Settimana di Scambio: Messina

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!!!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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