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(: