Ciao a tutti!
Just a warning: this post will be all about the most amazing city ever, Firenze.
Yesterday I returned from my 5 day long school trip to Florence, Italia and it was amazing. Even though I have been to Florence before, it was 5 years ago and only for a day. I remember it being amazing last time, but this time around I truly fell in love with it. It is the perfect city! Not too big, not too small. Insanely beautiful. Just perfect. I already decided in college I am going back and studying there for at least a semester...I am sure you love that idea, don't ya Dad? :)
Now more about the actual trip. First of all, I think we covered every square inch of the place. We had 4 days full of museums, churches, etc. It was tiring to say the least. For me, the best (and most funny) part of the whole thing is how much freedom we had. If Patton ever took us on a class trip (ha!) I am sure the experience would be the exact opposite of ours. On this trip we had scheduled appointments as a group at several museums per day, but other than that we were on our own in the city. We could basically do anything we wanted which definitely made the whole experience better. After visiting the museums everyone sort of split up into their own little groups and we went to go eat, sit in a park, or just walk around enjoying the city and the fact that we were not in school while everyone else was. I was already close with several students in my class before the trip, but being with them every second for five days straight made us even closer and I realized how much I really love my friends here! It also wore me out because it was Italian 24/7. It wasn't like at home where there's not always someone to listen to or like at school where I don't have to pay attention in class. By the last day I was responding to everything with "cosa" (what?) even if it was something I really did understand. My brain was just so tired that I couldn't function. However, overall I think it helped me a ton. Even though I didn't speak a ton, just listening to what people say, how they say it, and asking what things mean really made me feel like I made some more improvement in the language department.
Let's see, I'm not really sure what else there is to say. At the moment I can't imagine returning home, no offense to my North Carolina people, but I love everything about my life here and I can only hope the next 3 1/2 months don't fly by too quickly. I just had an amazing 5 days and now I only have the next week-ish at home before I head to Roma! Can't wait.
That's about it for now. Xoxo
Emma
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
So Much To Do, So Little Time
Hi everyone!
I've been meaning to write again for a while now but I never got the chance. Nothing too exciting has happened in the past week! I was sick on Wednesday and Thursday so I got to find out how unpleasant it is to be sick abroad. Rosanna (my host mom) was great and made me feel a lot better, but somehow it doesn't quite compare to being in your own home, in your own bed, etc. So, I was a bit homesick for those two days, but it quickly passed as I started to feel better. Other than that, this week has been filled with the typical school days, stuffing myself with food, going to the gym...to pretend I am working out enough to work off all that food, sleeping, and spending time with my friends and family. Might not sound like much, but it has become my own special little lifestyle in Italy. It is filled with similarities and differences from life in NC, sometimes there are challenges or parts of it that annoy me (a similarity to Morganton), but nevertheless I absolutely love it.
Also, in approximately 4 months I will be heading back to the States. I can't believe it. I have to look at my time to manage when and where I can travel, etc and the fact that I am already a month and a half down really jumped out at me. I don't want to start a countdown yet, it seems way too early, but I already know the next 4 months are going to fly by!
The language. I know I mentioned in my last post that the language was really frustrating me, and it is, but I found a new way to look at it. Even though I still feel like I should be able to speak more, I realized how much I really can understand. That in itself is a major barrier to cross. As long as the person doesn't speak at top speed (which I swear is like 1,000,000 words per minute) and they are talking about normal topics, I can almost understand everything. Then I realized something pretty amazing, that makes 61 million people to add to the list of people I can understand and (somewhat) communicate with. Obviously, I will not meet all 61 million Italians, but the fact that it is possible made me feel a lot better about where I am standing with the language at this point. Also, my Italian teacher told me the other day (in Italian obviously, but I'll write in English to save you the trouble from having to open Google Translate) that he is "sure in the next 2-4 weeks I will start speaking a lot because 1. I have to be able to hear the language in my head before I can speak well, and that takes time and 2. Spring is coming and he has decided that Spring = Emma speaking". The second reason didn't reassure me too much, but the first made me realize that he is right. I think in Italian a lot more than I speak. Mainly because in my head I can think about the way an Italian would speak and make myself sound like that. Now I just have to do the same thing with the words coming from my mouth. WAY easier said than done.
This weekend should be a fairly exciting one! Today I am going to lunch at my AFS friends house and out to dinner with some other friends and AFS students that are doing their exchange week in Aosta. Tonight I know there will be a girl from Iceland and a girl from Canada. Sometime this week two Americans will be arriving...time to speak some real ENGLISH! I can't wait. I love meeting new Intercultura students because we don't have to be around each other for more than an hour and we all automatically become close friends. It is one of the strangest things, and I still don't understand exactly why, but I love it. At this point, I could travel to an insane number of countries and have one, if not multiple, contacts in each. Argentina, Honduras, Norway, Japan, Turkey, Serbia, Latvia, Austria, Australia, Germany, Chile, soon to be Iceland and about 25 different states in USA. Pretty amazing! Back to this week, then tomorrow I am visiting Torino with my family! I'm excited to see more than just the glimpse of the city that I got when I was picked up from the Torino train station in January.
New travel plans: just to keep you updated, my friends and I (from school) are planning a trip to Milano over Easter break after I return to Roma. It's mainly girls and this trip is centered around shopping. I think this Spring Break might just top the ones from my past.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Love you all xoxo
Emma
I've been meaning to write again for a while now but I never got the chance. Nothing too exciting has happened in the past week! I was sick on Wednesday and Thursday so I got to find out how unpleasant it is to be sick abroad. Rosanna (my host mom) was great and made me feel a lot better, but somehow it doesn't quite compare to being in your own home, in your own bed, etc. So, I was a bit homesick for those two days, but it quickly passed as I started to feel better. Other than that, this week has been filled with the typical school days, stuffing myself with food, going to the gym...to pretend I am working out enough to work off all that food, sleeping, and spending time with my friends and family. Might not sound like much, but it has become my own special little lifestyle in Italy. It is filled with similarities and differences from life in NC, sometimes there are challenges or parts of it that annoy me (a similarity to Morganton), but nevertheless I absolutely love it.
Also, in approximately 4 months I will be heading back to the States. I can't believe it. I have to look at my time to manage when and where I can travel, etc and the fact that I am already a month and a half down really jumped out at me. I don't want to start a countdown yet, it seems way too early, but I already know the next 4 months are going to fly by!
The language. I know I mentioned in my last post that the language was really frustrating me, and it is, but I found a new way to look at it. Even though I still feel like I should be able to speak more, I realized how much I really can understand. That in itself is a major barrier to cross. As long as the person doesn't speak at top speed (which I swear is like 1,000,000 words per minute) and they are talking about normal topics, I can almost understand everything. Then I realized something pretty amazing, that makes 61 million people to add to the list of people I can understand and (somewhat) communicate with. Obviously, I will not meet all 61 million Italians, but the fact that it is possible made me feel a lot better about where I am standing with the language at this point. Also, my Italian teacher told me the other day (in Italian obviously, but I'll write in English to save you the trouble from having to open Google Translate) that he is "sure in the next 2-4 weeks I will start speaking a lot because 1. I have to be able to hear the language in my head before I can speak well, and that takes time and 2. Spring is coming and he has decided that Spring = Emma speaking". The second reason didn't reassure me too much, but the first made me realize that he is right. I think in Italian a lot more than I speak. Mainly because in my head I can think about the way an Italian would speak and make myself sound like that. Now I just have to do the same thing with the words coming from my mouth. WAY easier said than done.
This weekend should be a fairly exciting one! Today I am going to lunch at my AFS friends house and out to dinner with some other friends and AFS students that are doing their exchange week in Aosta. Tonight I know there will be a girl from Iceland and a girl from Canada. Sometime this week two Americans will be arriving...time to speak some real ENGLISH! I can't wait. I love meeting new Intercultura students because we don't have to be around each other for more than an hour and we all automatically become close friends. It is one of the strangest things, and I still don't understand exactly why, but I love it. At this point, I could travel to an insane number of countries and have one, if not multiple, contacts in each. Argentina, Honduras, Norway, Japan, Turkey, Serbia, Latvia, Austria, Australia, Germany, Chile, soon to be Iceland and about 25 different states in USA. Pretty amazing! Back to this week, then tomorrow I am visiting Torino with my family! I'm excited to see more than just the glimpse of the city that I got when I was picked up from the Torino train station in January.
New travel plans: just to keep you updated, my friends and I (from school) are planning a trip to Milano over Easter break after I return to Roma. It's mainly girls and this trip is centered around shopping. I think this Spring Break might just top the ones from my past.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Love you all xoxo
Emma
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Back to the Basics
Today, Saturday, has been a lazy day. My favorites. I am still in my pajamas and do not plan on changing out of them until after lunch...even then, it is doubtful. This past week was a reminder that I have a normal schedule here, just like at home. On my nine days of vacation I was getting quite used to having something new and exciting every day. Not to mention, being able to sleep in however late I wanted! But, unfortunately, I am required to go to school so this week it was back to "hitting the books"....haha funny joke Emma! I study nothing but Italian here (which, trust me, is plenty) so I actually never "hit the books". But school does take up a majority of my time during the week. Oh, and this week I took my first test...in INLGLESE (English)! It was hilarious. All the students in my class were saying "Emma come sit next to me!" "Emma, come here come here!" Priceless. I received a 10 on my test. I know you are all thinking wow, she can't speak Italian yet but apparently she forgot how to speak english too. Not true. One thing that is extremely different between Italian and American schools is their grading scales. We have a 0-100 grading scale in america, but here it is simply a 1-10 scale. So no, I have not forgotten English!
Although this week was full of school, I also spent more time in Aosta or just getting out of the house than I did in my first two weeks of school. Probably because I (as well as my host parents) am now completely comfortable taking the bus home. I know which numbers I can take, when to push the little "I need to get off here" button, and when to actually get off. If you want to hear a funny story, ask my mom about my first time attempting to take the bus home from school. Rather embarrassing. Anyhow, now that I can successfully get from one place to the other, I am starting to have a lot more freedom. Not that I didn't have a lot to begin with...I think packing up your bags and taking off transatlantic gives you a sense of freedom that, I dont know, is indescribable...Sorry, I keep getting off track. Focus. Okay, now that I have more freedom, I stay after school with friends and take walks around town, always stopping for gelato of course. (Sidenote: I am addicted to gelato and espresso. Two days this week I bought gelato twice...in a row. But my friends did as well, so don't judge!) It's nice being able to have more freedom, not because I don't absolutely adore my host family, but because the goal of this experience is for me to really fit into Italian culture and although family is extremely important in Italia, children have a lot of freedom to do as they please on most days.
What else what else what else?
Oh I will update you on my travel plans that are definite:
1. This upcoming weekend I am spending a nightin Torino with my host sister.
2. March 18-22 I have a school gita (trip) to Firenze (Florence)! I am so excited for this. The gita is with 2 classes that some of my closest friends are in.
3. I AM SPENDING EASTER IN ROMA!!! I am so so so so so so incredibly excited for this. I love Aosta, it has it's own character and charm and it is bigger than Morganton, but sometimes I feel a bit cut off from the real world. Roma will be a nice break from this. Plus, a few of my close AFS friends live in Roma so I am hoping to meet up with them and they can show me the real Roma...not just the touristy stuff.
4. After Easter break I return to school on a Thursday and that Friday another one of my classes has a field trip to Torino scheduled. So more Torino!
5. And of course, there is the week vacation in June to Tuscany with my family :) Time on the beach and experiencing a different region of Italy!
6. And lastly, sometime before I leave, in the summer, my fam is going to return to Roma!
As far as I know that is all that is definite for now. Which is pretty crazy, that checks off a lot of what I want to see! Some AFSers have talked about getting a group together and going to a Coldplay concert in Milan and spending a night or two there in May. Milano, Venezia, and possibly Gravina (a small town in South Italy where one of my good friends is staying) are the only places left that I have noted possibly wanting to see. The good thing is, after Pasqua (Easter), we are allowed to start traveling alone! Which is perfect because I can then take a weekend or sometime during summer to travel to these places!!
This week has been a bit frustrating with the language. I feel like I should be able to start speaking, even if its not complete sentences, more than I can. Understanding is definitely improving day by day, but as far as speaking goes I feel as if I've sort of hit a plateau for the time being. A lot of my classmates like to try and speak English to me, so I think not constantly hearing Italian at school is messing with my brain a little bit!
Venerdì sera (Friday night) was a quiet evening. I stayed in Aosta til about 6-6:30, came home, my fam ate dinner around 8:30, and then watched a scary movie together. And although it was in Italian, it was still extremely scary. Ieri sera (last night) I had an Italian lesson/festa. I went to my teachers house and we (me along with Chika, another exchange student) had the usual lesson but then we made biscotti from scratch. They were delicious! afterwards I was supposed to go to one of my friends concerts but it ended up being in a town about 20 minutes away and our little festa lasted to late for it to worth making the trek! Today I have no plans so far, which means it can be a day of hanging around the house and maybe going into Aosta (only if I muster up enough energy to change out of my pjs)!
Love and miss you all, un grande bacio per tutti! Xoxo
Emma
Although this week was full of school, I also spent more time in Aosta or just getting out of the house than I did in my first two weeks of school. Probably because I (as well as my host parents) am now completely comfortable taking the bus home. I know which numbers I can take, when to push the little "I need to get off here" button, and when to actually get off. If you want to hear a funny story, ask my mom about my first time attempting to take the bus home from school. Rather embarrassing. Anyhow, now that I can successfully get from one place to the other, I am starting to have a lot more freedom. Not that I didn't have a lot to begin with...I think packing up your bags and taking off transatlantic gives you a sense of freedom that, I dont know, is indescribable...Sorry, I keep getting off track. Focus. Okay, now that I have more freedom, I stay after school with friends and take walks around town, always stopping for gelato of course. (Sidenote: I am addicted to gelato and espresso. Two days this week I bought gelato twice...in a row. But my friends did as well, so don't judge!) It's nice being able to have more freedom, not because I don't absolutely adore my host family, but because the goal of this experience is for me to really fit into Italian culture and although family is extremely important in Italia, children have a lot of freedom to do as they please on most days.
What else what else what else?
Oh I will update you on my travel plans that are definite:
1. This upcoming weekend I am spending a nightin Torino with my host sister.
2. March 18-22 I have a school gita (trip) to Firenze (Florence)! I am so excited for this. The gita is with 2 classes that some of my closest friends are in.
3. I AM SPENDING EASTER IN ROMA!!! I am so so so so so so incredibly excited for this. I love Aosta, it has it's own character and charm and it is bigger than Morganton, but sometimes I feel a bit cut off from the real world. Roma will be a nice break from this. Plus, a few of my close AFS friends live in Roma so I am hoping to meet up with them and they can show me the real Roma...not just the touristy stuff.
4. After Easter break I return to school on a Thursday and that Friday another one of my classes has a field trip to Torino scheduled. So more Torino!
5. And of course, there is the week vacation in June to Tuscany with my family :) Time on the beach and experiencing a different region of Italy!
6. And lastly, sometime before I leave, in the summer, my fam is going to return to Roma!
As far as I know that is all that is definite for now. Which is pretty crazy, that checks off a lot of what I want to see! Some AFSers have talked about getting a group together and going to a Coldplay concert in Milan and spending a night or two there in May. Milano, Venezia, and possibly Gravina (a small town in South Italy where one of my good friends is staying) are the only places left that I have noted possibly wanting to see. The good thing is, after Pasqua (Easter), we are allowed to start traveling alone! Which is perfect because I can then take a weekend or sometime during summer to travel to these places!!
This week has been a bit frustrating with the language. I feel like I should be able to start speaking, even if its not complete sentences, more than I can. Understanding is definitely improving day by day, but as far as speaking goes I feel as if I've sort of hit a plateau for the time being. A lot of my classmates like to try and speak English to me, so I think not constantly hearing Italian at school is messing with my brain a little bit!
Venerdì sera (Friday night) was a quiet evening. I stayed in Aosta til about 6-6:30, came home, my fam ate dinner around 8:30, and then watched a scary movie together. And although it was in Italian, it was still extremely scary. Ieri sera (last night) I had an Italian lesson/festa. I went to my teachers house and we (me along with Chika, another exchange student) had the usual lesson but then we made biscotti from scratch. They were delicious! afterwards I was supposed to go to one of my friends concerts but it ended up being in a town about 20 minutes away and our little festa lasted to late for it to worth making the trek! Today I have no plans so far, which means it can be a day of hanging around the house and maybe going into Aosta (only if I muster up enough energy to change out of my pjs)!
Love and miss you all, un grande bacio per tutti! Xoxo
Emma
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