La Bella Germania!

On December 3rd I flew to Frankfurt Hahn airport, and bursting with excitement, was greeted by D5190's very own Beryl Emrich, exchange student to Truckee 2006-2007, and my best friend. :] I was invited as a Rotary Exchange Student by her Rotary club to experience German culture for two weeks-- to stay in her house, attend school with her, and go to the Rotary events.
Beryl is completing her 13th year of high school and living with her family. Her mom, Beate, studied abroad in Canada so is fluent in English, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that every person I talked to in Germany is also entirely fluent, as well. I don't know what Germany is doing differently than Italy, but it's working. Beryl's dad, Ralf is a math teacher at one of the high schools, and he's a funny and super friendly guy. Her brother, Yannik, is a few years younger, and immediately started treating me like his sister. They were all so friendly and welcoming! They have a cozy house and eat nice normal meals together and drink tea. I loved it.
School in Germany was more like America than Italy. It's not comparable to Truckee High much, but it could be closely related to other high schools that don't use the block schedule. Sometimes I went to class with Beryl, and other times it was prearranged for me to go speak in different English classes in her school and the neighboring school. We usually spoke about schools in America, did some Q&A, or sang Christmas carols. :] One of the classes I went to had kids that were only about 10 years old, and it was amazing to see how fluent even they were at English. Every class was always fascinated at the idea of foods and leadership classes... I guess we're spoiled, huh?
On the 6th of December, Saint Nicholas is celebrated. Everyone puts their shoes out the night before, and in the morning they're filled with candy and treats. That was a pleasant surprise. :] I also went to Rotary's Saint Nicholas party in the middle of the woods with Bea, the exchange student from Venezuela. At the meeting I also met Manot from France, along with some local girls who are daughters of Rotarians. Everyone just chatted and hung by the fire and drank hot chocolate and ate treats for the first couple of hours, and then we all went on a walk in the forest for a while. When we came back, we sang Christmas carols and Santa came (yes, Santa, not Saint Nicholas, which was a bit religiously incorrect) from "across the pond" and passed out presents to us all! He told me he had been in Italy looking for me earlier and couldn't find me... hardy har har... anyway. He gave me a book about The Rhine river. Thanks, Santa. :] By the by, the target audience of this event was all of the Rotarians' little kids, and Santa somehow "knew" things to say to them like "Sebastian, did you jump over the fence at Kindergarten and explore the city? Did you know that the police had a hard time finding you?! ...Did you have fun?" before giving them their presents... and the kids reactions were so adorable to watch! Poor Sebastian was traumatized. After all the present-giving was finished we all had dinner at a winery, and I got flags from the Alzey Rotary club to bring to my hosting and sponsoring clubs. :] They also informed me of their three-week Euro Trip later on this year, so I may be able to go with them, since my district in Italy isn't planning one for us. Hurray!
Beryl was a wonderful tour guide. We went to all corners of her town, Alzey, and also travelled to Bad Kreuznach, Gau-Odernheim, Hahn, Lorsch, Mainz, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt! Every city in Germany has a Christmas market filled with booths selling hot sausages and drinks and little knick-knacks and treats, so it was always so marvelous to see those! The market in Frankfurt was huge, and hosted the tallest Christmas tree in Germany, standing at a staggering 31 meters tall! And we got some classic sausages, too. Stupendous. I also got to go to a prom-type thing put on by Beryl's dance school that she both attends and works for, which was great. Seriously, almost everyone in her city has at some point taken these dance lessons and knows how to Discofox and Tango and ChaCha. Pretty impressive. We also babysat one night, so I now know how to count to 10 and say "we're coming!" in a German game of Hide & Seek. And if you know Beryl, you know how much she raves about it, so of course we made it to Ikea for dinner one night. And had kebabs a couple times, which, as Josh promised, were delicious. And don't worry, Truckeeites, Josh and Beryl are getting married soon, on the arrangement that they open The Döner Party, a Kebab Restaurant, and she gets her American citizenship. She even put that in her yearbook under "Future Plans," and announced it during French class when the teacher asked what everyone was doing after they graduate. Ahaha.
It was so hard leaving Beryl and her wonderful family and Alzey as a whole. But they invited me to come back in April when it's warmer and Beryl had graduated, so maybe I can work that in. And for now I'm back to writing in my journal during hours of Greek and Latin. Yaaay. We have school for the rest of this week and Monday the 22nd, and then we have almost two weeks off for Christmas break.
Oh, last night I went to pizza with Hilary and Steph and about 30 other foreigners to Sassari. It was put on by the Italian lessons they all go to. It was cool to talk to everyone. Most of them were from Senegal, and then some from Russia and the Middle East. Everyone was very friendly! It was fun. And the locals that were there invited me to their "American Breakfast" on Friday at the Science school for a pancake party, so maybe I can go to that!

I now own a calligraphy pen, thanks to Beryl. :] I never knew writing could be so fun.

Ringraziamento!!

Oh my goodness. For a country that had almost none of the needed ingredients readily available, and at the least not in our houses (including simple items like flour and butter), I have to say that we pulled off an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner.
We seriously planned for weeks. We were so excited for this! On Tuesday, Hil, Steph, Tim and I went to the huge supermarket on the other side of the city to buy everything we needed. Wednesday evening, we went to pick up the rest of the items missing, along with the turkey we ordered. Buuut for whatever reason, they had no turkey... so. Paolo came to the rescue and showed up at the store in literally less than two minutes. We tried a couple other places with no luck, then went to my host mom's office. From there, Paolo and her began call all over the city on a hunt for a massive and rare (to these parts) bird... at 8:30 pm... to be served the next day. By the miracle of Thanksgiving, my host mom found a 7.2 kilo (almost 16 pounds) turkey just chillin' in one of the local supermarkets. When we went to pick it up the guy in the meat section actually muttered "American..." after I asked for it... Haha. Dang. And the ladies at the check out were straight floored because they had never seen a bird that big, and even asked for a picture with it. Only after the entire staff got a chance to come see our monster of a meal were we allowed to leave.
Soo. Thursday morning (after Skyping my mom [and Josh and Linds] for last-minute instructions), Hil, Steph and Tim came over and the day began!... right after we made pancakes (YES! Finally made some use out of Canadian Hilary and the maple syrup she's been carrying around in her purse!). I got into my extreme apple pie makin' mode-- yeah, watch out-- for most of the morning while Steph worked on stuffing and Hil and Tim peeled, peeled, peeled apples, potatoes and carrots to their hearts' desires. In the afternoon, Tim brought out Berlusconi the Turkey and the washing process began... which was pretty much hilarious to watch. Then we did all the cool slathering in butter and stuffing with veggies and popped him in the oven!! Around 5, Gianluca and Paolo joined us (and restocked our butter supply) and took over Devilled Eggs while we worked on the rest-- homemade apple cider, mom's brown sugar carrots, gravy, mashed potatoes, etc-- and Tim decorated... haha. By 8:30, everyone was here and the turkey was finished-- and PERFECT! My host dad took out his man-scissors and kind of mutilated the turkey (sorry, Tim... he was really excited to do it... He watched "How To Carve a Turkey" on YouTube on repeat all afternoon) and then it was dinner time!!!
We had a huge, long table with 21 people!! Mine, Hil's, Steph's and Tim's host families, Paolo, Gianluca, Giorgio, Miriam and her mom, Maria and Hilary's counselor! Before eating, they made Stephanie make a little speech about the history of Thanksgiving, 'cause they had no idea what we were celebrating. Throughout the meal I had to go around explaining how to eat-- it's all one course (that was a difficult concept), carrot juice tastes great with turkey... along with gravy, mashed potatoes and the "fruit gel" (cranberry sauce). It was so fun to watch them taking tiny portions of everything, especially the weirder looking things, like Steph's delicious homemade stuffing, but they totally loved everything, and we even heard comments like "Let's do Thanksgiving more often! Once a year isn't enough!" We gave the wishbone to my host parents since they let us use their house, and it was cool to see them all excited about it-- until Anna won, then Salvatore got a little less excited. After dinner we brought down the three lattice-work apple pies which was a totally new concept for them, along with everything else we served, but they were all either really good liars or they legitametly enjoyed it. We were totally pleased with the outcome. Everything was perfect. :]
My family didn't finish cleaning until past one in the morning, so I didn't go to school Friday (along with Paolo, Gianluca, Giorgio and Miriam ahaha). For lunch yesterday we had leftovers for the first time since I've been here, and it was cool to see my host parents still eating turkey even when they could have made something else, so they must have actually liked it! Mission accomplished.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well :]

Uhm. Three days until Germany and BERYL!!!! :D

Sorry, Dad.

Last night I went to the theatre with Hilary, Stephanie, Paolo and Gianluca because Hilary's host mom said it was an opera and she had a friend in it, so she made us go to support him. Plus it was free for students. So why not! WELL. I don't know if the dates got switched or what, but whatever we sat through was not an opera. It was this crazyweird band with a singer that was just making noises in this deep grumble, and sometimes would toot some stuff on a clarisax. His voice sounded like a didgeridoo. Straight up. We were hysterical the entire first song... soo not what we were expecting. Like really, I don't know when the last time is that I've laughed that hard. At least we had our own little theatre box, and we were the only ones on the fourth floor... or we probably would have gotten kicked out. Props to the people on the ground floor that had to keep collected.
Anyway.... before the theatre I was chilling in the Piazza d'Italia with the AmeriCANs (American + Canadian... you still get American) and there was the normal 200+ people buzzing around, and Hil said that it's her dream to, before this year ends, be the only one in the Piazza. We realized it's unlikely, seeing as there's still too many people to count even past midnight on weekdays, but we started thinking up some 4am plans.
So after the play finished around 11, it was raining a bit, and we turned the corner to enter the Piazza and... empty. Hil immediately pulled out her list of things to do this year and crossed one off. We ran and danced. And played a bit, too. It was nice. :]

Barack the vote!!

So on the first- Day of the Dead- we drove to the towns that Anna and Salvatore's families are from (Bultei and Flussio) to visit their family cemeteries. I actually was expecting it to be super lame, but it ended up being pretty cool! All of the tombs are above ground, and basically look like countertops (let the ooba tooba jokes ensue...). The richer families (like Anna's) have little houses with all their tombs in them. Then everyone goes on this day to put flowers and candles on the tombs. It was pretty neat.

So I am sitting in class. It's silent. Everyone is taking a Greek test. The professor actually gave me a test, too. HA. Yeah, right.

All four of the girls down the row in front of me are wearing a purple sweater. It's funny. They say Italians are so stylish, and so it seems... at first. Then you realize that they all have the same exact style... and suddenly it becomes far less in style, indeed.

So elections were yesterday (well, we found out the results yesterday), and let me just say... Europe is STOKED. Had this election been world-wide, I guarantee Obama would have won with like, 93% of the popular vote. While I'm on the subject... I can now assure you that explaining the electoral college system to foreigners in a language you barely know is NOT the easiest thing. Anyway. It's really funny to see how excited everyone is about another country's president. Shows how much the U.S. has an effect on the rest of the world though, huh? I mean, anyone know the name of Italy's president?

It's my birthday today.
1. I'm 18! (not 19, Truckee Sunrise! hehe, I'm young.)
2. Yes, I know... two days AFTER one of the most ground-breaking presidential elections in history...
3. I officially, for the first and only time, probably ever, was older than Spike for nine hours!!... which ended two minutes ago, because it's now 9:02 am here, therefore midnight in America, so he's 18, too. Oh well. It was cool while it lasted.
4. Happy half birthdays to Josh, Ashley and Tyler.
5. I get to open my package from home now!!!
6. I am going to a pizzaria and then to a disco with the girls in my class Saturday to celebrate. :]
7. Italians are really big on the whole text-you-right-at-midnight-or-first-thing-in-the-morning thing. Hahaha. Ahh... I like, did not go to sleep.
8. I have to go to a Rotary meeting tonight. Sweet. But it's just my club, so there won't be any of the kids that are usually at the Alghero/Sassari meetings.
9. Yesssss I just got out of making up my physics test by saying it's my birthday. Bitchin'.
10. I don't like lists with less than 10 things on them... so... I bought a bright orange pair of pants. And you're jealous.

Tim just got in trouble for drinking water in class. Apparently you're not allowed to do that in Italy... whaaaaaat...

Oh. So these are the escalator things at the supermarket that I said I'd take a picture of. They're flat so you can put your cart on, but then somehow the wheels are designed to lock with the grids of the escalator so they don't roll when you're going up and down to the parking garage. Genius.

Manifestazione.

Yesterday there was a nationwide protest. There were over 10,000 participants in my city. The prime minister of education passed a reform, which was approved by Congress Wednesday, that cuts money from public schools. It also threatens to lessen hours of Latin and Greek, and increase hours of math in the Classics schools... essentially converting them to the scientific schools. It also presents the idea of one teacher per class in elementary schools, instead of a different teacher for every subject, which would result in thousands upon thousands of teachers getting laid off. Also on Wednesday, Congress passed another law giving private schools much larger sums of money... so basically taking money from the public schools and handing it to the private. So obviously, just about everyone was outraged. The strike yesterday was the largest protest my city's ever seen. Everyone had signs, and the parade participants were as young as elementary schoolers, and also included parents and teachers. It was a really awesome experience to be a part of. It started pouring rain a couple of hours in and everyone pulled out umbrellas, creating a massive shield that extended down the streets for miles. Even if you weren't holding your own umbrella, you weren't getting wet, because every other person was holding one above you. It must have been an interesting sight for all of the on-lookers from apartment buildings above.

I saw this at the store last night. American style pizza by Big Americans. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a pizza in America with corn on it. Oh well.

Uhm. Seeing High School Musical 3 in theatres tonight (opening night in Italy). Can you say "stoked"?

And also. Italy needs to celebrate Halloween. Have fun tonight. :[

Rome! and stuff.

So, that sciopero I mentioned last Thursday was of epic proportions. Every single school in my city joined together and had a sit-in in the university. Then we all got up and took it to the street, and it turned into a huge parade through all of the main streets, delaying public transportation for hours. This picture is actually the front of the parade... I don't even know how I ended up in front...

Can you see in the distance? It goes on and on...

ROME! So the nine of us (everyone except for Stephanie) from Alghero and Sassari left Friday morning by plane, then train, then subway, and finally walked out into the Roman light where the first thing we saw was the Colosseum (which, needless to say, was epic). We were all so giddy, and even shocked that we were actually there. We didn't have time to go inside the Colosseum, unfortunately, because the wait was two hours, but that just means we'll need to go back! We met up with four American exchange students living in Rome and got lunch. After, we all explored Rome and saw all those cool things like the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. And got gelato, of course. Then we all took a train to Anzio where we had a Rotary meeting and spent the night in the hotel. It was a super fun weekend, and I bonded so much with the Rome and Alghero kids. It was so sad to leave them!!!

Hilda and Lisbeth in the subway station.

Colosseum- first sight!

In front of the Colosseum.

When in Rome...

me, Tore, Lisbeth, Hilda and Jacquie

The Pantheon.
That hole is 8m wide, and there's constantly warm air pushing out, so when it rains nothing falls through. Pretty cool. :]

So all of this week at school we've been doing this form of striking called "autogestione" where we just don't take lessons. Monday was fun because we all hung out and played games all day, but Tuesday everyone needed to study for Latin all day because there's a bunch of tests Friday, so I basically just texted all of the other bored exchange students and listened to music until both my phone and iPod died. Then I went to the big steeple part of the school where they were watching a Spanish movie with Italian subtitles, and I was sitting in the back so couldn't understand a thing... so took a nap. :]

Today everyone is studying for Greek/painting their nails, so it smells. But I pulled my journal out earlier to start writing this and my history/philosophy teacher asked what I do every day during class if I can't understand, and I said nothing, so she pulled me aside and started reviewing Italian grammar with me. She was shocked that I've just been learning on my own and didn't have anyone to really help me with the language, so now on Tuesdays during 4th period (science. score!) she's pulling me out to help me learn :]

I'm happy.

There's more picture of Rome, that whole weekend, and everything else here:

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/kelsm22/Italy/

Oops.

[I wrote this a week ago and forgot to post it. m'bad]

Oh my goodness. Yesterday we had sort of a Rotary get-together. It was the same ten kids from the meeting in Alghero, but it was in Sassari this time, at this huge fancy building in the back of the Piazza d'Italia. So first off, this building is gorgeous from the outside, so I guess it wasn't too mcuh of a surprise to see how stunning the inside is. Also, pictures weren't allowed... buuut all of us were constantly taking pictures from under the table, etc. They're pretty ridiculous. But if anyone asks, these don't exist. So, this wasn't a meeting, because we didn't even discuss anything. The only purpose was for us to meet the President of Sassari, who was actually this really cool lady. We sat in this extremely beautiful meeting room, and were called upon one at a time to be introduced to her and to give her a flag. Afterwards, she talked all about the history of Sassari, and told us the background of all the paintings and murals in the room. Then we got a tour of the King's and Queen's rooms (uh, yeah.) and then were brought to the King's dining room, where there was a table packed with snacks for us, which was amazing. The newspaper took a picture of us, too (though I have yet to see it...). We also got goody bags with a local photography book and a map of Sassari! Hurray!

So yesterday we got let out of school at noon because the plumbing broke. This building is reeeally old. And today we started at 10:20 and finish at noon again, because it's still not fixed so no one is allowed to go to the bathroom. And tomorrow's another sciopero! And Friday morning I leave for Rome! Awesome :)
This week kicks ass.

Ching ching!!

Ooookay. So yesterday was supposed to be a sciopero of the teachers and the students who supported them, but all of the teachers ended up entering... along with most of the students. But my whole class--well those of us who even came to school-- just kept standing outside, because yesterday we decided as a whole to not enter. Sooo... we left. Everyone hopped on their little motorbikes, and Isabella and I walked to the Piazza to meet everyone for breakfast at a cafe. We actually ended up spending a couple of hours with our little cappuccinos just chatting. Then Isabella and I went shoe shopping, but didn't buy anything. After, we met up with two other classmates, Mariaelena and Elena in Via Roma and chatted more. Then Isabella and I soaked up some sun in the Piazza and shared music. It was a very nice morning. We also met Paolo for lunch and then hung out by the park. I taught them the phrase "f'sho." Useful, I know.

SO. Last night Pietro picked me and Kaylee (Colorado) up at around 8 and we drove to Alghero for our first Rotary meeting! Whoo! There were ten exchange students there, and that's all the clubs from Sassari and Alghero combined. Eight of us were from America, one from Sweden, and one from Denmark. Everyone except for Kaylee and me had already had a couple meetings together and met, but it was still super fun. We traded pins and cards and everything. Cool. So, the meeting was in a big nice hotel and there were tons of people there. It was pretty fancy. Not like ours in Donner Kitchen, eh? :] So everyone proceeded upstairs to a big room with a buffet set up in the middle, and all of the exchange students had a table reserved at the front. So the whole room was just sitting at their tables talking and waiting for the meeting to start. Welllll.... I sort of leaned one of my wine glasses towards me, then it slipped and smacked back the other direction into my other wine glass, which emitted a shockingly loud DONG!!!!! So... those of you who have ever been to a Rotary meeting know what happens when the bell sounds... the ENTIRE room fell silent and stood up!!! The president was the last to stand, and then he asked "Why are we all standing??" because the bell was in front of him and obviously he knew he hadn't called the meeting to order yet... but he figured he had everyone's attention, so he then sounded the bell, which, might I add, was IDENTICAL in tone and pitch to the DONG my glasses created, if not quieter. Well at this point, every exchange student was in hysterics, and I was crying from laughing so hard, and was utterly traumatized at what I had done... plus for the rest of the meeting, Charlie, the other CA kid, kept picking up his glass and pretending to ding it against his other one... so basically I will never live this down. Welcome to my first Rotary meeting...!


Well besides that, the meeting was good. We all had to give little introductory speeches, right in the beginning, too, so my speech was 100% on the energized, smiling side... once I wiped away the laughing tears... Anyways. Dinner was good and I had tons of fun hanging out with all the other exchange students. After dinner some guy told me that my speech was the only one he understood, haha. Alrighty. Well we left around 11:30 and then drove home, and when I got to my house I discovered that my host family was throwing a freakin' party. So I was introduced to eeeveryone, and the people that I already knew were so shocked and thrilled that I was speaking Italian and were sooo interested in the pins on my jacket and a couple of them even knew Lake Tahoe! Sweet, that's a first. Then I was finally able to excuse myself and go to sleep, because it was now past one on a school night.

And now I am in philosophy and I am tired and everyone else is doing interrogations except for Tim and me. Because I am doing this, and he is reading Fight Club. Which I remembered today. Hurrah.

So today there was a test in English but everyone was saying that they weren't ready for it, but Mr. Bruno said they had to take it, so they protested by getting everyone in the class to sit there and pretend to write, and then everyone turns in blank pages. So Bruno just said "okay, let's revise. We'll just discuss the questions orally as a class." Gosh. How many times in America does half the class fail tests because we just take them unprepared? These kids know how to get stuff done, that's for sure.

Oh, if you're like my dad and want to see more pictures of random stuff, you can look on my photobucket... the link is under the "links" section to the right.

This is mostly information for my mom.

I took 150 euros out of my bank account cause I had to pay 100 euros at the post office. I don't know for sure what it was for this time, but I know it was necessary...
Also- my phone costs 15 euros a month, and my bus pass is 16 a month. I'm not starting the gym til November because I can't go the next two Fridays, and there's no point in paying 40 euros for like, three days. Friday is the first Rotary meeting (!!!) in Alghero so I'll finally be gettin' some pins, woohoo. It sucks though because it doesn't even start until 8pm, so probably goes until 11, and then the drive back to Sassari... late night. School the next day. Bleh.
I slept for four hours after school yesterday because I couldn't go anywhere. Felt good.

There's only eleven kids in class today. There's interrogations in history. Wonder if that's related...

Every time I see Shasta now she's (or should I say "he's"... they're not exactly twins...) alone. I haven't seen Sierra for over a week. Uh oh!

There might be another sciopero tomorrow. Oh, Sciopero means strike. All of the exchange students sort of added that word into the English language. We've even made it a verb. "Are you guys scioperoing tomorrow?"

I'm reading Roald Dahl's The BFG during class. In Italian. So Il GGG- Grande Gigante Gentile. It's a slow process, because I need to look up every 5th word as I read, then I write it in my notebook.

Oh shoot. I just remembered I was supposed to bring Tim Fight Club today. Whoops. He must be bored. Sorry, Tim.

I woke up every half hour to 45 minutes last night. I don't know why. I'd check the time and go back to sleep. Actually, twice I woke up with a start thinking I had turned off my alarm and fallen back asleep, so I booked it to the bathroom to start getting ready, then I'd see the time on the clock in there. It was a weird night. I haven't slept through the night once since I've been here. I always did at home. Hmm.

Oh! I need to buy rainboots! I've never had to do that before. How exciting!

There's four turtles at my house! They're about the size of ping pong balls. :]

Il Gioco del 100

They warned me. They said if I started, I'd get addicted. But I was bored, and everyone else was doing it. They told me to be careful; it's a drug. But it's something to do during Greek and Latin classes... so they taught me how. And now I do it all the time. I can't stop.

It's better than Sudoku.
It's "Il Gioco del 100" [the game of 100], and I am determind to beat it.


As a birthday gift to my mother, I now present "Il Gioco del 100."


1. Make a grid of 10 x 10 squares, each one being large enough to write a 2-digit number in. Do the grid in pen, as you'll be erasing a lot. Also using pen, place a 1 in the top left corner. From this point on, use PENCIL.
(click on images to see them bigger...)

2. From the 1 in the top left corner, you can now begin to move horizontally or vertically by skipping two spaces and marking a 2 in the next square, OR by moving diagonally by skipping one space.

3. Continue from your 2 with a 3, then a 4, and so on. Your object is to get to 100, but note that this is very difficult, as you usually run out of legal moves!!!







An example of my most recent failed attempt... so close!!!!

Homecoming?!?!

Awwww I miss homecoming :[

It was hilarious. This morning before school Miriam was like "oh man, listen to this. In Paola's school in America they're dressing up!! Yesterday they had a jungle theme!! And they're doing an Italian/French theme for Paola and the other exchange student! How wonderful, America..." and then the entire group has twinkling eyes and dropped jaws. I said "yeah, my school had a Superhero theme yesterday, and toga earlier this week" and everyone just keeps saying "che bello!" and wishing Italy had things like that at school. I totally took things like homecoming and leadership for granted. And now it's one of the things I miss the most. Hahaha I'm such a nerd. Out of Truckee High and I just wanna go back!!

I bought my plane ticket for ROME today! :] I leave two weeks from today for a weekend in Rome with Rotary. SO EXCITED! :]]]

Oh my gosh. I went to the gym tonight with Maria and Miriam, which I'll be doing every Wednesday and Friday night. Hardest workout of my life. I am pooped. Goodnight.

Ciaaa.

It's pretty cool. In all the main streets there's little strips with grooves in them that follow the sidewalk for blind people, and the shapes of the grooves are a little bit different on each street so they know where they are. I thought that was pretty creative.

Wow. It's amazing how many hundreds of people are buzzing about the Piazza even on week nights.

It's also amazing thast I'm the only girl here who doesn't always wear skinny jeans. Quite alright. I'm used to being different.

Tonight I went to a cafe with these two kids Paolo and Gianluca. They're super awesome. I actually hadn't met them in person yet, but apparently they just make it their duty to go around befriending all the exchange students. They've hung out with Stephanie and Hilary a ton. But those two have to go to Italian lessons on week nights so can't go out. Anyway. Isabell met us at the cafe, too. She's been referred to as Paolo's sister but they don't live together or anything, so I don't know for sure. Meh. They're all super funny and nice though. And even walked me back to Anna's studio to make sure I'm safe! The cool thing about them is that they correct my Italian, and always speak in Italian, and rarely switch to English (even though they're all really fluent) when I don't understand something. They just slow it down and rephrase it. They're definitely a good group to hang with to learn the language. Cool. :]

You should see my red converse. I went stitch-crazy on them. Remember the jeans?? Yeah. All that plus a couple scenes of stars and snow and rain and rainbows and waves. I was bored. :]

I am always so freakin' tired. But I don't take naps after lunch anymore because Anna asked me why I sleep all the time and I got self conscience. But seriously. It's almost 9:30pm on a school night and I'm still at work with Anna. We have to go home, make dinner, eat and take showers before I can call it a night. I don't get to bed until at least 10:30, though it's usually closer to 11 or 11:30. And in America sometimes I'd have those nights, but here that's every night. Going to bed early isn't an option. And now Anna asks why I have bags under my eyes. Let's see... ha.

Soo.

There's really just not much else to say. School, for the most part, is pretty boring. I'm only a part of a few subjects a day, if even. About 12 classes a week, out of 35. I finished my Italian book, so I don't have anything to study anymore... so now I just read. For five hours a day. Cool. At least I brought good books? After school sometimes I go to Miriam's, which is nice because otherwise I'm just home alone for hours, which gets super boring. Saturday evenings I usually meet Miriam and all her friends in the Piazza, which is always tons of fun and the highlight of my week. They're a really great group of kids, but none of them go to my school, so that's a bummer. Last Saturday we got "ceesburgers" for dinner. Haha. It was... odd.

It's funny how interested in American politics they are. I've had a couple lunches where all we talk about is Sarah Palin, and I attempt to translate and define "maverick." But then again, how interested are they really, because the article in the newspaper about the Vice Presidential debates had a picture of Palin's red heels with a caption stating the designer. Alright, Italy...
Posso ti chiamo Joe??

I'm going to the airport tonight to pick up Giovanna, who's been in Spain the past week. That's funny. Five weeks ago they were all there getting me, and I thought the air was so warm and humid and smelled so strange. And I couldn't speak Italian. Pahaha.

I am not a fun of horse.

My English teacher told the class that the English word for hamster is "little Indian pig".... no.... he also spelled voodoo "wodoo."

Hahaha. All the girls in the first grade (our freshman equivalent) are in love with Tim, so during break they all surround him and ask him questions in their beginner English, so basically conversations get absolutely nowhere besides a whole lot of giggle fits. And my whole class (we're in the 4th grade, so seniors, though there's another 5th grade above us) watches and laughs. Pahaha. Poor, Tim.

English is so much simpler than Italian. Really the only thing that they've expressed difficulty with is silent letters. They can't comprehend how the word "ought" is pronounced "ot." That's the one easy thing about Italian. Every letter is always pronounced.
I don't understand how English originated from the Germanic tribes of Anglos, Saxons and Jutes (with later influence from the Vikings, Normans, and Latin church). English doesn't sound aaaanything like German.
Who would've thought. I come to Italy and learn more about my native language than I did at home.

ADDRESS!

Kelsey Shaw
c/o Soro Anna
Via Dei Gelsomini, 52
07100 Sassari
ITALY


I expect cool things now :] Letters cost about 80 cents, or so I'm told.

So that my father doesn't get TOO bored.

Math and physics are my favorite classes because they're the same in every language so I can answer questions correctly and follow along, especially when the problems are written. It's funny though because we have the same professor for those two classes, and those are the only ones (besides English) that I pay 100% attention in (and am smart in), so all the other teachers must hate me. Oh well. I was talking with the History and Philosophy professor who notoriously haaaaaates exchange students, and she was all excited that I could understand her lectures when she talks on the slow side. Hurray! I'm not just a "piece of furniture," as she calls us!

Friday night I went to a Lion's Club meeting with Mietta's family because Salvatore is the president. (sorry for the betrayal, Rotary. Still haven't been to one of those meetings! I did however go to a RotarACT meeting... which was basically just a bunch of college students in a cafe chatting for a couple hours. I don't really know why my counselor told me to go, but it was the first time I had heard from him since he met me at the airport. AND he showed up to give me my allowance!) It featured a Sardinian author/photographer and his hot-off-the-press book "The Sardinian Experience." I read it after. Very educational. Anyways. I went to dinner afterwards with the family, the author and a ton of other people, which probably could have been an extremely nice evening, but it was nearing midnight on a school night and I am exhausted by 8pm. By the third course it got to the point that I was so past the state of exhaustion (as was Mietta and another really cool girl named Giosipina-- Riki was already asleep under the table next to us) that everything was absolutely hilarious.

Riki is entirely in love with me. Oops?

Oh, I rode the bus for the first time Saturday morning. Woohoo. I was nervous, ahah. Honestly, it's not that exciting, and just means I need to wake up a half an hour earlier. Bummer.

What is up with every European and the shiny gold or silver tennis shoes? Man, my philosophy teacher wants so bad to be stylin'.

I went out Saturday night with a bunch of girls, it was awesome. We went to a pizzeria and walked all around Via Roma. It was an extremely fun night. I liked them lots. :]

And Sunday afternoon I went to Miriam's house and we had a delicious lunch with her mother. And in the evening I went to the movies with Giovanna and her friends. The movie (Burn After Reading starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt) was horrible, but I think it made me closer with Giovanna so that's good...! For some A-list names it was such bad quality. You could see the boom mic bobbing around in the top of some shots. I was frustrated with that. Ahaha.

I AM SO EXCITED! Hilary, Stephanie and I are going to make a Thanksgiving feast for our host families. It's going to be amazing. I don't know if it will be delicious seeing as all the ingredients are different here, but regardless I can't wait for November. I hope our host families don't hate it. Ahaha. I hope we can find a turkey! We might be eating a Thanksgiving chicken this year. Oh well. Stoked.

Why doesn't everyone in the world have a balcony like mine??

Sciopero part II!

I'm not going to explain too much about today, except that every student was out there. Including all of the students from the school's other campus in a different part of town. The police were kind enough to block off the entire street for us. Apparently these things happen all the time. At the end of the day, police officers passed out garbage bags to clean up the toilet paper mess, and the students did, no hassle involved.

Show-not-tell:

for your viewing entertainment...

Sorry for the angles of the video. I realized halfway through that it'll be sideways if I hold the camera like that :[

Anyway. Don't worry parents, it's alright. The police really don't care. They were laughing the whole time. Same with my host parents. And our Greek and PE teachers were out there chanting with us. And tomorrow we're all going to school like normal. :]

Then once it all started settling down we played in the park! Climbed trees, made animal noises... the usual. :] I like my friends here. I like my life here. Hands down, best day of my exchange so far.

Sciopero!!

Ho uno spirito rivoluzionario!!! The students revolted at school today. Sweet.

Background info: in the past students were able to go outside and leave the campus during break, and this year there's a new director who doesn't allow students to do so. This created a problem for students who used to buy lunches during break at nearby stores, plus there's a huge park directly across the street that is absolutely beautiful.
So today the students all striked and refused to go inside when the bell rang for school to start. The director came outside and got about a third of the students in, but the rest of us remained. Everyone was cheering and clapping "protesta! protesta!" and other chants the entire day. The police and newspaper actually ended up coming after a couple hours. It was sweet. At break time everyone walked to get food and cheered to all the kids trapped inside and hanging out of windows wishingly.

So... I don't really know if I'll be getting in trouble for this... but it was really cool to be a part of it! And anyway only three kids in my class went-- I was with all of the others outside all day, so I can just say I was following my peers! And my host parents and most of the teachers don't care at all, they thought it was cool that the students fought for something!

It's a good thing it didn't rain all day like the forecast said.

(top right: the leaders of the revolt starting a chant. middle left: the director [in orange] yelling at students, with a police officer above him. bottom right: sit-in!!)



Oh! This morning I saw Shasta and Sierra!! Everyone thought I was crazy for taking a picture of the sad homeless dogs. Ha.

I miss my puppies. :[

Maria's house last night: she lives in the middle of an orange orchard at the bottom of a huge canyon with crazy cool caves all over the walls, and some of them are pouring out water into giant natural aqueducts with koi fish in them... it was beautiful. We just walked around the property all evening and played with the horses. :]