4 Month Mark

Ciao! And Buon Natale!

Sorry I didnt write for Christmas, lots of stuff was going on. So. Its been 4 months now! I really can't believe how fast its going! As far as Italian goes. I wouldnt say im fluent, but I can talk to people just fine. More or less, and understand almost everything. So I'm thrilled about that! But now I want to tell you about some of my mini adventures. Christmas was very interesting for me. Christmas here is very similar to Christmas in America in many way. But very diffrent in others. There's Santa, (Babo Natale) and they're prestents, and family dinners. But they're also panatone and pandoro! Thats some good eating! Best deserts of my life!

My host family and I spent Christmas Eve with my host moms side of the family and Christmas day with my host dads family. So I got to meet all they're relatives.

But the much more exciting part of my Christmas was going to the Alps! After an amazing Christmas lunch with Chico's family (my host dad) We all piled into the car and headed for the mountain house!

IT.WAS.AMAZING! The mountains are sooo tall and beautiful. I got to go skiing 3 days strait! And the weather stayed nice the whole time. Sure it was cold but the sun stayed out and oh it was just amazing!

This video (if it works) is just a small part of what I saw!



And so December is over.
An up and coming adventure that I'm nervous about is changing host families. This Saturday I'll be moving in with my second host family. I a bit bummed because I really like this family. But to quote my host mother.
"Its a shame you have to change families, but its just another part in your adventure. And it wouldn't be an adventure without change."

Tuscany

CIAO!!!!
So I went to the region of Tuscany this past weekend! For those who don't know Tuscany is one of the many regions of Italy, most famous for a)beautiful landscape b)Leaning Tower of Pisa. I did not actually go and see the Tower. Sorry
But I did see/tour two amazingly old castels. One had a ghost =) Named Bianca Maria who was looked in a room with a wild boar and a dog as punishment for falling in love with a servent. The door to the room was then covered by a wall as ordered by the king to make sure no one could ever save her. This story was legend untill after world war II when a bomb blew open said room reveiling the bones of an about 16 year old girl, a dog and the head of a boar. Creepy

I also went to the SEA! Yeay! It was so warm! I only had my sweatshirt on all day! So amazing!!!!! I wasn't actually on the beach though. There were cliffs and a small street along them. In english these cliffs I think are called The 5 points... but I'm not sure. If you want to look it up for real, The streets name is Via Dell'amore, which means Street of Love.

Now besides the amazing view you get to see on the Via Dell'amore theres a niffty little tradition for young couples... I say young because I didnt really see any old couples but im sure that older couples are aloud to participate as well... Any way. What you do it you and your boyfriend/girlfriend take a lovely strole down the Via Dell'amore bringing with you a lock. Any kind of lock you want. (When I say any I mean any... one couple brought a bike lock) When you get to the special spot. (see picture) You write your initials on the lock, then atach it to the gaurd rail, or were ever you can. (some less traditional couples attaced theirs to the fencing that keeps the rocks away from the people and vise versa) So thats the Picture above!

And that was my time in Tuscany! It was amazing!

Just some news for feauture events. The week after Christmas my family is taking me to their house in the mountains, where we will spend a week skiing in the Alps... Awesome! Cant Wait!

Thats it for now

Love and miss you all!

Thanksgiving!

Before I start telling you all about the important stuff. I'd like to apologize for my photos. My computer does not let me preview them before I post them. So I cant make my post look all nice and pretty for you all. I dont want you all to think I dont care anymore.

So onto the important stuff. Three months have past way to quickly! I can finaly understand peoploe even when they talk normaly to me instead of really really slowly. Which is awesome.

Now I'm sure you've heard, if you havent then I'm about to tell you. But I made a thanksgiving dinner for my friends and family here in Italy. It went really well! It was the first time I've cooked so I think it was a good thing that no one knew how it was suposed to taste. So that helped.
Every one said that they like everything so I hope they were telling the truth. Any way. I made a turkey. Madda named him William theres a picture of him above. I also made stuffing, mashpotatos, a soup... and sweet potatos with marshmellows. Everyone was looking at the sweetpotatos and me like we were crazy. But they all ate them and loved them so I guess thats a win. I'm glad they all gave thanksgiving a chance. And although making the food was stressful, afterwards was so much fun.
Gravy was also very interesting. But everyone enjoyed it and I had a blast. After the dinner and desert (Apple crisp go Emma!) My host parents had me explain what thanksgiving was and its history.

Any way thanks giving went really good!

Otherwise I dont have much else to report. December is pretty packed though. I get to go the Tuscany this weekend and the Montain after Christmas. I'm really excited!

Ciao!

Ciao Everyone!
Last Saturday I went to the city of Como with my Rotary group. Pretty awesome place. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to but my good friend from school lives right next to Como.

Any way when I went on Saturday with Rotary I got to see a really tall tower dedicated to all the people who died in Como during the World War. We also got to see the Duomo of Como. Which isn't as big as the one in Milan (of coarse)but is still really beautiful. Actually thats what the picture of the building is. The other photo is all the girls in my Rotary district except for Me, Mary Catherien, and Zoey.

Well thats all I really have to report for now.
I'll be trying to make a Thankgiving dinner for my family and friends here in Italy so I'll let you all know how that goes!

Love yea all!
Ciao!

Venice Again!

Ciao Everyone! I dont know if this picture works because I can't preview my blog posts really. But I hope it works. If it does work then these are a bunch of my friends from school who I went with to Venice.

From the right it's Sara, Ariana, Benadeta, Alesandro, Linda, and Francesca.

Any way Venice the second time was even better than the first! I was with all my friends this time and wow it was just so much fun! We went to a modern art museum and another with Leanardo Da Vinchis works. It was really amazing! I even made new friends within my class. It was really such an amazing day!!!

I also want to report that I now have a camera that works (I can see the pictures I take) So if this post works (you can all tell how challenged I am when it comes to technology) then I'll be posting more pictures of the art I've been working on in school!

Love you and Miss you all!

Ciao Everyone!

I've been getting some complaints (mom...) that I haven't been updating my blog enough. So then I checked and of coarse Mom was right. So sorry everyone.

Things are finally starting to click here. I mean it's been great from the start but now I can finally speak Italian. Sure I have A LOT to learn still but I can speak to people and understand. My grammer is pretty aweful but its getting there little by little.

I'm also making a lot of Italian friends. They're great! I really like hanging out with them because I get to practice my Italian with them and they're really patcient with me when I don't understand.

I'm also getting to do the coolest things. This wednesday I'll be going to Venice with my school again! But this time with my class and all my friends so that's going to be great! I really can't wait! I'll also be going to the city of Como with Rotary which will be great because its really a beautiful city. I promise to take pictures and show you all.

Alright well until then next time.

Ciao

Venezia/Month Two

!!! WELCOME TO VENEZIA!!!

What a beautiful place!

Ciao Everyone. Today is the 31st and thus marks the end of my second month here in Italy. I'm very excited.

I'm even more excited that I get to show you Venezia now. It has absolutly blown my mind! It's such a beautiful city! I'm in love! hehe he.

Now unfortulantly when I went we were there to see two Modern Art museums. But my teacher did take me, and the other exchange student from New Zeland on a fast tour of the city. Not to worry I get to go back for Carnival with my Rotary group. Can wait!!! So on to the photos!

Just thought this one was funny!

First of all Welcome to Piazza San Marco. This is the only technical 'plaza' in Venice...or the only open space. (Yes there is a rediculous amount of pigeons)

It was so beautiful. I have a lot more pictures of this place! It was awesome. I actually took over 200 photos of Venice while I was there. So you'll get to see more when I come home.

Now here are just some random pictures from all around Venice. They're not in any particular order. I just wanted you all to see how pretty it is!

We spent the whole day in Venice and didnt get home untill about 9pm
It was just an amazing day!

Now I have a bit of a surprise for all of you. I was able to get the video to work on my camera and computer! So I made a short video while in Venice. It's nothing spectacular but I hope you'll like it. I thought I was being clever but it didn't come out as well as I had hoped it would. But any way, Month two is over. I made it out alive once again! I can't wait to see what happens in November!

I also want to take a minute to be mushy gushy and say thanks to all of you for the support you gave me to get here and still are giving me. It really means a lot to me!

Ciao!

wow I'm making a weird face...oh well

Ciao!
Well sorry I havn't writen in quite some time. October has more or less been filled with getting used to school and continuing to learn the language. But I did go to Milan again the other day and on the 29th I'm going to Venice with my school. I'm very excited about that! Don't worry I'll remember to post pictures about that as well. So moving on. Went to Milan again with Rotary to see Leonardo's painting of The Last Supper. Absoultly amazing! I learned soo much! Unfortunatly because it is so fragile I was not able to take any pictures of it. Bummer. Any way. So I'm still making friends. And the Language is coming along! Oh and I acidently broke my camera. Funny story. Anyway. Still takes pictures but the screen is broken so I can see the pictures I take until I put them on my computer. So if things are a little out of focus, dark, or uncented... I apologize

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Another fun thing about my camera is that I can't turn the flash off. So I actually got in a bit of trouble for taking these pictures... Sorry Italian museum.

So to the Left we have the lid to a tomb for the count who
had the castle we were in built. He had it made while he was alive to make sure it potrayed him the way he saw himself. Below is just another random tomb top. To the left is a huge beautiful tapastry. Unfortunately I don't know anytyhing about it or the other amazing tapastrys in that room. We were on a tour with a guild and weren't aloud to stop and stare at what we wanted. So There was a lot I missed but plan on going back.

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We also went back to the palace that we went and toured the first time. This time we went on a real tour though and got some time afterwards to walk around on our own. (this is the palace with the tomb with the guy on the horse)

Its really so beautiful. Its hard to imagine that long ago people lived here and it was there home. I have millions of other pictures of this place but it's hard to organize that many pictures on just one little blog. So I'll probably be adding even more pictures on my facebook at the end of October. If you have a facebook and we're not friends just go and request me. Id love for you all to see the rest of my pictures.

Oh and here is the dome of the chruch of the monestary where the Last Supper was painted. I was to scared to take any other pictures. Don't laugh. But it was really really amazing I regret not taking more pictures.

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So last but not least a nice general update.

School is going good but normal now. My art classes are really great and chalanging. Right now we're working on basic paintings in my painting class. So basicaly we're painting a lot of fruits and veggies. In my drawing class we've finished learning about the muscles in hands legs arms and feet and are now learning on the face muscles. This is so we can draw faces with emotions more acurately. So actually the other day we spent the entire 2 hours of drawing class taking pictures of each other makeing randome emotions with on our faces. The teacher wanted someone to sit in a chair and make weird faces while everyone took their picture. Now one would. So me being as meish as I am got up and sat down in the chair. Haven't laughed to hard in quite some time. Then in my sculpting class... well we just started using clay so the past two days we had to prepare the clay to use for a base. Another amazingly funny 2 hours that consisted of us punching, hammering, and mushing clay into a box. Also chasing after eachother threatening to touch each others faces. So the art classes are fun. Other wise, classes are just normal. The teachers talk really really fast and I can't keep up.

As far as Italian friends go all my classmates are really really nice to me! I also had my first sleepover! My friend Giulia came over to my house for a night. I made a big traditional American breakfast for dinner. She thought it was great. It was really fun. She also told me my accent isn't to horrific which made my month.

Well thats about it for now. I'll be writing again after I go to Venice so check back soon.

Oh and I've also had some requests to take pictures of my and my family, as well as my school. I'll deffinatly work on that. If anyone else would like to request a type of photo I'll see what I can do.

Love you all and thanks for checking up on me again. Sorry I didn't write for a while.

Ciao!

Month

Well, I made it through the first month!

The language is coming along. My grammer is aweful and my vocabular is pretty limited, but I can understand people if they talk to me really slow. So I feel like I'm improving.

Now as you all know if you have been reading my blog, I go to school in the town of Lecco. Really a beautiful place, but any way. My school focuses on art. Here in Italy high schools are seperated by what you are interested in. Most exchange students go to language schools when they are on exchange, but my wonderful host mother pulled some strings and I now attend school for art. I absoulutly love it! Now I do have to take regular classes such as math and history, but I also get about 13 hours of art classes a week. Is that not amazing?

So my mother thought it would be a great idea for me to post some of the pictures I have made from the beginning of school. I agree. But no one can make fun of them. I have two diffrent classes, but I honestly can't explain the difrense at the moment. In my first class we have been focusing on our hands. So picture on the top is not actually finished. Nor do I think it will ever be because I got board with that position and my teacher agreed. The second is my favorite only because I think it came out nicely.
In my second art class we have been working on copying a statue of a head onto paper. I finally finished today. This was really fun for me because my teacher showed me a lot of new shading technices.

Oh and I was really hungry when I drew this one with the apple...can you tell?

Thats all I have to report for right now. Thank you all for the suport you gave me this month and wish me luck in the next.

Milan

Ciao Everyone!

It's been a while and I realized I forgot to post pictures of my trip to Milano with my Rotary Club. It was so fun. I met all the other exchange students in my distric and some of the "rebounders" The exchange students who just came back to Italy. It was really great! I got to go into the Duomo, but they wouldn't let me take pictures of the inside so you dont get to see how amazing that was. Sorry. These will have to do. There are many more but I'm really no good at taking pictures so these are the only two that came out nice.

I don't want any of you to worry about me not making friends. These are some of the people I've met in Rotary. I also have a lot of friends around town and now in school.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. She went to Milan! What about shopping?! Well I didn't get to go shopping while I was there with the Rotary Club. But it's all good, about every girl I've met here had offered to bring me back to go shopping with them. I'm sure I'll go one of these days!

Thats it for now. School started which is quite the adventure. I can't understand the teachers because they talk crazy fast. But I have made friends with a girl in my class who sits next to me. Whenever I get really confused she says what the teacher says only really slow and in Italian so I can understand and learn! It's really helpful.

On my final note for this entry. The food is good.

Lecco

I would like to welcome you all to Lecco on Lake Como. It was absolutly beautiful and is the town that I will get to go to school in. Madda, my host mother and I had some paper work to do in the school so afterward we decided to have a very relaxing lunch on the shore of the lake. It has to be the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. It's nestled very nicely between several pre-alp mountains. The day before we had lunch at the top of one of these mountains. Unfortunately my friends host sister accidently deleted those pictures. Oh well.

(Left) Is the view from where we had our lunch. It was also where you can go swimming, a mini beach! ( Top Right) My host mom Madda as we walked around the lake.

Me showing off the pretty archway we found and the housed it belongs to are to the right.

I also attended my first Rotary meeting. This one was only for my club. Here I got to meet the two other Exchange students living in my clubs area. Jay, from the states. And Chris from Germany. Along with my Rotary Counsler. This Sunday I get to go to another Rotary meeting, only for my distric. So instead of just us three Rotary kids there will be all of the Exchange kids from all over. The meeting is in Milano and I'm so insanely excited!

Bergamo

I went on a little trip with my new friend Valentina. She had invited me to go and see the city of Bergamo with her, so away we went.

Bergamo is a city thats been around since the middle ages, is what my family told me. It was absolutely beautiful. There are two parts of the city. The lower, is more modern. A typical busaling city. While the Upper is much older but still just as buisy. Mainly with tourists. You would not believe the benifits of being shown around in a small group. Instead of being in a huge group and seeing only what the tour permits. I got to explore all the random nooks and cranys with Valentina. It was great.

Here is the clock tower
in the lower part of the

city. So pretty

This is the lower part of the city from the gate to the upper part. You'll have to forgive me but I didn't take any pictures of the HUGE staircase we had to climb to get up here. I also neglected to take pictures of the gate its self. Which was very beautiful, with a lion with wings engraved on it. Valentina explained to me that it represented the town and the word of God.

This was just a random street that led to the middle of the upper city. I just thought it was pretty.

The road from the last picture ended here.

This isnt the center of the town but it is just

so old and beautiful I had to take a picture.

Now at first Valentina and I thought this was a church. But when we went inside it wasn't. But we're not sure what it is... Its still absolutely beaustiful

Ciao Everyone!

Good news, I can now successfuly work my camera! So I have pictures!

This is my house! The picture really doesnt do it any justice. Its so pretty! Oh and a picture of the street I live on.

Now, I wanted to share with you my favorite spot here in Carnate. Its the town park where my friend Matilde and I have gilato! Yummy! Then today in my down time I went on a little adventure in the park and found the old tower that my brother had been telling me about. I'm pretty sure it was used as a look out tower many many years ago. Its way up high on the hill, but you cant see it anymore unless you walk right up to it because it's hidden very well by the trees. Lastly, the town church. Every town has one church, (which are all insanely beautiful) Every time I visit a new town I get to see a church that always seems even more beautiful than the last! I haven't been able to see the inside of the church here, but it's on my to do list!

The Park!

The Tower!

The Church!

I'm Here!

Well I made it! Unharmed but a little tierd. It should please you all to know that I am with a wonderful famliy. My mother Madda is so sweet and although she doesn't speak English we can comunicate enough. My father is Chico (Keeko). He is very nice and speaks a little English. Whenever we are in the car (macchina) he speaks to me in Italian and then says what he said in English (as best as he can) which is turning out to be very helpful! My brother Giacomo is great. He is my translator when conversations get to fast for me, and is helpful when I have no idea what to do...or what I am doing. He hehe. For the most part everything is going great. I do wish I could skip this awkward part of my exchange and just know Italian but life isn't that easy.
I do miss home, but only when I have down time. Today mi familga brought me on a picnic to a famous church. I do not know the name. (I didn't understand...) But the church is famous because of the long (and I mean really long) staircase that leads to it. The staircase starts at the bottom of a very steep hill and continuse to the church (at the top). Giacomo told me that not to long ago, (but not anymore) people used to pray as they walked up the stairs on their knees. So imagine the stairs at the captial building...now multiply by 4... and make them really really steep...yea...people do crazy things!

That has been my adventure so far! Oh and I can't work my camera so pictures are on hold. Sorry.
Ciao!

The Begining

I have created this blog so that I can more easily share my experiences with those who miss me back home. I cannot promise regular postings but I'll try to let people see how I'm doing.

I'm leaving this Saturday, the 29th! I'm so excited. Wish me luck!