Trento, Bolzano, Venice and Alice! :]

Hokay, so.
Last weekend I flew to Bergamo and met up with Alice Bolner, who was an AFS exchange student to Truckee last year and stayed at my house! So it was my turn :] She took me all around Trento (the "big" town near her teeny one, Lavis) and it is amaaazing. First off, she lives smack in the middle of a valley in the Alps and it is entirely gorgeous. I took more pictures of mountains than anything else. She also goes to school in Trento, and I went with her on Saturday, and p.s. it was so much more amazing than my school in Sassari. There was a computer in the room! And modern heaters! And a science lab where we went during physics class to do an EXPERIMENT!! To you this may seem like the basic high school with standard necessities, but not for Italy!! I was shocked at how beautiful ("American") their school was! But anywho, all her classmates were very nice and I had a good day, and after six hours, could still not get over the fact that I could see a waterfall from her classroom window. After school, her amazingly nice family took us on a mini-tour of the Dolomites, which is the most epic mountain range. And there was snow! And ski resorts!! Aww. It looked like home. Except everything was in German (oddly not even Italian. The little Northern towns speak German primarily!). And we also went to Bolzano, whiiiich I was extremely stoked about :]

Have I mentioned how nice her parents were to me? On Sunday we drove to Verona and got to go inside the Arena (smaller version of the Colosseum... but still nowhere near small) and visit Juliet's house and see her balcony! There was even a statue of her there and if you rub her boob it brings good luck hahaha :] Verona was gorgeous, I loved it. And then we drove to Lake Garda which is the biggest lake in Italy, though still not quite comparable with Tahoe, but beautiful nonetheless.

And on Monday, drumroll please, we took the train to VENICE! For CARNIVAL! And I don't even know what else to say other than Venice is beyond beautiful and everyone needs to go. (I was worried about it stinking because that's what I had heard from so many people, but apparently it only does during the summer, so it was absolutely perfect.) Gosh, it is such an amazing city. And San Marco is increeedible (though there were SO many people later in the day). Go, go, go!!

Tuesday, Tuesday. We rested a bit due to so much running around Northern Italy, and then went to Trento and got a tour of the Castle of Buonconsiglio from Alice's aunt, who is a tour guide, and that was pretty cool as well. Then I flew back to Sassari on Wednesday morning!

Whew. Long weekend. I think I'm going to go take a nap :]

p.s. there are lots more pictures on the photobucket, as usual :]

District Meeting!!

Weeeeeee lots of fun :]
Well to start off, three of the Rome kids came on Wednesday afternoon so that they could spend more time with us. So a massive group of exchange students (Fadwa, Hilary, Chris, Tim, Cory, Stephanie Cameron and myself) all joined together at my house for Baking Wednesday (of course we wouldn't skip it). Then afterwards we all went to CHINESE FOOD! for dinner, which was positively delicious and I have been missing it so. Italians don't dig it at allllll. On Thursday we all met up in the morning at Hemingway-- our regular cafe, in which they start making our favorite drinks as we walk in the door-- and then off to Monserrato for another picnic in the park! Afterwards, we had three MORE exchange students join the clan (Charlie came from Alghero, then Sergio and Elisbeth) and we hung out in the Piazza and eventually went to Pizza al Metro for dinner... where (I think it's obvious, but in case you didn't pick up on it) you order pizza by the meter. We ate like 2 and a half meters of pizza that night. Yum.

Friday we went to Tim's "house" aka resort and played soccer and tennis on his courts, and ate blood oranges and tangerines off his trees, and played in the olive orchards and meadow. Then we went back to Sassari and caught the train to Alghero, where we met up with some of those exchange students and hung out on the piers and walked all around the city.

Friday night was our first Rotary District meeting so we met all the kids from Cagliari which was cool, and had a big ole dinner and got to hang out and get to know everyone afterwards. Saturday morning was a big long conference meeting where we were introduced and then pretty much just sat there for four hours, but oh well. We played tic-tac-toe for entertainment haha. Afterwards they dragged all of us to McDonalds and then paid the bill, which must've been massive, because we ordered excess amounts of fries. Literally like 150 orders of fries for 35 kids. We don't know what happened. They just kept coming. Thennnn the Cagliari kids left, and we pretty much could do whatever we wanted because we (the Sassari kids) weren't going home until the next day. Fortunately for us, a parade started right then! It was this crazy Carnival parade but Sardo-style, with crazy men in these ridiculous beast costumes and acting quite beastly as well. It was positively ridiculous, but we laughed a good bit :] and then went to dinner with the Alghero kids! Yay.
Sunday. We woke up early and saw the Rome kids off to the airport which was a real bummer to see them go. Then all us Sassarese kids went to breakfast then met up with Hilda and Lisbeth and walked around Alghero, and eventually went to lunch, and caught the train back to Sassari.
I guess it doesn't really sound like a super exciting weekend... but really, it was fun. I love all the kids we were with so that makes the experience a good one.
Well. I am going to Alghero this weekend as well for a change in scenery to spend the night at Lisbeth's house, so I must be off to catch the train!

Good day to you all.

Update!
Pictures:
-Top picture is Fadwa and me in the Piazza d'Italia, taken by Cameron.
-Second is Fadwa and myself in Tim's olive orchard.
-Third is me under a table at a Rotary meeting... I lost a pin... moment captured by Fadwa.
-Fourth! is our table at McDonalds! and the garbage tower we created. mmm...
-Fifth is me being attacked by one of the weird guys in the parade... and Lisbeth and Hilda not helping. Nice girls :]

-And last is all of the Sassari and Rome girls and one of the Alghero girls in a sweet echo-spot on the beach :]

January...

Oh boy, I'm really sorry for leaving you hanging for so long. I've been posting lots of pictures to photobucket though...

So. January meant the initial of my reading frenzy. I finished about ten books... four of them being the first four of the Italian Harry Potter series. See, I used to write blogs in class, but now I just spend my days distracted with literature and therefore the blogs stopped. But on the bright side, my Italian reading skillz are pretty freakin' good. Now I'm just trying to power through the 804 pages of Harry Potter 5: L'ordine della Fenice.

Side note- the names are different in Italian Harry Potter. For example, there is no Dumbledore, but instead Albus Silente. McGonnagal becomes McGrannit. Snape becomes Piton. Longbottom becomes Paciock, etc. Lame.

January also marked the beginning of Baking Wednesdays, where a bunch of exchange students get together and, obviously, bake-- things like sugar cookies and fried apple pies-- because it was midterms and winter and we got bored. Our host parents love us. So does my class, when I bring in leftovers... heheh. :]

So, the first three weeks of January were midterms, meaning tests and interrogations in every subject, literally every day. And I actually participated in most of them! Some teachers don't really give exchange students grades though, so I just got things like "Very good" on my English test, or "satisfactory" instead of a number grade in Chemistry. But I actually got 8s in math and physics, and a seven in French, which is pretty dang good for here.

January, January... let's see. Well one Sunday morning I went on a walk with Hilary a bit outside of town and we stumbled upon this park called Monserrato, which is more or less amaaazing. So the next weekend we went back with a big group of exchange students from Sassari and Alghero and took crazy pictures on statues and stuff. I love the Alghero kids. We got to hang out with them a few times this month! :]

This Saturday I went to what was supposedly a Rotary event at a mission, and Rotarians and Rotaract kids were all supposedly going... but it turned out that there were only about five Rotarians and I was the only "youth," aside from the 8-year-old daughter of someone. Sooo, her and I were put to work for four hours sorting medicine based on expiration date, then sorting clothes from "child- winter" to "man- summer." Then there was a long presentation by the missionaries about their volunteer work in Brazil and Kenya. Then we had a big 'ole potluck dinner during which I gossiped with my school's ex-Principal. Then yesterday I went to Thiesi with Hilary's host family and hung out with her host cousin and all her friends all evening, which was super fun. I like those kids :] I hope to go back more often on Sundays!

On Wednesday the Rome kids are coming!!!! Fadwa is staying at my house, and Chris and Cory at Hilary and Tim's houses. Then this weekend is our first Exchange Student event! It's a big weekend in Alghero with all the kids from Sassari, Alghero, Rome and Cagliari (whom we haven't met yet), so I'm super excited! :D

Ha. So much for being smart. I just got my Chemistry written test back: 4. Ouch. Good thing my interrogation went well....

And it's back to Harry Potter for me!

Ciao!

(all three pictures taken in Monserrato)