The Student Newspaper of Cathedral Catholic High School

Dons Press

The Student Newspaper of Cathedral Catholic High School

Dons Press

The Student Newspaper of Cathedral Catholic High School

Dons Press

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Milan, Italy

Milan, Italy

Since the beginning of the school year, freshman Alex Zawitkowski has been asked to say the words, “California” and “spaghetti” hundreds of times. Why? People like to hear his Italian accent.

Alex lived in San Diego for eleven years before moving to Milan, Italy in 2007. Growing up with an Italian mother, and a father half-Italian, half-Ukrainian, the desire to live in Italy inspired the family, including Alex’s sister Tasha (now a senior at Cathedral Catholic) to move. The family returned to San Diego two months ago.

As reported by Alex, “pizza, soccer, and friends” consumed his three-year experience in Milan. Aspiring to become a professional soccer player, Alex played for an Italian club team, and attended games at Milan’s San Siro Stadium. His favorite team to watch was the Internazionale Milano.

“School was harder in Italy because I didn’t know Italian, and I had to learn it,” said Alex. He enrolled in an extremely small school of around seventy students. There, Alex, already fluent in Spanish and Ukrainian, learned Italian and French.

Describing the differences between Italy and America, Alex emphasized Italy’s social atmosphere of soccer, “People in Italy are a lot more into soccer than in the U.S. I learned more about soccer there than I did here.”

Also, the driving age in Italy is 18 while the drinking age is 14.  At this, Alex said that one of his favorite Italian memories was going to a nightclub.

According to Alex, another significant difference was the country’s means of expression, and culture.  “In Italy, people usually like to say bad words a lot. They like to tick you off a little bit,” said Zawitkowski, laughing.

Alex said the streets in Milan are much more dangerous than those in San Diego. Nodding his head, he said, “A lot of fights in Italy, a lot of fights.” He said the culture is generally accustomed to frequently-occurring brawls, and the police are more lenient with fighting than American police.

This winter, Alex plans to visit Milan for two weeks. In terms of establishing a residence in the country as an adult, Alex said, “I’ll probably return to Italy, but I’d like to stay in San Diego right now.”

“I like the beach, the sun, and the way people interact here. They’re nice, and funnier over here,” said Alex, who enjoys the soft, sandy shores, in comparison to the rocky beaches of Milan.

“He’s getting used to things here,” said freshman Belle Rosenberger, a classmate and friend. “At first, you could tell he didn’t know a lot of common stuff. Like, he didn’t know who Lindsay Lohan was.”

After the word got out that Alex was from Italy, his “Italian persona” intensified in the eyes of many students. “Knowing that he is Italian, the way he acts and speaks now just reminds me of Italy,” said freshman Erica Roloff.

“Here, people call me Mario, because I’m small, and Italian,” said Alex, who dressed up as the video game character on Halloween.

“Literally, if you drew a mustache and gave him a red plumber’s hat to wear, he would be Mario,” said Roloff.

When asked if getting so much attention for being from Italy offended him, he shook his head smiling, “No, it doesn’t bother me.”

“He’s really nice. If you ask him to, he’ll speak a sentence of Italian for you, it’s really cool,” said Rosenberger.

“He’ll say California as much as you want,” added freshman Erica Roloff.

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Milan, Italy