More about this last month!

This month was really filled with a lot of things. At the beginning/middle of February, right after I changed my family, there was Carnavale. Carnavale is a time of festivities here in Italy where it is like a crazier version of Halloween. In fact, I prefer Carnavale to Halloween. The only problem is that I didn't do anything for Carnavale. Absolutely nothing. My classmates had talked about going to Aceriale (spelling is questionable here), but that never happened. At Aceriale, apparently there is a huge party for days. There are muscians, food, floats....you name it. Some of the floats are even made out of flowers. Here in Messina, nothing happens at Carnavale. It is very short here, only a few days, whereas in other cities, it can be more like two weeks. I saw very few children dressed up for Carnavale and there was only a small vacation from school. I saw a little bit of the Venitian Carnavale celebration on the television, but that was the most exciting that it got. It was almost like it didn't exist here. I feel like I missed out on a big, important holiday here. I know that I will just have to come back here some time and experience Carnavale for all of its' splendor. Another holiday that just happened was the "festa delle donne". It is a holiday where Italian's celebrate the liberation of women. Meaning that women were granted the same rights as men. Soon, it will be Easter.....April 4th. In this time period, most of my friends have given up on something to eat or do for the next month. One has given up on eating sweets for example. It is something that I have never done, but it is interesting to see it more prominently and up close here. With school, nothing happened...really. I have only been interrogated in English...the easiest thing that I could be interrogated in. I did finally get my English books though. Finally, another new favorite food is crepes. I know that they are french and they are pretty much everywhere, but they are here in Italy, and people eat them a lot. Also, I now officially know how to cook them and let me tell you, making a crepe flip in the air and land back in the pan has a very satisfying feeling. Anyway, I know that i am forgetting things, but I will write them when I remember.

Love, Rebecca