Goodbye Misery, Hello Sunshine

And so another small portion of school was still left over for me when I came back from Venice, unfortunately. But let's thank the fact that at least it was only a small portion of about two more weeks. So the days dragged on, sitting in a dark, stifling classroom, watching the beautiful sun shining outside, as it was unbearable to even glance at the sparse white walls marked with shoe prints and graffiti...and the occasional hole from someone kicking the poorly built door barely hanging in there. The hallways smelled of bathroom. Because something went wrong in the wonderfully disgusting bathrooms, but no one bothered to fix it for a while, better to let it ferment a bit first, and just close up the bathroom on that floor. Ah yes! Way to get things done. Anyways the days went by murderously slow, and chaos was everywhere as students, come spring, decide they don't need to listen to teachers anymore. Havoc was brought into the hallways of the pink prison - I mean..school. Luckily, I got to leave school three days earlier than when everything was actually finished, because I had to go to an island off of Naples called Ischia for a camp with AFS. But that's another story. On my last day of school I managed to snap a few photos...so you get the idea of the place.

May I introduce...La Doria

:/

Alessia

Up and about

In the chaos, there is love

Sara, me, Alessia, Giuseppe, Vanessa

Waitin' for the teacher

My desk

Kyriam's desk

Yay Canada

Foreign powers..unite!

...Giuseppe..

 La Giarmoleo
math teacher

The team

So that was my last day at school. I gave out some of the BILLIONS of Canadian pins that mom sent with me -.- and yeah. You know that I only said goodbye to two teachers there? Two. The others...I didn't say a word. You may all be thinking "Hmm that's not good Mick you should've said goodbye. You'll regret it later." Maybe you'd be right, if it were a different situation. I could've said bye if I wanted to, but I didn't. I didn't care. After being told I was insufficient, treated like I was stupid, being constantly "controlled," and even had lies spread to fellow colleague teachers, all the ignorance and stupid comments, being yelled at just because...why should I say goodbye? Why should I have to care when they clearly didn't? So no. I did not say goodbye. And I do not regret it. I won't see them ever again, but they were far from being people who made an impact on my life here...in the sense that they were important to me and I'd miss them when I came home. I'm not sorry and neither are they. So we'll just leave it at that. I was finally free of that place that had caused so many problems in the past, and I was finally let out into the sunshine to enjoy my last days spent here. Goodbye misery, hello sunshine.

Venice Round 2? I Think So!

So the week after my birthday I went off to Venice for another week to visit the family there and just hang out. Ilaria (the 14 year old daughter) had school unfortunately, but I spent my days wandering the city called Mestre, where the family lives. It's the city just outside Venice. I went out early in the morning, sipping cappuccinos and looking at pretty things and gathering gifts (as well as maybe one or two for myself), meeting new people, some strange and some nice, just getting lost. Good stuff. It was sunny every day and birds were singing in big beautiful trees while shop keepers washed the sidewalk out front of their store with soap and water...lickably clean the place was. Unfortunately I only got to go to Venice twice that time, but I won't complain. I took the bus by myself and met up with another exchange student named Santiago from Argentina who lived in Venice. He knew all the ways to go and all the good places to see, and he took me to a little bar in an alley way where there was a not very old, but very wise man with greying hair and twinkling eyes who gave us our drinks. He already knew Santiago, so we were friends there I guess, and I was given an extra olive in my drink because the first one was so yummy....the olive I mean. And there we talked for hours about all things in life, ad I say I learned a lot more in that tiny little bar with the sun setting on the city of Venice then I have ever learned about life in any school after a month. And then as the hour grew later unfortunately we had to leave, and we sat on a dock chatting about all that has passed in this strange year, watching the sun sink down low, casting a shadow on the basilica and turning the water into molten gold. Then we slowly and casually made our way back to the buses through the ancient winding streets, let and right, up and down, over bridges and up stairways. It seemed like a miracle we found our way back. Then another day passed and I went to Venice again, this time specifically for gift-gathering and such things, as well as eating ice cream and taking a few pictures. Thank goodness I had a guide!! We also tried to stop at the bar again but the man with the twinkling eyes wasn't there, and so we went on. I must say by the end of that day I was absolutely dead. Rushing around in Venice is good excersise.

Mestre...a cloudy morning turned into a hot
sunny afternoon

The market

Fresh veggies!

Fishies...and..things with legs

Wanderin'

On the way to Ilaria's school

Sunshine..

I loved the trees

The family turtle

The family mop..I mean dog

I found this poster advertising studying in Canada
...the first one I've seen!

The church in Piazza San Marco

Santiago with my sunglasses

Church

In the piazza

In the piazza again

...Bu..a narrow street

On the bus

What a winner

So that was my second trip to Venice...another beautiful experience I dare say....that is definitely going to be a place that will always remain with me in my heart...a must-see for those of you who consider visiting this country one day.

Cheers,

-Mik

Happy Birthday To Me...

Well in the few days leading up to my 17th birthday I started getting a little depressed. Quite frankly I just wanted my birthday over and done with so I didn't have to deal with it (I sound like an old person don't I?). Truth is, I didn't really think anyone here would really care that much...a few would say happy birthday, but other than that it would just be a normal day at school, then come back to the house, eat pasta, go to bed, get up, eat dinner, go to bed. So, the day of my birthday I woke up in a gloom that could've matched Eeyore's, and climbed out of my bed with a groan and got ready to go to that..."school." When I opened my door to go out of my room there was a Happy Birthday note stuck on my door, so that was a bit of a pick me up. Then at school more people seemed to had remembered my birthday than I imagined, but I assume Facebook had a rather large role in reminding everyone.
Anyways so we could say that school wasn't toooo awful. When I got home I was made a lovely carbonara, which was very good, but unfortunately I couldn't finish it because there was quite a heaping pile. Then after lunch I went to bed because I was tired. I had planned to go out for dinner that night, but I was still down. None of my real family or friends were with me...it just kinda...sucked. Then I got ready to go out and the guy who was supposed to pick me up ended up being half an hour late and it was pouring rain and I couldn't find anything decent to wear as you'll see in the pictures coming soon it was all quite tasteless. But oh well. Anyways when my ride finally showed up I was then driven to a nice beach house. And that's where I crapped myself when a bunch of people started yelling at me when I walked in the door only to realize I had been thrown a surprise party.

Opening presents

Gregorio..laughing at something

A nice shirt ;)

My new leather jacket :)

Ugh..boys

When you have a leather
jacket, your status level sky rockets

Me and Ferdy

Ferdy, Nicola, Salvatore, Ettore, Giada, Antonio

Greggy

Picture-shy Kyriam, and Alessia

...Manu

Something was funny

Ferdy stole my camera

My wonderful cake made secretly by Antonella

Cutting cake and being hit with a spoon

Curious Ferdinando

Buds

So that was my birthday..not as bad as I'd imagined, and a good time in the end. I was very touched. So thank you all for the birthday wishes oh so long ago and thanks to those here for the party and everything! :)

Happy Birthday to Me