The End? Or a new begining?

Tomorrow is 21/12/12 or 12/21/12 depending on how you write it. Anyway, it's the Mayan end of the world, or maybe just a change...anyway, as I said at dinner, if the world did end tomorrow, for me, it would be sad, but also okay. It's sad for the obvious reason, that when I said goodbye to my parents on september 5th in New York, hugged them, it was the last time that I saw them, and felt their presence. BUT! On the good side, it would mean I died living my dream. Isn't that the best way to die? Not suffering, not from illness, or in a place you didn't want to be, but in a place you always dreamed of, a place that you took risks to get there, a place that you (and maybe other people) always wanted to be, and you got there!! Also, if we put a little christian into this, my family here, and my family in the USA will all be able to meet each other in heaven. Nonna Carmen will let my family try some of her amazing food, dad can let everyone taste what REAL pancakes and other baked goods taste like, Nonno Sergio will get to see God, who he has faitfully been following and reading about for so many years, all will be okay.

5 days till christmas. :) No tree yet. Going to do that Saturday...I hope. Tomorrow school, shopping in Padova with Diletta and Andrea, and the dinner for 3^C. Saturday is school, then lunch at Nonno Sergio's (it's his birthday), and Rugby dinner. Sunday should be free, then Monday is Christmas eve, Tuesday is Christmas, Wednesday is another feast day, Thursday-Saturday are homework days, Sunday-Wenesday (2nd January) we are going to the mountains to ski and have fun, Thursday-Saturday I go to Ancona to meet  "Franca" a person I have been hearing about for years but never met. Sunday rest. And monday the 6th back to school. Gosh. This break will go fast!

I promise to post pictures of christmas! Buon Natale!

Ciao!

Wait, what is this I am eating?

So, I have eaten some pretty strange things here in Italy. Mostarda, various types of squid, quail, cow's intestine, horse meat. Yesterday at lunch I ate something that was on the same level of gross as the cow's intestine. It was a calf's (baby cow) liver. I was not told what I was eating untill after I hade taken a few bites. It did not taste good, but it wasn't awful either. Once they told me I was eating a calf's liver, I almost lost it. That is soooo gross. Yuck! Good thing there was more normal meat being served as well.

After lunch we went to Verona. Not to like Verona Verona with the history and all that, but to a Villagio di Natale (Christmas Village).

There were soooooooooooooo many manger scenes, and things to add to your manger scene. Ornaments, yeah it just kept going and going. When we finally reached the end/main part there was this little kids Christmas play. Daniele (my host dad) was asked to be Babbo Natale (Santa Clause). Alessia was laughing because she said that Nicola needs to watch out because papa is Babbo Natale, can't be a bad boy, Babbo Natale may be closer than you think! haha anyway...

Today I made chocolate chip cookies. Enrico kept complaining that I was using the wrong bowl, and I was doing stuff wrong. I asked him if he would like to help, but he just said "no no vai vai" (no no, go go). But the cookies came out pretty well. I am always so nervous about translating recipes from cups to grams, because it never feels like the measurement is correct. Every sight has a different translation. This is the recipe I used to try and copy the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies. Tea spoon meaning the spoon Italians use for coffee, not a soup spoon. 

300 grams chocolate chips

335 grams flour (farina)

1 teaspoon aking soda (lievita) 

1 teaspoon salt (sale)

225 grams butter (burro)

180 grams sugar (zucchero)

180 grams brown sugar (zucchero di canna)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 large eggs (uova) 

Then just follow the instructions of normal Toll House Cookies. 

The TWILIGHT MOVIE and other things.

So this past weekend I didn't do too much because i have a cold and it was the worst this weekend. BUT! I felt a bit better Sunday night and went to see twilight breaking dawn parte (notice that is parte, not part) 2! In Italiano with my friend Michaela. It was soooooo good! I understood it because I read the books, I also understood some of the conversations in Italian just because I have been here for 2.5 months and well, you start to understand things. I think it also helped that usually there was only one person talking at a time in the film, unlike real life when there usually are many many more, and they talked a bit slower than normal Italians  Another thing I that was different (and a bit strange) was seeing Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, Taylor Laughtner, etc...but hearing SOMEONE ELSE'S voice. Woah man! But I got over that after a bit. All in all the movie was amazing, beautiful, scary at times, ah I won't say anymore if you are a sad soul who has not seen it yet.

On another topic...this British lady came into my English class on Monday. Apparently she is here to help the students practice their English and pronunciation  She will come every Monday for the next 8 weeks. haha I loved her accent! My goodness! And they way she spelled spoiled, as spoilt, and called sneakers trainers! Ah made my day! The poor kids in my calss though kept forgetting words, and probably felt awful because the teacher was...well...she was exactly what I thought British people would be like. All black and white, dress pants, not saying "oh this word is better" but just saying "the word is sleeve." well then. Some phrases I did not agree with at all, but I guess that is what makes American English different from British English. 

Other random stuff:

Diletta and Michaela want to go abroad next year. Michaela want's to either do the summer in the USA, 2 months in Canada, or 3 months in Australia  Diletta said she chose the countries 1) USA, 2) Hong Kong 3) (Australia?) can't remember. But ooooh Hong Kong  That is one big challenge. But I think that would be really cool! Especially because she has been to the USA and Canada before, and her english is pretty good, a new language would be cool! 

I was thinking the other day...you know, we have never ever truly seen our face, yes you can see it in the mirror  but you never really know what it truly looks like. Because the miror is just a reflection, light is bent to show you an image  Other people can see your whole body, but depending on where they are standing you may look different. I don't really think this is important, but kind of interesting. 

Lastly, I guess I should say that tonight I am going to hip hop! I can't wait to try it! I am planing on trying different dances and then choosing one of them that I like the best. It will help me do stuff in the afternoon and make more new friends. I am walking down a road on a foggy morning, I don't know where I am going, what's down the path, but I keep walking. This is the journey I decided to take. This journey is about finding myself, I have changed so much since I started this journey, and when it ends, I know I will have changed even more. :)

Yet another wonderful weekend!

This weekend was super busy and tiring  but super amazing! On Saturday I skipped school and went to Fieracavalli with Diletta, her dad, and little sister Ginevra. I have never seen so many people and horses in my life, and it was the first time since I arrived in Italy that I heard country music and saw cowboy hats. Hearing super american country music was really really strange, I felt like I was back in southern laundryman with the hill billies. But the food was much better (well it usually is in Italy) than at a fair or something similar back home. There was lots to choose from. Normally in the USA when there are vendors at the fair you usually have your choice of Chinese, German (I think they are the sausage people), and then the various stands with pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cake, etc. Here, each vendor was selling a different regions food. Diletta and I ended up just getting pizza. But that was better than fair pizza in the USA. Here are some pictures.

Later that night I went to Elisa (the girlfriend of Fabio, my host uncle) 's birthday party. I was told she was turning 21...but she seemed a bit older than that...maybe 25. Ah well, anyway that was a lot of fun because Elisa Candeo (a girl from school) was there with a few of her friends from the marching band (only drums though) she is in. I made a lot of new friends because of that. Most of the people go to other schools besides Cattano, and then there were a few who were young adults maybe in their 20s but they were still really funny.


Then Saturday I went to Ferrara to cook with Trine, Nathalia, Maxim, and one volunteer Christina. We made homemade ragu, pasta, and beshamella (for some reason I can't seem to spell that correctly) sause for home made lasagne. It was a lot of work, but lot's of fun! When the TV stopped playing music, Christina put in a CD of a sort of popular Italian band, called Moda, click here to see a beautiful song by them! Here are a few pictures from that day as well.

Me, Trine, and Nathalia preparing veggies for ragu. 

Nathalia, Trine, Christina, me, Maxim

Trine, me, Nathalia, Maxim

Talking in Italian is much easier than at the beginning  I am using less and less English with my family. But, a few of my friends still talk to me in English so that makes it difficult to learn. I love that Elisa Candeo and Andrea talk to me only in Italian  it makes me try to respond in Italian  and helps me continue to work on my comprehension.

This was October

Ciao!
Today is November 1st...it was a wonderful October! I ate Mustarda (go here if you haven't read about that) , attended a very amusing birthday party for Nicola, Piero, Diletta, and Elisa, attended the AFS welcome camp, and began to understand generally what was going on.

Last night I carved a pumpkin with the boys. They wanted me to draw on paper the face for the jack-o-lantern. When I was done, they told me it was not scary enough so they changed it. Whatever. Here, Halloween is all about the scary. Everyone's costumes are supposed to be creepy (so there are no faries, ballerinas, "Dorothy"s, nerds, cowboy/girls, or any of that) they go full force in to the scary. Well, that's because here, Halloween is actually the day of the dead, and November 1st is All Saint's Day. See, here it actually has a bit of meaning, not just "give me candy!". Of course they think that Halloween is extravagant in the USA, which I guess it is in some places, but I think the look at the USA like it is God or something amazing like that. Which really, I think we are cool, and our country represents a lot, but I think people give us too much credit...I don't want to start a debate so I will hush up on that now.

Today I went to the "sagra" basically it is this big market/fair rides thing in the center of Monselice. It was crazy. So many people, you kind of had to waddle in some places since there were too many people to walk normally. All of the fair rides were pretty similar to ones back in the USA. I went on bumper cars with Enrico. I hope he passes his driving test, that was very very scary. Hahaha! Nicola loved the train, and then the fun house, I enjoyed watching them do all of that. Then we walked through the market and that's when the waddling came in :) But there was this place that you could buy...salami...but it was not exactly salami...oh well. Anyway it was huge. Here is a picture. They use these really, really long knives to cut it into chunks and then you use your slicer at home to make sandwich meat out of it.

I will post more pictures of the sagra tomorrow because I am going there with my friends tomorrow.

Upon my sister's request, I am working on taking pictures of my life here, my room, my school, my family, my friends, my favorite gelato place, yeah things like that. I will post them all on FB hopefully Monday  and then I will post a few of them here as well.

Till then,
Ciao!