Happy November everyone! Today is November 5, which means that I have been in Italy for two months!! 8 more to go!

This week has been super fun! Lets see, Halloween night. There were 10 of us. Me, Camilla, Martino, Carlotta, Andrea, Alberto, Laura, Edoardo, Valeria, and another Laura. Wow I remembered all of their names! :) We drove for about an hour to an Irish pub (the only one in the area) and then waited outside in the cold for 20 minutes because the place was totally packed!! It was worth the wait though, the food was amazing! My family told me that the sandwiches were super long at this place, so, as I mentioned in my last post, I was picturing the 12 inch long SUBWAY sandwiches in the USA. Well as it turns out, they were about twice as long as the 12 inch SUBWAY sandwiches!! I could only finish half of mine, so I saved the rest to eat at home. It was SO DELICIOUS though! My sandwich consisted of speck (popular Italian meat), pomodori (tomatoes), lattuga (lettuce), fromaggio mozzarella (mozzarella cheese), and salsa rosa (pink sauce). Then we had nutella crepes for dessert. I swear they were the best crepes I have EVER tasted in my life! We finished dinner pretty late past midnight, so we didn’t end up going to bed until 2am. Luckily, I got to sleep in the next day because it was Sunday.

Sunday was a relaxing day, so I slept in till 11 hehe. Then I went to nonna’s (grandma’s) house with my host family where we ate torta (cake) with the rest of the family. Again, it was the whole family including cugini (cousins), zie (aunts), zii (uncles), ect. Haha yesterday I learned vocabulary for family :D Then Sunday night I skyped my family in Phoenix. Monday I went to school, and then skyped my friend Giro! Giro is from Sicily and was an exchange student last year in Arizona. Tuesday after school I took the hour long bus ride to Arona as I normally do, but instead of taking the boat back to Angera, I stayed in Arona and had lunch with my friend. We ate sandwiches and drank Italian coffee at a little cafe near the lake. After having lunch, I took the boat back to Angera, and took a nice evening stroll back to the house. Is it just me or does “stroll” sound British?… Anyway, then I had my Italian lesson later that evening.

Wednesday was a really fun day as well. It was one of those many days that I will probably look back on after my exchange and think, wow, that was an incredibly fun day. After school I had plans to meet up with my friend Giulia at 6 to then go to our friend Valeria’s house for a sleepover. So after school, I had four and a half hours to do whatever I wanted! First off, I was super hungry, so I went to a little outside restaurant with a view of the lake and ordered penne pasta with pesto sauce. I know you’re probably thinking, she must have been so lonely eating by herself!, but it was kind of nice for a change. I felt very grown up and independent walking around the city and ordering food in Italian by myself. It was only about 2:15 when I finished lunch, so I went to a cafe and ordered Italian coffee. I really love the coffee here, but they serve it in such small cups! I mean, you literally only get three gulps worth of coffee!! So after drinking my first cup, I went to a different cafe across the street and ordered another cup. Then I went to another, and another, and another! It wasn’t until after drinking 5 tiny cups of Italian coffee at 5 different cafes that I felt fully satisfied with my coffee cravings that evening. It was fun to see the difference between the prices and tastes of the coffee at each cafe. Surprisingly, I rated the cheapest cup as the most delicious :) It was then that I noticed that my feet were killing me because I had been walking so much! So after my coffee spree, I went shopping at some of the little shops along the narrow streets of Verbania and bought a pair of socks. Then at about 4:30, I went back to my school and waited in the library until Giulia came and met me there. We got some food for dinner at the market, and took the pullman (bus) to Valeria’s house. It was a very fun night! We ate eggplant lasagna, wine, mozzarella cheese, and bread. Very Italian meal I know lol! We talked and listened to a mixture of American and Italian music. Then we went to bed pretty early since we had school the next morning. During the night though, Valeria’s cat kept waking me and Giulia up hahaha it was pretty funny. Anyway, in the morning we had woke up at 7:15 (an hour later than I normally get up for school!) and ate breakfast. And can I just say that the three of us had VERY DIFFERENT ideas of what to eat for breakfast! I had a bowl of cereal (typical American), Giulia had pieces of bread with tomato slices (she developed a healthy diet in Austria last year), and Valeria had a bowl of milk into which she dipped cookies/drank (typical Italian). Three different countries, three different kinds of food! THIS IS MY LIFE NOW.

This morning we walked to school from Valeria’s house and saw the beautiful view of the lake on our walk. I took some pictures that I will post on Facebook soon :))) Oh and check out my new youtube video of October! It’s mainly the Intercultura (AFS) camp because I had a whole bunch of videos from that! Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCJnKgnsVjY

Now I’m going to bed because it’s already tomorrow! Ciao e buonanotte!!