Thrills, frills, and pinapple smoothies!

Wow. Being an exchange student is freaking hard. It's a great opportunity, and can be ridiculously fun, but other times it is a lot of work! It's hard to find the balance between adapting yourself to your new environment, and going through changes, but still keeping, well, yourself, not getting lost in the shuffle. I reckon it is a little easier for US kids going the UK, and vice versa, as the language is the same. Sure, the accent and colloquialisms are going to be unfamiliar, but you have that basic framework. In a country that speaks a different language than your home country, it is doubly hard, I think. I spend my time in a pretty near constant state of confusion, never knowing where I'm going [literally and figuratively], what I'm doing, what I'm eating, or what I'm saying.

Of course, it's not all frustration...there are really wonderful things, as well. But now that the novelty is starting to wear off, there's this in between time where I'm trying to figure everything out. It's kind of hard to enjoy things when you're constantly trying to guess what is coming. I'm starting to get the hang of everything, though. And hopefully soon I'll be settled in enough to be able to relax.

Speaking of settling in...I don't know if I'm going to stay in Santa Maria A Vico past the end of the year. When I first found out that I wasn't going to be with this family the whole time, my first reaction was "well, I gotta stay in this area, at least! Go to the same school! Stay with the same people!" But now I'm starting to change that view. Maybe a change of scene would be good. Get a taste of what life is like for a different sort of Italian. And also, I think it would be awkward to see a family all the time that I used to live with. Maybe not awkward, but...wierd. I don't know. There's one other factor in this that I'm not allowed to divulge at this time that is also influencing my thinking...be patient.

I had a brilliant idea that perhaps I could move to Milan, and live with Ceci, the girl who was an exchange student at my school last year. Heck, she already offered to host me...don't know if she was entirely serious, though. Hmm.. I shall consult my parentals [me mum was going to try and find out at the programme if they knew what my future holds] and then send ole Chech [pronounced englishy...like Chechnya] an electronic mail, fer sure.

Man, I'm really excited to go to Paris...I hope it works out! Because that would pretty much be AWESOME!! z0mg!! I will fer sure wear all my short skirts striped tights fancy dresses tall boots and lolita glasses!! I will be hella styley in a hella styley city. When I finally get my computer online [I just found out that I might be able to at school!! Rad!], perhaps I'll download some "learn french" podcasts...'cause you know how much I listened to the Italian ones... It would be nice to expand my french vocab..."Bonjour! Parlez-vous francais? Je m'appelle Brigitte! Je suis l'ananas! Je t'aime!! Adieu! Au reviour! Bon voyage!" Dude I will ROCK that city.

I saw High School Musical on the tube last night! It was pretty much the high point of my day. Which is saying a lot because I also watched Paris Hilton's other video...I can't remember the name of the song, but it's the one about losers, with the kid in it....on gay.tv, like 2 or three times. I closed my eyes and wished for PH, and when I opened them...well, there she was! Man I want to buy that video off of iTunes. Or just steal it like the pirate I am. Probably the 2nd 'cause I'm stingy. But High School Musical was just freaking RAD. We went to my host cousin's house [after going to another cousin's house...] after dinner, and at that point all I wanted to do was go home and put on a movie or just go to bed. And then we walked in...and there was HSM on the TV!! I just about yelped with joy. And sat there glued to the screen for the rest of the movie [it was part way through...we came in when Gabriella is singing "When there was me and you" in the halls], grinning like a fool and mouthing the words to the songs. All the dialogue was dubbed in Italian, but the songs were the original, with italian subtitles. Since the soundtrack has pretty much been in constant play on Veronica, I knew all the words. It was AWESOME times a billion. I have to get that movie!!

Wow, I was just reading over my typed blog posts so far and I realized that they have covered in detail the first few days and then kind of peter out...I think that's a combination of not having time, being overwhelmed with things to say, and also frustration of not being able to internetify these entries. So instead I have been putting my energy into letters [don't feel bad if you haven't gotten one yet...I haven't written many, and have sent even less. If you're not sure that I have your address, email to me]. But even those don't cover everything. So here's a recap:

Santa Maria A Vico is the town that I live in. Though it is indeed rather larger than ole G-home, it is not exactly what you'd call a booming metropolis. It's a pretty nice town, though it seems to live here is to loathe it, at least if you are a youngster. What amazes me is how much everyone walks everywhere. Or, at least, we do. Not to say that there aren't a billion cars [teeny tiny things...you could fit about 3 in your average SUV] and motorbikes [some, not all, of which are the stereotypical but oh-so-fab vespas], because fer sure there are. But it is also possible, if you aren't 18 [the driving age here] and don't have a motorbike, to walk pretty much anywhere in town you need to go. And you can take the bus [pullman in Italian...whenever anyone says anything about taking the pullman my first thought is trains. Is that wierd?] if you need to get to another town.

People here go out a lot... there aren't really any discos [I think there's one in the whole town; we haven't been yet], but they go to the bars, or just to hang out in the piazzas with friends and maybe a gelato cone. The bars aren't like they are in the US at all...for one thing you don't have to be drinking age to go [which is 16 so I'd be let in, anyways], and they don't just sell alcohol. You can buy a pop or juice, coffee [espresso, cappuccino, whatever], a candy bar or some gum. All the ones I've been are really nice looking inside, well lit, and snazzy. Not the smoky dive bar type at all. Even so, people don't really hang out in them. Well, some do, but for the most part, folks get their drink or whatever and then go to stand or sit outside [perhaps a practice less common in the rainy, colder months] and enjoy the evening, check out the other folks, and chillax. It's nice.

I've spent more time with friends here than I do with the US...maybe it's the ease of walkifying, maybe I'm just not a very social person in Cali...sorry guys! But here, in the afternoon after you've done your homework, you can go over to your friends house, or just hang out in town. It's pretty rad.

We have kind of been spending a lot of time at home though, especially now, as school is really in full swing and so Daniela has LOADS of homework. Seriously, it's intense how much she gets. I am awed. o.O And, frankly, bored out of my mind. What do I do while she's working her ass off? I don't want to just sit there and, like, watch her. But if I'm up in my room I feel really antisocial, 'cause it's up at the top of this spiral staircase, by itself, and so even if the door is wide open I feel like I'm isolating myself. Today I brought my computer downstairs to when Dani was doing homework and watched The Bourne Identity with my headphones on. It was a little embarrassing, because, as I'm sure you know, I tend to get really into movies, and sometimes make a lot of unintentional noise when watching them. So during this one part I gasped really loud and Daniela and Aniello both looked at me like, "what the hell is she doing"...I was like, "Ciao...."

School right now is pretty boring as well, especially because right now it is safe to say that I don't understand what the heck the teachers are going on about. Even though my Italian is improving, got dang do they talk fast!! I kind of have the feeling that, even if I did speak the language, the lessons would be waaay over my head. This is quite embarrassing, especially because I'm a year older than everyone. The one class that is boring, easy, and I actually understand what is going on some of the time is English. They're studying the Celts and the Iberians, and Stonehenge and whatnot, stuff I never got in school. So that would be kind of interesting, except it took me about 15 minutes in Dani's text book to cover what we've been plowing through for a week and a half. I'm going to see if I can get transfered to 4th year English [I'm in 3rd year–Daniela's grade] because it would probably be more interesting, I'd get to be with kids my own age, and the boys in the upper grades are soooo much hotter!! Yeah, that's me, priorities firmly in the right place!

Since paying attention is useless [though I do it if I have nothing else to do] I've been doing a variety of things during class time. In the beginning, I mostly studied Italian. But now I finished my italian book, so I've had to find other ways to amuse myself. I've written letters, drawn, read Vogue Italia, started translating an article about Snakes on a Plane from Italian to English, and today started working on my screenplay. Man I am so excited about my movie!! It is going to magnificent.

These are the classes I have: Algebra 2, Biology, Physics, Literature, Philosophy, Italian, Art, Latin, P.E., and English. I think that's all of them. That is a pretty heavy load for sophomore year!! Now you know why Dani's always studying. It's ridiculous.!

In school here, you don't change classes during the day [except to go the gym for P.E.], you stay in the same room all day. Only, at least for my class, that is a different room each day. I'm not entirely sure why...maybe they don't have enough rooms for everybody? Hmm...

Cutting her head off,
Bee Electric