KRBSABFbL! Rockin!

What have I been doing lately?

Knitting: I'm knitting Alex a scarf for Christmas...It is navy blue and gray, with really big stripes. I don't know...I hope it will look OK. I dropped a stitch within the first inch or so, but didn't realise until I was a few rows past, and couldn't be bothered to go back and fix it. I don't think Alex minds, though...she was just stoked that I was making her a scarf. I named the D.S. Timmy. It is amazing how cheap yarn is in Italy, omigod. Maybe I just usually buy fancy schmansy expensive yarn in the US, but I bought a pack of 5 knitting needles, four skeins of yarn and a JFK patch and got out of there for €14. Crrrazy, I know!

Reading Blogs: This is probably my favourite pastime, and I daresay that the fact that I do read so many is partly responsible for the decline in posting in my own. But how can I help myself?? Why dwell on the boringosity of my own life when there are so many interesting things out there?

School: I spend a lot of time at school. My school day starts by getting off the bus in Maddaloni, having a tiny cup of supes-hot espresso, wandering around a bit [with Alex, if it is any day but Monday], then heading to class. That entails consulting the list of classes and then the map that says where to find them. Then I sit in class and play Hangman, read Spider-Man comic books, or knit. I might have a period in another class, which means that I am either still bored or used as a teacher's aide. If I am REALLY lucky I have at least 1 period in the computer lab.

Alex: She is departing this fair [::snort::] country December 10th, and therefore I have been spending as much time as possible with her. We had our [most likely] last sleepover on Saturday night...Total decadence. We went to L'Anfora and split a plate of Ravioli and a boat of gnocchi, then when we came back we put on red lipstick and sunglasses and ate cookies, candy [the 3 types of fake M&Ms, then marshmallow mushrooms and erasers], pink cotton candy from a cup, and drank yellow Fanta. We listened to Madonna and Depeche Mode, and then watched Spider-Man before bed.

Being Frustraded by Liars: Especially ones named Katia who are Alex's host mom...Golly Goshfase! I can't remember [or be bothered to check] if I wrote before about the last time Alex tried to sleep over, how Katia said that Giuseppina told her that Al wasn't allowed to sleep over at my place anymore, and that we completely did not believe her. Well, when Alex was talking to Giuseppina, she actually came straight out and asked her if that was true, and of course Giuseppina was like, "No....". But when Ale asked Katia about it, she called Giuseppina "scema" [stupid] and a "strega" [witch]. What the? Alex told her that my mom had said it was okay, and so her mom said OK too, but then, after a not-so-quiet conference in the bathroom with Carmen, she told Alex that Carmen had talked to Dani at school [not true] and Dani had told her that my mom only said yes because Giuseppina called her and asked her [also not true]. I just don't get it. Oh wellz.

Hmmm that pretty much wraps it up for now....

Oh by the way you should check out the sidebar...it is kind new and Revamped!

Chuckling giddily,
Bee Electric

Broken Hearted Bee

Yeah, so, after a particularly confusing day [more on that later], I was ready to slow it down and go to bed...def. not prepared for the double heart attack that I experienced when Dani logged in to her MSN spaces and it was all "Keira Knightly Gets Married! Orlando Bloom flirts with Kirsten Dunst!!" Ex-cuse me?? All this stupid crap about TomKat had obscured the fact that Ms. KK was gettin' hitched. I admit I did not know until after the fact! Things like being in Italy and other people's computers have inhibited my celebrity news watching....dang. I am still not completely over it, though it has prompted me to create the GENIUS title of this post...man oh man I am the coolest. But Orlando and Kirsten...I guess that's okay...I love them both madly, and think they make a good couple, so as long as they don't, you know, get married or anything, I'm down. She is supposedly taking a few years off for Art School, anyways. Hmm how long do you stay in art school? 4? Wouldn't it be kind of THE BESTEST if I went to the same school as her?? And if she and ole Orli-fase are still together, or at least good pals [maybe the latter would be better], THIS COULD BE MY IN!!!! Sweet! Okay I have decided that I am still torn up about KK but am just alrightyfineanddandy with Orls and KiKi. KK and KiKi...::chuckles:: Can't wait for May and some super cinema action from the Magic Trio in Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The ends of the Earth and Spiderman 3!!! Radolicious!!!!

Sniffling just a little,
Bee Electric

The Information Age

Let's see...what has been going on with this ole gal since the SUPERLAME day?? Sorry I haven't been updating lately....I just have been so busy!! Okay that is a straight up lie...I haven't been busy. I haven't been busy in AGES. So pretty much I haven't been online much except for a few hours at school and lately I have been OBSESSED with the Fred Flare blog...It is pretty much my favourite thing in the WORLD right now. So yeah, I spend all my time on there.

So here are a few highlights...I don't know if I mentioned that Wednesday was our big 2 month anniversary of Fun...well, it was! So we [Me, Ale, the other Alex, Annette, Gina, and Franco, plus assorted family members (Dani couldn't go)] went to this pizzeria named "Blackout" in Maddaloni. It was pretty fun...the pizzeria was, like, underground, and it had this vaguely cave-like feel to it, which was rad. The pizza was decent, not the best, but I was pretty proud of myself for being able to order Ale's and my pizzas (she wanted a Marg with french fries and corn, I wanted my usual Marg with cotto and funghi), 'cause neither of them were on the menu. Alex and I have come to the conclusion that Franco has lame-ass taste in Pizza. 'Cause both the pizza at this place and the Due Querce, where we went the first time we all went out in Madd, Franc swore up and down was delicious, but wasn't... Hmm....

Saturday was a pretty boring day...we [Gina, Anto, Alex, Carmen, me, and Dani] were planning on going shopping in Caserta that afternoon [though I wasn't going to buy anything, having already spent too much at the mall], but my dad picked me and Dan up at school partway through the 5th hour [we had 6 that day] and we went into Caserta to get my Permisso. I was like, "Ummm...I don't have my passport or anything 'cause I didn't know we were going..." but my dad had it, which meant he kind of had to dig through my stuff to get it...hm....whatever. We went to the place, and all I had to do was Sign Here and I got the damned thing!!! I realized then that it had Santa Maria A Vico written on it...I hope to Jesus H. that I don't have to go and get another one after I move. 'Cause it took 2 freakin' months to get this one....

One cool thing was in Maddaloni we saw a few posters for Marie Antoinette...Golly GEE I want to see that movie! Kirsten Dunst is sooo purty on the poster!! Gah it looks to be a right AWESOMETASTIC film!!

But yeah, we ended up not going shopping in Caserta, 'cause Carmen's mom told Car they had to go to the Supermarket so she couldn't go which meant Dani didn't want to go which meant that Me and Alex couldn't either. I was like, Okay, whatever, and called Gina to let her know. After which my mom spent about 15 minutes explaining to me that I couldn't go to Caserta alone. I was like, "Yeah, I know, you won't even let me cross the street alone..." and that it was OK if we were with Dani and Carmen etc...blah blah blah. It's okay, though. I was eating a rather delicious cookie and therefor not paying much attention.

Alex ended up coming over just to chillax in the afternoon...we sat around watchign Groundhog Day and talking for a while...including a little bit about some drama going on with her and her sister's friends [in the OC] and her sister [in Seattle]...I was like, "This is the new age...There is drama spreading from Orange County to Seattle, and we are here in Santa Maria A Vico, Italy, talking about it..."

Dani had some friends over [Grazia, Angela, Anna, Gianni, Andrea, Giovà, and Marco], so we all got pizza from L'Anfora...I got my usual but Alex branched out a little and got a four cheese. Oops. They messed up on her pizza and it had, like, clams, mussles, and artichokes on it. I guess there wasn't anything to be done, so we just had to suck it up and eat it. Ale picked everything off it, but I felt bad so I traded her a piece of mine. We kept watching Groudhog day, and then Alex's mom called to say she was coming to pick her up in 10 minutes. I found out that Grazia was spending the night, and so I asked if Alex could to, and she was like, "Yeah, sure." So Alex tried calling her fam but they had already left.

When they got her she asked her mom and Katia was all, "No...the Professoressa said that you can't spend the night here ever again." We were like, "Why? Does that apply to all the students or just Alex at my house?" And Katia responded that she didn't care what the other students could or couldn't do. Me and Alex went back into the house to get her last piece of pizza, fuming. 'Cause that is so not even most likely true!! Why would Giuseppina say that, and not tell us?? It doesn't make any sense....

So I was pretty angry after Alex went home...though eventually the Italian Invasion came, stealing my sunglasses, so I went downstairs and the rest of the night was OK.

Sunday was fine...I was planning on washing my hair but I woke up to late and got all dressed and went downstairs to find Dani still in her PJs. She told me that we weren't going to Mass and I was like, OKay...but by then I didn't really feel like showering and getting dressed again....

At lunch I had 2 servings of pasta...which was a mistake because after dolce at our place we went over to Nadia's and had MORE dolce. I took a piece of chocolate cake [a] 'cause I like chocolate and [b] because it had these little sugar pellets on top that for some weird reason reminded me of the little garlic bits in the Trader Joe's marinated mushrooms...MMM... But then they were all "Take more! Take more!" So I carefully selected a small cookie that had chocolate in the middle...but then the uncle handed me this fatty piece of another dolce...and then Feli gave me another cookie...I almost popped...

Well I am tired of this blog entry so I shall post it!!

Just Eating a Little Too much
Bee Electric

Bee Electric and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday was pretty much a terrible day. I couldn't get to sleep the night before, and so it was hard to wake up in the morning. I did wake up on time, but then when I fell asleep again my legs were crossed Indian style and so they were all numb and painful when I woke up again.

We only had 3 hours of school, which originally I thought was great, but then we ended up going to this demonstration thing at the Military Base. z0mg, BORE CITY. Holy crap! At first it was kind of cool, ya know, with all the MiMis marchin' about and stuff with their uniforms on [I mentioned to Gina how silly it was that my first trip to a Military Base [that I can think of] was in Italy, she agreed], but then this fella started to talk over the PA system. And talk. And all there was to look at was all these MiMis standing in formation. And all they had to look was us. I seriously think we were being used as props, 'cause there supes were these peeps with professional video cameras and photo cameras and whatnot, and whenever any of the cameras pointed at the crowd we had to cheer and wave the Italy flags that were handed out. Neither Gina nor I got one, which we were rather sad about. But yeah, the presentation was boring...I slept through it...literally...that was GREAT. And then when the guy was done talking these little groups of MiMis dressed up in costume [I think representing different time periods in Italy's military history or something] would come to the front and pose in a scene, and then walk off, and then these trucks with all these different kitchens and laundry rooms and showers that the MiMis use[d? I couldn't tell if these were past or present] drove by. It was riveting. I took a lot of pictures.

When that was all over we left, and had to walk [across town...we were bussed over but had to walk back] all the way to our bus stop...in the hot sun...and I had my BLACK winter jacket and my backpack...It was horrid...

The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, but when I went to get off, the stupid driver closed the doors in my face. Ignoring my [and others'] shouts of "APRI! APRI!" [and "OPEN THE £%$€ING DOOR!!], he just kept on a-driving to the next stop. I was like, you have got to be kidding me. Luckily Angela's stop is after mine and Gra and Dan's, so she walked with me to one of the Plaza's and Dani and her dad came and picked me up. When we got home they were starting to eat lunch, which was bad because it meant that I had [inadvertently] interupted it. During the meal, my mom asked me why I didn't get off the bus with Dani and Grazia, in a "duh, what were you thinking??" kind of tone. I was like, "well, I tried..." and then she's all "Well you need to pay more attention" and I was like "????? it wasn't my fault!!" ::sigh::

Then later we went to go get my phone activated...which entailed going to the Vodafone Central place, and filling out a form. I brought my passport this time. It was far enough away that we had to drive [plus it was dark by then] and when we got in the car my mom started bitching about having to drive me and Dani [and sometimes Alex, I think] around every day. For one thing, she doesn't have to drive me every day, and also, if she, oh, I don't know, actually let me out by myself, it would make life easier for everyone.

After the phone thing, Dan and I went to Gra's house for a bit, and got home right before we needed to leave for the gym. I didn't know we were going to cut it that close, so I had to rush changing and whatnot and then I didn't have time to fill up my waterbottle. So I was gasping like a fish when we finished at the gym.

It was a pretty much lame-ass day.

But that was the worst one in a while...it isn't all bad here...

Pluggin along,
Bee Electric

Havin' it My way

Today we [Dani, her 'rents, Grazialina, and I] went to the Centro Commerciale [that is "mall" in Italy-speak], near Napoli. It was pretty much the coolet thing. They had these GORGEOUS Christmas lights up [it is already Christmastime here, since they have no Thanksgiving to delay it], but the mall itself was pretty sweet as well. It is huger than most malls I've been in [def. bigger than anything in Santa Rosa]...it has a movie theater with six screens [we didn't catch a flick this time], a food court [with a Burger King...more on that later...and a pizza place, and probably something else too], and also another area with a bar slash gelateria. Then there are a billion stores, and it is connected to the Ipercoop, which is kind of like Safeway meets Costco, but on COCAINE. It is pretty sweet, 'cause you are just walking through the mall and then you look to your right and it is like BAM! Because the check outs go straight into the rest of the mall, so you can see the loooong rows and rows of merchandise.

We went to a bunch of stores. First we went to this CD/book store [Kind of like Borders, I guess...], and Dani got "Il Diavolo Veste Prada," the book, and I got Madonna's "Erotica" CD and a two disc Marilyn Monroe comp. [They were both on sale...] When we checked out, the guy gave us each an Ice Age cellphone charm dangly bit [we all chose Sid, 'cause he is the coolest]. Then we went to the Outlet, which is pretty much what it sounds like. They had a whole bunch of brands that I have never heard of, including this one whose name I cannot remember but the initials are NPR...I almost got a sweatshirt just 'cause it said NPR, but it was too spendy to do that. They also had some Nike and Sweet Years [this crazypopular Italian brand] stuff that I was looking at, but even at outlet prices it was too much. I goofed around with the hats a bit, and Dan took a few pictures that I will post later. We also took a gander at the shoes, and there were the CUTEST little Italy coloured [that is the National Team blue, with red, white, and green stripe accents] shoes that I was dying to get, but, unfortunately, only came in kiddie sizes.

Next we went to Sephora, which ws RAD. I really want to go back there, after Paris, when I know better how much money I have, and get some make up. For now I just had to settle on some of that Clinique [dang Mom you got me hooked] spray moisturizer stuff in the pink bottle. It is really dry here [when it isn't raining], and that is wreaking havoc on my skin.

After that we wandered the mall for a bit, and then we went to this GARGANTUAN electronicsish store [they also had other things...DVDs and games, o'course, but also espresso pots and home appliances etc] to go CELLULARE SHOPPIN'! There were a billion phones I wanted [The DOlce and Gabbana Razr, OMG!], but I settled on a little black LG flip phone that is super-cute and cost 99euro. Still kind of a bunch but not a LOT for a cellphone. I was looking at another [black, of course] sliding phone that was 20 euro less, but it didn't have a camera. Mary Jane [as I have christened it, after Spider-man's ladylove, of course, and also 'cause then I can call it MJ for short] isn't too fancy, but that's okay. I have an eyepod [yay, Veronica!!] for tunes, and so I don't need that in a cell. It was kind of lame, because at that store you could get the Vodafone [the service provider I am using] SIM card and get it all set up for only 5euro instead of their usual 10 [Gra and Dan said that it is ore like 20 in SMaV], but for non-Italy folk you need your passport, and, of course, I didn't have it with me, partly becaue I don't want to lose it, and partly because I am scema ["stupid" in Italian]. God, I was killing myself for not bringing it. But, hey, I've never bought a cellphone before, let alone in Italy...I didn't know how it worked! My CA id card wasn't good enough for that, but it was fine for the lady at the check-out to verify my credit card. Obviously, I bought the phone anyways, and resigned myself to paying more in Santa Maria. But then, later, we went back with Dani's dad and he used his Italy driver's liscense. So I got the cheap deal after all! Tomorrow we are going to a centro Vodafone [that is a Vodafone Central, in case you are really slow] in SMaV to get it activated, and then I will be in business! And all the America folk can call me on that!! And I won't be entirely unreachable for the Italy folk [right now i pretty much am, as our computer is constantly online, and there's only one phone line]. Yay!

After the cell extravaganza, we window shopped around the mall for a bit more, though I restrained from purchasing anything else. It was so much fun to see all the little Christmas decoration shops all over!! I love the holidays!!

By that time Grazia was getting hungry [she didn't eat lunch], so we went to the food court. I wasn't particularly hungry [Dani had gotten gelato earlier], but though that was my chance for dinner, so I went to Burger King. Not because I wanted to be all American-don't-wanna-eat-Italy-food [heck, I eat it every day!], but because I wanted to eat BK in Italy, 'cause it would be fun especially because I never eat it in the US. Seriously, it has been YEARS. Literally. Holy crap! Burger King is so expensive in the Italy! I got a cheeseburger kid's meal [called a cheeseburger Kid's meal...no Italian here!], and it was 4,20! But it came with a toy, so that was OK. And fries. And a drink. I got Coca-Cola Light, as that is nigh impossible to find anywheres. It was a decent cheeseburger [for fast food] and the fries were pretty good. Plus Gra gave me some of her pizza. By the tiem I finished I was STUFFED, but damned if I was going to let any of my money go to waste!

My toy wasn't actually a toy at all, but a WATCH!! Not any watch, but a STAR WARS watch! It is reversible, and on one side [the one with the display] it has Darth Vader on the band, and on the other it has Anakin! On that side there is a hologram of Darth Vader where the display is on the other. So now I can wear two watches at once, one on each wrist! This one, since it is all Italian-y and whatnot, has 24 hour time, and the date is all DayMonth instead of MonthDay. I heart it muchly, though it is rather big. It dwarfs my Spidey watch, which, when I initially bought it, seemed humongo.

Then we met Dani's parents, got my SIM card, and went home. In the car on the drive back Dani got my phone all set up...yay!!

Once at home, I found out that we actually were having dinner, though, luckily, it was just make-yer-own sandwiches, and I didn't have to eat one after I had explained that I had already eaten.

Before Dani ate, we set about building this drawer table thing that her parents had gotten at the Ipercoop. It was one of those lovely contraptions with the diagrams with numbers and no words, and, as I am completely useless when it comes to these things [covered wagon, anyone?], I did my best to help without doing anything too imortant. That meant holding things whilst the glue set, and then handing Dani screws and implements with with to screw them in. Unfortunately, we ran into a few problems, and a bit of the edge of a piece got a little bashed [not my fault! yay!], and Dani's mom got frustrated, so we packed it up.

Then we internetted it up for a bit, and headed to bed. Tomorrow we don't have school [rotazione], so I am going to sleep in a little, take a shower, fold some clothes, straighten up in my room, post this, and work on some photos. And we are going to Vodafone Central to fix up MJ! And I might go out with the other exchange students later, as it is our 2 month anniversary tomorrow. It will be a good day, I reckon. Though perhaps a bit boring at times. Oh well, it's all good. Tonight I do feel a bit sick...don't think I'll be eating BK for a while...

Checking and double checking the time,
Bee Electric

Familial Frustrations

So...we got talked to about going to the computer lab so much...I guess now we have to check with our teacher [I did that anyways], and then go tell Professoressa Miano, then she has to come tell the computer lab guy. Kind of a pain in the bum, but then today during second period there actually wasn't enough room left in our class for me and Gina, so we asked the teacher [the Italian/Latin teacher...she is pretty much my favourite...z0mg, so nice!], and she was all "Yeah, sure, of course!". So we found Miano and now we are in the lab! So it might work out alright.

I think that I am pretty much going to be ready to move in December...sometimes I wish I was moving sooner...I don't know. Sometimes it is like, "yeah, I never want to leave this house, omg!" I almost wish that it was just Dani, and, like, maybe her brothers too. My parents are pretty nice, and they aren't mean to me, or something, but I think they don't really like me. Alex by mistake picked up the phone the other day to call her [real] mom, and our moms were talking and complaining about us...I don't know what to do. Sometimes it is just so frustrating and I want to, like, shake her or something and say "Can't you see that this is hard for me too? Probably harder? And I am trying, goddammit!!" I am polite, I clean my room [wash the windows, sink, toilet, mirror, sweep and mop all the floors, shake the rugs], I make my bed every morning, I keep my room pretty tidy, I am always on time to meals and eat what is given me, I am cheerful, get up [usually] on time, go to church every Sunday, I have completely toned down my style even though that means half of my clothes go unworn...and I have done all of this without complaint!! It can be really hard though...I am so bored and lonely a lot of the time, because Dani has homework...and school is pretty much just computer lab and Hangman...Argh.

At least it hasn't been as bad for me as it is for Alex...Carmen has completely stopped talking to her. She called Giuseppina about it, and she came over to Alex's house and picked her up, and Alex told her all about it, and then they went back to Ale's house and Giuseppina talked to her mom about it...I guess Katia was all "well Carmen is all particular and wants her space so she shuts everyone out, not just Alex" which is so not even true because she goes out and chats with her friends while completely ignoring Ale. And then she started talking about how much money Alex spends and how she's different from them because they are humble people whatever whatever. Okay, Alex has only bought a few things [Bulgari sunglasses, a Miss Sixty winter jacket, and a Prada belt], and she doesn't flaunt them. They're the ones who always ask how much such and such was...and they're the ones who buy a billion fake designer things and pretend they're real. What do Alex's spending habits have to do with anything, anyway? Gosh....so yeah, if it doesn't get better in a week or so, Alex is going to call Giuseppina and maybe go live with her, in Maddaloni. Which means I'll be all alone in Santa Maria, but, really, it is so hard for us to get together that it might not be any different...

Whoever invented putting the radio on the internet is a GENIUS.

So I pretty much think that Senior Year is going to be the best EVER. New school, back with my friends, a job, a driver's lisence...ENGLISH!! Sure the work is going to be pretty hard, but at least I'll have people to help me with it...

Plus since I have nothing better to do lately I have been planning the best parties EVER. Sleepovers...halloween parties...movie nights. DANG it is gonna be awesome.

Well I am going to go back to shopping at Fred Flare...

Thinking a banana split would be rather keen right now,
Bee Electric

Reggianoisty

So, Saturday, we went to the Reggia di Caserta, which is this HUGE royal palace that they built a while ago to try and beat Versailles. I guess the general consensus is that it didn't, though I do think it might be bigger, and the folk that started its building died a-fore it finished, as seems to happen a lot. One of the guide books I read in California was all "durr ugly durrr" but I don't know, I thought it looked pretty rad, from the outside. We just paid for the gardens this time, but I hope that we can go inside at some point.

Alex was supposed to come, but she ended up not being able to, so it was just me, Dani, Gina, Antonella and Mikele [Gina's bro and sis], Valeria [my future sis] and V's boyfriend. All the Italians just wanted to sit on the grass and do nothing, so Gina and I started walking down the path that goes through the middle of the gardens. I say "gardens", but it was really more of a park. A long path, with lawn on either side, flanked by trees. Once in a while you'd come across a fountain or somthing, and that would have flowers etc around it, but it wasn't the fancy gardens you might expect.

There are three waterfalls along the path, but, as the farthest [and, apparently, the prettiest] is an hour's walk, we only made it to the first one. Not to mention it was pretty hot and sunny, and we both had our winter jackets, as it had been quite chilly that morning. I took LOADS of pictures, and hopefully will get to share them all with you soon.

When we got back from walking, the kids were still lolling on the grass, and Gina was pretty hungry, so we went on a Grand Adventure to find some food in Caserta. Luckily I have a sense of direction like a rat, and we were able to find our way to the Green Garden [where we were headed], even though we came out of the Reggia on a different street than we expected to. The snack place next to the Green Goblin [which I am just going to write, because that is what I say in my head...yes, I do realise that I have watched Spider-Man too many times] didn't have sandwiches [what Gina had a hankering for], so we went back to the "Gran Margherita Cafe", which is on this big piazza circle thing. I had walked by it several times before, but never gone in. Gina got a "Panino Napoletano" and I got a hot dog. Gina's sammy was pretty good, I guess. My hot dog was alright...It was all wrapped up in this pastry thing...strange. Our Cokes were rediculously over priced...but that is pretty typical. After lunch we went to the G-Gob and got some gelato...I haven't been there in a while and I forgot how got-damn expensive it is...for just a little bit! But it is super-delish. And then we returned to the GMC and ate a really cute lemon pastry thing...I took a pic of it...

When we got back to the Regg they were all "z0mg where were you!" and we were like..."getting food"...whatever. We chillaxed there for another hour or so, then me and Dan went to take the bus home.

I guess God is still punishing me for getting my visa super easily, because we went to the Questura [for, like, the 5th time] to pick up my Permission of Stay, and it wasn't ready. I guess the stamp, like, broke, or something. So we have to go back again. I really hope that I don't have to register with the popos again when I change families, because, by the looks of it, I will still be working on this one by that time.

Man I so wanna bleach my hair white blonde. Though it would probably turn to dust if I did that...I guess I'll have to settle with black. I'm putting off fixing my roots until right before Paris, just so I don't have to go twice before then. 'Cause I am so not even Frenching it up with brown roots. What-ever!!

Wanting to buy out Fred Flare,
Bee Electric

Lies and the Lying Liars...

Grrr I am kind of annoyed at my host mom right now...Alex was supposed to spend the night on Saturday night, but then couldn't. At first when I asked if she could, my mom was all "Sure if her mom says Yes than so do I", like usual. But then when Alex asked her mom, she said that my mom didn't actually want her to spend the night, that she was just saying yes to be polite or something, and that Alex couldn't go. I asked Dani about that, and she was like, "No, that's not true, it is really OK." So then when I called Alex later to see when she was coming over, she was like, "Pretty soon, as soon as I can get a ride." Two hours later, I called her again, but as I was dialling my mom came in and asked who I was calling. When I said "Alex", she said something but I couldn't understand because the phone was ringing and Katia [Ale's mom] picked up. So I asked for Ale and as soon as she picked up I had to tell her to hold on and find out what my mom was saying. Turns out she was telling me that Ale wasn't coming over, so when I figgered that out I asked Ale about it, and apparently my mom had called her house an hour beofre, when Ale was all packed and ready to go, and told her that she had misunderstood the question earlier, and that Ale couldn't come over because we were doing something on Sunday. That kind of confused and bothered me because [a] no one had told me that Ale wasn't coming over and I had been getting all antsy and excited, and [b] no one had mentioned that we were doing anything on Sunday. So I hung up feeling kind of let down.

Because Alex wasn't coming over, I figured I'd just chill out and watch Lord of the Rings that evening. Dani had told me that they were just staying in instead of going out that night, so I didn't anticipate any thing exciting. But when Gra and Anna came up to my room all dressed up, I was like, Okaaaay, I'm down for just dressing up for no reason, I do it all the time. So they had me come down to the basement with them, and then Angela showed up, and then the boys started showing up, until there were 8 whole people down there! All dressed up all nice and shiny...then there was me with my sweatshirt and all sleepy and whatnot. It wasn't too bad of an evening, but waaaaay different from what I was expecting and wanted. And they ended up sticking around, too, until I finally extracted myself at about midnite, at which time I was really really tired and fell asleep during LotR. Plus Anna made me eat a plate full of potato chips. :-(

We didn't end up doing much on Sunday, pretty much just went to Gra's for a bit, went to church, came home, ate lunch, Gra came over, did some homework [I worked on my photos], then went to a party later. Nothing whatsoever that Ale's spending the night before would have conflicted with. I did hear my mom say something to Dani and her reply with something about homework, so I thought that maybe she had planned on us going someplace but then Dan had too much homework. But then when I asked Dani this morning why Ale couldn't spend the night, she said that Katia had said No. Which so wasn't even true. I don't blame Dani...maybe her mom told her that...she still seems to like me, and is nice to me. Not like Carmen is to Alex. But that doesn't change the fact that Alex couldn't spend the night and no one has been honest about why. I wish they would just tell me if they thing she has been spending the night too much or something. I wouldn't be offended or anything, I would more be thankful that they gave me a decent reason instead of making up stuff....

Alex damn well better be able to sleep over at least one more time...she is leaving in a month, for Chrissakes. The next [and hopefully not, but probably, the last] sleepover we have is going to be all out decadent. As soon as we have word that it is okay, we are stocking up on cookies and candy, and then buying pizza that night. We'll borrow King Kong from Alessio, and maybe watch Lost in Translation or the Virgin Suicides again. Got-dang I am going to miss Ale after she leaves. Sometimes I feel rotten for hanging out with an American so much, but I do it because I really really really like her, not because she is an American. Whatever. Half of the exchange students are leaving after January, anyways, so I really am going to have to make Italian friends. Or be a loner. Whatever. Right now I am staring down the barrel of 7 months of all day in the computer lab...I can already feel my brain turning to mush...

Planning trips to Bainbridge,
Bee Electric

Dear Santa [et all]....

So I have decided to start my Birthday/Christmas Wishlist...If you want to get me stuff off this I suggest sending it to my house in California, at least until we get this mail situation figgered out [maybe after I move?]...or you can just give me money which is tacky to ask for but heck I'd put it to good use in Paris, fer sure!!

Please note that this is aimed at people that would be already getting me presents for some reason or another, not trying to get others to give. Though go for it, if you want to!!

TopatoCo
*InterWeb 2.0 Tee [Ladies Size M]*
*Cowboy Killers Tee [Ladies Full Flavor Black Size M]*
*I Am Made Of Poison Tee [Ladies Black/Red Size M]*

Questionable Content
*Math Is Delicious Tee [Ladies Size M]*
*Bomb the Blogosphere Tee [Ladies Size M]*
*Coffee of Doom Tee [Ladies Eggplant Size M]*
*Broken Heart Tee [Ladies Red Size M]*
*Music+Science=Sexy Tee [Ladies Size M]*
*TEH Tee [Ladies Turquoise Size M]*


Please and thank you,
Love,
Bee Electric

His other leg has been misplaced.

I've been trying not to be wierd in what little homework that I have been assigned, but today when I was writing sentences [in Italian, obviously] using simple conjunctions, and it was sooo boring that before I knew I wrote "My dog only has three legs, therefore he cannot walk very well" and "I cannot go to the hospital because it is closed, and so I have to die". Oh well. I didn't end up turning them in today, anyways, because the class didn't exist [see previous post].

I am so proud of myself today!! I didn't eat any breakfast, and only had an espresso before school and then a mocha-ish thing during. And then I took no seconds or anything at lunch, and didn't have any bread! I can do this! And I am going to gym later!! Rockin'! Only we had these fried steaks things for lunch so now my mouth tastes of fried breading because I wasn't sure if we were going to be having coffee. However, since it looks like we won't be, I reckon I will go eat half a banana, pop a piece of gum, and format some photos!!

Dang you know what sucks? I totally video taped my ride to school, but it didn't import into iPhoto and I didn't notice before I deleted it off my camera. Grrrr. Oh by the way I finally counted and I walk 10 blocks to the bus stop in the afternoon. And then ride the bus back those 10 blocks.

Thinking in Italian,
Bee Electric

P.S. Today when I was eating a banana, I looked at the top [it was sliced in half, so it was a crossection], and theriously thought to myself, about the complex structure of the peel etc, "Man what a genius invention by the monkeys!" And then I was really glad I didn't say that out loud because OBVIOUSLY monkeys didn't invent bananas. xB

We Shell Overcome!

Right now I am listening to Live105...it is making me miss California a lot...Because I pretty much listen to it ALL THE TIME at home. It would be lame if I didn't cry talking on the phone to my friends but then I did from listening to the radio... o.O Especially because I am in the computer lab in school lab. Man I sure do love Panic! At the disco.

Yesterday we had rotazione, so I didn't do anything during the day except for watch Spider-Man in French with English subtitles. But in the afternoon I went to the Area Rep's house, and found out what is going down with Paris and changing families and whatnot. The 25th is Christmas, obviously [though when I was talking I super-said that Christmas was the 26th...but that is because I was thinking about 3 other dates simultaneously], and I will spend that day with my current family in Santa Maria. And then the 27th I am going to the Professoressa [the Rep]'s house, and spending the night there [with all my luggage and whatnot]. Then, the next day [the 28th], all of us that are going to Paris have to take the train to Ferrera [the town near Milan that the bus leaves from], spend the night at that Area Rep's house, then get on the bus to drive to Paris. After I get back from Par, I am going to my new family's house, in Maddaloni. I am super-duper excited for Paris!! Especially 'cause I met this really cool Australian girl at the Prof's house who is also going!! And so are Gina and Franco!! Yay!! It is going to be AWESOME.

After the Prof's house we [Alex, Annette, Alanna (the Aussie), and I] went to go get ice cream at this place called "Ice Queen". Unfortunately it was closed, so we turned back and went to another place called "Il Principe". I got panna [cream] and chocolate gelato, 'cause they didn't have the kinds that I like the best. They tasted pretty good, and it was cool because Alex got this kind that had these candy bars on it, and she got a whole one. So Annette made a kind of jealous face, and, even though she didn't get that kind of gelato, the guy gave her one too. And then he dipped mine in this big glass bowl of M&Ms. Rad!

I really liked walking around Maddaloni at night, especially because it was kind of a part that I hadn't been in before, and it was pretty in the dark, with all the lights and whatnot. It made me excited to move there!

After we got our gelato, we went to Franco's house for Luca's party. You know what was/is silly? I walk by Franco's house every day and didn't know it until now. He lives on the street that I walk to get the bus home every day...

We got to the house too early for the party, so we pretty much just hung out and looked at Franco's pictures from Italy so far. I think I am going to have him burn them on to DVD for me.

When everyone finally showed up, we gathered in the dark to wait for Luca. Holy CRAP everyone sucked at being quiet! Oh my god!! To be fair, we were waiting in the basement for a billion years, but still...It was completely worth it to see Luca's face when he opened the door and we were all "SUPRISESOPRESAAUGURIBUONCUMPLEANOSHAPPYBIRTHDAYOMGWTF!!!!" He did this kind of jerky double take action. And then he came in and the festa started. There was pizza and really tasty panini, and we danced and it was fun!! I took a bunch of pictures and I hope that I can post them soon. Alex and I were pretty tired so part way through we went out and sat in office chairs in the garage and talked about her sister and tattoos and Vegas and college...it was lovely. And then we went back inside and ate cake [a really good kind that was almost like American cake], and then there was another cake that was more Italian tasting, and they put fireworks in it...and then we had some wine, and danced a little more, and they stopped Panic! At the disco half way through...and then we went home. I was really tired, but when I finally tried to go to sleep it was impossible. I lay awake for half an hour then I watched Coffee and Cigarettes until I got sleepy.

Today was pretty non-eventful. I haven't eaten anything yet, which is pretty cool. I hung out with Gina in my class first period, then I did my Italian homework during English period. Next was P.E. and Gina and I wandered the halls with cups of coffee and chocolate, trying to find our next class. I think that today our school is part Hogwarts because the classroom that is on the list and on the map so doesn't even exist. We found where we thought the door would be, but it was hella bolted shut and whatnot. Like with a padlock or two. So we went to the computer lab for 2 hours, and that is where I am right now. Listening to a promo for Not So Silent Night. Damn San Francisco...

Brought to you by Helio,
Bee Electric

Senza pantaloni and devilish deeds

God, I can't believe I forgot this yesterday...when we were eating lunch, I wasn't really watching the TV, as it is behind me an thusly viewing requires me to contort my body in a way that makes eating not insanely difficult, but twisting to see the tube isn't the easiest position in which to enjoy a delicious lunch. So I had my back to the tele, and was just listening to the audio that was issuing forth. All I could hear was "blah blah in italian blah blah senza pantaloni blah blahioni." Now I may be American, but I still know that "senza panatloni" means "without pants." So, like any sensible sixteen year old girl, I turned about to see what was happening. And what my wee peepers did spy was a whole passle o' peeps in their boxer shorts and "Papa c'e [heart]" tshirts, walkin' about and washin' people's windshields with those sqeegie things, just like all the gypsies do. And then it cut to a bunch of dudes in aprons ironing. It was really odd...

We went to the movies yesterday!! How cool is that? I am super stoked that we FINALLY freaking got to go, as they have been dangling it in front of my nose for many a week. But Tuesday night, Triumph! I was pretty bummed that Alex couldn't come, but there wasn't enough room in the car [the cinema is in Caserta]. We went to go see The Devil Wears Prada [Il Diavolo Veste Prada in Italian], which was cool because [a] I've already seen it in English, and [b] because I LOVE that movie. The ticket only cost 5euros, which was made up for by the fact that drink and a popcorn were 3euro. Each. Next time I am so sneaking in a bottle. Of pop. Maybe next time I'll get pizza to eat. Or a calzone. Dude, they have pizza, beer, calzones, hot dogs, popcorn, soda pop, bulk candy, and a billion other things that they don't in the US. Crazy.

The movie theater inside itself wasn't that exciting...for some reason it reminded me of, like, a lecture hall at a JC, or something, but with more comfy seats. I actually understood a bunch of that movie, but it was pretty difficult, as the talked mighty fast in it. I think in this movie especially they talked fast, even in English. The person who did Meryl Streep's voice actually sounded a bunch like her, it was pretty cool. The clothes and cityscapes were just as AWESOME this time around, as was the music, even more so since I aquired some of the songs in the between time so I know them better. One thing, I guess partly because all the job titles are in English [I think...I don't know for sure], is they don't show all the credits. As soon as it ended my friends started gathering their stuff to go and I was like, okay, whatever, and then the reel stopped and the lights came up.

Now for my celebrity news gossip rundown: OMG BRITNEY IS GETTING DIVORCED YAYAYAYAY!! OMG KATIE AND TOM ARE GETTING MARRIED?!?!?!?! HOW CAN ITALY LET THIS HAPPEN????

Oh guess what? Alex's cousin is married to Christian Bale, the guy that played Batman in Batman Begins. Pretty cool, huh? She's Serbian. Obviously.

Trying to open her battery charger,
Bee Electric

Like Oreos...only more delicious

Hmmm...yet again I busted my gut at school...now I see why they don't have vending machines at the schools in the US...well, at least at the schools I have gone to. o.O Though they must make a killing on that thing...actually there are two, one on each floor...'cause it is usually nearly completely empty by the end of the day. My favourite thing to buy out of it are the Ringo cookies...they are only 50 cents a pack, and you can get vanilla or chocolate filling. They are like sandwiches, with one cookie vanilla and the other chocolate. They are like Oreos, only smaller, and better. I also like buying Snickers and Kit Kats, but they are cheaper at the bar, so I usually get a couple when I get my coffee. One thing I have yet to purchase, but I really ought to, are sandwiches. You can get a prosciutto and cheese tramezzino sammy for a dollar. Euro. Whatever. Is that not awesome?? And it wouldn't be all gross and stuff 'cause these puppies are refridgerated. How could you not support an enterprise like that??

The one vending machine I really like is the coffee one...You can get a cup of coffee for 40cents!! And a cup of coffee and chocolate [what I did today] for FIFTY CENTS. It is DELICIOUS. At first I was like, what the heck, 'cause all the coffee options etc. are "dolce", but they dump the sugar in first so if you snip in there and dump it afore the coffee comes a-pourin', you're in buisness. But I kept the sug this time 'cause I was a-mochain' it up. Dude, you know what is teh lamex0rz, though? That ding danged machine don't give you change. So I put a euro in, and got my coffee, then it was all "50cents credit!" Now I needed that 50cents to get some cookies, so I got Franchi a hot chocolate and he gave me 50cents. Isn't that wierd, though? I should check it every time I walk by to see if there're credits...may get a free coffee one day!!!

School is such a blow...Today I played hangman, went to the computer lab, wandered around school, went to PE for a little bit, went back to the computer lab, got kidnapped by a class that is in love with me and I don't know why, went to Alex's class, got rescued, went to the computer lab again, went back to Alex's class, then went home. Today I didn't, but at least I have started doing some what productive things in the computer lab, such as reading up on French history. Today I had other things, like blogging and looking at webcomic merch, to do. Tomorrow we don't have school, but...Thursday! I will continue to learn! Yay!!!

I hope that I can go over to Ale's house this afternoon...I gots to buy my battery charger and some candy...Plus we have to get Luca [Franco's brother] a birthday present. What do you get for a teenaged Italian boy that you don't hang out with that much?? That is not super-spendy?? These are questions that must be answered!! Because we are going to his party tomorrow!! Shhhhh, it is a suprise...Hopefully it will be fun! We have to go to Professoressa Santo's house first [she is the B3C/ASS3 Local Rep] for a meeting, and then Gina, Annette, Ale and I are going to Franco's house to set up whilst he and Luca are at church. Gosh DANG are we sneaky.

But yeah, I hope that I can go to Ale's, [a] because I haven't really gotten to hang out with her lately, and [b] because my bro stole back the OC dvds...I have to copy and burnify them for laterzZz...first I have to clear out some space on my harddrive...gosh DANG I hate doing that...

Lately I have been saying "voi" instead of "vorrei" by mistake. Like this afternoon I told Dani that "You want to make tortolini" and "You want to buy a Treo." I am such a tool.

Well this post is mighty long so I reckon I'd best end it.

Galumpfhing off into Snow Flake City,
Bee Electric

10% Throat

So, I pretty much got the sweetest giubino [winter jacket...I have no idea how to spell it in italian] evar. Well, Alex's is pretty rad-o-licious as well, but they only had it in small. My loverly giacca is black [of course], and, though it does not have a hood, it has a huge, soft, gray fur collar. I really like it! And it was only 110€! Well, the tag proce was 125€, but they gave me a discount. They're really big on discounts here...my theory of how they can afford that is that they price everything up 10% or whatever...that way when they do give discounts they aren't losing anything, but when they don't...free money! I paid for it by credit card, which was pretty exciting, but the pen they gave me to sign the slip didn't work very well, so that kind of brough the coolest level of my first carta di credito down a little. Oh well. It is a little unsettling that they print the entire card number & expiration date on the slip...

The "ordeal" that I was talking about before was that at first, when I called Alex to see if she wanted to go shopping with me, and she was all "yeah, fer sure, I just have to get back before 6.30 because we have to go to Maddaloni tonight". So I told Dani and she said that would work and they could drive me over in a little bit. And then we had to keep running errands and stuff first and it got a little later...but then my mom kept starting to ask something about whether we were going alone and who was going with us or something, I don't even know. And then we finally got to Alex's house and they all went in with me...I don't even know what went down but then, like, me, Alex, Carmen, Dani, and my mom were all going...which meant that we couldn't go to the candy store and the camera store like I wanted to...And then my mom asked me how much I wanted to spend and I was like, "well it depends on the jacket" but she kept pressing me and asked how much I had and I was like, Jesus!!! Why do you even care??? And then she asked how much cash I had and was like, "about a hundred euros, but I have my credit card..." and I felt all uncomfortable and whatnot. And then we got to the store and at first I couldn't find one that I liked...but then I found this one and I'm glad because I heart it muchly. And I am also glad that Alex was there 'cause she was able to assure me that it didn't look too dumb.

It's funny, though, because on the inside it has a list of the seven sins with percentages next to them...you know, lust, sloth, all that jazz. Only they didn't translate "gluttony" right so it says "10% Throat". It is pretty much the coolest thing. EVER. Oh, and Hanna...it has a "Secret pocket"... o.O

Feelin' pretty cozy,
Bee Electric

The best Jew drawer EVER.

That is my MSN status, 'cause it is true. Today in the English class I help out in we were playing pictionary [which means that I was drawing on the board and they had to guess what it was], and the last word I got was "Jew harp". So, of course I drew one, but, come on, even if you know what a Jew's harp looks like, do you really think that seeing one drawn on the blackboard would be easy to guess?? No, right. So I had to draw the clues...When the teacher gave me the word she asked if I could handle it, and my response was "Sure, I can draw a Jew!" And I'll be damned if I wasn't right. I drew the best lil' ole Orthodox Jew that blackboard has ever seen, complete with hat, beard, and curly bits. It was beautiful. And then I drew a menorah and a couple of different types of harps...they got it but didn't know [or couldn't remember] the word for "Jew", just "Hebrew"...so they kept saying "hebrew harp?" It was a wee bit frustrating. Not quite as frustrating as "Zebra crossing" [crosswalk, to us normal folk]. I drew one, then I drew a zebra [which they thought was a giraffe, so I had to draw one of those and cross it out], and they still didn't get it so I finally just drew a cross...it still took a while, though. For grandfather clock I drew a grandfather clock, and then a grandfather...it was ROCKIN'. And then I went to the computer lab.

Dude, whilst in the computer lab, I was reading a Wikipedia article about Marie Antoinette, and either it was hella biased or it SUCKED to be her. Like some parts would have been cool, but she was in way over her head and hella people took advantage of her. DANG I want to see that movie!!!!

Oh yeah I also got a new jacket and it was a whole ordeal but it is PIMP...more on that later 'cause I think my bro wants to use the computer...It is hard to tell because sometimes he is all "don't worry about it, finish up, take your time, and then I'll use it" but sometimes he's all "don't worry about it" 'cause he doesn't actually want to use it...I should get off, just incase it is the first one...

Dusting off the chalk,
Bee Electric

Jesus H. Christ on a Vespa

I will never understand the Italian school system and the students' attitude towards it. On one hand it is really hard and whatnot and everyone freaks out, but then we just randomly don't go to school...The official schedule is wonky enough, what with festas [that is holidays, not parties] all over the place, and rotazione [because my school is too big for its building, each class has a day they don't go to school- ours is Wednesday], but then sometimes we [that is, Dani, myself, Grazia, and Angela] don't go to school, even when there is school to be gone too. I'm not at all sure why, I think sometimes it is 'cause they didn't do the homework, and then there was that one day that we went to Caserta...but then on Friday we didn't go, and I asked Gra why, and the best reason I got was "When we feel like/want to go to school, we do. When we don't, we don't." Huh. They don't even pretend to be sick or anything!! We took the bus back from Maddaloni, then sat around Gra's house drinking cappuccinos and watching Extreme Makeover [got-DAMN those people sure did need that!]...and then me and Dan went home and watched...a cooking show on TV. It was actually quite exciting! When we got there they were making Chocolate Chip cookies [Ha! They do have chocolate chips here! Take that, ASS3-slash-B3C!], and then there was this cooking competition with a red dude and a lady against a green dude and a lady. They were given certain ingredients [different for each team] and then given a brief amount of time to think of an idea for a complete meal [appetizer, main dish, and dessert], which they then had to execute in 20 minutes. I was actually quite impressed, though the team I was rooting for [the red team] didn't win. But yeah, it was a weird day. And they we didn't have school on Saturday 'cause it was a festa.

There actually was a festa, a party, on Saturday: Carmen, Alex's hostsister, was turning 15, and, of course, had a birthday bash. Oh, yet another thing I didn't understand: so, in the beginning, we were all going to go to the party, me, Dan, Gra, Angi, and Anna. And then, under an hour before we was a-gonna depart, they told me that they weren't going, but I was. I was provided with an explaination that didn't really make too much sense, and, as far as I know, they ended up watching the OC in my room all evening. But I went to the party [armed with a collective gift (they're really big on them here, where everyone puts in a fiver or a tenner and someone goes and buys a bigger gift from a bunch of people) and a carefully rehearsed excuse for the absence of the other girls], and it was actually quite fun.

There weren't that many people there, but Carmen's house [apartment, really] is smallish, so it was a good number. All the Americans [and Annette, the Canadian] were there, and a bunch of Carmen's friends and relatives. We danced a little, but I was tired, and they kept playing the same [not very long] CD over and over again. There was some pretty good food...the pizza was mediocre, but for the first piece or two I was SO HUNGRY that it was possibly one of the most delicious things that I had ever eaten.

There were four different cakes. Well, cake-ish things. There were two crostatas, one with chocolate and one with jam, a chocolate cake that was the closest I've seen to American cake in a while [which was DELICIOUS], and a freaking huge baba [this Neopolitan speciality]. I wasn't too crazy about the baba, as it tasted a little too much of rum for my taste. Plus the pastry/cakeish part had the signature dampness that I have found prominent in many Italian and Mexican pastries, something that I daresay I dislike.

I returned home at 11:30, watched the O.C. for a few hours, and went to bed. Now I am going to English class.

Being a good student,
Bee Electric

Not Adam...

Dude! I totally saw Brody-fase again! [In case you don't know, Brody-fase is this guy that I saw...probably a month ago on the way to the bus that looked like Adrian Brody, only with an eyebrow ring.] It was awesome. Now he looks a little less like Adrian B, but still rather good lookin, what with his eyebrow piercin' and whatnot...Mmm...He totally caught me staring at him....like, 7 times. We (Dani, myself, and another girl whose name I'm afraid I cannot recall) were sitting outside the bar during first period eating Snickers, and ole Brody-fase came amblin' by. I was like, Woooooah! Repeat sighting! Rad! And no way in hell was I goin' to miss out. So I just kept a-lookin', even when he kept turnin' around, and then his friend did...Of course, my luck being what it is, he was totally hanging out by the door when we went to schoo,, smoking, or just being a hooligan. So I just ignored him but in my head I was goin' "dude, you are sooo hot..." Hopefully I shall encounter him again.

Later
Jesus Christ. If this wasn't a case of be careful what you wish for, then I don't know what is. Holy crap. So, I got transferred to 5th grade P.E., which was pretty much awesome. The kids in 5C are pretty nice and there are some cute boys. By some fluke (I don't know WHAT I was thinking...) I agreed to play with them. Oops. Now I remember why my nickname is Bridget the Retard. I, obviously, haven't played volleyball since middle school. And I sucked then. But now...any shred (and we're talking Kleenex through the washer shreds) of skill that I might have acquired during that time is loooong gone. And guess who just happened (Idk if he's in that class or whatever) to be chillin' like a villan, watching me earn my reputation as the Worst Volleyball Player at the Liceo Scientifico? B-fase! What the HELLfire? So I just ignored him, but I was like, "errr..." and, at the earliest opportunity, escaped to sit outside with Franchi. Of course, Brody-fase ended up outside as well, and that is when I realized why he's Brody-fase and not Brody-teeth: the lad has a rather awful set of chompers. It's not even that I'm a snob about these things (I am just fine with a bit o' tilt, though my truelove has marv teeth), but these were getting on towards homeless man. The fact that he was smoking didn't leave much hope for improvement in the colour area, either. So this is the verdict on Brody-fase: He is darn cute, as long as he doesn't open his mouth.

Contemplating dentures and shit luck,
Bee Electric

Rubber ducky, you're the one...

I've been missing Hanna a lot lately. I mean, obviously been missing her all along, been missing everyone. But the other night, when I was sitting out on my balcony, listening to Veronica, I just felt so....alone. Usually I relish that, it's part of the reason I like going out there everything. But this night I just felt sad. At first I thought I was just lonely 'cause Alex was supposed to come over but at the last minute couldn't. And it's true, that was for sure part of it. But then I realized that it wasn't really Alex I was missing. Sure, she's a nice girl, and I really really like her and don't know what I would do here without her, but it's not the same. There's only one Hanna. Yeah, that's a cliche, yeah, there's only one of everyone else, too, but sometimes you just want to be with a certain person. And for me that person is a blonde, freckled, hazel eyed dork who I've known forever. It's hard to imagine her here, mostly just 'cause she isn't, hasn't been, and won't be. But I still close my eyes and wish that she was sitting next to me, and that we were talking about something, anything...spending qua-li-tay time together. I had to work a little to conjure up an image that wasn't one of the pictures I have, and that scared me. Does that mean that I'm forgetting her? No...I don't know. I'll probably get over it...I hope I will. Not get over missing her, but get over the despair. I guess I'm more terrified of her forgetting me than me forgetting her. What if, when I come back, it's weird? What if she's changed, moved on, and I'm still wanting to watch dumb movies and dance to the Clash? I can't think about it too much...I always want to call her but whenever no one is using the phone or the internet it's, like, 3 in the morning in California. I really need to get a cellphone so I can call her at a decent hour...Gah.

Trying to pick up the pieces,
Bee Electric

Tinkerbell got Lung Cancer

Well, seeing as just deciding to eat less didn't really help, I have written out a whole plan, including questions to answer at the end of the day. Maybe if I have to write everything down I'll be less likely to gorge myself. I don't know. God, I am so sore from the gym last night! Holy crap! Dude, my mom woke me up today at 7.21...one minute after Dani and I were supposed to leave! I was like, oh, shit! Good thing I (a) had my clothes all out, (b) took a shower last night, and (c) was planning on wearing my hair in a ponytail anyways. I don't know why I didn't wake up....usually even if my eyepod doesn't wake me up I'm up by 7 anyway...I didn't even stay up that late last night. Maybe 'cause I was too lazy to open the blinds (not forgetting that again!), and my door was more closed than usual ('cause people were being really loud downstairs), so there wasn't much light being let in. So I didn't end up making my bed (for once), and had to put my belt on at the bus stop and tie my shoes on the bus. It was retarded. I am so glad that Mom sent my alarm clocks in the first box (I think)....I hope it gets here soon!

In other news, I'm madly in love (not in that way....gross) with the lady who works at the bar where I get my morning coffee. At first I was sad, because the boy wasn't there. But then I started talking to the lady, and OMG, she was so nice! She asked me if I was from London (people keep thinking I'm English...I wonder if it's 'cause I seem English [which would be AWESOME] or 'cause they don't expect Americans to be here), and I was like, " No, California." We chatted a little, and when I left I said "Ciao!" and she was all "Bye bye, honey!" It pretty much made my day. Maybe I could move in with her...We'd wear our sunglasses inside and she'd cook me delicious pasta, but only a little so I wouldn't get fat. I'd go out dancing with the Boy and learn to make a perfect coffee. Fer sure.

I went to the Tabbachi after caffining up, but they didn't have Lucky Strikes (indeed, seemed to have never even heard of them), so I'll have to go this afternoon. They did, however, have Vogue brand. The idea of smoking Vogue brand cigarettes is so incredibly decadent it makes me want to glue rhinestones on my fingernails and eyelids and bleach my hair a platinum blonde. Put on a lace dress and high heels and play Ladytron and Madonna. The smoke will turn to glitter in my lungs and I'll exhale a cloud of sparkle. Nicotine and fairy dust are all it takes to fly.

I keep yoyoing between wanting to go blonde and wanting to stay black haired. I really don't know. When I ask people here they're all "you should have brown hair" 'cause it's my natural colour and all that. And Alex just tells me that blonde will really damage my hair, which I know. If I I were to go blonde, I think I'd do DKNY first, then go platinum Manko-style if that gets boring. A lot of the time I really want to do it, but then I remember how much I love having black hair, and don't want to change it. However, I think I'll always adore capelli neri, it will always be my favourite, but having different colour hair is fun, too. I reckon I'll ask the U.S. contingent what they think. I'll fer sure keep my hair black for Biancanieve awesomeness, but after than, I may very well go blonde. By they I'll have about a foot of roots, so I'll have to do something.

I have been reading Violet & Claire a lot lately, working on my screenplay. I guess it is a testament to its power and beauty that it still almost makes me cry, but I have to stop the tears that gather behind my eyelids because I'm in biology class.

On a cellular level,
Bee Electric

Golly gee in a pizza box

Every morning I waste 5 hours in a school where the teachers hate me because I can't understand them and wear shades of lipstick that none of the other girls would dare. Instead of listening to the lectures I read fashion magazines and pretend it's only the language barrer that is preventing my comprehension. As long as I can't decipher their words I can keep pretending that the material isn't miles above my black-haired head.

Day before yesterday I went to Alex's house and we went shopping. I bought a 15euro sweatshirt that I adore and 8euro worth of candy. Then we went to the sunglasses store, the reason for our excursion. There was a gigantic picture of David Beckham that I spent a good deal of time oggiling, trying to forget that pretty much every pair of glasses cost a month's worth of money for me. It was actually kind of fun, watching Alex try on a billion pairs. We came in there for Valentino but when it came down to the final choice it was Versace or Bulgari. She ended up buying the latter, though I personally thought she looked better in the Versace; a celluloid princess stepped off the silver screen and into my reality. But, hey, when you're a Serbian from Southern California, I guess looking like a movie star supermodel is just part of the job description. Not to say she looked bad in the Bulgaris, she looked quite nice. She must have thought so, too, because she spent 180euro on them.

In slightly related but different news, I fell in love with the DKNY sunglasses ad they had posted in there, featuring a cute blonde in rad black shades. I asked if they had said occhiali, but was saved the embarrasement of admitting I couldn't afford them by the fact that they weren't in stock. I really like the haircut/colour, and am considering pursuing it, after Hallowe'en (Snow White might be kind of hard to pull off without, you know, black hair).

After we bought Alex her sunglasses, we went to hang out in the piazza in front of her building, and I, once again, spent the majority of my time trying to convince Alex to flirt with her boy of interest. Not that I minded, as it was actually fun. I really think that they're making progress, especially because word on the street this morning is that he's gonna ask her out. Yesss! I can be satisfied with mere glimpses of hot boys as long as my friends are having successes.

Yesterday was a lot less exciting. We didn't have school, and Dani, as usual, had about 3 tons of homework, so I spent about 5-6 hours formatting all my photos for my flickr page....Now, If only I could get them off of StrongBad and onto the Intarwub. I guess putting "(c) bee electric" on them is hardly necessary, but I like to pretend that someone would like my pictures enough to want to steal them. This is my conceit. We're supposedly getting DSL sometime in October, but who knows when that will happen. Even if I could connect Strong-o to the family computer, without a high speed connection the upload time would rival The Once and Future King in the excruciatingosity of length category, as I have something like 340 pictures.

I also watched The Bourne Identity and Supremacy again, and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time 'round. I think I'll add them to both my Amazon wishlist and my list of movies to download and see which gets me 'em first.

Ierisera (last night) I went to pizza at L'Anfora (The pizzeria across the street from us) with Grazia and Daniela. Well, we went there, got the pizzas, and took them home to eat them. I got the Margherita (tomato sauce and mozzarella) with prosciutto cotto (prosciutto [cured ham] pieces) and mushrooms. It was all of 3euro and it was delicious. Mmm....it was funny, though, because Gra and Dani asked me what the name of the pizza that Alex had last time was, and, as I didn't remember the name of it off the top of my head, I said, "Oh golly..." At first they thought that it was the name of the pizza, and I didn't know how to explain myself. As it turned out, that kind of pizza didn't have a name but they just told the fellow what they wanted on it.

The only kind of cute guy that I see on a somewhat regular basis is the dude who works at the bar where I get my morning caffe. Though today he was wearing one of those ridiculous fake Louis Vuitton baseball caps and his tag was sticking up. So that was lame.

I figured out that if I can keep my spending to 50euro/week (which is about 9euro less than my original budget), plus the money I'm going to get refunded from BEC/ASSE, I'll have almost $200 extra (Paris!) Of course, I also have that extra money I earned, but I'd rather save that for emergencies. I'll also try to save as much as I can, week to week, but that looks to be quite difficult. I'll probably just ask for money for X-mas/my birthday as well. That's also more practical than gifts, as you don't have to pay shipping (it takes about 3 millennia to get anything here, anyway). I can't wait to get the Paris info! Yay!

Listening to the students reading aloud in English class makes me realise just how wonky I must sound in Italian....only probably much worse. Crap.

I think we're finally going to the Irish Pub this weekend for pizza. Alex and I are going to order Guinness's 'cause we're just that cool. I wonder if my Irish accent is good enough to, when used in conjunction with my full name, get them for free. It depends on if they're real Irish people or not, I bet.

I have been trying to eat less lately, in part to lose weight and in part because snacking so much is getting expensive. I have found chewing gum to be a marvellous ally in this quest, as it provides the motion of eating without the calories. If I can cut out snacking during school and in the afternoon (which will be super-hard because I am so damn bored), stop with breakfast (possibly come downstairs too late to mangiare), and eat less at lunch and dinner, I should be in business! Yay!

I've been working on my screenplay, which is good, as a good deal of my time is spent daydreaming about making my movie and winning Oscars and being rich and famous. One thing that I am getting frustrated by is my own inability to put on paper the things I see in my head. But, as that is pretty much the most important thing for a screenwriter (or, really, any kind of writer) to be able to do, it is something I am going to have to overcome. It is easier for me to visualize the Violet parts (in case you didn't know, the book I'm adapting is Violet & Claire, by Francesca Lia Block. It is divided into three sections: the first from Violet's point of view, the second from Claire's, and the third is written in the third person) than the Claire ones. Maybe because I fancy myself to be more like Violet, and also probably because Violet is so film obsessed and her section is written almost like a movie already, in some ways more literally than others. Violet writes in a visual style that will translate almost effortlessly to film. Claire's part will be more difficult, as hers is less narrative action and more memories and thoughts. It will be possible, but must be done in such a way that the audience does not get lost in Claire's memories, does not forget what is happening because of what has happened. It is going to be AWESOME. I really want to get the book and script for The Virgin Suicides and read the script for Lost in Translation, as Sofia Coppola is pretty much my favourite director, and in my perfect fantasy world, would be my mentor for making Violet & Claire. Don't worry, Peter Jackson is still my idol, fer sure, but you must admit that Lord of the Rings and King Kong are kind of in a different genre. Dang, I really want to see Marie Antoinette, but I have no idea when that is going to happen.

Gah, I really want to buy some film and batteries for Betty (my Super-duper 8 camera), but, as of yet, that has not been a financial possibility. Budget problems are one of my main worries here. I keep track of everythign I spend, what is refundable from BEC/ASSE, from insurance, and from my parents. Things like clothes and the gym, which my parents are paying for, I don't count as budget money spent because I'll get that money really soon. Other refundable expenses, such as bus passes and medicines, I won't get back for a long time, so I'm doing the best I can to absorb those costs now. That way I have an accurate Idea of how much I'm spending now, and then later it'll be like, "hey! free money!" I just figured it out (if my math wasn't too wonky...I hope I hope I hope), and, not counting refundable money, I've been about 16euro under budget per week thus far! Sa-weet!

Pretty much proud of herself,
Bee Electric

Disco Dancin'

So, we went to the disco this weekend, for the first time! Exciting, right? Except, well, it wasn't...at all...well, maybe the tiniest bit. The name of it is White Elephant, and I guess it just opened a little bit ago. So maybe they're still getting the hang of things.

We got there at about 9:30, I think, and when we did we found out that dancing doesn't start until midnight. Okay...that's a long time to hang out, but whatever. Except that we were getting picked up at 11:30. Great. However, we were assured that our parents would be called and the retrieval time adjusted. Now we had two and a half hours to kill. After paying 12 euro at the door, I was expecting [hoping, praying] to have a damn good time. After all, that is a lot of money when your budget for the week is 50 euro! And you have 5euro left for that week! [Keep in mind this was Saturday night]. After paying, we went upstairs into this little lounge area, where there were these plates of chips on the tables. I was getting a little excited, because we had passed a sign that said something about food, I thought. After eating our way through two plates of chips, we asked, and found out that you had to buy sandwiches downstairs. We were like, "okay, sandwiches...this is classy..." So we went downstairs, to the actual disco part thing. I don't know if they charged a billion euros for everything to seem fancy, or to pay for the HUGE murals on the walls. They were, like, black and white tiger stripes with eyes. Atrocious. We had just settled into a spacious booth and were looking over the sandwich choices when we were told to move by a girl with a walkietalkie, because our table was "reserved"...that's another thing. Pretty much everyone who worked there was wearing a walkie talkie and a wire in their ear. Another thing the insane prices had to cover.

So we moved to the "non-special" section, which was pretty much tables and chairs, nothing too interesting. We were now sitting below/behind the big projection screen, so we got to watch the music video television they were showing flipped. Woohoo. Our sandwiches came [with paper placemats that said "Buon appetite"...they were really working the nice aspect. So we ate our sandwiches [which tasted really crappy...for some reason they put about a litre of tabasco sauce on them, so we had to tear off the bottom half of the roll because it was too spicy] and drank our pop, and contemplated paying 7euro for another too small strawberry margarita in a plastic cup. It was reeeeeeeeally exciting.

We did end up leaving later than 11:30...I think we drove out at about 11:45. When all the people who were planning on dancing started showing up. I buttoned up my h&m shirt all the way up the collar, just for kicks, and put on my dark red lipstick [without a mirror...I did pretty alright] that they had made me change earlier, just to be a badass. Some guy was checking out my lipstick but I just put on my Jackie-O sunglasses and pretended not to notice.

As we drove away I noticed a group of guys in the adjoining parking lot...if they ended up going to White Suckaphant after we left that is lame...'cause some of 'em were pretty darned cute!!

By the time we got home I was pretty p.o.'ed...one thing I hate about here is not knowing what is going on all the time, even if I ask, and because our plans had changed so often that day [disco, piazza, disco, piazza, discopiazzadiscopiazzadiazza disco], I was annoyed about that. I was also upset about being told that every piece of clothing I owned was wrongwrongwrong. And then paying so much to go to the disco and not even getting to dance. I got dressed up for a 15euro gross sandwich and cup of pop. Greeeat.

Luckily Alex was spending the night [Yesssss!] so we put on our PJs and sat out on my balcony, talking about SerbiaFashionCaliforniaItalyFrustrationsGuysFriendsThe Universe and Everything. Then we watched the Breakfast Club [or at least started it...I fell asleep during it 'cause I'm a jerk...then Alex started getting tired] and went to bed. Of course, by now, unless I'm REALLY exhausted I can't go to sleep without my lullabyes and so I had to sneak my eyepod on.

In the morning we lounged around and watched Troy in Italian and ate plum cakes until it was time to take Alex home. After dropping her off at the apartment we [my mom, dad, and Dani] started driving to my mom's hometown. It was, no joke, like, an hour away. When we got there Dani and I sat on the couch and watched "Ritorno al Futuro" 2 and 3, with a break for previously frozen gnocchi and cold, fried, rice balls. That makes the food sound really horrible, and it wasn't, but at that point I was tired, not hungry, and in desperate need of a shower. All sensations that were to increase throughout the day.

We left in the middle of Back to the Future 3 to go to the cemetery and visit all their dead relatives. Wow, cemeteries here are so not even like the ones in the U.S. No grassy mounds scattered with faded flowers here, oh no. This was, like, an apartment complex for the dead. You know, when they have those tall marble locker/drawers? And they all had pictures of the occupant on the front. Even the people that weren't in drawers, that were buried in the ground, were in stone and cement boxes and under slabs. Whatever dirt there was was purely cosmetic. At first I was mostly just creeped out, standing there, surrounded by corpses in stone towers. Then my thoughts kind of turned morbid...all the slots were kind of short looking, and I started to wonder what would happen if you were too tall? Would you get laid diagonally? Bent and the knees? Cut up and reassembled into a more appropriately dimensioned form? Or would you just be rejected all together? When I started feeling bad about thinking that in such a place I started thinking more about death and dying and people I've know who have died, and what will happen when people I love die...at that point I could feel tears pricking the back of my eyeballs so I slid on my sunglasses and did my best to maintain a look of serene detachment. I don't know if it worked but I think everyone was thinking about other things and not the expression on the American girl's face.

After the cemetery we drove to the town where my [host]mom was born, and I sat in her cousin's house watching "Reality Circus" on television and drinking black coffee, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone except Dani because I wasn't in the mood for chit chat. When I finally thought we were going to go home we went to mass, which, though I didn't go last week and thus was anxious to, wasn't nearly so enjoyable as it is here in Santa Maria. I must admit my mind wandered during the sermon and I spent most of the time thinking about how to be Snow White for Halloween. There was a cross stamped on the back of the communion wafers, off center. That distracted me for the rest of the mass.

After church we went back to the cousin's house, at that point Dani was grouchy about something and I was ready to join her, being really physically tired, tired of not knowing what was happening, really in desperate need of a shower, and also worried because the plan was to go to pizza at the Irish Pub with the other exchange students at 8:00...It was past that and we were still 1 hour away.

The minute the car stopped outside our gate Dani and I ran inside and called Carmen [Alex's host sister] and found out that pizza got cancelled, and to see them at the Piazza. I put on eyeliner and earrings, but couldn't be bothered to change my shirt to the new one...I didn't even really want to go out but I wanted to see Alex, and I didn't want to miss a chance to scout cute boys.

I ended up getting pizza that night, though the fact that it wasn't in an Irish Pub made it slightly less exciting. And the fact that people kept putting in HUGE orders so I had to wait for 3 pizzas to be made and baked and sold before getting my 2 pieces. One thing that was nice was a cute boy came in to get pizza whilst I was waiting...I was checkin' him out [I think he caught me a few times...oops...] until he left, but I didn't say anything to him [a] because I didn't want to miss my chance to get my pizza and [b] because I assumed I'd probably see him on the piazza. Well, I got my pizza, but CB, like all the other ones, having given me my one sighting, disappeared into thin air. Dang it!!

So I spent the evening eating pizza [I love that you can get 3 pieces of premium pizza for 2,40 euro...] and watching Alex not flirt with the fellow [Peanut Butter] that she likes. It was very productive.

Trying to be interesting,
Bee Electric

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

If I had the chance to change into someone else's version of me, would I take it? I don't know. It's kind of a scary thought. For most people, I think, being what someone else wants is the easiest choice. But for me, being what I want has always been my way, pretty much ever since I could dress myself. Blue glitter lipstick in 3rd grade, cutting off all my hair in 5th, black lipstick and band-aid elf ears in 8th, and striped tights and dyed hair in high school. And now I'm here, in Italy, with the chance to be changed...my first instinct is to refuse, in part because my individuality has always been such a part of me, and also 'cause I'm a little terrified. But then...I don't know. Why not? I'm already being forced to abandon (for now) some of my trademarks and favourite things...And it's not like I can't go back. If I can't handle this new thing all it'll take is a bottle of black hair dye, a little black eyeliner and my old clothes. Put Louis XIV on the stereo, turn on the computer, and I'm good to go.


Later
Well, so much for big decisions made during math class...I thought I could do it, thought I could let them mold me. Well, I thought wrong. We went shopping for a shirt to wear, and, after trying to convince them that I didn't want something "sexy" I ended up with a long sleeve, kind of olive and cream striped shirt with a collar and snap things. Of course, there was a really cute dress that I wanted, but I decided that it was too hard to say I wanted a little black spaghetti strap number after insisting on snapping up all the snaps on my shirt. Once I got home and put on the shirt again, though, I realized that I really don't like it at all. Oh well, it was only 14 euro. I didn't end up wearing it that night...our plans changed about, oh, I don't know, 17 times, and we ended up going to the disco instead of hanging out in the piazza. So Grazia, Daniela, and Angela helped me pick out something to wear. And by helped I mean took pretty much everything I own and went "No...". I swear, if I get asked if I have anything "normal" or "not black" one more time I will cry. I ended up wearing jeans and my pink polka dotted h&m tank with my long black h&m shirt over it ['cause I didn't have any acceptable jackets]. My hair, which I had waxed, sprayed, and clipped back, because it was messy and I didn't want to deal with it if we were just going to the piazza, was brushed out into a kind of...I don't know...almost the Nicole Ritchie bob goin' on. I ended up liking the end result, but the process was just too painful and depressing. The disco sucked too but that's another matter for another entry.

So yeah, any mAjick transformations will happen if I decide them to, and I'm going to decide what I'm transforming into. I even decided not to cut my bangs like they wanted, as I'm growing them out...I think one thing that doesn't help is that the clothes stores they have here sometimes aren't that expensive, but thusly are kind of...well...cheap. I've only bought that tshirt, and then a sweatshirt yesterday [for 15 euro], and I think that's all the clothing money SMaV is a-gonna get from me, unless I see something I must have. I'd rather spend my money in Paris or Milan, because [a] the clothes are probably cuter, and [b] isn't it more exciting to say "I got this in Paris" or "Milan" than, "Oh, you like this shirt? It's from Santa Maria A Vico. Yeah, I know."

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changin',
Bee Electric

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

Fash Flash

I've been watching a lot of Fashion TV lately...pretty much ever since I figured out fer sure what channel it was. Things are lookin' pretty good for the next couple of seasons, I reckon! I think my favourite collection was, of course, Dolce & Gabbana, but that comes as no surprise as they're pretty much my favourite designers in general. I'm not sure if it was spring/summer or fall/winter, but whatever. About half the show had kind an aristorcatic/equestrian theme, with high-collared white shirts, and jackets and riding pant-like bottoms with brocade trim and buttons. Quite good lookin'! They had one of the outfits in the window in the Dolce & Gabbana store in Capri, and though it was safely out of my price range, I must say that covet it I did. Still do. The other half of the show were these marvelously elegant dresses that I quite liked, though not as much as the pants-ensembles.

I only saw the backstage coverage of Heatherette, but from what was shown, their new stuff looks to be pretty marvelous, as usual. They had a bunch of the models in these cute blonde wigs that looked anything but natural, but I have a feeling that "natural" wasn't exactly the look they were going for. The designers looked pretty snazzy themselves, gold roller skates and all.

Chanel was gorgeous as always, and Chloé had some pretty elegant things, mostly staying in the gray colour scheme, but they didn't come across as dull. John Galliano's work was a bit overshadowed by grotesquely huge hair, which was disappointing. One collection...god, who was it...I wasn't too keen on at all. I don't know what his inspiration was, perhaps Africa and African Explorers, but the result was an unwearable, even on the gorgeous models, mix of bright colour blocks, khaki, mirrored aviator shades, and these strange, small, tight, shiny, safari hats.

In general, spring/summer seems to be leaning towards short hemlines [of course] with floaty dresses, and loose, cuffed shorts. I like it! It's a good thing that I can't afford any of it, 'cause I wouldn't be able to pull it off anyway. Fall/winter is more along the lines of dark colours [yay!], long dresses with sweeping hemliines, and a fur contingent. Very Elegant.

Ugh, I'm so retarded.

This is Bee Electric, Faux Fashion Reporter, signing off.
Xoxo