This week...

...no Skype! Elena and I decided not to skype this week in order to get some material for our final project. I thought I could have a bit of relax today, but eventually I decided to study a bit, considering what I have to do next week!



So, no relax for me, and a bit of study!

Today in Italy we are on holiday, it is the day in which we celebrate the liberation from Fascism, thanks to some real heroes that gave their life to have freedom for the whole country!

I've heard of some politician (man, or woman) who's not celebrating this day... I hope I have misunderstood...

A wonderful occasion!

Last Monday I went to Venice where I find qualcosa di bello, literally, I found her and her husband and we enjoyed together a bit of Venice. They are so kind, I don't know how to say, but I felt as if I already knew them. And then I found a post on her blog...



















This is the first day after Monday that I can see my blog and find the time to write a bit, I've put some pictures in the post I took on Monday, it was a wonderful day and we had wonderful weather!
I really want to thank them both for the wonderful, wonderful day!

Skype exchange: 2weeks in one post!

The topic Elena and I discussed last Thursday was the election in Us and in Italy. We talked about election last time too, but on Friday we focused on the candidates and I wanted to know a something more precise about American candidates, unfortunately she was able to tell me about the Democrats, but not about the Republican! Italian TV are not talking about republican candidate because of the primary for democratic party...For Italian people is quite strange to think about two different candidates running for the same party, and she explained me that Obama and Hillary have more or less the same ideas, but they are proposing a different idea of leadership.

Honestly, last time we talked, we discussed deeply about elections, and of course we finally even talked about the candidates, so after we hadn't so much time to spend on this topic, and I asked her a bit about her language learning experience with Italian. I was curious to know what are the main difficulties in learning Italian, I thought the verb system was the main one, but Elena (admitting it is difficult) does not think so! She 's making a great effort in this exchange and I really appreciate her courage!

This week we started talking about the final project, we are supposed to compare a cultural issue in Italy and in U.S., not that easy, eh?!
We decided to talk about electoral system, the idea is: I'll get some information in order to understand how the American electoral system works, and she'll get some information about the Italian one, then we explain each other and try to be sure of what we understood. Then we will work together on the comparison of the two!

Our final project should be written in English and Italian, I'll write the English part, Elena will write half of the Italian part and I'll do the other in Italian... I think it could be a great occasion, even though it will be hard work, mainly because we are juast two, while in the other group there are four people, se they can divvide more the job!

Anyway, that's all! I feel we'll do a great job!

My pleasures

One of the amazing things since I have a blog in my second language (English) is to click on my Feed jit map to go and see how many people from different countries come to read me! I can see that someone has probably written a wrong URL or has just clicked on a link without real intention to read what I wrote, but when I see those little falgs on India, Brazil, Australia, and from different places in Italy as well, I feel a bit "proud".
And I like very much the idea that I can reach people so far from me...

Near and far from America...

This week, our topic to discuss was Election. The election system in Italy and in America, the candidates and so on...
The first question was really difficult, because she asked me my opinion about Berlusconi, I wanted to be as objective as possible, but I'm not! The election will be in a week, and I've got an idea of who I'm going to vote, so I have even a precise idea of who I'm absolutely not going to vote. Anyway I tried to explain my reasons and that is my own opinion, and if you ask my class mates you'll find many different opinions.
Then she asked me about "quote rosa" because we wrote something on the forum about it, and again she asked my opinion... And again I tried to be as objective as possible, but I'm definitely against this "anti-discrimination system", because I do not think it is effective! I can't imagine to vote someone just because they are female (or male), and not because of their opinion or their value. It is anyway, unfortunately true that women have no place enough in politics, but I think we should try other ways!

I particularly enjoyed this discussion on Friday with Elena, because I asked her something about death penalty, it was a topic we discussed on the forum, and I understood she agree with it. It is something strange that two 20-something girls who live in the west have so different opinion on a topic like this. America is the country in which there are less cultural difference with Europe (I think...), but anyway we see it in two completely different ways.
I didn't try to convince her, and she didn't try to convince me, of course! But it made me think about how far we are sometime even though our origin is the same...