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. :]

Uappala!!!

Hello all, sorry for the lack of bloggage. Here's what I've been up to:
So last Wednesday night my host family had dinner at Mietta's house with her family (Mietta, Riccardo, Salvatore and Pinella), Enrico's family (parents and aunt), and the couple from Bergamo. We had a kids table that consisted of Enrico, Mietta, Riki and me. The dinner was the best I've had here so far, but Enrico's a punk and was constantly picking on Riki and showing off for Mietta, and vise versa, so it wasn't all that pleasant. After dinner I helped Mietta cut pictures of Zac Efron out of magazines to add to her walls. Fun. Then I played Monopoli Euro with Riki, which was nice. Except for it got to the point of being past midnight on a school night, so I asked my host parents if we could leave. (top: Mietta, me and Riki. right: Mietta in front of her masterpiece...)

Every day after school last week I went to the Piazza d'Italia with Isabella and Mariaelena, two girls from my class, which was always fun. They're nice. Thursday afternoon I went to Stephanie and Hilary's house, where Tim met us. Us four English speakers decided to explore the streets and walk around for a couple hours until it was time for... drum roll please... Italian lessons!! Whoo!! Every Monday through Saturday for the next 200 days there are these free Italian lessons held in this ex-elementary school in a really sketchy part of town, and all of our host parents banded together and decided to make us suffer for two hours every night. We walk (jog)there with one of the instructors, and it takes about 20 minutes of chasing her through a maze of alleyways with scary Italian boys saying "hey baby, I'll be your ticket to stay here" or "How 'bout I teach you real Italian tonight!" Eeueurgh. Anyway. Everyone else in the class is from Russia or Iran or Brazil. The instructors move soo ridiculously slow, and one of them always stands behind us to make sure we're taking notes. In two full hours (7 to 9pm, and we are hungry), we learned how to say the names of family members (madre/padre. bambino/bambina. signore/signora) and reviewed the verb essere: to be. Awesome. Sooo afterwards I told Anna that I didn't want to go to the lessons anymore because they're too easy, and she said that they're free and the instructor is her friend, so she would like me to continue to attend. Raaaawr. (top: Piazza d'Italia. right: outside the window of Italian lessons. left: street view in the Piazza d'Azuni)

Friday after school Mietta came over and we left for Orosei, which is a little town on the East side of the island. I really had no idea what we were doing. All I was told was to pack a small suitcase with a bathing suit and two casual outfits, and that Mietta was coming. Alas, we arrived at a MASSIVE resort hotel with the biggest freakin' swimming pool to ever grace my presence. (Dad: you can Google Earth the Marina di Orosei and look for a pool as big as the hotel) Mietta and I had our own room with four beds and a sweet balcony. Meals were all buffets so I was stoked to finally choose whatever I wanted, especially for breakfast (eggs! yogurt with bananas and granola! they were soo confused). Mietta and I spent most of Saturday at the pool... and not school. HA! And we totally took the water aerobics course which was pretty much hilarious. After lunch we drove to a sweet beach with supposedly "the finest sand in the world" but that was kind of a drag because it was super windy so it was blowing everywhere. Mostly Mietta and I played with the washed up jellyfish. Then we drove to another town to visit a historic church, and I walked around the streets and took pictures with Enrico's aunt and her fiancee while everyone else went to the sermon. After dinner the staff of the resort but on mini plays, followed by an organized dance where I learned how to cha-cha and foxtrot and jive! SWEET. On the way home Sunday we stopped in Cortes, a small little town where Anna's mom was born. Some sort of festival was going on, but all I really know was that it had something to do with horses. We toured around a bit but never went to the huge plaza where hundreds of people were watching some horse show, so I don't really know why we went... I took more pictures though, hurray! Then we drove home. All in all, it was a super nice and relaxing weekend. :] (top right: hotel. top left: pool. middle right: mietta and me and the beach. bottom left: host dad Salvatore at the beach. bottom right: exploring the streets near the church.)

I'm in Greek right now, so everyone else has to pay attention, mwahaha. They look like they're being punished. How sad.
Anway. School today has been really fun because we had science, which is a joke, so we played verb jeopardy in which Maria would say a verb in English or Italian and we would all say what it meant, and whoever won got a Mentos. Whoo! Fun and educational! Aren't you proud, mom? I hope the other side of the class has as much fun as we do, because they don't get told to be quiet nearly as much. Our French teacher is still in France so we just hung out and talked all period. Miriam invited me to go to Maria's house with them tonight but I told her I couldn't because of Italian lessons. I told her all about how lame and easy they are, and she said that my Italian is way better than learning nonno and nonna and marito and moglie, so she texted Anna and convinced her to not make me go. TRIUMPH! I'm free!
Anywho. PE here is awesome. We jogged (walked) around the mini gym for the first 10 minutes, then we did this running game for the next 10 minutes, and then he busted out the foosball, so he played with the three boys for the rest of the 40 minutes while the girls all sat in a corner and gossiped. Uappala (that was the slogan for the hotel we stayed at. It means nothing whatsoever. But it's fun to say..!) !!

Last night Anna came into the kitchen and I was already halfway through my pizza and had set it all up myself. She was super excited and said I'm finally treating it like my house instead of acting like a guest. Success! I'm also starting to get a feel for the city. When we're walking around I know where the Piazza d'Italia or the school or Anna's studio are in relation to us and I know how to get there. And when we're driving around I know which streets to take to get wherever. Awesome. :]

Oh man, I need to take a picture of the escalator thing at the supermercato the next time we go. Our mothers would die and go to heaven.

I got my computer back! Yes! ....No more Photoshop! No!

Thank you Mrs. Lowder for teaching me physics so well in English so I can answer the questions correctly in Italian. :]

Happy birthday, Mikey!

School, etc.

[written during school]
Oh man, Italian is by far the worst class I have. Super strict teacher, and she just walks around talking all period... and I don't understand it... sweet. The kids that speak Italian are all bored out of their minds. She's been lecturing about a historic Italian writer all period. Laaame. It's funny because I thought everyone was taking notes, but turns out that every single person is doodling and passing notes.

Lo and behold, my schedule:
Monday- Science, French, Latin/Greek, PE, Physics, History of Philosophy
Tuesday- Double of Latin/Greek, French, English, Science, History of Philosophy
Wednesday- English, double of Italian, Math, Physics, History of Art
Thursday- Italian, PE, History of Philosophy, Latin/Greek, Science
Friday- History of Art, Latin/Greek, History of Philosophy, Religion, Latin/Greek, French
Saturday- Latin/Greek, English, Math, History of Philosophy, Italian

Well. This should be an interesting year...
Math is algebra, so that should be relatively easy... as long as I can remember back to Sophomore year! I haven't even had math since pre-calc Junior year. We had Religion today though, and the teacher's extremely chill, and was stoked that I'm Jewish. Haha. This whole school on Saturday thing is kinda gonna suck, especially since it's when you take tests every week. But at least we get out at 1 instead of 2...?

Ugh. School.

Well after school today I went to a little cafe with some classmates which was very nice, and they were all super friendly and fun kids. And they said they go every day that we get out at 11:30 and I'm welcome to join them there, and also a lot of evenings, so we all exchanged numbers, etc. Hurrah. :]

Tonight my family is going to Mietta's house for dinner with a ton of people because her father is throwing some party, and I'm excited for that. I enjoy Mietta. I wish she was in my class, but she's a year younger than me. Hmph. Oh, and this weekend we're going to another town with Mietta's family to spend some time at the beach! Let's hope the weather holds! :]

Sorry I haven't posted any more pictures... I keep walking down sweet historic alleys with cobblestone roads and clothes lines hanging across them thinking how cool they are, but forget to bring my camera everywhere. Soon!!!

Ciao, Nanapush?

My computer got a virus. Lame. So I can't really use it. Salvatore tried to fix it but he kinda made things worse, unfortunately. For about an hour it worked alright though, so I put a lot of pictures and important files online, so I don't really need it anymore, I suppose. Except for music! That sucks. Well mom, I guess I won't be needing my banano for my birthday anymore. :[ Well now I'll be doing a lot more hand-writing and typing it later (like now).
Salvatore got mad at me today because I changed the homepage on Paola's computer. I can use her things and put my pictures on the blank spaces on her walls (which are few and far between), but if I change anything of hers I get in trouble. It's like they want her perfect Tweety Bird/7 dwarves/Zac Efron tween obsession world to be unscathed upon her return home... in 10 months. Whatever. She'll realize how lame that all is while she's in America and wish I had taken the liberty of disposing it for her.
School today was pretty fun. We had science first which was kind of boring, but he was super chill-- think older version of Kirschner. Or a male Tallant. Hahaha. Then we had French which was the first class so far that I understood, but she would switch back and forth between French and Italian which was extremely confusing!! After was English--YES!-- with a funny little man with an Italian/British accent. He put Tim and me front and center to talk about America and our schools (which he was fascinated with). And we got out at 11:30 today, which was sweet.
I fell asleep around 7 when they were all at work. I'm just always so tired in the evening from concentrating on listening and speaking all the time. My host mom just got home and woke me up. It's almost 10pm. We'll have dinner then I'll go back to bed. Nice sleeping patterns, Kelsey.

Oh, friends: note that I have been working on the stitch work on my pants. Terra, your Earth is freaking SWEET. And Lindsay, your Jew star is a-shinin'.

The big day.

First day of school, first day of school!! I felt like Nemo!
Alright, alright.... so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
America, take note: the first week is short and easy! Today started at 9:30. SWEET. And from now on it'll be 8:30, but that's still better than Truckee High by an hour!
My class only has 12 girls and three boys. They say that's because the Classico is the hardest school, and boys don't want to study. Ha. It's the same group of kids in each class every year, plus and minus exchange students, basically. There's a handful to America and one to China, and me and another kid from Florida to fill in. His name's Tim. Aight. School works like it does in Dead Poet's Society (minus Robin Williams, unfortunately) where you sit in the same classroom all day and different teachers come in and out.
Our first class today was Greek. The teacher was pretty cool, buuut I don't speak Greek, and henceforth am not required to pay attention in that class. Nice. Next, we had Italian with a little troll-like woman who the students don't appear to like, so we'll see how that goes. She said that she could give me something else to do during class to learn Italian, since the rest of the class will be studying literature and whatnot. Cool.
Those are the only two classes we had today, so we got out at 12:30. I think we're just doing two or so classes every day for this first week to introduce teachers and students, etc. I really have no idea how any of this works yet. Wingin' it.

Last night a couple from Bergamo came to dinner at our house. It was a fancy dinner in the dining room instead of the kitchen. A little pig was served. Apparently that's a really nice dish that you can only get on the island. My host dad straight ate an entire leg. The foot was even on it. So crazy. Anyway. The couple invited me to visit them whenever I want, which is sweet because they live close to Milan and Florence, and about two hours from Venice and Alice! Aaand they speak English fluently. So I actually understood that they were inviting me. Score. Daniela, the wife, wants me to see Italy besides the island so she really wants me come (p.s. she brought me potpourri so now my closet smells delish)!! So hopefully February so I can see the Carnival in Venice, whiiich would pretty much make my life. I just need to talk to my club counselor (still haven't heard from him...) and figure out what I need to do to be able to travel. But I'm stoked! :]

Meh.

Today I went to a church or monastery or something. I don't think it was either, really, but I don't know what else to call it. A place of God. Haha. There we go. I met some really tiny nuns and some fathers, I think. The mini nuns showed me some super historical fancy paintings and gave me the whole tour. I guess it would help a lot more if I knew what they were talking about. And that has nothing to do with not speaking Italian.

Also today, I bought a straightener. STOKED.

It's my host mother's birthday today. I thought that maybe we would have a super fancy lunch. In actuality, we had leftover lasagna... but it was on super fancy plates. Then we went grocery shopping. I was supposed to pick out stuff I liked, but the problem was that European grocery stores don't exactly sell the same things ours do. Cereal selection consisted of about 10 different brands of the same exact no-sugar corn flake. Oh well. I picked out strawberries. I like strawberries.

The sunset was magnificent tonight due to all of the wind and rain and clouds.

Taken right off my balcony :]

La bella vita.

Alright, so I know I'm only a week in, but tonight was the best night I've had so far (but I'll get to that eventually)!

This afternoon a massive storm hit. It came so suddenly that within seconds the sky turned from overcast to a dark, eerie green, and rain and wind ensued. Everyone here is calling it a hurricane, but I think that those in Texas dealing with Mr. Ike would say differently. After only 20 minutes, Sassari was under at least 6" of water and all small trees were floating in the streets. Regardless, we ventured on, and I was dropped off at Mietta's house, for what I honestly expected to be an extremely dull night. Mietta was one of the girls that was at the pizza restaurant my 2nd night here who wouldn't talk to me, so I resorted to playing with her little brother Riki. Again, at first, not much was said, and it was Riki who was doing much of the entertaining by showing off all of his Lakers memorabilia. Then Mieta informed me that her musical recital was that night, and invited me to go, and then we hit it off talking about Grease and dance, and also got to practice our language with her speaking English and me in Italian. We dropped her off at the theatre, and returned to the house with her father (a doctor, and who's name I believe is Salvatore, like mine), Ricardo (or Riki, 11 years old, love of my life), and were soon joined by the mother (Princilla? - surgeon - I was shown pictures of her surgery that day before dinner. Yum). I was introduced to pesto pizza and the finest chocolate... ever. At 8:30, after looking at all their family vacation photos and Riki showed off his piano skillz, we went to the theatre! They were kind enough to buy my ticket for me, and to my delight we had sweet box seats in an amazing and ancient theatre. The show consisted of many singers of all ages from 7-70, musical pieces from Mary Poppins, Cabaret and Batman (Mietta in the first and last), a traditional Sardo folk dance, and a beautiful orchestra. The family is absolutely incredible. The mother is constantly kissing me and telling me how beautiful I am. The father walks around repeating "one coke please, no ice" like a parrot, and actually teaches me Italian, which no one else had attempted to do. Riki is constantly smiling at me, and never stops showing off or asking me if I'm thirsty or tired or hot. Mietta is a complete doll herself and I've grown to really liking her. She texted me after I was dropped off tonight saying "Chelsy, you're very very nice! I'm very happy to have meet you! Goodnight, my dear Chelsy! :)" So aside from the fact that she doesn't know how to spell my name (to give her credit, there's no K in the Italian alphabet, and "ch" makes a "k" sound), is that not the cutest thing ever??

Io ho una bella vita.

Food, etc.

Well, it's Italy so I figured I'd talk a little about what they're most famous for: food. Every day the entire family comes home from work and school for a big lunch around 2. It usually consists of a type of pasta or meat, vegetables, bread, and fruit for dessert. Dinner is around 10pm, and the meal is a lot smaller and less formal. The TV is usually on, it's typically just left-overs, and the whole family isn't always there.
You should see the way my host dad, Salvatore, eats. It's an art form. No matter what he's eating it's the same ritual. Slice of bread in his left hand, fork in his right, and he uses these tools to scoop and mix his plate all together. He then takes a bite of bread and pursues his meal. When he pours himself a glass of water, he downs the entire cup in one gulp. He uses a pocket knife instead of a typical kitchen knife, and treats the cheese he cuts like a sculpture. He gets up so many times throughout the meal to retrieve an assortment of things, from pepperoncini oil to tortillas. It's so entertaining to watch him.
The pepperoni we know and love in America is not the same in Italy. The name "pepperoni" is in fact used for bell peppers, so don't confuse that, or your anticipated pizza will not be the same! Also, my dad's famous pepperoni joke about a vicious little greasy animal from the Northern Italian Alps cannot be used correctly. Bummer. Another note about pizza: they put french fries on them! Whaaat? So weird.
And mayonnaise on their french fries. But that's a different story.
Gelato: delish.
Coke: alllll the time.
Water: different. :[
Nutella: heck yes.

Aaaand now that I'm hungry... it's lunch time. :]

Movin' right along.

Today I went to work with Anna, my host mother. She's a lawyer and has this super nice office where everything is marble and there's a zillion little rooms and offices for her employees, and she even has her very own bathroom! Living large. Anyway. We came home for lunch (veal. haha.) and then she took her little siesta and I took some pictures to show everyone (mental note: take a picture of the whole house)! Our house keeper comes every morning. Sweet. She speaks French. Sweet. So I talked to her while we straightened my room. :) Afterwards, I studied Italian for a few hours while Anna went back to work. I just gave her the gifts I brought, and she really appreciated them, so that's great. And she's already acting warmer around me. WHOO! I helped her make dinner (minestrone) and set the table, which I'm now anxiously waiting for, seeing as it's past 10pm and my tummy's still empty... these late night feasts will take some serious getting used to.


...along with the dog across the street that hasn't shut up since I arrived.

Above: the view from the 3rd floor balcony.

Bottom: the view from MY balcony (note the telescope!!! I'll have to talk to that neighbor as soon as my language skillz are substantial. Let's hope he's as cool as Chuck) and... baby grapes growing on the vine in our backyard! Oh, Italia...

Helloooooo!

Well I'm finally here! The flights were ridiculously long, but surprisingly none of them were horrendous. I had the row to myself from Sac-Portland, where I bought some sweet books and met two other Italian exchange students. From Portland-Amsterdam (10 hours of flying) I was sitting next to this sweet guy from England named Edwin. We played the plane trivia game on our mini tvs, where I got first place on the entire plane... Sweet. Thennn we just talked about stuff for a couple hours, and switched iPods, which was cool. He hacked onto mine and ripped all my music onto his computer with his crazy skillz. Thenn I took a nap and slept over all of Hudson Bay, woke up and watched Ever After and Finding Nemo (Josh, that intro is magical) those and presto! we were arriving. In Amsterdam we met four other exchange students from Canada and the US, then all of us boarded the flight to Rome. Two of us had a mini luggage fiasco in Rome which ended up costing me 90 euros, but we did get to leave the airport, so technically I was in Rome... cool? Okay. Rome-Alghero I was sitting with this sweet guy wearing orange pants. He was a chatterbox. He had a lot of questions about America. And ironically the Rotary president of Alghero sat behind me, and he helped me with my luggage in the airport. Thenn I found my family, who was with two girls, Maria and Miriam. Everyone was very nice. Cool. Drove to Sassari, which takes about 25 minutes (which should be 45-an hour, but my host dad drives like a freakin' MANIAC and passes every single car he comes across. Speed limit: 50 km/hr, he drives 120, no joke I have not yet seen the speedometer below 60). Then my host parents went out to dinner, so their daughter (Giovanna, 24) gave me a tour of the house then we went out to pizza, where her friend Antonio (SAM! Tony!) joined us. Got home around midnight, I unpacked and went to bed.
Saturday, my host parents brought me to the beach to meet Maria and Miriam. We hung out there all day and I met Maria's huge extended family, including cousins Cecilia and Enriquo, who was tight. He's around 12 but was super friendly. We all went swimming (the water's ridiculously warm, but they all shiver in it) and then got gelato. NICE. Got home, showered, and went to dinner with my host parents at a pizza restaurant around 9pm. We met two other couples there and their children. Enriquo, Mathilda and Mietta were all my age but awkward and unfriendly, so I talked to Riki mostly, who was no older than 10. We played his video game, Brain Train. He was nice. Afterwards we all walked to the Centro, which is a big courtyard in the city surrounded by ancient buildings, with some big statue in the middle. There was a huge stage set up and some local band was playing covers of American songs. We stayed there until about 1am, then went home.
Today, I met Maria and Miriam at the beach again. Buuut it started to rain so we left around 7, went home and had dinner with my host family. We set up my computer afterwards with internet, so now I am here.

About my life: Sardinia looks like a mix between Hawaii and Napa. It's hot, but not deathly hot, but it's always very humid, which I'm so not accustomed to. My house is like a mansion, so crazy. I'll have to take some pictures eventually. My room on the other hand has posters all over it which makes me feel so not at home. Tweety bird and Orlando Bloom and Zac Efron and the Backstreet Boys and cute dogs. And the Pope. And my bed is hard. Lame. But I have a sweet balcony off my room, which is cool. And my friends are nice. I mean, I only really have two so far, but at least they're cool. My family's nice, though I don't have any idea what they're saying half the time. Giovanna isn't here this weekend because she's meeting the Pope on the Southern part of the island, so I'm stuck fending for myself and drinking hot milk for breakfast because I don't know how to say I really don't want that.

Welll I need to get up at 8 tomorrow morning so I'm off to bed. Goodnight!