Middle of January... WHAT?

Okay I have been meaning to update for awhile. Sorry ya'll.

First I'll start off with the New Year. It was probably the most epic New Years of my life by far. My Italian boyfriend had been in Israel for 9 days before, and he was expected to arrive at the party I was at later that night. Right as we were popping the champagne for the New Year he busted through the doors. I was so happy and it was a great way to ring in the New Year!!

My Italian Stallion and I -------------->>

After January 1st we still had a week left

of vacation from school. So I hung out with my friends, my boyfriend, and these two cool American guys I met about a week before. I love this about exchange, randomly meeting amazing people by chance, and hanging out with them, even though you don't know the next time you will ever see them again.

When school started again, it was nice to get back into routine, but I do miss vacation so much! But it didn't take long to get back into the normal swing of things. Just now time is going by way

to fast. Soon I'll be halfway through my exchange. This is not okay, I don't want this exact time in my life to end. At some points during this exchange I have thought "I just want to fast forward to the part where I go home and I can speak Italian fluently. And I'll have all my experience." but now I have stopped thinking

that. It's more like "Oh no. No no no no no. I don't speak Italian yet, and I am almost to the halfway point. Oh no no no. Time is going to fast. Way way way to fast make it stop."

To the right is a picture on the street of my city. Middle of winter ya'll. And above are two of my darling classmates (:

Anywho that's about it.

Does anyone have any questions or something? Comment please and I will answer.

not a normal post..

Ciao a tutti.

Okay, today I will update you on something that usually isn't in other AFSer's giddy little blogs. This will be about the emotional rollercoaster that exchange puts you on. I've spoken about this a little before, but not really in depth.

First of all, there is a ton of pressure from everyone for me to learn my host language. Teachers, adults, students, friends, sisters, and random strangers like to lecture me about how I suck at Italian and how I need to learn it. I know this, I came here to learn Italian. I study Italian in my house.

Host family relationships. Okay, I've grown up a lot since I've came here. I realize that not everyone is going to want me living in their house. It's just something that you have to accept. So, you might have a host sibling that gives you the cold shoulder or sneers at you every time you say something. Also, it's something that I constantly have to work at. Now I am trying to be in the living room more often. If I am just reading a book or on the computer or something. This is sort of new to me and outside my little man-cave-like room. My security blanket.

Also about family, the way everything works in this one is different from my American family. In America, the members in my family are more independent. Like, I make my own lunch, I wash my own dish, I do my own laundry, I clean what I am supposed to, and I get paid an allowance for it. Here, someone makes lunch for everyone, everyone cleans up afterwards, I put my laundry in with everyone else's, when something needs to be done, I should do it without being asked, or if someone needs help, I should help them without them asking and even if they reply "Noooo" to my question of "do you need help with that?". The children get money whenever they ask for it really also. Not better or worse, just different from my American family. Takes some getting used to.

Other relationships. Friends, boyfriend, and other exchange friends. These are my social groups. There are little subcircles, but thats the general idea. Basically I am trying to hang out with new people, anyone, all the time. Just my only problem now is thinking,' yeah this is fun now but, when I'm gone in 7 months I won't see them ever again.' I have to stop thinking this. Because if I was going to think like this, what was the point of going on exchange anyways? I know I'm going to come back to Italy a lot. Because, what, I'm going to learn Italian, and never visit Italy?

Okay, I will have a more practical and happy post soon.

A presto.

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.