Stai Tust :P

I thought I should write a little bit about my fantastic day, because it was fantastic! J Today, I feel like I talked more than I ever have in Italian. I'm getting closer. How great is that? I think it’s pretty great. I know I speak very bad Italian, but hey, it's Italian nevertheless. As soon as I conquer the evil pronouns, I think my Italian will be okay-ish! 

This morning some of my friends at school finally helped me understand what dialect is, because I was really confused, and there was no teacher for the first hour (There are no substitute teachers here, if a teacher doesn’t show up, then you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t leave the room. Still strange. It’s one of the things I’m still getting used to.) I’m going to try and explain: First, there’s Italian. Then, within the major areas there are dialects that are more like accents than dialect languages, they’re named after the major cities and regions (Milano, Toscana, Sicilia, Roma, etc.) Then, after that, every city has their own dialect, which is basically another language. Now that I think about it, I’m still pretty confused, but I understand more than I did yesterday. That’s what I’ve been trying to focus on. Understanding more and more everyday. After that, I taught them  “Knock, knock!” “Who’s there?” “Banana.” “Banana who?” “Knock, knock!” ......”Knock, knock!” “Who’s there?” “Orange.” “Orange who?” “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana!” At first they didn’t understand, then once I explained they laughed. Also, my last class of the day was English, and on Tuesdays we go to the Language Lab so I got to watch “Colazione da Tiffany ” in Italian! (Which you probably figured out from the title...) All in all it was a pretty fun day at school.

            When I got home, there was pasta. Which wasn’t surprising at all, but I still love coming home from school to see pasta waiting. And it was the pasta with chickpeas, so it made me think of Luke! Then, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this…we ate cavallo (translation: horse.) Yeah, I know, “You ate horse?! You are such an awful person!” is what you’re thinking. And to make it worse, I actually thought it tasted good. I might have enjoyed eating it if I hadn’t known what it was.

            Then, after lunch I watched Make It or Break It with Antonia! It just started yesterday in Italy, and since (I admit this shamefully…) I’ve seen every episode in English(more than once D:) I can actually keep up and sometimes understand exactly what they’re saying. Then I studied Italian verbs until I went to dance class, where I actually kept up! I didn’t feel incompetent! Can I get a Huffah? (Grace, Sydney, Sarah!)

            And now, here I am writing this, after eating panzerotti for dinner. Delicious. I’m finally starting to feel normal here, I’m reaching a point where going home would take some readjusting, and I couldn’t just jump back into things like I’d never left. I love Italy! J

I Miei Pensieri!

Time for another blog!

I really don’t have any really big stories to tell, or monumental thoughts to talk about so I just going to write whatever comes to my head. Here goes…

• ·      Italians don’t wear seatbelts. Ever. Period. I thought I could get used to this, but no, I will never ever get used to it. Every time we’re driving down the road, and the driver’s going 60 in place you should be going 20 or we’re in a car that holds 5 people and there’s 7 of us, I have the awful thoughts of us losing control, then flying off the road into a tree and going through the windshield. Thank you driver’s safety week in wellness class for these truly lovely images :/
• ·      I really miss being funny. I miss that more than speaking (which I do a lot more of now, btw), I mean I’m not the funniest person in the world, but I can throw good joke when I want to. I miss media and pop culture references, I mean c’mon, who doesn’t love a good Edward Cullen joke? I also miss nerdy jokes. No one here has seen Firefly and Serenity or understands what I mean when I say “The cake is a lie” or can name any of the X-men other than Wolverine. This is the worst: no one is deeply obsessed with Harry Potter. They like it, but most people have only seen the movies and can’t quote it like Sarah and I can (36 blast ya’! Last year I had 37!)
• ·      SO MUCH PASTA! Do I really need to say more?
• ·      Now that I’m actually sitting here writing this I can’t think of anything to write. There were so many things that made me think “Oh! That should go on my blog.” Now they’re gone.
• ·      I was feeling really bummed about my awful Italian skills, so I posted about it on the AFS exchange student to Italy page on facebook, everyone was really nice and helpful, and almost all of them said they could barely speak Italian at 2 months, but by Christmas they were fluent. So…wish me luck in making this happen. (Like for real, say “Buona Fortuna, Annie!”) I’m going to need as much luck as I can get. This is a difficult language.
• ·      Sometimes, I try to imagine my friends being exchange students, and how they would react to the differences and language gap. There are some people I would love to see try this.
• ·      Tupperware, Tupperware, Tupperware! Everywhere there’s Tupperware! My host mom sell’s Tupperware, and everyday when I come home from school the Tupperware has moved. Boxes that were one the left are now on the right, the bag of green Tupperware is new, the bag of plastic bowls is gone.  Honestly, I’ve made a game out of guessing what’s going to happen with the Tupperware.
• ·      Netflix AND Hulu don’t work in Italy. I think I’m going to die.
• ·      But I have found Castle in Italian! :D On the downside, it comes on at 9 o’clock on Saturday, which is usually around the time we go out. Because we always go out on Saturday. Always. If you’re really tired, and feel like you’re about to fall asleep standing up, you go out anyway. If you’re sick, with a fever and sore throat, you go out anyway. You go out on Saturday, whether you want to or not. It’s just a fact.

Okay. I’m going to stop now. I really can’t think of anything else. Even though, I know, the moment I post this I’ll think of ten other things I wanted to say, but anywho…Ciao for now! (Yeah, I do love the fact that that rhymes.)

Titles are About as Frustrating as Paragraphs.

So it’s time to blog again. Sigh. That means forming paragraphs; I hate paragraphs. I don’t understand why I have to find a connection from one paragraph to the next, and make sure all the sentences in one paragraph have one main point. And a paragraph has to be three sentences, that is stupid. All for the sake of having a story (or blog, in this case) that “flows.” Why can’t we all just use bullets, they’re so much more to the point. You know, I would probably blog more if I could just write random thoughts (with bullets, not paragraphs.) So, all of you that have told me to write more, you now know why I don’t.

Okay. Well, now I should probably talk about Italy since, if you’re reading this, that’s probably what you want to hear about. I should really just rename this blog “Annie babbles in English, because she really misses babbling in English.” It would be a more appropriate title, because a lot of this is just going to be various events or thoughts I feel I should talk about.

So the first big thing that’s happened since the last time I blogged is THE INTERCULTURA SURVIVAL CAMP!!! So. Much. Fun. Four days, fifty students, one hotel. You can imagine the madness. There is so much to say about these four days, I don’t even know where to begin. It took up 11 pages in my journal, and I didn’t even write down everything, it was just the highlights. Obviously, I can’t type all of it out here, so if you have any questions just ask me on facebook or something. We went to big group meetings everyday, where we participated in activities like writing down the things we found the difficult to adjust to, skits about Italian school (Allora!), and writing country stereotypes on these big sheets of paper (I presented the one for the USA. You guys, we really need to work on our reputation because there were like two good things on the whole piece of paper.)

The best part though, was the free time. We could do pretty much anything we wanted as long as we didn’t leave hotel property and disturb other guests. There were two pools, one outside and one inside. (aka one warm, one freezing.) Like an idiot, I got in both. :P

            I made so many friends in those four days. I feel like I closer to some of the friends I made there, than people I’ve known for years. Everyone was so easy to talk to; I feel like even the people I didn’t talk to, are still my friends. I guess, it’s because we all understand each other, we know there’s someone out there who gets how difficult this really is, when no one else does. We all want to be here for one reason or another, even if I had met someone who was my polar opposite we still had that to go off of. I really hated saying goodbye to everyone. Ughhh…it sucks just thinking about it. I can’t wait to see everyone in June! Even though I don’t want June to come fast, because I leave in July. It’s confusing…nevermind.

            Even though I was really sad to leave, I missed my host family. I’m really starting to feel like this is my home, which is good because I have eight and half months left here. Every time, I get to a Sunday I think “Oh my God. I’ve been here for –insert number here- weeks! That’s crazy!” but at the same time I’m like “I’ve been here for –insert number here- weeks and STILL don’t know Italian!” It’s very frustrating, because I want to get to know people and laugh with them and just have a normal conversation, but I don’t feel like I can.

            School. Love/hate relationship. I like school because my class is awesome; they’re all super cool, I wish I could speak fluent Italian with them. I honestly can’t wait to actually be one of the people yelling across the room to someone. The reason I don’t like school is because it is a constant reminder that I have a long way to go with Italian. It’s funny, sometimes I’ll have these moments where I just remember where I am. I’ll be walking up the stairs to get to class, and all of a sudden I think “I’m walking up the Italian stairs in my Italian school, that are taking me to my Italian classroom where my Italian friends are. When I get to my Italian classroom I’m going to sit down in an Italian chair at an Italian desk and pull my Italian school books out of my American backpack, but I’m going to pretend my American backpack is an Italian backpack, because if I don’t then my story is ruined. ”

            For those of you who don’t know how an Italian school works it’s pretty much like this. You’re in one classroom all day (Yup, six hours in one room. How does miss A.D.D. stand it?), and every hour the teachers switch classes. Which means no lockers. I kind of like this, because I don’t have to dig through my messy locker to find my books every hour, but if I leave one of my books at home then I’m without that book for the day. The strangest part to me though, is no cafeteria. Because Italians eat later in the day, you get out of school earlier and you go home for lunch. I still don’t get home until 2:45 because I ride the bus, but it’s all good. The food is amazing at home.

            This past Monday I went to Matera with centro locale Irsina. (Represent!) Before we left I was like, what’s in Matera? I know it’s a bigger city, but is there anything special about it? Uhhhh, YEAH. We went to see these really old buildings called the Sassi. They are so gorgeous! The city was built up around them, so they’re below the level of the rest of the city. A few decades ago the Sassi were a great shame for the city. If you lived in the Sassi, you were considered poor and looked down upon. Now you have to have a lot of money to live there, because the city set new requirements for the condition of the houses, so you have to be able to afford to fix them up. Google them. Trust me.

            Now for my least favorite paragraph of all: the closing paragraph. The purpose of this is to find a nice way to finish things up. Honestly, I just find them awkward. I spend more time trying to figure out how to write the final paragraph than the rest of whatever I’m writing. Seriously. I’ve been sitting here for about ten minutes thinking of what to write, and all I’ve come up with is this. Okay, I’m officially tired of sitting here. Ciao.

Three weeks...Say what?!

So apparently three of my forty-three weeks in Venosa are gone. When did this happen? It does not feel like I’ve been here for three weeks.  At all.  I feel like I’ve been here for a while, but actually saying “three weeks” doesn’t seem right…

Well, since this is my first blog post since arriving in Italy, I have a lot to talk about and very little time to type it all out. But anywho…here goes…

The goodbyes: We won’t spend much time on this subject, because I don’t want to think about it. I had to say goodbye to my friends first…Katherine and Paige, were my first goodbyes. We all hugged, Katherine and I cried, then Paige made a joke about Ke$ha. Typical. J  The next day was my school friends. I went and ate lunch with them. They walked me to the door afterwards, we all cried and hugged (Yes, this whole paragraph will be about hugging and crying.) We stood by the door for like fifteen minutes avoiding the inevitable, they were extremely late for class. Grace, Sydney, Sarah, and Ivy. I love you guys. Next was my family. Amah, Uncle Stuart, Aunt Sabrina, Noah, and Luke. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, just more crying and hugging. I miss Noah and Luke more than anyone right now. Last of course, my parents. I didn’t cry like I thought I would though, mostly because I refused to be the only kid at orientation who was crying over leaving her parents.

Orientation (New York): I’m going to the same thing every other AFS kid says in their blog. It was boring. There were some helpful bits, but mostly I just wanted to take a nap. It was really cool getting to meet everyone else going to Italy though. And the people going to Ghana, Portugal, Spain, and Peru. I made lots of friends I hope to keep in touch with.

Orientation (Rome!): After over twenty-four hours in the same clothes, fifteen minutes of sleep, and thirteen hours of travel, we got to the hotel. I’ve never been so happy to see a tiny, rock-hard bed in an un-air-conditioned room in my entire life.  Sadly, I didn’t get to sleep very long. I could’ve, but that would’ve made the jet-lag so bad. So after about forty-five minutes we (Allyson, Deidre, and I) went out and started trying to meet people. It was crazy…you would go up to someone and say “Hi, where are you from?” and the replies were “Turkey.” “Argentina.” “Canada.” “Thailand.” “Finland.” “New Zealand.” “Japan.” And on and on and on…It was so cool! I can now say I know people all over the world. It’ll be interesting to see them in ten months for the Return Orientation, and hear all of their exchange stories.

So, the next day was the real orientation. It was pretty much the same as the first, but in an un-air-conditioned school up the street from our hotel. The cool part about this orientation was that I got to meet everyone in my chapter (Irsina!) and all the people who would be in Basilicata and Puglia. Since we wouldn’t be at the hotel, they had to give us a bagged lunch. There were three sub sandwiches, three bottles of water, two apples, a banana, and little cake thing. Then they gave us a two-hour lunch to eat. It was strange.

The next day was THE day. The day to your host family! (:O) To say I was nervous would be an understatement. People were leaving in groups all throughout the day (from 5:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.) Most people just had to get on the bus with their group and go to the train station/airport/ bus stop, but figures, I was in the most confusing group. My chapter is one of the smallest; there are only six of us. So our “departure” was at 11:30, but that meant “we’re moving all of you down stairs to the café” because, they put us with all of the people who would be living in Rome for the year, so we got to go to their family/student meeting ceremony at the hotel. Then we ate lunch with them. Three of the girls from my chapter families actually came to get them. So they rode to Basilicata with their families, and Leen (Belgium), Moe (Japan), and I rode back with Michele and Maria, two volunteers from Irsina who were really nice. Thennnn…I MET MY FAMILY! :D The first thing we did was go get gelato, then we ate pizza. I’m so happy with my host family. They’re amazing.

Life in Venosa: I love it here. So much. The first week was really hard though; I got homesick a lot. The only way to describe it is as a rollercoaster, I know that’s cliché, but it’s true. I would be laughing and having fun, then poof! I’m about to cry and I have no idea why. When I got here I couldn’t understand a word. If it wasn’t for Maria (my host sister) I would’ve been so lost. It’s getting easier, and I don’t get homesick anymore, but I still don’t understand anything. If someone talks really slowly to me directly then I can usually get it, but when a bunch of people are talking in a group I’m totally lost.  Venosa is really cool, it’s exactly what you think of when you think “small town”. I love it.

Typical day: Wake up, eat breakfast with Maria, get ready, go to the bus stop, get on the bus, twenty minute ride to school, go to school, get out of school, an hour long wait for the bus, twenty minute ride home on the bus, eat lunch, the awkward hours (this is time when I don’t really know what to do), if it’s Tuesday or Thursday I go to dance class, eat dinner, watch a little TV, go to sleep.

Food: Grazia (my host mom) is like the best cook ever. Ev-er. She makes some of the best food. I love it. There’s almost always pasta, good pasta too, not crappy American pasta. Then, we have something else after the pasta, usually meat of some kind with salad and bread. Last is fruit, grapes and melon and something that’s kind of like a peach, but not really. Then there’s Italian pizza. How describe Italian pizza? Go eat a slice of American pizza, then imagine that 1000 times better, and you have Italian pizza.

Cheese and Bread: These get their own paragraph. Italian bread is delicious. And covered in Italian cheese, it’s even better. Since bread is the last thing we eat at lunch my thoughts are “Time for bread? Time for bread? Wow, this is really good pasta! Time for bread? Yay! Time for bread.” Like forrealz, Imma be so fat when I get back.

School: Is it weird that the only other class I understand beside English is German? Yeah, just a bit. My class is just starting their first year of German, so it’s the one thing we’re on the same level of. Other than those two classes I usually don’t understand anything. When it’s something there’s no chance I’m ever going to understand (like Philosophy) I work in my Italian verb book.

My class is great, everyone is really nice and they laugh together a lot. I’m really lucky, because I sit by two people (Chiara and Francesco) who help me out so much. I’d be even more fifteen times more confused than I already am without them.

Friends: I feel like I’m making friends, everyone is really friendly and nice to me, but it’s hard to really get to know people when A) it’s awkward to just be like “so what kinds of things are you into?” and B) even if that wasn’t awkward, I don’t speak Italian! It’s super frustrating. I think that’s more annoying than anything. I don’t know how to talk to them. When I don’t understand big conversations it doesn’t really bother me, but when I’m trying to talk to someone and make friends and I don’t know what to say, I want to scream. Christmas can’t come fast enough. Returnees say you learn by Christmas, so I’m counting down. I want the Italian radio to turn on in my head.

           

I’m going to try to blog more, but I’m always busy, which is weird because I feel like I have more time than I need, but I don’t really. I don’t get it. Maybe I feel busy because I’m tired ALL THE TIME. Even when I get plenty of sleep, I’m tired. I don’t understand, but hey, right now, I don’t understand anything, so it’s all good, one more thing to join the club!

Host Family!!!

I just got my host family information, and I'm totally freaking out! I have a mom and a dad, three sisters and a brother. I don't have any brothers or sisters so I'm really excited that I have four (four! :D) host siblings. They live in Venosa, Italy which is only two and a half hours away from Pompei, and is totally beautiful. I have to say, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

16 weeks to go...

Why does 16 weeks sound so much sooner than 4 months? I'm not sure why, but it does. So I was sitting on my couch eating strawberries and watching America's Next Top Model when I decided I wanted to post  something to my blog. How those two things are connected, I have no idea. Anywho....here are the 5 things I'm most excited about and the 3 things I'm most worried about:

1.   My host family, I'm so anxious to know who they are and where they live. I talked to a couple girls on FB who have already gotten their info. Hopefully I'll know soon.
2.   Authentic Italian food, this needs no explanation.
3.   Learning Italian, I know it's going to be hard, but it's such an incredible language and I'm honestly thrilled to take on the challenge
4.   Theater, I really don't know what theater will be like there. It's probably very similar to here, just in a different language. Whether or not I'll be able to do any plays while I there...who knows. I guess it all depends on my school.
5.   This is the most obvious: Just being there. Trying new things. Meeting new people. Just living like a true Italian.

1.   Homesickness, I know I'm going to have a really hard time with this....
2.   Making friends, this is hard to explain...I want to make friends, but I can be painfully shy, I know I just have to push past it and be myself, but it's harder than that.
3.   School, my principal says if I don't have all of the credits a need or if my grades from abroad don't cut it, I might not be able to go back to my school, which means I would have to go to my zone school.

I tried to think of something to say as a conclusion, but I'm terrible at those, so this is the end until next time!

Birthday Thoughts

"Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps." 

- John Green (Looking For Alaska)

So this weekend was my birthday. I am now officially 16 years old. It made me start thinking: number 1) Holy crap, I'm leaving in less than five months; and number 2) When was the moment I said, "Okay, I'm going for this."

I've been around my family and friends a lot over the past few days, and I realized for my next birthday I won't have all of them with me; I'll be with my new family and friends. Also, I realized I've got A LOT of work to do before I leave. I still need to get better at Italian, and finish my online US History course. If I could find time, taking English 11 would be great so I won't have to worry about it when I come back. I'm going to camp, and spending time with my family. We're going on a couple trips this summer. One to Virginia so I can look at a college I'm interested in, and go to a Jack's Mannequin concert! Another to Cedar Point, an amusement park in Ohio with 16 huge roller coasters. I'm really looking forward to both of those.

After thinking about it, I realized the turning point for me was in early December when I read a book by John Green titled Looking For Alaska. It is a book about a boy named Miles, nicknamed Pudge, who decides to go to boarding school to search for his 'Great Perhaps.' Which to him means searching for that magical experience, something that changes you. He doesn't want to wait until he dies to find whatever that may be. It inspired me to do the same. Carpe diem, right? Who wants to wait that long? Nobody, It just takes some people longer to find their Great Perhaps than others. 

The Begining

Ciao! Mi chiamo Annie. This fall I am leaving to study abroad in Italy for a year with AFS Intercultural Program. I am absolutely thrilled to be going. I'm from Chattanooga, TN where I go to Center for Creative Arts. I love theater and the arts in general. I've spent a lot of time at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre in the past few years. Between juggling school, theater, voice & piano lessons, and spending time with my friends, I'm pretty busy, but I love every minute of it.

Studying abroad is something I've thought about for a couple years now, but never really thought I could actually do. Going away for a year seemed completely crazy, way out of my comfort zone. The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted to try it. Finally, I realized I couldn't let my fear of the unknown hold me back from something that was really important to me. I don't want to look back at my life in 25 years and think "How would my life be different if I had gone?" I want to know, I don't want any regrets.

I can't wait. I'll miss my family, but I'm excited to meet my new Italian family, whoever they may be. Italian is a beautiful language, learning to speak it is going to be challenging, but totally worthwhile. When I come back, I hope I've been changed for the better. I expect this is going to change the way I see the world in so many ways. Not only do I want to learn all about Italian culture, I want to make sure I teach my host family and new friends a few things about American culture.

To raise money for this, I sell the jewelry I make; it's mostly earrings. I sell them whenever I can, at school, the local theater, and my cousin's baseball games. Sometimes, I baby sit as well. Soon I'm going to start working for my dad on the weekends and after school. I'm trying to raise as much money as I can. Hopefully, I'll be able earn at least two-thirds of what I need before I leave.

If you would like to sponsor my AFS program now,  please click the ChipIn button.