Back in America

I am back in the swing of things, but with an extra weeks worth of homework. I just wanted to let you all know that I made it back to the states safely in one piece. Don't worry, pictures are coming, but I have to write three English papers, read 2 chapters for Environmental science, learn calculus and complete all the other make up work first. Believe me I would much rather share some of my pictures with you all instead of doing my homework, but I cant always get what I want :) You will see them before you know it! I promise!!!

Thursday and Friday

I am sorry that I did not write a post yesterday. Yesterday we went to Verona and saw some parks, squares and Juliet's balcony. I did some more shopping and had a chance to walk around the town freely. I am getting really good at buying things in Italian. Today we went to walk through some canyons in Romallo. They were amazing! We all had to wear helmets with this bonnet underneath that looked like a lunch lady's hair net. We had to climb many many stairs and then when the hike was over us students decided to go to Dambel to play soccer and get ready for a cook out. This trip to Dambel was not easy either! We had to walk up the steepest hill I have ever seen! Luckily there was a fountain at the top so we could get some water to drink. Then we just sat on the field until someone could find a soccer ball. We just hung out and then ate a delicious dinner with grilled meats and veggies. We talked forever, took pictures and tried so hard to remember this moment forever in every way possible. I still can not accept that I am leaving to go home in less than ten hours. I love evey single one of these Italians and never want to leave. I belong here! I do miss you all, but I honestly would move here in a heartbeat if I was not still a minor.

I wish that you all could share this experience with me because it is impossible for me to explain how amazing it is! I can not tell you in words and I can not even show you in pictures. There are not enought words or pixles to describe such an awesome time i have had this week. I have been able to be myself even around people I barely know. All I can say for sure is that my dream has come true and I want it to last forever. Italy, this is not the last time you will see me!!!!!!!

VENEZIA!!!!!

This morning I woke up late because I must have turned off my alarm clock in my sleep when it went off. Even though I much less time to get ready today was the best day so far! We took a four hour bus ride to Venezia where we saw La Piazza di San Marco, il Ponte die Sospiri and il Ponte de Rialto. It was so amazing and crowded. Usually Venice is a place that floods a lot and so they have temporary elevated sidewalks in the piazza. We walked it once, but the other time we walked in the water because it wasn't that deep. Today I had tiramisu and hazelnut gelato. They were so yummy. I used most of this time to shop for family and close friends. I bought so much stuff, but I enjoyed myself very much. It was especially fun to get lost in the narrow roads of Venice. The bus ride back was also a lot of fun because we got to get to know a lot of the Italian students very well. At dinner we ate lasagna, potatoes, and pork. Our table was the most fun because we were telling funny stories including one about a bunny and we also played a hand tapping game with about 14 of us students. We made different kinds of paper airplanes, taught them how to play Kung Fu, and laughed ourselves to death. During Kung Fu I got hit in the face by one of the italians and at dinner another one of them spilled a cup of water on the table and on my pants. I have become really good friends with many of these Italians and I never want to leave! I feel so much at home here and don't miss the united states as much as I thought I would. Ci vediamo a Sabato!

Trento e pizza a Cles

Today will be short because I don't have much time. In school today we had gym class with this crazy gym teacher. We took the tram to Trento and there we saw two duomo, a castle and a beautiful fountain. I had peach and pineapple ice cream and I also bought myself a scarf and sweater. We had a lot of fun and when we returned to Cles some of us students went to eat pizza for dinner and then hang out around the town for a little while. I will try to explain in more detail later, but for now you can at least know some of the things that happened. Ciao a tutti! Buona notte! 

Il Primo Giorno di Scuola, il Vigile del Fuoco, Cles e Gelato

This morning I woke up and had my first italian breakfast: tea, cookies and some cake. The morning was chilly and the ride to school was very beautiful. When we got to the school everyone was in the lobby and it was kind of overwhelming! I was surprised at the amount of scarves I saw, but it made me feel right at home. When school started we went to the lecture hall where all of there classes were for the week because there were about 40 of us. In Italy the teachers are the ones that changes classrooms; the students stay in the same room all day. Today they had math (programing), biology, English, and history. Only two of the american students understand the language of programing so that class was interesting. Biology was fun because she explained the skeleton to us in Italian and then we went up to the lab to see skulls of other animals. In their English class we read to them from their textbook so that they could hear how we speak and we taught them how to say the names of cities and states like: Ohio, Miami and Milwaukee. We also used google maps to show them our school and other locations in our town. Half way through their classes we had a break period where they sell pizza and sandwiches. The we had history class where the teacher was very strict and got mad at some of the girls for laughing and talking during class.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria of an all boys school. We ate spaghetti, zucchini, grapes, bread and pork. It was a lot of food, but we had an hour to eat so everything was fine. Next we took a long long walk to the firehouse of Cles. Here the firemen are volunteers. The station is more modern than I think ours is, but they also have a pole and we were allowed to sit in the trucks and go up on the ladder. They said that the weather here has never been this hot and if they knew that it was going to be so hot they would have taken us on a raft. 

Then we walked back to Cles and hung out in the center of the town. We eventually went to get gelato. This time I chose to get the flavor Ace. I don't know the translation of this flavor into Italian, but I think that it is carrots and oranges mixed together. It reminded me of an orange lollypop that you get at the doctors office. We had a lot of fun teaching each other hand games from our countries. We taught them slap, slide and crock-a-dilly-oh-my (sorry I don't know how to write it). It is super fun  and whenever they see us they want us to do it with them. 

When we got back to the house I showed Monica some pictures of my family, town, school and things that we do in America. We laughed a lot and exchanged a ton of cultural information. For dinner we ate cauliflower, cabbage, eggs and something similar to a pancake- it is rice, egg, flour and some other stuff that I forgot all mix together and fried. They were amazing! After dinner we went to one of the other Italian student's town- Dambell. Most of the students were there and we played foosball. It was really fun, but I am super tired. I wish that I could explain all of this in more detail, but it is midnight here and I am tired. Please feel free to ask me to explain something that you want to know more about :)

I think that yesterday I forgot to mention that I almost got run over by a little boy on a bike that was not going to move out of the way for anyone. I guess I was the only one who did not see him coming. Just thought I would leave you all with something to laugh about. 

Coredo e San Romedio

Today was molto bello! I slept until 10:30 and by the time I was ready it was almost lunch time. We wate pasta with meat sauce. I watched a little bit of the Simpsons in Italian and then I skyped home. It was strange speaking in English after being surrounded by Italian 24-7. Then we went back to Cles to catch the bus and go to a town called Coredo. It was about a 30 minute drive and we took a tour at an agricultural museum. On the first floor there were all the tools and living supplies that the people living in the house used. The major family of the town lived here with their servants. On the second floor is a museum that has folklore costumes from around the world. Every year there is a festival and the museum puts on display the the costumes of the countries that participate.

Then we visited an old house (Palazzo Assessorile)where they tortured witches like in the Salem Witch Trials. After that we took a long walk through the woods and by a lake to visit San Romedio, a sanctuary on a cliff. The path there was suer steep, but luckily I did not fall! There were many steps to get to the top of the sanctuary, but it was worth it. The view was both scary and breath taking. At the top you could see down the cliff. We met the bus there and took it back to the school. When we got back to the house it was time for dinner. We had spinach gnocchi! They were amazing. Her mother made them by hand. I listened to a conversation at the dinner table about Bolivia that I half understood, but that was completely fine with me because I like just being surrounded with the Italian language. Then we watched the end of Mission Impossible 2, but her father said that he does not like American movies because they are too exaggerated.

Now I am just sitting her realizing that this post is very long and that you probably got bored reading it. I'll just leave you with a fun fact: Fanta Orange Soda is not like it is in America; it's bubbly orange juice.

Il Primo Giorno

In case you didn't know, this is my first time flying or traveling out of the country.The airport was an adventure in itself because I was surrounded by unknown languages that somehow seemed familiar to me. I was shocked to find out that not all Italians speak as fast as I thought they did. Me and one of the other girls going to Italy were just sitting, waiting and people watching when we started to overhear a conversation in Italian. It was very comforting to actually understand them. Then we went to have pizza in the airport, a sort of pre-Italy activity. Our first flight landed in Frankfort, Germany and so everything on the plane was German. It was really cool to understand half of the things that they were saying as well as just listening to them speak. It was difficult to sleep on the plane, but when I finally did I was quickly awakened by a strong light coming out of the one open window on the entire plane. When we arrived in Verona, Italy we took a coach bus from the airport to the school to meet out host families. It was super awkward at first, but once I realized that my host's English was the same as my level of Italian then everything was fine. Their house is huge and beautiful. They live about a 10 minute drive from the school. We were practically driving up a mountain to get to their house. The roads are narrow and the turns very sharp. There are apple orchards everywhere in this region of Italy. Monica's (my host's) mother thinks it is funny that I can understand her when she speaks to me in Italian before Monica gets a chance to translate. We had a very delicious dinner of vegetable stew, green beans, bread,and salame. For dessert there was a pear cake that was also amazing! In a little while we are going to meet up with some of the other students for some gelato and then I am going to to figure out how to use the Italian shower system.

PS. I have been taking a ton of pictures, but I am unable to upload them directly

Totally Not Procrastinating

So there are only two days left to go and I have barely done anything to get ready. It still has not completely hit me that I am actually going to Italy on Friday! I just hope that everything falls into place. 

On another note… I have absolutely no idea if I am going to be able to actually post pictures to this blog while I am there. I have a new, snazzy iPad, but I have no way of transferring the pics from my camera to my iPad and then here. I will definitely tell you about my adventures, but you might have to wait until I get back to see pictures   :)

Why NOT Become Multilingual???

I have been constructing a list of the TOP ten languages that I want to learn in my lifetime (yes. That means that there are more than just ten). Whether or not I become fluent in all of them is another story. The biggest element that I have considered while forming this list is how cool the languages sound. Well, I confess that I also thought about where the languages are spoken and how many people speak them. I hope that by learning more than just English I will be able to meet many more people. One I put Italian and Russian in the first two places of my list it was very challenging to decide the order of the remaining languages. I am not sure if I am satisfied with the order, but it doesn’t matter because eventually I will know them all!

1.    Italian

2.   Russian

3.   Hebrew

4.   German

5.   Korean

6.   Tagalog

7.   Portuguese

8.   French

9.   Polish

10. Mandarin

A Shout Out to My Amazing Family

 I just wanted to thank my entire family for all their support and donations for the exchange program. I cannot tell you all how much I appreciate all your love. You are making my dreams come true; dreams that were just possibilities in the very back of my mind only a little while ago. I am super excited for my trip. The group of us who are participating in the exchange will start some other simple fundraising this summer to raise a little more money. Thanks again!

Destination: Cles, Italy

This next fall I am planning to participate in an Italian Exchange program. I will be living with an Italian high school student and her family in Cles, Italy, a small town in the Italian Alps. The school we are visiting is a technical school called Pilati Liceo Scientifico. The trip includes attending school for most of the week as well as participating in field trips (touring nearby cities: Trento, Venice, and Verona). In the spring of 2012 the students we stay with in Cles will come here and spend a week living with us.

Cles, Italy