jingle, jingle, jingle.

ahhh, the holidays. snow, hot cocoa, free time (that is such a rarity nowadays) and plenty of food. going back to california for the third christmas in a row is becoming a habit, even though this really hasn't turned out to be the best time of the year for us. on the 21st, we celebrate my ava's (translated to grandma in portuguese) first deathday. and yes, that was a harry potter reference. also during our visit, my madrinha (again, it means godmother in portuguese) goes through her second batch of chemotherapy. i told you it wasn't our time of the year.

haha, but thinking back to this time last year, i was in the middle of planning to study abroad in dalian, china and live with a family friend there. god, how much has changed. now i am leaving for italy in five weeks, i have an amazing host family, and i have been talking to some new friends over facebook that go to my italian high school. i have paid what i needed to, gotten a scholarship, and spent a lot of time planning. i just cannot believe how lucky i am, or how much i have accomplished in such a short period of time. it is truly unreal. through all the trials and tribulations, this opportunity has gotten me through so much, and it has been the shining beacon of hope at the end of a long winding tunnel of work.

so, looking back at the year, reflecting to all the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens, i don't regret a single thing. not one bad grade, not one missed opportunity. i don't believe in spending time wrapped up in regret and what-ifs, because all of those experiences have molded me into the person i am today. and guess what? i like that person. that person is moving in a month to an amazing town in an amazing country. boo yeahhhh.

so safe travels and merry christmas, happy hanukkah, and merry kwanzaa to everyone out there reading this.
with something to think about, make it a great holiday. or not. the choice is always yours(;

p.s. oh yeah, btdub, i will be attending a liceo scientifico, which is basically an italian high school based around math and science. which, if you know me at all, you know that those two subjects are not my forte. we'll see how it goes(:

host family, say what?

so it turns out that this thanksgiving gives me an additional something to be grateful for, as i recieved word a few days ago that, yes, i finally have a host family. *initiate silent freakout here*

i won´t bore you with the detailed description of how i felt when getting the news, i'll just give you the big easy right now. my host family consists of three members: Romano, my dad, Elena, my mom, and Nicholas, my host brother.
Unfortunately, Nicholas is studying abroad with AFS in the United States right now, and therefore he will not be there in italy when i am. which kind of sucks, but whatever. i will also have some pets in italy: Maolino, a cat, Cloe, a dog, and two tibetean goats. awwwyeah.

okay, okay, so i bet you are dying to know where i will be spending the monumental six months in italy? even if you weren´t dying to know, i am still going to tell you. drumroll, please! i will be living ... in aosta, italy.

don´t know where that is? never heard of it? well neither had i. so, i took the liberty of doing some research, and let me just tell you that i hit the jackpot. about an hour outside Torino, right next to the italian-french AND italian-swiss border, lies the quiant mountain city of aosta, population 35,000 or so. surrounded by the italian alps, it is a tourist hot spot for skiers everywhere. so, in essence, i am going to be living in a place very similar to sun valley, id. only double the size, and double the amount of languages spoken. oh, and double the height of mountains surrounding it. no biggie.

so yeah, there you are: my much waited information, where i will be living and who i'll be living with. and if you think the above paragraph has a bragging-tone to it, of course it does. but then again, it isn't every day that one gets monumental news like this, so give me a break.

all this means is that now i will be spending a large part of my remaining time here skiing at bogus basin (which opened yesterday) and buying really warm clothes. oh, and keeping in touch with my host family. what can i say? it's been one unforgetable turkey day.

oh, and here is a little glimpse of downtown aosta(:

ciao classe d'italiano. :/

last night was my last italian class at bsu. while i can't lie and say that i won't enjoy having tuesday nights back, i will miss my class. i liked going each week, listening to my cute old lady italian teacher speak to us in her thick accent, and i loved learning words. italian is such a beautiful language, it is unbelievable.

i spoke to my local coordinator, and it looks as if i am the only local student leaving for next semester's program. that sucks in a way, but it helps with coordinating departure orientations and such. i have basically two and a half months left here in idaho, which is freaking me out. at the same time, i have lost interest in being here; in my mind, i am already there.

no word on the family situation yet. i'll let you know when i do(:

finally, finally, finally(:

i have officially been accepted to afs-italy. i can't even begin to say how excited i am, and how real this is all becoming. i was sitting outside during lunch, joking around with my friends when i got the e-mail saying that afs-italy had accepted my application. i started screaming, causing basically everyone in the quad to turn and look at me. once i calmed down, i started hyperventilating and then told everyone what was going down.

so what happens now? they send out my application to a bunch of prospective host families, who then sift through a bunch of applications and choose the student they want to host. the e-mail said i'd probably get the information about my host family about a month before i leave.

so for now, just continuing my italian class at boise state, which i love. oh, excuse me, ti amo(:
so far i can say my name, say which nationality i am, and do other little small greetings and such. italian is such a beautiful language, i cannot believe i'll be near-fluent in it by time i come back.

i think i've rambled long enough, and my AP United States History homework is calling my name.
ci vediamo, mio piacere(:

scholarship moola(:

ahhh, so i am super duper pumped. i was on a family road trip, heading to seattle when i got an e-mail from afs, informing me that i have been chosen as a AFS Global Leaders Merit Scholarship recipient! i basically started screaming and scared the crap out of my parents, but it was all worth it, because i got a substantial sum of moola to go towards my study abroad(: and yes, i totally did start crying like the pathetic goober i am, but they were happy tears, so it doesn't count.

everything is slowly coming together -- i start my intro to italian class next week, have now paid for my portion of my trip, and am working on saving up spending money and such. i have also been incredibly lucky to make friends with an afs exchange student, here from norway. he's been giving me tons of useful info about the program, which is totally awesome.

i still can't believe i am leaving in three and a half months. it hasn't really hit me yet, but when it does i am expecting it to hit me like a frying pan in the face -- hard and tear-jerking. maybe it will happen when i get my host family, maybe when i am on the way to the airport. i don't know, but hopefully i'll be ready when it does.

other than that, you know the drill. i'll update as soon as i receive news from afs of my official acceptance(:

intro to italian class!

so i just signed up for my local college's intro to italian class, which starts in october; i'll update you on what i am sure is going to be a hilarious account of me trying to speak italian.
on top of that, i have also started reading: culture shock! italy and the complete idiots guide to learning italian on your own.
i am hoping that by time i leave in late january, i will be well-versed in rudimentary italian(:

other than that, school is dragging by. i got my inner roman on at our annual toga dance, which resulted in bruised feet, blood blisters, and a questionably bruised rib. ouchh.
every day i am aware that i am getting closer and closer to leaving and not coming back the same. it is scary, but i think i am past the hyperventilation stage; now i am a calm, excited scared - if that makes sense.

still waiting to hear back from afs italy and get a host family, but in the meantime I am submitting my scholarship for the afs merit scholarship. shall be hearing about that in mid-october as well(:

così comincia il viaggio(:

ahhh, hello hello hello. where to begin?

first, let me do a quick little introduction: my name is teresa, and i live in idaho. i am a junior in high school, and my life pretty much consists of school and work, with a little bit of social time squeezed in wherever it will fit. i am an assistant breakfast cook at a local restaurant, and i am on my school newspaper. about two years ago, i decided i wanted to study abroad. as time went on, i enrolled in online classes and summer school to be able to have enough availability to study abroad and still graduate on time. the program? AFS. the country? italy. the time? approximately six months. countdown? i am estimated to leave about five months from now. scared? hell yes.

now a disclaimer; i have never been into blogging, journal-ing, dream diary-ing, or anything else similar. i write my blogs in all lower-case. i might not be able to post every week, or even every couple of weeks, but let's just see how it goes.


so where am i in the process right now?
afs  just accepted my application, and sent it on to afs-italy, where they will review it and tell me in a few weeks time if i am accepted/who my host family is/where i will live, etc. hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later, since i am rather impatient.
for all you people out there interested in getting involved with afs, i encourage you to do so. but let me tell you, the application process is long and grueling. you have to work at it for at least a month before you perfect everything, and get all your papers together. but when you hear that all your hard work has been accepted, it is the best feeling in the world. 


so that is it for now, and probably for a couple of weeks. i'll let you know all the details as i know them, as soon as i know them. thanks for reading my blog, and hope you enjoy it(:


p.s. for all you that don't know italian, the title translates into: "and so the journey begins."