The Holidays!!!!

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. :)

Wow how time is flying!

Well i guess I should take it as a sign that I haven't updated my blog in awhile when I can't remember my login id and password ;) To all my loyal followers, I am sorry I haven't been good about posting. Anyway, a lot of time has passed since my last post and a lot has happened. A whole month full of new adventures and I am still loving it here! I feel like the 2nd month went by faster than the 1st month; Probably because I got more into a "normal routine" this month (knowing my schedule for school and such). I think this month was a big progress month for me in a lot of areas. I think I strengthened my relationships this month….with my classmates at school, with some of my teachers and with my host family. This was most likely due to the fact that my Italian continued to improve this month…by no means am I perfect…I still have a long way to go, but I am getting to the point where I can listen to people talk, follow what they are saying, and occasionally contribute to the conversation (i say occasionally because sometimes it takes me a little while to say what I want to say) ;) I keep learning!

highlights of the month;

sometimes I had segments of dreams in italian.
I learned the definition of an English word from an Italian classmate and I forgot how to say "mandarin orange" (kind of embarrassing).
I participated in an Interact event in Traponi(a nice city on the other side of Sicily).
I learned that just because Sicily is in the Mediterranean doesn't mean it is always warm (so I went shopping and bought some warmer clothes :)
I've tried about 4 different kinds of Risotto (all of which I love) and enjoyed trying several new gelato flavors!
I saw my first ever opera, La Boheme...it was in this old beautiful theater and the whole experience was just awesome!!!
And finally, the entertaining story of the month, I discovered what "the cord" hanging in the shower is for.....one time after I finished taking a shower there was still water in the tub that wasn’t draining. So I was looking around, trying to figure out how the drain worked. In the shower, there is a button at the top of the shower wall that looks like a light switch. There is cord that hangs down from the switch and if you pull it, it flips the switch. I’d noticed the cord before but whenever I’d been in the shower and pulled the cord, nothing had seemed to happen, so I just figured it was dysfunctional. Anyway, the one day the water wasn't draining from the tub I figured I'd try pulling the cord again just to see if it did anything. I pulled the cord and from the hallway outside my room I heard a buzzing noise, very similar to the sound a doorbell makes, accept louder. I walked out into the hall and looked for where it came from. My host sister came out of her room explained to me that when you pull the cord in the shower, it sounds the buzzer in the hall to single the other people in the house that the person in the shower needs something. I was like “ohhh!!!” that explains while sometimes my host mom would knock on the door while I was taking a shower and ask if everything was ok. hahaha, live and learn! :)

1 month!!!

Wow, I've already been here in Sicily for one month!  It's strange because it seems like it has gone by fast, but then at the same time, when i think back to the day i first arrived, it seems like it was a  long time ago.  Anyway, here comes the 1 month updated!
Within this month,  I feel that I've learned and experienced a lot.  One thing I've enjoyed experiencing is the variety of food!  I think one of my motto's this month has been “eat and be happy”.  Haha this motto most likely results in weight gain, but then again I think, hey i'm in Italy and i want to experience all the wonderful foods while I'm here...I think I'm allowed to splurge, it's just good I have about a year to do it (that way I can spread it out!)  :)  I'll just do a little food run-down;
pizza!  When you order a pizza here, everyone gets their own pizza and they're big (probably about as big as 2 full plates put together!)  I've yet  to finish a whole one, but they are delicious! Basically you can have just about anything you think of on your pizza.  All the ingredients are fresh and just tossed a top the pizza.  The pizza is cooked in a big brick oven and then when the pizza comes out, they pour oil over the top of it (oil is added to a lot of things!)…so I’m guessing this wasn’t the low fat kind of pizza but it was delicious and messy and wonderful!!!  One night my host family and I went out to a pizza restaurant for dinner.  This was my first real time having to order something at a restaurant (good thing it was only pizza).  I was looking over the menu and there were so many different kinds of pizza options.  The waiter came to take the order and I was still trying to translate the menu and figure out what i wanted.  So, when it came my time to order, I just randomly picked a pizza.  I really had no idea what I was ordering, but i figured it would be interesting to try.  When the pizza came, it was this great big fancy thing, with prosciutto and some kind of sauce drizzled over the entire thing (making a checkerboard pattern)…it looked very good and it was!  I still don’t know exactly what it was, but I liked it. 
Here at the house, I've done some cooking with my host father.  We've made peach marmalade, very good!  And also a tiramisu cake (which we joked and called Tirami"up"...because in Italian "su" means "up"..haha).  I like to cook, so I've enjoyed helping to cook and eat!  I even bought an "eating in sicily" cookbook so I can try various things.  Also, I brought some American recipes with me, I haven't made much of them so far, but i did make brownies for my host family...they had never had them!  I guess it must be more of an American thing :p 
Ok enough on the food.  
Another experience I've had this month has been at the movie theater.  I saw my first Italian film, Innocenti Bugie.  It was a good action film...I didn't understand all the dialect, but I could follow the jist of the movie just watching.  A couple interesting things;  the movie, had an intermission….like all of the sudden, part way through the film somebody paused the movie, the Italian phrase for intermission appeared on the screen and the lights came on in the theater.  Haha kind of strange I thought.  It was only about 5 minutes, some people got up and moved around and others stayed seated.  After about 5 minutes, the lights turned back off and the movie continued.  I also laughed when I realized the concession stand was selling “pane”…which is bread….not to be confused with “pene” (a male body part) which sounds quite similar but obviously means something quite different (as my host parents so kindly informed me after I misspoke and said the latter of the two one evening).   Sometimes I wonder, why the "inventors" of languages even made awkward words like that so similar to everyday (commonly used) words?! haha I guess we'll never know!  Another funny "word" story;   A lot of the music that teenagers listen to around here are the popular American songs….so I think a lot of their English vocabulary comes from what they hear in songs.  The other day at school, somebody wrote a word down on a piece of paper, gave it to me and asked, what does this mean?  I looked at the word…"Fergalicious”…..hahaha I burst out laughing….i thought, hmm how do I explain this one, a word that doesn’t even exist.  He had obviously heard the word used in Fergie’s (a musical artist) song.  I explained to him that “Fergalicious” was not actually a word, it was something the artist, Fergie, made up and that it combined her name and the English word “delicious”.  I'm not sure if my explanation made sense or not, but it at least made for a funny story.
Also recently, I had a chance to visit Taormina.  It is a beautiful Sicilian city located on the top of this hill and the view is magnificent.  Actually, you could only drive up so far, then you had to park your car and take a bus or walk to the main street.  The main street was just for walking (no cars allowed) and it was gorgeous….lots of cute shops and cafes and such beautiful scenery.  I think I must have walked the main street 2 or 3 times…each time exploring different alley ways and different shops.  The weather was beautiful and as I walked I could hear various Italian music coming from the shops, it was great!  While i was there I also got a chance to see an old outdoor theater, that is still used today for concerts.  It was so beautiful and interesting! Ok, i think i have written almost a novel now so i will stop (i hope i haven't bored everyone.)  But in conclusion, it's been a great month! I am happy and so thankful to be here, to have a great host family and to have such great continual support back home from all of my family and friends!<3

3 Weeks!

Right now I am sitting here updating my blog, dipping some italian cookies in my hot chocolate and getting ready to watch "L'Era Glaciale" (Ice Age in italian)...haha life is good! :)  Since my last posting a lot has happened so I'll try to give a quick update.
I've started school and so far it is going well...actually i should say the stuff i understand is going well.  haha I'm in some classes like philosophy, history, physics and Latin, which are difficult classes to begin with, but trying to understand them in Italian is even harder!  I just take it one day at a time though and keep working on my italian (fluency is the goal right now but it seems to be coming quite slowly).   I’m getting better at understanding what people say to me (as long as they talk slowly), but I still am not very good at responding.  I just can't wait for the day I wake up from having a dream in Italian! :) Back to school, all the kids in my class are really nice.  They really try to include me in everything that is going on and help me out with the language.  School here is different in several ways from school in America.  Here, the kids stay in one classroom and the teachers move (so you have all your classes with the same people.)  At first, I thought I wouldn't like this, but it's actually been nice because I've been able to get to know the people in my class pretty well.  Another difference is with the sports and clubs.  All extra curricular activities are done outside of school.  As of now, I haven't joined any teams, but maybe I will. Outside of school, I've been keeping busy.  I have been on walks through the piazza, visited some of the historic Castles, and have even done a little shopping.  I love all the architecture and scenery here!  It's beautiful, and the history behind it all is very interesting to me!  Last weekend, I had my first Rotary orientation and the drive to the meeting was gorgeous!  At first glance everything just seemed kind of brown to me, no full green trees like I’m used to seeing.  But then once I really started to look around, I notice the natural bare beauty of it all.  It’s almost like the land was untouched by man (except for the road).  Natural peaks and valleys surround you and then all of a sudden you can see a city up on a hill.  You see the houses all packed in together and the historic buildings in the center.  It’s beautiful and almost indescribable (i'm disappointed i didn't have my camera with me to take pictures of it all)!!!  I will try to upload what pictures I do have though. As far as the food goes, I'm still enjoying it all.  I have now experienced Granita (which i love) and Arancini which are Sicilian specialties (granita is like an icey ice cream and arancini is a fried thing with rice and tomatoes and meat in the center.)  I think that is about all i have time for, Ciao for now :)     

First days!

So here goes my first post!  Saturday afternoon I arrived! .  Thankfully, there were no problems with my flights, but unfortunately my luggage didn't make it!  But I was just so happy to have arrived and to meet my host family, that the missing luggage didn't phase me.  My host family is very nice and after I arrived they took me back to their house.  The house and the surroundings are very nice!  I think I was most surprised by the garden in the center of the house surrounded by glass (I had never seen this before, but I like it because it lets a lot of light into the house.)  After a tour of the house, I had my first meal here.  A meal here consist of multiple plates, literally, you get a new clean plate with each new serving.  The first plate was pasta (and I've realized that at most meals, the first plate is usually pasta)!  The second was some type of fried meat (kind of like hamburger).  Bread and cheese are always on the table.  The bread is in the form of little loaves.  At anytime during the meal, anyone can pick up the bread and just tear a chunk off to eat! It fits my eating habits perfectly ;)   I also like to take little pieces of bread and wipe up any sauces left on my plate, here, that is very common and it actually has a name, scarpetta (i think), which means little shoe.  Pretty cool! Oh and I've also learned that Italian dressing is not commonly used in Italy :p  It is more common to mix oil and vinegar for a dressing.  Then of course there is, GELLATO!!!! love it :)

My italian is very poor, so it has been interesting listening to people speak it here!  It all sounds sooo fast to me!  My most commonly used words/phrases so far have been si (yes), va bene (its ok), mi dispiace (I’m sorry),  mi piace (I like) and grazie (thank you)....I start school tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be expanding my vocabulary soon! :p

My 1^st full day here was great!  In the morning I had my first Italian coffee.  It was made in this little container on the stove and served in a tiny cup because it is very strong!  I think I had as much sugar in it as I had coffee, haha, but I like it!  On the first day, my host family and I went to the sea (the Mediterranean).  Che bella!!!   It was so pretty!  Rocks lined the shore line, and metal steps led you right down into the water.   Later that night, since it was Sunday, my host father took me to the local mass.  It was a small church, but it was full of people.  The mass was in Italian, so I didn’t understand much, but it was very similar to an American Catholic service, so I got the jist!  
In the past couple of days my host family has also taken me to see many other places.  We went to a place called "love fruit", a shop that only sells fresh fruits and veggies! Ughh, it was heavenly!! I know my sister would have loved it!!!   I've also been to a kioska (i think it is called)...they are little stands (kiosk) on many city corners that sell beverages (all kinds!!!)  It's pretty cool!  I also saw a little bit of the town center, it was gorgeous…fountains, old historic building, lots of people, it looked like something straight out of the movies! 

My luggage finally arrived Monday night, and I now have everything unpacked.  It feels good to be settled in! 
I think that is about all I have for my first post..but I'm sure there will be lots more to come! :)