i fratelli del mondo.

afs family: end camp 2011.

at the beginning of june i headed to castelnuovo nigra (near ivrea) for the end-of-the-year camp. 68 exchange students from Valle d'Aosta (haha, it was just Maria and me from VdA), Liguria and Piedmonte went to the camp, which lasted about four days. i met tons of new people, something i always love about AFS events, and made some stronger connections with people i didn't know very well. we were all staying in this old convent, and i shared a room with Gina, a year-student from Ecuador. we divided up into sub-groups and talked about how our exchange was, ups and downs, blah blah blah. if it weren't for my fellow exchangers, the whole trip would have been super boring. this whole orientation was pretty emotional for everyone, since people started realizing that we only have a month left until we leave. what really hit me what how much i am going to miss everyone in AFS. i've said it before, but i will say it again: AFS kids are your family. you learn, grow, change together. you help each other and become like brothers and sisters. what is amazing to me is how easy it is. i met Matias, another semester kid from Argentina at Rome orientation but only actually started talking to him at the camp, and within a day we were acting like we'd known each other forever. it's like that with everyone ... we have so much to discuss and connect about, it is a challenge not to end up like a family. before i came on this trip, the friend i had that lived furthest away from me was in virginia. and now i have brothers and sisters from istanbul to australia, from chile to iceland. it's strange to me that i might never see any of them again -- it's a hard thing to deal with. we may look completely different and speak more than ten different languages in between us, we may pray to different versions of God and live in completely different cultures, but we are a family. we are brothers and sisters of the world, and this is such a beautiful thing. it's one of the things i am most grateful for from AFS.

anyways, the second night we had like a disco/dance thing that lasted until 2 o'clock in the morning when all the volunteers came to yell at us. only AFSers would party in a convent. it was actually really cool though, to see how everyone from different countries danced. the latina in me kicked in and i started flailing my hips about like i was shakira. i was convinced i looked completely stupid, but i guess i didn't because people were cheering me on and i recieved several notes about my kick ass dance moves. haha, and someone didn't believe i was american. because americans usually can't move their hips like that, i guess. hmmm, what else? the food sucked a little so my friends and i ate a whole jar of nutella in two days. it's italy. oh, and this camp was so insane that i lost my voice a little, which i guess is kind of hardcore. or not. probably not. there was also a talent show in which i preformed the "napolean dynamite" dance with two other american friends. we're just cool like that i guess. oh! i was complemented by tons of people on my italian, anda lot of people thought i was there for the year program because my italian was so good. and apparently i have completely dropped my english accent when i talk, so that is cool. at the end, when everyone left, tons of people were crying, because the next time we'll see everyone is when we are all in rome, going home. i have a feeling that rome is going to be one tearful, sleepless adventure of it's own, but we'll cross that aqueduct when we come to it.

for now, summer is fast approaching as school ends in two days (thank god!), and with it comes the arrival of my best friend from boise (silent freakout here), and the arrival of my host brother from his year abroad in South Dakota.

la lingua, la scuola, ed i miei amici.

language: a lot of people have been asking me how my italian skills have been coming along, and it is hard to answer. on one hand, i speak italian all the time (unless talking to friends and family back home), text in italian, go watch movies in italian, and am halfway through an italian novel. i guess a lot of people would say that by these standards, my ability to speak italian is pretty good. the thing about learning a language, however, is that you are always learning. i speak italian pretty well for only having been here for about 4 months, but in a situation like this, it is a survival thing: just something you have to do. you keep getting better and better, and at the same time you realize that you still have so much more to learn. i wish i'd chosen to do the year program if not only because it would have given me more time to really perfect my italian. there are some funny anecdotes though:

1. About a month ago we had Easter break, and the weeks before it I kept talking to classmates about what they are going to do, and vice versa. I kept saying, "Sono eccitando per la vacanze di Pasqua!" (I'm excited for Easter break!) only to have my Italian teacher tell me a few weeks later that eccitando means a different sort of excited. so basically for weeks i'd been telling my classmates that i get sexually aroused by trips to Genova and going to an Italian mass. go me.

2. I keep saying "Sto buona!" (I'm good) instead of "Sto bene!" (I'm good). Technically buona is only used when talking about food, so basically I keep accidentally saying "I'm delicious!" combine that with what is above, and they must really think i-da-ho.

school: let's just say i miss boise high school a lot. italian school is focused on three things: tests, homework, and oral exams. forget the clubs, the sports, the ceramics or orchestra or journalism class. there are about nine subjects that are mandatory for all students in the specific grade, and because the teacehrs move classrooms instead of the students, you sit in the same white room with the same students all day long. granted, i get off at 1:20 p.m., 12:30 p.m., and 11:30 a.m. various days of the week, but that also means i have the PLEASURE of going to school on saturdays. oh yes: pure gold. while italian school does have impressive language classes (all my classmates take and are basically fluent in french, latin and english), teaching is composed of lectures and note-taking. i have to say, i definitely prefer my american high school to my italian one, if not also for the reason that here there are 5 years of high school and the toilets are porcelain holes in the floor. it makes me very grateful to go to boise high, however, because i love getting to take a sociology class or becoming co-editor-in-chief of my newspaper (shoutout to my co-editors bailey and aubree!) italian school is difficult, and i personally prefer to work hard ... and play hard too. it makes me love going to school, whereas here i dread it. i love the brief 10 minute breaks to talk to my friends or such, but other than that i just stay in class and read my book in italian. being here, however, has made me wish the USA put a more of an emphasis on learning foreign language in schools, but I think English-speaking countries are a little lazy when it comes to that because for us, we don't have to learn another language to be successful like the rest of the world has to learn English.

friends: making friends on exchange can be easy and difficult. easy in the sense that, because you are an exchange student, a lot of people are interested in you. after a month or two, though, you aren't new anymore. you actually have to start and try to make friends with classmates, teammates, etc. the difficulties are this: imagine starting a brand new high school, in a new city, with absolutely no one you know. add the language barrier, a new family and a new country, and you get how hard it is at times. for the first few months, AFS kids are pretty much your life -- my friend Maria (Panama) has become a really good friend in this experience. However, after time, you start making plans, going out, and getting invited out. Lately I've mostly been going out with friends from school, and my temporary (I'm staying with her family for 2.5 weeks while my host family visits my host brother in USA) host sister. I've established a life here ... it'll be hard to leave it.

so that's what is up with me right now. there is so much to life here that sometimes i am lost about what to write about, so if anyone has a question/topic they want me to discuss, let me know(:

jersey shore? not even.

so, blogger screwed up and my original post about exchange week was deleted and not restored ... so that is why it has taken so long to update about my exchange week on the lovely island of sardegna.

Justin and I at the beach(:

my family: i was lucky enough to be placed for the week in the Mereu family, which consists of Vittorio (dad), Stefania (mom), Silvia (sister, 17) and Davide (brother, 8). also staying with us for the week was justin, from hong kong who lives near florence in tuscany(: my family lived in decimomannu, which is about 10 minutes away from cagliari. they were without a doubt one of the best parts of this week exchange as they were accepting and extremely kind, like many people of the south. they took justin and me to different parts of the island, which was amazingly beautiful. after one week this group of wonderful people became like another family to me. there is this quote that one of my friends shared with me: "family isn't always blood. it's the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. the ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what." this quote definitely applies to this exchange, as being here i have gained so many sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers. family has no boundaries.

intercultura:
afs sardegna was a little unorganized, and with the cloudy, rainy weather the large part of the week was spent just going with the flow. there were about 20 other students from all over the world (and italy) that came to this week, and together we toured cagliari, ate some disgusting pizza, went to the beach and hiked in the forest. i love hanging out with afs kids because i learn so much about other cultures as well as the italian one. i learned some mandarin, thai and german during this week and made friends with people as close as mexico to as far away as thailand. i was proud of myself because i talked in italian pretty much the entire time, which is hard because it is very tempting to just speak english because everyone here knows it.

other:
the north of italy is very much like america: industrialized, clean and organized, whereas the south is the opposite. they are loud and emotional (not dramatic, but they just display all their emotions for everyone to see), and the cities aren't as nice, mostly because the south is more agricultural than the north. that said, i loved the south. give me crumbling buildings and gorgeous sunsets and i am happy. the south (especially the people) gave off this vibe of raw emotion -- i never had to guess or wonder what someone was feeling, because it was expressed in everything they did. i found the south to be (in a way) a lot more genuine than the north, and a lot more appreciate of life's simple gifts. just a week in sardegna relaxed me thorougly, because that is the way of life. when i asked my host mom after dinner if i could help clear the table, she yawned (they finish dinner at like 10 p.m.), looked over at the table and told me we'd take care of it in the morning. then we went to bed, leaving dirty dishes and uncovered food behind us. this would never happen at my home in aosta or in boise. the south was different from anything i've ever lived in and i loved it the second i stepped off the plane. the gorgeous views and genuine feel of it reminded me of my trip to peru in november or my grandparents house in portugal. it was hard to leave, but i know i'll go back.

that concludes my re-update of exchange week. enjoy the pictures(: