Ciao Italia!

More Pictures!

2010-04-04T18:27:00.003+02:00

In the first picture, I am a little ways south of Livorno with my host family from Pisa. The second one is me standing on the wall around Lucca. The third one is me in Siena. Obviously, the fourth one is the Leaning Tower. The final picture is in front of the tower.

Buona Pasqua!

2010-04-04T17:57:00.005+02:00

First, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Here, we got out of school on Wednesday. In fact, for me, Wednesday wasn't really even a school day. We had the first hour and a half of school. Although it was technically school, we all decided to have a party instead. Party means that people bring food (mainly sweets) and drinks. Since it was for Easter, we had a large Easter egg to open. For Easter, there are large hollow chocolate eggs with surprises inside. I must say that I am a huge fan! Why don't we have things like this? :) Anyway, after school, there was a mass organized for the students of my school. It wasn't obligatory, but I went anyway. It was interesting. Mainly, the students followed everything in the service, but they also carried on their own side conversations. After the service, we walked around and wished everyone we knew a Happy Easter. For a couple hours after that, I was walking around Messina with a couple of friends. We didn't really do anything but go into stores and look around. It was fun though. Today has been a long and tiring day. The day started with a lack of sleep due to our dog that is currently sleeping in our (my sister and I) room. During the night, he was chewing on everything, whining, trying to get our attention...typical dog stuff. We all got up to eat breakfast and at 10, we went to mass. Instead of following the mass, my sister, brother, and I went on a little walk. After the mass, we returned home to prepare the enormous Easter lunch. We had guests coming that were bringing the pasta, but we had to cook the meat, cut up fruit, and make desserts. We made all kinds of things...eggplant parmigiano, lamb, sausages, strawberries and bananas, chocolate flan, and I made a pumpkin pie. The problem was that the pumpkin pie turned out pretty bad. There wasn't anything that I could use to make the pumpkin into a paste and we didn't have any ginger. It turned out to have an ok flavor, a terrible texture, and resembled nothing to a real pumpkin pie. I made one at New Years and it turned out perfectly...this means that it wasn't my fault. I did everything I could. After we ate, my sister and I came into our room to nap off some of the food. Now, we are all just relaxing. Tomorrow, is Pasquetta. It is another day of celebration, but of less importance and is generally spent among friends and family instead of just family.

Settimana di Scambio: Pisa

2010-03-29T14:49:00.002+02:00

Technically, I guess that you could say that I have had two exchange weeks. The only difference is that one occured in my own city. The other one, Pisa, was definitely by far the best! Pisa is gorgeous. I want to go back right now. I want to hop on an airplane and go back. I got back home in Messina pretty late yesterday. It was around 9:30. I didn't have time to do anything. After this long week, I was completely destroyed. When I left last Sunday, I didn't think that I would end up loving Pisa and Tuscany as much as I did. I was also incredibly nervous to meet my week long host family. When Halldis and I arrived at the airport in Catania, we met up with Natalie and Mariana (two girls from Taormina). We all had the same flight to Pisa. We ended up being there around two hours ahead of time, so we were able to relax. We all grabbed something to eat and then headed through security and to our gate. Luckily, I managed to find pignolata at the airport for a gift for my host family. Pignolata is a typical Messinese dessert. Look it up! It is delicious! The flight didn't last long at all. Before I knew it, I was officially in Pisa. My host mother was there to greet me and we headed off home. From the very beginning, it was easy to talk to her. We went on a mini tour of Pisa in the car before heading home. At home, I met my host father and my new host brother. The brother then went out to be with friends. I ended up talking to my host parents for a long time while eating freshly made fruit salad. We all decided to go on a walk of Pisa. We went all around the center of the city and I saw the Tower, Duomo, and Baptistry. It was gorgeous. The weather was somewhat like normal Oregon weather. Gray.....sprinkling....it reminded me of home. We ran into other people from Intercultura who had the same idea to take the students for a walk. I got a gelato too. I have now discovered that pine nut gelato is heavenly. Everyone tried the pignolata that night. Thankfully, they all really liked it. Some people just don't like it, so I was a little worried that no one would enjoy it.

Monday, 22 March
On Monday, I had to wake up early and go to school. Yes, I had to go to school. My host father and I walked there. There, we all had to do a little enrollment process and next thing we knew, we were in our classes. My class, 4th B, was a class of guys. My class here in Messina consists of all girls and three boys. Well, this class in Pisa was all boys and three girls. Immediately, the teachers wanted to give me little things to do, like math and an American history project. It was a rather boring morning, but I met a lot of people. In the afternoon, we were walking around Pisa. Basically, I did the same walk that I had done the day before, but with other detours. It was gorgeous. Pisa is a little city with winding streets. There is also the university there, so there are a bunch of young people. The highlight of the tour was obviously the Tower, Duomo, and Baptistry. We took tons of pictures there. It was raining some, but that didn't stop us. Four of us, myself included, decided to enter into the Duomo and the Baptistry. The Duomo was beautiful. It was immense and highly decorated. The Baptistry, on the other hand, was not heavily decorated. It was very simple, but beautiful. We were inside when the man did the echo demonstration. He basically stands in the middle and sings, but the echo is marvelous. We walked around some more before heading to the train station to be picked up by our families.

Tuesday, 23 March
I went to school again Tuesday. It was even more boring than Monday. I had nothing to do. It was incredibly relieving to get out of there. After school, we headed to Lucca. At Lucca, we walked around. It was beautiful. Lucca is a little medieval town. The streets are all confusing and small. The unique thing about it is that the walls around the city are fully intact. The are huge. After an afternoon of touring around Lucca, we headed to the wall to relax. The Chinese girl that was with us met up with some Intercultura friends from Livorno. They ended up walking around Lucca by themselves. All the rest of us stayed on the walls to play a game (different version of Spin the Bottle....not a kissing one). As it turns out, the Chinese girl ended up getting lost and we ended up missing the first train back to Pisa. We waited for her to basically run back to us. We got back to Pisa later than planned, but it was fun.

Wednesday, 24 March
Wednesday, there was school again. Nothing exciting there. After school, I walked back home to eat lunch. It was my first lunch at home while in Pisa. We had pasta with a tomato sauce that had pancetta and peppers in it. It was spicy and delicious. After eating, then my host mother took me back to the school where all the Intercultura people were to meet up. There was only Luca, the 22 year old president of the chapter. The Chinese girl (can't remember her name because I can't pronounce it) showed up too. As it turns out, the others were at Zara...shopping. Since the people from Livorno were running late, we all headed to Zara to meet up with them. After hanging around talking and shopping, we went to the train station to meet the people from Livorno. They were mostly from Asia, but there were some other Europeans and South Americans. We all, as a group augmented to 22 from 7, headed to the Tower. This time, there was pretty good weather, so I took even more pictures of that whole area. We didn't do much with the people from Livorno because as a larger group, we moved slower. We went back to the station to say goodbye and then were there for another 45 minutes just talking. We went to McDonalds. The people I was with really like McDonalds. I didn't get anything...I just can't do it...even if it is a little different here. When my host mom arrived to pick me up, we went to a mini farmer's market. There, they sell things biologically sound. She bought parmiggiano. They also sold eggs and vegetables. Side note: Pisa is a city that is very "green" conscious. They have bike lanes, they don't use cars too much, they sell biologically sound products, they have Toyota Prius' as taxi's....you get the idea.

Thursday, 25 March
Thursday = Florence! It also equals the longest day ever. We woke up and went to the station. We had to be there by 8. Thankfully, my host mother came with us to Florence. Because she came too, I got a ride to the station. On the train, I was reading the back of a man's newspaper. It was all about the US and the relationship with Israel. I don't hear much news from the US, so I don't really know what is going on. I know about the new health law because it was on the news here. I was also talking to people the whole time. At Florence, we went to a church near the station before heading to the Duomo. I was too excited for the Duomo to pay much attention to this other church, but it was also gorgeous. After a little while, we finally made our way to the Duomo. The first thing you see when you come from the direction that I cam from is the dome. It was rather impressive. When we arrived in the piazza, we immediately saw Alejandro, one of the people who was in Messina for his exchange week. He told us that in this same day, the people from Reggio Emilia and Parma were also going to be there. He had just gotten there early and was waiting for them. Immediately, we all got a little excited because there were people in these places that we had not seen in a long time. Anyway, we all entered into the Duomo. Quite frankly, the Duomo is much prettier from the outside. Inside, it is immense, but not decorated much. There is the fresco in the dome, that is GORGEOUS, but the rest is just master architecture. I loved it! After meandering around there, we all headed outside to see how much it costs to go up to the top of the dome. WE WENT TO THE TOP OF THE DOME! It was 462 stairs all the way to the top. We got to walk around the base of the dome from the inside, immediately under the fresco. It was amazing. Then, there were tons of spiral staircases and curved staircases and staircases within tight walls to get to the top of the dome. From the inside, you can kind of see how they built the dome. It really is fascinating. From the top of the dome, you can see all over Florence. Thankfully, it was also a beautiful day. Too keep this from getting too long, I will abbreviate the day. We went to the Boboli Garden and we walked over the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). We walked all over the place. My feet were hurting that is how much we walked. While we were eating lunch outside of the Boboli Garden, we saw all of the other Intercultura students doing the same thing. We all mixed and mingled. I saw Tobias from Messina...he was in Parma. I also saw my friend Laura from Idaho. We hadn't seen each other, let alone talked to each other since September. After lunch, we split up. There was a group that wanted to do shopping and another that wanted to see more of Florence. I was in the group that wanted to see more of Florence. I wanted to do shopping too, but hey....I was in Florence for one day. We walked around and went into another church. The name was something like Santa Croce. Anyway, this is the church where the cloisters are made by the same person who made the dome on the Duomo. There was also a room with a bunch of stuff made by della Robbia...all the terracotta with the colors. We went back to the station to meet up with the others. When we arrived in Pisa, I went shopping with my host mother and Halldis. We were going to the theatre that night, and I had nothing decent to wear. I bought a pair of shoes and a skirt. When we arrived back home, there was just enough time for me to change and eat dinner. At the theatre, we saw a modern dance. It was a combination of classical and modern. It was interesting. We all got home late.

Friday, 26 March
Friday was the last day with a schedualed trip. We went to Siena. Now, I understand why my English teacher last year talked about Siena so much. It is a beautiful city. We walked around obviously. We went into the Duomo, which is beautiful, and into the baptistry. We also went into a museum of the church. From the museum, we went up onto the roof, where we could see Siena and all the surrounding areas. Rather gorgeous if I do say so myself. At the Piazza del Campo, we hung around and discussed whether we should go up the bell tower or not. We decided against it because we were all really tired. The Piazza del Campo is beautiful. It would be so much fun to go there for the horse races that are held there. After Siena, we headed back to Pisa. Some of us decided to do a little shopping. It turned into more window shopping. I headed back home to find my host mother making crepes. YUM. We had four different kinds: asparagus, shrimp, cheese and prosciutto, and chocolate. :)

Saturday, 27 March
Saturday, I didn't go to school. It was in the plans, but a woman with Intercultura said that if we were really tired, we didn't have to go. Well, I was really, really tired. I didn't actually sleep late because of my natural inability to sleep-in, but was more rested. In the morning, my host mom went to play tennis, while my host father worked at home. I started to prepare my suitcase for the next day. After a while, my host mother came back and we decided to go for a turn around the city. She wanted to go on bikes, but because I am not used to bikes, we decided to go on foot. We walked around for a while. I saw places in Pisa that tourists wouldn't usually see. We took a bunch of little backroads. We ran into Eugenia, the woman with Intercultura, and we walked around with her. We went to another little biological market, where they sold everything from jewelry and shoes to honey, apples, and meat. There were little markets all over the city. We then headed back home to make lunch. After lunch, we lounged around for a bit before heading to Livorno. Because my host father works at Livorno, he really wanted to take me there. My host brother stayed home because he already had plans with friends. In fact, the entire week he was basically out of the house. He was always with friends or his girlfriend. We drove to Livorno. We went a little further south so that I could see the fantastic coast line. At Livorno, we walked along a long walkway right next to the water. We also stopped at a little piazza on the water dedicated to a composer Livornese. There, a man from Kenya tried to sell us things. He handed my host father a little elephant and put a bracelet on my wrist. He said they were gifts, but we knew that he was going to ask for some money too. In the end, they did end up being gifts. He even gave us another bracelet for my host mother. Another thing about Livorno was that there was this insane wind. It was strong! After the piazza, we went to a little section that was modeled after Venice. It doesn't look anything like Venice (not that I have been there, but I have seen pictures), but it has the canals going on. We also walked around a big old fortress. When we arrived back in Pisa, we looked up an apple pie recipe to see if there was time to make one before going to dinner, but there wasn't. We all ate in a pizzeria for dinner. There were in total 24 of us. The pizza was ok, but I must say that pizza from Southern Italy is much, much better. Dinner started at 8:30, but it didn't end until about 11:30. Then, we Intercultura students went with Luca and another volunteer to another area of Pisa. There, some people went into the discoteca and others walked around and went to a bar. The whole evening ended at around 2. I arrived home at 2. It turns out that that was really 3. The hour changed at 2 and went ahead one hour. I didn't get much sleep that night.

Sunday, 28 March
I didn't do much of anything on Sunday. In the morning, I prepared all of my things and was ready to go by 1o. I went grocery shopping with my host mom and bought Tuscan salame for my family here in Messina. A fascinating thing about the grocery store we were at was that there was this little electronic device that scanned the bar codes of every item you put in the cart and kept track of your total spendings. Then, at the check-out, the person only looked at this device to see the total and you pay. It was interesting. After we arrived home and put away all the groceries, I went with her to vote for the governor. After voting, we came home to eat an early lunch. After that, I said goodbye to my host brother and headed off to the airport with my parents. Mariana, Natalie, and I all got seats next to each other, but Halldis was separate because she was late. I checked my bag this time because it seemed bigger. I didn't want there to be any problems on the airplane. I was too tired. In the airport, we ended up seeing one of the volunteers that was with us that past week. The airplane to Catania was nice and short. At the airport, we had to wait for about 45 minutes just to get our baggage. The fun thing is though that....50 Cent was there! Yup! Since he has a concert in Catania, he was at the airport with his crew getting all of their luggage. For all of you that want to know, he was really close to where we were. When we left the airport, Natalie and Mariana both went together towards Taormina with Natalie's father. Halldis and I went to buy tickets to Messina on the bus. As it turns out, we had to wait until 7:10 to get the bus. We had almost 2 hours to wait. We ended up getting a snack and talking for two hours strait. The bus took about 2 hours to get to Messina. Then, her host father drove me home. My host parents had car issues and couldn't come and get me. It ended up being a long, long day.

This week there are only three days of school and then we are on Easter break. :)

Update soon! Love, Rebecca

Settimana di Scambio: Messina

2010-03-19T16:34:00.002+01:00

Here in Messina, this past week was the exchange week (settimana di scambio = exchange week). It was amazing!!!! I can't even begin to explain the feeling through words. It has been a long, tiring week, but it has been completely worth it.

Sunday, March 14th
On Sunday, after eating a huge lunch with our aunt and uncle, we walked to the lake here at Ganzirri. We sat there for a while waiting for other Intercultura people to show up. We took pictures and had a good time talking. Eventually, everyone showed up. There was all five of us from Messina (I don't remember if I said on here that there is a new girl from Panama here in Messina. She is here for six months) and all of the students here for the exchange week. There was a girl from Quebec, a girl from Turkey, a girl from Norway, a boy from Costa Rica, a girl from Finland, and a boy from the Dominican Republic. We were quite a group. We were just talking the whole time. After a good amount of time had passed, people migrated to a bar to get an ice cream or a granita. After they had eaten, we hopped in cars and went to Pilone. Pilone is a beach here at Ganzirri where there is a huge tower to transfer electricity to Calabria and the other way around. It is literally the tip of Sicily that you see near Messina. It is beautiful there. We were on the beach for a while, but it became cold. After a while, we all went home.

Monday, March 15th
On Monday, we all met at my school at 8:30 in the morning. There, we went up to the highest floor for an Intercultura meeting. There, I ran into people from my class and people from other classes that I have gone in. We watched a movie about Messina the city and Messina the province. It was rather informative, even though it was hard to understand. It wasn't a language issue at all...it was a technical issue. You know when the talking is all fuzzy? Yeah, that is what it was like. After that, we played a game. There were pieces of paper with the names of our countries written on them. Everyone had to put sticky notes on the pieces of paper saying the first thing that they could think of when they thought of that particular country. Did that make sense? It was interesting. The United States always seems to get Obama, fat people, fast food, sports, and big important cities. We also got things like liberty and independence. When we finally finished this game, it was time for the other people to go to class and for us Intercultura students to go around Messina. We started our tour by going to a little museum of contemporary art. There was some interesting work there, but we didn't spend much time in there to actually look at the art. After winding our way through the art, we went towards the Duomo to watch the clocktower. The clocktower here moves and makes noises and has music at noon every day. There was time, so we all headed to a little place to eat a piadina. It is kind of like a crepe, but the crepe part is more like a tortilla. At noon, we watched the clocktower while trying to get a man to stop trying to sell us old cassettes, a Minnie Mouse toy, and maps of Messina. After that, we went to Municipio, the main governmental place here, just to take a look and then headed to the theatre. There, we were trying to see a big picture that I saw on February 13th during the night of culture. Instead, we ended up going into the actual theatre part where the stage is to look at a huge painting on the ceiling. We sat there for a while listening to the story about the painting and then headed back to my school. After that, the day was over and I went back home to my family.

Tuesday, March 16th
On Tuesday, we headed to Taormina to take a look around. We took the bus all the way there. If we had been in the car, it would have taken us about 45 minutes. Because we took the bus, it tooks us two hours to get there. When we arrived there, we walked from the bus station to the main shopping strip of Taormina. We walked along, taking tons of pictures along the way. We went to the Greek amphitheatre there. It was gorgeous. The ruins were amazing and the view from up there was outstanding. I have so many pictures from that spot. Crazy Taneli was doing back flips on the steep seats of the theatre. After walking around there and lounging around, we went to a public garden to eat lunch. It was beautiful and there was a silence that I am not accustomed to anymore. There was sun, so we all ended up getting a little sleepy. After some time there, we ended up walking around more on the shopping strip. We all got gelato. At some point, part of the group decided to split off and go to the beach. As it turns out, some people ended up going for a little swim....while it was raining. It had started to rain. We, the people who staying in the main area, walked around more and then waiting for everyone else. At the bus station, there was an old man singing and talking in the dialect of Catania. We didn't really understand anything, but I swear that at one point, he was saying that he was going to die tomorrow. Then, there was the bathroom attendent saying that she was lucky to have eaten potato salad for lunch. It was an interesting day. There was also a German woman trying to speak to us in German. Unfortunately, Tobias, the only person who speaks German, wasn't there. We ended up coming back to Messina at around six thirty.

Wednesday, March 17th
On this day, we went to the mainland. We went to Reggio Calabria. It was a rather beautiful day filled with sun. I walked to the ferry place. Fortunately, I was early. There were quite a few people running late. As it turns out, the majority of us ended up getting on the ferry, thinking that they would be behind us shortly. The woman in charge of us had told us to get on the ferry. Well, as soon as we were on, they shut the big doors behind us and the boat started to move. Yes, we crossed the strait of Messina without an adult. It wasn't that big of a deal. When we got there, we just sat on some benches and waited for the next ferry from Messina to come. When it did come, we walked a little ways to a bus that was waiting for us. Inside the bus, there were the students from Reggio Calabria and the students there for the exchange week. Surprise surprise!!! My friend, Manda, was there. She was my roommate in New York and in Rome. I knew that she was living in Sardegna and was doing her exchange week in Venice. What I didn't know was that she had changed families. When she changed families, she changed cities entirely. I was happy to see her and talk with her again. Anyway, in Reggio Calabria, we went to a cow farm for milk. We got to see the whole process from cows to cheese and milk. After walking around the farm, we went to the factory where the milk and cheese are made. Afterwards, we ate an enormous lunch together. After lunch, we lounged around on grass, taking in the sun, and watching crazy boys trying to do backflips and other feats. After a while, we went to the center of Reggio Calabria and saw "The Bronzes". The Bronzes are two statues that were found here in the strait. There are rather incredible. They are, more or less, perfectly intact. After that, we all took a gelato and walked along the waterfront walkway. We made it onto the beach and had a phototaking session. After that, we took a subway closer to the ferry, hopped on the ferry, and went home. For me, this day didn't end here. Our dog was hit by a car and we were all in Messina. The dog was at the vet. Thankfully, the dog is fine. Anyway, this ended up being a long, long day.

Thursday, March 18th
This was Aeolian Island day! We all hopped on a bus to Milazzo early in the morning and obviously, we went to Milazzo. At Milazzo, we got on a boat to take us to Lipari, one of the islands. We stopped at Vulcano first, and then moved on to Lipari. When we stepped off the boat, it was like stepping into another world. We were immediately pulled off to the side by a man who was trying to get us to go on a taxi tour around the island. It took a while to get him to go away. We all walked a long way into the city. We made our way to a little harbour where we talked for a while. Then, we turned around so that we could try to find our way up on top of a hill where a castle/church thing was. We never made it exactly where were trying to go. We climbed a big set of stairs and went into a church. it was a beautiful church with an amazing painting on the ceiling. We were there for a while, then headed to buy lunch. I bought a bunch of stuff just to try it and see if I liked it. After buying lunch and drinks, we hopped on a bus to a good beach. There, we ate lunch, lounged around, and some people went for a swim. I ate my first arancino!!!! It was delicious. It is a typical food from messina. It is rice with a ragu sauce fried in the shape of a tear drop. It is delicious! While we were there, I got my first tan of the year. A tan....in March!!! How fun is that! After we were done on the beach, we headed back to the boat, and then to the bus, and then to Messina.

Friday, March 19th
Today, we all went to another school in Messina to do a meeting with some of the classes. We watched a film about Intercultura. It made me feel so postive about what I am doing here in Italy. I already felt positive, but I enjoyed watching it. Intercultura, AFS, for an entire year, is a big thing. It is hard, but it is rewarding beyond anything else. Afterwards, we each talked a little about our own experiences and then had a little party. They had brought us cakes and cookies to eat. Afterwards, we all went to buy a sandwich and then headed to Pilone again. We went on a tour to learn about the importance of the swordfish hunt over the years here in the strait and of the actual geography of the seafloor. We went into an old fortress on the coast and also watched a documentary of an actual swordfish hunt. It was fascinating. After that, we all ate our sandwiches and went on the beach. Most people ended up sleeping. The girl from Turkey called home and was talking in Turkish. In general, over the past week, the girls from Norway were talking in their language and the people from Finland were talking in Finnish. Eventually, it got cold and we all started to move around. One of the volunteers showed up with her crazy dog that wanted to be let off the leash. After a bit, we all seperated and either went to our houses or went to the center of the city.

Lady Day!!!

2010-03-08T20:02:00.002+01:00

Today is "la festa delle donne", or in English, the party of the women. Today, Italians celebrate women and their equality with men. One of my classmates explained to me that on this date, however many years ago, there was a women that was killed for trying to defend her belief in the equality of men and women. With the coming of the legal equality of men and women, this day of celebration was born. Throughout the day, during school, on the streets, there were flowers everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. The classic flower to give to women on this day is Mimosa. There were little yellow flowers all over the floor at school today. I happen to like this holiday. My classmate also said that like many other holiday's around the world, this holiday has lost it's significance. It is now viewed more as a day for shopping, eating, dancing....not for the symbolic message that should be felt. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but another holiday that I have never experienced was the day for the rememberance of all the Jew's murdered in World War II.

Anyway, I also remembered another thing that happened within this last month. My brother, sister, and I were driving home to Ganzirri when suddenly, we heard a shout. There was a man saying that we had a flat tire. We pulled into a gas station to check it out. We had a flat tire all right. It was completely destroyed. For my family, it was almost like that one flat tire that we had on the tent trailer on one of our big trips. The tire that went flat before we even made it to California. It was almost in shreds. Well, we decided that we would change the tire. As it turns out, I was the only person that new how to change the tire. It was interesting. I have never changed a tire before. I guess that driver's ed really did do something for me. :) Anyway, I will write soon!

Love, Rebecca

More about this last month!

2010-03-05T18:41:00.004+01:00

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

New Family! Trip! Other Miscellaneous Stuff!

2010-03-03T19:38:00.002+01:00

Sorry!!!! I didn't mean to be away from this blog for so long. Really....honestly...you can believe me. When I changed families, I also changed internet sources. The connection here has a password and I didn't know what it was. Plus, I wanted to use this time to get to know my family really well. I wanted to really integrate myself into their family and their lifestyle. Well, it worked! This family is perfect for me. I only have one lament. Do you all want to know?! My one lament is that I didn't change sooner! I am sitting here with a few days more than four months left here in Italy. Four months. I am with a family that I adore and I wish that I had moved her months ago. Now, I live just outside of Messina, at a place called Ganzirri. I have to commute by car every morning in order to make it to school. We all wake up at 6 or 6:15, get ready, hop in the car, and head to Messina. Thankfully, we have another house in Messina where we can be before school starts. I still have to walk all the way to Cristo Re, but that is only for another week and a half. Then, I am back at the main part of the school. Anyway, about my family... My host father, Antonino, works at the main building here in Messina, Municipio. He also works at the aquarium. He told me one day that this aquarium is the largest in southern Italy. Cool huh! He is incredible. As for his personality, he is laid back, intelligent, and has an amazing sense of humor. My host mother, Annuziata, works at the hospital as a dentist. She is very outgoing, talkative (talks amazingly fast), and has a good sense of humor. At times she can be a bit...maniacal...but I can live with that. My new brother, Andrea, is 18. Because of his age, he can drive and is out a lot. He loves music. It is his passion. He plays the bass (classical), bass (electrical), and the guitar. Finally, my sister, Chiara. She is the Italian version of myself. She loves music, she LOVES to cook, she is friendly and social...she is really just like me. Her passion in life is cooking; she wants to become a chef. We play card games that I have taught her and we listen to a bunch of Italian music off of her phone. We study together, we cook together....basically...it is the perfect symbiotic relationship. Biologists could study us. We have played tennis out in the yard, we have played with the dog, Bud, we have gone out on Saturday nights. She is almost 16. Another exciting thing is that I started a cooking course with her. Every Tuesday, we stay in Messina to attend our course from 7 to 11. It is a long day, but totally worth it. We are learning how to cook so many delicious things. Since I can't do swimming anymore, cooking is a perfect alternative right? :) Obviously! We have also played soccer with Andrea and his friends. It was really fun. One time a few weeks ago, we made a salted cake as a prank for Andrea's friends. It worked perfectly! You should have seen their faces as they all bit into the cake. It was priceless. All of them enjoy film, just like me. We watch movies together. As you can tell, I am having the time of my life, don't want to come back to the United States (except to see my family and eat blueberries ;) and other stuff like that), and.....it is almost dinner time. I have to go cook now. We are making crepes for dinner tonight. YUMMM!

Oh, and for the exchange week I am officially headed off to Pisa! I leave on the 21st and return on the 28th. It is going to be so much fun! Another few hundred pictures to add to my collection!!!

Love you all!

Changes!

2010-02-07T11:56:00.002+01:00

Well, I am sitting here with almost all of my stuff packed. I only have to fill in the final stuff into my backpack and then figure out how I am going to haul all of my school books and supplies. Yesterday, I went with Intercultura to meet a family. Well, as it turns out, they are my new family. They were all excited and even asked if I would be moving in last night. I am moving in today. Next time I write, I will be with my new family, in a new home. I am excited, but at the same time, scared. I know less about this family than I did about my previous family. They have a house; they don't live in an apartment complex. They have a dog. The family consists of four people: the father, the mother, a son, and a daughter. I didn't meet the father yesterday, but I did meet the other three. The mother is very exhuberant and outgoing. If she has a question, she will ask it. She is very cheerful. When she talks, she talks with lightning speed. I can barely keep up. It is amazing how fast it is. She works at the hospital as a dentist. The son, Andrea, is older than me...maybe by a year. I don't know. He hasn't finished school yet, so he can't be that much older. He goes to the conservatory of music here in Messina. He plays the bass (as in classical music bass). The daughter, Chiara, is fifteen. She plans on going to the United States in a year or two on an exchange. She and I happen to have a lot in common, including enjoying cooking and Audrey Hepburn. We will be sharing a room. I don't know much about the father except that he works at home. They seem like a wonderful family. They like cinema. Good movies...not necessarily bad, strange movies. I will keep updating when I can. I have to take the time to get to know this family now. It is going to be fun!!! :)

Love, Rebecca

January: Ups and Downs of Being and Exchange Student

2010-01-27T16:01:00.005+01:00

I know that it has been a while since I last wrote something here, but I have reason. Life is moving, no whizzing by. Every second brings me forward to the end of this experience. Because time waits for no man (or woman), I have been trying my upmost to live here fully and completely - physically and mentally. One may ask, why title this "ups and downs of being an exchange student". Well, honestly, being on exchange in a foreign country is one of the hardest, most beautiful, most gratifying things that I could have possibly decided to do. It has stretched me in so many ways. Everyone always says that there is no such thing as the perfect exchange. Now, I can back that up with personal experience. One thing that one must remember is, however, that for every bad thing that may come along, there a many more wonderful things.

Overall, this month has been somewhat uneventful. After Befana, I didn't go back to school for two days....wait! Halt! I didn't explain Befana. Befana, January 6th, is a holiday celebrated here in Italy. Basically, during the night of the 5th, la Befana, an old woman, goes around to all of the childrens socks that are layed out and places items in there. It is kind of like their version of our stockings for Christmas. If a child has been good, they will get little candies and toys. If they have been bad, they will get coal. Anyway, there was technically school on the 7th and the 8th, but no one in my class went. We bridged that time period and started on the 11th. School, five days a week, all month. One weekend, I spent the entire time with my PE teacher and her family. It was a wonderful experience. We had so much fun together! They have a summer house in Spartà here on Sicily. We went there for one day and we picked fresh vegetables out of their huge garden to make our lunch. I loved it! I went with her daughter to go to her dog's obedience class. That evening, I saw Avatar with friends from Intercultura. The next day, we all just stayed at there house here in Messina. I helped to take down their Christmas tree and it was really relaxed. Other than that, I have been doing school, eating, and sleeping.

The reason that life is more serious here now is because I understand the language. Now, I have to study. School here fascinates me. They study more than many people do in Corvallis, and for good reason. When they do tests here, there are two different kinds. There are written tests....and there are interrogations. Yes, you heard me...interrogations. That is the word. Basically, you are interrogated by the teacher on the recent stuff you have studied in class. To study for these tests, people read the material, read it again, read it out loud, basically memorize it, and then they are ready to take the test. It is pretty hardcore in my opinion. I have found it difficult being an intelligent person being here, not understanding anything, and subsequently not doing anything. I am used to reading and studying. Now, I get to do that and participate more in the class. It's pretty exciting...except for the interrogations. I have to be interrogated! I have not had it happen yet, but it will soon. I know that my art history teacher, my Italian teacher, my French teacher wants to hear a little, my chemistry teacher wants to hear some.... You get the idea. I have been studying a lot. I like it though. Studying that is.

As for outside of school, things are happening. I am going out with friends even more so now. This weekend, I am going to be spending the night at a friends house and then on Saturday, we are going out with a bunch of other people. It will be really fun. I love my friends here. I know that we will end up staying friends long after I leave here. We have become close. Also, big news! I have started swimming! I swim two days a week for 45 minutes each session. We are literally swimming for 45 minutes straight, no breaks. I love it. I haven't swam like this in a long time, but considering that I have basically been in the water all my life and have a scuba diving certification, it came back lightning fast. I can proudly say that I can do almost everything the others can...after only three sessions. I am faster than most of them. One of my best friends from school is also doing it.

Now, as you could tell at the beginning, there have been not so wonderful things going on here too. Well, I am not going to elaborate too much, but I am in the process of changing families. Things just didn't work out in this current one. Everyone knows that I am leaving just as soon as a new host family is found. These times have been hard, but I feel sure that I can leave this family and we can all feel positive and part on good terms.

The language is getting even better. I am at a point right now where I want to talk all the time. It is fantastic being able to speak in a different language and being able to understand everything around me. I have made many new friends this month just by talking. I have even been dreaming in Italian. The first dream I had was a month or two ago. Now, they are coming more often and frequently. Also, when I am writing in English without thinking a lot, I start writing the sentences in Italian form and I have to translate some words in my head from Italian to English instead of English to Italian. It is rather an accomplishment...if I do say so myself. :)

More coming soon!!!!

Love you all! Ciao!

Love, Rebecca

New Years!

2010-01-02T15:33:00.002+01:00

Welcome to a new decade! It's kind of amazing that it a new year already. For New Years in the United States, I usually spend a quite night with my family. I don't really go to big parties for this holiday. Here, it was completely different. Completely!

On New Year's Eve, my host mother literally spent the whole day cooking. She had even started cooking the day before. We had food everywhere. I became her personal helped with this and that. I did go out in the morning for a while. I went on a nice walk around the city. There is a walkway right next to the water and the port. I love to go there. There are trees and benches if you want to sit in the shade. The water is right there and fishermen are always there trying to catch something. Across the way, you have a clear view of Calabria. It is beautiful. Another plus about going there that particular day was because it was hot. I have always spent New Years in weather cold enough for there to be snow. Well here, it was in the 70's. :) I couldn't have been happier. My face got a good amount of sun. Since I was making a pumpkin pie for the huge dinner/party we were having with relatives, when I returned to the street where I live, I went into the grocery store to buy pumpkin. I already had all the other ingredients. It was only pumpkin that I was missing. Well, they didn't have any. Then, I walked a ways into another supermarket to see if they had any. They didn't. They did, however, have those flimsy silver cooking containers. I found some that were round. It was better than what I had originally planned on using. I walked back to the street where I live and visited a little store that only sells fruit and vegetables. Thankfully, the man there had a large chunk of pumpkin. He chopped off 500 grams of pumpkin for me and I successfully returned home. By this time, it was midday. I immediately started to cook my pie. My host mom was there to watch and help me with whatever I needed. I scraped off the pumpkin innards from the "meat" and then put thep pumpkin in a pan with water. It went into the oven. It took forever for the pumpkin to become soft enough for me to whirl it up into a puree. In the meantime, my host mother kept cooking and my host sister was arguing with her parents to let her go to a party. They wanted all of us to stay home that night because we were with family. In the end, she managed to get her way and went out. When my pumpkin finally became soft, I took it out and whirled it up. I had to weigh it to make sure that I didn't put too much in. It turned out to be the opposite. I was 100 grams short. I thought that the pie would be ruined, but I just guessed at the proper adjustments with the sugar and the spices. In the end, my pie turned out perfect. It tasted just like a pumpkin pie should. I am used to using canned pumpkin, so I thought that it wouldn't taste right for all the Italian's who had never tasted it before. I wrote "Buon 2010" in chocolate chunks on top. :) In the evening, we had all of the food ready and all the relatives started to arrive. They brought some food, mostly the dessert items. It was a pretty fun evening. We literally ate from about 9 until almost midnight. There was so much amazing food. My pumpkin pie was a hit. I feel like I didn't disappoint Italian's in their first taste of pumpkin pie...an American classic. When midnight rolled around, we all gathered around the TV to watch the countdown. We all walked around the room saying "auguri" and kissing each other on the cheeks. We then had spumante and made a toast to the new year. In America, you only light off fireworks on the Fourth of July. Well, here they light them off for practically every holiday. We went up on the roof and lit off fireworks. These weren't silly little fireworks either. They were the kind that shoot off into the air and explode in large displays. It was magical. People were lighting off fireworks all over the city. There aren't the safety measures here that there are in the States. There were fireworks going off around the Duomo. Across the strait, I could see the fireworks being set off in Calabria. It was like it should have been in a movie. There wasn't much more after we had finished lighting off the fireworks. People started to leave one by one. I managed to get to bed by about 2:30. I didn't sleep at first though. There are fireworks they call "cipolle" (that means onions). The sounded like bombs....I'm not joking.

I spent the first day of the new year sleeping. I woke up late and read my book. It was very relaxing. We had delicious leftovers to eat from the night before. The only downfall was that it started to rain.....hard.

Buon anno! Buon 2010! Auguri! Happy New Year! Happy 2010! Best wishes!

Love, Rebecca

Part 2: Natale!!!!

2009-12-26T12:33:00.003+01:00

After a long night of celebrating, we woke up to a lazy morning...a really lazy morning. As a matter of fact, we didn't really do anything at all. It was nice for a change since we have been staying up until the wee hours of the morning practically every single day this week. My host sister and my host father left at about 11 to go to a bar to eat breakfast. When they returned, all of us got ready to leave for lunch at my host mother's aunt's house. During this time, we also opened our presents. From my family, I received two longsleeve, turtleneck sweaters. They are deep purple and turquoise...two of my favorite colors to wear. Sidenote on fashion: the color of the year is purple. Everything is purple, and I mean everything! There are purple shoes, purple pants, purple belts, purple shirts, purple jackets, purple hats....you get the idea. There is purple everywhere. It is like Harold went a little too far with his crayon in every single clothing factory in Europe. Literally. Anyway, I also got a hanging doll thing from my Italian teacher at school. It is sweet. It says "amore" on it. Amore means love in Italian. My Intercultura Italian teacher/assistant gave me a cami to wear. Before heading off to lunch, my host parents got into a fight about something or other. Then, it evolved into an argument over where we were going to eat. My father had found out that my mother's father was not going to be coming to her aunts house. He insisted that we had to go there. In the end, we did end up eating lunch with my mother's father. He is bedridden, so it was a nice surprise for him. We had a lunch of the same crepe dish from the night before, insalata, sausages, and antipasti (cheese, salami, bread). For dessert, there was pandoro (the cake from Verona) and panettone...English style. The man who helps my mother's father lived in England. After we had finished eating and visiting with Roberta's father, we headed to Maurizio's nephew's house. There, we visited and watched tv. It was an interesting little interlude during the day. After we finished there, we headed to Milazzo to go bowling. Yes....bowling. Italian's pronounce it like "booling", so when the said that that was what we were doing, I didn't understand at all. We ended up bowling with twins from Agnese's class and their family. It was fun. I only bowled one game....it was pretty dismal. My head wasn't quite in it though. Yesterday was truly the only day that I have felt homesick. I hadn't realized how important spending Christmas with my family was to me. Plus, bowling is one of my family's Christmas traditions. It was kind of a difficult day. After the other's had bowled a second game, the men of the group decided that they wanted to play pool. As it turns out, they played three games. Three!!! It was pretty late by the time we left that place. For dinner, we all drove to a pizzera in Rometta, a city near Milazzo. We ended up eating at about 10:30. I wasn't that hungry because of all the food we have been eating, so thankfully, they had mini pizzas. They were named after Disney characters. I had "Topolino" a.k.a "Mickey Mouse". It was a basic little pizza with mozzerella. We left a little while after eating and came home. I immediately went to sleep. Staying up so late, so many nights in a row, takes its toll on me.

That was Christmas!!! Today, many people are still celebrating because there is a Catholic holiday of San Stephano....I think that was his name. We, thank goodness, are not. Celebrating is equivalent to more food and eating. Today is a day of recuperating. :) I will keep updating. I hope everyone is well and had a wonderful Christmas, or other holiday that is celebrated around this time.

Ciao!!! Rebecca

Natale!!!! Part 1: Christmas Eve

2009-12-25T08:38:00.002+01:00

First, I would like to say a Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad....to everyone. :) I don't know anymore languages...sorry. Yesterday was by far one of the longest days that I have spent here in Italia. It started with me waking up at roughly 9:00 to find my host mother already out of the house, my host father on the computer, and my host sister preparing to go to a bar for breakfast. I slowly took my time eating breakfast...there as no rush. Then, at about 10:00 or so, my assitant, Mariangela, called and asked if I would like to spend the day with her and her family. Um....yes!!!! I got ready as fast as I could without looking like I was overeager. By about 10:40, I finally managed to get out the door (It didn't take me that long to get ready though). The 15-20 minute walk to her house took more like a half an hour because of all the people milling about the shops, perhaps making last minute holiday purchases. When I got to her house, it was just her and me. Her husband was out doing something and her daughter was on the upper floor reading. We took this time to talk, seeing as she is my assitant. Her husband's sister eventually showed up and all I remember about the conversation at this time is that she had taken a trip to the United States. I remember that she had gone to New York and Miami. She had memorized prices of so many clothing and food items that she had bought and eaten. I think that it was because for them, the prices in the United States are low. It is not expensive for them to travel to the States. She described all the prices and a huge steak that she had at a steakhouse. Anyway, Mariangela's husband showed up. We talked for some more. People are constantly surprised at how much Italian I understand. They can talk at their normal pace and I can keep up. Eventually, the sister left and Mariangela, her husband, her daughter, and I all went to a different part of the city to pick up some chairs. In the car, her daughter and I, who have similar tastes in practically everything, talked about food, life here in Italia versus life in the United States, and music. We listened to anything from Queen, to music from the original Dirty Dancing, to older Italian music, to the music from Moulin Rouge. Both of us knew the words for the music to Moulin Rouge, so we were singing along. It was a lot of fun. :) At the home decoration store where we were to pick up the chairs, her daughter, Giulia, and I walked around looking at all of the items, sitting on the couches....you know...what you usually do in furnature stores. There was this electronic cube that somehow controlled the lights in a certain section. We couldn't figure out how it worked. When we left the store with the new chairs, we headed to a far part of the city in the opposite direction. More music listening time! We went to the house of Mariangela's parents. It was adorable. Their house was situated right on a little canal. It didn't feel like we were in part of, what appears to me to be, a big city. We had a big family lunch. For them, they celebrate Christmas with a lunch and a dinner on Christmas Eve and another lunch on Christmas Day. They stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve and then open their presents. I met relatives of theirs from Rome and had fun talking with everyone. The food was delicious as well. We had spaghetti with squid ink. It is literally spaghetti in a black sauce, so the dish is black. It is delicious. Then, we also had eggplants stuffed with something or other that was also delicious. There was also a fish dish with potatoes that I never tried because I was too full and a fried fish dish. These little fried fish were boned, but other than that, they were whole. I have never exactly seen that before. For dessert, there was a round of nuts (cracking open nuts and eating them), dried figs, and a Napolitean dessert. Something fried with kind of an orange sauce. I can't remember the name...it was in dialect and started with an S. Oh well. It was delicious though. :) We returned to Mariangela's house, where Mariangela, her husband, and I had a coffee. All of us, including Giulia, were falling asleep. Giulia doesn't drink coffee though, so she went and took a nap. After drinking coffee, Mariangela and her husband immediately started to cook for the dinner that evening. They said that they usually start way before that time so that there is more time at the end of the day, but this year it hadn't worked that way. Mariangela and I left to do some last minute grocery shopping for the meal. At the house, I talked with them, watched them cook (their kitchen was small, there was literally no way that I could help them cook), and flipped through one of their cookbooks. I even helped set their table. It was a lot of fun watching them cook and talking to them. They were having fun cooking, although it was stressful being behind. Eventually, at about 7:10, I walked back home because we were going to a relative's house for dinner. My family said that we had to be there by 8:30, but we were there more around 9. That is how it works here in Italy. :) It was kind of like a huge potluck, but more delicious. There was a lot of family; I don't even know how many people...maybe 20, 25. Maurizio dressed up as Babo Natale (Santa Claus) and brought presents to the three little ones. Two of the three were completely terrorized. They immediately started to cry. The older one, Costanza (3 years), was the easiest to pull back together. All she needed to see was that Babo Natale was actually Maurizio. The two babies stayed scared. They opened presents from Santa Claus that Maurizio had brought on Santa's orders. We all at antipasti, which included little salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, a plate of olives, cheese, meats....etc., bread, olive bread, crackers, dried figs....among other things. In the mean time, the little children played with their new toys and everyone talked. The rest of the food was ravioli, crepes (a bake with cheese, bechamel, and prociutto), a swordfish bake of some kind with eggplants, and a meat dish. For fruit, there were kabobs of various fruit cut out in different shapes and fichi d'India (prickly pear cactus fruit). Some decided to have their kabobs with carmelized sugar on it. For dessert, there was bianco e nero, a chocolate cake in the form of a tree, some kind of lemon cake, and a platter of various little pastries. This meal and social gathering lasted until 2:00 in the morning. 2:00!!!! I talked with some cousins and they said that at midnight, people go out and wish their friends a Buon Natale, play cards, go dancing at the discoteca...or go to mass. The members of this family were among the non-mass attending population. I recived a present too! It was a knitted black neck warmer and one of those hot water containers for keeping yourself warm...you know what I am talking about right? It is in the shape of a heart. Anyway, in the wee hours of the morning, we all came back home and immediately went to bed.

That brings us to today, Christmas Day. Right now, it is about 9:15 and most of the rest of the family is asleep. We are opening presents today and I don't know what else. I will update more later about the actual Christmas Day.

Update on other things that I have done: I went ice skating. Yes, you heard right, I went ice skating in Sicily. In the fiera, they set up a small rink. When I went, it was melting and not flat...very dangerous. I have only ice skating once in my life before this and that was two years ago. Needless to say, I was terrible. The wooden rails on the edge were my best friends, and for good reasons too. There was a girl who feel and broke one of her front teeth out. There was blood and she was crying...it wasn't pretty. I didn't want to hurt myself. I went with my sister, two of her friends, and one of the friend's boyfriends. Her friends helped me out. :)

Anyway, more later on the rest of Christmas. Buon Natale!!!!

Ciao! Love, Rebecca

Vacanza!!!!

2009-12-19T08:27:00.003+01:00

It is now officially winter vacation. :) For about the next three weeks, I do not have to go to school. That is pretty exciting. I can't believe that Christmas is already this next Friday. For the last day of school, my class, IV E, organized a huge party with III E and V E. Basically, almost every individual brought something to eat, drink, or eat with/on. For the first block, my class had to do a lessons of math. We weren't being quiet enough, so we had to sit through math that I don't understand at all. Then, for the next two blocks, we ate, and ate, and ate. There was so much food. I must say that Italians know how to throw a party at school. There were all different kinds of chips and bags of popcorn for the not-sweet foods. As for the sweet foods, there was pandoro (a cake thing from Verona-DELICIOUS), panettone (I still have yet to taste), two different types of biscotti (cookies), salumi di cioccolato (delicious), two different chocolate cakes, tiramisu (delicious), a cake made by a classmate of mine, bread with nutella (this loaf of bread was about as big as one and a half of me - I'm not even kidding!), a cake with little chocolate chunks, chocolate chunk muffins...I know that I am forgetting stuff. Basically, we were all eating for three hours. We celebrated the birthday of one of my teachers. He turned 50 on Tuesday and didn't want to celebrate it. We surprised him. :) After celebrating for three hours, we spent the last hour and a half at school cleaning the classroom, playing group games, and getting learning about the homework for Italian. Even after eating a good chunk of the morning, I wasn't full, so when I got home, I did manage to eat lunch. It wasn't big, so that was good. I spent a couple hours relaxing, and then at 5:30, I went to meet my classmates in front of the Duomo. In total, there ended up being me, Federica, Elisa, Rosaria, Rossella, Louisa, Alessandra, Francesca, and Alice. Alice moved to Spain earlier in the school year, so this was her last night in Messina. We all went shopping. I bought a new jacket, because it is kind of cold and I didn't have anything. I know...I realize that I am saying that it is kind of cold in December. :) That's what happens when you are living in Sicily. I also bought a new sweater. My friends gave me a new hat and a scarf as a Christmas present. It was really sweet of them. :) The rest of the day was me getting home, being alone for a while and just hanging out, then going to a pizzera for dinner. I must say that the pizza here is way better than any pizza that I have had in Oregon. How will I survive?! ;) Anyway, that was my last day of school. I'm not used to having huge parties like that on the last day of school, so it was really new and exciting.

Ciao! Rebecca

Already 3 Months!

2009-12-15T14:41:00.003+01:00

This last Saturday marked three entire months here in Messina!!! :) I had been sick for most of the week before that. Unfortunately for me, I am very prone to sickness, whether I am an exchange student or not. My host mother had influenza, so naturally, I caught something. Anyway, it was gone by the time Saturday rolled around. On Saturday, the volunteers of Intercultura Messina organized a Christmas party for us and our families. It was at Halldis' house, the girl from Norway. Neither my brother or my sister wanted to come. They both wanted to go out with their friends. Once they got there though and started eating some of the food and playing cards, they seemed happy. This house that we were at has an outdoor, brick, wood burning oven to make pizza. There were all four of us exchange students, our families, volunteers, some of their families...basically, there was just a whole mess of people. We had a huge feast! There was pizza, focaccia, these tartes that Roberta made (with eggs and zucchini or with ricotta and artichokes), cheese, salami....you name it. It was a time for all of us to talk, have a good time, and celebrate Christmas all together. We ended up playing BS (bullshit - the card game) with Finnish rules. I have never played it that way and was very confused. The American way of playing BS is way easier. All of the Italians playing had to learn how to play and it ended up being really fun. Eventually, we had dessert. That consisted of panettone, chocolate cake, an apple cake, little pastries from a pastry shop, coconut balls that tasted exactly like macaroons, and gelato. :) We each got two Christmas presents as well. We got one from a volunteer, Giulia, and one from my assistant, who also happens to be our Italian teacher. The one from the volunteer was a Christmas mug filled with candy and marshmallows. The other one I have yet to open. I am waiting for Christmas day. :) By the time people started to leave, it was around 11:30 at night. Suddenly, my host father noticed that Taneli had brought his guitar. Stop!!! We all had to stand around and listen to Taneli play the guitar and sing. I ended up singing too. My host father was enjoying himself so much that he pulled me into the middle of the room and started to dance with me. I also played piano for them. I couldn't remember much because we don't have a piano at my house and I don't have music, but it went pretty well. It was a long, tiring evening, but it was fun.

On Sunday, the four of us met at a bar in order to meet an Australian girl who is going home early. She lives in the mountains here on Sicily, so we haven't met her before. Her program was going to end in January, but she wants to go home now. She has only been with her family for three weeks. Halldis and I each had a capuccino (YUM). I actually had to take a picture of my capuccino because the foam looked like a heart. When Tobias and Taneli finally showed up (they were a half an hour late), we took the girl around Messina for a little bit. We took her to the Duomo, where Taneli and Tobias convinced her to try a granita with brioche for the first time. Then, since it was midday, we watched the bell tower. By watching the bell tower, I really do mean watching the bell tower. The decorations move! By then, it was a little late, about 12:15 and we had to be back at the bar by 12:30. After we said goodbye to the girl and her family, we all walked around Messina. We went into a place that says it is an aquarium, but it really isn't. The only thing that even resembles an aquarium is a little pond with a bunch of fish and one koi. There were little kid games and a bunch of food items to buy inside of there. After finishing there, we walked to the cinema where we checked out the times for A Christmas Carol in 3D. We all split up to go home for lunch, and Tobias, Taneli, and I returned to the cinema to see A Christmas Carol. I actually liked it. Some people I have talked to didn't like it very much. I'm just glad that I can now understand movies in Italian now. :)

I just have to make it through this week of school and then I can relax during Christmas break. We really do have almost three weeks. It will be fun. I don't really know what we are doing, but I'm excited nonetheless. The past two days have been autogestione. Basically, we have gone to school, had the first two blocks of class, and then for the last two, we have done nothing. We have played games, read, and talked. Tomorrow everything goes back to normal.

Finally, I have news about the exchange week. It is from March 19-March 28. Also, one of my options is to go to Livorno to do a musical program. By choosing to go to Livorno and do the music program, not only would I see Livorno and participate in music in a well-known music school, but I would also spend a half a day in Pisa and a full day in Florence. You can only go to the music program if you can play an instrument or sing. Considering that I sing and I can play the piano, I am definitely qualified. It is going to be a tough choice between this program or another city that I have always wanted to go to. This will be my only opportunity to do this music program though. We will see what I choose. There is still time. :)

Ciao!
Love,
Rebecca

Oops! It's Already December!

2009-12-05T08:20:00.002+01:00

Wow, so the last time I wrote on here was a month ago. Life is just busy here. Plus, the internet connection is completely unreliable. For a really long time, I would get online and then a few minutes later, it would disconnect. That is what it is like a good chunk of the time. Right now, it is working really well though. :) So, I am sorry for the long break.

Well, November was wonderful! I think that one of the reasons that I didn't write anything was because the newness was kind of worn off, meaning that I really feel like this is my life now. It doesn't feel like I am living on a little vacation anymore. I have a family and friends; I am connected here. Italy is amazing and I couldn't wish for anything more than to be here right now.

Today is the first day of a four day vacation. On Tuesday, the 8th, Italians celebrate the immaculate conception. The only reason that we don't have school on Monday is because of ponte. Ponte is bridge in Italian. We have a bridge from the weekend to the actual holiday. Apparenly, it is a rather big to do, so I am looking forward to celebrating it.

As for school, it is going well. On Wednesday, in a way, I am moving schools. My school has two different buildings I guess you could call it. There is the main building which I have been in up until now, and there is Cristo Re. Cristo Re is a little ways away, maybe a fifteen minute walk. I am now going to be going there. The schedule also changes this day, but I don't really know mine because it depends on the schedules of many classes since I have a personalized schedule. We will see how this goes. The other day, I got a test back in Italian. I took it on the 28th of October and it was my first Italian test I have ever taken. I got a 6 1/2 on it. Apparently, that is pretty good, especially since I had only been here for about a month and a half. :)

My Italian is always getting better. I still have trouble with grammar and I definitely don't have all the vocabulary that I need, but I can speak it. :) What with speaking only Italian at home, speaking mostly Italian at school (except some English in English class), and constantly being surrounded by Italian, I have made leaps and bounds. The other day, I met one of my friends moms. It turns out she was born in England and speaks English. It was the weirdest thing hearing a person standing in front of me speaking impeccabely pronounced English. It didn't really feel normal. Haha. My English skills have gotten worse too. My grammar is not as good as it was and I have to think about how to spell words that usually don't take any thought.

My family is still great! Of course. :) It is a little difficult to be completely integrated because they all had their own lives and relationships before my arrival, but it is going smoothly. I love them all a bunch. My mom is teaching me how to cook. For example, last night, she showed me how to make stuffed artichokes. They were the most delicious things ever! Then again, I say that about practically everything I eat here. We will make them again and I will write down the recipe/how she makes them. They don't use many recipes here. I help my both my brother and my sister with their English homework and my sister helps me with my Itailan homework. She will look over my grammar and give me word suggestions.

The Italian post system is not the best. I have been waiting to get a box from my family in the States. They called last week to say that it would arrive on Monday and that someone should be home to receive it. We made sure that someone was home one Monday, but they didn't come. Then, when no one was home on Tuesday, they came. They left a note saying that we had to pick it up at the post office, but they didn't leave a number or say which post office to pick it up at. There are many, many post offices in Messina. On Thursday, we went to one closest to our house, but they couldn't find it. We returned after my Italian lesson, at 6 pm, only to find that it was in a distant part of the city. Now, we have to drive to the far side of the city to pick it up. At least I will get my box though.

Well, I will definitely keep updating this thing. It should be easier now that the internet connection is working better. Plus, there aren't many school days left this year, as in 2009. This next week is a three day week, but there is a possible teacher sciopero (protest) on Thursday and Friday. The next week is a full week, but it is the last week. So basically, there are only 8 more days of school until the Christmas break. We start school again on January 7th. The reason that Christmas break is almost three weeks long is because they also celebrate La Befana on the 6th. I will explain more about that then. Anyway, I will keep updating! Hello to everyone!

Ciao ciao!
Rebecca :)

Novembre!!!!

2009-11-02T10:24:00.002+01:00

Wow! I can't believe that it is already November! It is amazing how fast time is flying. On first thought, it doesn't seem like I have been here in Italy for practically two months, but on second thought, I realize how many things I have done, how many different foods that I have tasted, and how many hurdles that I have jumped over. Now, I understand practically all the Italian that is spoken around me. I only have trouble when people speak really, really fast. They really only speak super fast when they are excited about something, for example politics. For me, I find that to be a huge achievement. When I first arrived here, I barely understood anything. All I did was follow people around and nod/shake my head. I knew the basics...hello, goodbye, how are you, what is your name...etc... Now, I can actually converse with people. Mind you, I do have to stop and think many times, I don't have all of the grammar down, and I make numerous mistakes, but considering that I am speaking another language, I don't mind. :)

Yesterday, the first and the day after Halloween, was a day in which people commemorate the deceased. I guess that you could sort of relate it to the Day of the Dead in the Hispanic culture, but it not the same. We went to the cemetary where my host parents relatives are buried. All around the entrance to the cemetary, vendors were selling thousands and thousands of flowers. Inside shops, they had boxes of candles for people to put outside of the graves and tombs. We bought yellow and white flowers and a candle. As we manuvered our way through the cemetary, I was looking at everything. I know that this may sound strange, but I have never seen a more beautiful cemetary. When you walk in the huge iron gates, there is a large gravel area. From this gravel area, there are numerous gravel or paved paths leading to other parts of the cemetary. There are tombs around both sides of all of the paths. Facing forward while walking in, there is a hill. On top of this hill, there is an enormous tomb of some incredibly wealthy family! I have never seen a tomb so large. In front of this tomb on the side of the hill, there is a garden. You know, one of those gardens that is manicured and designed? It was really beautiful. It was a sunny day and the inside of the cemetary was very green. There were trees, bushes, flowers, grass...When we got to my host mother's family tomb, we took time to clean off the stairs in front of it. There was a fig tree growing and we had to saw it off with a key. We lit the candle and put flowers in a vase. Then, we moved to my host father's fathers grave. We cleaned off the top and put flowers in two vases at the base of the grave. All around us, people were doing this to their deceased loved ones. I thought that this was a wonderful way for people to remember their loved ones and to celebrate their lives. From my background, this was completely different, so I enjoyed being a part of it and learning how Italians remember their ancestors.

Hah! Another new thing with me, is that I am officially learning how to cook Italian food! The food here is absolutely to die for, so I am thrilled that I have the opportunity to learn. This way, I will be able to cook Italian food when I return to America! I have a notebook where I am taking notes and I always watch my family when they cook. I will eventually start helping more, but I have to learn the techniques first. :)

More next time! :)

Ciao a tutti!
Rebecca

More Pictures!!!

2009-10-22T15:28:00.003+02:00

And here are more... :)

Pictures!!!

2009-10-22T15:15:00.002+02:00

Here are some pictures of my time so far in Italy! :)

Orientation Camp!

2009-10-20T08:57:00.003+02:00

I know that it has been a long time since I last posted, but things have been so busy and wonderful here that I have found it difficult to find enough time to actually sit and type and entry. Now, I am unfortunately sick, so I have all day.

This past weekend was the Sicilia-Calabria regional orientation. After a month and a half of living with our families and attending school, they wanted to touch base and give us a chance to talk about how everything is going. On Friday, Tobias, the German exchange student here in Messina and his mother picked me up at ten in the morning. Taneli, the exchange student from Finland, was also in the car. We drove to the bus station in order to meet up with Halldis, the Swedish exchange student and with a Thai girl from Calabria. We all caught a bus to Catania, where we were for the next four days. Actually, we were there until Monday. Anyway, we drove down there and met up with all of the other exchange students. Everyone was incredibly excited to finally speak in their native languages. For me, I already get to speak in my native language, seeing that it is English. For those who speak Japanese, Thai, Finnish, German, French...etc..., they don't get to speak their languages because nobody knows them. For the rest of Friday, we had a planning session to learn about how the day was going to flow, split up into groups, and worked in groups. In the groups, we played games in order to get to know each other. We also talked about our problems that have come up with our host families. It became very emotional for some people. Dinner was at 8:30. Since it was our first night there, we had a special dinner of quiche, bruschette (plural), 4 different types of pizza, and gelato. The gelato was delicious! It was an amaretto flavor with a cherry sauce. I almost died it was that good! Then, we made country posters until midnight. I must say that our poster (USA) was quite incredible. :)

Saturday, most of the day was taken up by individual interviews. Except for a couple hours in the afternoon where we were in our groups, we were just hanging out with other exchange students. When someone had their interview, they would just leave and return when it was finished. Everyday we were there, at midmorning and midafternoon, there was a coffee break and a snack. All of the food was delicious! I have also come to the conclusion that by the time I return to the United States, I will be addicted to coffee. I love coffee here. :) After lunch, we split up into our groups and did more activities. All of us were feeling the fatigue of staying up until midnight and waking up early. As a result, no one was too into being energetic. After that, for the rest of the day, people had interviews. I had my interview at 6:30. It was really great. The woman who interviewed me just asked me questions and to rate different things on a scale of one to ten. We also had an opportunity to talk more in depth about problems that we have. I don't really have any problems, so I was happy not to have to talk about them. Once again, dinner was at 8:30 and we stayed up until midnight. This time, we had huge lecture about how disrespectful some people had been to volunteers and that they weren't participating in the activities. As a result, all of us, even if we had not done anything and had happily participated in every activity (like me), lost our first chance. We have two chances to mess up before being sent home. I have now lost my first chance and I did nothing. In an attempt to lighten up the mood, the volunteers had us play two games. The first one was the one where you suck a piece of paper to your mouth and you have to transfer the paper to someone elses mouth. It was really fun and we were all worried that we would end up accidentally kissing the person next to us because the paper fell. The second game was one where we had to all kiss a part of an origami crane. Then, depending upon where we kissed, we got a sticky note saying where we kissed it. When everyone had kissed it, we found out that we had to kiss the person next to us where we had kissed the bird. Thankfully, I chose the neck. Some people though had chosen the butt or the beak. The funny thing about the beak though was that everyone thought that it meant kissing on the lips. As it turned out, it really meant that they had to kiss the person on the nose. :) Hahaha. Everyone who chose that was kissing on the lips. That finished pretty quickly, so we actually played one more game. We split into four different groups and had to put as many of our personal belongings, clothes included, on one person. After four minutes, we had to count how many to see which team won.

Sunday, we played games and split up into our groups again. It was a really fun day. In the evening, the volunteers finished up the individual interviews and we had free time. After dinner, we watched/participated in the talent show. It was really incredible to watch the many different talents or random things that people came up with. The show started with the volunteers doing their own show. They performed a bunch of national dances that they have learned over the years. After they finished, it was our turn to show them and everyone else what we knew. The people from New Zealand performed the Haka (?) and people from Finland, Japan, Norway, and Russia performed songs. Some people, like Thailand and Indonesia, performed their dances. It was a really fun night. :)

Monday was the day we had to say goodbye. The camp ended and then we basically got to hang out with everyone until lunch. I was so tired from staying up until midnight every night that I had zero energy to do anything. People made origami, talked, played soccer...it was a really relaxed environment. Then, right before lunch, one of the American girls was thrown into the pool. After she got out, she chased down the people who had thrown her in. She seemed really, really mad. She was soaking wet. We all had lunch and then got on a bus to go to the bus station. Everyone had to go their separate ways. We will not all be together until June! It was really bittersweet. We had all become really good friends in the span of four days.

Ok, so in the time that I haven't written, I turned 17! My birthday was incredible!!!!! I don't have time at the moment to talk about it, but my next post will be pictures and I will put some on there. :) I must sleep now, because my eyes don't want to stay open.

Ciao!!!! :)

Everything is OK!

2009-10-03T09:49:00.001+02:00

Also, I just wanted to reassure everyone that everything here is ok. Because we have had such tumultuous rain and outrageous storms, there have been enormous landslides. Twenty plus people have died here in Messina because of them. I am ok! I live in the middle of the city, whereas these landslides have occured on the outskirts. It is tragic, but I am ok! :)

A Day in the Life of Me

2009-10-03T08:18:00.000+02:00

I know that some of you are wondering what a regular day is like here in Messina. I am going to give examples and I am also just going to talk at the end of this post...ok? :)

During the week, we all get up early. Sometimes, Robertat leaves for school in Barcellona at 6:30 in the morning or sometimes in the afternoon. Either way, she wakes up early. Since Maurizio teaches at my school, he must also get up early. Agnese and I wake up at pretty much the same time, 7:10-7:15 in the morning. There is only one bathroom, so we all must take shifts in the morning. It only takes me about 20 minutes total to get ready. That includes make-up, clothing, making sure I have all of my school stuff...etc. I have a small breakfast while others are getting ready. Federico never wakes up when he is supposed to. School starts at 8:00, but he never wakes up himself. Roberta ends up yelling for him to wake up until about 7:50. He makes it to school on time. I find it amuzing that it is like this every single day. :) I love it though. Agnese is the first to leave to school, then me, then Federico and Maurizio. When I get to school, all of the students at the school are waiting outside of the building. They have gates that bar us from entering until they open them. As a result, there are hundreds of teenagers milling around on the sidewalks and in the streets. It causes quite a lot of confusion! When we go in, we disperse into our classes. Each day, we have four blocks for about an hour and a half each. We have a 15-20 minute break at about 11 every day and we leave school at 2:00 PM. The only difference about my schedule and others is that on Tuesdays and Fridays, I have a fifth block. That means that when I get out at 2:00, I must return at 2:30 and stay until 4:00. Those are long days. During the break at 11, I usually walk around with classmates and go into their "courtyard" area. It is an area outside where we can all mingle. The first thing that you notice when you go there is that most of the teenagers are smoking. That's right....majority of people smoke here. I did the calculations and I know, 100%, that 1/5 of my class smokes. My class is of 20 people. For all I know, more people smoke. Anyway, when I return home at about 2:15 (I can walk home!), we have lunch. Sometimes Roberta is here, sometimes she is not. It all depends upon her schedule in Barcellona, where she teaches. Lunch is the largest meal of the day. It usually consists of pasta, bread, sometimes a tomato salad, and fruit. When we aren't in a rush, meaning when Maurizio isn't in a rush, we eat outside in the garden. When we don't have as much time, we eat in the kitchen. Lunch is one of my favorite meals here. :) If I do have a fifth block, I either rush home, eat quickly, and go back to the school, or I go out with classmates. After lunch, we have a few hours of down time. This is kind of like the siesta in Spain. The shops do close and almost everyone goes indoors to rest. Here, we do what we want. Roberta and Maurizio usually rest while watching TV, Federico texts his friends, watches TV, and studies, Agnese does the same as Federico, but with more studying, and I just do whatever. It is usually a combination of: sleeping, computer, watching TV with Agnese, and doing what little homework I do get. If it isn't raining and Federico is in good health, I have the option of going to tennis at about 5 every day. Every time, so far, I have gone. Agnese has always been studying. We go to tennis, sit around and watch tennis, talk, eat a snack... :) Agnese and Maurizio show up later. Agnese hasn't been playing any tennis, so we come home at about 8:00 every night. Then, we all do our own thing, whether it be computer, studying, showering...etc. Roberta, Maurizio, or both of them make dinner. We eat at between 9-9:30 every night. That has been a big adjustment. Their dinners are, however, small and light. I like the meal rituals here in Italy a million times more than in America. It is slower and ritualistic; there is more warmth between family members. I love it!
That is a normal day in my life. Some little side notes:

When showering, one must always dry their hair completely. If not, Roberta will hound you until you do.
With my long hair, it takes a long time to actually dry completely. I never blow dry it 100%.
My hair is considered to be thin and blonde!!!! I have thick, brown hair, not thin, blonde hair. :) haha
Even among Italians, I am incredibly short. In my class, there is one girl shorter than me, a few around my height, but most are taller.
The food here is nothing like in restaurants. It is way better!!! The only way to truly experience Italian cooking is to come here yourself. :)
Never count on plans actually working out. Many different factors must be taken into account.
Italians are always, always asking if you want more food or a snack.
Everything that you think about Italian traffic is true!
People blast their radios so loud, that when they drive by our house and I am in my room, it sounds like I am in a discoteca.
Fashion really is important. People have so many different pairs of shoes, watches, and clothing in general. I am in desperate need of shopping!
Modesty only partially exists here.
They, at least my family, doesn't watch much TV together. It is usually separate, in their own rooms.
Italian's really do sounds like they are aruging a lot when they really are not.
If they think that it is cold, then everyone must bundle up in a sweatshirt.

There are others and I will post them when I think of them. Today, I was supposed to finally go out with my classmates, but because of this weather, it was postponed....again! I really wanted it to happen. This weekend, my family is going to the mountains. At least, we are going to what they call mountains. It should be really nice!

School is going really well. I am understanding more and more of what is going on and being said. Math is incomprehensible to me. They are doing full blown trigonometry. Trig doesn't exist in my high school in Oregon, let alone in other United States high schools. I don't have any books yet either. That makes it, therefore, impossible to actually study what we are studying. My Italian/Latin teacher, who is part of Intercultura, gives me special homework to do. She is also making my class study Oregon and the United States. During this time, they are also teaching me about Messina, Sicily, and Italy as a whole. In French, I am supposed to get a simple book and the teacher is supposed to work with me one on one, but that hasn't happened yet. The big to do right now with school is that the school trip is being discussed. This year, I will have tho opportunity to go to France with my school. They were thinking Paris or Prague. Then it changed to Paris, France. Then, it changed again to somewhere in France. Paris is really expensive.

I may start taking tennis lessons a couple times a week. It just depends on how much it costs and when it actually takes place. I also want to join choir here.

Yesterday, I finished applying for my residence permit. It took the whole morning. I went to one block of school and then Maurizio picked me up to take me to the immigration office and the police. It took from 9:45 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon. At the immigration office, they wanted to postpone it to another day. Maurizio persisted though and managed to start it. When we had a certain paper finally filled out, we went all the way across the city to the police department, which is huge, to do something else. He had to leave me there, with the police, for an hour and a half. He had to return to school to teach a class. At the police, I waited until it was my turn. They had me sign four pieces of paper. On a machine, they then took my finger prints and my handprints. This information was then printed onto the papers I had signed. I am now in their system here in Messina. It was so weird being fingerprinted. I felt kind of like a criminal, but not. They also took my height. I now know that I am 155 cm tall. That is really short. :) They printed out another piece of paper and signed it. I had to take this paper back to the immigration office. Maurizio wasn't there to take me though. I had to wait with the police for a good 40 minutes. They were actually really nice. They talked to me in both English and Italian. They were pretty impressed with my Italian skills so far. The two men had to go to their offices, so they took me with them. They told me that their department was like the CSI of Messina. It was pretty cool to go behind the scenes of the Messina police. :) I sat around for 50 minutes total waiting for Maurizio. The police asked me if I was hungry and thirsty. They made me feel quite at home. When Maurizio did show up, we went back across the city to the immigration office. There, they fingerprinted me again and had me sign another little piece of paper. After that, I was officially finished. It was quite an experience.

Anyway, I will get back to life here in Messina. I will post again soon. Once again, I'm sorry that I can't put any pictures up. :(

Ciao!

Rebecca

First Week of School

2009-09-26T08:22:00.001+02:00

So, this past week was my first week at school. It was definitely hard to sit until 2:00 PM every day, listening to people talk in Italian. It made it even more difficult that they spoke so fast. Because they spoke so fast, I could not understand a lot of what was said. My comprehension of Italian is really quite marvelous for being here only two weeks. When people talk fast though, that is another story.
I have been placed in the 4E class. That means that I am in the 4th level (somewhat equivalent to 11th grade) and in class E. They have classes arranged by letters. Each letter focuses on a slightly different thing. My class in particular is more of a linguistic focus. I am going to a science oriented school. As a result, I could not escape the dreaded science. In my class, we are studying both Chemistry and Physics. I already studied Chemistry and it was such a pain. Physics in a different language though is...horrible. I also have Math. I think that we are doing some hardcore trigonometry/geometry stuff. I have already done geometry, but I definitely didn't like that class or do well in it. The subject here is completely foreign to me...no pun intended. They teach things so differently than teachers do in the United States. First of all, they use the Greek letters Alpha and Beta in their equations. That has me completely confused. We are also studying Philosophy, History, French, English, Italian Literature, Latin, Physical Education, and Design (drawing). I like every subject above, minus design. The French teacher is letting me use a beginning book since I have no knowledge of the language, the Italian/Latin teacher is giving me special homework to help me learn Italian. It is her wish that I take the big exams in the spring. They are in Italian. Philosophy and History are fun to listen to because I can actually grasp most of what he is saying. Physical education is not hard; it is just in Italian. I am not too keen on desgin because I can't draw. This class is focused upon drawing precise pictures with measurements and geometrical designs. I have never done this in my life. The school also has a choir which I plan on becoming a part of. :)
On the otherhand, my classmates are great. The entire class consists of 21 people, myself included. They are all so nice and helpful. For the past two weekends, we have all been meaning to get together to go around the city, but they have been cancelled both times. The first time was because not enough of the class could make it and this time because I am going out of town with my family. I really like all of them. Two girls in particular, Claudia and Lucy, have been incredibly helpful in helping me to become situated in the classroom. I think that they are all very happy to have me there. I have also made another friend. She happens to be the girl who I met in the airport in Rome. She is incredibly nice and outgoing. On the subject of friends, last weekend, I went out with my sister and her friends. I had a crepe with them and then we went to a bar to hang out. It was really fun and I am glad that I was included. :)
The food here is still amazing! I have some new favorites. I love melon, cantaloupe to be precise, wrapped up in prociutto. It is so amazingly delicious. I also love every single one of their past dishes. Every single one! My family makes these tomato salads with olive oil that are to die for. You can either eat them plain or you can put them in bread like a sandwich. They are so, so good. The tomatoes here have so much more flavor! So does the olive oil for that matter. Yesterday, I ate lunch with a few of my classmates. We went for authentic Arabic kabob. They had the meat standing upright and they really did just shave it off. It was so great! I also saw the largest Nutella container of my life. It must have been at least as big as my head, if not bigger. Also yesterday, my family and I went out for pizza. :) It was my first pizza dining out while here in Italy. I had a Bufalo pizza. It has pomodori fresci (fresh tomatoes), bufalo (mozzarella), rugula (arugula), basilica (basil), and maybe something else. It was amazing! Here in Italy, they really do serve you an entire pizza to eat by yourself. I managed to down half of the pizza before I had to stop. It was so good that I didn't want to, but I had no choice. As for the desserts, I am still totally in love with gelato. My brother introduced me to a new form of gelato. First, you have a brioche, then it is cut in half. The whole thing is then stuffed with gelato and panna (cream) is put on top. It is huge, amazing, and totally worth eating the whole thing. :)
This weekend, my family and I are going to Taormina and to another place. I don't remember the name because it had more than one word in it. We are going to Taormina because Federico has a tennis match to play in. I don't know if Agnese is coming with us. She has made it very clear that she absolutely does not want to go. Whether she comes or not is her decision, but either way it will be a lot of fun.
One last thing. Italians really can not go out with wet hair. My mother freaks out if I have wet hair. I must absolutely dry my hair if it gets wet. A few nights ago, she saw that I hadn't dried my hair after showering. She then proceeded to tell me that I was going to get a headache and a fever during the night. I wanted to laugh because I found it funny, but at the same time I thought that it was sweet.
Oh, wait. Last night, I was actually able to help my sister with her English homework. She had to translate pages of English into Italian and I was able to help her do it. :) I was so proud of myself because my knowledge of the language is increasing so much!
I will keep updating, but for now this is all I can think of to write. I haven't been able to put pictures up because of internet connection speed. I have loaded some onto Facebook though. I'm sorry to all of you who can't see them. I really meant for you to be able to. I'll write soon!

Ciao a tutti,

Rebecca

Messina!!!!

2009-09-15T14:41:00.001+02:00

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

And I'm Off!

2009-09-08T23:41:00.001+02:00

So, as I write this I am lying on my bed in my hotel room in New York City. Yeah, you heard that right...New York City. I have now officially began my foreign exchange to Italy. Cool, huh?! :) Today has been such a hectic and exhausting day. I haven't had a day like this in so long. Not since...last summer actually. Technically, it all kind of began yesterday, so I will start there.
Yesterday, I barely had anything packed. I had most of my clothes but it is so much more than that. You need your bathroom supplies, your host family gifts, and all the other stuff that you want to take. As a result, I was actually packing the entire day yesterday. Believe me, it was not the ideal last day with my family. I had to pack though. My grandparents showed up on Sunday, so it became a bit more distracting. Anyway, the reason that it took all day was because we were continuously interrupted and we just had trouble focusing. By we, I mean my mom and I. She helped me to pack. By the way, thank you for that mom. :) So, after I had finished packing, it was about six in the evening. Six in the evening! I had like zero time with my family. I finished everything up, had dinner (salad and popcorn; some of my favorites), and then watched Gilmore Girls with my mom and brothers. Because it was my last day, it ended up being my whole family plus my grandparents. Gilmore Girls is my favorite show because my mom and I literally have the exact same relationship that the two main characters, a mother and a daughter, share. Anyway, by the time that finished it was 10 PM or somewhere around there. Then, it was time to sleep. That didn't work to well. I started sobbing. Complete debilitating sobs. My mom and I talked and I felt somewhat better. I managed to turn out the lights and relax by about 11 PM. Surprise!!! Three hours later, at 2 AM, my mother comes into my room and wakes me up. It was time to get ready to go. I didn't start crying then. I was just trying to focus on getting out the door. We managed to do that and we drove away at 3. Almost the entire way to Portland, I was crying. In my head, I kept repeating "What in the world was I thinking doing this?" I was experiencing literal physical pain. My brother fell asleep on me and that is when I really lost it. I love him so much and it was so hard to leave him.
At the airport, we breezed through checking my bag and got ourselves into the line for security. My dad left so he could go find me something that I had forgotten. The security line went so fast that before I knew it I was at the front of the line with security people telling family members to leave the line. I freaked out then. Mind you, this whole time, I am crying or about to start crying. We eventually just got out of line and walked back to the end where my dad met us. I literally had to say my goodbyes right then, the line was moving that fast. It was so hard!! Security was easy and I went to my gate and waited. It didn't take long before the boarded the plane.
On the plane, I slept and woke up and slept and woke up. Looking out the window was great. The only things that I remember were flying over Lake Michigan, flying over Lake Erie, and flying over Manhattan Island. It was great seeing Manhattan from the air. I could see all of the major buildings plus Brooklyn Bridge. I managed to get my bag, follow the directions from AFS on how to get to my hotel, and here I am. When I checked in, they gave me a fresh chocolate chip cookie (HUGE!), an apple, and a granola bar. It is really a very nice hotel.
I am feeling a lot better about leaving my family. I know that my relationships with my family members will not change while I am gone. It was also insanely empowering to come here to New York by myself and find my way to my hotel, in New York by myself. I actually feel great right now! I am so excited!!! When I left my room to break a $10 bill, the staff sort of automatically knew that I was here for AFS. I really liked that because then they weren't questioning why a 16 year old girl is in a hotel in New York by herself.
Tomorrow, I will check out at the latest possible time and meet up with AFS people. Then, we will have our orientation, stay one more night, and then leave on Thursday. So, Italy is coming up really very quickly

Ciao!!
Rebecca

Six days and counting

2009-09-02T02:34:00.000+02:00

So, I am only going to be here in Oregon for about another six days. That is, after today is finished. These past few days have been exhilarating, overwhelming, frightening, exciting... I have been trying to figure out what all I need to bring. Now, I do believe that I have everything in order. Currently, I have two suitcases laying open on my floor beckoning for me to begin filling them. I have, technically, but with random stuff that I have thought of. None of it has really been planned. Tonight, I am going to empty everything out of the big suitcase that I have and load it into a different large suitcase. Unfortunately, my tennis racket does not fit in this one and I must, therefore, take a larger, heavier suitcase. Oh well. It will definitely be worth it considering that I will be playing tennis with my siblings during the entire duration of my exchange.
I have been stressing like no other. I have been trying to cram so much stuff into these last days that I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Between trying to eat my favorite foods that I know I will miss and hanging out with my family, I haven't gotten anywhere on packing or studying Italian. This will be the biggest thing that I have ever done in my life. It will also be one of the things that will impact it the most. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond excited....ecstatic to be precise! :)
I have tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday just here with my family. I'm not 100% sure what all we will be doing, but it will just be us. Then, on Sunday, my grandparents are coming to say their goodbye's and see me off to the airport on Tuesday. I'm hoping that by the time that arrive I will have everything in order and be living in the clothes that I am leaving behind (not that I know what clothes those are yet).
The thing that I wanted to touch base on the most right now was communication. From this end, the end where you are constantly waiting to hear from your host family each time you e-mail, it can be kind of stressful. When there are long stretches of time between messages, I begin to think "Gosh, do they still want to have me there?...Are they as excited as I am?" Then, suddenly, you open your e-mail or your Facebook inbox and there is a message. It is so exciting and relieving to hear from them because you know that all of your worrying was for naught (Excuse the vocabulary, that is just how I write). I love hearing from my host family. :) The last time that I talked to my host sister, she told me that they might be bringing me to Malta in April next year. When they returned home on Sunday, they were going to buy me a bed. I'm going to be sharing a room with Agnese, which is beyond belief amazing!!!!! :))))
Anyway, it was high time for me to touch in here and there are only six more days!
Ciao,
Rebecca

So Much to Do, So Little Time

2009-08-11T22:05:00.000+02:00

Wow! After today, I only have about 27 more days here in Oregon. I can't believe it. Ever since last July, I have dreamed about starting my foreign exchange in Italy. More than a year later, that dream is finally becoming a reality. I can not, however, comprehend how fast time has flown. This past school year went so quickly, as has this summer. In less than a month, I will be boarding a plane, not to see my family or my United States home for ten months. Less than a month! I AM SO GOSH DARN EXCITED!!!! :) With this excitement, I am also very nervous. This nervousness is not, however, the bad kind. On the contrary, it is the good kind, the kind where the butterflies provide exhilaration and a sense of independence. Because my mom and I are so close, it has been hitting me more frequently how much I am going to miss her. She really is one of my best friends. I will get through it though. I know that I will. This is something that I have been dreaming and dreaming about. It is going to be amazing. She will probably end up missing me even more than I will miss her. My reasoning for this is that she will be here in the same home and situation where as I will be off on my own adventure. I will also become part of another family.
Speaking of my family, about a month ago (probably a little less), I received my host family information packet. By reading that and talking to Agnese, I have learned a lot more about them. Both my father and my mother are architects and teachers. My dad teaches art and drawing at the school I am going to attend (more on that later). He is passionate about politics as well. My mother enjoys cinema, reading, and cooking. I don't know anything more about my mom except that she makes really, really good lasagna. :) I'm not going to complain about that one bit. Lasagna is delicious!!! Anyway, Agnese, my sister, is an amazing tennis player. She plays in international tennis tournaments and teaches tennis during the summer months. We will not be going to the same school, but I know that we will become great sisters. Federico, my brother, will be going to the same school as me. He is also a tennis player and he loves animals. My family has one outdoor cat. When I last talked to Agnese, she had hurt her arm and was stopping tennis for while in order to recuperate. We plan on playing tennis together and she informed her coach that I am coming. I'm only hoping that she didn't over-exaggerate my abilities. Plus, I started mid-July after a seven month break. I love tennis, so it will be great. She told me that they have a second house on the island of Malta. MALTA!!! She said that they will probably take me there as a family. Not many people can say that they have been to Malta can they? No. I didn't think so. :) It is going to be amazing. She also told me that my mom will be making her lasagna for my arrival. :) I'm so excited! I have probably said that a million times, but it is true every single time.
As for my school, I will be a scientific school. When I found this out, I started to cry. Science is not my favorite subject at all. I thought that Chemistry was hard enough in English, let alone Italian. Also, I don't need any more science credits in order to graduate from high school. Since then, I have warmed up to the idea. My father teaches there, my brother goes there, and they have other things besides science such as a newspaper, theatre, art, and choir. Thank goodness!
Now for the main reason that I am on here today. I leave in less than a month. Only yesterday did I officially begin to shop for everything that I need. I drove down to Eugene by myself in order to buy new clothes. I haven't been shopping in ages. On Thursday, I will be going back. One thing on my list down there were host family gifts. What I bought is just getting me started. I have a long ways to go with everything. I also some other "Oregon" ideas. As for something specific for Agnese and Federico, I don't know what to give them. I really need to figure that out. My plan is to also buy a couple of things for my first family that I had. They said that I would be able to see them and I would like to give them something to show my gratitude for them agreeing to take me in, even though it didn't work out. There is a lot of work to do.
I leave on September 8th at about 6:35 in the morning. So early! That is one day earlier than I am supposed to be in New York, but the next day, the 9th, is the first day of school for my brothers. I didn't want to ruin their first day of school by leaving on that day. So, now I will be leaving a day early. I will fly across the country by myself, get to the orientation hotel by myself, check into a hotel room by myself, stay in that room by my self, and check out the next day by myself. I have never even been on a plane by myself, let alone in a huge city by myself. Thankfully, I will be at the orientation hotel. Anyway, then for the next couple of days I have the orientation. On the evening of the final day, we will leave New York for Zurich, Switzerland. There, we have a four hour layover, after which, we fly to Roma. All in all, I leave home on the 8th and arrive in Roma on the 11th. We have a couple nights in Roma for our orientation and then I will fly down to Messina, Sicily to join my family. All of this is from memory; therefore, there is a possibility that I got something wrong. Oh well. :) You get the idea.
Sorry for the long post, but there was so much information. I will keep posting as I buy more, learn more, and get closer to the departure date.
Ciao a tutti!
Rebecca

Visa and Famiglia

2009-07-06T01:46:00.000+02:00

Time is moving so fast. I still have trouble believing that it is already July 5. In about two months, probably a little less, I will be leaving my home in order to fly to New York. Not only have I never been to a big city by myself, I have never flown on an airplane by myself. I have, however, flown on so many airplanes over the years that there will be absolutely no problem. I have couple of things that I want to write about. One of them is the entire visa process. The other is about my host family, but I will get to that later.

So, the visa process was kind of a pain. For me, however, it was not nearly as difficult as some other exchangers have it. Where I live, I am under the jurisdiction of San Francisco and AFS was able to do everything for me. All I had to do was gather everything that was needed. Most of it was easy: getting passport photos for my visa, filling out forms, etc... The hard part was getting the bank statement. We had to have a letter from the bank saying that we had $900 available, completely free for every month that I would be in Italy. Over all, that is $9000. That is so much money! Anyway, we figured it out. We had the bank set my parents and I up with a notary in order to get everything notarized that needed to be. Over all, and a few extra trips down to the bank, the entire process took about three or four hours. We didn't have to drive any great distance in order to go to a consulate or anything like that. All we had to do was go to Kinko's and mail all of it (including my passport) to the New York visa office. We don't know that they actually received it, but if there was a problem, I am positive that we would have heard about it already.

As for my family, I have some bittersweet news. Last night, I was up into the wee hours of the morning due to the fact that it was Independence Day. I decided to spontaneously Facebook my host brother at about one in the morning our time. Then, I went to sleep. In the morning, I checked Facebook to see if he had written back and he had. I did not check it though. I went about my day until about three o'clock this afternoon. It seemed like the perfect time then. It was great hearing from him, however, he also gave me news that they could no longer host me. What?! I was in complete and utter shock. Apparently, AFS called them last Friday and informed them that I have to go to a different family because they did not a have a school in the vicinity that was able to take me. As a result, I am now going to be living with a family in Messina, Sicily. I am still somewhat disappointed. For months now, I have been really excited to be living in a small beach side town. I really liked talking to my brother. My sister and I had only talked a minute amount and I had had zero contact with the parents. I can't be too disappointed though. I am still going to Italy, Sicily for that matter. My brother also said that I would still be coming there for a weekend to see them.

So, my new family lives in Messina. I have my host father and my host mother. Their names are Mario and Roberta. I also have a host sister and a host brother, just like before. Except this time, both of them are younger than I am. My sister, Agnese, and I have the exact same birthday. She will turn sixteen the same day that I turn seventeen. How cool is that? Of all the days in the year, my host sister was born on the same day as me. Before, my first host sister was older than me by a year, almost to the day. My new host brother is named Federico. He is thirteen right now and is only about a month and a half younger than my youngest brother here in the United States. That is all I know about the family besides their street address and their telephone number. AFS will, hopefully, send me more information about them soon. I am dying to know more. I am excited about my new family. It is kinda strange though that I have already had to change host families and I have not even step foot into Italy yet. I have an incredibly strong feeling that I will fit in marvelously with my family. :) I can't wait!!! :)

Ciao! :)

New Blog

2009-07-05T00:58:00.000+02:00

As you can tell, I already started a blog using another program. I decided, however, that this program will work much better for me. I like the formatting much better. Anyway, this post is obviously incredibly long. This is the case because I copied all of the entries from my other blog and pasted them onto this one. Hopefully, everything is there. This entire process has been incredibly lengthy and arduous. It was completely worth the effort though. I will be living in Italy for ten entire months. How much better can it get? I hope that you all enjoy reading about my adventures through this time, whether they be spectacular experiences or contain my insights to being a foreign exchange student. I hope that my experiences provide an insight into who I am and the beautiful, amazing world in which we live.

The posts below start with the earliest at the bottom to the most recent at the top. It flows like a blog would. Scroll down to the bottom and read up. :)

Con l'amore,
Rebecca

The Countdown
Jun 18, 2009

Ciao!
Ok, so obviously it is getting closer and closer to my departure for Italy. It is all I can think about now. My family seems amazing. I have talked some with both my brother and my sister. I have not had contact with my parents, but I'm sure that that is normal. My siblings seem amazing. I am thrilled to have a sister, considering I don't have one here in the states. She is only a year older than I am, almost to the day. We have many things in common. I believe that is a promising sign of a wonderful relationship. My brother is great. He is between my brothers ages, so I am very familiar with the likes and dislikes of boys that age. Currently, I am struggling to think of what to get my family for host family gifts. Oregon just is not easy to represent in material items. Oh well, I will have to think of something.
It is getting so close now. It hadn't really, truly hit me until school ended last week. I am leaving in less than three months. Actually, it is more like two and half months. This whole experience is going to be incredible. Sometimes I don't even know how to express how excited I am and how amazing it will be. Words just don't fit the magnitude of my feelings. Along with these feelings of excitement, I also have extreme nervous feelings. Mostly, these feelings revolve around my mom. We are really close. Our relationship is almost exactly like the one in Gilmore Girls. I am going to miss her so terribly, but I know that it is the right time for me to take this step of independence. I am so ready for it. I just love my mom so much and am so attached and close to her...I don't want us to grow apart. Part of me thinks, actually a large part, that we will in a sense grow closer. I don't know how to express my reasoning for that, but it makes sense to me.
Ah, obviously Italy is all that is on my mind right now. How could it not be? I have to start thinking about what I am going to pack, what I am going to leave home, and what I am going to give them as gifts. I also have the think of a way to say goodbye, in person, to all of my friends. Maybe I will have a bon voyage party. I could have one of my friends help me to plan it. That seems like a good idea to me.
Italian is going rather slowly. I wish it was going faster. Personally, I want to know as much Italian as I can by the time I leave. It will make my whole transition so much easier.
Speaking of foreign exchange, my cousin is also going through everything that I have talked about. He is going to Ecuador for his senior year. We are going to be on exchange the same year, the entire year, but we are going to be in completely different parts of the world. He did his application much more spontaneously than I did; therefore, he has had much less time to think and mull things over. I hope he is doing ok, and that he realizes that this is such a wonderful, amazing opportunity. It is an opportunity and an experience that can not be replicated at any other point in one's life. Sure, you can do exchange in college. Exchange in college is, however, not high school. It is not necessarily full immersion.
I am excited out of my mind. It is time for me to get back to life here. I will keep everyone posted. :)
Rebecca

Mia Famiglia!!!!
May 25, 2009

Hello!!! :)
I'm so sorry it has been so long. It is just so busy right now. The school year is almost over so everything is trying to wrap up. It takes a lot of time. I promise that I will be more on top of things after school gets out.
Last Wednesday, I got my host family!!! :) I will be living in Gioiosa Marea on the island of Sicily! :) I am SO EXCITED!!! :) I have a mom and a dad. I have a sister who is almost exactly, to the day, one year older than I am and I have a brother who is about three years younger than me. The other day I sent them an email telling them that I was really excited and that I was working on my Italian. I talked to my brother, Marco, yesterday on Facebook. It was wonderful. Then, I got to say hi to my sister. I can't wait to go. I will be living right next to the beach and the food of Sicily sounds absolutely amazing. I know that this will be incredible and my family and I will get along beautifully.
:) I can't stop smiling :)
Anyway, I gotta go do more homework. I will write more when I have more time.
Ciao!
Rebecca :)

Oops!
Mar 31, 2009

Hey!
Oh my goodness. Wow! It has been ages since I was on here. School just seems to take over my time. Last week was our spring break and tomorrow is the first day of April. I am so excited! There are only two more months in the school year. It continually amazes me how fast this school year has gone by. They seem to go faster and faster as time goes on too. Next Friday, my six months for my driver's license will be up, meaning that I can drive two other people outside of my family. YAY! I am very excited about that. Also, I leave in 5 months! BIGGER YAY! Hopefully, on Thursday I will start volunteering in a local classroom and I am also lining up a volunteer position at an acting camp this summer. I think that both of them will work out. Anyway, that's about all I have time for. Now, I have to go back to homework. I will definitely try to get on here more often.
Ciao! :)
Rebecca

Sky Camp!
Mar 11, 2009

Hey!
This past weekend, I attended Sky Camp. It was great!!!! Exchange students in Oregon, people who are going on exchange next year, and recent returnees all got together and had a great time. I can't talk about it too much right now. I have lovely homework to do. Basically, though, all of the Americans going Abroad (AA) spent the day together attending three different seminars about getting prepared. It was really great and I made friends there. After the seminars, we had free time where we could literally do whatever we wanted. It was great. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to so many people from all over the globe. It was positively incredible. Then, it was time to have dinner. After dinner, there was a "variety show". I like to call it a talent show. That was super fun as well. However, after the show, there was a dance. :) :) The previous night I had gone to our Spring Fling dance, so this was my second night dancing. I had SO MUCH FUN! We danced into the middle of the night. I only danced with one person. He was an exchange student from Spain and it was great dancing with him because he had so much energy. After the dance, which ended at 11, we could either go to sleep or stay up and watch a movie. I went back to my cabin, but I couldn't fall asleep. I tried, but I was too energized. Oh well. :) The next day, everyone was zombies. We really weren't that into what was going on and we all wanted to sleep. I had only had about 8 hours of sleep over three days. I am still trying to recover. We took a group picture before everyone left and said our goodbyes. I bought a T-shirt with all of the exchange students names on it and a USA-Italy pin. This was such a great experience. It only made me feel even better about what I am doing. I know that this is the right thing and I can't wait to go! :)
Ciao! :)
Rebecca

Just an Update
Mar 4, 2009

Hey everyone! :)
I thought that I would just update everything. It is already March. It is incredible how fast this year is already going. Spring break is right around the corner here. It is in two weeks! After spring break, the school year just whizzes by like a train at breakneck speeds. As each day passes, I get more and more excited for Italy. I leave in six months. Only six months! I received the official letter that I have been accepted to AFS Italy. It is really real. We also received the bill. Usually, someone does not become excited to receive a bill for $10,000. Heck, I sure was though. :) I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. This weekend, I am going to a local camp. I will get to meet other local outbounds and I will also have the opportunity to meet returnees and the many exchange students in our area. I am really excited, including the fact that the curfew is at 1:30 in the morning. I am going to be so tired! I am a little worried about my homework for the weekend. It will all work out though, so I won't worry too much. School is pretty good. I absolutely ADORE Spanish and Psychology. Then, on the other hand, I absolutely HATE Chemistry and math. Oh, well. I can make it through the year. We only have about three months left. :) I will update more later. In the meantime, I have to have a cookie and go to sleep. :)
Ciao! :)
Rebecca

I am ready! :)
Feb 12, 2009

Hey there everyone! :)
I decided that I need to blog. Because I have missed the last two days of school, I am sitting at home trying to catch up on homework that I have not done yet. I just needed a break.
I am ready for Italy. Now that I know that I am officially going to Italy, the fact that I am leaving in roughly seven months has actually hit me. It hadn't before. I will try to explain this. When you are accepted on the AFS USA side, it is official that you are going on an exchange. You logically and consciously know that you are leaving. The country that you are going to, however, is unknown. By not knowing exactly what country you are going to, it is somewhat surreal, like a dream. As soon as you find out what country, you know where your going. Instead of saying "I am going...somewhere", you can now say, in my case, "I am going to Italy." There is a place instead of a somewhere. It is real now. :) As soon as I found out, I was literally in hysterics. My heart beat at the speed of light (obviously not, but I am just letting you get the idea) and I burst out in tears. My dream is coming true. It is the most wonderful and overwhelming feeling that I have felt in a long time. I AM SO EXCITED! I do not even care where I go. All of it is Italy. I can't wait. I know that time is going to go really insanely fast. Before I know it, I will be boarding an airplane headed for New York to go to my Orientation. I know that I am going to miss my family, my friends, my home. But, I am going to have a second family, a second set of friends, a second home. On the plus side, it will be in the country of my dreams. :) :) While I wait for September 7-11 to come around (the potential departure dates), I will continue my attempts at learning Italian. I have Rosetta Stone, and let me tell you, I adore Rosetta Stone. It is really an incredible program. I am learning a lot. :)
Ciao! :)
Rebecca, USA to ITALIA, 2009-2010 :)

YAYYYYYYY!!!!
Feb 9, 2009

OH MY GOODNESS!!! I totally just got off of the online chat thing with AFS. ITALY ACCEPTED ME! I AM GOING TO ITALY FOR A YEAR!!!! I can hardly contain myself. :) I haven't written here for a very long time because I have been to anxious of jinxing something. Superstitious...I know it's ridiculous. But, I am accepted! :)

Big Decisions
Jan 25, 2009

Hey! :)
Sorry it has been absolutely FOREVER since I last wrote. Life has just been too hectic recently. On Friday, I managed to survive the last day of our semester. As a result, I had way too much work to do and am now relaxing on a four day weekend. I am absolutely thrilled that I completed all of my classes with A's, therefore, keeping my GPA very high. This year, I have a lot of pressure to keep my amazing GPA up because I will be gone for my junior year. It is highly important to me to not let any bad, or just worse, grades that I may receive inhibit my future college/career goals. I still completely agree with the realization that I had earlier, but I still don't want it to effect my future. So I am so excited I got all A's. I am finally done with Mrs. Machado. She was my Spanish 2 teacher. To put it completely honestly, she was the worst teacher that I have ever had. She always altered her teaching plans and the way that she taught the material. She also seemed to believe that she had absolute power and that we students were just litttle children that she could boss around. Quite frankly, I don't think that I am prepared for Spanish 3 this coming semester. We will see. While the end of the semester was euphoric for me because I got rid of Machado, it was also bittersweet because my two favorite classes of all time were over - Honors International Literature and Honors International Studies. I loved everything about those two classes! The teachers, the topics covered...everything! I really feel...honored...privileged..I don't quite know the right word...but I feel so lucky to have been able to take these classes. I felt sad that they were over. Also, the teachers are retiring this year. In his closing statement, my lit teacher said many things that really made me feel positive and great. He was saying that we should live our lives; make our own stories. He also said that we should write these stories down. One of his firm beliefs is that life should be lived to its full potential, and not compromised at all. Take calculated risks. Also, he really believes that one should travel as much as one can and that you can't travel too much. He also said to start travelling as soon as possible. I totally agree with all of these tips. I really do. I just....don't really know how to put in words how wonderful it felt to hear these words. I am going to have to keep talking to him throughout the second semester.
My schedule for next semester is crazy..but in a good way. :) Here:

1) Spanish 3
2) Spanish 3
3) Chemistry
4) Psychology
5) Algebra 2
6) Algebra 2
7) Study Period, aka, nothing
8) Health 1

I am so very excited for Spanish 3. I have met the teacher before and she is wonderful! I think that I am going to end up learning a lot from her. Chemistry....eh...it's chemistry. I am really, really good at it, but I just really, really don't like it. I am never going to go into a career that has anything to do with science or math. Never! It is just one of those hoops that I have to jump through. Psychology really excites me. I am really thankful that I was able to talk myself into the class. The ideas of psychology are so incredibly interesting to me. Plus, I know the teacher. He was my Honors International Studies teacher. He is really great teacher and I know that I will learn a lot from him. Now, I won't have to worry about getting my senior social studies credit in order to graduate. I am taking care of it right now. :) To make it even better, there is an Honors option. Yay! I hate math, so I decided not to take Honors Algebra 2. It is just another one of those hoops that I have to jump through. I know that I will do fine, because, like chemistry, I am really good at it. It is the same thing with Health. It is a hoop I have to jump through. I will live through it. The teacher is really great. Because we have the block system, every Monday and Wednesday I will be able to leave school at about 1. On top of my work load, I am going to volunteering in an English as a Second Language classroom at one of the local elementary schools. The teacher is one of our family friends, so I don't really have to worry about trying to impress her in order to get the position. I am really excited because teaching is one of the career options that I am thinking about. On top of this...I am going to be learning Italian. My progress has been really slow, because I had to put it down in order to focus on my Spanish 2 final. I just had to get an A and I knew that Italian would probably end up confusing me. I just found out the my Spanish 2 teacher is going to be teaching an independent study Italian class this next semester. I am going to try to weedle my way into it so that I can get her help as well. Hopefully, it will work. :)
As you can tell, I am going to be incredibly busy next semester. Because of this, I have decided not to play tennis for the school. The demand is too great for me to deal with. I need to focus on school and Italian. Don't get me wrong...I adore tennis, but I would just end up stressing myself out even more. This decision feels right to me. By the way, this was the big decision that I was talking about.
AFS. Oh my gosh...I am getting so excited. I should hear within the next couple weeks if I have been accepted into Italy...hopefully. As soon as I know if I am accepted, I will not be worrying anymore. I will be going to Italy! AAHHH!! :)
Sorry about the incredibly long post. There was just so much that I wanted to say. :) I promise that I will update again soon!
Ciao! :)
Rebecca

Realization
Jan 5, 2009

Well, obviously I never managed to come back on the last day of December. Oh, well. That is just how life works sometimes. Anyway, now it is 2009. Wow. I just can't believe it. Time seems to keep moving faster and faster. Right now, I am ok with that because it means that school will go by faster. On the other hand, I wish that it would slow down instead of speeding up. For instance, when I go to Italy. I will never want it to end.
As an update, my application is currently in Italy. Hopefully, they look at it, immediately feel that I am a wonderful option, and inform AFS USA of my acceptance.
The real reason I am writing right now is because today I had a realization. I went to school today for A Block. I could not manage to stay for the whole day because of my wisdom teeth. It is taking a long time for me to feel 100% better. Anyway, back onto the subject. On of the students in my class had her older sister come in and speak to us about her three month trip to Africa. She informed us of the wonderful things that she did to make a difference, and of all of the terrible things that she saw. I do not know how it made a difference on me, but it did. Recently, I have had a lot of trouble motivating myself with school. I realized that it really does not matter where you get a college degree from, at least not for me. It matters what you do with it and how you use it. I realized that I just have to do something international, hopefully something specifically with Italy, but something international. It does not matter to me where exactly I get my future degree from, it matters how I use it. Therefore, I do not have to stress myself out as much. I can relax a little. I just want to do too well for my own wellbeing.

Goodbye 2008
Dec 31, 2008

Hey! :)
Wow. Gosh. I can not believe that is already the last day of December. This year seemed to zoom by so fast, without even pausing for a little down time. Believe me when I say that I am thrilled the it is almost 2009. Really. It is just that at the end of every year I tend to think a lot about the past year. I think of the wonderful things that happened and the things that I wish not to repeat. There are so many things for which I am thankful. I also think of the many wonderful, amazing, and exhilerating things to come with the next year.
Since it has been a while since I last updated, I will give little highlights. :) So...because of all of the snow we had two weeks ago, I have literally had a three week winter break. Of course that is horrible for the school districts, however, I will not deny that I have throroughly enjoyed it. We had so much snow! It could have been about a foot. I was snowed into our house for two whole weeks. That was really hard for me because I have my driver's license now and I am used to having a lot of freedom. For the holidays, all of the relatives that had planned on coming down from Washington (state) were snowed in as well. As a result, my mom's sisters family came down for this past weekend. Technically, I had two Christmases. It was really great to see them all for the holiday's. I am not going to be here next year, so at least we had this small amount of time togther. My only regret about the holiday's this year is that we never got around to celebrating any Hanukkah. We did not even make latkes. Not one! It is my favorite dish to have during Hanukkah, especially with applesauce. YUMM!!! Oh, well. I will have to make some evenually here.
Recently, I think it was about a week and a half ago, I checked the status of my online application for AFS Italy. In the little status box was written the word transferred. Tranferred?! OH MY GOODNESS! That means that it is in Italy. During the duration of that day, I could hardly contain myself. That means that I will hear from Italy fairly soon, maybe even as soon as within the next two weeks. I want to go to Italy so badly. As soon as I hear that I am accepted, I will be euphoric! No more fretting and worrying for me. I have no preference of where I am to be placed. It is all Italy to me. :) It is amazing to think that I will leave in a little more than eight months to embark on my ten month adventure. This exchange is going to change my life. In fact, it already has to some extent. I am a far more outgoing person already, a complete change from the person I was last year, or even during this summer. I feel...complete. That is the only word that I can find to clearly explain the overwhelmingly wonderful sensation accompanying this exchange. When I do eventually decide where I want to head with my life, I know for a fact that I will be doing something with International Affairs, or Relations. My dream job right now would be to have a career in Italy. Not on a military base or anything. I mean a legitimate career in Italy, among native Italians. Of course it would mean living in Italy. That is not a problem though. I know that I will love Italy. Call me crazy, or say something like "how can you know...you have not been there". Ahh, but I do know! Italy is part of me. It has been for as long as I can remember. Of course I may romanticize Italy, but I know that I will adore it. Italy is just...who I am. Everything about Italy draws me to it like a super powerful magnet. The food, the history, the culture, the people, etc...and yes, even the fact that it is dirty and has a difficult government. It makes it that much more real, not some pristine country with no problems. Sorry if none of this makes any sense whatsoever. I tried my best to explain. I can not wait. :)
At the moment, I am lying down in my bed writing this. I had my last two wisdom teeth out yesterday. The medication that they put me on makes my incredibly dizzy. So dizzy, in fact, to the point that I can not walk. I have to have someone support me. I have barely eaten anything for the past two days because I have not been able to open my mouth. I have to literally drink everything. It is hard, because I adore food. The dizzyness should only last for another day or two, but I will have to watch what I eat for about another week. I can not get anything stuck up in the stitches or holes.
Another side effect of the medication is that it makes me really, really tired. So I am going to take a nap now. I plan on coming back later in the day to post another post before the year ends!
Grazie! Ciao! :)
Rebecca, Lover of Italy and everything related :)

School Cancelled!
Dec 16, 2008

Hey!! :)
You know what I never understand? My school district cancels school even when they technically don't need to. Today, school was cancelled and tomorrow it has been cancelled as well. It is not supposed to snow tonight. Sure, everything is icy and the temperatures have been between fifteen and thirty degrees for the past day. It is really great though. Lately, I have been feeling incredibly unmotivated with school. Don't get me wrong...I adore school and learning. It is just that we waste so much time. Over the past few days, I have worked so efficiently. It has been amazing. Tomorrow, I will be able to possibly redo some of my homework to make it fit into my impossibly high standards and do things that I have wanted to do for a long time. I feel like school here is such a waste of my time. Sometimes I question whether I would have learned more if I had remained homeschooled. I don't wish that I had stayed homeschooled, but I just wonder what I would be learning and what my personality would be like if I had. Anyway, at least winter break is next week and because of all of the snow and ice we currently only have a three day week this week. Who knows...maybe it could become less. It is supposed to snow on Wednesday.
I have also been thinking about my exchange. This is going to be the experience of my lifetime. By doing this, I am going to redefine who I am and I will discover myself. This thought completely excites me. Everyday, I wish and hope that I get Italy (sorry that I keep going on about Italy, but it is so important to me). The thought that they could reject me sends my mood way down. Anywhere I end up though, I know that I will live every moment and enjoy it thoroughly. One of my goals in life is to travel to the numerous countries I want to visit. Italy is just number one.....by a lot. A lot a lot. I do not have that much longer to wait in the scheme of things. Time moves so quickly. It is almost 2009. Wow. I will be leaving to go on an exchange for an entire school year in about nine months. Neat!!! :) I know that I am going somewhere. AFS USA accepted me. I am going away from my home, my family, my friends, my country. I will, however, gain another home, another family, other friends, and another country. I am so excited. It has not officially hit me yet. Like, oh, I am leaving. Right now, it is a fact and only a fact. I don't know where. As soon as I know where, then it will really hit me. Then, I can also stop all of my worthless worrying. My mom keeps trying to explain that there is no reason for me to be rejected. I need to listen to her. Italy is my calling. I can picture myself totally living there someday. I like that idea.
I just made 103 cookies. I don't know why I decided to make them into the middle of the night, but I did. They smell delicious, however, I can't eat them because it is so late. I really neeed to go to sleep. My tiredness, if that is a word, just hit me. I will keep updating and hopefully time will speed up some and I will hear from Italy! :)
Ciao! :)

Snow
Dec 13, 2008

Hey!
Right now, as I write, it is snowing for the first time of the season! We haven't had snow this early in a long time...a long time. I remember one time when I was really little, my soccer game was cancelled because of snow in November. That was the last time that I remember snow coming early. It is really exciting. Maybe we will even have a stereotypical white Christmas here. That would be fun! :)
As for my exchange...I found out that I will not hear if I am accepted to Italy until February or March. ARGH. I can do it. It is just that I am waiting and waiting and I want this so badly. It is my DREAM and it is so close. I can't wait until I find out. I love Italy!
Ciao! :)

Thank Goodness!
Dec 2, 2008

There are many things to be thankful for. Right now, I have way too many of them. One of them is that I decided to ask about my application on Sunday. AFS has this special tool where you can chat with one of the advisors over instant messaging. It saved my entire foreign exchange possibilities...at least in my opinion. So, I was talking to the woman and I asked her if any applications had been sent to Italy yet. She asked for my name so that she could look me up. She then told me that no, mine had definitely not been sent and that my advisor had placed a note upon my application. This note said that I possibly needed a homeschool addendum. WHAT?! I mean, we had discussed that I had been homeschooled for eighth grade, but she said that Italy may ask for some additional information. Only then would we worry about an addendum. Anyway, as it turned out, I just filled out the addendum, sent it to her, and now my application is 100% complete. It is in the initial bunch that will be sent to Italy when they start accepting applications. I am so relieved! Of course, I am still a bit worried. What if they reject me because I was homeschooled, even though I clearly explained and showed how I am not in the least unprepared? What if they just do not like the look of me? Italy is my dream and I only have about a month left of waiting until I find out if it will become a reality for ten months of my life. I am so EXCITED!!!
Another thing that I am very greatful for right now is my counselor at school. Today I got my schedule for the second semester. Last week, I met with him to negotiate changes. As it turns out, I got every change that I wanted. Because of this, I will be taking psychology. This will get my twelfth grade social studies requirement out of the way. I had to try to do it this year because I have to take the junior social studies requirement -- U.S. History-- as a senior. Plus, I absolutely love the teacher, so I should not have problem.
I really need to start hitting the Italian language really hard. I have not completed any more sections recently. Quite frankly, I have just not had the time. Maybe I will do some tonight. I have a little bit of time. I love Italian though. I still think that it is a wonderful and gorgeous language. :)
Ciao! :)

Life!
Nov 13, 2008

Hey!! While I am patiently (yet impatiently) waiting to hear if I have been accepted by Italy, life goes on. At my school, sophomores are required to participate in a career shadow. This is where the student shadows someone while they are going about their day to day business at work. I thought and thought about what kind of job I may want to have. I finally landed on teaching. Teaching is such an incredible way to make a difference in someone's life. So, I decided to shadow my aunt. She teaches fourth grade up in Washington. I really loved spending time with her in her classroom and at her house. I also really enjoyed seeing my cousin. We never get the opportunity to truly talk. My brothers are usually around, however, this time they were not. It was really great. Now, I feel like I might have some idea of what I would like to do for a career.
Right now, I am currently taking my two favorite classes of all time. Honors International Literature and Honors International Studies. Part of it has to do with the teachers. The two teachers are absolutely wonderful and they are both retiring after this year. I am very lucky to have them. The other part is that I just love literature and social studies. Both of the teachers are really encouraging me to do this foreign exchange, which in turn, makes me even more excited. Today, for example, both of them randomly started to talk to me and ask me questions about my exchange.
Lately, I have been trying to figure out what my schedule is going to be like next semster. I talked to my social studies teacher, who also teaches psychology, and he said that he would be happy if I was in his psychology class. Normally, it is only available for seniors to take, however, given my circumstances, I felt that I needed to try to get some of my senior classes in this year. I am incredibly excited about psychology. It just seems like such an interesting subject. I have not had too much exposure to psychology, but from what I have been exposed to, it seems great. Because of my exchange, I have to take AP US History as a senior. If I had to take psychology on top of that, I would be on social studies overload. I know that they are completely different, however, it would just be too much. All I need to do is talk to my counselor to see if it is full.
I am trying my hardest to begin learning Italian. My parents bought me Rosetta Stone. The program is great, however, I keep finding it hard to actually sit down and do it. I want to have as great of an understanding of the language before I go. I guess I just need to do it. Italian is such a gorgeous language, so I am excited to be learning it. So far, I know a little and some of it is really similar to Spanish. Because they are similar, it makes it a tiny bit easier. It is still hard though because pronunciation between the two languages varies significantly.
As you can tell, Italy constantly invades my thoughts. I am just too excited! Going to Italy is something that I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember. Now, it is so close. I can touch it, smell it, hear it, taste it...everything. But, all of it hangs on Italy saying yes or no. I am hoping so hard that they say yes. If I do end up going to Spain or the Netherlands, it will still be incredible, however, I am in love with everything Italian. I only have about another month and a half of waiting! It is getting so close! YAY! :)

Introduction and Waiting
Nov 8, 2008

Hey!! Obviously, this is my first post here. I am writing the blog to share my experiences before/during my exchange. I am hoping to travel with AFS to Italy. Why Italy you may ask? All I can say is...Italy. No... :) Actually, I have been practically obsessed with Italy for as long as I can remember. In Kindergarten, I adored the Colosseum. It was later that I learned that the Colosseum was used for gladiator battles where people killed each other. This, however, did not change my love for Italy. As I grew, so did my infatuation with Italy. Now, it is full blown. I love everything Italian!
Another question that you may ask is why now. Well, this past summer I went on tour with the choir of which I am a member. We participated in an international choir festival in England and then traveled to France where we performed in many historic places. The last thing in the world that I wanted to do was leave. I was so upset! Previously, I thought about doing an exchange when I was in college. A high school exchange never occurred to me. In fact, I did not even know that it was a possibility. My mom and I discussed exchanges while I was in Europe. This got me thinking. The day after I got back home, I immediately began researching different organizations that offered Italy. I already knew that I wanted to go to Italy....as you read above. AFS immediately caught my attention. With its long, well-thought of history, it was perfect. I spent the next two weeks talking with my dad about it. My mother was like "Go for it!" She is really excited that I am doing this. My dad took a little convincing. He eventually realized that I wanted this so badly and that it really was the ideal experience for someone like me to have. I sent in my preliminary application as soon as I could. All of this took place in August.
When AFS sent me the complete online application, I was beyond excited. Now, I could officially apply for the experience of a lifetime. Because I was so excited, I needed to take a day or two just to soak up the fact that I could finally do it. Then I filled out all of the simple online part where you fill in your name, family, country preference, etc.... Just in case you do not get accepted to your first choice country or if it is full, you have to come up with two other alternatives. My second choice country is Spain, while my third choice country is The Netherlands. Thankfully, my mother had just made an appointment for me to have a physical with my physican. That took care of the forms that needed to be filled out by a doctor. Then, my parents read, signed, and wrote everything that they needed to. When we took the forms to my high school to be filled out, my counselor said that it would only take him a couple of weeks to get them back to me. He was wrong. It took him almost a month. During this time, I wrote my very long (probably a little too long) letter to my future host family and put together my picture page. As soon as I got everything done and my counselor had given everything to me, I sent my application in around September 19th.
Now, my advisor at AFS told me that my application was accepted for further review and country review. She told me this a few weeks ago. This means that I am definitely going abroad for a year. It is just not official as to which country at the moment. Italy does not start accepting applications until the very end of December to the beginning of January. I still have a long wait ahead of me and it has been hard. I have gotten better at the waiting process though...what with school and everything. I am so excited! I have so much trouble containing my excitment. For my birthday, which was about a month ago, all I had planned was a huge Italian feast. It was AMAZING!!! AHHHHH.......I want to do this so badly! I can not wait to find out. Apparently, according to my mom and to my AFS advisor, there is nothing on my application that would keep Italy from accepting me. So, I have that tidbit of information to keep me from worrying too too much about not getting accepted. :)