon with Luciana, it was very nice. I went to her house for a short time and that’s really nice too! I am hopefully going to a dance club this Saturday night. A guy, Sasa, from my class is turning 18 on the 14th so most of the class is going there is celebrate!
Well that is all from me know, hear from me sooner or later! Here are some pictures, enjoy and be jealous!
Ciao! Baci (kiss)