How I almost got in a fight over a mirror

Context: 

First-My school is kind of “Geto” graffiti everywhere everything is broken and is has the reputation that everything gets stolen there, you know how is has that reputation, its true

Second- classes here are together all of high school so they are really close and they all ride mopeds.  After school they always ride of together on their little mopeds like little moped gangs.

On to the story.  When we got out of school we all went to where every on parks their mopeds and one of the kids from class left the mirror in his moped so it got stolen as well as the plastic thing around the key hole(like I said everything gets stolen).  However both items only fit one type of moped, and there are only 5 in the school, 4 of which are owned by members of my class, and my friend knew who owned the other one.  How did he know?  Because he stole the wheel(/other part in the wheel region, he was pointing I didn’t understand the words) from him.  So we (like 10 kids from my class) go and confront this kid, search his back pack and his moped; but we find nothing.  Then they try to search his friends moped but he denies it’s his.  The whole time is really like tense almost a fight kind of feel.  Then my group wait around the other moped until snother kid passes us and askes us why we are around his friends moped so we confront him with the situation and he goes over to the other group to get the key to open the moped.  Low and behold the mirror and other thing are inside.  We go back over hand the kid his key back they talk to him really angrily then say are sacrcastic thanks and head off.   We then go into Pisa for kabob and on my way there I beat every one with my bike while they are on their mopeds.

It seems weird that this is my new life, not because of now different it is but because of how easy I have settled in to it.  The new manners and customs are second nature now and I'm not homesick at all.  I've gotten past the phase where everything is new and interesting and its not like everything is perfect (I still despise the bus, early mornings' and school on Saturday).  But everything i do here fells like its always been that way.  An example is I spent most of may conversations straining to barely understand and that just part of learning a new language but when reminisce about hanging out with friends back home i think " how was I ever able to say I have no clue what those words are, oh wait I could talk to my friends in English DUH".
Ive started to have little moments where I think in Italian without continuous effort.  My current example of this is a story about where my teachers fail to communicate with me because they insist on speaking terrible English instead of Italian. So I've told this story to my host brother and parents and my friends, and all of these time in Italian with a few quotes English, then im telling my mom this same story and Im like wait how the hell does this part of in English. 

The things I miss so far

My Car, I hate having to regress to taking the bus
Mexican food, specifically chips and salsa and Chipolte burritos which were stapes of my summer
Knowing the city, I have way to many times where I'm thinking where the hell am I, I'll just keep walking
All of my favorite TV shows, I've gotten over the fact of barely understanding the tv but they dont have all the shows I loved back in the States
Netflix and Pandora, Stupid "licensing constraints"
BBQ sauce
Surfing

Why the hell am I here

Why am I here?  Not In the existentialist sense; but, why did I come on this adventure.  I’ve been asked that so many times; why did I want to go on exchange, how could I leave my home and my friends for a year, why did I choose Italy, and I’ve asked myself the same questions so many times, especially over the last 3 weeks. 

I’ve answered so many ways: I want to learn a new language, I’ll get to experience another culture, I can travel more and see the world, I want to meet new people, to party hard duh, and this is my only chance to do something like this.  Maybe it’s because I didn’t get in my dream colleges and want to apply again or I’m just not ready for college and I am using this as an escape route.  Did I think I'd find something here I could not find In California or I'd learn more about myself  here and really grow up.  Was I just so sick of my home town that I wanted a drastic change or did I think I needed to travel across the globe to escape my parents(and If you're wondering, ten thousand kilometers Is not far enough). 

All of these are partially the answer but I think an answer lies deeper that I’ll never really know for sure.

But I've got do wonder, why would I ever make such a massive change in my life If I didn't even know why I was doing It.  Maybe it’s cause we never really know why we do what we do.  But more likely it’s simply... Why the Hell Not.

I know that as I sit here writing college apps about myself I don't have a really answer to even tell myself let alone others.  I know I am learning about a culture and a language, I did want to get away from my town and my parents--but for one I know I’ll never escape either they have made me who I am and additionally I now have another set of parents quite similar and a town that was not the drastic change I was hoping for.  I do think I could have gone to college but I know in this year I'll grow up a lot more then I would have in college and it is significantly cheaper.  Also getting to apply again to my top schools turned out to be a much bigger bonus then I had expected because In 3 weeks I have so many more answers for the applications then I did a year ago it’s astounding. 

At one point I was helping my host brother with basic calculus and had no clue want I was doing and started to think that I was already for getting the things I and learned and would be worse off waiting a year to go to college and I thought this year might be a waste.  but then I realized that In this year the growing up that Is happening will me magnitudes greater than that that would happen at a year of college and quite a bit cheaper.  additionally I may not be learning 3 dimensional calculus but Instead I’m learning skills I’d never learn without this, I’ve learned how to adapt to new situations, deal with different types of people and I’m surprised how well I can tell a story or order food with just hand gestures.  I’ve made friends with little more than a smile and a few laughs.  I know I can travel across the world on my own and over all I see that when things get hard I won’t only survive I can thrive.  I know that skills and confidence I have and will gain from this experience will far outweigh any negative or stupid facts Ill for get before college. 

This is kind of my rough draft for a college essay, now I just have to cut it down by 2000 characters. 

Transportation

Before my exchange getting around was fairly easy and the worst part always seemed to be traffic and if I didn't want to drive I could usually get rids with friends.  Now coming to Italy I knew I wouldn't be driving and I was OK with that I had taken the bus before and I would get by.  Now that I'm here I most definitely miss my car and even driving in general but if i had a car I would have missed some experiences, so the Transportation stories:

Because none of my fiends here have cars we have to gets rides if we want to go after the buses shut down.  The morning after going to the disco one of my friends dads was driving us back, we were cruising along in the fast lane going along and some car pull in front of him so he slams on the breaks and barely misses the guy who then pulls back to the slow lane.  Once the guy was out of the way my friends dad zooms off again.  After seeing teh rapid deceleration I'm thinking wow were going pretty fast, so I lean over and look past the seat to see just how fast.  Well shit were going 180 were gonna die!!!  ...wait...thinking...thinking...  oh that's in kph not mph it isn't that fast.  Commence quick mental calculation, 60m=100k so 200k would be 120mph so its pretty fast maybe I didn't read that right.... look around seat again.  Nope its not 180 now its 220, holy shits that like 130mph and this is a station wagon, my Volvo definitely doesn't do that.  (Don't worry mother I made it home safe.)



The next is a story the has exchange student written all over it.  It was Sunday afternoon and I was hanging out with my friends in down town Pisa some how holding a conversation with my broken Italian and their broken English.  They had to leave around 5:45 so we parted ways and I set off to take the bus home.  There are 2 buses that take me home and the stops are on opposite ends of the main street so I check my bus schedule and see the next one is on the far side of town at 6:30 so I casually walk there and get there 10 minuets early.  I sit down to wait for the bus and wait and wait and wait.  6:30 comes and goes, but this is Italy the buses are always late.  So I keep waiting, 35, 40, 45, still no bus.  Maybe I missed it some how so I'll see when the next one is... 845 at this stop, nope, and 7 or 9 at the other station.  Well shit i had better run if I want to be home anytime soon.  So I set of sprinting through town.  the only areas of Pisa I know very well is the main street where there are all the shops and there for all the tourist so I'm running as fast as I can dodging through crowds to try and get to the other station.  by the time I left the first station it was 6:50 so i had to make it across town, about 3k, in 10 min.  So i finally make it to the station and as I'm nearing it at about, no exactly 7:02 I see kids I recognize from my town at the stop so i know I'm not late.  I get to the stop thankful that the bus is late when i hear one of the guys saying something about 7:20 and looking at the bus sign so i go over and look my self and in a little yellow square it says calci-7:20.  In Pisa the buses have special schedule for holidays so not all the buses run on those days and the yellow ones show those time.  I had forgot in Sunday counts as a Holiday.  Which explains why my first bus hadn't come.  The things I should know but don't know for being a foreigner.  So I settle in to wait for the bus.  around 7:20 the correct bus pulls up but now to our part of the station so twenty some odd kid run over to the bus so I follow(currently that is why I get by other people i know are doing something better imitate, that's how I eat get to class, and do most things now a days)  then the bus driver points off in some direction and the kids run off again so I follow.  there were these metal bars in the way which most people took the long way around but i just hurdled which ended up getting the attention of one of the kids once we were on the bus the kid sat down next to me and we talked for most of the bus ride, by talked i mean I laughed and said "si" when I thought was appropriate and wondered 'what the hell is he saying'.  In the end I made it home for dinner so it wasn't too bad. 

School

I just started school a few days ago.  It is very similar; the teachers are still boring the desks still suck and school still starts way to early.  But its also different; teachers change class rooms not students, they have different breaks and get out at 1, obviously the school itself is different, and every one speaks Italian.    I have a math class that is very easy for me, I changed from doing 3 dimensional calculus to doing polynomials and parabolas.  English class is obviously very easy for me and I just help out the other students during that class.  My other classes are very difficult because they are about fairly complex subjects like history and literature but are in Italian so many of the more complex topics are hard to understand. 
So far the worst part of being here is that I don't have a car anymore.  I don't like having to regress to taking the bus and losing the freedom I used to have.  Especially when the bus is too full and drives right by me, but it made for a pretty walk back home. 

My First Day

 During my first day in Italy, while still adjusting to my new life, My host Brother Giuseppe took me into the city of Pisa.  Because teens can't drive until they are 18 we had to take the bus.  The bus is very similar to our bus but it is slightly nicer, the seats have actual cushions and its closer to a tour bus, however it is more expensive. We talked on the bus in Italian, although Giuseppe had to help me with a lot of words I didn't know, I was still proud of my self.  Once in Pisa we walked from the bus stop to the cathedral.  there it was very touristy and crowded.  But while there I had to take the cliche. Leaning tower of Pisa photo right next to all the tourists.
After that we walked to the Bank to deal with my money.  while there I noticed it really wasn't that different from banks back home.  We walked from the Cathedral to my host fathers office where we waited for him and talked with him about the bank.  after that we left to take the bus back home.  At the bus stop we determined it was gonna be long wait so we got a drink at a little bar(like a cafe) around the block there I tried a new drink(below) which was tea with peach.  I was very similar to Arizona tea just smaller and like everything else here more expensive.  Once home we had lunch which was much more formal.  The whole eats together and there are multiple courses.  The food was really good.  We had rolled meat with some sauce 

 and french fries as well as salad and green beans.  it was all delicious.  The only thing about the food of the meal that was odd is that they have fruit kinda as a dessert or final course and I'm used having something much more sugary but its healthier so its good.  And for when my sweet to needs it I still have half a kilo of chocolate from duty free.