This past weekend we had camp. Last month camp, everything in Italian. There we met all the exchange students from Liguria, Piemonte, and Aosta. Our little northern corner of Italy. I got to see all my friends that i hadnt seen in a really long time, who live everywhere spreadout, and i met a lot of other new students who came here for second semester. It was one of the funnest weekends of my life. And one of the saddest weekends.
I love being with other exchange students, it seriously doesnt matter where we are from, how old we are, or if we've ever even talked to eachother. We're still like family. During the whole weekend (thursday june 2nd to sunday june 5th, thursday was festa, so it's not like any of us missed school anyways) We had a bunch of activities and games. A bunch of random fun games, and lots of serious activities too. One was where the volunteers gave us 4 random dates of the year. 23rd of december, 15th of march, 1st of june, and the september to come. We had to write letters for each date describing how we felt in that period, and how we think things will be in september also, in the future. It's scary to think about the future. In the end we had to highlight 3 words for each of the four letters for each season, and write them down on a list. we came up with these lists
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| I took the picture before we did september oops.. |
Another was that we had to draw a graph, design curves of our experience in general. 4 lines, of family, language, friends and school. We had to make the graph and see how it changed over time, over the course of the year.
MY GRAPH(metti la foto qui)
And we had other activities which were like active activities, which are always fun.
One night we all layed down in a dark room, and a volunteer read this story to us. Well not so much of a story, but describing generally what will happen, what we will feel like. It felt like an hour of his reading, and after some time passed, you would just hear everyone crying. It was one of the saddest nights ever. Up until this camp, we have always told each other, dont talk about it, it wont happen, dont think about it. the fact that we have to go back. we dont want to go back. at least i dont. I've fallen in love with this place. I know ive always had problems, but i had probelms in america too. Life will never be easy or fair wherever you go. But I'm so in love with Italy. I dont care if i havent really made italian friends, i dont care if i had a horrible first 5 months, i dont care if there is lots of racism, i dont care if my italian sucks. Italy is beaautiful, and the culture and language is fascinating. And I've just become so used to everything, I've adjusted and my feelings towards italy are undescribable. Italy has changed me. Im honestly terrified about going back home. going back home willbe a bigger change, than coming here. Because before i was just excited, i thought about and expected about the things you can write down. Like learning a new languag, meeting new people etc. I never thought about the emotional aspect. And now that ive been here, for such a long time, i've changed, i have learned a new language and met new people, but I've also gained a lot of things that you cant just list and write down, you cant describe them like that its so much more emotional than that.
We also had to sit down one morning, and all morning long write letters to ourselves. We had to write aboutour feelings or, actually, anything we wanted! but our feelings, and the future, our fears, our reflection ofthe year. AFS told us theyd send it to us at christmas next year. Which is really cool! I'm excited to get my letter from myself at christmas haha
Camp in general was really fun, but in the end we had to take two different buses. one for the people who live near the camp place and people who live in torino. and the other for people who had to go directly to the station in torino to go off our separate ways(me). It was sad. my bus came first and we all got on. before we got on we all hugged and said goodbyes. we know we have another month. but a month just isnt enough time! We have one month to do everything, see things, be with our family and friends, travel, it really sint enough time. and so we got onto the bus, and looked out the window and waved at our friends down below waving. It was so sad, i wanted to cry, we all cried. And the moment the bus left we all cried even harder. we cried throughout practically the whole bus ride back to torino, and even from then which was 2 days ago, i'm still sad about it. I hate the idea of leaving and saying goodbye to my friends who i wont see for a long time. This year I've made friends from all around the world, belgium, china, norway, turkey, france, finland, bolivia, argentina, canada and other americans. everywhere around the world! And I wont get to see them for such a long time :( they're like another family.
So that was this weekend, one of the funnest and saddest weeknds of my life. It's going to be hard to let go, move on, and go back to America. I just keep thinking about how i've lived this life for almost a year, i just cant grasp the idea that we can just leave it like that, and leave our friends from all over the world.
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| Ci chiamiamo fratelli del mondo. We call ourselves brothers of the world. <3 |
Siamo una grande famiglia! Ragazzi vi voglio tantissimo bene! vi ringrazio perchè mi avete dato il migliore anno della mia vita. Ho imparato tantissimo da voi tutti
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Anyways, other than camp. A lots been going on. There was the festa ofmy village which was really cute and fun and cultury. Lots of food and wine and games everywhere, like a fair! That same weekend was mothers day weekend. Mother's day day, The uncle Zio Nino passed away that morning, it was really hard on everyone, and nothing that we had all planned went like we thought it would for mothers day. The whole family came together and w stayed together. We understood he was old, and at least it was in his sleep, and he got to see the beata(the name of the village festival) It was a really really sad day, but i think we all accepted it well. It was a privaledge to know him, that i was able to meet him. He made me laugh and said lots of crazy things and was so kind, he had a really warm heart. Zio Nino, conoscerti è stato un grande piacere, riposa in pace <3
Other brighter topics, a dog came to my school and found drugs. it was like a big deal i guess. it was interesting. Well i guess thats not a brighter topic, but its better? xD
Visit from Uncle
the week before camp, my uncle came to visit, my uncle who lives in germany. he came from friday 27th-30th may. the first day he helped me send off like 6 packages of clothes. whew! thats a lot of stuff! dont know how i would get home if i didnt send some stuff home!
Then we went to torino, he fell in love with it. He said it was one of the most beautiful cities ever and he could live there. haha. he really couldnt beleive that north and south italy could be this different. he has come to italy many times, but always around napoli and rome. he came here to north italy and was in shock. (torino was about an hour and ten minutes away). I personally think torino is also really beautifulk, i mea its like a royal city, all the emperial looking buildings because its where the royalty was.
The next day we went to the islands in a famous lake which is 40 minutes north of my house. There was also royalty on these islands, they were so beautiful!
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| Isola Bella |
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| Host mom and my uncle on Isola Bella |
the last day milan. about one hour give or take. we walked around, saw all the sights, all the churches etc.b ut i felt bad because there was a big pep rally thing for soccer and we couldnt go on top of the duomo, neither could we go in. and we couldnt go in the theater. thats like 3 big things we couldnt do! i felt so bad that he couldnt see them! anyways, at the end of the day i took him to this amazing pizza place. Its fried pizza. he was in heaven haha its seriously the best pizza in the world. we saw a couple fighting, and the girl threw her soda all over the dude and then they left the moment the pizza was brought to their table. and then they continued the fight outside. she started going at him. it was interesting...
anyways, then my uncle had to go back to germany and continue working on monday. He enjoyed north italy a lot, and is definitly gonna come back. he still doesnt believe how the north and south of this one small country could be so different.
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| Arianna, host mom, me, Valeria, host dad, my uncle . a Big dinner together! |
a lot of other things have been happening, but my mind is really cloudy right now. I guess i'll write more later and put the pictures up later too. I just wanted to get this up like in time for my 9 months date here.
The weather has been really crappy. Actually there have been storms on and off and there's no internet at my house. This is a BIG deal, because i have to do my homework online for my course and it's frustrating me, but whatever. I decieded i hate storms now, officially. I used to think they were fun and cool... (when on exchange, NEVER make plans to do something, becuase you probably wont, and you cant plan your exchange. you just go along with it. along with the flow. Actually being able to keep up with a blog is hard enough. just, take my advice, dont plan anything. Exchange will take you where it takes you and theres no way of kowing where it will take you and what will happen.) right now im using the computer and internet in the office of my host parents work. It's chill.
SCHOOL IS OVER TOMORROW!
FINALLY! I hate italian school with a burning passion. I cant believe i even survived a whole school year here. I know i dont really do a lot of work like all the other students. but like, 1. teachers just lecture and lecture and lecture. 2. no films no activites no nothing.3. i have no friends. so yeah it's a bit awkward like, if your an italian, yeah i get you have lots of work!!! at least youre not like sitting there alone..
Being an exchange student is lonely. I'm really happy summer is here so i dont have to sit in class by myself anymore. (another thing i dont like about italy, that people stay in their groups whole life, italians are really friendly and talk and are loud, it's all true! but they arent very open about their friend groups, at least from MY experience. like they talk to you, but it's not like you're REALLY friends.) so yeah, REALLY HAPPY! LIBERTA!!!!
I still cant believe it. 9 months... I dont want to go home. I miss my stuff, but i love it here! It's running out, There's not enough time!!
xoxo rachael
p.s. I know this is a crap post, i'll rite more later when my internet gets fixed at home. My pictures are at home.
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