Monday, December 13, 2010

Snow and Santa Lucia

Last Friday it snowed here!! It was only the second time I've ever seen it snow, and it was beautiful! I have no pictures of it actually snowing (because during that time I happened to be making a four hour skype call.... Lauren.... XD) but it was still there the next morning so I took some pictures then,(blogger isn't letting me put them here, so I put them on facebook in my second Italy album). There was a lot less that morning, so we had to go to school. Apparently, if it snows enough (from what I hear, still not a lot) we don't have to go to school! It is supposed to snow again this week on Wednesday and Thursday... I'm excited!! But scared since all I have to wear is still a fall coat and converse... hmmm. Strange having to buy all these clothes and wear layers.

Oh, and today is a holiday. Santa Lucia day. Last night we put out little sacks, fruit, milk, and raw polenta by the fireplace. And then this morning when we woke up and there was chocolate and presents all over the floor!! I am told this is a tradition in the north of Italy, and not usually in the South. My host dad explained to me that in the past Santa Lucia day used to mark the solstice, but when Christianity came about it kept all the old holidays and transformed this one into a day for Santa Lucia, a little girl who rides a donkey and died for the religion by having her eyes pried out. She is the saint of vision now. Lovely. Anyway, cool holiday, I have some chocolate and new house socks and gloves that I really needed now =). Thank you Santa Lucia!!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Spongebob and Chirsmas Lights

I have things to say! Sort of....
First thing: The Sponge Bob song in Italy has no words! It was so horrible the first couple of times I watched it, it's just an instrumental version of it along with the normal animation, but it feels so empty without the picture of a pirate singing. So of course at the begining I was the one who had to sing it out loud every time to make myself feel better about it's emptyness. But THEN, a couple of weeks ago, we found that if you change the language on the TV to English, that the song plays like normal! Now people believe me that the song has words! Oh yes!!!
Another thing: In America I always used to randomly start talking in a British accent. If I am speaking English and I do that here, no one notices. I have English class with one of the first year classes at my school and they have recorded voices that they have to repeat. The voices are recorded in British and I find it hilarious to repeat it in British as well. Then I start laughing at myself and the entire class is like "what???" which makes it all even more funny. No one finds the humour (hehe) in me walking around saying "I'm Harry Potter" in British either..... oh the depression.
Good news! I might go to Germany! I would be going with a class a year older than mine who has had a lot more German than I have studied and in the mornings I would be expected to go to their intermediate language class with them. I find that very funny since my German level is so low that I walked into German class the other day and the teacher asked me how I was and I got really confused because I couldn't understand her. Yes, that's right, 2 months of German and I still can't say "How are you?". Good news is that most Germans speak English better than I speak German, so I think I'll be ok. It's easier to just focus on Italian, not German, for now.
My town has started hanging up Christmas lights! Some people in the city even hang them from the balconies and the whole town is pretty now at night. Next time I'm going to take some pictures of it because it's beautiful! But I will still miss the way it is in America... I have yet to see a shiney penguin hanging anywhere. I expect many, many, many front lawn penguin army pictures to be sent to me from America. 25 days until Christmas anyway (more important now, becasue I skipped Thanksgiving...), I'm excited!