CARNEVALE DI IVREA

Time? Middle of February. Place? Ivrea. Smell of excitement in the air. Smell of the anticipation of the return of an old battle. What battle? The battle of the oranges!!

For weeks my little city of Ivrea has been preparing for the Carnival. As in putting up nets all over the city, and posters and flags, and parades!

The first day of Carnival was rather like Halloween. Everyone dressed up and made their way to the centre of the city. There there was a ton of people dancing to music and partying. There was so much life. Everyone was happy and it was crazyness! This was probably the best night of the whole carnival in my opinion. I've never seen anything like it!

Then again the day after was the same thing, except everyone dressed up in their teams uniforms. Again it was very fun (: So many memories made!

Then came the orange battle. For 3 days. This was pure crazyness. Right outside my house there was a battle. Even if you were wearing your little red cap to indicate you were innocent, you still had to watch out because oranges flew everywhere! It didn't matter if you were throwing or not. At one point, i was standing behind the 'safety' net and a orange came and whipped me in the stomach. haha. During the Carnival they served hot sweet wine. It was really tasty.

Everyone would stop throwing at random points and start screaming "munyaya!" I definitely think I spelled that wrong but it's pronounced 'moon-ya-ya' which means the orange queen was coming. Everyone took pictures of her and shook her hand. Also when there were parades during the battle, everyone stopped and got candy that the queen and little princesses and princes threw at the crowd.

After each battle everyone was covered in orange. Everyone. Their hair was dripping wet. Even after I had taken a shower I still found pieces of orange in my hair. People tended to wear their orange mess as a badge of honor. The streets were absolutely covered in oranges. Or more like really pulpy orange juice. So many oranges, and the street outside my house was the worst. Walking the oranges went half way up my calf. Yum.

After it was all said and done, I was a little sad. But then I realized I will probably be coming back to this Carnival for years to come!

I will update more I promise ya'll! (:

The smell of Orange is almost in the air...

Howdy...

Nothing much has changed since I last posted. Only now I am getting more and more frustrated with the Italian language as time passes on. I want to scream. I know I can do more.. I just... can't. It's hard to explain. But I just wish ignorant people will realize soon that I left my friends and family and comforts and came here to learn a damn language and learn more about the differences and the struggles and the similarities. It's not like I don't want to learn. I'm not stupid, thanks.

Anyways at the end of January I went to Milan with my boyfriend and some other lovely people to go to the Arctic Monkeys concert. That was purely amazing and I had a lot of fun. (: It was pretty crazy and it was the biggest concert I've ever been to. *thank you Francesco, wonderful christmas gift (:

That same week I also went to Aosta with AFS. It was really lovely to see some other AFSers. I love AFSers they are such fascinating people. I could honestly sit and talk with some of them for hours. Which is what I ended up doing, because Aosta was extremely cold, and we went there to look at wood.. Yes, wood. Like wood artwork. It was interesting and I liked the spirit everyone had there. It was really cute.

Tomorrow there is a party for the newest arrival to the Ivrea chapter; Caleb. Another American. I'm glad to have another AFSer but I'm pretty sure this won't help me in my quest to learn Italian ):

Anywho!!!!! NEXT WEEK IS CARNEVALE! HOLY S&%*!

Everyone is basically crapping their pants right now. I have to admit, I am too. There are decorations up all over the city. So beautiful, so epic, so... I don't remember my descriptive english words well, but it's pretty cool. Also there are nets over the buildings to protect them from the epic orange battle that will take place. Also, they put sand all over the streets.. to protect them from the mounds of oranges that will soon lay upon them.

The gist of what I understand is to come is; lots of alcohol, and even more oranges. Let's leave it at that.

Okay so I'll update in a bit. With details of every orange I will see hurdled at innocent people. And details of every innocent person hurdled at oranges.

Ciao - out.

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.