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!