Chapter 17: Whaaaaaat? Regan finally updated her blog? OMG

The family + family of Dani + Pino Pardo AFS

A few months ago Alessia, my host sister, asked me if I had updated my blog recently, "Nah, I can't figure out what to write about," I replied.  And I realized, I can't think of anything to write about because my life feels normal here –normal, in the sense that I don't feel like the odd one out anymore, not in the sense that I am not stunned every single day by the beauty and history of my cute, little Sicilian city. 

One of the very first pictures we took together 

I still have my routine here; I still have to go to school and do piles of homework that I always put off til the last minute, I still stay up way too late because I lost track of time reading some book, I still eat way more chocolate and pizza than I probably should, and I still laugh the most at my own dumb jokes. But the thing is that I do it all in Italian, nearly 6000 miles away from Prescott where I've lived for the huge majority of my life. Maybe it won't make sense to anyone that hasn't been an exchange student, but this year spent in Italy feels like its only lasted for a week, but at the same time I feel like I've been here for years. My routine is familiar and comfortable here, and it feels like I've been doing it a helluva lot longer than just 9 months.

Ale and I about 3 minutes after meeting each other

Already, today is May 21 and theres only about a month and a half left of my exchange. I can't believe it. I remember arriving at the airport and being smothered with kisses like it was yesterday, even though its been more than 8 months since I first set foot in Sicily. Time is flying! And boy is it such a bittersweet feeling knowing that in a few short weeks I will be leaving home to go home! I can't wait to see my family in Arizona because its been a long, long, long time and we have so much to catch up on but I am also dreading having to say goodbye to everyone here and leaving this year behind. On the bright side, I've already made everyone swear that they'll visit me in AZ and I promised to come visit as often as possible.

A picture that we took in February maybe? About the middle of Exchange

Anyways, I finally had a second to sit down and type out a blog post to let y'all know that I'm still alive and well, and having the time of my life out here!

xx Baci

First sight awwwwh

PS. Here's some pictures that I don't think I've posted from my very first day in Sicily with my family. And some other photos from the beginning of my exchange, the middle, and now the end with two of my closest friends here, Sara and Simona.

The most recent picture of us

PPS. Please text/message/email me y'all's addresses. I want to send out a gazzilion post cards before I leave! 

Chapter 16: Sweet 16

Last Thursday, February 19th, was was my 16th birthday, a birthday that I have been looking forward to since I was a little kid and realized that I was when I could drive a car by myself. It also kicked off one of the best weeks of my exchange so far. 

Thursday: My host family gifted me a beautiful leather purse and my dear friend, Giulia, gave me a matching wallet. Giulia also surprised me at school with donuts, double chocolate muffins, and miniature 3 layer chocolate cake with a candle.  

Friday: My class 3AL, along with my English teachers, threw me another little surprise party with a big chocolate, cream, and fruit cake.

3AL

Saturday: I went out with Giulia and we ate Nutella crepes and a Sicilian treat called "crispelle", which are sort of like churros but 100x better and made with rice instead of wheat or whatever. After these few hours with G Alessia and I were supposed to go to another friend's house for a sleepover but Alessia called and said that there was a problem with the car so the sleepover was off. Giulia offered to take me home on the way to a dinner party that she and her family were heading to but as soon as we entered the house Alessia and her class jumped out of the dark yelling surprise. 

Alessia and me 30 seconds after I nearly had a heart attack
from 20 teenagers jumping out of the dark screaming

Joy, me, and Giulia at the surprise party

Then Sunday evening, my best friends from my class, Simona, Alberto, Sara, and Erika took me out to dinner for pizza. It was a great evening spent laughing, eating, and teasing. They even made a video of all our photos put to music and clips of them wishing me happy birthday, singing, and dancing. We ended the night outside singing random little snippets of all the songs that came to mind. 

I love these kids a ridiculous amount and we're already making plans for them to visit me in AZ. 

Also thank you to ALL of the people that wished me happy birthday! I loved all of the kooky voice messages, the heartfelt letters, and the adorable posts. 

BACI xx

Chapter 15: Time and the Halfway Point of Exchange

Time has a weird way of existing while you are on exchange; days seem to last forever, but weeks seem to pass in seconds.

It has already been 5 months since our plane touched down in Rome, and 5 months since we met our host families, almost 5 months since I started school, and more than 5 months since the last time I saw my biological family in AZ.


It's only been 5 months since I moved out here, but in a lot of ways it feels like I have been here for much, much, much longer.


I can't wait to see what the next 5 months have in store for me!


Grazie a tutti per questi 5 mesi! xx

Chapter 14: Crepes, Nicknames, and the Terrible Weather

First of all, have you ever had a crepe? If the answer is no, you should probably stop reading this and go get one. If the answer is yes, then have you ever had a Nutella crepe made by two 16 or 17 year old boys? I'm guessing that you haven't, but if you have then you are one lucky duck! Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I got to eat Nutella crepes made by two of my friends, Mario and Salvo, and they were heavenly. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, crepes are incredibly easy to make, so the two guys decided to whip some up to silence the whining mouths of the rest of the group. 

Anyway, Mario and Salvo II (because there's two other Salvos') went to work on the crepe batter. By the time Ale (pronounced Al-eh) and I arrived, the batter wasn't looking too good, resembling a chunky mess, and I thought that they were just messing around with random ingredients they had found in the kitchen. But no! Within like, 7 minutes Salvo was flipping crepes and Mario was generously spreading Nutella all over them and folding them into triangles. Salvo was like an artist, flipping each crepe twice and then flinging it over to Mario to lather with Nutella; again and again til they'd made roughly 25. And not a single one went to waste.

A few years ago, like maybe 5, my darling cousin Maddy Mae started calling my Regibear. I don't really remember why, but it's stuck ever since. But I thought that I had left it behind in Arizona, and I didn't think anyone would pick up on it. I was wrong. A month or so ago, when my group of friends was just sitting around freezing our butts off outside, one of them swept me up in a bear hug. As we were hugging he said "Haha, Regan you're like a teddybear." And I replied, "Mhmm, so I have been told. It's an old nickname." "Aspetta (wait), like a Regibear? Regan and teddybear, Regibear." This made me burst out laughing because, the likelihood of this nickname traveling 6,000 miles with me I had assumed was 0%. It was nice to hear it again though, because until then everyone had been only using my name, which is weird for me considering all of my close friends and family in AZ use my nicknames. 

Don't ask me why I assumed this, but I though that living on an island would mean endless perfect weather.. Again, I have no idea what I was thinking. In the summer, living on an island is like the coolest thing ever and the weather is always warm and amazing and humid, but geeeesh in the winter it's completely the opposite. It is really, really freaking cold, really dark, and really, really damp and foggy. On the upside though, this weather makes a good excuse to stay in bed for extended periods of time, drink lots of tea, and binge on sweets.

***

I will be updating you all with a Christmas/New Years/Traditions post as soon as I can. Also I will try to include more pictures soon, although because I am using a non Windows minicomputer, this is proving to be a bit difficult. Please be patient! 

Chapter 13: Road Map of my Exchange Year

Today is January 7th, 2015. At this time last year, I was submitting my application to study abroad. And every single day I was going back and forth with my decision: was I positive that I wanted to do this? Was it the right time? Would my academics suffer? Would I graduate on time? In the end, I decided that I was positive, it was the perfect time, and all my academics could easily be fixed when I returned so that I could graduate on time, and even a bit early. So I submitted the application and waited.

After months of revising and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, I found out that AFS Italy, known locally as Intercultura, had accepted my application. Then I had to wait again while they found a family for me. By May, a month after Intercultura accepted my application, I had a family in Sicily. My host family consisted of 4 people, Luca (dad), Antonella (mom), Alessa (sister), Andrea (brother). Alessia and I are 3 months apart, and Andrea is only a year behind us. Finding out that I had a family finally got me excited for my exchange. Until that point it hadn't quite sunk in that in a few shorts months I was going to be living in another country, on a completely different continent for a year.

Then more waiting... and packing.. and waiting.. and shopping.. and waiting.. and working.. and waiting.. It felt like the summer was gonna last forever. During this period of the endless summer I went on vacations with my family and best friend, got my driving permit, and counted down the days til August 26th. August 26th was the day that I was going to fly to Washington DC to spend a few days with my Great-Aunt Pat and Great-Uncle Ernest in DC and NYC before being dropped at JFK and beginning my journey with AFS.

DC and New York were amazing. It was completely surreal. And for me, it seemed like all of my dreams were coming true over the span of about a 6 days. Aunt Pat and Uncle Ernest were fabulous guides for these cities, because they had lived in both. In New York, Aunt Pat told stories about her jobs working in the center NYC, and Uncle E filled me in on all the amazing history. And, I got to see my dear friend from Orme, Nick, who I hadn't seen in forever. DC was wonderful too, and I think that I fell in love with the East coast. As an Arizona girl, it amazed me how green it was out there! We packed a lot into the few days that I spent with them.

After a week, I was dropped off on September 3rd at one of the many airport hotels and my journey with AFS had officially begun. 10 seconds after I walked into the lobby, I was surrounded by a crowd of other nervous and excited almost-exchange kids. For the next 24 hours I'm not sure that we were so much living off oxygen and proper nutrients as we were living off of our own hyper energy.

September 5th, I think, and we finally made it to Rome, nearly 450 of us from all over the world. And I think that's also the point when most of us admitted to ourselves that we were totally insane and absolutely amazing for signing up for this. In Rome, we spent 2 days in orientation after orientation after orientation. It was incredibly boring, and we were all itching to meet our families on the 7th.

The flight from Rome to Catania was a short one, only about an hour and a half. But we spent another hour and a half waiting for our baggage, which was super delayed. After waiting for months, we got to meet our families. I recognized mine immediately and was the first AFSer through the gates.

***

And now here I am, already four months into my exchange. And here are some of the important and random things that I have realized so far:

• Traveling and being an exchange student are two very different things. When you travel you stay in hotels, hostels, or campsites, somewhere lovely but impersonal. When you're an exchange student you're staying with a family, you have a normal life, you learn the language, and tourists begin to mistake you for a local because they can't pick up on the small grammatical errors you make when you speak in your host language. And it feels 100% normal, despite the fact that sometimes you still have no idea what everyone else is saying. You still watch Netflix in bed for hours, and you still love mac n cheese, and cold pizza for breakfast. People don't seem to realize that an exchange year isn't going to be that different from your life back home, but it's still going to change your life in ways that you cannot even begin to imagine. 

• Exchange is a wonderful, magical experience. It gives you another life, fresh knowledge, and most importantly new perspectives and relationships. Exchange students are crazy, amazing, adventure seeking people who leave behind their lives back home for a whole new one in a brand new country. They're great friends to have cause they speak other languages, they have awesome stories, and they know good international vacation spots. 

• Nothing can prepare you for going on exchange. No matter how many exchange blogs you read, or how many YouTube videos you watch, nothing can prepare you for the way exchange is gonna affect you because each experience is different. But I promise you it is more amazing and more challenging than you could have ever possibly imagined. 

• Obviously there are some predictable aspects of exchange: exploring a new culture, learning a new language, making new friends, trying new foods, etc. But there are other aspects that come out of nowhere and hit you like a rogue sack of bricks. Like, how much you're going to change over the short span of time that you spend in your host country. Your perspective is either gonna change or become rock solid. Your exchange year is gonna have some downs, but it's also gonna have even bigger ups. So don't get into a total funk if you're having a few bad days. This experience is going to impact you no matter what, so be open to all the change and new experiences that it offers you. 

• When you're about to leave on your exchange you make your sisters, brothers, best friends, classmates, and everyone else around you to promise that things will be the same when you get back. You make them all promise that they won't forget you and to write all the time. And you convince yourself that life in your home country will basically be paused for the next 10 months, while you are off on exchange. But then you realize that it isn't paused its on play, sometimes it even feels a bit like fast forward. Don't freak out when this happens. 

• Exchange is great, and it is 173% worth the emotional roller coaster that comes along with it. So go and sign up and have the year of your life. 

Chapter 12: I AM SAVED

Thank goodness! I have a working computer once again.. 
Thank you to my darling Grandma Annabelle for providing it for me! 

Anyway, hopefully my blog will be up and running with at least one post every two weeks, although I will probably post more than that. 

Thanks for stickin out this period of technological disfunction! 
xx ciao!

Chapter 11: Technology Troubles

First off, I apologize that it's nearly been a month since my last post. My beloved laptop bit the dust, kicked the bucket, died.. Right now I am using my family's iMac, which has an Italian keyboard so bear with me if there are any weird typos, the layout of the keys is completely different from what I am used to.

Anywayyyyy! I have done a ton of cool things since the last time I wrote.. here's a super quick summary because I'll be writing individual blog posts about them in a bit,

• visited Taormina (Google it right now!), a beautiful old city on the Northeastern tip of Sicily. You can actually see the toes of Italy from some of the lookout points.
• ate Nutella filled crepes made by two 16 or 17 year old boys.. I'm not sure about you all, but this was the first time I'd ever seen two boys cook something without there being any sort of incentive. 
• visited my Mamma's family in Mistretta, a little town in the North of Sicily where heavenly bread is made.. It's definitely worth taking the treacherous, vomit inducing drive to get there.  
• celebrated All Saint's Day on November 1st, its a lot like Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) minus the sugar skulls and food. 
• carved a pumpkin for Halloween
• listened to my math teacher try to convince me that he looks just like Obama
• and got renicknamed Regibear and Regs; although Regs is pronounced here like Rex or Reeeegs. 

Alright, thats all I got for now but like I said I have a couple other posts in the works with more details and photos from my adventures. 

Ciao ciao. xx

Chapter 10: Exploring Caltagirone at Night

Me, Ture Lo Bianco, & the Wonky Eye Man

So Sunday night was one of the best nights that I have had in Sicily so far. Alessia and some of her friends surprised me with a tour of the old part of the city, where we don't often go because the local teens consider it boring. Ale, both Giulias', both Tures' (Salvatore), both Simos' (Simone, pronounced See-moh-nay), both Andreas', Matteo, Sara, Pepe, Marvin, Davide, and I climbed all 142 steps of the Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte (up and down), visited the piazza (square) and the villa (a beautiful garden, pond, and plaza with a gazebo in the middle), and hunted around the city for street art. 

First off, climbing those stairs was a work out! Each step is about 2 feet in length, so you practically have to lunge all the up. My thighs were still on fire all day Monday, haha, I should probably start going back to the gym again as soon as possible. Each stair has a different design on the "rise" (the front part of each step), so that makes for 142 different ceramic tile designs. Unfortunately I was too busy huffing and puffing my way up all the stairs to stop for any pictures, so I encourage EVERYONE to come visit this lovely city and see this magnificent staircase for themselves. 

One adorable little apartment in the old neighborhood

Along and at the top of this staircase is a beautiful, and very old neighborhood where all the street art can be found. This neighborhood was picture perfect and completely took my breath away. I'm pretty sure all my friends were teasing me a little bit because I was looking all around with my jaw nearly hitting the ground and commenting on every little apartment, staircase, alleyway, et cetera. 

This is probably my favorite piece of street art that we found.. It was spectacular and giant, it literally took up the entire side of an apartment from the ground all the way to the roof. I'm not sure why this piece caught my attention, but something about it really got me. I wish I was able to capture the whole mural, but unfortunately I wasn't able to.

This one is on the other side of the building that has the cool bearded face.. I can't help but to image how cool it would be living in one of these decorated houses. As far as I can tell all of these pieces were done in spray paint, which totally blows my mind considering all of the detail and shading. If you ever find yourself in Caltagirone, which I hope you do, I absolutely recommend hunting for all of these art pieces. They are truly amazing!! As I am sure you can tell. 

Ciao ciaoo. Until next week, dear readers. 

**If you are interested in seeing the rest of the pictures from my adventuring night, they are all on my Facebook page in the album "Exchange Year!!"**

Chapter 9: Arizona

Ever since I got to Sicily, I have probably been asked "Di dove sei?" over a two hundred times, and with every reply ("Io vengo da Arizona," or "Arizona")  I become a little bit prouder of being able to claim this beautiful state as my home. 

I have a new appreciation and love for my life in beautiful northern Arizona. Man, oh man, I know that when I return to Arizona in 9 months I will be so happy to see the brilliant blue sky, the bright stars at night, listen to the monsoon rains on my metal roof, and embrace the smell of the pine trees. I am excited that returning to Arizona will be an adventure in itself, because I know I will look at my hometown with brand new, worldly, eyes.

 Like wow, look at how beautiful my hometown is, you cannot deny how gorgeous this place is.

So here is a short little hometown appreciation post. Next time, a host town appreciation post. 

Ciao ciao. xx

Chapter 8: "Palermo", Mormons, Stereotypes, & Paying for the Bathroom

Okay, so about a week and a half ago I had to go to an AFS camp in "Palermo," although apparently it wasn't actually in Palermo, it was in a tiny city an hour away from Palermo but ya know. Anyway, the camp was reaaaaaaaaally long and awfully boring but it was fun to see all the other AFS kids. We basically just spent all 4 days talking about our feelings and answering questions like "Are you happy? Is everything ok? Do you like it here? etc." For those of us that didn't have any complaints or problems this camp wasn't all that useful and was very time consuming. On the positive side, we all learned some new dance moves and were treated to some interesting/fantastic talents in the annual AFS Talent Show. (Shout out to you Yuma. You rocked our world kiddo.)

Me, Danielle (USA), Annette (Mexico) Baddest babes on the bus.

Danielle, Magnea (Iceland), me. Best exchange friends a girl could ask for.

The highlight of this camp for me was hanging out in the bus station before and after the camp. We ate at one of the few McDonald's in Sicily and Danielle and I (the other girl from the US) were teased by the other students that the golden arches must make us feel at home. After finishing our MickyD's Danielle and I were heading to the restrooms when one of the volunteers ran up to us and asked excitedly if we were the girls from the US, we said yes and she pointed at two blonde, non AFS, guys standing next to her. I immediately recognized them as missionaries of the Mormon church, but Danielle was glancing at my confusedly. They introduced themselves, asked us if we were Mormon, and talked with us about their experience here and how ours is going so far. One of the guys was from Utah and the other was from Michigan, and they both had only 6 months left of their 2 year mission. This whole situation was just hilarious to me, because never once did I think that I would run into Mormons in Sicily. They reminded me of Prescott, where the LDS church has a huge presence, and the experience made me chuckle every time I thought about it for the next few days. 

Now, I'm not sure about you all but I have never had to pay to go to the bathroom before.. But in the Palermo Centro Station, it costs 80 cents to use the bagno.

Alright! Now onto the deep stuff. At the camp we had to make posters representing our countries, and then we were all asked to write what we know/thought about every country on StickyNotes and stick em onto all the posters. Japan's poster was full of StickyNotes that said things like origami, sushi, anime, and even atomic bomb. Brazil's was full of carnival and "big booty". And the Scandinavian countries all had plenty of tall, blonde, and beautiful notes. When each country was called the students from that country would stand up and read what the StickyNotes on their poster said. Immediately after the activity was explained, Danielle and I knew that our poster was gonna be embarrassing. Sure enough our poster had multiple "stupid" "ignorant" "fat" "fast food" "hamburgers" and "McDonalds," notes, and unlike all of the other posters our poster didn't have a single "nice people" or "friendly people" note. Of course we sort of expected this, because honestly, the US has an awful reputation for being arrogant and way too into itself. But still, it wasn't all that fun to stand in front of 65 other students and multiple volunteers and read the stereotypes that people have about our country. 

I think that for me, and possibly Danielle, it was kinda hurtful to read those things because here we are, exchange students, trying our hardest to learn a brand new language, live in a brand new country, and completely immerse ourselves in a brand new culture; we are the exact opposite of the stereotypes that were written on our poster.

Anyhow, I think these stereotypes stem from the lack of education in the US about other countries and world history. Seriously, in my experience in the public and private school systems, I have learned extensively about US and Arizona state history, but very little about any other countries. For example, my freshman year in high school (2012/2013) I took a World History class that spent one whole semester focusing on ancient, ancient Chinese history, while the second semester was a jumble of Mesopotamian, Roman, and Greek history. Not once have I ever learned about any of the Scandinavian countries, Germany (besides its involvement in both World Wars), Russia, or ANY countries in South/Central America. So, basically I can give you a brief summary of what an aqueduct is and how the wheel was invented but I probably can't tell you who the preceded Putin as the president of Russia, or who is the current prime minister of Norway. This is pretty dang sad considering many of the kids I have met through AFS can name more than 10 US presidents, what they are known for, and can describe the difference between the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. This is even more impressive considering many kids in the US only know the current president, Abe Lincoln, Washington and maybe Kennedy. Don't get me wrong though, this isn't the fault of the students, it's the fault of an entire education system. And that's what has seriously got to change in the US; kids need more history, more languages, more access to culture. 

Eventually I hope that exchange students, and educated people, can help to get rid of these stereotypes because the USA is a pretty great overall place to live and visit. Coming to Sicily has made me appreciate Arizona and the US, more than I ever thought was possible. And I hope that one day the US is known for things other than fast food.

PS. I didn't mean for this post to seem negative, because there were notes on the USA poster that said "Apple" "Steve Jobs" "California" and "Grand Canyon" (holllla!) and other positive things. I just felt a need to write post pointed out some of the common stereotypes that people have about the US, and how we should work to change them. Also, I want to add that not a single person has been anything but kind to me during my time here. Everyone has been molto dolce to me. 

Lots of love! 
R

Chapter 7: FOG

 Ok y'all, fog stinks. The first few days of it were really cool, and I took a bunch of rad pictures but once the third day of fog rolled in, I had had enough! I miss the brilliantly blue skies that I was blessed with my first few weeks here.

What can I say? I've been totally spoiled, growing up under the gorgeous, blue, northern Arizona skies so this fog thing is very new to me. It also has been dramatically affecting my mood and energy level. Well, fog + tons of carbs + my brain working overtime trying to understand everything = sleepy, sleepy Regan, so I feel bad for my family and friends who have to put up with me yawning ALL the time. Also, I apologize to all my teachers for when I yawn in your class and my eyelids droop, I swear that I am really trying to stay awake and alert, but it's incredibly difficult to maintain focus when you have no clue what's going on. 

Anyway, I really don't have anything else to say about this week and like usual, I'm sleepy. So, buonanotte! 

Chapter 6: School

This week marks my third week here in Sicily and a month since I have been in Arizona. It's so crazy that it's already been that long since I started this adventure, it seems like it was just yesterday that I got the email from AFS/Intercultura telling me that my application had been accepted..

This week I am going to write about my daily schedule and school! So get ready for a pretty long post. 

Six days a week I wake up at 7am and start getting ready for school. This basically just means I grab the first pair of jeans I stumble across in my closet and a random clean T-shirt, and put on the two rings that I brought with me, one that was given to me by my mom and the other from my grandmother. Then I go to the kitchen/casual dining room and make myself some breakfast. About the same time I sit down at the table my sister Alessia wanders into the room, bleary eyed, and sits in the seat my right. We each take a few fette biscottate, similar to toast, spread honey all over them and dunk them in our bowls of milk. This process definitely took some getting used to, and I have a new appreciation for soggy foods because of it. Mornings are generally pretty quite in my home, because no one in my family is a morning person.

School here is very different from in the US, for starters our school days are only about 5 hours long; we go 6 days a week; it takes 5 years to graduate instead of 4; and we don't change rooms for each class, instead the teachers come to us. So the class that you get put into your first year at liceo (high school) will be your class for the rest of your high school career. School starts at 8:30 ish and we have 5 class periods each day. Although that doesn't always mean that you will have 5 different classes, double periods of the same class are very common.  

The view from my classroom window on a foggy day

I am currently attending the 3rd year at a  Linguistic High School and so lucky for me, most of my classmates speak proficient English. The classes and course load here are pretty much equal to that of a community college in the US. Students here take roughly 10 classes, and its a pretty busy schedule. My class is taking Italian Literature, Spanish Literature, English Literature, French Literature, PE, Science (Biology & Chemistry), Physics, Math (Algebra 3/4 & Pre Calc), Art History, Italian History, Religion, and Philosophy. Most of the kids in my class can understand/speak a minimum of 4 languages, so I feel really behind academically. Also, shout out to Sara, Erica, Roberta, and Simona, who are the lovely ladies that help me survive the day.

Sara, me, Simona 

After school is over, my sister; cousins, Agneze and Federica; and I are picked up and we all go home for lunch with our families. Lunch is a big deal here, as it is considered the main meal of the day. Lunch usually includes some kind of pasta, bread, meat, fruit, and sometimes, gelato for after the main dish. Another important part of lunch is coffee! Although don't confuse Italian coffee with coffee in America. Here the coffee cups are approximately the same size as a shot glass. (Auntie i, if you are reading this I suggest bringing your own coffee cup if you ever visit Italy).

After lunch the house gets pretty quite, and for the next hour or so my family members relax, sleep, or play video games. After this period of rest, my Papa goes back to work and Alessia and I start on our compiti a casa (homework). Except on Sundays where we can just hangout in our pajamas all day long and relax the entire day. 

In the evenings when Ale (pronounced Al-ay) and I don't have tons of homework we go out with our friends for a couple of hours before dinner at 8:30 or 9ish. This is my favorite time of the day because the group of friends we go out with are some of the sweetest and most hilarious folks I've ever met and I love spending time with them. As I have said in previous blog posts, I already feel like these are some solid friendships that will last for years to come.

Now, Saturdays and Sundays are a tad bit different. On Saturdays, we still wake up at 7am and go to school but later that night we are free to stay out pretttttty late with our friends. This is the highlight of almost every teenagers week, because it is the only night that they don't have to worry about school and homework the next day. Sundays are pretty typical; sleep in, relax, eat lots of food, freak out last minute about the homework that we forgot to do the night before, and go to bed early because we have school in the morning. 

That's pretty much my basic everyday schedule. If I skipped anything that you are curious about, feel free to ask me and I'll add whatever topic you're interested in onto my next post. Ciao ciao!

Chapter 5: Home

I MADE IT TO SICILIA! Holyyy moly cow! I am here at last. Matter of fact, right now I am sitting in my room, in my new home. I love it here. My famiglia (family) lives on a piece of land with two other homes, belonging to my nonni (grandparents), and my mamma's brothers family. 

In my home here in Sicily, it is very uncommon for us kids to spend time alone in our rooms unless we are sleeping. Normally we sit together on the couch in the living room or at one of the three tables around the house, because everything here is very family orientated.

The city that I am living in is GORGEOUS! Wow. Seriously, as I said to a friend it is beyond my capacity to describe the beauty of this city. I will just have to post all the pictures that I have.

See what I mean? Its breathtaking and I'm completely in love. PS I didn't take either of those pictures, they are courtesy of the Google Images search:  "Caltagirone, Sicily". 

The people here are so unbelievably kind and patient with me. They speak to me in English, Italian, or both at the same time, and I speak to them in awful broken Italian or exaggerated English. We also invented a game where someone points to an object and says its name in English or Italian, depending on their primary language, and then another person will say its name in the other language. It's a pretty effective way of learning a new language for both parties, the Italian speakers and me. We are endlessly giggling at each other's grammar/pronunciation mistakes and we always have a good time. I already feel like these friendships are going to last for a very, very long time. You can find lots of pictures of all of us on my Facebook page, I think there are too many to post on here but I'll post a couple.

 From left to right: Federica, me, Federica (my cousin), Alessia (my sister), and Giulia. 

My cousin Federica and I.

Now the food... Wow. The food. The only thing that compares to the holy goodness of the food here is my Mom's cooking back in AZ or my favorite Thai soup, but besides that nothing comes close. Although, our meals here are very different than those in the US: for breakfast we have cookies or fette biscottate (a crouton type thing the size of a small slice of bread) with honey or jam that we soak in milk; for lunch we have pasta, and slices of meat, cheeses, and pane (bread), and fruit; and for dinner usually we just have veggies, cheese, and bread.

September 17th was my first day of school here in Sicily. It was kinda tough, confusing, exciting, and super boring. Let me just tell you that it is the most disorienting experience to attend classes that are taught in a language that you cannot understand. You know that the teachers are trying to communicate with you, and they do everything that teachers normally do, and everything tells you that you should understand what they are saying just like everyone else in your class but you take away nothing. It's exhausting; because you want to be respectful and pay attention but how can you focus if you have no idea what is going on? Luckily my classmates are very friendly, kind, and extremely helpful. So far they have translated important information for me, introduced me to other kids at school, showed me around, and helped me to find my sister after the day was over; I'm not sure what I would do without them. In Sicily, we go to school 6 days a week for 5 hours each day, that way we can go home and eat lunch with our family. Here students take somewhere around 10 subjects, and so obviously, we don't take each subject every day. I actually really like the way schools work here. Not taking each subject everyday and having a shorter day is significantly less boring than how school was back in AZ, and it gives you more time to work on homework and hangout with friends. 

The weekend before my sister and I started school (Andrea, my brother doesn't start until the 23rd) we went to San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is; simply put, Heaven on earth. 

These photos are not edited at all, this is actually how blue the water is. The transparency of the water totally blew my mind due to the fact that until this point I had only ever swam in the Pacific Ocean. In San Lorenzo you can see the sand at the seafloor, even when its so deep that you can no longer stand; crazy, I know! Anyways, I can't wait to go back once the school year ends and its summertime again. 

Sorry about how random this post was but there's so much to say about this wonderful place and my experience here so far. More to come sometime soon! Ciaoo ciao!

Chapter 4

Ciaaaao East Coast! I have arrived. A week ago yesterday, I had a 12 hour travel day due to over estimating the time it would take to get through the airport, multiple delays, and a very screwed up layover in Chicago. Plus, since there is a 3 hour time difference between Arizona and DC, my internal clock is going haywire. For example, my first night on the East Coast I stayed up til 2am DC time which is only about 11pm AZ time.. But I had to wake up at 8am DC time (5am AZ time) which was terrible. 

Anyways, the countdown has basically stopped for me. I had been counting down the days til August 26th, and now here it is two 9 days past that. I have spend the past week spending time with my great aunt and uncle in Washington DC and NYC. I was also able to meet up with one of my close friends who I went to school with in AZ, Nick W., which was awesome as we hadn't seen each other in a year and a half. 

Right now, I am supposed to be sleeping because I fly out tomorrow night and the rest of the day is jam packed with orientation activities, but my roommate and I have been talking for the past couple of hours all hyped up on pre-departure/exchange adrenaline so sleep has escaped me. Anyway, the plan for today is pretty crazy. All day orientation, a shuttle to JFK at 2pm, and then a flight to Zurich leaving at 9pm. So we fly through the night and arrive in Zurich on the 5th, and then fly to and arrive in Rome the same day. Once we arrive in Rome we have the rest of the day to relax and recuperate after an 8 (ish) hour flight. On the 6th, we have another orientation before taking a train/bus/plane to meet up with our host families on the 7th. Its super hectic and I'm exhausted just thinking about it all. 

To be honest, the amount of orientations we go through here is insane.. And its such a tease because here we are already checked into the program but still days away from meeting our host families. I wish I was meeting them tomorrow! 

That's about all I have to update you all with for now.. I'll write a better post about all the things I did in DC and NYC when I have more time and aren't so exhausted. Buona nottte! 

... ps this post was written at 1:40am. Ahhh all this excitement is screwing with my sleep schedule!

Chapter 3

So I thought it would be kinda funny to post about my last vacation before heading off to Sicily. I didn't realize how ironic my vacation location was until I was messaging my Sicilian sister on Facebook. She asked how I was and I told her I was doing great, and was currently sitting in a restaurant in Venice.... Venice Beach, California that is. I repeated to my sister what my cousin, Tristan, had just told me about the history of Venice, CA; that the tourist destination in CA was originally modeled after the Venice of Italy, including the famous canals. 

A few pictures from my vacation: 

 From left to right: My dad, Marty; my cousin, Tristan; me; and my best friend, Vanessa

 A shot of one of the canals in Venice CA

This trip has, in a weird way, made my impending trip abroad seem more real. Up to this point it doesn't feel like I will be moving to a whole different continent, country, climate, and culture in less than 30 days. Which is kind of weird because I am a part of multiple AFS Facebook groups, a WeChat group of a lot of students (from all over the world) headed to Italy this fall, and have just recently flown to LA to get my student VISA. Everywhere I go people ask me when I leave and where I am going and I excitedly tell them about AFS, Sicily, and my host family; and yet it still hasn't sunk in that I will be gone for nearly a year. To be honest, I think it's only gonna hit me on the drive to the airport later on this month. Ciao for now!