Messina!!!!

Ciao a tutti!! Hello to everyone!
I am now in Messina. It is my third full day here and I am having a wonderful time. :) I officially left home last Tuesday, so I suppose that this is my one week update. The flight to New York from Portland was rather boring. I was sitting by myself by the window. I did like looking out of it and seeing Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Manhattan Island. That was really fun. I have never seen the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge from the air before. At the airport, I managed to find my bag and get myself to the courtesy car pick up area. The van came and picked me and at whisked me off to my hotel. Fortunately for me, the hotel I stayed at was the same one that I had my orientation at. I did not, therefore, have to switch hotels. It was incredibly boring sitting around my room. All I did was sit on the computer, watch TV, and call my mom. I was kind of afraid to leave my room because I kept having different male staff members hit on me. I'm sorry, but I wasn't in the mood for older men, from New York, to pay attention to me. Plus, I missed home. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't really enjoy being alone.
Orientation in New York was not my favorite. They kept asking if we were nervous and tell us stories to try to warn us of what could happen. The stories only made us more nervous. I made a few friends, none of whom are anywhere near me here in Italy.
When we left New York on Thursday, we took an overnight flight to Zurich, Swizerland. Let me tell you, I didn't sleep a wink. I was wide awake. I even took really bad pictures of Irish cities as we passed over them. My excitement was my own form of caffiene. I watched a movie and talked to people on the way there. When we finally landed in Zurich, at about 8:00 AM (their time), my excitement was literally bursting. I took pictures of Zurich out of the window. We had a four hour layover there, so we all found a spot to hang out. Mind you, there were forty-three of us and two or three chaperones. That was a lot of people to fit into one area. Laura, a friend from Idaho, and I walked around the entire Zurich airport, at least the parts we could without leaving the secure area. Most of the places were chocolate stores, but they also had stores like Armani and Prada. Another thing I noticed was that there was a lot of glass. Anyway, that's not why I am writing. We boarded our plane to Roma and set off. A couple hours later, we landed in Roma. The first thing that hit us was the heat. Rome was hot! We all got our bags, went through customs (which was us walking through doors), and met the Intercultura personnel waiting for us. There, they split us up into two groups the first group left with some students from China, while the second group waited for the group from the Dominican Republic. I was in the second group. We were waiting for a really long time, only to find out that they had missed their flight. Then, we had to wait until a bus came to pick us up. All in all, we were late to the orientation in Roma. The 30 minute drive to get to the hotel took us 2 hours. I didn't really mind though. I was happy taking pictures out of the window of the bus. :) :) I saw my first pomegrante tree! At the hotel, we unloaded our baggage and checked into our room. I had two roommates; one was from Wisconson and her name was Manda, while the other one was from Alaska and her name was Katie. All three of us took showers before dinner. Before dinner, there was some time for us to mill around a meet some other students from all over the globe. I met so many people. During dinner, I sat with Americans and Germans. It was really great being able to talk to them. For our first meal in Italy, we had lasagne! :) I love lasagne! Actually, I love Italy and everything that has to do with it. After dinner, we all congregated inside of a behemouth white tent for a big welcome get together. Then, they split everyone into groups depending upon where they were staying. The Americans had to stay together, though, because we were late. We had our own little orientation. It wasn't much. That night was...interesting. My roommate, Katie, left our room to go smoke. As it turned out, she was also drinking...a lot. So, a girl from the room she was in came and slept on her bed.
Then next day was just everyone heading off to their host families. I left at 2:30 in the afternoon, so I had to sit around and say goodbye to most everyone else. I met a girl from India who was interesting to talk to and a few people who are also here in Messina. The plane ride to Catania, Sicily took less than an hour. During that time, I became friends with a couple of girls from New Zealand, tried Finnish candy (disgusting!!!!like licorice, but stronger), and tried Italian candy (delicious!). When we grabbed our bags and were heading out of the door to meet our host families, I was so nervous. I was literally shaking and thinking that I really couldn't do this. I was wrong though. When I got out of the doors, I recognized Maurizio, my host father, immediately. He was standing there waiting for me. :) He said ciao and did the double kiss greeting thing that all Italians do and told me that the rest of the family was waiting further on. When I got to them, Federico (brother) was holding up a sign with my name on it. Roberta (mother) and Agnese (sister) were standing there too. I knew that I would love being with them the second that I saw them. They are so warm and friendly. They barely had to do a thing before I felt at home.
There was an hour long drive from Catania to Messina, so I got to see part of Sicily by night. That didn't do much. I did get to witness Italian driving first hand though. They must have a secret death wish. They drive so fast. At one point, we were driving 140 km/h. That is fast. Also, no one in my family wears seat belts. It is unheard of. When I got here, they gave me a tour of their house. We immediately went out for dinner. We had foccacia, which is like pizza but on foccacia bread. It was DELICIOUS!!!! Then, we walked in front and into the Duomo. It is an absolutely gorgeous cathedral. Federico and I then bought gelato. OH MY GOODNESS! I AM IN HEAVEN! We had the speciality from Messina. It tasted just like Nutella, but better and it had panna (Italian cream). That was the end of my small bit in Messina.
Day 1: Sunday
On Sunday, we all went out for granitas for breakfast. They are my new favorite breakfast foods. My favorite so far is granita di limone con brioche. Basically, it is a lemon flavored water ice, in which you dip your brioche into. YUMM! My mouth is actually watering as I think about that. I just ate lunch too. Then, we went to the tennis club. There, Agnese, Federico, and I swam in the pool. After that, Federico and I went to the sea and swam there. He was literally immediately stung by a jellyfish, so we headed back to shore. We came back home to eat lunch. Every day after lunch, we all have a quiet time for a few hours. During this time, we can do anything. We can sleep, we can study, we can watch TV...you get the idea. Later that evening, we went to a birhtday party. It was their cousins third birthday. I got to meet the entire family. Their nonna (grandmother) kept saying to me "Bella, Bella, Bella" :) It was acutally a fun party. I enjoyed it. I made a bracelet there.
Day 2: Monday
Monday was Agnese's first day of school. She left early in the morning. Roberta also left because she had to go to her school. Maurizio was on the computer here in the house and Federico was still asleep. I spent a lot of time reading my Italian grammar book. Maurizio came and found me and tried to get me to eat. He also woke Federico up. Instead, Federico and I left and had granita at the bar again. After that, we came back home, grabbed their cat, Crash, and got into the car with Roberta, who had returned. We drove across the city to the vet where Crash had to get a shot. That took a little while. After that, we drove back to the house and dropped the cat off. Federico and I walked to Agnese's school to say hi. I met a few of her friends, which was nice. All we did was say hello. Federico and I walked a ways until we got to a good vantage point for me to take a picture of the Liberty Statue. To my utter dismay, he then forced me to find my way home again without his help. I am proud to say that I did it with only one hint from him. When we got home, it was lunch time and Agnese returned from school. We had our quiet break and then headed off to the tennis club. Federico played tennis, while I hung out with another exchange student (Tobias, from Germany) and his host mother and brother. We played some ping pong. My skills have gone way downhill. We were at the club for a very long time. I think it was until about 9 PM. I watched people play. Suddenly, Federico asked me to play. I was playing tennis on clay courts in jeans. I actually didn't do that bad for wearing jeans and not playing for a couple of weeks. Then, Federico, his friend Christian, and I hit a tennis ball around between the three of us. Maurizio pulled me away and took me home. He took me home on his motorbike. That was my first time on one and let me tell you, it was so much fun. I'm technically not covered by insurance by riding one, but we didn't find that out until today. Oh well! :) For dinner, Maurizio showed me how to make pizza. It was great fun learning how to do it properly. :) It was delicious too!
Day 3: Today
Today has been kind of long. I woke up this morning and had to go to the immegration office with Maurizio to get my living permit. That took a long time. We were there with all the other students in Messina. There is me, Tobias, Tannelli (Finland), and a girl from Norway. We all went to a bar nearby and had granitas. That was my second breakfast of the morning. :) I have eaten so much food here. It is all so good! Then, Maurizio and I had to go the post office to fill some other things out for my permit. I have to go back on the October 2nd to get the official one. We then drove to an open air market where we bought a whole bunch of fruit. Good thing that I positively adore fruit. Then we drove to the bakery, where we bought bread for today's lunch. When we got home, Maurizio made lunch. It was delicious. Pasta with pesto sauce. We also ate some of the fruit. I now officially love figs. They are so much better here in Messina than they were in Corvallis. Also, I tried another kind of fruit which I think if the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. It is delicious too! Later today, Federico is playing in a tennis tournament and I am going to go watch. For dinner, we are meeting all of the other AFS students and their families and our liasion for pizza. :) Basically, I eat everything and anything. My family loves that I am not afraid to try foods.
So far, I am loving everything about Messina. I have gotten used to the fact that there are cars screaming by our house every hour of the day and night. It doesn't bother me anymore. I love that each morning I wake up the smell of freshly baked sweet breads because there is a bakery pretty much directly below our house. I love the way of life. I love...Italy. I am trying to get the language, but I am nervous to speak it because I don't like making mistakes. It is geting better though, believe me. My family and I get along beautifully and I love them very much. The initial homesickness is wearing off now. I'll keep everyone updated and I will put pictures on soon. I am having a little trouble because the internet connection is somewhat iffy. I never know how long it will last. Anyway, I hope everyone is well. Oh, I almost forgot. I went to my school today because it starts on the 18th. I met some of the staff and I met the principal. They all seemed very nice and happy to have me there. I don't know what level class I will be in, but I am sure that it will be the right one. Another thing that I love about Messina, the Sicilian sun beating down upon me.
Love,
Rebecca