The time seems to continue to go fast, especially these past couple months with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. The holidays are always a special time to be with family, and although I was away from my family this year, I was happy to experience the holidays with my "Italian family" here. Thanksgiving, being an American holiday, is obviously not celebrated here, but I talked to my host family about it and we decided it would be fun to celebrate it together anyway. We got a huge turkey (which wasn't easy to find) and stuffed it. The turkey seriously took up the entire oven and as it was baking, I was having visions in my mind of cutting the turkey at the dinner table and it being like the scene from the "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"...you know the one where they cut the turkey and all this gas comes out and it's all dry and crunchy inside!! But then at the same time, I was worried about the turkey being undercooked and envisioning everyone at the dinner being infected with e coli.....so needless to say, I was a tad concerned about the turkey. Besides the turkey, my host dad and I made many other common Thanksgiving dishes together. We made cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, scalloped pineapple and for dessert apple pie and pumpkin bread pudding. It was an exhausting 2 days of cooking, but in the end, everything turned out well!!! The turkey looked beautiful and my host family, along with my Rotary tutor and his family, (and I) all enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving meal together.
Then before long, we were into the Christmas season. We got a Christmas tree, decorated it, and put up a nativity scene (which are really big here...literally everyone has elaborate nativity scenes that almost seem more like nativity villages....they are beautiful to see). And after telling my host family how much I enjoyed the decorations and the Christmas holiday season I started to slowly collect a variety of decorations for my room. In the end my room was decked out with multiple little Christmas ornaments, my own little nativity scene, the cutest little live Christmas tree (complete with a star on top and tinsel), and to top it all off, a light up plastic lawn ornament reindeer that illuminated the entire room :) With my Christmas music playing in the background, my room was full of "the Christmas spirit"!!
I enjoyed a nice holiday here with my host family, and their friends. Christmas eve we went to a big dinner party and after midnight everyone exchange gifts. Christmas day we had another wonderful big lunch meal together (complete with various kinds of lasagna, rice, meat, vegetables, fruit and dessert) and after it all, I felt like I could go several days without eating and still be full (the food was great)!!!
Before I knew it 2010 was coming to an end and we were welcoming in the New Year. Although I can hardly believe it, within the next couple of days, I will hit the 4 month mark of my exchange! I've definitely learned a lot in these last 4 months and continue to enjoy this wonderful experience!! I look forward to what new adventures the coming months hold. :)
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