I was asked my one of the directors, Olga, if I wanted to go to a soccar game of some of the local people in Sant Angello, the next neighborhood over. It sounded great and a way to meet more people so I said great. I started to ask another people if they were going and a couple people did not even know about it. When I arrived to meet the group I was given a chessy tshirt. We were all wearing Sorrento lingue tshirts. What the hell is this? My new friend Maria, a 19 year old student studying before she has to go to college, rolls her eyes, she too is noticing that she might have gotten herself into something also. It seems like the game that we are going to is for an over 40 men soccar league and the school is one of the sponsors. Not the game I was expecting... and Im not too keen on the fact that we look like a tour group. Eventhough I have been traveling I have been making a sure I still put some effort into my appearance but still try to remain comfortable. Traveling doesnt mean I got to look like a slob, so the tshirt isn't working with my outfit at the moment. I brush it off and go with the flow. While we are on the train, Summer, an american who works at Sorrento Lingue, all of a sudden remembers that she has what I am suppose to say tonight. Say tonight??? I'm suppose to speak???? She hands me a paper in italian and english, its an simple sentence declaring the soccar season open. But still who the hell asked me if I wanted to speak? Why am I representing the school? and again, why the hell do I got to wear this ugly tshirt?

The soccar field is full of families and local people. It reminds me of my days of little league. Mothers with strollers, kids, and teenagers in thier social hour. I admire the italians, family is very important to them and the mother is the focal point. Before the game a group of young girls do a couple dance routines. This aint your local american dance school, these little girls in halter tops and short skirts are shakin and moving to the Black Eye Peas. The oldest has to be seven and the way they are moving is making me embarrassed!! I look around, and the other american students are shocked by the italians don't even flinch. This is normal here! The next group is a good of teenage girls and they are performing latin dance. Ah... something cultural. Ah no... these girls do the snake and hump on the dirt ground to club music and shakira. This is the italians version of latin dance!! It amazes me how much italians love american music. Its not just pop music... Blaze of Glory plays before the game starts. Drum roll please..... It's now Airekas shining moment! I walk with the school's president and the the small towns mayor to the middle of the field. They go on and on in italian about something that I cant understand and then the mic is handed to me... " On behalf of the city of Sant Angello, I declare the over 40 soccar tournament open"!!! Silence.... Everyone in the stands is italian and they dont seem to understand my english. The director takes the mic and says something again I don't understand, the crowd roars and the game begins!!!

I dont stay too long at the game and take off with Maria and Summer to dinner. Maria has been in Sorrento for about 6 months and is returning back to Ohio to start college in the fall in Chicago. This girl amazes me because there is no way to know she is 19. She looks older and is extremely mature. She's been dating a 30 year old italian guy and wonders how she is going to maintain the relationship but knows that she must explore and not be too worried about what happens in the future. Me and Summer, a 28 year old West Virginian who took off to italy to find herself, tell the child not even worry about it. Go to college and have fun, what will be will be. I like summer alot, she's alot like me. She's a drinker, loves not having too many responsablities and is a big flirt. The too of us are having lots of fun and have the same views when it comes to men. Its actually really nice to sit and gab with these women about love and the temperments of men. The two of them keep me hip on the italian customs and let me know that the way that my italian family is about the landry and eating is more then normal. The italians pay alot of money for water so the reason that the mother doesn't want me to wash my clothes there is because it will be more expensive then ususal and family dinners are very sacred for the italians, no one is invited to dinner, a girlfriend or boyfriend doesnt come to dinner until they are ready to be married. We laugh, drink wine and question our waiters sexuality. I say goodbye to them and walk back to my house. Regardless of the stupid shirt and the monologue I had a good night.