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 :)