Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted, I’ve been pretty busy the last few days. On Friday I took yearbook pictures with my class. We each had to dress up as a country, so I chose USA of course!! I wore a USA baseball cap and wrapped myself with my USA flag. Some of my classmates dressed up as Germany, Spain, England, Japan, etc. I really want to see the pictures so I can post them and show them to you guys, but unfortunately I don’t receive them until March, oh well!

Exciting news: Saturday marked 3 months in Italy!!! Saturday was fun, after school I stayed in Arona and ate lunch with a friend. Then I walked around for a while and looked at some shops. I bought the book “Città di Carta” (Paper Towns) because I want to practice reading Italian. But I was really surprised when I first started reading because I could only understand like half of what was written; I guess I still have a lot of Italian to learn!

Sunday I met 3 of my AFS friends in Arona: Tomoyuki from Japan, Willy from Guatemala, and Cameron from Alaska. We went ice skating!! It was super fun, I only fell once! Although I was hanging onto the sides of the rink most of the time haha. Also the skates we had to wear were really worn out and not sharpened at all so that made it even harder! After skating, we went back to Tomoyuki’s house in Dagnente (the town next to Arona) and ate dinner. We ate polenta with meat and cheese, although I only ate the meat…the cheese looked really gross haha. After dinner we hung out, played cards and ping pong, and listened to Taylor Swift. We also played piano because his house has a piano! I played the only piece I knew by memory and then Tomoyuki played a really complicated piece, he’s amazing! By then it was midnight, so we headed upstairs to go to bed. I slept in Tomoyuki’s room with Cameron, and Tomoyuki and Willy slept in the guest house.

Monday I didn’t have school because it is a holiday today, so we got to sleep in! When everyone finally woke up and gathered in the kitchen at 11:30, we made breakfast. We decided to have an American breakfast with pancakes, french toast, and orange juice. I helped Tomoyuki’s host sister make the pancakes, Cameron made the french toast, and Tomoyuki and Willy made fresh orange juice. Sadly we didn’t have maple syrup because it doesn’t exist here, so we substituted with nutella, honey, and jam. It was SO amazing to eat pancakes again omg!!! Anyway, after breakfast, my friends and I walked to an open grass area where Tomoyuki, Willy, and Tomoyuki’s host sister played calcio (soccer), and Cameron and I played on a seesaw and talked about the last 2 months. It felt good to talk to a fellow exchange student about my thoughts, feelings, and concerns about my time here. She actually helped me make a big decision I’ve been contemplating back and forth about during my time here. But I will tell you about it later when I actually act on it. Anyway back to the story, after soccer we went back to Tomoyuki’s house and had tea and cookies with his host mom. Then she took us to Arona where we walked around and looked at little shops. The town is so beautiful at night, especially during this time of the year because there are Christmas lights and decorations all over the streets. Then at 5:20 I left my friends and took the boat back to Angera.

Today I also didn’t have school because it is an Italian holiday! The holiday is called “Feast of the Immaculate Conception,” and commemorates when Mary was graced by God to lead a life “free of sin” according to Catholic belief. In the morning my host parents went to church, and when they got back we started decorating the house with Christmas decorations! They got a tiny plastic Christmas tree, it’s super cute! After lunch we went to Nonna’s house for some torta (cake) and then Camilla and I had a Christmas concert with the other music students. We played outside of a church in Sesto. My fingers were freezing the whole time, but it’s okay, I survived! We played 4 songs: Oh Come All Yee Faithful, Silent Night, We Wish You A Merry Christmas ,and Jingle Bells.

On Sunday I get to see my AFS friends again because we are having dinner together with our host families. Apparently we are each going to cook a dish from our country, so Cameron and I are planning to cook hamburgers lol! My next post will probably be on either Sunday night or Monday night…or sooner if something exciting happens.

If you want to check out my youtube video on the month of November, here is the link! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyZzmGX1Ts&gt;

Hellooo! This weekend has been really fun because it was full of activities! And you can probably tell from the title of this blog that I went to 3 parties over the weekend! The first one was on Saturday night. I celebrated Camilla’s birthday with her friends at “Flamingo,” the local bar in Angera. It was super fun, there were about 20 of us at a really long table! We ate pizza for dinner but I had way too much, it’s just so good here!! :) Then we sang Aurguri (Happy Birtdhay) to Camilla and ate cake. We stayed at the bar for a really long time and didn’t go home till about 1am…oops haha!

Sunday I finally got to sleep in after the long week of waking up early for school every day. I slept in till 10, ate breakfast, and then Camilla, Martino, and I went to the 2nd party of the weekend, which was a birthday lunch for their friend Gotta (Alberto). A lot of the same people from Camilla’s party came, but also some other friends as well. We ate polenta with a choice of cheese or meat (I had meat), and then some kind of rice crispy treat for dessert(?). It looked like a rice crispy treat, but sweeter and with caramel. After the party, mom picked me and Camilla up and drove us to our flute lesson. I’m really glad I decided to take flute lessons here, hopefully it will better prepare me for next year at ASA (my school in Arizona). After the flute lesson, Camilla and I had a orchestra rehearsal with all of the other music students. We practiced Christmas music for the mini concert we are having on December 8th. After the rehearsal we went to the 3rd party, which was another birthday party for Camilla! This one was at Nonna’s (Grandma) house, and the whole family came. There were probably like 20 of us total, so we had to split up and eat at two tables for dinner! We had pizza again, and some yummy ham and cheese(?) muffins that someone made (I forgot who made them, sorry!). And we had chocolate cake for dessert, along with some chocolate chip muffins that Camilla’s cousin Kyra made. I ate way too much and regretted it this morning in gym class!

Today was a special day in gym class. The school hired a professional zumba instructor to teach a 4 hour zumba lesson to the school. It was crazy! There were literally 100 girls (and some boys..not very many though) on the basketball court! We started off by doing and hour and a half of zumba. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it was really fun and energizing! Then we did an hour of a workout session where we stretched and did workout moves like sit-ups and push-ups. I didn’t particularly enjoy that hour because it was so difficult and I felt really sore afterwards! The last hour and a half was my favorite because it was super fun! We got to learn a dance routine! The instructor made a really confusing routine seen simple by breaking down each step one at a time and repeating it over an over again. Then by the end, we had learned a dance! Tomorrow is a normal school day, so we have classes the whole day. Until next time!

I can’t believe yesterday was Thanksgiving! That means that it is the end of November and the start of December. I have been here almost three months now! You’re probably wondering what I did on Thanksgiving. Well, as I said in my last post, Italians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving since it’s only a USA holiday. But as it turns out, Camilla’s 18th birthday is on Thanksgiving, so we did celebrate something! A lot of Camilla’s friends came over and we talked and ate sweet snacks next to the stufa (stove) because it was warm :)

However, since it was Thankgiving yesterday, and I’m American, I’m going to do a well known Thankgiving tradition. I’m going to say what I am thankful for from this past year (November 26, 2014 – November 26, 2015)!

First of all, I’m thankful my loving American family for supporting me, loving me, and guiding me. Without my family, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I wouldn’t have had the courage to leave them for a whole year to live with a whole different family in a place 6,089 miles away from home. Without my family, I wouldn’t have had the support to go on this life changing adventure. So thank you so much mom, dad, Sarah, Sydney, grandma, grandad, grandma Judy, cousin Brooke, cousin Patrick, aunt Laurel, and uncle Mark. I love you!

I am also thankful for my friends back home. You guys have given me great joy and lots of laughter this past year. I don’t know what I would do without you. Somehow, you guys helped me get through junior year of high school, and made it fun in the process! Each one of my friends has made a big impact on me this past year. I’m not going to list all of the impacts because that would take hours to write! Just know that each one of you mean so much to me. Thank you all for laughing with me this year, crying with me this year, and supporting me in my decision to leave for a year. I love you all.

I am thankful for my Italian host family. Thank you for letting me be part of your family this year. I know it can be hard to adjust to someone new in your home, but I can see how hard you are trying to make me feel welcome, and I’m thankful for that. Thank you for being patient with my rough Italian these first few months. Thank you mom for making the most delicious food ever!! (I need a cookbook of all of your Italian recipes my god!). Thank you for taking me on to see the EXPO in Milan, the Champoluc mountains, the Monza palace, etc. I love traveling around Italy! Thank you for helping me adjust to Italy and your lifestyle. Thank you for being kind and loving to me and treating me as part of the family. It’s only been 2 1/2 months and I already feel so comfortable here. Thank you!

Finally, I’d like to thank my new Italian friends. Even though it’s only been a couple months, I already feel so close with some of you. Thank you for talking to me and helping me with my Italian. Thank you for teaching me about your funny culture. Thank you for helping me adjust to Italian school. Thank you for helping me feel welcomed. Thank you for smiling and laughing with me. Thank you for being some of the kindest, friendliest people I’ve ever met. I can’t wait to see the adventures we go on this year!

Christmas madness has already started in Italy. Everyone has already started putting lights outside, decorating the streets with Christmas trees, and putting Christmas themed food on their menus. I have even started preparing Christmas music for the flute concert I will be in with Camilla in December. Christmas is huge here! From listening to my family’s and friends’ plans for what they are planning to do for Christmas, it seems like they take it really seriously here. I’m excited to see what my Italian Christmas will be like!

On the same subject, the Christmas weather has already kicked in. This morning it went down to zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and I saw a light layer of frost on the ground! Oh man it’s going to be SO cold, but SO beautiful at the same time. Good thing I have a warm coat to keep me warm, thanks Grandma!

Saturday night was super fun, I went out with Camilla, Martino, Alberto, Carlotta, Andrea, Laura B, Edoardo, and Laura C. We all went bowling! Well first we went to McDonalds for dinner, and then went bowling. Bowling was super fun, although I lost big time in the end! Martino got first place. Then we went to the bar “Flamingo” in Angera, but left soon afterwards because it was super cold and the music was way to loud haha. Sunday was a lazy day, I got to sleep in :) I went to Nonna’s house with my family for a little while, and then Camilla and I went to the nearby town, Sesto, and practiced our flutes with like 30 other kids. Apparently my flute teacher is going to have a Christmas recital in December will all of her students and other instruments. So every Sunday from now until the recital I get to play Christmas music with a mini orchestra!

Monday was normal, I went to school and then had a flute lesson afterwards. Today I didn’t have to go to school! Instead, I went to Varese with Camilla and mom to get my Italian visa made! We waited in the waiting room for like 20 minutes, but that’s okay, I got to get my fingerprints copied on a fingerprint machine :) After we finished all of the visa stuff, it was still pretty early in the day, so we walked around the center of Varese for a while and went in a few shops. I enjoyed walking around Varese because I love looking at the differences between each city in Italy and how they compare to Phoenix. I hope to travel to other famous cities in Italy as well this year. I’ve already seen Milan, Turin (kind of), Monza, and Varese. And my family said that we might go see Pisa and maybe Rome later this year too!

Guess what?! It is Camilla’s 18th birthday on Thursday! And as most of you probably know, it is also Thanksgiving on Thursday! Sadly, Italy doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving *cries.* But that’s okay, it will still be a memorable day because we have something special planned for Camilla. I will tell you about it in my next post on Friday or Saturday. Buona notte!

Today marks 2 months of going to an Italian high school! I have survived! :) During those 2 months, I have noticed some VERY different things about school in Italy versus my school in the US. Here are some of my observations. By they way, this is not meant to offend anyone, these are just MY observations about MY Italian school. Every Italian high school is different. I go to a language school, but there are so many different types of schools including art school, classical school, cooking school, technical school, etc. Anyway, here are my observations about the differences between Italian school and school in the US. Enjoy!

First of all, Italian school has a different schedule than American school. In Italy, my school starts at 8:30 and ends at 1:10, while in the US, my school starts at 7:45 and ends at 3:00. Also, Italian schools have school on Saturdays (at least mine does, but there are some that don’t). In Italy every day, I have two classes, a 10 minute snack break, and then three more classes. Then I eat lunch at home with my family. I like the aspect of having a snack break because I get to buy really yummy sandwiches, cookies, or other snacks in the tiny cafeteria in school. It’s really tiny compared to ones in the US. I feel like everything is tinier here, it’s really cute! My Italian school has vending machines with snacks all over school as well as coffee vending machines if you just want coffee. Isn’t that just super cool? The coffee is so much cheaper here too, I love it! The US should really step up their game.

In the US, the teachers aren’t just their to teach, they are there to help the students understand what they are learning. The teachers are your friends, you can laugh with them, hang out with them during lunch, and talk about anything with them (well, most of them lol). In Italy, that is not the case. The teachers are NOT your friends. They are just your teachers, and their only job is to teach. If you have a question on homework or need tutoring from a teacher after school…well, you don’t get to have that here. You enter school at 8:30 and leave right away at 1:10. That’s just the way it is. Another thing about Italian teachers: They are crazy! My science teacher is from southern Italy, so he speaks a different dialect of Italian..I can’t understand him at all! I asked some of my classmates if they can understand him, and even they have a hard time understanding him sometimes! He is also very loud, so he’ll just yell out random phrases for no reason, it’s pretty funny! My French teacher is very serious about teaching and she gets super upset with us if we talk during class or don’t listen to her. Even if it’s just a whisper she’ll start yelling at us and lecturing us about how she’s the teacher and we should listen to her! If a teacher is absent in the US, we have a substitute teacher and we still have to learn stuff during that hour. In Italy, if the teacher decides not to show up (which happens a lot), the students have no class at all and can do whatever they want!! Okay sometimes they have a substitute, but like once in a blue moon!

Another thing about Italian school, they have SO MANY tests! I’m serious, they have at least 4 – 5 tests every week, sometimes more! In the US it’s usually only 1 – 2 per week. Italians study 24/7 here. After school at 1:10 they go straight home and study for hours. Even if they don’t have any homework, they study what they learned in class that day again and again and again. And when I say study, I mean they memorize the text books front to back. In the US there is more homework than studying, but in Italy it is definitely more studying and memorizing.

The way of testing in Italy are also very different. They have these oral tests called “interrogazione” where the teacher calls out a random name of a student, and then they ask the student a couple questions about ANYTHING from the assigned pages of the textbook in front of the whole class. So if you did not study, and you are not prepared for the test, that’s too bad and you’re going to embarrass yourself in front of everyone. Luckily I haven’t had to take this kind of test yet since I’m an exchange student! The other type of test here is the essay. This is where the teacher asks the class one question and the students have to write a 3 – 5 page essay answering the question. The tests for language classes are pretty much the same – translating sentences and fill in the black. Sadly, there is no multiple choice here!

The grading system is different as well. In the US, you get letter grades: A, B, C, D, or F. Here, it’s number grades from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. To pass the class, you have to get at least a 6. It’s almost impossible to get a 10 unless you’re really bright and all you do is study and you have no social life whatsoever…you might get a 9 1/2.

In the US, the students move classrooms every hour and get 5 minute breaks between each class. In Italy, the teachers move classrooms and the students get no breaks between each class. That means the students stay in one classroom with the same people and sit in the same seat the whole year! I like how all of the students stay together, they become really close friends with each other. I’ve also noticed that clicks are not a thing here, everyone is just friends with everyone! Italians are so friendly.

Italian schools don’t have clubs or activities. You just go to school to study and then go home. No after school sports, no theater clubs, nothing. If you want to do something non-academic, you have to find it outside of school. I don’t like that aspect of school here, I think it’s fun to join clubs with your friends and have school dances and activities.

The style of teaching here is WAY different. In the US, we mostly do group work and the teacher helps us individually. There are 4 people per table and the teacher’s desk is in the corner. Here in Italy, the teacher lectures the students the whole hour and the students take notes, yay… Also, each student gets their own desk and all of the desks are pointed towards the teacher’s desk in the front of the room in front of the blackboard.

The policy of no food and no phones in class is the same for both Italy and the US. But in Italy, it’s really easy for students to break the rules because each desk has a little shelf underneath them where you can store books and phones and food, and the teachers are not very good at paying attention to what the students do in class so..it’s pretty easy.

Well, those are some of my observations on Italian school vs. American school. Hope you enjoyed reading this and found it helpful! Feel free to comment or ask questions, ciao!

Ciao tutti! These last few days have been a mixture of exciting, scary, and amazing! On Thursday my class went on a school field trip to Milan! We went because my French teacher wanted us to watch a french play for her class. It was super fun! We took an hour and a half long bus ride from Verbania to Milan. Then we walked to the theater where we met a whole bunch of other students from different schools. We waited for about an hour, eating and talking, and then we finally went inside to watch the play. It was a really cool play, I didn’t expect it to be that great because it was in French and I probably wouldn’t understand it very well, but I was wrong, it was really good! I don’t remember the name of it, but I know it was a musical because the 4 actors and actresses on stage kept singing at random moments. It was a love story, and even though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I could understand the main idea of what was happening based on their expressions and body language. I know, your probably thinking, why couldn’t she understand what they were saying, she took french classes in Arizona! Well, as it turns out, I have forgotten a lot of french since I’ve been here, probably because I’m trying to learn a new language. I actually think I know more Italian than French now! Anyway, back to the story. So after the play ended, we got pictures with one of the actresses, and then walked around Milan for about an hour. Then we got back on the bus and went back to Verbania. However, my host mom had told me to ask my teacher to drop me off in Sesto because it’s closer to Angera. So I asked my teacher and she agreed. Then for some reason, the bus driver went past Sesto and dropped me off in a different city far away from Angera called Stresa. Apparently my teacher got confused on what city I said… lol. So I’m at the bus stop in Stresa, and thankfully my classmate Francesca was with me, so she helped me contact my mom and tell her the problem. It was all okay in the end because I took the next bus back to Arona and then the boat to Angera. And while I was waiting for the bus to Arona, I got to spend time with my friend in Stresa. It was fun! We went to a nearby coffee shop and I ordered a really yummy hot chocolate drink (it wasn’t hot though). After the coffee shop, Francesca took me on a 10 minute tour around Stresa. We saw the lake, we took a few pictures, and she told me about the three islands on the lake.

Friday was pretty normal – school, sleeping, translating Italian. I wasn’t able to go to Novara on Saturday because of transportation problems, so I went to school like normal. Then today, Sunday, my host family took me on a family trip to Monza, a city near Milan. There were a total of 8 of us who went. However Martino didn’t go because he had to work, and my host mom stayed home because she was sick. The day was really awesome though, we visited the “Villa Reale di Monza,” which is a historical kingdom from the late 1800’s where King Humbert 1 of Italy and Queen Margherita of Savoy lived until the year 1900 when the king was murdered. It was a beautiful building, it reminded me of the Palace of Versailles. We got to tour the inside, which had antic rooms and incredible art and architecture. The building also had rooms displaying fashion like historic clothing and furniture. I took some pictures that I will post on Facebook soon :) After visiting the kingdom, we ate lunch at a little pizzeria. I got a pizza with tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and spicy pepperonis (but they weren’t spicy at all lol). I ate the whole pizza and was so full afterwords, but I still ordered tiramisu and Italian coffee for dessert because well, who wouldn’t?! It’s Italy for heavens sake! Then after lunch, we all went to a different building where we visited my host mom’s aunt. We spent about three hours there, looking at photos and telling stories of the family. It was interesting and fun to see the pictures of my host family from when they were younger. Then we left at about 6:30 and took the long drive back to Angera.

Now it’s 10:02 and I have school tomorrow, so talk later! Ciao ciao!

Ciao everyone! Good news: my Italian is improving! Some of my classmates noticed and told me so I have proof :) I actually feel that I’ve been learning a lot these past few weeks because I’m understanding more and more of what people are saying! Speaking and writing Italian are probably the hardest for me because of grammar and sentence structure, so I will work on those.

The weather has been surprisingly nice here for this time of year. It’s around 50 degrees fahrenheit here at night and in the early mornings and then the low 60’s during the day. These last two weeks have been especially nice because the sun is always shinning and it hasn’t rained for a while. I’m savoring these sunny days before it becomes freezing and snowy in the winter months.

Saturday night was super fun, I went to party with Giulia because two of her friends were having birthdays. It was pretty fun! I got to meet a whole bunch of Giulia’s classmates. There was food, dancing, etc. The party lasted pretty late, so Giulia and I caught the last ferry ride at midnight. And since the party was held in Intra, which is where my school is (an hour away from Angera), I spent the night at Giulia’s house across the lake in Cittiglio afterwards. My 3rd sleepover since I’ve been here!

Sunday I slept in, and then Giulia’s aunt drove me home to Angera. I met my host parents in the center of town, where a festival was taking place. Apparently it was a witch festival where people dressed up as witches, and there were a whole bunch of small tents with people selling stuff having to do with witches, or halloween, or anything in that category. And of course people also had tents selling cheese, wine, salami, and fruit because well, you know…I’m in Italy. lol.

This week has been pretty normal: school, Italian lessons. On Thursday my class is going to Milan for a class field trip! That should be super fun! And on Saturday I found out that I’m skipping school to meet up with my AFS Intercultura friends in Novara! I’m so excited for that too! And then Sunday, I’m going with my host mom to Varese to do something with my visa(?), I don’t really know the details yet. Anyway, the end of this week should be super fun, so I will probably write about it on Sunday if I’m not too tired. Until then!

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!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! You’re probably wondering if Italians celebrate Halloween. Well….not really. Only some little kids dress up. Everyone else just treats it as a normal day. So instead of celebrating Halloween today, I went to school because it’s Saturday! Then after school my host mom picked me and Camilla up and we walked to a restaurant and had lunch. There were some Mexican food options, so I got a burrito! Nice to have something other than pasta for a change :) But I still love pasta, don’t worry :D After lunch we walked around Intra and shopped in the tiny stores along the sides of the streets. I kinda felt like I was in an outside mall because the stores were so small and the streets were so narrow and full of people! Tonight I’m going out with Camilla and Martino and some friends. Apparently we’re going to a place where they serve really long sandwiches. Right now I’m picturing Subway’s 12 inch long sandwiches…It should be interesting.

School’s going well. Tuesday I got out of school early because my Italian teacher was gone. And Wednesday I started school two hours later because of the same reason. Apparently it’s normal if the teacher doesn’t show up. One of these days I will write a blog telling the differences between school in the USA and school in Italy. That shall be fun to write :) Ciao ciao!

This week has been both sweet and sour (mostly sweet!). Thursday started out miserable because it was the day after the Intercultura camp. I felt very “friendsick” that morning because I missed all of my new exchange friends so much. Once I got to school things started to get better. Everyone welcomed me with kisses and “Ciao Sienna!” It felt good to know that my classmates missed me during the three days I was absent from school. I also found out that day that I passed my physics test I had taken the week before! Everyone clapped when the teacher told my grade to the class. That was a very high point of the day :) After school I went to my Italian lesson. I got a new Italian teacher because my old one didn’t have enough time in her schedule to teach me. I really like the new teacher though, hopefully I will learn a lot from her. Oh and I found out the Netflix came to Italy! I’ve been watching shows in English with Italian subtitles ;) Pretty exciting

Friday was pretty normal: I went to school, ate lunch at home, took a nap, and watched some Italian tv. Saturday was a lot more fun. After school, instead of taking the bus home, an Intercultura volunteer picked me and Giulia up. Giulia is my friend who lives in Cittiglio (a 20 minute drive from Angera). She went to Austria last year as an AFS exchange student. Anyway, the volunteer person took us to her house and we ate a barbecue lunch there with her family. The food was incredible! Her husband cooked barbecue ribs, pork, bell peppers, zucchini, and then we had Italian coffee afterwards. I also got to try a new fruit called “kaki.” It looks just like a tomato but tastes a lot sweeter and you eat it with a spoon. After lunch, the three of us (the volunteer, Giulia, and I) rode bikes to an intercultura meeting. It was an informational meeting about the purpose of Intercultura and why being an exchange student can be so rewarding. The meeting was for Itanian teens who were thinking about becoming exchange students next year, but Giulia and I were invited as well to talk about our experiences. Also our friend Valeria came too because she went to Canada for three months over the summer as an AFS exchange student. After the meeting, we rode our bikes back to the volunteer’s house, and then she took us to the ferry boat dock. We took the ferry to the other side and then Giulia’s dad took us to their house in Cittiglio. Giulia made us delicious pasta pomodoro dish for dinner, with coconut gelato for dessert! Then we got ready to go out again, so I borrowed some of her clothes because I hadn’t planned to go to her house after the meeting. We took the ferry back to Verbania and meet Valeria there. Giulia brought a tiny chocolate cake and a candle because it was Valeria’s birthday. It was pretty hard to light it though because of the cold weather and wind, but we managed after a few tries :) We started the night off by going the the local market, and then we just walked abound Verbania. The town looked so beautiful at night with so many lights and things happening. It’s pretty normal to go out on Saturday night here, so we bumped into many people we knew from school on the streets. I even saw some of my classmates there: Natalia, Debbie, and Giulia (yes, Giulia is a very popular name here)! After a couple hours, Giulia and I caught the last boat at midnight and went back to her house where I stayed the night. Then this morning, Giulia’s aunt drove me back to Angera, and now I’m at home writing this post! Arrivederci!