its been a while...

and lots of things have happened.

First off, my first day of school was on thursday, and I know my mom is about ready to strangle me :P.

Its different, lets just start with that. Theres not glaring, obvious differences but theyre there. First of all, the school Im at, ITIS Guia (dont ask me to pronounce it or anything because obviously its impossible), is ugly. :/

But thats not important.

Anyways, its close enough to the apartment that I can walk to school with Niccolo. So...we got there on thursday morning and Niccolo starts talking with all his friends which is cool. He introduced me to them and that was nice, but after they knew my name they just kinda went back to talking in Italian. Which I totally understand, I mean who wants to try to talk to some girl whos got no idea whats happening? But anyways eventually we got to our class and it was chaos. Everyone is so loud and running around and stuff. But it was a fun atmosphere.

The class Im in is so lively and 'rowdy' (that was the word in the dictionary that we found) and you cant help but be a little happy just being there... at least for me :)

So school for the past few days has been fun. Ive been taught all kinds of words that I can never remember, let alone pronounce right. But everyone has been very nice to me. I just hope this all lasts :)

So after my first day of school was my first day of italian lessons. We didnt actually learn anything, we just kind of sat around and chatted for 3 hours. Which was fun, because I got to talk to Lisa, whos liaison is also Sylvia, and Andre, a Russian guy thats only here for 3 months. Sylvia and the other liaisons were also there, so it was really fun. But then the next day, Friday, was when we had our real lessons, which werent fun. They were actually pretty boring. But oh well. I actually understood most everything that the teacher said, which made me feel good. I only wish that translated into real life.

Anyways, italian lessons have been boring and long and the best parts are during the break when I go outside with Lisa and Emily (another american) and Andre, and when it ends. Plus, during the lessons, the teacher just doesnt ask me anything, she just kind of skips over me. Which is fine, but only adds to the boringness.

I finally tried gelato (!!!!). It was so good! It was after one of the italian lessons and Andre, whos like a master finder of good restaurants, took me and Lisa to a gelateria. I had 3-scoop cup with watermelon (which was my least favorite), a vanilla with chocolate chips (my second fav) and a nutella gelato (made by God himself). It was so good! I love it I love it I love it I love it! Other than that, theres not much to say.

For some reason, my iPhone has locked me out, and so I cant even use it at all. It had some weird message in italian and when I translated it, it said that the SIM locked me out or whatever.... machines hate me.... technology hate me. Just my luck to mess up my phone in another country with no one to translate for me. Well, I guess Ill just have to figure it out.

Today, I got lost trying to go to my friends house so that we could ride the bus together. We had some miscommunication and so my friend ended up waiting in front of my apartment for like, 20 minutes while I walked down random neighborhood streets and finally asked some old italian shop lady to show me the street. It was an adventure. The sad thing is, they live like, five minutes away and its actually really simple to get to their house. I just took some wrong turn somewhere and asked a bunch of people in really crappy italian how to get to a street I didnt even know the whole name of.

I think two days ago my nonna visited us. She is the EPITOME of italian grandmothers. Shes short, pudgy, loud, and is very personable. As soon as she saw me, she started her speed-master italian and gave my kisses on my cheek and all. She brought some traditional italian sweets for all of us. I like the almond..thing. I dont know what its called. There was this thing that looked like a browning, and I was really excited (oh look! brownie!) but when I took a bite, it was actually some fruit thing. >:/

But whatever.

I also went to the discoteca (discotecha? just disco? Im not sure). I like american ones better. At least they know how to dance, and dont tape over the songs with italian. And thats all I have to say. Except that it was still fun :]]

Tonights dinner was really good. Really good. But I still miss mexican food. And Nico is eating ALL of my peanut butter, and my package has yet to arrive (so mom......lets get on that). I dont really know what else to tell you. Ill upload pictures onto facebook, so take a look.

Love always

-s

oh and...

Just finished dinner.... and discovered that Im not a big octopus fan.

Learn something new every day. Or hour :)

-s

ciao!

So, I have been in Sardegna for exactly 3 days now. I just got back from touring the town of Cagliari with Luca and Niccolo. Everything was so smushed together! I could stick my hand out and touch the cars stopped next to us. We drove through the part of Old Cagliari and through the 'Little China' of Cagliari, whatever that means.

Its not super difficult to communicate to my family (I cant say talk because that would be an overstatement) and I do usually get my point across, but sometimes they give me this look and I just want to yell 'Im not an idiot, I just dont know what you're saying!!". But maybe that makes me an idiot. Who knows, really.

As for my family, they are all very nice. Everyone is very kind, and they still treat me sort of like a guest which isnt exactly good. Actually, tonight we went over the questionnaire that Intercultura (AFS Italy) gave me. It was pretty basic stuff; what time is dinner, what are the rules and chores, what should I call you, etc. Most of it was pretty straightforward, and I am supposed to call them Ignazio and Tonella, which kind of threw me for a moment, but I recovered haha :)

Theres not much to say about the trip over here. It was long, boring and uncomfortable, as any world traveler would agree ( ;) ). I flew (as many of you already know, since the only people that read this is my family and they knew about every move I made) from Burbank to NY, NY to Zurich, Zurich to Rome, and finally Rome to Cagliari. God those days are a blur. A mess of planes, bags to carry and surprisingly good airplane food (In Europe. I dont even remember if the Burbank-->NY flight fed me). The people in AFS were all very nice. I met a girl named Amberlyn who was my perpetual roomie the entire trip until Sardegna, so she and I hit it off. Theres not much else to report...

The only reason it took me so long to post this was because everywhere I went, I couldnt get internet. Which was frustrating on so many levels. Anyways, I figured out how to use my converters, after trying to force things together for about 5 minutes. Yeah dad, I know. Brilliante. Hahaha.

Im liking what I see so far.

Love you all

-s