Teenagers with Bullhorns: the next Les Miserables

Ciao ragazzi!

So it's been five days and I left you all on a cliff hanger with the manifestation and all that jazz. Sorry. I started writing an entry the day after but then my computer got weird and restarted and I lost all my progress. This is what's up yo.

So on October 11th, my school took part in a manifestation. It started at 8:30 when I met up with friends and we started walking in a gigantic parade-style march. On the steps of a university, we stopped to take out our banners and disperse them within our group, and make sure we had everyone caught up. Then, we started the actual "march".

Catania has a public garden/park called Villa Bellini, and we marched through a lot of that to get to our destination, where the other schools were. During our walk through Villa Bellini, I actually witnessed a car clip the back of a motorcycle and the two riding it go flying, but they were both okay and pedestrians helped them. My friends were more worried about me it seemed, because I kinda freaked out. I'm not good with that stuff. Thank you, Damiano! (;

My sister had told me prior that there would be a good 3 or 4 thousand people there, and I didn't believe it until we met up with other schools. For about a half hour, we stood in a shoulder-to-shoulder sweat fiesta until we started the full-out march that would take place the rest of the day. The march was led by a flatbed truck with a few speakers that were pumping music out of them (ironically, Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2)

Chants included but were not limited to:

BOGGIO LERA SEMPRE PRESENTE (Boggio Lera, my school, always here)

HEY, TU, ALLA FINESTRA, SCENDI TU E MANIFESTA (hey, you, in the window, come down and protest!)

It was five days ago, I forget them, okay? But we had bullhorns and stuff.

The rest of the walk lasted for about 3 hours, and it was very stop-and-go. Plus it was hot, everyone smelled...southern European, and I didn't have water. By the end I was just drenched and thirsty. It didn't take any of the fun out of it, however. The highlight of my day was making eye contact with one of my sisters friends who I knew but he doesn't speak English while doing a chant. The look on his face was "HOLY CRAP SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN LOOK AT OUR LITTLE AMERICAN ALL GROWN UP AND AWESOME LIKE US".

I love my friends.

Bringing me to today.

Today, I gave a powerpoint presentation on "American Life" and it was super fun just going on about my life, and into detail about normal things to me that were completely foreign to them. At one point, I got a little emotional and I told my class how much I'm grateful to have them here and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. Words can't express how much I love my life right now.

Yet again, I love my friends.

I love my life.

I love everything.

Ugh it's gross I know I need to stop this.

Ciao ragazzi, ci vendiamo!