Studyhall

Italian Class

Immersing yourself in a different culture with a foreign language is surely a nerve wracking experience no matter how old you are. Lanciano, on the contrary, welcomed us with its rich culture, breathtaking city centre, humble residents, and unforgettable views of surrounding Italian countryside.

- Taylor

With the help of Ms. Tozzi I have already begun to gain a better understanding of both the Italian language and culture. While I still have a ways to go before I can even begin to be called proficient in Italian, I look forward to every moment of learning.

- Aidan

The culture here is much different than in Canada, but as silly as it sounds, the culture has already won me over!... By the end of the first day of Italian class, I was already speaking some Italian with the residents of Lanciano.

- Tamara

There is no better way but to learn Italian while in Italy. Being able to communicate with the people of the town makes me feel a part of it... I am so happy to be here and I wouldn't give up this experience for anything.

- Emily

Living in residence in Lanciano is good because you get to meet lots of new people and make new friends.

- Tiana

Italian here gives us a chance to put our studies into practice. One day our class was even able to go order gelato to practice speaking Italian!

- Gabby

I love learning new languages and am enjoying learning Italian very much. Classes are really fun and I love going places with my class and practicing my Italian with the people who live here.

- Hannah

View from the 3rd floor

Taking the Italian language course will allow me to build my Italian vocabulary and help me communicate with the people of Lanciano much more easily.

- Monique

View from the 3rd floor

The city made me feel very comfortable because it is not big and the residence and the school are very close to the markets, restaurants, clothing stores and any necessities I need.

- Melissa

Revenge!!!

written by Amelia

As you already know, the weather here in Lanciano is simply fiery, meaning the use of fans is classrooms is by all means crucial for the sanity of the students and teachers. You would assume that each classroom has a fairly equal amount of fans, this is not the case for my art and photography class. We started out with a decent number of fans, and were happily pleased with this until two days ago when we found that all of our fans were mysteriously missing.

Our suspicions led us to believe that the culprits were from Miss De Bellis' English class.

As a friendly response to their offense, we went on a trip to the area of their studies while they were gone for lunch and moved things around a "little".

We kindly left their fans AND ours, along with a note from our class.

After lunch was over they came back to their classroom and were astonished at the sight of a harmless prank. Innocently walking back to our classroom, we tried to hide our laughs as there were angry shouts and surprised faces coming from them.

Later, we received a nice note from the English class, apologizing for taking our fans.

Although it was well worded, it seems too good to be true and we'll see where things go from here...

Church of the Eucharistic Miracle

written by Jordan
photography by Jordan

On Tuesday the art and photography students, for the first bit of class, went to the Church of the Eucharistic Miracle, which is right in the main piazza of Lanciano.

A view of the church's bell tower

This church is known for having a piece of Jesus' heart and some of his blood in it. The piece of flesh and blood is on a huge display for everyone to come and see. For more info, click here.

Preserved fresco

The church is built beautifully, with gorgeous paintings and cool architecture.
  

After exploring the top half of the church, we went down into the bottom half which used to be an older chapel, which the new church is now built over. However, it has been excavated and is now a place where events are held, but it is still a cool place to go visit.

After the tour of the church, we got a tour of the rest of the town, then headed back to the school to finish up our work.

CCI Summer Academy: Day 1

written by Angelo
photography by Jordan and Amelia

CCI had a great start on the first full day here as all the students headed to the beach on a scorching day for some fun in the sun. The students are embracing the culture, as well as the abundance of gelato.

Ortona beach

Hanging out with starfish

Everyone has had to get accustomed to the tremendous effort it takes to walk up all 100 stairs on the way back from a hefty lunch at the Alegria to the main school. They've also all been quickly making friends, and making their presence known in our small town. All in all, the month ahead looks to be one filled with fun as well as a lot of laughs.

Euro Cup

by Tiana

On Sunday, the students at CCI had the privilege to watch the Euro Cup 2012 soccer finals.

The crowd gathers in Piazza Plebiscito

Fans watching in anticipation

When we arrived in the main piazza at 8:45 pm, the Lanciano locals cheered, chanted, and dressed to support their nation, thus, their liveliness instantly effectuated the small town.

Locals in their fan-gear

Not only did plenty of support come from the Italian natives, but it also came from us students, who wore jerseys, hats, and even brought flags in order to show our love for the country. Not to mention, we were fortuitous enough to attain front row seats to the game, which was projected onto a flat screen and accompanied by large speakers.

CCI students watching the game

Despite the disappointing actuality that the Italians came up short against Spain, it was great to see the spontaneity from the citizens.

Piazza Plebiscito

Representing the students at CCI, I can say that we concur that we all had fun watching the game, and cannot wait for this Italy experience to continue!

The Summer Begins at CCI

by Geoff Smith, Head of the Summer Programme

I am not sure who said “when humans make plans the gods laugh” but there was truth to that yesterday. With Maurizio at the wheel, the gentleman who has driven CCI students for more than a decade, my colleague David Stephens and I left Lanciano at 8 a.m. Three and half hours later we were dropped off at Leonardo Di Vinci airport. The code for the airport is FCO, which is the abbreviation for Fiumicino, the town on the Mediterranean Sea just west of Rome where the airport is located. To say FCO was a zoo is an understatement. Add to this that apparently many baggage handlers had booked in sick. The Air Transat flight arrived a little early at about 1 p.m., and it seemed to take forever to collect luggage. One student, who came on an earlier flight that arrived at 12:30 p.m., waited for almost an hour and a half before her bags appeared on the carousel. Finally we collected staff, students and luggage, and headed off to the bus. A van had come in with us to carry the luggage, so once it was loaded we departed FCO at just after 3 p.m., a full hour later than we planned. The route to Lanciano from FCO along the Autostrade takes one in an almost a straight line from the Mediterranean Sea to the Adriatic Sea, through the Apennine Mountains. The scenery is spectacular.

With a couple of “pit stops” along the way we were on course to reach Lanciano at 6:30 p.m. Going into Lanciano from the Autostrade the bus developed a problem, perhaps a consequence of the hot weather. A stop at a service station rectified this but delayed us even more. Finally at close to 7 p.m. we arrived at the Torre Montanare.  Originally a fort and prison it has been converted into a cultural centre. It is also where we depart from and go back to when CCI is on the road, be a trip to the beach after school or a major excursion to Florence. You can see images of the Torre by clicking here.

The residence Dons were waiting to take the students to their residences. The van driver had already unloaded the luggage so this went smoothly. We had scheduled dinner for 7 p.m. but switched to later start. Once the students had dropped off their luggage in their rooms it was off to the Allegria for dinner.

The Allegria 

Fresh fruit!

Typical dinner buffet

Hungry gentlemen

Pasta pomodoro and lasagna

First meal in Lanciano

At 8:30 p.m. we all met at the school where the teachers were introduced. The students then headed off for an orientation tour of Lanciano, conducted by their teachers. Then back to residence for meetings, unpacking and hopefully, a good night’s sleep.

Mr. Simpson leading a tour

The girls explore Lanciano

My thanks to CCI’s renaissance man David Stephens for the photographs in this first edition of our blog. I say “renaissance man” as he is as comfortable in a science lab teaching Biology and Chemistry as he is in the CCI art room teaching Visual Arts. He is also Vice Principal of the summer school.