Ciao!!



When I set out from Providence four months ago, it seemed totally reasonable to try to update the blog every week. That pretty much worked out at the beginning, because time was going pretty slowly. Three months ago I was convinced that I would be here forever, so the week between blog updates seemed like a pretty healthy dose of time. Now, however, Easter a month ago might as well have happened yesterday, and the last six and a half weeks are hurtling by faster than I can keep track of....despite all efforts to close my eyes, loudly hum "La Forza Mia" (TU SARAI LA FORZA MIA! DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM), and ignore the fact that pretty soon I'll be heading home with everyone else.

A brief update on life since Easter:

- Venice with a friend from school
- Le Cinque Terre, an incredible set of five towns in Liguria with amazing, amazing, amazing panoramas. We went on a field trip for a day, which involved more sunbathing and gelato-eating and was more or less absolutely splendid.
- a trip to France and Germany with other classes from school (this was a lesson in the fact that not all field trips will involve going out to Spanish bars, like the class trip to Florence. :) It definitely depends on the professors who go with you. With this set, we ran into problems immediately because the food at the hotel was so bad we resorted to stealing marmalade packets to make it through the night, which the professors didn't think fell under the category of "comporting yourself well". The bad humor didn't last long though, because they gave us Nutella for breakfast.)
- the prospect of a week in Sardegna with my host family after school finishes in June and four days in the Alps for the end-of-stay orientation with AFS

OK, that's enough of deliberately being a stronza (another fun Italian word which is somewhere between "jerk" and "bitch") and trying to make people jealous. What's way more satisfying than the amazing opportunities to travel and see so much of the world is the fact that after four months, it feels like a lifetime has passed.

Thinking back to the cold, gray February days when I didn't speak Italian and everything was new and my host mother was yelling at me to get with the program and start being a part of their family, things couldn't be more different. Maria Gloria and I are best friends now - we watch Gossip Girl (in English! woo hoo!!! Otherwise there would be no way to follow all of the ridiculous plot twists) and The Fast and the Furious (her choice - she has a weird thing for exploding cars) together, do her homework together (mine is nonexistent) and waste sunny afternoons on the balcony playing with our cameras. It took a long time to try to figure out that the only way to be helpful at home is to take the initiative and not wait to be asked, but now I do the dishes all the time and help my host mom clean the house. My host sister finds this very weird. Two of the most difficult conversations I've had with my host mom - explaining the concept of premade spaghetti sauce and the fact that my dad usually does the laundry.

And it's fun that finally everything is starting to feel normal. Homemade pizza every Saturday night is wonderful, but normal. Going shopping in Milan is hugely entertaining, but normal. (Ok, "shopping" means a pair of pants and a sweatshirt....when you go into stores like Dolce&Gabbana it's seriously just to look, since most things are behind glass, like in a museum. So it's much more like going to an art exhibition!) Speaking Italian is enormously satisfying, but I kind-of-sort-of-almost-depending understand what's going on when people talk now, but that's normal too. Not doing homework is also normal, although seriously I'm kind of ready for that to end. Drinking huge bowls of tea in the morning is normal. Taking in sun on the balcony in the afternoons is normal. Singing Italian songs with my friends on the bus in the afternoon is normal. Walking to the bus stop past roses in full bloom and fruit orchards is normal. The problem with five months is that it takes at least three months to reach that level of comfort....and then you leave forever.

Vado adesso....la mamma sta facendo cena e devo apparechiare la tavola!

Baci