A cloudy day in the Italian countryside. This was taken at the house of an AFS friend near Pomezia.

 On January 26th I took part in presentation about the importance of the freedom of press. There was poetry read, speeches given, and I took part by starting off the program by playing a couple of songs on my violin. I was accompanied by my violin teacher from my high school and we played a Sonata by Mozart and a piece by Piazzola. It was a very good experience and opportunity to practice preforming in front of people.

In  addition to playing the violin, I was asked to write a paper about why I think freedom of the press is important. This is what I wrote:

Io sono un studente Statunitense che ha avuto la fortuna di essere ospitato a Roma. Sono cinque mesi che sono in Italia, ma tornerò negli Stati a Luglio, dopo che finisco il mio programma annuale. Frequentò il Liceo musicale Farnesina dove svolgo la mia passione di studiare violino. La mia professoressa di violino mi ha chiesto di scrivere un tema insieme ad un'altra compagna di classe, essendo straniero mi ha chiesto da scrivere le mie opinioni sulla libertà di stamp e la storia di Ilaria Alpi. 

    Al giorno d'oggi si possano trovare informazione dappertutto, per esempio nei giornali, alla televisione, alla radio, sui cellulari, su l'Internet, e nei social media. Grazie a questi conosciamo molte più cose in confronto alle persone da secoli precedenti. Sfortunatamente, é poco tempo he abbiamo queste risorse. Infatti, per far conoscere la verità nel passato molte persone hanno rischiato la proprio vita e sono morte. 

    Questo era il caso di Ilaria Alpi, una giornalista Italiana inviata dal TG3 per informarsi su varie situazioni illegie interne della Somalia. Ilaria stava provano ha far vedere a tutto il mondo la verità, purtroppo cercando la verità si è trovata in una situazione che l'ha portata alla morte. Lei ha mostrato un coraggio e una ammirevoli, per questo sarà ricordata per sempre. 

    Il mondo d'oggi é molto diverso da quello di quando Ilaria era viva. Oggi ci sono milioni e milioni di articoli, video, foto, e tante altre informazioni per mezzo di questi é più facile conoscere la verità. 

    Al giorno d'oggi certamente é ancora una battaglia in tutto il mondo per cercare la giustizia. Ci sono ancora posti dove le persone non hanno la possibilità di condividere le proprie idee. Io pensò che le persone specialmente i giovani debbano avere il coraggio di usare le risorse che hanno e capire, una storia alla volta, si deve sempre cercare la verità e difendere la libertà di opinione e di stampa. 

                                                                                      ~Alessandro Sassi (United States)

I was even given a award at the end of the night for my participation.

I was very nice to take part and share my thoughts and music on this topic. I also visited for the first time Ostia Antica. Ostia is a city just outside Rome, Ostia Antica are the ruins of the city thousands of years ago. It was very nice, the weather was perfect and there was lots of cool things to see! As well as checking out the old city we took a nice walk by the beach. 

Yesterday I met a very cool Italian. My host brother and I waited in line for two hours to get our picture take and a CD signed by Gemitaz, an Italian rapper from Rome. It was a long wait but it was o' so worth it. His new album is called "Nonostante Tutto"

Snow in Rome!

A very exciting thing happened today in Rome. For a few brief moments, it was snowing! I rushed outside with my host family to look at the thousands of small flakes falling to the ground. Here in Rome it's quite rare to see this; the last time there was a snowfall was in 2010, six years ago. However, it made me miss the snow back home in Fargo. I hope that my family and dog are enjoying the snow for me!!

Check out my Thai friend's (Kia) new video for month four of the year in Rome!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Ad8YQVTY4

The Wrap-up of 2015 and a Happy New Year!

The Wrap-up of 2015 and a Happy New Year!
            2015 has been quite the year, I started the year in Fargo, North Dakota and ended it in Roma, Italia. It has been a year of learning and growing. I have collected some pictures from different events during my time overseas.

This picture was taken when I was just on my way to Rome from Zurich. I had a nice flight sitting next to Amy and Terisa. Someone got a little sleepy along the way. After we arrived, we had our orientation camp, and then the next day we all got to meet our host families. This was the beginning of my awesome adventure of being an exchange student in Italy!

This is a picture from the Lazio camp that we had for all of the male students hosted in the region Lazio. It was a time of getting to know each other and becoming more relaxed in our new country. In the picture in order from left to right there is Tobi (Paraguay), Kia (Thailand), Kim (Thailand), Sing(China), Howard (China), Me, Goksel (Turkey), and Rey (Germany). The only one missing is Jose from Honduras.

Here's a not-so-serious picture of us.

During this camp, there was a talent show, I played a piece on my violin for this as well as a duet with the other student from the United States, Ella. For the duet, we played "The Star-Spangled Banner," the National Anthem. There were many other very cool performances that other students did. Many things were very traditional. There was Turkish dancing, Thai dancing and singing, traditional Chinese songs, and much much more.

In fact, here is a picture with my Thai friends Kim on the left and Kia on the right. They're dressed in traditional Thai clothing, which they wore for the talent show.

Here's me jamming out in one of the local souvenir shops in Rome.

Here is another picture from the Lazio camp. We went for a dip in the cold waters, but it was very worth it. Before this picture, we were checking out an ancient castle that that overlooked the water.

An official building on a beautiful day in Piazza Venezia.

This picture was taken in one of the huge hangars used for Romix. Romix is a very popular comic convention held just outside of Rome. Walking among thousands of excited fans, we saw lots of people dressed up, hundreds of different stands, and even got to eat some Sicilian food at the end of the day.

Here is another picture with some of the characters from Star Wars. (The new movie was super, super, super cool).

This picture is of me, Kim (Thailand) in the middle, and Lola (Beligum) on the right. This picture was taken on November 8th, International Hug an Exchange Student Day. On this day, a group of us from the program went out in Piazza del Popolo in Rome and had signs that said "Free Hugs" we proceeded to give strangers that accepted it hugs for the afternoon. Some people were very happy to receive the hugs, but others where a little freaked out!

This is me on International hug an exchange student day with Charlie (Australia). The two native English speakers of exchange students in Rome burn up as you can see in the bright Roman sun. 

This is the group that we had giving out the free hugs that day!

This picture was taken during the trip to Pisa. It was a very long bus ride from Rome and back.  In fact, we didn't get to spend too much time in the city, but it was a awesome trip, and I got to meet some new people. This photo is all-American exchange students from the region Lazio and one from Pisa. The top is James, the next to him is Paula, and the next to me is Ella. I had a great day with James as he took me to my first Subway restaurant in Italy. It was super nice to catch up with another ragazzo who was from the United States. (Two minutes after this picture we had to sprint to the bus because we needed to get going before the sun went down). 

This picture taken at a super cool tour in the Roman forum in which with the help of projectors the lit up the forum to make it look like it did back in the day of the Romans. It was a privilege to go on this tour, and it was a big perk of being an exchange student hosted in Rome. 

Here is a recent picture of us Rome students with the new students who will be staying for two months. We went for a walk during the birthday of Mina (Serbia) and took this picture. With the very well known "selfie-stick"

Here is me at my first concert with the Farnesina Orchestra. It was a very fun night filled with music in the conservatory in Rome. A very nice sala in the center near Piazza del Popolo. I also participated in the choir, which was very new for me. 

Here is a picture of me sitting in the orchestra. 

Post concert pic with my AFS friends who came out to watch me play. Grazie Grazie a kia per avere fato delle foto di me quando suonavo!!!

This picture was taken on the last day of 2015. I had a fun time relearning my downhill skiing skills from nearly ten years of not skiing. I was lucky with beautiful weather and even with little snow lots of slopes that were nice. It was very nice visiting Montgenevre one last time to finish off 2015! I also celebrated the New Year with my nonni  (grandparents) in Albenga! 

I hope everyone is enjoying there break from work/school I sure have had lots of things going on and am looking forward to what the new year has to bring! Tanti auguri a tutti e buon anno!!!!