Christmas and Cottage

Christmas here was interesting and different. I woke up to my host parents telling me to come out. I rolled out of bed and like the proper American I am I went out to open presents in my ratty pajamas. Of course the rest of the family was showered and all dressed up. I realized when everyone opened my gifts that I gave every member of my family edible. But that's good I suppose! I got a hair straightener, necklace, and a scarf from my family. It was very nice and thoughtful of them (:

The day after Christmas I went out with all my exchange friends which was really fun. Hiromi invited some other people involved with AFS, which included an Australian who was here 4 years ago, and a kid who brought his cousin and his friend, who are from Indiana! We all had fun, we went to a pizzeria, a pub, then Jamaica. It was a lot of fun! I now realize how much I like meeting new people now. I used to hate it!

The next day I went with my family to their cottage in the mountains.

It was possibly one of the

most beautiful things I have ever seen. I couldn't believe my eyes. They have a cottage on top of the mountain. It feels like it was on top of the world. It was completely cold and snowy. Mostly while I was there I stayed indoors, slept, read, and listened to music. There wasn't much else to do. It was more of a place to relax and bond with family. Everyone is going skiing tomorrow, but I left early so I can go to Milano tomorrow!

So for a few days I'm spending the night at a friends while my family is in the mountains.

Now I am just waiting for New Years! I'm not quite sure what I am doing yet. If I don't figure it out soon I suppose I'll be hanging out with my awesome classmates (:

Make sure to check my youtube channel and my photos for more things !

Migliore Tempo in Ivrea (:

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! Time seems to be going both really slow and really fast? Confusing. But I'll write a nice thick post for everyone. And make sure to check "my photos" because I've just updated it (:

Dallas left. My host sister, Miki seems to be a little sad. I don't blame her though. We're kind of very different people and she often gets annoyed at me. Sometimes I really dislike her and other times I am so grateful to have her.

The fact that Dallas is gone was first weird.

Because it felt a little empty. And after spending 3 months with someone I had never met before.. you know I really miss him he was like my older funny brother I'd never had. But I know I will see him again!!

Lately I've been trying to be out of the house as often as possible. I can't stand just sitting at home anymore! So now usually I am out with my boyfriend ( :P ), my exchange friends, or my classmates.

I've grown closer to my classmates. I love them so much! Their Italianess, their humor, the way they blare their discotecca music during gym class and dance like nobody is watching. Or like everybody is watching.. I'm not sure. ;D As I have mentioned before, they dance extremely crazy here. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Click here to see a video that demonstrates how they dance.

A few nights ago I went to a class dinner with my whole class. We went to a Chinese restaurant. It was a lot of fun!! (:

Tomorrow I will go to a disco party with my class, I can't wait!!

It's snowing here in Ivrea. It's wayyy to cold :'( I have to wear 2 jumpers when I go out. And also my socks are SOAKED. Also since snow isn't really usual here, all my friends love to have snowball fights.

General Update

I am just giving a general update..

Nothing special has gone on since the manifestazione.

Yesterday night (Saturday night) I went with my host sister, Dallas, and some

friends to Aosta, a little city about an hour away. We went because some of

my host sister's friends are really into rap, and there was a free concert.

It was really good, but I couldn't understand much. But my friend said that

this was better because the rap was horrible, all they were singing about was how they

were singing rap. Haha.

Today is basically a recovery day. I stayed up til 3AM last night, and I am

a person who generally likes to sleep. I mean, I take naps here everyday. Something

about being in a foreign country makes you extremely tired.

On a completely unrelated note, it seems like here, the sun goes down way earlier

than usual. At 3pm theres already long shadows cast on the ground. And by like

4 it starts getting dark! This is craziness.

School has been going pretty good. It is extremely, extremely boring at times

though. I am beginning to like my classmates more and more. They are crazy, and they

can always make me laugh. Even if I come to school with a scowl on my face, they'll have

me laughing within ten minutes.

My Italian. Eh I am getting extremely worried. While I am understanding more

and more, my talking skills are still somewhat, bad. But I mean, today, I could

almost understand everything that was being said during lunch. I am also

studying at home now. Learning a new language is really a pro-active and

hard thing, even if you are in the country.

It's also bad that people will speak english to me all the time. Even if

I start a conversation in Italian, I'll get a reply in English. Partly because

my Italian was probably so bad. I also think some people can look at me and

just guess that I don't speak Italian well.

Manifestazione

A few days ago I went to Turin for a manifestazione. That means a protest. I had never seen anything like it before. Maybe on the news once in a while, but in America these things aren't that common.

We woke up at 6 in the morning, met a bunch of people from school at the station, rode the train for an hour, and finally we reached Turin.

At first it seemed like there weren't going to be any people there. Which was a little disappointing. But as soon as we all started to get ready to march down the streets, I realized there were actually a lot of people!

There were signs, police, megaphones, and cameras. It wasn't a riot or anything, but still I thought it was pretty intense.

We all marched and chanted. We marched and chanted to the news cameras. At one point they started a fire in the middle of the street with a bunch of papers. This made me a little uneasy and I kind of stood back for that one. It was a lot of what you see in the news.

It was for, among other things, to get more money for schools. But like I said it was for a lot of different things. There were also university students and factory workers there. All in all I'm not sure if it made much of a impact. But to make a difference, you have to try.

You can't just sit back at home and wait for things to change. You have to get out there and try to make it happen.

That's one other thing I've learned since being here.

Leaves are falling...

Two months since I left Traverse City, Michigan.

Two months without my family or my friends.

Two months without the luxury of familiarity.

So odd... the first two weeks I was here it was like

hell on earth... and now I don't want to leave..

I already feel like I've changed so much. Thinking now that when

I'm finished with all of this I have to go back to high school in

America and be a kid again. What? I'm adult aren't I?

I feel like one. And going back to be a senior is a strange

thought. I don't even want to think about it.

Who knew that in a couple few months you could make

yourself something in a place where you had absolutely nothing.

Moving on... let me talk more about my life as of now.

Wake up, get ready, greet the baker as me and my host sister walk out

onto our street, walk to school, arrive late, sit down, try to follow, get tired,

try not to sleep, meet my friend at break, wait til school's over, come home,

eat, and find something to do.

Finding something to do... sometimes quite a task, other times I feel like

I am doing something every day.

For Halloween I went to a party. It was pretty epic. I had a lot of fun!

Here there were many things to do. There were discos and such dedicated

to Halloween. On my way to the party I saw about 2 trick or treaters. It's

not really something you do here.

My weeks are usually me just waiting for Saturday, by far the best night of the week.

Sundays are usually lazy and nothing much happens.. We usually will go to

nonna's and nonno's house for lunch.

However this Sunday I may be going to Turin with all the other exchange

students in my chapter. (To the Right)

Ciao - out.

AFS Camp!

I just got back from the AFS Camp, for the Piemonte region.

It was all the students from all over the world, meeting together for one

long and crazy weekend. I had a lot of fun.

We played a lot of team building games. A lot of them involved kissing people on the cheek. Then we also met in small groups and discussed home life and everything.

Like problems we might be

having and such. We wrote them down and stuck them onto a large piece of paper then we talked about them. As you can see, exchange students take life extremely seriously. ---->

It was nice seeing everyone again. I missed speaking really fast english!

We went on a walk the second day and we went looking for chestnuts. It was really nice and pretty! When we all got back they roasted chestnuts for us and as we ate them we all talked and some people played football.

Two nights in a row, I stayed up until 4AM, and I had to wake up at 7:30. I do not regret it one bit though!

Now I am back in Ivrea. My life has now fallen into a normal pattern. School, Italian lessons, hanging out with friends. But this doesn't mean it's boring! Every day I do think "wow, I am living in Italy." I love life here.

Here is a clip from yesterday that I recorded after Italian lessons!

Rafting/Rock Climbing/Bars/Discos

Well, a lot has happened!

These past few weeks have been filled with rafting and climbing cliffs!

Haha, sounds pretty cool, but it wasn't that extreme. I love my local chapter, here

in Ivrea. It's REALLY good.

Rafting was very fun. It wasn't like white water rafting, it was more like all paddling together,

and trying not to get banked on a sand bar. But the view was AMAZING. We were right in the mountains, and when we ended, we were back in

Ivrea!

In this picture, you can't really see the amazing view... But these are all the spectacular exchange students.. and then some (:

Then this last week, I went rock climbing! I thought, up until we got there, that we were going to climb a rock wall, with all the fun colored rocks glued to a wall.. Haha not the case. It was actually

a cliff. I was like, alright, cool! We were up in the

mountains (again, BEAUTIFUL! I love the mountains!) and it was very windy. But I had a lot of fun. There were a few difficult parts, but it was pretty easy, anyone could do it!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this on here. My host sister, Michela, went on exchange to the USA last year through AFS. While she was there, she got a boyfriend, Dallas, who has been living with us since September 20th until November 1st, but he might be staying longer. So I have a unofficial, american, host brother. This is kind of an unusual case, but I like having another person who is going through a lot of the same stuff I am, and in the same house!

So we all hang out a lot. On the weekends, we usually go to a bar, like Jamaica. Jamaica is a bar

that everyone goes completely gaga over.

I have to admit it is a pretty chill place. There's

like little tree house like things inside that people all sit on the ground in.. It's kind of hard to explain, but it is very cool, and the decorations

are outrageous!

The picture above pretty much describes the relationship between me, Miki, and Dallas. It was taken at Jamaica, good times!

Any who, after going to the bar, we would probably hit up Sugho. Sugho is a disco that everyone tweaks out about. Honestly, the first few weeks I was here, all I heard was "ARE YOU GOING TO SUGHO!?" haha. The funny thing is, I've been there twice and I haven't once been inside. Lot's of people here just hang outside of the disco's. Which is nice because I sometimes rather just talk than pay 5 euros to shout over the music. I'll update you as soon as I know what the disco's are like on the inside!

As for the language goes. Ah everyone talks to me in English. And especially because my host sister went to USA and Dallas is here, it's hard to speak Italian at home. But I am starting to pick up bits of what's going on in conversations. One baby step at a time. (:

That's all for now, ciao!