Happy (Belated) Holidays!!

Looks like once again I have forgotten to write here for a while.... whoops. Apologies to people out there who are actually reading my blog!! So in my absence from this blog lots has happened here =)
First thing: My host sister's 18th birthday!!! She had a big party with all of her friends one Saturday to celebrate her birthday that was on the 15th of December =). So I'm just gonna say once again: Auguri Fede!!!!!
Second: Christmas!!! Almost the same as a US Christmas but with a few different traditions:

• Il presepe: when we put up the Christmas tree (fake) we set up a cute little scene or figurines and moss with a little nativity scene in the corner. It is really cute. And it's still there so I will go take a picture of it later and put it on facebook (because pictures don't work on my blog... sad)
• In California we can go in the pool on Christmas. Here it was freezing. Not like California "freezing". Literally 0 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrrr....
• We stayed up until 3am on Christmas eve watching Avatar. Oh yes.
• The next day during Christmas lunch (Turkey and lots more food) we watched (and I sang XD) MAMMA MIA!!!! 
• When we got bored later that night we watched (and sang) to Phantom of the Opera!!!! 

And if you know me at all you will know that the last two points were definitely the highlights of my whole Christmas. And you will also probably figured that I have sworn not to watch two movie musicals in one day to prevent massive headaches/ sore throats.
Third: MY FRIEND DANA IS AMAZING!!! Just kidding, she just told me to say that. No, really I love NZerssss!!!!!
Fourth: Happy New Years!!!!! I spent New Years this year not watching the ball drop over NYC, but burning a giant scarecrow then lighting so many things on fire we couldn't see anything through the resulting smoke XD. And singing karaoke. Needless to say, best New Year's ever!
Fifth: I don't really have anything else to say except..... My host mom made Kiwi jam!!!!! It's amazing. Oh yes, and a package from America got here containing warm clothes and enough Jello to last me three lifetimes. Thank you America!!!!

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!!

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!

I feel boring. No, not bored. Boring. Read this anyway.

I would like to say somethings about my life.
1. I eat cookies every morning for breakfast. This is considered healthy.
2. I'm freezing. I want to buy a coat.
3. When I come back to CA I would like a radiator. These things are so amazing and warm to sit on.... who cares if CA is the same all year round I WANT A RADIATOR!!!
4. I love how we get fresh bread and cheese every day for lunch, mmmmmmm....
5. I think if I skipped drinking an espresso (that's normal coffee here, none of that watery american stuff) everyday after lunch I would die.
6. When I first saw the town's historic center I was in awe. Now it's normal, there's a beautiful, old, historic building right there and all I can think about is finding gelato.....
7. THEY TAKE AWAY THE GELATO WHEN IT GETS COLD!!! Sad Emily.....
8. Hot chocolate here is just hot pudding. Amazing.
9. I go to the bar almost everyday. There is a bar in my school. A bar is not a place where old drunk men sit here, it's like an American cafe with alcohol still, but it's like just for show behind the register. Bars are for pastries and coffee and hot chocolate and tea. And just general Italian amazingness.
10. People really like labels here. They will wear the ugliest thing in the world just because it has a designer on it. Even a fake one. This explains why I haven't bought anything here, EVERYTHING has labels. Not good shopping for me at least.
11. I know you all want to know this because everyone asks: no, Italian guys are not all hot. It's about the same ratio of hot to ugly as it is in America. The only difference here is they iron their clothes.
12. Throwing trash on the ground is normal. If you don't they think you are weird. Then you explain how you don't because you want the town to be pretty. Then they tell you that the town is clean and get insulted when you point out the piles of trash. It's an exciting cycle.
13. I love focaccia.
14. it is necessary to eat fruit after each meal. I like oranges.
15. I love how there are millions of roundabouts here and no one knows how to use them. There are so many people who don't look just to almost crash and get angry. Entertaining.
16. Gonna stay here forever just for the fact that there are pigeons and no seagulls or crows.
17. Ending with a happy thought: The city next to me, Taranto, is full of iron factories. It is famous for the number of people who get cancer there. Wooooo!
I'm getting lazy. I don't want to write on my blog. Apologies for the general unexcitingness of this post. It's what you get. Be happy. I really am having a great time =D. Greetings from Italy until next week!

Sorry! It's gonna be a long one...

I haven't written for a while... sorry! I've been really busy with things, but that's a good sign because before I was bored a lot (still am, but I have better things to do than inform America of my life in Italy... haha). So I'm just going to try to briefly explain what I have done in the past... oh wow... almost a month =)

1. Went to a camp with all the AFS kids in the Puglia region. Boring meetings all day, but god do I love foreign exchange students =D. We had the best time ever, it was so sad to leave after only 4 days together. I'm just lucky a lot of the awesomest people live in my town so I can see them often =)

2. I went camping. It was pretty. I walked in a cave. Which was really beautiful. But the camping part wasn't so fun. And I didn't bring my camera because I thought I would break it. I was probably right.

3. I went to northern Italy. Saw the city Padova and met my host brother who is in University there. He's awesome. And Padova is beautiful! The next time we go up to the north though, my family said they would bring me to Venice which I am way excited to see! There will be pictures of Padova on facebook eventually as well =)

Those are pretty much all the cool adventures I have had since I stopped writting... so here are some updates on my daily life:

1. My family. My host sister is awesome. We are still like real sisters. I am so glad for this because some of my friends aren't close to their host siblings... I can't imagine not being anymore =). My little host bro is sooooo awesome!!!! As some people may know, my name when I am a man is Paco. I taught my little brother to say "I am Paco" and now he runs around the house shouting this. I love it =D. My host mom is what I had always thought "Typical Italian" but even more, and real. She really cares about me and my brother and sister, especially about us being cold. Especially about me being cold. Because everyone knows that you get soooo much colder than Italians when you have lived in California your whole life. Haha, she likes to give me food too. Lots and lots of food. =D. My host dad likes to talk to me about intelligent stuff. But for some reason he and my host mom are the two Italians i can understand the least of what they are saying so explaining intelligent stuff to Emily is difficult. But they really feel like my family and I am so happy to be here =).

2. My school. Boring. Haven't really been getting along with the class I am officially in. I like them, but I think the novelty of being American has worn off, and I don't have really much time in the class anyway because they take subjects that I don't understand. And most of my other classes are cool too. I have been taking German, yes for nine hours a week, and I have not learned a thing. It is soooo hard learning it in Italian when it's not my first language and I'm so focused on the Italian that the German pretty much slips through the cracks.

3. My friends. As I mentioned, I don't really hang out with my class a lot like I would probably be expected to. I like the group of foreign exchange students too much =). It's not really a bad thing, because I don't get to go out a lot, and I still speak Italian all day. But foreign students are the awesomest people on earth. It's proven.

4. The food. Yes, I know, everyone wants to hear about it. It's the first question I always get when I talk to people... yes it is amazing! The food at my new house is even better than the first (which I didn't know was possible). Because it's cold now it seems we are eating lots of soup. Not as much pasta as you may think. Also lots of fish, bread, and pizza. And the coffee. My favorite thing ever. I can't live without it. And Italian coffee is amazing.

5. Wait. That's all I can think of.

Here, I can tell you guys what I miss:

1. The warm weather in CA. But I can survive.
2. My little dog. We only have big dogs here. I want my little dog to sit on my lap.
3. American milk. The Italian milk has a nasty aftertaste...
4. Not being tired all the time. It's my fault actually... if only I didn't stay up all night talking to my host sister...
5. Having time to do things. I don't even know why I have no time. I seem to wake up in the morning and then suddenly it is like 11 pm...
6. My dad's cooking. He needs to send me his recipe for cinnamon rolls.
7. Not having to dry my hair. They literally freak out if you have wet hair here. They think it's going to give you a headache. No joke.
8. American stores. I personally, do not like Italian fashion. Come here and you will see. Some things I see people wearing or buying just get on my nerves.
9. My car. I wish I could just drive myself somewhere whenever I wanted.
10. My little Pedro. It's ok though. When I start missing him too much I just look out the window at my host cousin who is a 13 year old boy. He throws sticks at cactuses. It gets on my nerves just enough to be angry at little Pedro again XD
11. I really want a warm waffle with real maple syrup right now!!
12. Starbucks. I don't think I even really have to say this. Everyone who has met me knows that no starbucks for a year has killed me just a little inside.
13. My school in America... not specifically my school, just American schools in general... what I wouldn't kill for a little organization and an activity or two instead of a monotone lecture in ever class..
14. American gum. My parents sent me some. Seriously though... only 6 packs?!?!? That'll last me a day!! Send more!!! Anyone who wants to send some peppermint flavored extra should ask me for my address on facebook... please!! Gum, people, gum!
15. Carpet. My feets is cold.

I don't think I miss much else.... that I can think of now XD. Sorry again that I haven't written in so long... comment questions you want me to answer here next time, and I will try to next week =). Ha wishful thinking. I'd much rather sleep than write about my life. It has become so normal... I feel like I live here, but not completely Italian... it's really weird... but it would be weirder if I came back home right now... I feel like I belong here more that in California... can't explain that. All I know it that I like it =). Sooo... if you miss me you should send me some gum and skype me!!!!
Ciao ciao =D

Amazingness!

Last night I got my new host family. And I am officially the luckiest foreign exchange student in the world! I love this family! I have an almost 10 year old little brother, and he is really cute =). Just like my little brother in America, but Italian and not annoying =D. I also have a 17 year old host sister who is awesome!!!! She loves musicals (Wicked being her favorite =D), and she has a picture of Sweeny Todd hanging up near my bed! I love it! We share a room and we talked last night and I found out some more awesome things about her that I'm not remembering right now. But I'm just gonna say, everything is awesome.
I met my host mom first at her office in town and she was so nice, she drove me to the house and talked to me in Italian on the way. Yes, you heard me. This family speaks Italian!!! I think I will actually be learning the language better starting now! I do speak just a bit of English with my host sister, but that's ok because I have increase the amount of Italian by a lot! This is how it should have been my first three weeks, and it does kind of make me sad thinking about how well I could be speaking now if my first experience here had been like this.
But now I will talk about the house. It is large. And, wait for it... IT HAS A DRYER!!!!! I had been prepared to give up that luxury for the year because EVERYONE hear hangs up their clothes, whether in an appartment or a house, they all have that little rack thingy and the wooden thingys like you see in movies or detergent commercials. But I have a dryer!!!
Ok, moving on from me freaking out about laundry. Not I will freak out over THE MILLIONS OF AMAZING DOGS! I miss my dogs in America so much. When I skype home all I want to do is have my family put the computer in front of my dogs so I can talk to them. Yes I am a freak. But here I have many, many, many dogs! And they are amazing =D. I have cats too, but I only really like the REALLY cute 2 week old kitten! It makes me sad that it will grow up eventually... it is so cute right now. It climbed up my leg. And then fell off. And bit my shoe. Awwww..... =D
So, if you haven't guessed by now (you know with all the capital letters, smiley faces, and exclamation marks), I am out of this universe happy. I can't wait to spend this year with this wonderful family, I have so much in common with my sister (which apparently was an accident, the family knew nothing about me before I showed up XD), the little brother is really funny, and the host mom is so nice! I love this place because finally my happyness outweights the suckyness of everything before! And I'm sure I'm forgeting to write something... but I'll think of it before I write next time =). All that really matters is that I want to scream for joy now. But I kind of can't because I'm sitting in a computer lab at school during one of my numerous free hours. I have three today. Only 2 hours and 13 minutes until the next class.... aw well. It is so true when they say Italian schools are boring. But the food at school is amazing! Worth the whole trip! But it is Italy, so what else would I have expected? =D

I have no idea what to call this....

I'm changing host families. It has been quite dramatic these past couple of days, and it has made me more stressed than I think I have ever been in my life. I am glad it's over. And I am excited to meet my new host family =). My temporary host family is awesome, it makes me wish I had told someone about my situation much sooner. So I will write here my reccomendations to future/ current exchange students who may come across my blog and find it somehow useful:
1. You are in a foreign country to learn a language. If anyone you come across is not 100% supportive of you and your efforts you have to fix it. If you want to speak the language make it clear you do. Also make it clear what your level is. I'm pretty sure my previous host family thinks I understood nothing (actually I know they think that, I read it on their facebook page. In Italian. Nice.) I should have told my assistant earlier that the host family wanted more to learn English from me than to learn Italian. It seemed like a small problem, but in the end it was big. My Italian has improved so much in the days I have spent with another family speaking Italian all day. It makes me sad thinking about how I missed three weeks of this!
2. Obey everything your host family tells you to do. This is important. But if you make a mistake because you didn't understand, you should be held accountable, but forgiven. It is not entirely your fault! The different family dynamic/ culture definatly didn't help me. But I still don't actually know for sure if I disobeyed anything, or if rules were created after the fact. But nevertheless, listening to people is important.
3. No problem is too small. If something seems a little weird to you, tell your assistant. They are happy to tell you if it's a cultural thing or a problem. Never just blame it one the culture without knowing for sure. My assistant would have been happy to help me and fix things if I just would have asked. I'm foriegn, I have an excuse for not knowing!
4. I really can't stress enough how important it is to TALK TO AFS at the very first sign of trouble. This would have saved my weeks of not being as happy with Italy as I have now realized I could have been =D.

My sad first host family story ends in drama. Being locked out for a night is not exactly fun. I will not get into that completely though. I really want to be done with these first weeks and move on to better times =). I have made such great friends here in Italy, both Italian and fellow AFSers, and I am really glad they have been there for me through this. And my languge has improved so much though being forced to explain and re-explain my sad story over and over agian in Italian. And while the subject isn't that fun, I am so glad to finally be comfortable with talking to people without feeling like a stupid American. Ok, well I still feel like a stupid American, but now I'm a stupid American who can speak Italian =).
I can't wait to meet my new host family, thier house is a lot father from my school, but as long as they are cool I think I will have a great rest of the year =). I really love Italy, I love my school, I love my classmates, I love the other AFSers, I love the language, I love the food, and I love everything! Well, maybe not Italian fashion. Or Italian mattresses. Or Italian gum. But my Italian cellphone has a flashlight on it so it's all good =D. And it is now a new month, so if Americans feel the need to skype me, choose a weekend morning/ early afternoon and let me know =).

(Also I appologize for my spelling becuase I'm using a different computer and it doesn't have a spellchecky thingy on the Internet like mine does)