Ancora?

For some reason Italy has decided to boost it's seismic activity this year. We had an earthquake on the 20th of May at about 4 in the morning. The center was around a city called Ferrara about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Vicenza. I happened to be at my friends house in Belluno (the mountains). At the center it was 5.9 on the rector scale and lasted for about 20 seconds. We felt it pretty good, that is to say Alma didn't wake up but everyone else in the house felt it. But Alma's from Iceland, so earthquakes aren't that big of a deal.

Then today around 9 we had another one of about 5.8. Seriously we need to do some more practice drills and probably counsel some of the girls in my class. I can say that screaming and then bursting into tears isn't going to get you out of the building any faster. We than evacuated the building and waited in a near by park for an hour or so. The principle of the school said it was safe to go back to school and so we went. Thirty minutes later there was another smaller about 4.7 and we just waited. About an hour later another but this time a lot smaller. But we never were sent home. Then at about 1 there was another strong one and the entire school was evacuated and we were sent home. Keep in mind it's better if we go home because all the buildings are so old. For example my school has been around since the 1800's. Pretty sure that building is not going to last long.

Anyway please keep in your prayers the families of the people who died today as well as peace of mind for those who are close to the center of the earthquakes. They were just starting to get in the swing of things after the earthquakes on May 20th and then were hit again. This time was worse too because all the buildings that were damaged last time just collapsed this time.

Brighter news! My baby cousin Mattia was born the 22nd of May. Mother and baby are doing wonderful. I don't remember going to see Emmett in the hospital after he was born because I was too small so this was a really cool experience. It's been fun to be around a new-born. He's a very chill guy, doesn't cry alot. Just eats, sleeps and looks around all while being possibly the most perfect newborn ever.

I can't believe this will all be over in about 39 days. Even the other day out of the blue Paola said while we were eating lunch together 'I'm going to miss you a lot. Especially at this time of the day because once you're gone no one will be here to talk with me.' Thinking about leaving has already me cry and I don't know how I'll do it. I can't imagine packing up everything and pulling my suitcases back down the stairs and saying goodbye. I remember how hard it was to leave India with my friends, a boyfriend I loved, Jaya and Jogender but I honestly can't even imagine leaving here. Here I leave behind a whole other family. A mom, dad and brothers. Friends who I've felt like I've known for years when in fact it's only been 8 months. Yet at the same time I can't wait because I know I'm going home to a mom and dad and siblings who I miss like crazy. It's the weirdest feeling. High school foreign exchange is an incredible thing and I would encourage everyone to do it. They don't kid around when the say it's one of the best years of your life.

Birthday (:

So my 17th birthday has pretty much come and gone. It was beautiful. Paola, Romeo and the boys got me a very nice pair of sandals for summer and then tonight we all went out for dinner. It was nothing extravagant or extra-special. But that's what made it special - the fact that we were just family doing a simple, normal birthday celebration. Lorenzo asked if I was going to stay here forever and Paola explained I have a home somewhere else and I have to go back. We had normal birthday talk, went through all the boys birth stories, gave guesses on what we'll all be doing 20 years from now and Paola and Romeo told us what they did when they were 17. When we were talking about 20 years from now Paola and Romeo laughed at the idea of how big the table will have to be in 20 years. Then both talked about how I'm going to bring my kids here and they will be Nonna Paola and Nonno Romeo. I think that's really cool. That my foriegn exchange isn't just affecting my life, but also my childrens. That they're going to grow up with family in Italy: Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. That's really a beautiful thing. You can never have too much family. The restaurant is one of those lovely little places you think of when you think Italy. Stone buildings, low trees, statues and when we walked outside they all sang happy birthday 'tanti auguri' to me. Life is good.

On a fun note my Aunt Chiara is supposed to give birth to her third baby soon. In fact she's way over her due-date. Last night she dialated 5 cm and everyone thought she was going to have the baby today! The baby decided to put things on hold so we're still waiting but it would have been cool if he was born on the 15th of May too.

Xx

Vitaaaaa

I'm so sorry, I miss a whole month! Things have been pretty busy.
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

You know you're a part of the family when...

·         You share a bed with your host brother

·         When your little host brother introduces you like this “This is my sister, my American sister”

·         When they don’t need to know ask what pizza you would like for dinner

·         When you are recruited to look for more underwear for your brothers

·         When your host brother tells people to “Not make fun of the American accent”

·         When your entire family corrects your grammar mistakes

·         When your become your host brothers alarm clock

·         When your host brother waits to go to sleep until you and your cousin return from a ‘discopub’ because he was “Afraid someone would murder you and bury you under the snow”

·         When you watch Lord of the Rings with your little host brother and both get really excited about the talking tree part

·         When you braid your host cousins hair every night

·         When the entire family is comfortable walking around the house in their underwear

·         You’re asked to take the garbage out

·         When you told “We left the maid at home this week”

·          You have your brothers open mustard and mayo cans for you

·         When your little brother is waiting in the doctor’s office and draws a picture of his mom, his dad and you inside a house.

·         When you openly discuss which boys you find attractive and which you do not with your family

·         When your host dad buys you tampax

My Eavesdropping Abilities have been Severely Compromised.

So I'm at this really cool part in learning a new language where I can follow a complete conversation and give my input to the conversation. However something I've really begun to miss is eavesdropping. That may seem kinda bad but I'm really good at it. Ask my parents. But here in Italy I'm not able to follow a conversation that's happening in the kitchen from my bedroom or when I'm out to lunch I can't creep on the people next to me because I have to focus on the Italian conversation I'm having with someone. Oh the art of following two conversations at the same time. When I get back to the States I'm going to go on an eavesdropping frenzy. Don't say I didn't warn you family, everyone who sits next to me at restaurants and those who stand next to me in the check-out line. Anyway and example of this (though not exactly eavesdropping) is the other night before dinner Paola was talking to me about some current event while Lorenzo was talking to me about monster trucks. I couldn't follow either conversation. So I had to pick one. Monster trucks won. But it's just frustrating because I love being involved in multiple conversations (or involved without permission). I also now dream in Italian. Sometimes all Italian. Sometimes all English and other times a mix of both.

How's the family? Things are good. We are heading up to the mountains to go skiing for a week on the carnival break. Lorenza cut his hair himself, without a mirror. Paola was horrified. I laughed and all the brothers told him he looked cool and he modestly replied "I know". He has since then offered to cut Paola's hair, she politely declined. Though she told me the other day in the car she is terrified that one days a parent of one of Lorenzo's friends is going to call inquiring about why their child came home with no hair.

School? School's fantastic. I wrote my first essay in Italian at school. It was only about my American family but my Italian teacher was very proud and asked if she could cry when I handed it in. All my classmates have presentations about an english-speaking country and my friend Andrea has problems with pronuciation, so I went through her notes and wrote the 'italian spelling' for the English words she has problems with. For example the word "Jewish" she couldn't pronouce because Italian doesn't have a 'J' so I wrote "Giuesh" and now she can say Jewish. It's fantastic. Then after school today I went to a friends house and helped her study English verb tenses for a test tomorrow. I think she's pretty ready. Anyway when we got to her house it was lunch time and she's like we only have Pizza. But not only Pizza, homemade Pizza by her Uncle. Only homemade by your uncle pizza? well this lunch is going to suck. NOT. And she was worried the whole time that I didn't like it and that there was only Pizza. She's too sweet. It was wonderful pizza (:

TERREMOTO!

I get to at Italy to the list of countries I've experienced earthquakes in! How exciting (:
Anyway last night around 1 in the morning there was an earthquake (4.1), I was too sleepy to feel it. But at school this morning around 9 we had another one this was about (5.1). In case you didn't realize all the buildings in Italy are really really old. So they started evacuating kids from school right after it happened, in case of a bigger earthquake. They started evacuating at the top floor and then worked there way down to the bottom. My class is at the top floor. However we had an interrogazione di italiano and the teacher said we couldn't leave because we had to do the interrogazione. There wasn't another earthquake but I would just like to applaud the safety ethnics of my Italian teacher. Grazie Mille. If there was I don't think she's going to want to take responsibility for the 30 students that didn't get out of Pigafetta before the building collapsed. Boh if she's cool with than I'm cool with it.

 

Io abito in una casa dei ragazzi.

I live in a house of boys.

Today at dinner Lorenzo stuck his hot dog with a LEGO sword and proceeded to dangle it in front of my face while burping rhythmically.

I love boys.

Praise the Lord for Mexican food!

I found it!
Mexican food in Venice.

On Sunday I had a girls day with my friends Solveig (Iceland) and Renata (Brazil) in Venice. It's hard to believe but we found a little Mexican restaurant in the middle of nowhere Venice. I think it was a Mexican food and sandwich place because in the middle of the menu there were a couple pages of club sandwich's (?). I had a burrito the size of Jupiter and I ate the entire thing. It was a pretty mean burrito, I mean not very authentic but it tasted very good so there's nothing to complain about. After 5 months without it, most Mexican food will taste good even if it's a little off. Warning: This theory does not apply in countries such as India or Austria. Do not eat Mexican food in India or Austria. But it's really nice to taste other food sometimes. I've had dinner once at a sushi restaurant, once at a Chinese place and once at a Mexican place since I've been here. Don't get me wrong I love Italian food and I love Paola's cooking but here let's do the math. I have pasta 2 times a day (Lunch and Dinner), there are 7 days in a week, about 4 weeks in a month, and I've been here almost 5 months. That's about 280 bowls of pasta. As for pizza I eat it once or twice a week so I'm going to do a little estimating and say that's about 24 pizzas. Also I've lost 5 kilo's since I've been here. Odd right? In conclusion, I think I'll be going to the little sandwich/Mexican place in Venice much more often.

As for what else is going on in Italy. This semester I get grades in all my classes (: yaay! Thankfully I understand math so far. But considering it's only the second week we'll have to wait and see. I have an exchange week coming up in February or March and I'll most likely be going to Sicily or somewhere in the way South of Italy. My Italian is getting much better. When I was waiting for my train on Sunday I ran into the two most important people in Intercultura Vicenza. I was at first very disappointed because I enjoy taking the train by myself and it was way to early in the morning to speak Italian properly. However, they were very impressed and told me I have gotten much better. We then proceeded to sit in first class with a second class ticket, later we got kicked out. I got the influenza last night. Which was really fun considering I had an appointment to get my residence permit today but was too sick to go the the appointment. Also my family probably thinks they got a very sickly daughter. We were talking at dinner last night and all my brothers think it's amazing I can spend 20 minutes in the bathroom (20 minutes is not a long time). I said It was because I have to dry my hair and Romeo told me I should cut it off so it takes less time to dry, he suggested I could then sport a wig. Sorry to the boys of the Salin family I will not be cutting my hair. Also we got a puppy, her name is Lilli. She's a very good girl. However I'm still on the cat side of life here. While I was getting sick in the bathroom last night a cat joined me and sat next to me until I was finished. What would I do without these cats.  I'm very jealous to know that Seattle is getting hammered with snow. We have no snow. No snow. Not even in the mountains. Grandma and Grandpa thank you for the package (: Grandma Lou I don't have your card but I wouldn't worry because the post is VERY slow here. I hope all is well xx

Solveig!

Italy we thank you your historical pasta.

Natale & Capodanno & La Befana

It's been another month! Sorry I don't update so much. I just always have alot to do and keep forgetting about the blog..sorry. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (: For Christmas this year I had a lovely dinner of Burger King with the family. When then came home and opened the adult's and older children's presents. Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) brought me some clothes and a new pair of shoes. Then we went to Christmas Mass. Which was actually pretty cool because they sing all the same hymns we sing just with different lyrics. So I just sing along in English. Then we all went to bed and in the morning Lorenzo opened his gifts from Babbo Natale. Next we headed over to Romeo's parents house along with Romeo's 3 sisters and all their children and who guess who was there?..yes, that's right. Babbo Natale himself, or one of Nonno Salin's very close friends dressed up as Babbo Natale. So all the kids got more presents and then we went back home and started getting ready for lunch. For lunch Paola's brother, sister-in-law and their children came. Aswell as her sister-in-laws parents. We ate Tortillini, a castrated chicken (I'm not sure exactly what  was up with that but Nonna Vittoria made it very clear the day before the chicken or rooster was castrated and I wasn't really intereseted in asking anything else), sausage with all sorts of vegtables, and pig legs. Then we had this cake called Panetonne, which is basically just a really tall cake made with lots or butter and sometimes you can get chocolate or raisins in it. I don't really care for it. To me it tastes like dry cake. But italians really enjoy it and it's the 'main' christmas treat so I've had it quite a bit for the holidays; at school, at home, at friends houses, at parties etc.

As for New Year's eve. I went with my friend Sara to a party at her friends house. There were some boys and girls from school but the rest were all new people. I thought it was funny because the boy who was hosting it parents weren't home and so this boy and his friends made 30 people a full course italian meal. Pasta, Meat, Vegtables and Desert. It might have been easier to order pizza or have the party start at 11 so you didn't have to cook for 30 people. But no the party started at 8 and he had to make dinner for us all. It was very good though. Niccolo I applaud your cooking. Then we danced and hung out until midnight you go around to every person and kiss them and say 'Auguri' which doesn't have a literal translation but I think pretty much means 'Blessings'. Romeo and Paola picked me up at about 2:30 and then we all went home and slept (:

There is another holiday here that we don't have in America. It's called La Befana (which means the Witch) and it takes place on the night of January 5/ the morning of January 6. This is the suppossed day when the wise men reached Bethleham. Very relgious people go to church on this day. But it's called La Befana because on the night of January la befana visits your house and put candy or coal in your sock. Depending on wether you've been good or bad. This year the witch didn't come to our house Romeo, Giorgio and Lorenzo went to Centro (the center of town) where the witches had set up a candy market. Romeo bought me a T-Shirt that says "baciarmi prima il mio ragazzo arriva" (kiss me before my boyfriend arrives) and all the older boys got t-shirst with witty things written on them too. And the next morning Lorenzo had ate so much candy he started getting allergic reaction so he had to stop eating it.

Other things I did on break? I went a few times to Venice (Mestre really) to visit Nick. And Nick came to Vicenza aswell. I also went to Asiago with some friends from my school to go skiing. If you've ever heard of Asiago cheese. Yes, that's where it comes from and it's a very cute town. Other than that just alot of hanging out and sleeping.

Right now things are going really well. I speak completely in Italian at home and the other day I actually spoke in venetian dialect without knowing it and Paola corrected me so that I know not to say in outside of this region. Otherwise people won't be able to understand me. Words are so funny! In Italian we have words with double meanings. The best example is the word for bird (uccello). Uccello also happens to be a word for penis. Sooo you can imagine that living in a house full of boys I've gotten quite used to jokes with the word uccello. Funny story: Nick and I broke up just because it wasn't working and he lives a ways away but anyway Paola was concerned about me and asked if I was okay after it happened and I said "Il mare è pieno di pesci." (the sea is full of fish) and she said "Sì, il mundo è pieno di ragazzi, il mare è pieno di pesci e il cielo è pieno di uccelli."(Yes, the world is full of boys, the sea is full or fish and the sky is full of birds/penis'). We both decided that saying 'il cielo è pieno di uccelli' is a much more fitting proverb for this situation (: Romeo was a bit disturbed when we told him after he arrived home.

Quick thing about what I did this morning. I didn't go to school and instead I went to Immigration Office. I would like to tell you that the Immigration Office in Italy wins compared to the Immigration Office in Delhi but now by much. But we only had to wait for about an 1 hour and 15 minutes and then we asked a guy about it because we had an appointment at 9:58 and they still hadn't called us and he was like "Okay yeah" and then he did our paperwork. So apparently if we had never asked we would have stayed there all afternoon. Then I went to the post office and got a package from Grandma Doe and Grandpa Milt. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I loved it. And after I picked it up I met Paola at the bank and the ladies in the bank we so excited about it they made me open it in the Post Office. So now Grandma and Grandpa the Italian Post Office in Vicenza know's who you are and also what you look like (They loved the picture, as did I). And Dad I have a message from Nonno Giancarlo. He wanted me to tell you that "Tutti gli avvocati sono baditi" (All lawyers are bandits). Paola and I aren't sure what he means by that; he's a little crazy. Sorry but I'm not spellchecking this because I must go to italian class so I apologize for the errors. My English is getting pretty bad. Last week I completely forgot the word Oven and could only things of the italian word for it (Forno). I think that's a good thing though (: I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and I'll try to update again soon.

Venezia & Verona

So I realize that I haven't told you guys much about my travels in Italy. I was fortunate enough to be placed pretty much smack between Venice (Venezia) and Verona. Which means for me depending on the train a one way ticket to either of the cities costs €5, €8 or €15 (Don't worry dad usually try to go for the €5 train). I have been once to Verona with some friends from school. It's very beautiful and very romantic. We visited 'Juliet's House' first. Everyone writes love wishes on the wall surrounding her house and also on every date near at her house there are hundreds of locks. I guess if you have a lover you go to Verona write both of your names on the lock, lock it and then throw away the key. It's very romantic. But don't worry travelers you do not have to bring lock's from home they sell them in the gift shop. Also there is a statue of Juliet and if you grap her boob you get good luck in love. So I did. And apparently it works (: Next we went to Il Pozzo Dell'Amore (the pit of love). Unfortunately, I don't have a very good picture of it from far away but it just looks like a well with bars covering it. Again you either put a lock on it or drop money inside of it and it will give you good luck in love. There is a sign on it that reads. "Getta nel pozzo un solo soldino, pensa un momento al tuo desitino, non ti distrarre, non far rumore, eccolo...eccolo...arriva l'amore" which translates to "Throw one coin into the well, think of a moment in your destiny, do not distract yourself, make no noise...here it comes...here it is...love".

Juliet's Balcony

love wishes.

Pozzo Dell'Amore

Notice how shiny he right breast is. Poor Juliet.

Then there's Venezia. Venezia is really unlike any other city in the world. It's absolutly beautiful. It's not the cleanest city, everything is very old and sometimes you walk by somewhere that smells like death but that's what makes is so beautiful. It's not a perfect, modern, well kept-up city. The colors are incredible. It's beautiful in sun, in rain, in wind, during the day and during the night (So far those are the condition's I've been able to experience it end). I'm sure if you lived there or visited SO much it might get a little old. But I think for me the only reason it would get old is because there are so many tourists and tourists like to walk really slow. I've actually been to Venezia three or four times because my best 'Interculura' friend (Solveig) and boyfriend (Nick) live there. Nick actually lives about 10 minutes from Venezia and Solveig lives right in the city.Each time has been fantastic. I've had fantastic food including sushi there. For those of you who don't know much about Venezia there are a couple major tourist attractions. The first is Piazza San Marco which is in the main piazza in Venice. You've probably seen it in a few movies and it's very beautiful. Especially at night because they have these really cute little lights and the whole square is lit up. During the day it's beautiful too. There are many orchestra's that play and all these little cafes. You really feel like you're in Italy. I would suggest however that you don't stop and eat from these cafes because they are super expensive. And for those of you who are willing to pay €10 for a cappuccino, go for it. I salute you. In Piazza San Marco there is the Basilica di San Marco which is pretty incredible from the outside (I haven't been inside yet). Then there is Ponte di Rialto which is the most famous bridge in Venezia. It looks out over the Gran Canal which is the biggest canal in Venezia. I've seen some other things but I don't remember the names. However one of these days I'm going to let my inner-tourist out and buy a bunch of guide-books and give myself a tour of the city. Perhaps I will make Nick and Solveig come along. I'm sure they would appreciate it. I think Venice is one of my favorite cities in the World.

From a water taxi heading down the Gran Canal.

Ponte di Rialto

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco

Gotta hand it to the Seagulls of Venice. They're all the size of Jupiter.

Photo cred to my friend Wanda. This is Piazza San Marco at night and in the rain. Also this is Nick (:

As for Vicenza. Everything is wonderful. School is kinda stressful because I need to get credit for all my classes but my classmates make it better. We are doing Secret Santa next week, so I have to think about what I'll get for my person. Also next week there is a ski race for my school somewhere in the mountains and if everything works out with AFS I would like to participate in it. However yesterday was the first day the mountains got snow. So I'll pray for more snow and that I have all the proper forms needed by Intercultura to race. I'm so unbelievably happy with my family and my Italian is getting better so I've been able to explain a lotLasica Vivere' which is the same as our phrase 'Live and Let Live'. I miss my family alot with Christmas coming up but I know I will see them soon. Also I would like to give a shout out to my big Sister who has already been accepted to two universities (: Hannah I love you more than is humanly possible and I can't believe next year you won't be at home. But I'm so proud of you. xxx

Proud to be American.

I have a cool story. It actually may not be to cool for you guys but for me it was very exciting. Last night I had a friend over to spend the night. Her name is Solveig (she's Icelandic) and she is also on foriegn exchange but she lives in Venice. We met at the camp that was held for everyone in my region about a month ago. Anyway she came to stay the night last night and we went to the disco/club, called People in Vicenza. It was a very fun evening but we were dancing and Solveig heard some boys speaking in English and she asked them if they were American and they were! I was so excited and I hugged all of them and then we went outside and talked for a little bit. It's really nice to speak American English with American people, the English I speak with post people here is very different than my regular English. They are the new group of military boys at Caserma Ederle (the American military base in Vicenza). I was then able to thank them for their service. I thanked one of them and he looked at me and looked around the club and said 'It's really my pleasure'. We then joined their group and danced with them until it was time to go home. It was very sad to leave them; we all said goodbye with hugs. But I got their names and phone numbers so hopefully we will be able to meet up and maybe I can go visit the military base. Vicenza is definitly a good place to be posted if you're in the military (: Anyway it just reminded me how proud I am of my country and of the men and woman who serve us. Thank you guys.

A te che sei il mio grande amore, ed il mio amore grande

I'm sorry I haven't written in so long! November has been a very busy month. My italian is improving and now understand almost everything that people say but speaking is still taking alot of work. People tell me I will improve with speaking as time goes on and I hope that is true. My host family is very good. On Thanksgiving I cleaned and cooked my first Turkey (: It was very delicious. Overall November has been a very good month and it's hard to believe I'll have been here for almost 3 months soon. I've thought of some things to share with you about the italian language that I didn't know or things I would just like to share. First, in Italy, depending on where you live, you not only speak italian but also dialect. Each dialect is extremely different from eachother. So much so that people from the south would not be able to understand anything if they listened to a northern person speak dialect. I am in the region of Veneto and thus we speak a Venetian dialect. However, the venetian dialect differs from city to city within Veneto. A funny story about dialect. My math teacher is from Puglia (the heel of the boot in Italy) and the other day we had a geometry test. My classmates wrote all of the theorems in dialect on the lavagna (blackboard) and she had no clue what was written on the board. Here are some example of how venetian dialect differs from Italian. The first is english (clearly), the second italian and the third dialect.

Monday, Lunedi, Luni

Tuesday, Martedi, Marti

 Wednesday, Mercoledi, Mercore

 Thursday, Giovedi, Sobia

 Friday, Venerdi, Venere

 Saturday, Sabato, Sabo

 Sunday, Domenica, Domenega

 Shut up, Zitto, Tasi

 As you can see some words are very similar and some are very different. So as for dialect goes, I'm going to learn Italian first and then I'll work on my dialect.

            Something I don’t think you know about Italian is that is consists mostly of verbs. No joke Italian has a verb for everything. Some of the best and funniest examples include:

            Abbagliare – to dazzle

            Acciuffare – to grab by the hair

            Disinibire – to free someone from inhibitions

            Ficcare – to stick something somewhere

            Impazzare – to be wild with excitement

            Indiziare – to cast suspicion on

            Schiaffeggiare – to slap someone in the face

            Timbrare- to put a stamp on a document

            Zittire – to shut someone up

Everything has a verb. And because Italian couldn’t get any better all the verbs decided they would be irregular! YAAY! We love irregular verbs.

            Now to switch the subject I would like to share with you my new favourite song. The name of it is ‘A te’ and it is by a very famous singer Jovanotti. It is quite honestly one of the sweetest love songs I have ever heard. You can look the song up as well as the translation into English but I will share with you my favourite lines along with their English translation.

            A te che sei                                            (To you, because you are)

            Semplicemente sei                                (You simply are)

            Sostanza dei giorni miei                       (The substance of my days)

            Sostanza dei giorni miei                       (The substance of my days)

            A te che sei il mio grande amore          (To you my great love)

            Ed il mio amore grande                        (And my biggest love)

            A te che hai preso le mia vita               (To you, because you’ve taken my life)

            E ne hai fatto molto du più                   (And you’ve done a lot more with it)

            A te che hai dato senso al tempo          (To you, because you gave time some sense)

            Senza misurarlo                                    (Without measuring it)

            A te che sei il mio amore grande          (To you my great love)

            Ed il mio grande amore                        (And my biggest love)

            A te che io                                            (To you)

            Ti ho visto piangere nella mia mano   (Whom I have seen crying in my hand)

            Fragile che potevo ucciderti       (So fragile I could have killed you just by squeezing)

            Stringendoti un po’                             (You are a little stronger)

            E poi ti ho visto                                (Than I have seen you)

            Con la forza di un aeroplano            (Having the strength of an airplane)

            Prendere in mano la tua vita             (Taking life in your hands)

            E trascinarla in salvo                        (And dragging it into the safe zone)

            A te che mi hai insegnato i sogni     (To you, because you’ve taught be how to dream)

            E l’arte dell’avventura                      (And the art of the adventure)

            te che credi nel coraggio               (To you, because you believe in courage)

            E anche nella paura                           (And also in fear)

            A te che sei la miglior cosa               (To you, the best thing)

            Che mi sia successa                          (That happened to me)

            A te che cambi tutti i giorni              (To you, because you change all days)

            E resti sempre la stessa                     (And stay the same)

            A te che sei                                        (To you, because you are)

            Semplicemente sei                            (You simply are)

            Sostanza dei giorni miei….               (The substance of my days)

The whole song is wonderful (: But I would take a long time to write all of it down so that is my favourite part. Xxx

Letters!

This post is for Lisa & Dale and Grandma and Grandpa Shively (:

I got your letter's today in the mail! Thank you so much. It was really fun to open them up at lunch. I have the halloween card's hanging on my wall now and Paolo told me I should take the magazine to school tomorrow. Lisa it came out very nicely (: Thank you for giving me the chance to take the cover.
Also thank you mom and dad for all of the package's. It's really fun to get things in the mail!

Generaly thing's have been going really good. My Italian has slowly been getting better. I'm not good at all but it's getting better. School is very fun. I have a 7 1/2 in Storia d. Arte which is a good grade for an Italian student so I'm very content with it. Also my Arte teacher is very nice and today I even took part in a class discussion about which sculpture I prefered on the door's of the Battistero Romano in Firenze (: Last Saturday I went into Venice for the evening with my friends (one of which lives there and all the others nearby). While I was there I met up with a really good friend from India named Olga. She moved to France this year and was Venice on a school trip (: See we met in Piazza San Marco and hung out for a little bit. How cool is that? Anway it was a very good evening.

And now I need to get back to studying for my spanish test.

Camp!

This Thursday through Sunday I had an Intercultura camp in Trento, Italy. Honestly, I wasn't so excited to go because I was missing three days of school and a Saturday night. But I can say now that I love Intercultura camps.

Everyone from Vicenza took the train to Venezia where we met up with all the kids who are living in and around Venezia (Venice) then we all boarded a bus and drove to Trento. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive but that included stops to pick up all the other Veneto (my region) kids at various train stations. All together there were 55 kids with 30 countries being represented including Italy. Pretty amazing right? The whole thing was volunteer run too. We have 7 or 8 volunteers there and they were all very young. We stayed at a hostel/hotel that had a very big gym space. There were three girls in my room, Alma from Iceland, Shiori from Japan and myself. It was very fun because before we went to bed each night we talked about everything. It's like a sleepover (: The first night was pretty laid-back. Friday morning they split us up into groups and we talked about our first months in Italy- problems, fun things, sad things etc. My groups was fantastic (: And then for the rest of the day we had free time, we played alot of games too. I can't describe all of them but I think it's safe to say that playing quite a few of them would get you sent home for Bear Creek icebreaker. Here's an example of one of the funnest. We all sat in a circle and each girl was given a number and each boy a letter. Then you send a girl into the middle and one of the volunteer's would call a letter and a number. The boy who's number was choosen had to run to the girl in the middle and kiss her on the cheek and the girl who's number was chosen had to run to the boy and kiss him on the cheek before he kissed the girl in the middle and vice versa with a boy in the middle. As you can imagine people end up rolling around with eachother on the floor and on top of eachother etc. But it kept all of us teenagers very entertained so it was a very good game. Also the German's surprised us on Saturday nights talent show with a game in which you postition people into kama sutra positions. It was very....strange. Anyway for most of the camp we just talked about our first months in Italy, played games and talked with everyone. I made alot of new friends (: and I can safely say that if I had to choose another nationality other than American I would choose any country in South America, Icelandic or Thai. Iceland is really cool. Alma enjoyed telling me about it. Did you know that there are 320,000 people in all of Iceland and that 60% of them live in the capital city? Also they have candy made out of chocolate and black liquirice and there phone numbers are 7 digits long. It's a really cool country. Thai people are really cute and sweet and South American's are always smiling and know how to dance. Anyway I was very sad to leave everyone this morning and I'm even sadder to know that our next camp is in June and it's the last time we will see eachother until we leave Italy. Everyone is so interesting and wonderful.

For anyone considering exchange (high school or college) I would say do both. The experiance I'm getting as a high school is completely different than the experiance I will get in college. Also you have to know that you're going to be pushed completely out of your comfort zone; not only with language and culture but in meeting and talking to people. 4 months ago I would have been really nervous to know that I was sharing a room with 2 strangers but now I find it really exciting to see who I will learn about. And four months ago I don't think I would have had the courage to walk up to a group of people who were already friends and introduce myself and start talking to them.

Akward Moments & Rough Days

Many days I'll wake up feeling really down. It's probably because I'm tired, cold and hungry. But whatever it is I don't want to go to school or talk to anyone. I would rather just crawl into bed and go back to sleep. When you have days like this it's very important to get yourself up and you have to make a decision about whether your going to make it a good day or bad day. And whenever you decide to make it a good day, everything turns out pretty good. And when you decide your going to go into it with a bad attidude you end up having a pretty crappy day. Funny how that works right? (:

As for akward moments. Subjecting yourself to this experience brings with it an unending supply of akward moments. The best akward moment of today was in Storia. Storia (history) had started and Greta and Ilaria came in the classroom and informed me that the English professor wanted to see me in class three A. Here's the thing, in classical school (you study greek, latin, philosophy etc), they use roman numeral instead of actual numbers for the class name and for some odd reason class 5 is actually class III. So I was taken to class IIIA instead of class 3A and I got to sit in a greek lesson with an entire class of 19 year-olds I have never seen before. It was pretty akward. I just sat there in class and stared at the wall while everyone else stared at me. At the end of class I turned to a girl who had been smiling at me and asked "Do you have any idea what I'm doing here?" and she said "No idea". We figured, which was true, that I had been taken to the wrong class. Fortunatly because they were class 5 students they knew English very well. Also it wasn't so bad because I made a new friend. But Greta and Ilaria were very concerned when I came back to class because a girl from 3A had come up to our room looking for me and said she couldn't find me. Oh well. And once again it's times like those were you get to choose if you want to be upset and embarassed or make the best of the moment. I just laughed it off with my friends who that it was pretty hysterical I just sat there.

Sciopero!

These past few days have been not very exciting. I came home from school on Wednesday not feeling very well so Paola and Romeo let me stay home Thursday. I ended up getting a fever and now my stomache is all out of wack. Flu bug? I think so. But I did learn about something pretty cool yesterday. I guess this is very common in Italy but today we having a sciopero. A sciopero is basically a strike with some sort or protest going on in town. So we don't have school today because as part of the strike teachers and students don't go to school. I'm not sure why we are having this? Paola was explaining it has something to do with one of Berlusconi's politcal friends but I'm not 100 percent sure. Romeo said they happen all the time and it is a completely normal thing. Many times the strike will invlove all public transport like trains and buses, today just all the schools in Vicenza. However Poala and I looked up other sciopero's coming up recently and on the 20th and 21st of October there is a public transport strike. No bus for me that day (: Anyway I like this whole sciopero thing. I'm just a bit bummed out it couldn't be next week or something. Because I would've stayed home from school today even if the strike wasn't happening. Also I would have liked to go into town and see the protest or hang out with friends. The other fun thing that's happening today is that it's raining and there's a thunder and lightening storm. It's very beautiful (:

Ragu.

Last night Paola taught me how to make ragu. It's really very simple but oh my goodness does it taste so much better than that store bought 'Ragu' brand ragu. Really. Mom, we are never buying ragu or any other pasta sauce, for that matter, at the store again. Wow. I've become a ragu junkie. I had it for lunch and ate to much and had to go take a nap.

There's a whole lot to talk about other than Ragu so here is a list I made (I actually made it in storia today) of things that are different in Italy.

Boys: Whenever anyone talks about Italian boys they make it sound like all Italian boys have the looks of gods. Not true. There is just about the same ratio of goodlooking boys to strange looking boys. The thing that makes the better looking boys look much better than American boys is that they just dress SO classy. It's nice that they like to be classy.

Juice Boxes: Everyone and I mean EVERYONE drinks from juice boxes. Usually with flavored tea in it. My favourite is peach.

Oral Tests: Once a month in school the teachers give the students oral and written tests. I thought that an oral test was going to be a little question they ask you and if you answer right you get all your points. Wrong. It's a 15 or 20 minute long interrigation peroid. I saw my first one yesterday and I was blown away. It was in Spanish and basically the teacher called 2 people up to the black board and threw continious questions at them for 20 minutes. It was crazy. I'm pretty sure that if a teacher did this to any child at Bear Creek all hell would break loose and also that if any Bear Creek child witnessed this they would shutup about the homework load and be thankful they don't have oral tests. Also I asked my classmates if it was hard and they said it was very easy; philosophy and latin are the hardest oral tests.

Showers: No one in my family takes a shower everyday, except me. They told me I could use the shower as much as I wanted to I don't feel bad about it. But it's not normal for people to take showers once a day.

Alarms In Showers: In every shower I have been in in Italy there has been an alarm in it. You pull the string and the alarm goes off (I haven't done it, thats just what I hear). I asked the boys about it the other day and they said they used it when the needed something in the shower when they were little.

Last Names: Many teachers call there students by there surnames. My math teacher does, but she calls me Isabelle because she doesn't want to pronounce Shively. It's actually pretty funny because barely anyone can pronounce Shively, alot of times they ask me. So all of my classmates and I sit there and are like SHI-V-ELY. But many times I don't even hear my name in roll-call because I don't understand it was my name they called. My friends have taken to answering for me in roll call.

Bikes: Biking isn't really a sport. It's a way to get somewhere. Also the bikes are all very cute with baskets (:

Fashion: Italians are known for being very fashionable people. Again I see the same ratio of fashionable to not fashionable people in Italy. Something i've noticed is that many of the 'fashionable' people ride bikes. Pretty cool. However there is a definite 'cool' style for Italian teenagers. Here is what you need if you want to be a 'cool' girl:

1. a Hard-Rock Cafe shirt or Abercrombie & Fitch shirt
2. a pair of converse tennis shoes (doesn't matter which colour) but white goes with everything
3. a pair of skinny-jeans, preferably with some funky bleaching going on
4. some sort of jumper, Abercrombie & Fitch is perfect
5. atleast one bracelet and if you like, a watch
6. eastpak backpack (any colour)

There you go. You're cool now. It's actually a pretty cute style; it's just not my sort of style. Though I do have an eastpak backpack.

Lunch: Is always pasta. Yum (:

Christ in Schools: Though schools in Italy aren't christian schools. There is a rule that there must be a cross in the room. My classmates get very worked up about it when we talk about it. They think that church and school should be seperate. I think thats fair.

Pizza: Is thin and much more delicious. That's it.

Sparkling Water: Most water is sparkling. The other day we had a pretty heafty run in PE and on the way to the bus stop I decided I would stop at the grocrey store and get a bottle of water. I got it and hopped on the bus and took a giant drink. It was sparkling. My bad. I didn't even think to check to see if the little bottled water was sparkling or not

Cakes: Both of the cakes I have had have had no frosting.

Calculators: No one uses calculators in math. You can they just choose not to. I don't know how they do it.

Bugs: The bugs here are creepy. I had an intense battle with some sort of stinky beatle last night and today I saw what I think was a praying mantis. I got a picture. So i'll upload it later.

Music: 95% of the music I have heard is American. Francesco likes 50 cent.

Mother: The mother is the head of the house, not the father.

Smoking: Everyone here smokes. I just don't think that someone who's wearing braces and is 13 years old should be smoking. But it's their decision.

Done with differnce's. Now here are my cravings:
1. Ixtapa Salsa and chips
2. Target salted pretzel with cheese
3. Chocolate and Oat fiber plus bars
4. Cream Cheese Frosting
Good stuff right?

Something I don't miss: Ice.

Something I miss: My family and Tula.


Ciao (:

Everything (:

Sorry it's been so long! Whenever I wake up and decide I will blog today something always goes wrong with the internet on my computer. Thankfully right now it's working. The name of the post is pretty lame but there is really no one thing I could write about. I'll start with school and we'll see where it goes from there. I have eleven classes. Depending on the day I will have 5 or 6 classes. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (thats right Saturday) I have 5 classes and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I have 6 classes. Each class is 50 minutes long and after the 3rd class we have a 15 minute break. Break is pretty fun. We have pretty nifty vending machine's as well as a coffee vending machine with at least 25 different kinds of coffee to choose from. Here are all my classes:

Spangnolo- The teacher is wonderful (she speaks English so she's very helpful) but she's pregnant and she'll leave in March to have her baby.

Francese- I don't take anymore (: So thankful I don't too.

Italiano e Latino- Different classes but taught by the same teacher. She is very funny. I have no clue what she is saying but she makes me laugh so that's good.

Inglese- My favourite class by far! I enjoy helping out all the other kids english. Though last class I failed them because we were talking about 'Extreme Sports' and they were asking me to name, in english, the parts of a sail boat. I don't know?

Ed. Fisica- Is not so bad. We just run around in a park by school. The best part is that the park is beautiful so it's not so much of a chore to run. Though it has been very hot lately so that's the only downer.

Storia del Arte- The teacher is so sweet and she really wants me to learn so she has assigned girls to explain to me whats going on. The first class was about gothic churches and I was surprised about how much I already knew because of Pillars of Earth. Oh I love you Jack.

Storia e filosophia- Again same teacher, different class. My teacher thinks I understand Italian, when we've told her I don't. So there are many akward moments were she sits there talking to you and then asks you a question and you have no idea what just happened.

Religione- Is not religion. We talk about important issues in life today. Things like sex before marriage, religion in schools, abortion, homosexuality etc. The teacher is very nice and funny but only have the class once a week. Also he got married this weekend and is on his honeymoon so we don't havve class tomorrow.

Scienze- Is just Chemistry and so far I understand everything (:

Matematica- Is my hardest class. I understand none of the math. It's safe to say I should have payed more attention in 9th grade to Algebra 1. My classmates have told me that even I don't understand I can pass the class because the teacher is very sweet. But I really want to understand what we are doing.

Another thing about school that's very different. When the teacher can't come to class you don't have a sub. You just don't have class. For example my religion teacher is on his honeymoon so tomorrow morning I come to school an hour late. It's a good difference (: Here is a picture of my class room with my friends Benedetta, Micol, Sara and Beatrice (left to right)

Saturday's are super fun I mean I've only had two so far but they were great. We have school in the morning and then usually after school people hang out. My first Saturday I went shopping with a friend Francesca but right after school. She was disapointed because I didn't want to hang out later, which is when people really hang out in the centre. But last Saturday my friends Laura and Maria invited me to have dinner with them (McDonalds hahaa) and then walk around. At 11 we decided to go back to Maria's house and Maria and Laura had both ridden their bikes. So I got to ride on the back of Maria's bike home. I've never done that before (: Giancarlo then came and picked me up he had invited me to go to the discoteca with him and his friends but they weren't getting back until early morning and I had an AFS meeting in the morning. The centre of Vicenza is completely full on Saturday nights; it's crazy. Something I learned about Saturday that I think is pretty funny is what you do instead of a bachelor party in Italy. Basically there was this guy wandering around in trashbags and all taped together. It was pretty obvious he was wasted and he was doing pretty idiotic things so I asked about it. Apparently before you get married your friends take you out into town and have you read this poster. It's a poster all about your life and friends and fiancee etc. Also it is a very LONG poster, we are talking 7 or 8 typed pages worth of words to read. So the guy has to read it and every time he stumbles on a word he has to drink. You can see how that would turn into a vicious circle right? Then his friends make him wander the streets of his hometown and do embarassing stupid things. It's pretty funny to watch.This Saturday I was invited to go out for lunch with Micol and Sara and it's also Maria's birthday and she invited me to her party. She really likes Mexican food so her and I and a few other people are going to buy all the food and then go back to her place and cook it for everyone. I'm very excited (: Also I might go to  the disco afterwards with Giancarlo. It could turn out to be a very late night (: The picture is of the main stree in Vicenza, it doesn't look so cool because it was 7am and I was on my way to school. It's blurry because I was walking while I took it.

There are 3 other exchange students in Vicenza. Yada (thailand), Hernan (peru) and Camilla (colombia). Tomorrow is Yada's birthday so after Italian class (which turns out is going to be held at my house) we will head to the centre and hang out a bit.

My family is fantastic. I feel like a fit in very well. I was talking with Romeo about how I hate exercise the other day and he told me I was the daughter he never had. This made me smile alot but Giorgio (who turned 11 on Tuesday) had to write a story about his family and he put me in it (: I think I'm doing good here. Giancarlo and Francesco, well all the boys really, like Call of Duty. Giancarlo told me the new one comes out on the 8th of November and he is very excited for it. But all Italians use playstation, sorry microsoft. I also really enjoy having my family all around me all the time. My host cousin is Giada is hysterical. Poala, her and I often have conversations about breast size, Grandma Pasquelina joined in last time too. I have three cats Mia, Cleo and Mary- they are very sweet and a dog Bach ( I don't know if thats how you spell it). But he's VERY sweet except when you walk by him and he's eating a bone. He does not like that. I will post more pictures on facebook but I think this is good for now. Also please excuse my spelling and gramatical errors. I swear despite having english class most days, my english has gotten much worse. xxx

First Couple Days.

They really aren't kidding when they say you understand nothing. The only striaght up English I've heard in the past 5 days is american music. I don't mind this at all because it will make me learn Italian fast but at some points it's very frustrating because you feel you are frustrating other people. My family is fantastic. Everyone is very nice and has tons of patience. The food is fantastic and I like that for all meals we sit down all together and eat. We did this with dinner at home in America but Lunch isn't considered a big meal. Whereas here when I get home from school the table is set and we all sit down and eat.  The 2 youngest boys Giorgio and Lorenzo (who the family calls Lore) are very sweet. One of the first days here I laid out all the coins in my wallet and we would take turns designing things with them and then guess what the others had designed in Italian. We played for a bit and I am proud do say that I know the word boat (barca) very well. The 2 older boys Giancarlo and Francesco know some english so we try and talk, mostly about music and teenage stuff. Giancarlo told me he thought it was very strange people in America say "This is the shit" to say something is cool. It's true it's very weird. Francesco likes pancakes alot, so I think I will make them Sunday morning.  Also I watched a movie the other night with Francesco, Giancarlo and Romeo. It was an American film, but in Italian, and Romeo commented multiple times about how much Americans like fire and explosions. He then said that if I was ever to use the Barbeque they would watch me very carefuly. I take the bus to school with Francesco in the morning and depending on the day I take it home, take it with Lucia ( a family friend), or Romeo or Giancarlo pick us up. Most of Romeo's family lives right next to us so I have met many cousins and aunts and uncles, and the grandparents- all very nice. Also they have many friends nearby who come for lunch and to hang out for a bit. I also enjoy helping people with English, I know that is not my purpose here but I like it. Yesterday I helped Vittoria, Poala's niece, with her English homework and she helped me study Italian. It was a good trade off. The house is beautiful. There are many large windows that open all the way and they have bars in front of them. They keep them open during the day and then you can close them window at night. It feels like your living inside and outside at the same time. It's awesome. They have 1 dog Baca (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it) and 3 cats. The cats are my new bestfriends (:

School is alright. I understand close to nothing. Except English class and Spanish class. I thought I was going to be in the classico school but instead I am in the Linguistico class. Which means I take french, the french teacher does not like that I am in his class and told the principle he didn't want to teach me so they said it was possible I would have to leave the class I was in 3E and go to a different one. Yesterday they said I would stay in 3E but I'm not sure if that still is the case because today in class he tried to talk to me and I had no clue what he was saying. He told me that the school has a certificate saying I am intermediate french so he didn't understand why I couldn't speak. I'm not quite sure where that certificate came from? But anyway I can't imagine had frustrating it would be for a teacher to have a student that has no clue what was going on and can't communicate with them in a language they know. So I understand a bit why he is upset. My Spanish teacher is very nice, as is the English teacher so I'm glad to know I can talk with them if I need anything. The kids at school are very nice. They ask many questions, like what does 'cheesy' mean and things like that. I sit next to Laura and Francesca who are both very helpful with the school work. Also I think it's interesting to learn about Italian teenage slang. Figo translates literally to cool in English but I think it means more sexy or hot than cool in English. Thus when you see a hot guy you say Che Figo! Francesca really likes to explain things about  dating and boys to me, I guess there is not a direct translation for the Italian word for dating to English. The closest translation is engaged. So I have had many people think Roberto is my boyfriend because they see we are 'engaged' on facebook. I have trouble explaining that it is a completely platonic thing and that we aren't really dating. Please excuse the spelling and grammer errors, I'm not particualy good at either of those things and I've noticed I've become worse since I arrived here. It's not joke when they say you are tired. I am tired all the time and would love to take a nap at any point in the day, but don't. I do sleep very well at night. So far Italy has been wonderful and I'm very excited for the next 10 months (: