Holiday Post Part 1 (Christmas and Internet Struggles)

Well, this is it. The last day of 2011. Tomorrow it will be 2012, and I will start a whole new year in this paese di merde (Roccamandolfi, IS, Italy). To be fair, Rocca is very beautiful, and I enjoy seeing all of the mountains and ice and snow and such - from my seat next to the fire. As a friend of mine put it when I told him I was in Rocca for the holidays, he said "Oh! Mia migliore amica sta lassù.... è una pecora." (Oh! My best friend lives up there.... she's a sheep.) It is an incredibly, incredibly small town, dwarfed even further by the huge mountains surrounding it. We got here Christmas Eve day, and ate the customary dinner of fish and other seafood before opening presents and eating panettone. I got some great junk food and fuzzy sweaters from my family in the states, and some earrings, a scarf, a hat, some perfume, and a photo album from my italian family. The photo album was a really great idea that my host mom had where she took some photos my dad had sent her and printed them out and put them in a photo album that is half empty, waiting to be filled with photos of my italian family and me :) Speaking of photos, I really haven't been taking photos recently. It's beautiful here, and it would be nice to document all of the stuff that is happening (or not happening) but it has started to feel strange. Part of it is the increasing out-datedness of my camera, but most of it is the feeling that there isn't a need to document this, it just feels so much like everyday life. Which i guess is good for me, but not so good for everyone who wants photographic documentation of my life in italy. Sorry guys, I'll try and get back to it. I also went to midnight mass on christmas eve, which was cool. Mostly it was just strange, even more so since it was the first church service I had ever been to in my entire life - but a priceless cultural experience nontheless. There is a lot of standing involved. A lot. Especially in the middle of the night, when it's freezing cold. For the past few days I've just been hanging around the house or the town with Miryam and Anna, who is her (our) cousin who's a year older than me, and who I have some classes with at school. But Anna is in Prata tonight so Miryam and I have been left on our for New Year's and we're going to some... thing in town. The whole concept of new year's is quite different from anything I experienced in the states. In america, it's more about hanging out, having drinks, waiting for the ball to drop. I mean, people definitely go out, go clubbing and such, but in Italy.... oh jeez. People go big for new years. Pretty much every one aged 16 - 30 goes clubbing, or dancing. The big clubs have special events these nights, and tickets to get in range from 20 - 45 euros, more or less. The whole idea of clubbing, dancing, getting drinks with friends is still kind of weird, but four months in the wierdness is wearing off and I'm starting to master spending hours in heels. Oh! I got a haircut a couple of days ago, and opted for the crazy italian haircut. Well, i dunno about opted, more like just let the hairdressed do what she wanted, but I know have awesome spiky punk-rock hair that makes wearing cardigans difficult because of the incongruity. Pictures to follow in the near future. Well, tomorrow I'm off to the house of Miryam's dad where we're staying until the fourth, and then it's back to Isernia and civilization. Hooray! Now to start on all of my homework that I have to finish by the ninth.... Happy Holidays everyone!

The Immaculate Conception and Other Things I Don't Understand

Well, it's Tuesday morning and I'm currently on one of the couches in the upstairs common room, surrounded by a mountain of tissues. That's right folks, I have once again succumbed to sickness here in the land of long life and red wine. I think it mostly has to do with changing houses and new living arrangements and food and stress, but chissa, maybe I'm actually turning into Marvel's new superhero, The Nose. I am taking advantage of not being at school to write this blog post (obviously) and to study for all of the tests and interrogations that are happening before break and the end of the semester at the end of January. I was trying to think of what to write about, and I really liked Chandler's blog post that included random snippets from her journal that she's keeping while abroad. I'm also keeping a journal/diary/dayplanner/scrapbook while abroad, and I'm getting pretty close to filling it up. The first time I wrote in this journal was the 30th of August, and I can hardly believe how much has changed and how far I've come in about 3 and a half months. 9.8.11 I'm sitting on the plane as I write this somewhere over the atlantic, and according to the pilot, south of newfoundland. Because we're flying Swiss Air everything is said in English and then repeated in German and French, and being able to understand the French makes me feel a little better about my lack of Italian knowledge. (....) In about six hours we'll be in Zurich! Then we have a 90 minute layover until our flight to rome, it's still surreal. 9.9.11 There are distant fireworks in the background, and i wonder if there is a holiday or celebration in Rome. There is still so much I don't know about this place. (...) A crowd of people is playing clapping and singing games outside, and I feel a little alone in my contentedness. Things to Remember: Sometimes you will cry yourself to sleep whiile trying to read an Italian book on Aristotle for your philosophy class, and sometimes you'll be flying through the countryside singing along to Frank Sinatra's Mack the Knife - everything has its ups and downs. 18.9.11 The weather changed today. the clouds moved me to the window where silence settled as my fingertips soaked up the condensation as it fell, fell. 26.9.11 It's raining here again. I can see it out the open window of four D, blurring the windows and laundry lines of the apartment building across the street. (...) I spend so much of my time taking pictures, but I feel like they can not capture the strange beauty of this place. (...) Drinks here are never served cold, and I would kill someone with my bare hands for a really good ICED americano. I've had good espressos here, but it's always a top, a five second diversion from where we've been and where we're going - i desperately miss spending hours at driade, or weaver, or opene eye, nursing a drink and reading or writing. 26.10.11 Just read three pages of my french grammar book before realizing that it was in italian, not french. ohjeez. 27.10.11 I miss you most bare-foot and blurry eyed, watching my breath curl out of my open window and wondering what impression i left on that town. i miss you most with cracking fingertips and scuffed boots - wishing for someeone to wish for. 4.11.11 Today my italian teacher spent 15 minutes explaining to me what a sonnet it. I've never been so frustrated in my life. 4.12.11 You never quite know what vicious lengths listening to The Fray will drive you to until you're stuck in a car with four small children with nothing else to listen to. 7.12.11 Today is the three month anniversary of leaving home to study abroad in Italy for my junior year of high school. Today is also the first time that I've ever eaten lungs, but that's relatively insignificant if you're not my conscience or digestive tract. Well. Those are some choice extracts from my journal, although the full effect of all the doodling and highlighting and randomness that goes on get's lost when everything is re-typed into a blog. Alas. Oh yeah, if you didn't know (by this point I just kind of figure everyone does) I changed host families last Wednesday. For a lot of complicated reasons, most of which stemmed back to a difference in cultures and lifestyles that was too large to mend, I left my first host family and am now spending the rest of my exchange with another family. They live in Isernia, and I attend the same school. The family consists of Anna-Maria (the mom), her mom and dad, Lorenza (her 9 year old daughter), and Miryam (her 14 year old daughter who goes to school with me). Things are good - they live in a large-ish house with a big yard, and they keep a lot of animals and grow a lot of their own food. Miryam and I like a lot of the same books and television shows, and I'm helping Lorenza learn how to read sheet music. Anna-Maria works a lot but the grandparents are always at home, and I'm in good spirits (except for the being sick thing). Well, I have a lot of studying to do for all of my various tests, so, until next time. Ciaociao Helen