The last week end of February I had to take this important Italian test called the CILS. It is a test that measures your level in Italian. You start off at A0, then go to A1, A2, B1, B2, and lastly C. It is used for everyone who is studying Italian in Italy and Europe. I started off knowing no Italian so I as put in the A0 class. We took the A1 test and I'm happy to report that my whole class passed. We are now the A1 level. The test consists of listening, grammar/reading, writing and speaking parts. It takes a long time and the speaking part was done in groups of two where they ask you questions and you respond. The test was a little awkward and took several hours to get through. We all have to take the test again at the end of April before we leave. Hopefully, I keep testing into the next level.
On Saturday, our whole school went to Uffizi in Florence. My art history class had oral presentations, in Italian of course, on different works of medieval and renaissance art. Unfortunately, or not, my work of art was in a closed off room so I had to give my presentation on Monday. The museum itself is huge and like a maze with room after room of beautiful, old, and famous works of art by famous artists. It was a little overwhelming being in the presence of such history. The museum is amazing and worth seeing if you ever go to Florence.
After we finished with our presentations, we had time to continue exploring the museum or go and explore Florence. I like art, but I can only stare at it for so long before getting a headache so I went with a group of friends and went to go have lunch. After that we walked along the famous river that runs through the city, crossed the famous bridge, and then went to this great gelato place. On our walk back to the museum we met a guy that told us about a spot where you can climb up a hill and you can see a panorama of the whole city. We didn't have a lot of time, but we were able to make it up the hill after many stairs and it was so worth it! I couldn't tell you how we got there, but it was beautiful spot and worth the climb. After that, we had to hurry back to meet up with our group to head home.
On Sunday, the school took us to a nearby city where they had a carnival festival. It wasn't exactly what you would think of a carnival celebration like what you see in Venice because that is a very particular celebration. Not all cities have carnival celebrations, but the ones that do, go all out. In this particular city, there were huge floats with huge moving floats. They were actually pretty scary for little kids, but I guess this is normal. Also, so much confetti. Like kids are constantly throwing it everywhere and if you get in the way of the cross fire, you get covered in paper pieces. It didn't help either that Chris, one of the SIS leaders kept dumping it on our heads. I literally had so much paper in my hair when I got home. It took me like a half hour to get all the paper pieces out of my hair. Fun fact: Confetti is called coriandoli. If you ask for confetti in Italy, they are going to give you candied almonds.
That's all for now. Don't forget to ask if you have any questions and see my pictures below!
-Cori
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