Italy & USA

There are some differences between high school in Italy and the Unites States.   In the US, generally exams are taken either on paper, with the computer in person, or with the computer at home. When I came to the United States and I had to do presentations for the first time, I could not believe the way students did their presentations, for example by reading word to word from the power point or note cards, or many times not even taking it too seriously. Many students were really nervous , and the majority of people that I have met hated classes where they had to constantly present in front of the class because it made them anxious .   And here comes the difference from home. In Italy high school is really stressful. The reason is that we have both oral and written exams almost in every single class. I n a f our-month period (we do not have semesters like in the US), e very professor i s required to have a certain amount of oral and written exams from each student. T...

LUNCH & DINNER TIME   Welcome back to my blog. This week I will talk about something that represented a huge change for me. I will not talk about food yet, but just the big difference at which people in Italy and America eat. In my hometown, we finished school (high school) at 1 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, therefore it was impossible for me to have lunch before that time. This means that most families ate around 1:30 p.m. or a little earlier. There are some exceptions because there are schools that a few days a week may finish a little later or sooner. After lunch, the next meal is usually a snack in the afternoon, in a window that may vary from 4 to 6 p.m. (the latest). Afterwards, there is dinner. In Italy the majority of families eat between 7:30 (which is extremely early) and 8:30 p.m., with 8 p.m. being the perfect time to eat. That way you have time to digest before going to bed, and you are less likely to feel hungry late at night.   Here is the problem. I as...

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog!   I will use this opportunity to share one difference between Americans and Italians each week from my experience living in both countries.   The first difference I will talk to you about is how people greet each other. In Italy we usually kiss twice on the cheeks , hug each other, or shake hands (not too often, or at least not with those that we know well). How close you are to a person is another factor that usually dictates how you greet other peoople, but in general, hugging and kissing represent the most common ways to do so. Meanwhile, in the United States I have learned that there is no kissing at all (that is considered creepy), but people would rather wave from 1 meter away or just shake hands (which is creepy to me).   Experience#1: I was talking to a couple of American friends, and my Italian teammate came up to us, and I kissed him twice on the cheeks. I looked over the couple of friends that I was talking too, a...