Quarta B

Way fra!! 

Some Neapolitan slang for ya there... Just thought I'd mix it up ;p 

Speaking of slang, here's your Italian history lesson of the day. Although previous civilizations and cultures settled Italy thousands of years ago, and it's been inhabited by Italians for that long, it only technically became a unified country in 1861 (the same year the US civil war broke out so that's how I remember) Before that it was all seperate little kingdoms - each with it's own dialect and customs/ holidays. Flash forward to 1945, and after world war 2 ended, they finally adopted a unified language as well. This is now what we know as standard, modern Italian. However, if you talk to anyone over the age of 65, chances are they only speak the dialect of their native birthplace..... As if communication here couldn't get any more difficult :P 

Since I'm in the province of Naples, about every 5th word I learn here is Neo-slang.... Which I'm not going to lie, makes me feel totally bad ass when I use B-)

So, I am taking life here day by day. I'm not focusing on anything but the present, and although I still have no idea what I want to do, at least it makes this whole thing a little easier. 

Now, let's talk about something I've mentioned a few times but really deserves it's own blog post.... SCHOOL. 

Italian school, as you've probably gathered from my pervious posts, never ceases to amaze me by how insane it is. 

Let's use today as an example. 

Wednesdays are the "long" day of the week, meaning school goes from about 8:30-2:15. By American standards, that's still shorter than a normal school day, although the way they schedule it and teach makes it feel like 15 hours long. Okay, I'll admit that I'm a bit unenthused with how dirty everything is over here... Don't get me wrong it's not a landfill or anything, but let's just say in general, Liceo Pitagora is worse for wear :P 

Today, like always, we spent the entire time learning in the 4B classroom while the teachers rotated around to us. 

1st hour was religion, with the professor they call Don Chiro... Not sure if it's first name last name or just Donchiro as the last name, but either way he is a priest (I think?) that comes in and preaches the good catholic word. HA. HA. HA. 

Well my opinion on organized religion is for another place and time but anyways, I've been told by fellow classmates that Donchiro doesn't like me very much and has insulted my intelligence to the class in Neapolitan, thanks bro :P It's not like I care what the religion teacher thinks about me, but it just upsets me that a man of the faith has such little tolerance for people from a different culture.... Hehehe ohhhhh the irony! 

2nd hour was chimica aka chemistry with the WWOTW (the wicked witch of the west) I'm not trying to be mean, but she just has this super raspy smoker voice and green tint to her skin... Also she wears a lot of horizontal stripes :P Chemistry sucks because I don't understand anything... And the teaching philosophy here is "let's solve the problem on the blackboard with half an explanation as to why that's the answer and then make the students copy it down 8 times so it gets drilled into their brains" 

I'm used to my teachers over explaining everything in America - to the point where I'm begging them to stop! Now I definitely have a new appreciation for the CHS teaching staff - you guys totally rock and please keep over explaining :) 

Luckily, we switched from chemistry to biology today, which means I can actually follow along now! Again, mad props to D Sonn - my bio teacher last year who drilled DNA synthesis into my brain to the point where I would dream about double helixes... Because I know bio better than the Italians too :) however, our teacher just jumped right into DNA and RNA base coding today as the first lesson... It took us at least 3 months to build up to that last year in America :O 

3rd hour was history of Art - which is a zone out and doodle class for me :p All the Italians think American school would be so horrible since it's so long, but in my PA classes we actually do more than just listen to the teacher talk for an hour without a break! We watch movies, we do class work, we have quizzes and tests, it's the lack of diversity in the lesson that is really sucking any possible fun out of schooling here for me :p 

Here's where things really get crazy - If a teacher doesn't show up for school or one isn't found for a certain subject your class is studying, you just have an unsupervised free period for that hour :O Today we had a 2 hour block of free time with no supervision whatsoever....

Askedeifndnsdnskskdnd what?!?! In America, it took until 6th grade for us to even be allowed to walk from class to class without adult supervision! We would never just be able to stand around and do nothing!! In addition, since the classroom is more the students than the teacher's, my classmates graffiti and throw chalk out windows and rip off the blinds without a second thought if they are bored... It sort of is exciting but also makes me very uncomfortable! Call me crazy, but I believe in respecting public property :P 

Finally we rounded off the day with Physics, I like the teacher, and the basic math I can follow... I just really didn't want to be in 4B anymore by that point so I was fantasizing about pumpkin pie for 45 minutes haha! 

Behold... The "beautiful" class of 4B in all of its glory! 

During our unsupervised free time, a girl in my class wrote this on the board... She didn't understand why I was so amazed that she could do that!! In America this would be a double detention, easy!! Here, the physics teacher just erased it and started her lesson without even a second glance :P and EVERYONE here knows the F word - so she obviously understood at least that! 

Life here is ridiculous, crazy, and hard. By American standards, this country shouldn't work... It seems like half the buildings are one breeze away from crumbling, and half the citizens are one cigarette away from keeling over... Yet against all odds it's a perfectly functioning system of chaos over here. It's so strange and weird to see these people thriving in all of this madness! I don't think they would last a week if they went to America :P 

Well, that's about all I have to say for this post... Life here has been pretty calm lately, a lot of down time. I'm obviously still in a fragile state but like I said, day by day I'm getting by. 

Thanks for reading and hopefully I can see a spaghetti eating contest or Vesuvius will erupt - something interesting to write about ;P 

Ciao ragazzi! 

The tip of the iceberg

Instead of the pictures uploading to the bottom like usual, today the wanted to go to the very top... So we get to start out with them, yay!! Here we can see an example of how weird Italian school is - they won't let girls wear shorts, but if you're bored you can graffiti all over the desks like the girl behind me did here....

Duomo di San Gennaro - the patron saint of Napoli and of Trecase (my town) this church was built like 700 ish years ago in his honor and last week was his Holy Week!! Got to tour the church and see his relics - amazing!!

Too many stray dogs here... Not sure if I've talked about this yet but I WANT TO TAKE THEM ALL HOME WITH ME!!! :((((

Ciao a ragazzi :) 

Maybe it's because I'm currently watching Titanic - which is one of my all time favorite movies - or maybe it's because my host mom made smiley fries for lunch today... But I'm in a particularly good mood right now! 

UPDATE 

I apologize for worrying anyone with my last post. I was in a really bad place and it took me until Tuesday morning to snap out of my funk, so to speak. It was a combination of frustration at the language barrier, the cultural differences, and a hearty dose of homesickness all piled on top of the fact that I hadn't run in over 2 weeks! 

Monday afternoon tensions finally boiled over when my host family confronted me about why I was being so withdrawn all of a sudden... Immidiately I burst into tears and gave them the "it's not you it's me" speech via google translate - easily the most awkward hour of my life. Monday night I met with my liaison, Yole, who was awesome and really put some things into perspective for me. She was actually an exchange student in Pittsburgh for a year so not only does she speak English, but she knows the keystone state as well :) 

While I'm still struggling with a lot of issues here... The depression part has gone away and my life is starting to have some sort of routine, which is helping. 

After talking to Yole, my host parents, my American parents, and some other AFSers.... I decided to give it 3 more weeks here, until the 14th, to really think about why I'm doing this and if this truly is the right path for me. I want to make it clear that I'm not leaving on the 14th - I'm merely using that as a deadline for me to make a decision about what I want to do - let's hope that goes well! 

I'm taking it day by day here... This whole experience has been completely opposite of what I expected! It has pushed me to limits I didn't even know existed! 

That being said, I know right now I can't even really tell the true difference... But sometimes I think back to how I was in June when I first started this blog, and it's like I am 2 different people!! 

Hands down, the best part about this exchange has been the food. Whatever you've heard about eating real Italian food in Italy, it's ALL TRUE! Literally everything tastes better over here, bananas, toast, even the water is just better. 

Italian have what I call the 4 basic seasoning groups : olive oil, salt, lemon, and Nutella. 

If you eat anything over here - I can put money on it there will be at least one of the above in your dish somehow... Although I wouldn't reccomend trying to use all 4 in the same one ;P 

My parents sent a care package from America that should be arriving in the next few days and it contains *drumroll* PEANUT BUTTER!! One thing you really can't find in Italy is peanut butter, and sweet mother of God how I have missed it! 

My host siblings claim to hate the stuff but I said it's impossible to hate the over processed, sweetened American stuff ;) Everyone here is excited to try some!! 

School has been taking up most of my time... But since I don't understand a lot of my subjects such as Latin and Greek, I usually end up going with my tutor/ the English teacher, Prof Pinto, who basically has made me her teaching assistant. While it's really cool to impress everyone with my fluent English, I'm really not learning any new Italian :p I talked to Yole about it and we're in the process of getting my schedule changed so I have more math and science. 

I never in a million years expected I'd say this, but.... MATH IS MY FAVORITE SUBJECT!! 

Since numbers are pretty universal, I understand at least 80% of the lesson! It really helps that they're learning basic graphing and formulas (y=mx+b Anyone?) that I've known/ studied since 7th grade... So it's basically a refresher for me. PLOT TWIST: I'm the one offering to help the Italians understand the lessons better - not the other way around! 

Chemistry is a totally different story, as is every other subject but English. 

The worst part is being treated like an idiot and or 5 year old. I am an intelligent person!! Really! You don't understand what I'm saying, but trust me I use big words and proper grammar!! 

While I'm actually starting to adjust somewhat to a few things here, I'm still really questioning whether or not I jumped into this whole process before I really thought it through completely. 

I'm trying to be as open and positive as I can and while that's really helping, I'm still not adjusting to life here at all. 

Gahhhh it sucks so much because I don't want to quit - I want to finish what I started and have the satisfaction of knowing that I survived for 10 months in a foreign county. At the same time, I want to get back on track with my schoolwork and use my junior year for SAT's and college prepping (something that I have to do my senior year and is a huge source of stress for me) I want to get back to running everyday and just be a normal teenager again. Most of all, I want to just feel like I belong again. 

I know I know I know... All with time, give it time, time is what you need!! But it's physically impossible for me to waste time - hands down my biggest pet peeve in the entire world - and Italians don't even know what a clock is :P 

Can I really wait 5, 6 more months, before I really start to reap the benefits of this exchange? Is my junior year of high school (which is also a once in a lifetime year) worth the amount of stress and pressure I'm under 24/7? Is my personal happiness and health worth compromising, all in the name of this exchange?

Those are just the tip of the iceberg (PS Titanic just sunk so that was the perfect metaphor hehe) seriously my pros and cons list is 4 pages long.... 

That's what this next 2 weeks is for - to try and make sense of the battle that is currently happening in my brain :P if anyone has any words of encouragement or advice for me, even if it's about who I should root for in the next soccer match... I will gladly and graciously accept!! I'm considering every possible detail so nothing is useless!! 

Hands down, whatever I decide, i don't want to disappoint everyone. My friends, my family, everyone is so encouraging and wanting the best for me... It's so stressful to try and make the best decision based on my interests and in the name of making everyone proud. I can't let anyone down, and I need to make the best use possible of this scholarship, but I need to do what's best for me... That's the catch :/ 

Sorry these blogs haven't been as witty or charming as the usually are... I have to blog from my phone and the caliber of my humor just isn't at the level it was back when I had my nice American desktop and keyboard :P 

Titanic just finished (I will ALWAYS cry at this movie, ALWAYS) and so I think it's time to wrap up this post too.... Everyone's support so far has been outstanding and I can't say thank you enough for reading this blog and keeping me strong :) 

I love you guys <3 

A presto!!! 

 

People help the people

Ciao ragazzi

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.... Things have been, well, you'll see in a minute. 

Before I forget, the title of this post refers to a Birdy song of the same name... Google the lyrics and you'll see why I chose to name this post that :p 

I wish I could say I'm typing this with iOS7, but alas, being in a foreign country with airplane mode on 24/7 doesn't exactly allow for an update 0_o 

Sooo do you want the good or the bad first? Usually I always choose the bad... Because I like the good afterwards to make me feel better about the bad, but for the purpose of this blog post and the fact that that is a rhetorical question....  let's start with good news first, shall we?

Last time I blogged I had only been in Italy for 5 days.... I'm now a seasoned veteran of 12 -_- So yea, guess you could call me an expert by now ;p

Anyways, the good news. I have no doubts that Italians are the warmest and kindest people on the planet... Minus Jesus and Santa Claus of course! 

So far I think I've met at least 200 people, nowadays I  can't go on Facebook without having at least 2 new friend requests a day from Annamaria Spaghetti or Luigi Pizza! (Sorry if that's prejudiced but truthfully everyone over here has a classic Italian name!) I'm always with people, and my classmates... Words can't describe how sweet my classmates are! 

I've attended 4 days of Italian school so far, which equals about 16 hours total, and of that 16 hours I understood maybe 3 (naturally those 3 hours were spent in English class) The school has seen better days and I'm basically unable to walk from the cramps in my legs by the end of the day, but everyone has been very understanding and tolerant of me, so that's good! I sit in the front row, so I find that the teachers all like to make eye contact with me during their lectures in Italian, as if by making eye contact somehow that will allow me to understand what they're saying :p 

Uhhhhhh, no. 

The language barrier sucks a big one. I know so little, and they have like 6 different forms of a word/ ways to use it - for example "bello, bella, bellissimo, and bellissima" are all ways to say beautiful. Which one goes where and why, I haven't a clue. I tend to nod my head and smile a lot, which signifies I understand them, when in reality they could be calling me an obese unicorn from Neptune and I wouldn't even bat an eyelash! It's really annoying to have to use English all the time since my Italian is so mangled, and because no one over here speaks English very well, I've been going at the speed of a drunken snail for 12 days! I laugh when they tell me to slow my English down, because to me, Italian sounds like one giant, complicated medical term. I can't tell where one sentence ends and another starts!!

I have been doing some touristy things with my friends and family here, such as going into Naples and Pompeii (although all we did was shop in Pompeii so it doesn't even count). Those excursions have been fun, but honestly all of Italy is starting to blend together for me... I didn't even know what day of the week it was until my host mom told me 20 minutes ago!

Last bit of good news is that I started Italian lessons! Twice a week I travel to the town of Scaffati, about half an hour from Trecase, to go sit in this lady's living room with 6 other AFSers and try to communicate in my horrid Italian! It's really difficult and I have a throbbing headache afterwards, but just getting to be with my other AFS friends makes it the highlight of my week :) There's me, Ming Hui from China, Daikaku and Yosuke from Japan,  Daniela from Colombia, Amelie from Germany, and Shayla from Ohio!! We are a great group - even if Daniela is way ahead of the rest of us since she speaks fluent Spanish which is super similar to Italian! My teacher is pretty awesome too! She tries to only speak to us in Italian, but last time she gave up and had to use English a bit after like 1 hour :P She speaks like 5.5 languages (only some mandarin) and she makes us snacks too, so basically she's my new favorite person.

Alright, it's that time when this blog turns into my personal diary and things get pretty sappy. 

WARNING : if you don't like complaints, whining, negativity, or melodrama, STOP READING NOW! ***********

Sooo if you've made it this far and are willing to put up with all of the above, thanks for caring about me! 

First and foremost - I. Am. Homesick. 

I was completely fine for the first 5 days! It was all smiles and rainbows, or I guess pizzas and volcanoes?, until Saturday. 

*Cue world's smallest violin and dramatic lighting* 

*Preferably you should be reading this while watching a Sarah McLachlan dog adoption commercial* 

Saturday morning, as I was sitting through Italian class (because I have freaking school on Saturday.. UGHHH) all of a sudden, a fountain sprang forth from my tear duct and the next thing I know, I'm basically chewing through my lip to try and keep from sobbing. After I gain control of myself, of course everyone is staring at me and asking if I'm okay and if I want a drink/something to eat... So that makes me cry even more :/ 

Later in the day I skyped with my family back in America and of course as soon as that finished I was a wreck the rest of the day. 

Monday at school wasn't any better... Cried again, got comforted again, cried some more again. 

I understand that homesickness is a natural part of being an exchange student and everyone experiences it.... But I really really reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally miss America. 

I didn't realize how long 10 months was until I got here, and I'm really beginning to question whether or not being an exchange is the right path for me. It's like, my physical body is here in Italy (especially my stomach) but my heart and my mind are back in America. Every day I wake up and all I can ever think about everything I'm missing back home :/ I've talked to a lot of people, both Italians and Americans, who have assured me that as long as I wholly throw myself into the Italian culture, it will go away. Well, it's been 5 days and I haven't managed to get through a single one without crying. 

I hate how ungrateful I sound - someone GAVE ME 14k to have the year of my life over here, and all I want to do is not use it and go home. Words can't explain how conflicted and horrible I feel about this... Because my parents were also so supportive and helpful throughout the pre departure process, getting my visa, physicals, they threw me a beautiful going away party, they were just the best. All of my friends and family were so understanding and loving right to the very end and are still supporting me! 

When I was in New York, before my flight I was talking with the other exchange students, and they had all been fundraising and preparing for this since last September! One girl said she had been planning this for 2 years!! I decided I wanted to do this on a whim over a long weekend.... 

I really like Italy, and my host family is wonderful, but I can't stop comparing it to America :/ In AFS, there's a saying "it's not good or bad - it's just different!" And sadly, it's those differences that are causing my homesickness. The entire point of being an exchange student is to get pushed out of your comfort zone and overcome all of the differences, but for the first time in my life, I am really questioning if I have what it takes to keep going. 

I am NOT a quitter! I have never quit anything before in my life and just the thought of leaving early makes me hate myself.

At the same time, I am exhausted. I can't run here because my host mom doesn't trust me to go on my own and no one else wants to take me. RUNNING IS MY LIFE! I am going insaneeeeeee without it and if I can't run for 10 months well then that right there is the deal breaker. I'm averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night here, partly because we only eat dinner at 10:30 and partly because I literally don't have any down time until 11 - so I'm up for another 3 hours doing homework/ conjugating verbs / talking to my friends back home who are just getting back from school in America at this time. 

I KNOW. I need to cut off contact with America for a while until I feel better, and I tried to! But since the only thing I look forward to is talking to my friends back home, I had a lot of trouble with that. 

I just feel really stuck. I can't go home, but I can't stay here... I don't know how I'm going to get through the next 10 months, I don't even know how I'm going to get through the next 10 hours! 

All I know is that something is going to have to change, and fast, because this isn't just homesickness... This is like becoming full blown depression :/ 

The last thing I want to do is disappoint anyone - I have the reputation of America (no pressure or anything) to uphold here, as well as that of my community, and my school. I don't want to make my host parents or my friends feel like it's their fault. - IT'S NOT. This is quite possibly the biggest case of "it's not you, it's me" to ever happen in the history of the world. 

So, while I do some major soul searching and wall sits ( to try and keep some muscle mass haha) please, enjoy some pictures of my travels so far :)  

And remember - to be an exchange student is an AMAZING thing! I don't want to deter anyone from that, everyone handles exchange differently, and I've figured out that I'm in that lucky group of "I don't handle it well but I'm a late bloomer with the warning signs" 

Ciao a tutti! 

Castello dell'ovo in Napoli

 

 Afternoon boat ride near Capri! 

The town of

 Torre Anunziata and Vesuvio in the background!

In Italy the "personal pizza" is literally an entire pizza just for you.... #yes

Spot all the differences!

Here is that shorter "supplement" if you will of differences I promised

1.) tampons! Although I won't elaborate too much on this, I will say that Italians really don't have them or even know what they are, much less use them :P Goody!! NOT.

2.) bidet. As my Italian friend, Fef, once said "Bidet is my life!" And although I was very hesitant to try the "ass cleaning" machine, I do have to say it isn't as traumatizing as you'd think - I'm starting to get on board the bidet train! 

3.) school supplies. Everyone here is expected to purchase their own school supplies out of pocket, including Agendas (they call them diaries which confused the hell out of me at first) pencils, pens, (which they sell individually here) and textbooks. Basically if you can buy it in bulk in America, expect th opposite here.

4.) you have "at home clothes" i.e. nice loose dress or baggy shorts, and "going out" clothes i.e. skinny jeans and a fancy shirt...: then there's me who is fighting every instinct in her body that is telling her to throw on yoga pants and a sweatshirt then call it a day on the fashion front :P 

5.) Italians will accessorize everything to the nines, including pets and cars. 

6.) obvious one, but the whole "centigrade, euro, military time" thing is still very much a foreign concept for me :p

7.) I don't have chores! My family has a lovely housekeeper named Natasha who handles the big stuff like scrubbing floors and making beds, but my host mom also does a lot of cooking and cleaning too! In America, although my parents will say I was a typical lazy teen, I had to clean the kitchen and my room, or at least I was supposed to, and right now I have this guilty conscience about not doing anything. PLEASE JUST LET ME CLEAR A TABLE! 

8.) showering. Since water is cheap and plentiful in America, I'm used to showering at least once a day. Here I try to go every 2 days, but by Italian standards that's still an excessive amount. By my standards I'm disgusting after 12 hours, but when in Rome... 

9.) Drinks! Since everything here is fresh, that means the soda and juice tastes a lot better too! I'm talking real sugar in your coke, and peach juice so thick and creamy it's basically a juice box smoothie.... I've seriously died and gone to heaven with that <3 

10.) every sport they play here, whether it be ping pong or foose ball or soccer, they take SUPER seriously. You play for keeps here! 

11.) you have to have a purse if you're a girl - not just a wristlet, like me, or else you'll get yelled at, like me :p 

12.) shorts are great anywhere but in school if you're a girl. 

13.) the wall outlets are circular and have three holes in a row, not like the square ones that look like a surprised face in America! 

14.) surprisingly it's been cooler weather here than in PA! Since I'm right on the bay we get the sea breeze and I don't think it's been above 80 at all yet!  Also it's dry heat so no humidity <33333

That's all I can think of for now... I will probably have many more as the year goes by though! Unlike some of my other friends, I have a steady Internet connection here so I plan on blogging a lot in my free time :) 

Ciao a tutti! 

Life in Italy is ______________

Ciao a tutti :) 

So I'm currently sitting at my host sister's desk studying a homemade vocab sheet of common items/ foods.... Because not understanding anything is getting pretty damn embarrassing :P

Anyways, this post is all about the crazy differences I've noticed between Italia e America!  Although I've only been here for 4 days... Life here is a complete 180 from what I knew in PA, of course it's to be expected but still... 

So, without further ado, here are some major differences that I've found either interesting or annoying 

1.) The time table. Okay so I like to consider myself a pretty punctual and also social person, however in Italy everything regarding my daily schedule has pretty much been tossed into a blender and chopped into a million pieces :p In America, on any given night of the year I'm in bed by about 11:30pm. I consider a social month to be maybe seeing my friends 4 or 5 times outside of school on the weekends - maybe we go shopping or have a sleepover (sleepovers are rare though). And unless I'm dying or just ran a marathon, I'm up and about by 10:30am almost always.....  Sooooooo not the case in Italy! 

I've been here 4 days so far and we have stayed out till at least 12 every night! It's currently 12:42am as I'm writing this, just to give you a frame of reference. And it's not just me and my host sister! My brother, my mother and father- everyone here stays up into the wee hours, I have no idea how they manage to do it EVERY FREAKING NIGHT! I compensate for it by sleeping in until 12:30 or 1pm, but my host mom and dad stay up as late as us and then also are somehow able to be awake and working by like 8 am the next morning ( I think Italians might secretly be vampires). Tonight is a school night for my host siblings and they don't care, but I can promise you I will be in bed by 10pm for my first school night (tomorrow). 

2.) Privacy! Tying back into #1, privacy is basically nonexistent here. Unless you're doing your business in a bathroom or changing your clothes, all the doors always stay open in Italy! I share a room with my sister, so I already have less privacy, but it is rather unnerving to have any given family member or acquaintance pop into your room at any hour of the day without so much as a knock :P This also might just be my family, but the lights in our house are all always on too! I love to sleep in pitch black darkness and quiet but here it's kind of like laying down on a nice, peaceful bench in the middle of Times Square during rush hour! Solo in Italia....

3.) the food. Now I know everyone assumes that if you live for 1 year in Italy you will just explode from all the food - not necessarily true!! So far I've not had a proper breakfast (because I sleep in a lot) but I do eat lunch and like a snacky type meal and dinner. The catch here is, everything is a lot healthier than in America. I eat so much better than I do there, even though I probably eat more, it's all fresh fruits and vegetables! For instance, yesterday we had polipo (octopus) with insalata, pasta a la zucca (pumpkin pasta)  and for dessert fresh frutta! I have pretty much eliminated snacks from my diet here and also I drink so much water! Since I didn't drink in America I'm pretty hesitant to try any vino or birrra... Not that my family drinks a lot because they don't! One thing I do miss is salad dressing! Here it's olive oil and lemon with salt on pretty much everything you could ever want. 

4.) dubbed tv shows.... Watching Duck Dynasty in Italian is really an experience that everyone should have at some point :p 

5.) Socialization. As I mentioned previously, everyone is always hanging out with someone else! Since I am such an American noob, I go where my host sister goes, and let me tell you... She goes! We usually wake up and hang out with classmates for a few hours (such as going to Napoli with them earlier) and them come home, change and eat dinner, then go to the Lido Ristorante .... Which is this restaurant slash gelato shop that is on the waterfront by the bay and on any given night about 100 teenagers like to congregate in front of it. It's a lot of kissing cheeks (another difference - always kiss the right first or else you'll miss and hit their lips!! Awko taco) and screaming and cigarette smoke.

6.) a lot of teens smoke here which is considered somewhat taboo in America but very acceptable here even though they understand the health risks completely! I've been offered many cigarettes but so far I've managed to resist the temptation *sarcastic eye roll* I hate smoking :P 

7.) The freedom! Even though no one can drive yet, somehow someone who can is always ready and waiting to take you it seems like! My poor host mother has to play chauffeur to us more times than I think is acceptable, but I'm not complaining :P In addition they totally trust a group of 7 16year olds to take the train by themselves and spend an afternoon in Napoli, say wuuuuuuut!? 

8.) what is healthy/safe and what isn't. Wet hair and bare feet here are a health risk, but no seat belts in a care aren't? Go figure - I have been yelled at countless times to wear scarpe (shoes) rather than flip flops, but I love my flip flops and it's either them or my  sexy asics sneakers (non mi piace) that was also sarcasm :P whatever you've heard about crazy driving in Italy - IT'S ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!! No one uses a stop sign or real parking spaces, traffic flow is as unpredictable as the ocean current, and streets are barely wide enough to fit one car - yet somehow 2 can pass each other and I have yet to see an accident.. If it ain't broke don't fix it? 

So this was a little bit about my life so far here... I plan on posting a shorter list of some other things later but I'm super tired and getting rambly now so let's just call it a night shall we? 

First ever gelato in Italy!! It was absolute heaven too, I got coffee, kinder (German chocolate) and tiramisu!! 

The crew in Napoli for the afternoon :) 

A huge piazza in Napoli! Famous but I forget the name :p 

Buona notte :) 

Switzerland what?!

Literally has an entire farmer's market within the airport.... America why you no do this??!!

Squeezing in a quick blog session as I'm waiting for my connecting flight out of the Zurich airport... In using their complimentary 60 minute wifi so gotta make it quick :p 

Something they didn't mention in orientation - how NASTY you feel after going 24 ish hours without a shower... Kind of want to go jump into the nearest river and just scrub a dub dub at the moment :p 

The flight went great though! The airplane food was so cute and tiny and I got to watch 2 movies and listen to an entire Lana Del Rey album :p So much has happened that this post has no personality and is just me listing facts but screw it - I'm eating macaroons in Switzerland betchezzzz ;) 

Flying over the lights of Paris was hands down the coolest thing I've done so far... How is it even possible that I'm here right now?!?!?!?

Even though it's 3am back in America, all of Switzerland is wide awake at 9 o clock and so far the jet lag hasn't set in yet (but I am running on like 6 hours of total sleep so that should get interesting) 

I have 3 hours to kill until my lay over so for now I'm just feeling pretty touristy and trying to comprehend the fact that I am in Europe....  

What were you doing an hour ago? Me? I was just flying over Switzerland is all

Ciao ciao <3

Super crazy 2am emotion time!!!

Woooooooooooo!!!! 

Ahajdodcksnandke

I'm sitting on my bedroom floor, it's currently 2:17... I wanna go to bed, but I gotta get that room clean :/

As you can tell, I am so beyond exhausted right now words can't even describe...

Yesterday I woke up at 6am to do useless school (as I now so fondly refer to it) and then to FINALLY run in my first and last XC race! I placed 9th out of 40ish girls too!!

 

My best fran.... Mao Ze Dong, JK inside joke her name is Maegan :p 

My udder bestay.... Squishy aka Alicia 

 By the time we got back it was 7:30 add an hour of last minute shopping and 2 hours of stargazing with meh boyf.... I didn't get home until 11pm :O

Currently, I have my suitcase packed, working on carry on and personal bag. The tricky part is divvying up what goes in where to meet what weight requirements and to ensure your access to it during Rome, basically it's a whole mess of complication :p

I always knew the day before I leave would be an emotional roller coaster, but I severely underestimated the power of said roller coaster! From laughter and annoyance, to tears and heart break... Today was just a melting pot of feels >____< 

You will NEVER meet a better group of kids than the students at Cocalico High School. They are hands down the most caring, supportive and loving people I know. You're all always in my heart and I hope that I'm always at least in the back of your minds :')

Well today is go day... The big D... DEPARTURE DAY MOTHER F ***ERS!!!

I'm not going to write this off as the best experience I will ever have in my life, because I plan on living a looong and full one (knock on wood) but I will say that as of my 16 years 8 months and 27 days on this planet, it's the most exciting thing to happen :) In the beginning I expect nothing less than to be rocked to my very core with culture shock, to struggle harder than I've ever struggled before, and to contemplate quitting on a daily basis. However, once I get over that initial hump, I expect to gain an entire new family, become fluent in a second language, and build relationships that will start to help me map out my future :) 

Things are looking very bright indeed :)

AFS 2013-2014

Let's do this. 

Ugh

Hey everybody

See, I'm so exhausted I didn't even bother writing in Italian!

The big news of the day is; I kind of lied in my last post hehe..... because I've been in school for the past 2 days FML

Trust me, IT WAS NOT MY CHOICE!

In order to keep participating in cross country, even though I have been for the past 2 weeks without a SINGLE DANG PROBLEM, I have to be regularly attending school..... see the dilemma?

So in addition to already suffering in Rosetta Stone Hell, as well as trying to pack and prepare my host family gifts, now I have to sit in school for 8 hours listening to teachers talk about things that I don't even pretend to care about.

Did I also mention cross country doesn't end until 5:30?

Luckily, I don't have to do any real work in my classes since my last day is Tuesday, but still....

For example, today my day consisted of:

1st block - International business in which since it's INTERNATIONAL business my teacher has me writing an essay and making a PowerPoint juuuuust like the rest of the class (happily mine won't be graded though) In hindsight I should've seen that one coming though :P

2nd block - World Lit which is basically taught as an independent study course because my teacher is some super chill hipster dude who always looks like he just walked out of a modeling job for American Apparel. So we got a huge packet of all the work required for the course and everyone just goes at their own pace! So far I have read and filled out questions about the book "Anthem" which was actually really good! I plan on doing nothing else other than reading my Seventeen magazine that I will be bringing in tomorrow so that class is officially a waste of 80 minutes.

3rd block - Health class, nuff said. It feels like we have been learning the same things in health class since 6th grade, and today we watched a lovely video on STI's..... again, that stuff will be haunting my dreams tonight.

4th block - Chemistry. This is the last class of the day and by this point I am so done with life I am on the verge of crying. While everyone else is doing awesome experiments or going over homework or reading from their textbooks, I'm in the corner doodling on my folder or reading a book... and today since I wasn't paying attention I almost peed myself while my teacher lit methane gas inside a coffee can on fire and then just let it explode, VERY LOUDLY explode....

You have no idea how messed up my mind is right now, I am being pulled in 80000000 different directions! I feel like a normal high school junior, but then I realize a second later that I am basically just in AFS purgatory that happens to be my high school.

Never mind the fact that every third person I've talked to at school has made some sort of "shouldn't you be in Europe?!" remark to me, and then usually just walks away halfway through my explanation of why I'm in school  >:(

I'm honestly not even excited about leaving anymore... high school has sucked any last drops of joy I had about leaving dry, so I advise, no I URGE you to not get within a 4 mile radius of your home school during the month before you leave... otherwise you will end up insane and exhausted, just like me :P

Oh well, only 2 more days and then I'm done with the rest of my junior year... and I can technically say I did participate in 4 years of American High School, so if that's worth anything haha....

I named this post ugh because that's been the only sound that I can actually make for the past 2 days and honestly my brain is just too tired to think of anything more creative and witty.

Hopefully the next time I blog I will be in better spirits but for now I just need to dig myself out of this crap hole im buried in.. hasn't even started and exchange has already depleted me of my energy! :P

Later dudes!

Too cool for school

Ciao ragazzi :)

So as you can probably guess, the title of this post is referring to the fact that I'm not in school!!!

While my sister, along with about 1500 other sleepy kids around the district had to catch their busses around 7 am this morning, I got to sleep in and not worry about it, because I'M GOING TO ITALY!

Since I leave next Wednesday, it doesn't make any sense for me to go in for only 5 days of junior year.. and they don't want me being a "disturbance" to the rest of the kiddos stuck in school for the next 10 months so I get to just chill out until I leave :)

Sadly, "chilling out" in my case means finishing 2 more lessons on Rosetta Stone, getting copies on copies on copies of every document you could think of, shopping for last minute supplies, packing everything, and then quadruple checking every friggin' detail.

And now all of that is going to be a million times harder after being temporarily blinded from watching Miley Cyrus's VMA performance last night..... *shudders*

Any who, although I'm getting down to the wire (9 days until go time) it really hasn't sunk in yet for me, but honestly I think I'm going to have to be hit with a giant cinder block painted like the Italian flag for that to ever happen :P

I'm sure once I'm saying goodbye to my family for the last time in 10 months that it will all really start to click, in a weird melancholy sort of way, but for now I'm just doing my thing in PA...

To be honest, the entire month of August has felt like waiting in line for that new roller coaster that looks super amazing. Of course, the line is huge and you're waiting FOREVER! At the back of the line, you're not excited at all because you have too much standing time before you get on to actually feel excited (beginning of August) but as you move through the line, slowly but surely it dawns on you that you're about to ride the coaster you've been dreaming about riding all summer long (mid-August) and then FINALLY you can see the people in front of you being loaded into their seats and you know that soon enough, you're turn is actually coming! This is what you came to do, and it's all you've been looking forward to for the last 3 hours.... you're a little scared and nervous, but also really excited because you know that it will be the ride of your life! (now)

Another thing I've really been thinking about is everything that I am going to miss here in PA. This state is all I've ever known and it truly is my home. This is where I feel safe and secure and I know that I have friends and family who love me. Don't get me wrong, I was born to be an exchange student and see the world, but as my friend Kara once said: "You can't fall in love with another country until you've learned to love your own home".

A brief version of my master "I will miss" list...

1.) The food. Of course, anyone from anywhere will tell you that their native food from _________ is the best in the world, and I am certainly no exception. PA Dutch food is totally THE BOMB and I will miss it dearly. Sticky buns, chicken pot pie, shoo fly pie, my stomach will never forget you </3 In addition, I'm also going to miss a lot of American food in general. Hershey's candy, hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, you're always in my heart too </3

2.) The scenery. On Saturday as I was running a 4 mile loop that I have run many times before, I happened to look up. At that moment I was running down a hill in between an open field and corn stalks that were about 8 feet high. I could see the expanse of the Reamstown/Denver valley in front of me, and the sun was streaking through the corn like something out of a movie. The coolest thing was, there were about 20 black birds flying right over my head just chirping away. It doesn't sound like much, but I really had a moment, and that's all it took for me to get all teary thinking about leaving my beautiful home for a year.

3.) Junior year. The saddest thing about leaving for me is the fact that I will be giving up my junior year of high school. From homecoming to sir valentine, prom to those amazing Friday night football games, I will deeply miss it all! Junior year is supposed to be your year to really find yourself - think about who you are and what you want your future to look like. I chose to use my exchange as a tool to help me do that, but still, junior year is an American right of passage that I just won't ever have. That being said, I wish all of my amazing friends and fellow juniors the very best of luck in everything that you choose to do this school year, keep on making the class of 2015 proud guys <3

5.) Running. As most of you know, I am a running freak! I live and breathe for it, and although I am going to do my very best to run in Italy, it's not the same as running around through Cocalico, where I know exactly how far and where I am going. In addition, I am missing my wonderful cross country team's season... but I will be thinking about you guys every second and I hope you kick major LL League bootay this year. ONE MORE!

4.) Family and friends. Naturally, this is the biggest thing exchange students tend to miss, and I completely feel the same way. I've had the same group of friends since at least 6th grade, some even since 1st! I love you all so much, and I wouldn't be the girl that I am today without you! Maegan, Alicia, Emily, you three are my sisters from another mister - we have seen each other at our worsts and certainly at our bests. To you three and to all of my other amazing friends, over the years, you have picked me up when I've fallen down, held my chin up high when I didn't have the strength to on my own, and supported me in whatever I chose to do. I will always keep you in my heart and thoughts, and know that every time you miss me, I miss you a little more. I know 10 months is a long time, but being apart will just make spending senior year together that much more fun!! <3

My family is just that - family. Like it or not, I'm stuck with them for the rest of my life, and honestly I don't think I would ever want to be stuck with another group of people :) To my parents and grandparents, thank you for loving me unconditionally, allowing me to go on such an amazing journey when other kids parents would have a heart attack at the mere thought of it, and always believing in me and my dreams. I can't wait to share my journey with you all when I get back and for you to see the lady I've become over the past 10 months <3 To my sister Alison, we may fight over the stupidest little things, and we may get annoyed with each other too easily, but know that I am so proud of the lady you've become. Have an amazing year in 8th grade, and keep being the intelligent, classy, gorgeous girl that you are! Never settle for anything less than you deserve, and keep chasing your dreams!


To my dogs, Maxwell and Gabby... I WUBB YEW MY WIDDLE CUTIES AND I WILL MISS YEW SO MUCH BABIEZ PWEEZE DONT FORGET ME!

I needed to have a sappy goodbye post, and I figured this was as good a time as any! Sorry for the walls of text and lack of pictures, but I'm thinking I will have TONS  over the coming months, so thanks for reading anyways :)

Ciao ciao :)

Shaping up to ship out!

Ciao everyone :)

So this post is somewhat overdue, and although I really am trying to stay updated with this blog as much as possible, man it's getting tougher and tougher :P For instance, I got to experience the pleasure of waking up at 5am this morning to go run 3 miles with my XC team...

NO NORMAL HUMAN BEING SHOULD EVER HAVE TO WAKE UP THAT EARLY.

Now that I am back and only a little catatonic, I decided to get this post done and out of the way awhile, so I won't have it weighing on the back of my mind *sigh* consciences bro :(

Any who, Saturday morning I was up bright and early to catch the train into Manhattan for my college visit :) Although I only live 3 hours away from NYC and I have family in Brooklyn, this was only the 3rd time in my life that I've been in the city! Sadly, it wasn't a long visit; we just walked from Penn Station to NYU for the tour and back - but it was still amazing!!

 The view coming out of Penn Station... right behind me is Madison Square Garden! Which is sadly just a giant officey looking building... not a real garden....

 

 The unofficial quad of NYU - Washington Square Garden!! <3 So beautiful and quaint!

 

 

Found this tote bag in the NYU bookstore and thought it was seriously the funniest thing ever, it's "Mighty Michelle - First Lady of Fabulous" on a swing, like wut?

Although I still technically have 2 more years of high school, I will be missing junior year, so when I come back to be a senior, I really need to focus on college! All of my friends are getting to take their time, relax, maybe sip a latte as they ponder their future..... nooooope, no sir not me!

I'm that crazy girl who decided to give up the most important year of high school to go get dropped into a completely foreign culture and not understand the language >_<

okay, so maybe I'm being a bit of an overdramatic white girl, because It's really not that bad! The scholarship I won is absolutely amazing and I knew as I was applying that I would be sacrificing a lot. There is never really a good time in high school to become an exchange student - there will always be things that you're gonna miss while you're away. BUT, if you think about how much you're going to gain while you're abroad, there's no question that it's the right decision. I get that it takes a special type of teen to want to be an exchange student, but as long as I have this blog, I will not stop urging all of the readers to at least consider it! You NEVER know what types of doors it will open for you :)

2 weeks from today, at about 4pm... I, along with all of the kids headed to Italy, France, Belgium, and Spain from the USA will begin to embark on the journey that will change our lives! Oh yea, our flight to Zurich isn't just the AFS Italy kids, but also all other AFS USA kids headed to any of the countries mentioned above...... I just want to apologize to any innocent passengers ahead of time who will be on that flight, because you're about to be sharing a plane with over 100 excited teenagers....

I still have to pack and finish Rosetta Stone *stabs pencil into eye* but other than that, I am pretty much set! I finally have all of my documents in order #PRAISEJEEZUS and I have even had another meeting with my guidance counselor to clarify my credit transfer and all that fun junk! So all in all, things are falling into place, and I'm shaping up to ship out! Next week is the first week of school for Cocalico kids, and while all my friends are swapping war stories over the awesome iced cookies in our cafeteria... I will be sitting at home, most likely screaming preschool level Italian into a crappy headset.... oh the glamorous life of an exchange student ;P This blog is at 1100 page views and I haven't even had it for 2 months, so thanks again to everyone who reads it, it really means so much!

Arrivederci ragazzi :)

Cogitate

Ciao ragazzi :) I hope that everyone is clinging onto every last ounce of summer 2013 that they have left, just like all of my friends and I are doing!

That's actually kind of the reason that I haven't been blogging a lot recently *drumroll please* I've actually been pretty busy!!

Compared to last month, where I had some days that I literally had to keep myself from blogging twice in one day because I was THAT bored, this month is quite a turn around :P

So as mentioned, I had my going away party on the 10th, and although not a lot of people showed up due to work, vacation, etc. the people who did come made it an absolutely amazing time :) My cousin Emily came over Friday and we basically spent a day and a half cooking for it!

Coming from the girl who considers microwaved ramen noodles a delicacy, this is BIG.

I don't really have a lot to say about my party, other than it was so touching and I strongly urge anyone who is going away on a long trip (whether it be exchange or vacation) to have some sort of farewell get together with the people you love! I got to see friends that I haven't seen since the last day of school, and I finally had an excuse to practice dressing fancy, because pretty much everyone in Italy is permanently at model status 24/7.

Some going away presents, my friends are simply just the best <3

 

My party cake that I got to design :) Also it tasted pretty delish too ;)

 



 

Although believe it or not I do have friends, the main event that has kept me busy this past week has been CXC!!

For anyone who isn't a sporty person, or just despises acronyms, CXC stands for Cocalico Cross Country. Cocalico being my high school and cross country as in the sport of running for fun.

........I can bet money on it that 97% of you just dry heaved at the thought of running for fun :P

Well, my little couch potatoes, let me just explain something to you about CXC

1.) It is a co-ed sport, meaning guys and girls both participate, which basically eliminates drama.

2.) We have undeniably the best coaches/ most fun program of any school in the league

That brings me to the title of this post - COGITATE. That is my XC coach / former geometry teacher's favorite word, and it basically means to stop and really think about something on a deeper level. Not only is it fun to say, it really relates to being an exchange student. AFS has made me cogitate about myself, Italy, my future, and what it really means to be a worldly person!

3.) I have met most of my current best friends through CXC.

Don't get me wrong, it is WORK, and it takes a lot of dedication, but it is also the most rewarding sport I think you could ever do.

Anyways, since I just love it sooooooo much, I have chosen to do preseason up until the day before I leave for New York with my team, so that includes waking up at 7am for the next week to go run/sprint 3-8 miles a day. Call me crazy, but it's probably the most fun I've had all summer :) Nothing replaces the bond you have with your teammates!

Taken this morning before we went to go run the trails and stream of a local boy scout camp. My lovely XC ladies and I took it upon ourselves to dress as the rainbow ;) I was blue!

 

Pretty much what we all looked like after LSD day (long slow distance, not the drug)

 

 

Besides cross country in the mornings, I'd say the place I have been to the most in the past week is definitely the Courtyard Café. It's a local coffee shop in my school district that I may or may not want to get married in, I just love it that much! They make chai tea lattes that are so good, next time I go there I might just ask if they can hook me up to an IV drip and just serve it directly into my bloodstream. Going through latte withdrawal once I leave in 18 days will undoubtedly be the hardest thing I've ever had to in my life :( </3

 



Behold the blended chai tea latte, or as I like to call it - nectar of the Gods

 

On to AFS related things, finally! Remember how I told you that AFS can make the world feel so small you could fit it in your backpack? Well, the other morning I was chatting with my fellow Italy AFSer, Ko, who happens to live in Tokyo and is my JBF (Japanese best friend) and he sent me a pic of a Japanese talk show that he was watching! The guests that day were none other than our favorite band, Imagine Dragons!! It just goes to show how being an exchange student will bring people into your lives who you never even fathomed existed before, and bond you together! 

 



Imagine Dragons in Japan!!!!!

 

 

Yesterday I received my official AFS luggage tags :) Although just thinking about packing for 10 months in only a 44lb bag and 17lb carryon gives me a panic attack, it's pretty surreal to actually see the luggage tags sitting on my desk.... holy crap, I'm really going to Italy for 10 months, aren't I?

 

 A friendly reminder from AFS that being a girl and owning lots of clothing and makeup and shoes sucks.

 Finally, I drew this for my host sister, Federica, because she is such a sweetie and I didn't want to write a super long letter in English to her :P

 

 Tomorrow is my NYU tour and then back to Cocalico for the last week of summer vacation :O

Ciao ciao :)



The 10th circle

Ciao a tutti :)

Before I actually get into this post, I had one of the boys from Speedwell who took pictures of us at Sunday's picnic send me some, and in the front row from left to right are 4 of the Italy Speedwell girls, as follows: In the coral dress - Brystal, to the right in black is Lauren, then Kara in white, and finally me in the red skirt!

 

Well, if any of you are 14th century literature buffs (and aren't we all hehe) you'll understand that I am referring to the circles of Hell, as described in Dante's epic poem, The Inferno. In actuality there are only 9 circles of Hell, and each circle is filled with worse sinners and punishment than the next one, ultimately making the 9th circle the worst.

Weeeeeell I'd just like to throw out there that applying for and obtaining an Italian student visa is probably the closest you can get to a 10th circle of Hell.

The entrance to Hell. Behold, the very beautiful Italian consulate building that apparently also houses the Chilean consulate too... talk about a random country pairing...

 

Y'all remember that massive mound of paperwork and documentation that I posted in my back from vacation post? Well, that wasn't even the half of it.

Let's start at 7:45 this morning, when I woke up, shall we? Thinking that I had spent over a month preparing for this visa application, I wanted to make a good impression on the consulate official, so I chose to wear wedges and a nice blouse, complete with skirt. BAD FREAKING IDEA.

8:30 am and we hit the road for Philly, which is where the consulate is located and only about an hour and 10ish minute drive from my house, plus or minus depending on traffic. I personally hate long car rides, and so by the time we pulled into the parking garage at Independence mall, I felt like screaming "hallelujah !!" because I was finally out of that car!

Independence hall which is literally right in front of the consulate building - This is where the declaration of Independence was signed for any non-Americans

Side note: As fate would have it, me and two other AFS Italy girls from my chapter, Kara and Brystal, all had our Visa appointments this morning, so we all hung out in the consulate lobby and then Kara and I got lunch and then got rained on afterwards (more on that in a sec)

10:10 am and we are attaching our visitor stickers in the consulate lobby, which  looks like something out of the Royal Genovian palace in The Princess Diaries, and all is good! Kara already had had her appointment at 9:40 so my family adopted her for the day and she is just hanging with me for moral support and entertainment at this point. We have a little over an hour to kill before my appointment,  so we screw around in the cheesy gift shop conveniently attached to the consulate. We ended up buying lollipops and a postcard, go figure :P

The princess-esque lobby complete with statue of Benjamin Franklin

 

Being colonial settlers in the gift shop >:)

11:00 am and we head back up to the consulate visa appointment room, which is basically a closet-sized miniature DMV, with maybe 8 or so plastic chairs crammed into the corner and one ticket booth where the Visa lady sat behind. Also, this room didn't have AC, so between all of the tired, sweaty people, it was a toasty 95 degrees. easy. In order to avoid heat stroke, I chose to wait out in the marble-covered hallway, which was much cooler and less crowded. Little did I know I'd be sitting in that hallway for almost 2 hours >_<

12:00 and the 10:50 appointment guy hadn't even gone yet!! I have no idea how it is even possible for it to be that backed up, but the same husband and his wife who is dressed in hippy flower pajama bottoms and fire truck red crocs (this is why I say I overdressed) has been chatting the consulate lady's ear off for a solid 45 minutes. Kara and I are dyingggggg, my parents are about one anecdote away from crying, and Brystal was trying to add last-minute corrections to her application, so she actually benefitted from the long wait!

12:45 FINALLY THNK U JEEZUS I GET CALLED UP FOR MY TURN <3 ....... Wouldn't you know that my entire appointment consisted of her leafing through my papers, stamping a bunch of crap, and then having my parents sign a few times here and there. The entire thing took maybe 5 minutes max and all for my visa, which is really just a TINY STAMP on my passport.

0_o ........ EGTREDJLIJOIUKJVHGJBJHAHHAGKJD *frustration*

1:00 pm and I am sitting down in an adorable little café in Philly eating a margarita pizza that may or may not have been a personal pan because I was super emotional at that point and needed comfort. And then after lunch we were all so tired we just decided to call it a day. As we were walking back to the car, of course it would start pouring, and we were too flustered to remember an umbrella.

Best. Pizza. In. PA.

 

After getting caught in a monsoon-like downpour and utterly exhausted, gotta get that ugly selfie in ;P

 

Our last act of tacky tourism, pinky swear! We just couldn't resist snapping a pic with that Rocky statue :D

 

So, 3 hours and decent soaking later, we finally left the city of brotherly love, or as I like to now affectionately call it, the city of poorly organized governmental institutions ;P

The moral of the story is: If you ever need to apply for an Italian visa, for the love of sassafras take the earliest time slot you can get!!

My going away party is on Saturday and I am beyond excited to see a lot of friends and family that I haven't seen since June :)

Ciao ciao :)  

It's time to use your wings!

Ciao ciao ragazzi :)

Even though it's been a whopping 8 whole days since my last blog post, I'm actually sitting here struggling to type this because I feel like I haven't blogged in a century! The past 8 days were crazy insane busy (in a good way) and it was just one of those situations where I couldn't find a good place to take a break from all of the excitement in my life to sit down and blog, but finally I have some spare time so here's the latest update straight from the frontiers of Lancaster :)

Sunday afternoon my friends Hanna, Maegan and myself decided to be spontaneous and go rock climbing! If you've never gone rock climbing before or have ever considered doing it, GOFORITGOFORITGOFORIT. Seriously, that wasn't my first time climbing, but honestly it is one of the most physically demanding and exhilarating experiences you can ever have! The walls we climbed were maybe in the 25-30 foot height range, and our unspoken rule was that you didn't really climb the wall unless you slapped the ceiling with your hand. I think in total we climbed 5 walls and as a bonus we all got a crash course in belaying (the belayer = the person on the ground who is pulling/supporting the rope that is attached to the climber's harness, i.e. MOLTO IMPORTANTE) Thankfully we are all overflowing with so much poise and athleticism we managed to avoid any broken bones, bruises, or super wedgies.

 

Me on the repel down and striking a cool pose, a la Christ the Redeemer

 Top to bottom: Hanna, Maegan, me



Still on our "spontaneous exercise adventure time" roll, we decided to spend Monday at Camp Kirchenwald, an amazing summer camp in the beautiful woods of the Mount Gretna area like 35 minutes from my house! Even though only campers can technically stay there without having it be considered trespassing, Hanna's older brother just so happens to be a director there so we got to spend the evening hiking around, canoeing, and trying (but failing at) the low ropes course! The place we chose to hike to is a local spot and makes up most of the camp legends that have been captivating tween imaginations for decades! It's basically like 20-30 MASSIVE boulders (think Devil's Den for any Gettysburg fans) That are all mashed together to form this complex system of little caves and tunnels and crevices! Not only are the rocks themselves amazing, but the local urban legend to accompany them isn't too shabby either. As I'm told, back around the turn of the 19th century, the 3 Buzzard brothers decided to steal all of the gold from this horrible coal mine owner, Mr. Coalman (I know), who was so consumed with his money that he didn't care about the safety of his mineshafts. One day, a mineshaft actually collapsed and trapped all of the workers inside, and one of those workers was the Buzzard brothers father. So, in order to avenge their father's death, they stole Coalman's gold and ran away to the rocks, knowing that they were full of underground caves and tunnels to hide out in. Soon, Coalman tracked them to the rocks and a massive shootout ensued, killing the 2 oldest brothers and a lot of Coalman's henchmen (you can actually see what look to be bullet holes in the rocks and trees, it's pretty wild) Before the youngest brother escaped, he made sure to hide the gold in the rocks where no one could ever get it. Apparently he moved away and never came back for the gold, so to this day, no one has been able to locate it (one of the boulders sounds hollow if you knock on it, and the popular theory is that the gold is somehow in that boulder) And so little campers are always running around at Buzzard Rock, trying to see if they can find the lost gold :P Believe that or not, the story definitely does give a creepy, ominous vibe to the place, which makes it all the more fun the hike around!

After camp we got ice cream at the Jigger Shop, which is super old timey and adorable, and makes some kick a$$ sundaes!

The "Death by Chocolate" sundae at the Jigger Shop

 

The next few days consisted of Visa prep work, shopping for Italy and host family gifts, and getting things for my going away party! :)

Flash forward to yesterday, which was my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary, and I got to spend the day with my mom's side of the family, including my awesome cousin Emily! We had dinner at a fancy restaurant and then went back to my grandparent's house to go through their old wedding album and watch a 3 minute video of their actual wedding day. Maybe this is just the history buff in me talking, but seeing and touching pictures and an invitation from an event that happened 50 years ago was pretty surreal. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about where I come from, because like or not the past plays a big part in shaping who we are.

My grandparents' insanely gorgeous wedding photo, circa 1963 

 

Finally, we arrive to today, which is a pretty special day for a number of reasons. One, in exactly one month I leave PA for Italy. Two, it was the Speedwell picnic! Unfortunately, I was so busy stuffing my face with pasta salad and meeting so many amazing AFSers, I didn't snap any pics :( But, I can tell you that it was one of the best events I've been to all summer! I spent the majority of my time with my fellow Italy girls, because now that we all have host families and towns we literally didn't shut up for 3 hours straight. In addition, I got to talk to some other amazing kids who are going to some pretty cool places too, like Germany and France! Hands down the coolest moment of the picnic was meeting Kendall, my application advisor who I spent many hours with over the phone and apparently just moved from OR to the PA chapter of AFS!! The sweetest moment of the day was hearing Mrs. Messner speak, who, along with her husband, funds the Speedwell Scholarship program. I imagined you'd have to be a pretty kind person in order to give away 100s of thousands of dollars worth of scholarships a year to random teenagers, but I can honestly say after meeting them in person that they surpass kindness. I don't know what adjective is higher up than kind (saintly maybe?) but whatever it is, the Messners rank in that category. So, from the bottom of my heart I will always and forever be so grateful to them!

Stole this pic off of Facebook, but one of the AFS Germany girls made these AMAZING cupcakes! The actual cake was even dyed green and blue like a globe.... YOU ROCK ALI!

 

Finally, the president of the entire American AFS branch was in attendance and gave an awesome speech! It turns out that he is actually from Argentina, and got involved with AFS back when he was a teenager and was an AFS exchange student in MI from Argentina, and then never stopped giving back :) In his speech, he told us that we all have wings, and not the wings on the airplanes that will carry us to our new home countries, but our metaphorical "spiritual" wings, if you will. I don't remember word for word what he said, so I'm just paraphrasing here, but it went something like this:

Everybody has a pair of these spiritual wings, and you children are so fortunate to have the urge to want to spread yours! Use your wings to take you to your new country, and to help you embrace the people and culture in its entirety!

Like I said, my loose recollection, but the overall message was that we are choosing to become more worldly by becoming exchange students, and our lives will be that much better if we continue to view everything with an open-minded, worldly perspective :)

As long as the documents I need show up before Wednesday, I have my appointment at the Italian consulate this week, so fingers crossed that actually happens and I can just get all of this paperwork DONE.

Grazie, e ciao amici :)