Hey guys! As you already know, yesterday was April Fools day! in Italian this day is called “Pesce d’Aprile!” And just like in the USA, April Fools day in Italy is a day for pranking people and playing silly jokes. Now you’re probably wondering if I did anything yesterday…Well YES of course I did!! I LOVE April Fools Day! So the night before April Fools Day, my host dad Pigi had the idea of tricking my mom in the USA. He sent her a Facebook message that said, “Tomorrow we will be at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport with the flight UNITED 817 at 10:33am for a weekend trip. Can you please pick us up?” Then we played the waiting game for a response. Finally she texted me and asked “Is this real?” And then I texted back and made her think that we were extending Easter break and visiting her and grandma in Tucson. I felt kinda bad leading her on with this exciting news, and I could tell she actually believed me because she was asking so many questions and planning our trip for us. So then I finally texted “PESCE D’APRILE!” and apologized. Again Mom, I’m SO SORRY for this prank!! I know you must have been super excited when you got the news, and then super sad and probably a little angry when you found out it was a prank. Just know that I love you and I’m truly sorry. Happy April Fools! I also played another April Fools prank yesterday, but this time on my host parents! I tried to think of something funny but not mean to do, so I took some playing cards that I had brought over from Arizona and drew a fish on each card (Italians use fish to symbolize April Fools Day). Then I hid all of the cards around the house. Some of them were in visible places such as on the computer keyboard, and others I hid more thoroughly. It was like an easter egg hunt but with cards! haha So that’s what happened yesterday. Ciao ciao!

Good morning friends! I hope you all had a marvelous Easter! Guess what? I got to visit 4 cities in just one weekend! The trip started Saturday morning, where my host family drove me to the first city, Reggio Emilia. It was a really cute city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. This town is famous because it is where the Italian flag was first invented. It is also famous for the salami! So we ate a nice lunch of ravioli and salami and then walked around for a while.

The next town was Florence! We got there in the evening and checked into the hotel. The hotel was incredible! It looked so old-fashioned and antique. There was even an old-fashioned telephone in my room! We walked around the center of Florence for a while, saw the famous Cattedrale di Santa Maria (duomo) and Giotto’s Campanile (the tower next to the duomo). I can’t even imagine how they were made, it must have taken years!! We also saw the Ponte Vecchio (Florence bridge). It was so beautiful at night because it was lit up with so many lights. We ate dinner at a small restaurant in the center; I had lasagne! At night everyone gathered around the church and watched the priests light a holy fire. And then they entered the church in single file, lighting the candles of everyone watching. It was like a pre-Easter celebration.

The morning after was Easter!! Florence is famous for their huge Easter festival, so I’m so lucky to have seen it! The festival started at 10am in the center of Florence. There were TONS of people watching! I later learned that there were more than 8,000 people there! The festival started with a long parade of priests and important people from the church. Then they all gathered in front of the church and lit the “cart” on fire. The “cart” is a really tall structure that is covered in fireworks. The “Explosion of the Cart” is the main event where all of the fireworks are lit and it sounds like a huge explosion of bombs are going off. It was really incredible to see! I got a video of it that I will put in my next Youtube video! After the festival, my host family and I walked around the city a bit, passing the replica of Michelangelo’s David, the house of Dante, old churches, and the bridges of Florence. We ate lunch at a food court which served all of the famous dishes of Tuscany. I got to try hamburger made from a white Tuscan cow. It was really delicious! Then we then took a 2 hour walk up a hill to see the whole view of Florence from the top. I could see the whole city, the bridges, the duomo, and all of the red roof buildings. It was breathtaking!! Then we had dinner at a restaurant called “Eataly” which is a really cool restaurant because every month they change the different category of food for each region of Italy. This month was food from the region, Campania, and I ate pasta with spicy red sauce. After dinner Pigi and I rode the carousel near the center of Florence, and then we all went to bed.

Pisa was next! And obviously, I could resist posing like I was holding the leaning tower :) We visited the Cathedral next to the tower, and then the cemetery as well. There were a whole bunch of tourists there too, I guess Easter break is a popular time to visit Italy! After Pisa we drove to the region of Liguria and visited one of the cities of Cinque Terra!! I can’t even describe how beautiful it was with the ocean, the different colored houses, and the boats all lined up next to the dock. We ate lunch at a cute little restaurant next to the ocean, and I ate a very tasty dish of pasta with seafood. We walked around the town a bit, seeing all of the little shops lined up along the narrow street. I even noticed that one store had a really interesting aspect – instead of a door, they had long strings of pasta hanging from the ceiling! I put a picture on Facebook if you’re interested :) We visited the church in Cinque Terra, and also a really small castle from hundreds of years ago. We took a whole bunch of pictures on the rocks next to the ocean, and then got back in the car and took a 3 hour ride home back to Pettenasco.

The whole weekend felt like a dream. I couldn’t have had a better time. The weather was amazing, the cities were amazing, and my host family is amazing for taking me around Italy for Easter! Until next time. Ciao Ciao!

This past week was crazy! It was full of so many emotions all mixed together to create one crazy, fun, eventful, inspiring, eye-opening week! I would definitely rate this past week as one of the best weeks I’ve had so far in Italy.

March 12: My journey started on Sunday, when I got to the airport in Milan and met up with Tucker (from Vermont in the US). I remember thinking, thank god another person who speaks english! And looking back I’m glad he was there because it was nice to have company at the airport, and of course it was nice to have a break from speaking Italian all the time. By now I’m speaking Italian on a regular basis to my host family, friends, and everyone who lives here. So when I get a chance to take a break and speak my native language, it feels like a rock has been taken off my back. I feel like one of the hardest parts of exchange is not being able to show your real emotions. I remember in the beginning it was extremely difficult for me to share ideas and feelings because of the language. Now it’s easier, but I still feel more comfortable speaking english. So having Tucker there was definitely a positive thing. After a two hour plane ride to Catania, I met my host family at the airport and they drove me to their house in Enna. My host family was so sweet, I couldn’t have asked for a better Sicilian family! I had a Sicilian mom, dad, and 15 year old sister named Carlotta.

March 13: This day was literally paradise. My Sicilian host family took me to Taormina! It’s a beautiful little town on the east coast of Sicily. The drive was pretty long, but we listened to music with made it seem a little less long. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. I got to see the ocean, the amazing town of Taormina, and even the little beach house my host family owns! The town is stupendous, it’s literally what you would see in the movies that are placed in Italy – with the narrow cobblestone streets, the tiny shops on both sides of the street, the random orange trees on the sidewalk, the old churches, and the breathtaking view of the beach and ocean waves.

March 14: Monday was the first day of AFS activities. I woke up bright and early in the morning and went to the city Agira, where I met the other exchange students in my program. There was Tucker from Vermont, Cecilia from Brazil, and Vania from Bolivia. I also got to meet the Volunteers for the local chapter of Enna, Sofia and Andrea. I loved our group because it was a small amount of people and it felt very comfortable. For our first day together we visited a language school where we made presentations about our countries for the Italian students and talked about our experiences we’ve had so far in Italy. I felt proud of myself afterwards because it was my first presentation I’d ever made in Italian :) Then after the school we visited the beautiful castle of Agira and took a whole bunch of pictures! Then Sofia took us to her studio (she works for a news company called SiciliaNewsTv) and we did interviews about our experiences. I’m not sure when she is going to post our interview online, but when she does I can post the link. After that we visited a little bakery where we made a short film advertising the DELICIOUS “cassatella” (a famouse Sicilian pastry). We were each given a short phrase to say in the film, and it was really fun filming because we kept messing up! <http://www.sicilianews.tv/2016/04/22/intercultura-bolivia-vs-usa-vania-e-sienna-a-confronto-intervista-doppia/&gt;

March 15: Tuesday we visited the language school that my Sicilian host sister Carlotta goes to in Enna. For the first three hours the other exchange students and I were separated into different classrooms where we got to meet the Italian students. Then we all gathered in the gymnasium and did the same thing as the day before where we talked about our countries and our experiences here and we played some games with the Italian students. After school I had the evening free, so Carlotta showed me around the old city of Enna and I got to meet her friends. I felt like a real Italian strolling the streets with friends at night. In Phoenix it wouldn’t be safe to go out at night, even with friends. But here it’s different, the city is a lot smaller and there are always people walking around. I had a good time.

March 16: Wednesday we spent the day in Catania! I took a bus from Enna to Catania and met the others there. The first half of the day it was freezing cold and it rained, but thankfully the sun came out after lunch. I don’t know why, but it seems like every time I go on a trip somewhere here in Italy it rains. For example when I went to Ivrea for the Orange Battle, and when I went to Milan for the Chinese New Year, and now in Catania. Maybe the universe wants me to experience a lot of rain while I’m here because of how little rain I get in Arizona haha! Nevertheless, Catania was beautiful, we visited a famous church, a beautiful garden, and I got to taste the famous “arancini” of Sicily. Arancini are stuffed rice balls coated with fried breadcrumbs. They are usually filled with ragù (tomato/meat sauce), mozzarella, and peas. They were so DELICIOUS! After lunch we went to a local university in Catania and played ping pong and pool. Then after taking another bus back to Enna, Carlotta and I watched the second movie of The Hunger Games! It was an amazing day, I remember smiling a lot :)

March 17: On Thursday we visited a cooking school in Enna. This was my favorite school that we visited because it was so unique. I’d never seen a high school for cooking before, so it was really interesting to watch the Italian students learn how to cook. The four of us exchange students got the opportunity to make bread and then shape the dough into whatever we wanted. Then we got to eat our bread which was DELICIOUS! We also ate lunch there and the students practiced serving us. After lunch we visited the castle of Enna as well as the famous Tower of Federico in Enna. We had to climb a whole bunch of steps on the spiral staircase of the tower and we were totally out of breath once we got to the roof. It was worth it though because it had the most incredible view ever!

March 18: On Friday we visited two schools – a school that teaches classics and another language school. It’s kinda cute, every time we visited a school, a whole bunch of students would immediately add us on Facebook and Instagram. I literally gained like 100 friends on Facebook in one week hahaha! For lunch we went to the house of a friend of one of the AFS volunteers and ate “un sacco!” (a lot). I ate so much I got a stomach ache afterwards and could barely walk…I’m not kidding. Luckily I went to Ceclilia’s house afterwards to rest, so I didn’t have to walk too much. Tucker came too, and we all sang songs while Cecilia’s host sister played the piano; she’s amazing!!! In the evening we all went to the city Leonforte for the celebration of San Giuseppe, which is a week long celebration where people put out long tables of food for the less fortunate and homeless. We were able to see the tables and taste some of the food. Most of the night though was spent walking around the town chatting and playing pool in a bar.

March 19: Saturday was my last whole day in Sicily with my new friends and Sicilian host family. It was also “La festa del papà” (Father’s Day)! Luckily I got to sleep in for the first time that week, and then I watched my host mom cook homemade lasagne and homemade tiramisu for lunch. So DELICIOUS! They looked like pretty simple recipes too, so maybe when I get back to the U.S. I can try cooking them! In the afternoon my host family took me shopping at the Sicily outlet mall! I recognized a few of the stores such as Zara and Abercrombie & Fitch, although we didn’t buy anything because everything was way too expensive. For dinner the four of us exchange students, the AFS volunteers, and the host families, all gathered for a goodbye dinner at a pizzeria. It was a sweet and sour moment for me because it celebrated the most memorable, amazing week ever, but it also meant that we would leave Sicily the next day and maybe never see each other again. I know I will see Tucker again at the next AFS camp, but the others I’m not sure. I really hope sometime in the future we can all get together again #SICILYSQUAD4EVER

March 20: Departure day. I had a lot of time before my 15:30 flight, so my host family took me shopping at the Catania shopping mall. I didn’t buy anything because I didn’t have enough space in my bag, but I did see a red shirt that said “Arizona” with Indian feathers around it! We ate lunch at The Old Wild West and I ordered barbecued ribs with fries, and cheesecake for dessert. So DELICIOUS!  My stomach was happy after a good old-fashioned US meal :) After lunch was the sad part of the day when my host family dropped me off at the airport. I gave them each a little American flag carabiner to remember me by. I feel so lucky to have had them as my Sicilian host family for a week, they were so generous and sweet. Thank you so much! At the airport I found Tucker and even Vania for a little bit before her plane took off for Rome. Unfortunately the plane to Milan was 2 hours late, so Tucker and I had to wait a little while. Now I’m safe and sound at home in Pettenasco, where I shall stay for 3 more months until my final departure.

Overall, I would rate this past week a 10/10. I loved every second, and I feel like I gained a lot from this experience. I proved to myself that I can speak in a foreign language to a large group of people more or less with comfort and ease (even if it’s not totally correct). I proved that it is possible to make life-long friends even after knowing them for just a week, and I became more adaptable and open-minded about living in a different culture and trying new things. This was an incredible opportunity. I will cherish it forever.

So the last couple of weeks have been pretty chill because I’ve been sick. But I actually got a lot done during my sick days – I finished working on my powerpoint presentation about Arizona for my exchange week in Sicily, I read a lot of my new book (and it’s in Italian so be proud of me), I thought about and blogged about the important lessons I’ve learned, I got time to talk a lot with my host parents, and I progressed further in my Italian learning. It’s nice to have peace and quiet once and a while.

And now I am finally healed so I started going to school again this week! We started working with clay in sculpture class which has been pretty fun, I’m making a pumpkin right now :) Last night my host mom cooked “raclette,” which is a type of Swiss cheese that you put in a small tray and heat up in a special machine. Then once it’s a nice golden brown color you put it on your plate, put pepper on it, and eat it! It’s also a tradition to eat it with potatoes and wine. I actually really liked it! I was a little surprised because before coming to Italy the only cheese I liked was mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar. But now I can say that I like raclette cheese too!

Tomorrow I’m going to Sicily for a week to stay with a family there for my “settimana di scambio” (week of exchange). I won’t be back until next Sunday, so my next blog post will probably be the day after that, or sometime that week.

Qualcuno mi ha chiesto di scrivere un parte della mia blog in italiano, quindi farlo adesso. Sono molta contenta ad andare a Sicilia per una settimana. Ho un’amico che vive lì nella nord-est di Sicilia, e ha detto che è bellissima e devo visitare qualche volta. Prossima settimana sarò in Enna, Sicilia, quindi non posso visitare lui in quel momento. Però alla fino della mia soggiorno qui, i miei genitori stanno organizzando a venire a prendami in Roma. Organizziamo a fare una piccola gita in Sicilia per una settimana insieme, quindi forse possiamo gli visitare a quel momento. Comunque, dopo mio gita in Enna, vi dirò tutto su di esso dopo torno. A dopo e un bacio!

Ciao a tutti! I am just realizing that in only two days, I will have been here for 6 months. That’s so crazy to think about! I just want to take a moment to mention the things I have learned so far. A friend of mine who is also an exchange student did something like this on her blog, and I though I’d do the same because it is a very clever idea. In these past six months, I have learned more about myself and more about the world than I had learned in 18 years of life. I have learned a new language, a new culture, and met so many people. But with all of this I have also learned so many lessons about life. In these past weeks I have thought a lot about the lessons I have learned, so I am going to share a few of them with you all. And even though they might be simple, obvious lessons, they are very important.

1. The first lesson I learned is to take things one day at a time. I had heard this idea thousands of times before but I did not understand the full meaning before my time in Italy. I learned this lesson during the first weeks of my time in Italy when the thought of being in a foreign country for ten whole months was way too overwhelming. I had to consistently remind myself that today I am here and today life is good. Tomorrow will come eventually, but today is today and today I cannot do anything about tomorrow. So I should make today count, and I should be grateful for everything today brings.
2. The second lesson I have learned is that low expectations are really the key to a happy life. Here in Italy, life rarely goes as planned. In fact, it almost always never goes as planned and everything seems like a surprise! Therefore, I have learned that if I expect things to happen, the chances of them happening are very low, so it is much easier to go with flow and take things as they come. There will always be bumps in the road, but if I have lower expectations, it will be easier to conquer these bumps and enjoy life.
3. The third and probably most important lesson I have learned is that the only way to get through life is to laugh when you mess up. Everyday I make a mistake with the language. I’m not kidding, EVERY DAY!! At first I was really embarrassed and would beat myself up about it. But now, I know mistakes happen and life goes on, but I just have to laugh it off and let it go. Everyone knows that I’m not fluent in Italian, so they know that I will make mistakes and they help me get through them. The saying about how we learn from our mistakes is true, we just have to be brave enough to make them and not feel ashamed.

Also, if you haven’t already seen my Youtube video for February, here is the link! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GVo6snUdk&gt;

Good morning everyone! Well actually, it’s not that great of a morning, because I’m sick! I’ve been sick for the past 6 days, meaning I’ve had to stay at home in bed for 6 days. Don’t worry, it’s just the flu, nothing too serious. My host parents have been great about it, they give me antibiotics to get better, and tea and orange juice and vegetable broth as well. My host dad is sick too, so we’re both struggling together haha. A doctor came to the house yesterday. I was a little surprised because in the United States you would always have to go to the hospital and wait in line to see a doctor. Here I guess it’s different, you can just call the hospital and they send someone over to check on you. Pretty cool! Anyway, he said that everything would be fine if I just kept taking my antibiotics. So by the end of the week I should be all better! :)

As for everything else that’s going on, it’s good! I’m really liking my life here at this other lake. I’ve already started making friends at school; school is a lot more fun with drawing and sculpture. The drawing teacher is even going to show me how to do watercolor! In sculpture we started working with clay. It’s really fun, but really messy!!

I have good news! From March 12-March 20 I get to go to Enna Sicily! Every exchange student gets a chance to participate in a week exchange in some other part of Italy, and I chose Sicily! I will be staying with a different host family there so I can learn about the different cultures they have versus here in the north. There will be about 3 other exchange students in my area with me, and every day AFS has exciting activities for us to do. The only thing, I have to prepare a powerpoint presentation about my country (USA). Wish me luck!

So it’s true, China’s pretty awesome. Yesterday they celebrated their New Year in Milan! In the morning my host dad drove me to the city Ghemme, where I met up with Cinzia, an AFS volunteer, and she drove me to Novara where we met up with 5 other exchange students – Tomoyuki from Japan, Siyi from Cina, Itim from Thailand, Cameron from Alaska, and Yuzhu from Thailand. We met up in Novara and then took a train together to Milan. The only problem, it was raining the WHOLE day. And it was freezing outside.  But that didn’t stop us from having fun! First, when we got to the little Chinatown in Milan, we found a place to eat lunch because we were starving!! We found a tiny Chinese restaurant on the side of the tiny street and ate there. But of course we had to wait half an hour in the rain for a table since there were 12 of us total (exchange students, volunteers, and a family of one of the students). The food was magnificent! I had “spaghetti con brodo e wantans” which was a really yummy soup with noodles, vegetables and wantans (ravioli type things). It kind of reminded me of eating pho with my mom at a Vietnam pho restaurant she likes :) After lunch we watched a parade in the center of the Chinatown. There were Chinese people dressed up in beautiful outfits, dancing, etc. It was nice, but it would have been much nicer if it hadn’t been raining because everyone was holding umbrellas and it was really hard to see the parade. But I did get some videos in the end that I will share in my next youtube video for February ;) After the parade we kinda just walked around in the cold rain for a while, talking, trying not to trip over tiny kids or get tangled between the non-stop parade of umbrellas coming straight for us. We stopped in a cafe for some coffee, but literally only for 1 minute top because that’s just how they do it here. You go in a cafe, order a coffee which takes 10 seconds to make, drink it in 20 seconds because it’s in such a small cup, pay, and then leave after one minute. It’s so crazy how different it is here! Anyway, after the one minute taste of paradise and a little bit of warmth, we headed out to the train station to go home. I would say that it was a really fun day even with all of the rain and cold weather. As long as I’m with friends and eating good food.. I’ll always be happy! :)

Pronti…..VIA!!!! This is what they shouted yesterday at the battle of oranges. Okay, let me explain. Yesterday was the last day of the festival of Carnivale. “Carnivale” (carnival) is a christian holiday which celebrates the day before Ash Wednesday and Lent. The actual holiday is on Tuesday but people like to celebrate the weekend before as well, so we had 3 days off from school :) So to celebrate, I went to Ivrea with some AFS friends to see the “Battaglia di Arance” (Battle of Oranges). Every year they have this “battle” to commemorate World War II. A whole bunch of people gather in the middle of the city Ivrea and along the streets and throw oranges at people in carts pulled by horses. It’s really crazy though because they actually treat it like a war. I mean they were throwing the oranges REALLY hard!!! There were actually a lot of people that got hurt. And many people came out of the war with black eyes and bruises. My friends and I were told not to participate in the war because of this. But it was still really fun to watch!! I actually took some videos of the battle that I will post in my next youtube video of February :) By the end of the battle that lasted 2 hours, the cobblestone streets were COVERED in oranges. There was literally a blanket of ORANGE MUSH on the ground. It was so gross hahahha. My shoes turned from blue to orange in seconds lololol. I would definitely call yesterday one of the best days I’ve had here. Not only because of the fun experience of seeing this strange tradition of oranges, but also because I got to catch up with my exchange friends. There were about 50 of us who went, all staying in different areas of northern Italy. Most of them I hadn’t seen since the AFS camp in October, so it was really amazing seeing them again and sharing experiences with them. We are all getting pretty good at Italian as well, so we spoke Italian to each other, not english if you guys were wondering ;) This day was definitely a day to remember. I hope I get to have more days like this in the future. Buona notte tutti!

Also, if you haven’t already seen my new youtube video for January, here’s the link! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hepbbsr2lk&gt;

Saturday was so much fun, I didn’t have school because it’s a holiday on Tuesday so my host parents took me to the city Alba. It was about a two hour drive, and the first place we went was to a Nutella factory that Pigi wanted to show me. Sadly it was closed so we only got to see it from the outside. It actually worked out well through because I got a chance to see a whole bunch of other things other than the factory! They took me to see the cute little town of Alba. And since it was Sunday, there were a whole bunch of tents with people selling goods in the center of the town and along the streets. I also got to see a part of the Roman stairs that were under the ground from many many years ago. It was really fun looking around the town and learning the history of various buildings. My host parents know so much history it’s crazy. We would just walk by an old building and they’d know the date when it was built, who built it, what it was used for, and everything! They’re like walking history books hhahah! After looking around a bit, we got in the car and drove to the nearby hills outside of the town. It was so beautiful! The hills were covered with vineyards. Since it’s winter, however, the grapes weren’t ready to be picked, and all of the vines were brown. I won’t be here when they’re ready in September, but I can imagine how beautiful the hills must look when they are covered in green, fresh grape vines. We drove to the top of one of the hills into the tiny town, Neive. It was literally one of the cutest towns I’ve ever seen, and the view from the top of the hill was priceless. I felt like I was in one of those movies that are taken in Italy with the tiny old houses, vines hanging off windows, and cobblestone streets. It was really spectacular. We ate lunch in a little restaurant in Neive. The inside looked so Italian with wine bottles lined along the brick walls and tiny square tables for 4 people. I ordered “ravioli del plin” which was considered the special dish of this particular town. Every area of Italy has a special dish. For example the region Lombardy is famous for their various “risotto” (rice) dishes while Piemonte is famous for their “tartufo” (truffle) dishes. Then for dessert I had “brazzato e bonette” which was a chocolate pudding with nuts inside. After lunch we went to a wine celler and got to see how wine is made. It was very interesting and now I know that making wine is a very long process!!! It literally takes years to make!! After that we went to the castle of Camillo Cavour which was built in the early 1800’s. It was a beautiful castle with another beautiful view of the hills of vineyards. I had a blast taking this day trip with my host family. Loved every second!

Hi guys! So I have more big news! I decided to switch schools for convenience reasons, so now I’m going to a new school in the town next to mine. It’s an artistic/musical/scientific school. And I chose to be in the artistic school because I already go to a music school in Arizona and want to try something new, and because I’m curious in learning about art and sculpture here. Today was my first day and it was great! All of my classmates were so nice to me, I think I will be happy here! Till next time :)