Val-de-ri, Val-di-ra!

I'm introducing a two new features on my blog. One is a summary of the day, for all you people who don't have time to read a novel every night. I'll decide on a catchy name for it eventually. :) Here it is.

Snappy chatty: Today was our first class day--English and Italian. I think both classes will be fun. Later we went for a hike up a big mountain (that's the only kind they have). It was pretty cool, except for when part of our group tried scaling the non-path part and one person slid a ways. He's okay though. Now I'm tired but it was a good day.

Second new feature: a topic about my trip to emphasize. Here it is.

Eating at Riva: The food here is good. I'm very excited because it's very healthy. I eat good veggies and salad every day. Also, the food isn't excessively salty, nor are the desserts excessively sweet. Not only this, but there is always more than enough, provided at regular times, fixed by someone other than me. And I can get juice, coffee, hot chocolate or fruit (including kiwi and pears!) any time I want! Interestingly, my appetite seems to be greater. I think it's partly due to having to walk up hills a lot. The other part may be because I'm eating more and thus have a bigger appetite...guess we'll see over time, since I don't have a scale to judge! ;P

Ciao. This morning was our first day of class. We had both our English classes (which is more like one long class with a 30-minute break in the middle) and Italian. Italian will be not everyday, as we thought, but Monday and Wednesday. We're breaking up into two classes so we get more interaction. I'm glad because I thought we would have it four days a week. Both classes were a lot of fun. I'm excited about them, and I'm excited that I'm excited about them. :) We learned about how to write descriptively today--two main points were, write describing for all five senses (not just visual) and choose one central characteristic of what you're describing and emphasize that. In Italian we reviewed the numbers and learned a little about Italian culture. Our Italian professoressa is very cool.

This afternoon we went on a hike. We walked through town then followed a path up the mountain to a beautiful old church very high up on the mountain. On the way back down, some of our party tried moving about on the extremely steep, gravelly slope below the path. It wasn't a good idea, but everybody's pretty much okay. Then we walked quickly home and all ate a lot at dinner, being very exercised. I think I'll go to bed early tonight. My personal learning for the day was probably learning to respect the people on our trip more. A couple of them showed some neat character today, and I was really impressed and appreciated them a lot for it. I also am trying to figure out the balance between being serious about serious issues and not stressing out so much. Let me know if you have any ideas. :) Bye, E

posted by LizC @ 1/17/2005 02:51:00 PM