Alloraaa

Okay, it's the middle of June. About every 5.2 seconds I am thinking about how I must leave Italy, the country that I have lived and known for 9 months. I'm cramming time in with everyone, but also it's summer so I have a lot of downtime.

Thinking about my life in the USA is almost like a dream. I can't imagine taking a CAR! I can't imagine not walking everywhere! Seeing all these big commercial company's every direction I turn my head.

I'm so thankful I got the chance to come to Italy. I've grown so much as a person. I can't imagine going back to the USA and being the same person I was. I learned a lot about myself and how to think for myself and I'm still trying to find my own idea's on things.

The first week of June, I went to AFS camp. It was crazy. I liked the nights more than the days. And the volunteers were probably the coolest volunteers I've ever met. We did lot's of games during the days, and talking about everything from families to politics. The food was pretty great, now. I haven't been eating meat a lot lately and I noticed eating it now is a bit gross, that was the only downside of the food, there was a good amount of meat.

I'll miss all of those exchange students. I learned a lot from them. I got to see a lot of different views in people. I love it.

About a week after AFS camp, school ended. I drank wine in class with my religion teacher, which I thought was pretty cool, but apparently it's not that unusual. As soon as I got out of the school, it was chaos. Red wine got sprayed on me. Everyone was throwing wine everywhere, drinking out from the bottles. Also water was thrown everywhere. People were honking their cars, playing their music really loud, and standing up in the cars screaming. I wish it was a bit like this in the USA. Italians are really passionate. I'm sad I didn't get pictures, but I think this is something that couldn't be explained through a photo.

This first week of summer is going by a bit slow. Which is good on a lot of levels. I hope to go to the seaside to swim and to visit my friend, go see a few more things, but all in all I am happy with all I have seen and experienced.

I know if I could go back and change a few things, I would. But I can't, and I think everything happens for a reason.

Long time No Post..

Okay, where to start, where to start? I'm sorry those who actually read my blog! Soooo much has been going on and time has been going by faster and faster!

Anyways I will start with March. March was a time of sadness and confusion. I had a lot of problems, but in the end I grew a lot more as a person. And I am still trying to change for the better.

Also during March I went to Sassari, Sardegna. It was .. the only way I can describe it, bellissima. I had a lot of fun even though I still had problems going on, with host family, and other things. I had an amazing family there in Sardegna. It was warm, the sea was beautiful, and I met a lot of interesting people. Went to discos, which are 100000000 times better than in the north. And saw the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I definitely want to return again.

When I got back from Sardegna I changed host families. My Italian quickly improved, because in my previous family no one was ever around much and there weren't many situations where I needed to talk. I was reluctant to change, but in the end I didn't realize everything could be like this. Different, but in a good way I didn't expect. I wish I changed a bit earlier, for the sake of my language skills.

My Papa works in Genova. So he is here on the weekends and Thursday nights. He is really funny and I get along with him really well. My Mamma is always cleaning or cooking or working. She is really easy to talk to, and really comical, like my host Papa. She talks to her cats often and my room here is filled with cat books, cat pictures, cat decorations etc. My host sister Valeria is 16 and very into school. She's very talkative and going to go to Germany for 3 months next year. My other host sister, Irene, is 13 and is in love with the Jonas brothers. She is really funny, often drawing, or singing some absurd rap song with a great likeness of a gangster. All together the family is great. I love them so much and already they know a lot about me and I about them.

With AFS in the past month I went to Genova, a pretty big seaside town. I saw the aquarium, which was rumored to be fantastic, but I found it just alright. I had more fun just being with the people and walking around the streets. The architecture was beautiful. So open, and bright.

I also went to Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. It was great, such a romantic town. Every time you went anywhere near a bridge there were locks. Locks and locks and locks. To explain, there is a book, I think it is called 'Tre Mitri Sopra Il Cielo' where the main characters, to show their love, secure a lock near a bridge with their names on it, and throw the key in the river. It's terribly romantic. And everywhere in that city there was all sorts of devoted love graffiti. Teenage things. Very cute. We went to Juliet's house. Touched her bosom for good luck. Wrote the name of my loverboy on the wall, among all the other names upon names of other couples.

Then we went to Venice. The. Most. Beautiful. City. EVER. I couldn't even believe I was there. After seeing everything on TV so many times. But there it was. Perfectly preserved. Exactly like the photos. We walked around. Bought masks. Joked around. Again, the people I shared the experience with made it that much better. There was everything. Boats, beautiful people, tourists upon tourists, water, masks, coffee, burger king (what.).

Lately, I have been trying to not look at the calendar and enjoy my time. It is hard to know that soon the people you know so well will soon become people you knew. I can't bear to leave some people. Before all of my heart and mind was in America. The first months, I was just thinking there, that the people here aren't really my friends, people I know, etc. A weird thing to think, I know. But now, they are all people I know. My friends, people I am so close with. All of me is here in Italy. My mind, my heart. I'll be so torn apart to leave.

Ciaooo Raga!

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 !