It's the time I really hope you remembered from the last post...the aftermath blog entry from a long time ago because I was even lazier (or busier I will let you figure that out for yourself) than expected. Get ready and hold on to your pants, because y'all gonna get real confused, real fast.
MONDAY (FUNDAY):
Monday was the day when it all started. From the previous week (to be honest I just typed "settimana" but then had to erase it. freakin' bilingual brain right now) I knew something was to be expected of that day. So, when I got to school I asked basically everyone in my class what was going to happen that day. Most of the people said something called autogestione, basically a day where kids lead group conversations about what is going on in the school system and whatnot. But, that awesome kid Damiano that I have mentioned previously told me something else. That day, we were going to occupy the school during the last hour.
OCCUPY THE SCHOOL WHAT YOU SAY??!!?!1?!
The occupation or "l'occupazione" has been rolling its way through Sicily for about a month now. It's when the students take over the school and we don't have lessons, we don't have teachers, we don't study. Some kids choose to sleep at the school, practically live at the school for the span of the occupation. I couldn't, because they were against both the rules of my parents and AFS. So, that day around 12, we had "assemblea", which is when we all go out into the courtyard and normally the school representatives stand at the top of a ramp with a bullhorn and tell us what is going on. But this time, they went up in the forbidden part of the school; the bloody roof. After 20 minutes of a basic pep talk from the representatives, they finally announced that BOGGIO LERA E' OCCUPATO *insert crowd wail here*. And let the 85th day in
TUESDAY: Il primo giorno dell'occupazione.
Tuesday I woke up really excited because I didn't know what to expect AT ALL from this day of occupation. I skipped my merry way down the 30 minute walk I take every day to school and when I got there I met up with all of my friends across the street from the school. The doors, which are normally open at 8, which I'm always on time for. But since the school was occupied, the kids changed it. The doors were being held shut by to kids, so you couldn't enter. There was a crowd of kids around them, waiting to get in. The only way you could get in, though, was if you had your absence sheet your parents signed to justify your absence, which was proof that you were a student of my school. Me, of course, completely unprepared for everything in life, didn't have my absence sheet. But I did have my wallet, which had my international student ID card, and I'm fairly well known in this school so it was pretty easy for me to say "sono americana' in an overexaggerated accent and easily get in.
When I walked into the school, I had to sign my name and my class (they had to keep track of everyone in the building I guess), and that was why it was taking so long for them to allow people in. Up the stairs (and more stairs) was where everyone was. My school is an ex-monastery, so it has about 5 different wings around one big courtyard. One wing was where the kids who slept at the school slept, I'm guessing, because we weren't allowed into it. Another section we weren't allowed into was the main hall where the headmaster and all the teachers were, which were barricaded by vending machines and desks. I really have to give props to my classmates on this one, it was more organized than regular school.
During this occupation, you could do various things: we had "study groups" which could either be legitimate study groups where you would discuss/do/study school work, or you had the ones that I was a part of that was more of a joke. I joined some of my friends in a "music forum", where they had 3 guitars, a bongo, a keyboard that could make all sorts of awesome noises, and a bullhorn.
Damiano and the Dubstep Keyboard: coming soon to occupied schools near you
The room shown above was actually packed to the brim, and one of the leaders of the occupation got annoyed with us and actually moved us to the gym. So we got even bigger. In the gym, I know we went through a few Green Day songs and Guns n' Roses songs (very, very popular here), and also a Sicilian spoof of "What Makes You Beautiful" called "u paninu co wurstel" (It: "un panino con wurstel" Eng: "a sandwich with hot dog"). My Sicilian is still pretty limited mbare, so I am unable to tell you what they were saying.
And alas, we finished the day watching a movie "The Kids Are All Right" but in Italian, and had a small assemblea. Assembleas this whole week were just organized so the two groups of politics in the school could yell at each other. This assembly was to decide whether we wanted to do something called co-gestione, when we would occupy with the teachers. And that, is the end to day 1 of the occupation.
WEDNESDAY: Il secondo giorno dell'occupazione.
Wednesday when I got into school, I couldn't find any of my friends, except Federica and Damiano. Federica talked me into leading an English study group, and after a long search for chalk, it was a thing. But in this group, only 5 people showed up for the actual English group, so we formed a little circle and for an hour we spoke in English, for an hour and a half we spoke in Italian because my Italian is still pretty terrible and if I speak it for long periods of time I find it gets easier and better. After that, we went back to the main outdoor part and had, yet again, another assemblea. Assembleas that week were every day, getting angrier and angrier. I'm pretty sure that Wednesday was the day when a girl sounded so angry I thought she was going to break her esophagus screaming. Lovely. Wednesday, everyone left even more confused and a little angrier than before. And that, was the end of the second and what would be the last day of l'occupazione.
THURSDAY: co-gestione.
After a long wait and a very long period of arguing, we were finally going to do the co-gestione. Co-gestione is like the occupation but with teachers involved, just leading the study groups. The first day, my friends could not make up their minds of where they wanted to go, so I got slightly annoyed and basically entered the closest room to me, which was about....feminism. I am female but I really do not like the concept of feminism, so I just sat there and kind of zoned for 2 hours. After I escaped to Cristina, Sonia, and Marta in another group that ended up talking about how terrible Facebook is for our generation, which was led by 4 guys and was highly entertaining when they brought in the concept of selfies. At the end of the day was (you guessed it) ASSEMBLEA! This assemblea lasted for 30 minutes past normal school time, and would have been longer if one of the guys didn't try to end it 5 different times. I was completely taken aback by how angry people were getting over something that was so....stupid, I guess for lack of better terms.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: the aftermath.
To put a nice, sweet close to this long blog post, the last two days were just of more co-gestione in study groups with the professors. I was asked to talk about volunteering in Italian in one of them, and how volunteering is in the States (I work voluntarily at a thrift shop thank goodness, I had material to work with there). But at the end of the week, school resumed as normal. And that is the end of the week of l'occupazione.
CATCH UP ON KARA'S LIFE.
Since I'm a lazy and otherwise busy blogger, a lot has gone on again. Like:
- The biggest event being that I got another brother. My second host brother arrived back home from a trimester program in Belgium on the 5th of December. We already get along really well, and I'm so happy to have another exchange student to hang out with, literally every day!
- La Festa della Luce has started, which is a Christmas festival my school has every year. Every class decorates a room for a 4 night event that has no artificial light, only illuminated by candles. I actually get to participate in 2, because the Intercultura chapter of Catania is also doing a room!
- I finished the Italian lessons I had to do for Intercultura.
- We finally put up a Christmas tree!!1!!1!11!
Well, that's all for now. Sorry for the lateness but this took a long time to write. Ci vediamo, ragazzi!
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