being on exchange is like being bipolar.

what i am about to write about isn't easy, both because i have a lot of pride and also because it is difficult to explain. i promised myself, however, that in this blog i would give the full account of what being an exchange student was like, and that is what i intend to do. so just hang in there with me during this post, okay?

i never thought that leaving my home of 17 years for a totally new place filled with a new language and new people would be easy, but maybe i didn't realize how hard it truly would be, and how much it tests every single part of me that i know. there are days when i am on top of the world, hanging out with friends, experiencing new things, eating new foods. there are also days when i am frustrated with doing nothing at school, can't understand someone, or just want to hug my mom or joke around with my dad. on an exchange, you don't know what the next day is going to bring. and that is the truth. i find that you just have to take it one day at a time. i've had a few bad days where i would love to just be alone. but that isn't the point of moving thousands of miles away, is it? you've got to push push push out of your comfort zone and create a new zone that you learn to be comfortable in. sometimes you've got to just know that tomorrow is a new day and just start over. take it day by day. that's really the only advice i can give future afsers, and it really is the best advice out there.

so other than that, italy has been great. i've been going on walks/runs everyday to try and get some air and get out of the house. at school, i get bored learning italian out of a book all the time, so i either write college/scholarship essays, listen to my iPod, or daydream. such is life, i guess. i've been skiing a lot, eating a lot, and shopping even more. even though the dollar-euro exchange rate really sucks, i've been finding deals. i think i'll have to buy like a bajillion suitcases to haul everything back to america. next week i have a week of break, thank god. on tuesday i get to go to the carnivale d'ivrea with a bunch of other afs students, which i am really looking forward to.

this weekend i went to brusson (a little mountain village about an hour from aosta) with maria and her family, and we got to watch these villagers make this bread, which was a cool process to watch, and the picture is below. every town here is so beautiful, but in a way that they all remind me of sun valley. i am super excited to travel to another part of italy next week: i want to try and experience as many different parts of this country as i can in four more months.

so there you have it, and update on the last day of february. i can't believe it has already been a month that i have been here in aosta. it's gone by so fast it really is crazy. i won't lie, i cannot wait until school is over. i really want the winter to be over, and for the sun to come out. life here is good: it has it's ups, it's downs, it's in-betweens, but such is life.

skiing in the alps, among other things.

as you can probably tell, i went skiing. in the italian alps. from the top of a mountain 9,100 feet high. oh my god. it was so scary! haha, but i only fell once (and instead of helping me up, my host father took pictures) and it was at the bottom, so it doesn't count. we hit up a ski resort named pila, which is about 15 minutes away from aosta via sky tram. it was a super big mountain, with tons of people and tons of trails. i am getting better at skiing already, and i always try to look super BAMF while shreddin' some sick powder on the hill. i usually just end up looking stupid, but below are some photos in any case(:

this week was also a big get-things-organized week. i am setting a budget to control my spending, because i'd like to not be totally broke when i come home, and writing lists up the wazoo. literally, you should see my journal. i am also getting out of the house more, and started exploring aosta as the weather got better this week. i went on a walk down the hill to the liceo agricolturo, and what takes 5 minutes in a car took me an hour on foot. but i didn't mind. i was too busy being my normal tourist self and taking tons of pictures. there are some of them below. anyways, i am going to go an a walk every day as the weather permits -- the view never gets old! plus it is a fun way to work off this six pack of pasta i've got going. haha, so other than that i am changing a few things around with school -- getting out of french and adding more p.e. or italian. thank god, because french was giving me a headache. italy is really ahead of the states in terms of emphasizing language in school. all the kids in my class are a year younger than me and are already practically trilingual, with a huge knowledge of latin! i really wish america put more of an emphasis on foreign language in public schools, starting from a younger age. instead, we take useless subjects like typing class and technical reading. ugh.

other than that, everything is going really well. i am learning so much italian so fast it is really crazy. i am able to carry on a conversation in italian now, i just have to perfect my grammer and learn more vocabulary, and then i am fluent! haha, not really, but i am doing really really well. my afs friend emilie (living near turin) is visiting me in aosta sometime next month, and i am going to genova soon with my region. also, i get to attend the orange-throwing madness that is the carnivale d'ivrea on march 8th, pictures sure to follow. oh, and one last little thing? i learned how to make fresh pasta. no big deal, picture is below. ciao ciao(:

mio cervello è morta stanca.

mio dio. being on exchange is the best thing i have ever done in my life, but it sure does tire the heck out of a person. every day i come home from school and after listening, reading, writing and talking (a little!) italian, my brain is ready to explode. then i also have italian tutoring that just started up, and that is frustrating as well. it is really difficult learning how to speak italian when you are being taught in italian. don't get me wrong, i don't dislike being here for a minute, but i'd be lying if i said it was easy.
one day when maria and i were buying gelato, the vendor asked me something and i agreed, not knowing what she had said (turns out she was asking if i wanted whipped cream). afterwards i turned and said to maria, "you know, i think that sometimes that is half the fun -- not knowing what you are getting." i think that really applies to this exchange. there are things you have control over, like what country you go to and what you pack, and there are things you don't have control of: your host family, school, language barries, and new home are all up to chance. you have to adapt to them, because they won't adapt to you; much like the world won't adapt to your needs. this has been a lesson learned both by this experience and numerous conversations with my dad before i left (see dad, i do listen). for me, i tend to over-analyze and plan everything, so letting go and letting god (yes, that is an alcoholics anonymous saying, but i like it nonetheless) has been a good difference for me.
as we say at boise high, "go big or go home." i've gone big, letting go of some control and gaining flexibility along the way. as for going home? not a chance. the thing i've learned is, "home" is what you make of the place you are in your life. going back doesn't always mean you are going home, because it is where the heart is. my heart right now (physically and figuratively) is in italy. so to go home? i'm already here.

cogne, chamonix, compleanno, and cheesy pizza(:

i don't know how people who write blogs only post every other month, because there is so much that i have to tell everyone! first off, i have got to talk about the pizza here in italy! it is literally the best thing i have ever tasted in my entire life. i went out on saturday night with maria and a couple friends, and they took us to this very cute little pizzaria in aosta, by the piazza. there you order your own personal pizza, but the personal pizzas here in italy are as big as a medium group pizza in america. so, maria and i split a margherita. not the alcoholic beverage, the type of pizza. the guys, being guys, each wolfed down one of their own, which was very impressive. hanging out with friends in a new place was really amazing, and it totally topped of an amazing first week abroad. then it was sunday, my first and only day off of school, and i slept in while my pal maria went nordic skiing for her first time in cogne. later, me, mia momma e mia nonna drove up to cogne, walked around and met with maria and her parents. i attempted to nordic ski. i kind of failed, and definitely prefer downhill skiing. cogne definitely was beautiful though, as the below pictures demonstrate.

then, yesterday, i turned seventeen. it was hard being away from my family for my birthday, since it was the first birthday we spent apart. but it was still amazing. first, i went shopping a few days before with my host momma, and she got me this really beautiful scarf and cute boots, and then maria and her family gave me this purple wallet, which is tres chic(: then i went to school, assuming no one would know about my birthday. i was wrond. everyone knew! they even brought drinks, baked a cake, and threw me a little party. it really was the best surprise ever, and i was touched by all the thought that went into it(: afterwards, i went to lunch with my host parents at my dad's hotel and ate amazing ravioli with cherry gelato. then, as the best part of my birthday, we went with my nonna to chamonix, france. we toured chamonix and i took tons of pictures. it was actually kind of funny because when my mom was younger (so a long time ago) and backpacking through europe, she was touring chamonix when she turned 21, and i was touring the city when i turned 17. we went to birthday dinner at this restaurant and had such an amazing meal! there is this kind of cheesy fondue where you heat the cheese, tilt it, and scrape off all the melted cheese on to a plate to eat with bread, meat and potatoes. c'è delicioso! below are some photos of chamonix(:

anyways, those were pretty much the highlights of the week. i am still clueless in school, but learning more and more italian every single day. tomorrow i go ice skating with my class, and saturday i am going shopping with maria and then who knows what else. haha, i am loving it here so much, i dread the day when i have to go back to boise. even though my brain is overwhelmed with italian and exhausted at the end of every school day, i wouldn't change a single thing(: until next time, ciao ciao!

ahhhh, aosta.

words cannot describe how amazing it is here. every day i look out my window and cannot believe how lucky i am. i know i have a lot to catch everyone up on, so here we go!

1. orientation. i met so many amazing people, both in new york and in roma. there were 23 of us americans going to italy, and we bonded tremendously as a group, in only two or three days. other than getting to know my fellow afsers, orientation was so boring. all they talked about was why we would be sent home, and what not to do, along with other rules, rules, rules. ughhhh, by the end we were all very ready to get to our home cities. most of us were going up north, some in the middle (tuscany) and some down south. because we got to orientation in rome late, we didn't get to tour the city, which sucked. but other than that, orientation was fine, considering that we were all sleep-deprived and nervous. below are some photos of me with fellow americans in roma(:

2. aosta and fiera di sant'orso. when i arrived in aosta, there was the biggest festival of the year going on, to celebrate saint orso. there was a lot of news coverage of the festival, but i was lucky enough to be able to visit the festival. there were a lot of teens, and i got to meet some friends that go to my school, elisa and mark. i went to the fiera on sunday night with elena (my host mother) and gabrielle (my host grandmother). aosta was very beautiful with the lights on at night. then the next day we met up with maria (a fellow AFSer in aosta with me from panama) and toured the festival some more, which was amazing. we also visited the roman theatre ruins (built in 25 b.c. btdub) and ate some traditional italian food -- meats and a kind of cheesy corn mix called polenta. i didn't like the polenta, but everything else has been amazing. below are photos of the fiera.

3. school. oh gosh, my first day was today, and it was so scary. no one speaks english, and i was so nervous! they placed me in classe 2C, which is basically the italian 10th grade, so not so bad. my block schedule is very different, and i only had two classes today: math and italian/latin. tomorrow i have science, french literature, and drawing. maria and i aren't in the same class, not even the same building! i am in a building 10 minutes away by the piazza, which was a downer at first. then i learned that elisa was in my building, so it is wayy better now. i am very excited because three days a week i get out at noonish, and the other three at 1:20. my classmates are very very nice, and even though i don't understand them, i like them already. it is so different, school is. more social yet more respectful at the same time. one big difference is how expensive school supplies are. i bought two pens for 4£!!! i can't think of anything else concerning school, other than it is really hard right now. and latin? don't even get me started. it is very hard to learn a language when you are being taught in a different language. hahaha.

even though i speak basically no italian at all, my understanding has improved drastically within only a few days. with 40 hours of italian tutoring to complete, i have no doubt that i will be fluent by time i leave in july. my advice to future AFSers? learn as much as you can before you go, especially if you are on a summer program like one of you who contacted me is (nice to hear from you, mary!). other than that, no news. well, okay, i am heading to chamonix, france for my 17th birthday next tuesday, coincidentally where my mother spent her 21st birthday. haha, until later. ciao ciao! (:

p.s. here is one more picture, of aosta outside my bedroom window(: