In April I went on the 'Settimana di Scambio' which is basically exchange within in an exchange. I went to Naples and lived with a family there. We visited schools and talked about our countries, did silly tourist things and ate alot of food. The food in Naples is amazing. At home, to me, it was the same sort of stuff I eat here. But I mean the street food, they have incredible street food. Alot of it's fried (which is maybe why I like it so much). They fry the craziest stuff, like pasta noodles. It sounds kinda nasty but it's really good. They speak different Italian there too, in fact Napolitana is not only a dialect. It's a complete other language. I mean there are specific grammar rules for it and everything. And there are people in Naples that don't speak Italian, only Napolitana. For example, one night my friend Wanda and I were catching the bus home and we didn't know what time it arrived. We kindly asked two old men who were waiting at the stop. Now you have to understand that because Napolitana and Italian are similar, we can understand it. So the old men start talking about how we aren't speaking Italian and how we must be foreign. No my dear old friends, we are speaking Italian, the problem is that you don't know Italian. We eventually got home okay, so it didn't matter but I still think it's crazy that if you put those two old men somewhere else in Italy they would have a hard time getting by because they never learned Italian. Anyway Naples was amazing and I wish we had more 'week exchanges' throughout the year.
Now I'm back home and life is pretty normal. School is good. This picture popped up on facebook the other day and I think I about died of laughter...
This is so true! I woke up in the middle of the night last week and couldn't get back to bed and as I lied awake thinking about what was bothering me so such, I realized that we only have three months of exchange left. Then I didn't sleep for the rest of night. Also I feel like every exchange student has this moment for example my friend Solveig texted me at 2 am four days ago saying 'Shit, Isabelle we only have 3 months left'. Alot of the times I guess it happens while you're trying to get to bed, or perhaps like this poor boy at a disco. Wherever it is the entire moment kinda sucks. I can't believe it's gone so fast. I don't want to go home but at the same time I do. When people ask me what I miss this most I say 'My family, my dog and salsa from Ixtapa'. I can pretty much say after this that I don't really want to be away from my family, Tula and Ixtapa for this long again. It sucks just as much to be away from them as it does to have exchange coming to an end. So as you can see it's a very bitter-sweet thing. I'll miss my Paola and Romeo and all the boys but I'm actually very excited to see all of my family, take showers without having to blow dry my hair, eat English muffins for breakfast, go camping. All the stuff I can't do here. Also my sister, Hannah came and visited for Easter so I'm sure that seeing her made me super excited to go home.
As for crazy happenings. In case you didn't hear my phone was stolen and long story short, I chased the robber and cussed, yelled and cried until he and his friends gave me my phone back. I understand that it's not a very wise thing to do, but hey I'm fine, I've got my phone and now there's a group of about 35 Moroccan men in Vicenza who I've scared the living daylight out of. Apparently some of them were also attracted to my massive bitch fit because now I get hit on my them too. Other crazy things? I pissed of a ten year-old on Tuesday. I was walking down the street with my friend and this boy threw his empty water-bottle on the floor. It's not like he was aiming for the trash and missed, he just threw it on the floor because he was fed up with holding it. I'm sorry boy but I've never been one for littering, I think it's trashy. So yes I did say 'WOW.....nice' and not only because it bothered me that you don't have the class to wait to find a trash bin but also because when you throw an empty bottle on cobblestone it makes a pretty big-noise and I was startled. Anyway this boy looked at me and in Italian yelled "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" and I said "Nothing." and kept on walking. Then this boy ran after being screaming "NOOO WHAT DID YOU SAY?" and his mom then ran after him and grabbed onto him so he wouldn't get to me. Even if he had gotten to me I could've taken him, he was little and chubby but seriously kid? Take a chill pill. And yes if your mother's not going to teach you how to be a nice respectful boy, I will.
In the end, I love my life here and I'm sad I have to leave but I'm excited too. I hope I'll write soon, sorry about the long gap. This post is actually thanks to my dad, who reminded me this morning that I do in fact have a blog. I love you Dad Xxx
