DUE SETTIMANE DI GIOIA - last tears...

My exam was on Friday morning, at 9. I hadn't studied, because I really wanted to see what I had truly learned, and not simply memorized. When I arrived at Edulingua, I met Ana and Anibal, and then I noticed everybody was having the exams in the same classroom - a whole group of level 1 and 3 students from level 3. 

It was a long and tiring exam, but not exactly hard. The listening and vocabulary were the the most difficult parts, grammar was easy, reading a little strange and writing made me cry once more! I had to write about Facebook, and somehow I started writing about the people I'd met during my trip and said Facebook was going to help us keep in touch (but I'm not sure if I still believe this now... anyway, I made few mistakes and got 20/20 in the writing!!! almost unbelievable!)

After I left the exam - exhausted - I met the students during the break and went to class. I got surprised when I saw my teacher looking at my exam, amazed that I hadn't made any mistakes in one of the grammar parts!! At the end, my Brazilian classmate (who was also about to leave) and I recieved our certificates and we all took a picture together.

Many things happened at the same time after that, one of them was Deborah giving me a cute gift:

It took me a while to notice my final grade was 100! Only a few weeks afterwards did I ask my teacher about it, because when the school's coordinator showed me the exam that day, the grade I saw was different, so I was confused... but in the end everything makes sense.

I had lunch with Estefany and the guys (not pizza this time, but a huge calzone!), took a quick walk with her and went back to the hotel, because I really needed to sleep!

In the afternoon we went to the train station because Ana was leaving :( a very sad moment, but also beautiful - so nice the way some people got really close, they looked like a family.

Estefany and I walked for some more time, and we took some pictures in the public garden (fortunately, the weather was great that day!)

I had arranged to have dinner with the Brazilian women I'd worked with for the international dinner, so we could celebrate, and in a way it was also a farewell for 2 of us :( The girls made pasta, it was really nice! Deborah was also there and some people from Argentina showed up inviting us to join them somewhere later, but in the end I couldn't find out where they were so I went back to the hotel. We would need to wake up early on Saturday, because of the trip to Rome! 

DUE SETTIMANE DI GIOIA - pizza, gelato and opera (and pasta too)

On Thursday, our teachers told us what the school's surprise was - an opera presentation that evening!

In the beginning I got sad and a little angry because it meant the karaoke evening (initially supposed to be that Friday) would be only the next week... and my group hadn't even started practicing... actually, I'm still upset I couldn't be there or watch most of the presentations :(

But later I ended up ''accepting'' the schedule changes and looked forward to the opera :)

In the morning, we had an 'outside'' activity - it was the second one, the first had been the week before, a little more interesting. Basically, this time we had to interview people around and prepare a newspaper report... it was a bit hard, because I worked with Deborah (just like the week before and many other times, and I always liked working with her) and she was nearly voiceless, and I was extremely sleepy... not to mention I didn't feel ok interviewing people out of the school...

I had lunch near the hotel with Estefany, Anibal and Iván - pizza again! Time went by very quickly, but I had a lot of fun with them \o/

We went back to the hotel to rest for a while because in the afternoon we had a different culture activity at Edulingua - a game! ''Who wants to be a millionaire?'' We made 4 teams (mine had only women and we named it ''Belle donne''), and there were prizes for 3 of them (more pizza!). I didn't care about the prize anyway, and the game was very funny.

After that, Estefany and I took a walk, we went to a bookstore and newstand, I don't remember where else, and later met some people at Gelateria.it - that's when I had the gelato (ice cream). Also a very good time :)

And then we had to get ready for the opera... I don't remember the name of the company now, but the opera is ''L'elisir d'amore'', a very simple and funny love story. There were 3 singers and a ''narrator'' who helped telling us some parts of the story, and also played the piano. Very beautiful!

Here is a picture showing 2 of the great singers - again, from Edulingua's Facebook

And after the opera, we headed to Birreria again... it was a farewell gathering, because some people were going to leave the next day, some other on Saturday :(

It wasn't exactly a happy evening for me, but at least I had nice pasta (I had seen Anibal eating it the week before and thought of trying it - especially because it had peas and ham!).

Here is a picture of some of the girls, probably waiting for the beer and snacks...

I should have gone back to the hotel early, but I didn't. And I remember I started crying again when I was telling the guys I believed the most wonderful thing about the trip was having met such amazing people... And they were really really nice (Iván, Nicolas and Ana even hugged me) and soon the tears were gone, and we talked for some more time before Estefany and I left. 

I think I went to bed at about 3 am! Which means I didn't sleep more than 4 hours before my exam - but that's the next post...