general update.

okay, so i've been blogging a lot about events that have been happening to me and not a lot about how everday life is here in aosta. i figure i'd use this post to give kind of a quick update about everything. i am aware most of my posts are pretty long so i figure i will keep this one short(:

family: i was looking through my blog posts and realized that i've said little about my host family. i like my host parents a lot, they are really nice people. being an only child here has certainly been a different experience, and while sometimes it is nice to have attention, i find myself missing my little sister a lot. being here has made me realize how lucky i am to have her, and i look forward to hanging out with her a lot more when i get home. considering some host family horror stories i've heard from fellow afsers, i feel pretty lucky about my host family situation. elena and romano are very kind people and like traveling, gardening, and spending time together. they give me a lot of opportunities to see different parts of valle d'aosta and surrounding places, and i feel lucky to be having a good experience with them.

school: school has gotten a lot better, and within the last week i have started attending english classes in the fourth and fifth grades. i like it because we study british literature; for example, right now we are reading short stories by modernist writer james joyce. i am glad that i have a chance to expand my knowledge of literature and that i have something to study that i actually understand. other than that, i still spend a large part of the day studying out of an italian for foreigners book or attempting to read harry potter in italian. my extra italian tutoring is going well, but my god, verb conjugations are killing me.

friends: i am still trying to find my groove, and i think that it is something that can only improve with time. everyone is super nice to me, but it is just a matter of finding a few really good friends to get close to. i know it is hard for them as well as me, and sometimes i think that maybe they think there isn't much of a point in becoming friends with me because i leave in three months. hopefully this is not the case. don't get me wrong, i have made some good friends, but it's just a matter of starting to hang out more after school that is the problem. as i said, it's only something that can get better. talking to other afs kids assures me that it is something every exchange student goes through, and our whole afs group has become very close because we confide in each other all the time via facebook.

haha, okay, i will stop. so much for keeping this short. what can i say? i like to talk.
in 22 days (yes, i am counting down) i go to sardinia for my exchange week. i'll update again after that(: