Posted by cynthia on Friday, May 26, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

Do a one-on-one interview with a local they said. Well too bad I have an irrational fear about human interaction and high anxiety while talking to strangers.  It actually didn’t go as badly as I imagined!

Once I got out there and started rambling on to people about my status as an American student who didn’t speak a lick of Italian, it was getting to be pretty fun.  Many of the store owners I talked to her too preoccupied for me to interview, so I was thinking of going to the nice man who works at the Cannoli cart to see if he spoke English.  Before walking up to the cart, I turned around and saw a souvenir shop. “Those people talk to tourists all the time,” I thought, “maybe I’ll try there first.”  Jackpot. (Well almost).

The woman inside was kind and spoke English.  I inquired about her origin and she said she was from Russia. “What are the odds,” I thought, “That I would run into a person from Russia here?”  I studied the Russian language for a couple of years in college, and so we had a small conversation in Russian.  I found out that her name was Sveta (and my “Russian name” was Svetlana!) and that she moved to Sicily a couple of years back.  I told her about my interview assignment, and the fact that I needed to interview a native Sicilian.  “Interview my boyfriend,” she replied cheerfully. “He’s a lifeguard on the beach.”

PHOTO: Nice Russian Woman at the Souvenir Shop

With that, she wrote down the name of his workplace and his name.  Then she sent me off.  Before I left, I asked to take a photo with her…. in case Matteo didn’t believe that I actually met his girlfriend and that she directed me to him for this strange request.

PHOTO: Sticky Note Directions

After a goodbye (до свидания) I was off.  I walked down the beach, asking each pop-up bar where “Punto Arenas” and “Matteo” was.  They kept pointing me on wards.  Finally, after the third or fourth stand, I finally found it.  The guy at the bar saw my sticky note, and started yelling “Matteo, Matteo!” It was kind of embarassing, especially because I didn’t know Matteo, and Matteo didn’t know me.  When Matteo came up, the bartender said something like this (in Italian): “There’s a girl here looking for you and she has a little paper with your name on it dude.”  Haha… not creepy at all.  I sheepishly told him about the whole story: meeting his girlfriend, asking about an interview, and coming to find him.  Matteo was very kind and totally unfazed.  He said, “Sure I’ll do the interview, of course!  Just right now is lunch time so the beach is kind of busy.  Can you come back in two hours or later?  I am here til 7.”

So that’s what I did.  And here is the interview I had with him about Sicily’s education.

What did I learn from all this?

Firstly, the people of Cefalu are so kind. I felt like I was in a fairytale or medieval times or something- there was never a time in real life that I was able to find a stranger like this by word of mouth. I was also never so well-received by said stranger while asking for a request.  Matteo took his time talking to me too- even though he was at work (as a lifeguard for God’s sake), he took a good 30 minutes talking to me!

PHOTO: Matteo

Now about education…

Students seem much more focused in learning things for their vocation.  They go to specialized high schools.  In America, our courses from primary school through high school are general education and not for preparation for a particular field of work.  Even many colleges and universities will have a liberal arts core that we must complete in addition to taking courses related to our career goals.

Another major difference that stands out to me is the fact that Matteo used to have a break in the middle of the school day (about 1-1.5 hours) for lunch.  Students went home or parents brought them lunch to eat (since they don’t have a cafeteria).  In America, you generally can;t leave the school once you enter it in the morning, and my high school ran from 7:45AM-2:30PM, with a 20 minute lunch break (way too short).

One last difference I want to point out here is the lack of clubs and after school activities offered to students. Going to school in America, I felt like there were always many after school clubs to attend, from elementary school throughout high school.  According to Matteo, there weren’t any clubs really offered at his school, so students either hung out and played sports or went home.

For more information about education in Sicily, check out the interview (link above).