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!