{"id":9505,"date":"2017-01-27T17:43:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9505"},"modified":"2017-01-27T17:43:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T17:43:15","slug":"margherita-belgioco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/27\/margherita-belgioco\/","title":{"rendered":"Margherita Belgioco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through An Artist\u2019s Eye<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

By Jonathan Kane<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Italian
Italian exchange student Margherita Belgioco. Photo courtesy of Margherita Belgioco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Margherita Belgioco has many passions, including painting, fashion, tennis, piano and astronomy. The Italian exchange student arrived in the Wood River Valley on Aug. 27, 2016, and will say her goodbyes on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

At Wood River High School, Margherita has carried an ambitious academic course load, including precalculus, U.S. history, French 7, Advanced Placement Physics and Language and Composition, art and botany.<\/p>\n

From Bologna, Italy\u2014a sophisticated and ancient mid-sized city\u2014Belgioco applied for an exchange program, but had no say over her destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cA family chose me,\u201d she said. \u201cI could have gone anywhere. That\u2019s the fun part.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can do everything and anything in Bologna,\u201d Margherita said. \u201cThe point is having time. Sometimes it can be boring because you are doing the same things over and over, so I wanted to come to the U.S. and have a different life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little scared when I found out I was going to Idaho. It\u2019s small and there are not a lot of opportunities, but the place doesn\u2019t matter\u2014it\u2019s the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living in the mountains wasn\u2019t the issue; every year Margherita goes to Austria to hike and ski.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was going to be a new experience, so I just decided to get my act together and make the best of it. I knew there would be things to overcome, so I prepared myself psychologically. Making friends turned out to be a little difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Margherita, Italians are much more open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to hug and kiss,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cPeople here are more closed and can be a little cold, so it\u2019s difficult to get to know them and build relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she is primarily a city girl.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I didn\u2019t like it, but now I love it here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so quiet and peaceful, like taking a breath of fresh air. It\u2019s a total change of life and that\u2019s what I wanted. Now I have many friends and I\u2019ve made strong ties and I love my host family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The beauty of the late summer and fall won her over, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing\u2014like a painting. I was able to take a lot of photographs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margherita also loves to paint and was able to pursue that passion while she was here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always painted, beginning in elementary school. I was the girl that the teacher asked to make posters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margherita started with hand paints and crayons and then moved into building pieces and painting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I\u2019m into landscapes and whatever I feel like painting. With landscapes, I like the details and like to challenge myself. I\u2019ll paint and then I\u2019ll add to it. It\u2019s all about where to add and to make the painting richer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, she painted a landscape that now hangs in the high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the hardest and most challenging [art project] of my life. It took at least a month longer than usual. I used acrylic paint and painted an Idaho landscape. It\u2019s a painting that I will always cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she does her time in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through An Artist\u2019s Eye By Jonathan Kane Margherita Belgioco has many passions, including painting, fashion, tennis, piano and astronomy. The Italian exchange student arrived in the Wood River Valley on Aug. 27, 2016, and will say her goodbyes on Feb. 4. At Wood River High School, Margherita has carried an ambitious academic course load, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-schools","7":"category-sponsored","8":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}