Sunday, December 21, 2008

Host Family!


I found out who my host family is! They live in Fossano northern Italy only an hour from France! It is also near the alps and it is in the Piedmont region!

They have two sons one is eight and he is named Davide. The other one is much younger and he is called Agnese. The parents are Eros and Simo.

The parents said thatt Davide is very excited and wonders if I eat pasta and pizza! They also said that they would love for me to cook some American food for them, and Davide is curious what kind of food I eat! They sounded really excited about me coming as they have never had a daughter and a 16 year old at that!

 Fossano is about half the size of Flagstaff  and it will be about 0 degrees Celsius which is about the same temp as here is Flagstaff in the winter.

I am SO EXCITED!!! I am going to be a big sister!!! I wasn't so excied about ITaly before but now I don't know if i will be able to hold a conversation without monopolizing it with my news of Fossano.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Beginning...

So, this is really happening, I am going to Italy!!!


In January of 2009 I am leaving the United States for a six month study abroad with AFS! I have gotten the official acceptance letter and am going through the final requirements before I leave in about one month. I am relieved that I am through a lot of them, but I am still working on applying for a visa which is another very complicated process.

I recently received my flight information and am so excited for January 28, when I fly to New York City for my orientation and then fly to Paris ( I will get a chance to test my french skills!) and finally ROME!!! I fly back home through Paris on July 5th so I will still have about one month of summer vacation before I start my senior year. 

I have gotten the Rosetta Stone Levels one and two for learning Italian and have gotten through the first 5 or so lessons. It is actually really fun and I remember what I learned! Now I know how to say una casa vechia*  and un bambino sotto un aereo**!  Hopefully I will be able to learn enough before I leave so that I will know how to sound somewhat intelligent. 

I am so excited to actually be doing this and I am surprised that more teenagers don't pursue being an exchange student. I think that one of the big challenges that kids shy away from is how expensive a semester of year program is. I was definitely  worried about the price tag, but have managed to fundraise a lot of money in just a few months! I decided to bake and sell pies in my community and sell homemade chocolate chip cookie bars at my school three days a week. In about three months I have made over $2,000 for my study abroad! I also applied for both need and merit based scholarships and received $700 from The Global Leaders Merit Award and another $2,000 from the AFS Global Leaders Scholarship.  It just goes to show you that anything is possible if you put your mind to it!



*A old house
**A boy is under a plane