Here Comes The Sun...

I feel like a superhero walking around Italy and soaking in the sunlight... Honestly I feel so jubilant that I could just pick up a car and throw it into the moat infront of the library/castle!

And now... some pictures!!!




This is (from left to right) Serena, Me, and Sofie in MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!! In fact... right after this picture we went out into the big piazza in front of the cathedral and were on national television! There is this music tv show and the Host of the show, Carlos is allways filmed infront of this piazza, and everyone in a while they film the people below and there was a crowd of kids in my class that was filmeded and when we saw ourselves on TV (there is a big screen up on one end of the piazza) we went craZY!!! but... it was raining... so all of Italy saw the top of my umbrella... It's still pretty cool though!


This is Davide and Erika (aunt) at the big lunch celebration for Davide's first communion!!!!! And his celebration tiramisu-cake!






















This is Davide and Simo playing at the (pronounced call-che as in check-toe) that Eros and I put together by hand!!!





















HUZZAH!

Religion. And Food.

I've noticed that whenever I make a new accuantence here that somewhere in our first conversation they ask me if I go to church, and when I answer yes,I used to when I was little, they seem to relax a little. Now this doesn't always happen, but usually...

Anyways... Today was the first communion of my little brother Davide!!!!!!!!!!!
I went to church and actually understood some of it with the help of my memories in english! There was a group of 50-ish kids who were all on the same boat, so they didn't even read a list of everyone included because it would take too long. The mass itself was just like in the U.S. as far as I can tell, except during the part where you shake hands with the people around you and wish them peace, here they spent more time shaking EVERYONE'S hand they could reach with a sincere "pace".
After mass was lunch.
O.K. here we go... we went to a fancy restaurant place...
Before we even sat down was the which is a time for everyone to eat some yummy finger-food and wine, and mingle. Then once we sat down the first antipasta was fish and shrimp on a bed of ratatouille,I, being a vegetarian had just a bigger serving of just the ratatouille (that, by the way was amazing!). Second was a piemontese meat dish that I don't know how to decribe because I don't know much about meat. I had an asparagus salad with pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.. that was hot... and delicious. Third was pasta... freshly made penne-like paasta that too had meat, so instead I ate a HEAVENLY pasta dish where the pasta was unlike anything I have ever seen! It was kind of like a gnocchi consistency, but not made with potatoes (and not icky like gnocchi) that was shaped kind of like little peapods... but not... and then it was with fresh tomatoes and oliveoil and basil. Simple, yet infused with the flavor of the Gods. I swear the tomatoes in Italy are just down right better than any tomatoe in any other country... I don't know how they do it...
Next was another pasta dish that is tipical piemontese too: Ravioli with spinach and cheese inside with a light cream sauce on top, which was delightful!
Then, before the main dish we had lemon sorbet,Which was served in a little champagne-type glass because it was frothy and light so you could drink it.
The main dish was a little steak-type-thing with roasted potatoes and cookied spinach, I justhad the potatoes and spinach, but I don't know how to comunicate to you how wonderfully happy I was to be eating slimy cooked spinach. The flavor! The Flavor!!!! Oh Jesus!
Desert was a giant tiramisu cake! This puppy was HUGE! It more closely resembled a pizza...
Lastly was coffee. But I haven't meantioned yet the beverages that went with this lunch! I had a glass for white wine and a glass for red wine, a water glass, and another little champagne-type glass for the special dessert wine we had with the tiramisu cake. I had the same dessertwine at easter and I LOVE it. If I ever develope a drinking problem it will be because of this wine.

The entirety of this eating parade lasted five hours... Oof. None of us ate dinner...

Oh!!! And guess what!!!???? two Thursdays ago when I went to Torino with a group of AFS kids and I went to the cinema museum I saw the origional hat of CHARLIE CHAPLIN!!! AND I saw the real diamond jewelry set of MARILYN MONROE!!! And also a pair of her shoes!!! And a sexy corset-like top of hers!!!! It was SO COOL!!! She had normal sized feet... I always assumed she had small dainty feet...

Alrighty! Ciao!

La Punta Metà - The halfway point

Ho ricevuto una lettera dal'ufficio di intercultura oggi.

I got a letter from the intercultura office today.

I have made it halfway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It really only seems like it's been a couple weeks! It's amazing how fast just living is! I have filled out an evaluation of my trip so far to send in to intercultura, and I think they will be happy to see what I wrote!

It is pretty incredible that all of this has happened to me, and that I'm really in ITALY. I still forget how awesome that is sometimes... and when I remember I flip out.

I decided to post this picture as a marker of my progression... longer hair... new rose hairclip... bunches have changed about me! I took this picture just now, so it is perfectly current too!

Ho ingrassato qui, veramente - I've gained weight here for sure.But you can't really tell in this photo... oh well, fa la stessa! I think I have figured out a little more about this weight gaining business, In the beginning we gain weight because of the stress, and the great food you never want to stop gulping, but also because your body has to adjust to the extreme diet shift.

The good news is that my italian tutor told me that italians have the healthiest diets in general because of how they eat small breakfasts and more for lunch and dinner. I don't remember why, but it is scientifically proven that eating less in the morning like italians do is better! Or something like that... =P

A general breakfast for me is a cup of hot milk with sugar (but this week with honey instead because I have a little bit of a cold, and everyone here insists that honey in your milk will fix ya right up!), a couple cookies, and maybe a little crunchy cookie/cracker-thing with jam or nutella.

So, the big news is that yesterday I went to Milano! It was with my class (3^a linguistico) and one other and we went with some of the art teachers at our school. Our trip's aim was to visit the Pinacoteca di Brera (A famous art gallery/museum) and the cathedral! It was all gorgeous! The cathedral is breath taking! It's huge andit's got all these spires! And guess what!!!! At the pinacoteca I saw paintingsby Raffaello Sanzio and Donato Bramante!!!!! ISN'T THAT SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????

Go art! And even better! My art teacher gave me a book she bought at the gallery gift shop (in english!) as a souvenir for me to remember her and the gallery! Isn't that ridiculously wonderful!

I bought myself a little journal because I only have a couple pages left In the one I brought with me. I'm proud of myself because this is the first time in my life that I have consistantly kept a journal! And I actually write in it everyday!

Back in the New York airport when I was writing in it, the AFS volunteer that was travelling with us, Karen told me that when she was my age she went to Hungary with AFS and she kept a journal too. She said that a couple weeks before she had found it and reread it after over 20 years and that she loved it! She said it was like reading a novel about a brave young girl who was a complete stranger! Hearing that kind of inspired me to stick to writing everyday and to record who I am during this amazing time of my life!

O.K. So this next picture is a little random... it is a picture of a building and a field that I pass by everyday when I go to school or the library, or anywhere really, but I think that maybe I have little photography skill afterall! I know I have taken some pretty horrendous photo's with heads chopped offand blurryness and all, but I hope this makes up for some of it! I think it's pretty...

Thats all for now folks! Ciao ciao!

Obama in Italy...

So, perhaps you are all wondering how sad I must be that once my true love (or maybe, just my prefered candidate) was elected president of the United States, off I went to the other side of the planet..



Actually, I find Barack Obama in my everyday live in Italy aswell! He is in every newspaper, he is always on the evening news, and he also found me in France last week! It was on the final day of my trip in France and we had some time for shopping before the long 7 hour busride back to Fossano. I bought myself a lovely black 3/4 sleeve shirt and some chocolates for my host family, Sofie bought an intensely brilliant blue shirt with sequins, Luisa boughtsoap poppy bubble bath things for a friend... but Lucia



Lucia, the shopaholic fashion queen of the class bought a Yes We Can Obama shirt.



I feel ridiculously patriotic sometimes...











Then Elena Armellini (her nickname is Armelline,isn't it pretty!?) bought this magnificent T-shirt:






























Now, this is something else that I bought in France... Crepe aux chocolat. Only the most heavenly thing in this universe...



BEFORE:



























































AFTER:

I ate that magnificent crepe with 5 other girls in my class we were all speechless afterwords... once we were able to talk again we went back to the tiny little kitchen and profoundly thanked the cook, Michel.

It was an afternoon well spent.

This Week... Questa Settimana

Io ho solo tre giorni di scuola questa settimana, e domani è l'ultimo!
I only have three days of school this week, and tomorrow is the last one!

Huzzah!

Dopo scuola domani io vado con i miei amici nella mia classe a Cuneo per pranzo!
After school tomorrow I go with my friends in my class to Cuneo for lunch!

Poi...then...

Dopodomani è il compleanno della mia sorellina Agnese!!!!
The day after tomorrow is the birthday of my little sister Agnese!

Poi...then...

Il giorno dopo dopodomani vodo a Torino per la gita con gli altri ragazzi stranieri con intercultura!
The day after the day after tomorrow (Friday) I go to Turin for the trip with the other foreign students with AFS.

Poi...then... domenica...Sunday...

PASQUA!!!
EASTER!!!

E la miei cari amici è quando mangio il montagne di cioccolato nella cucina.
And that my dear friends is when I eat the mountain of chocolate in the kitchen.

Sei geloso?
Are you jealous?

Penso di si.
I think you are.

Ma la migliore parte è che non vado a scuola ancora fino a mercoledi prossima.
But the best part is that I don't go back to school again untill nest Wednesday.

La vita è buona.
Life is good.

From left to right: Serena(AKA sere), Elena(ALA Ela), Serena(AKA Sere), and Sofie(AKA Zof)

Some of my friends when we went out for breakfast together at a tiny little cafe before school! And the beautiful cappucinni!

The croissants al cioccolato at this cafe are claimed to be the best in town! I definitly believe it!

I am also working on a massive photo update on facebook so check out what I have up so far! I will worn you that I took over 300 pictures in the past 4 days from my trip to France so It may take a while getting you up to date!