Say what?

So. Its been awhile and I finally felt guilty enough to do another post. What have i been doing since i last posted? Well, alot of school. And learning italian. (And spanish and german too!) I also went to Monza, a formula 1 racing track (sounds exciting, but it wasnt. We watched formula 3 racing and we were the only people there) with all the other rotary exchange students. I think i would have died of boredrum without the other kids there. It was nice to see all of them again and my highlight of that was going to graces hosue afterwards to spend the night. I also went to a musem-
That is the courtyard and it was very nice. I got to explore it a bit on my own, and it was the first time i had been into an italian musem! It was fun.
I have this school notebook thing where i write my homework and stuff, and also a really quick summary of what i did on that day, and most of theem look like this
"had lunch with kylee/grace. Studied verbs (sometimes Italian lesson or soccer practice goes i nnet there) Ate. Slept. And thats about it! The trees have been turning more brown
(thats kylee and grace... totally a posed picture but still quite nice) And its been around 60-65 degrees everyay. I bought this wonderful and warm leather jacket for only 20 € and i still cant believe what a deal it was. I have been having soccer every thursday night from 9-11 (just practices) and at my first game last sunday i scored 4 goals. It was really fun and i have another game i nabout 4 hours, so i hope we win! School has been going good, i am really enjoying the fact that i have a new scedule and i am actually sometimes trying to follow my classes. I started german, but my classmates started about a month and a half before me so i have a long way to catch up. I just got my textbooks today so now i can start really following class! I just want to say that i really love the other americans at my school. They are fantastic and i dont know what i would do without them. I try to post pistures on facebook, and after i go to veroan tomorrow im sure im going to have a million pictures so go check it out maybe around thursday or sooner. Ill try post on here about it too :). My language is coming along, i have 3 lessons a week and 2 of thsoe are with 4 other exchagne students here and the other one is with this free tutoring place. Its still coming along slow but im learning! Sometimes i feel really frustrated, but then i remember that when i arrived i knew next to nothing in italian and its only been a month and a half and i am understanding about the just of everything that is said to me (if it is said slowly and directly at me.) I dont miss the hot weather of hawaii though, and i hope ill see snow one day here!

I really love italy. Everyone should come here.

Tea

I really like tea. Its nice to drink becasue it is getting colder outside, and its not really something i could drink in hawaii. My friend got me a box of "22 mixed Teas" for my birthday, so ive been having a different tea every morning and afternoon for the past week and a half. ITs quite fn to try all the different types, and it sure tastes good. The coffee they drink here is SO STRONG too! the come in these little, tiny cups (all the cups in italy are small. i want a huge mug! even if just for water! i have to refill my glass a million times when i drink water at lunch or dinner!) and the coffee is very, very concentrated. Its going to take awhile to get used to.

So yesterday i had my first formal italian lesson with a teacher and some other students. We didnt learn anything that really stood out, only things about singular and plurarls, and about how to prounounce some sets of letters like gli and ce and ca and ga and ge and gu and many, many more. After which i got my first homework for the whole time that i have been here! I have to study and memorize some verb tenses for two different verbs. This should be fun. And in school, yesterday during the day me and the other two girls in my school went down and sat with the teacher to figure out our new scedules. It took, for all three of us, about 4 hours but now i have a shiny new scedule for school! In which i have dropped the classes i wouldnt be able to follow (latin and german 3), classes i didnt need (philosophy and p.e.) and picked up some fun new classes! (german 1). I was going to take Greek, but it is only offered at the other school. Our school has two different buildings which are like 20 minutes away from eachother. So no greek for me, but i DO have 4 hours a week where i am doing a "self study" perios! Im thinking that im going to take a course online or study italian, or maybe sleep. Whatever strikes my fancy. And on thursdays i get to go home an hour early!

Life is good for now. I can start to buy my books for school so i can read up the night before so i can follow somewhat the next day in class, and do something with a little more substance than Sudoku. My tea is ready, so im going go drink that, but im feeling good today!
Ciao!

La Scalla, a strike and a night of salsa

(teatro!)

So monday was my birthday, and to celebrate i went to the Teatro alla Scalla.
Its very nice, and there i watched a ballet. I dont remember the name, and i dont know what it was about but it was VERY cool. An experience. Tuesday i went out to lunch with the other americans here, we had some pizza and got lost. Wednesday i dont remember what happened... I believe i had lunch with Grace on tuesday and on thursday i had lunch with her too. On friday, noone went to school becasue the students had a strike! It was against a new education lady becasue she was trying to change the elementry school, and alot of students didnt like that so me, grace and kylee all went down with a HUGE group of people



thats about half the people. we marched around milan, but the three of us got tired of all the smoke (the italians here smoke like chimmneys!) we we bailed out about an hour in and went to kylees house to eat lunch and watch a movie. That night i went to graces for dinner and returned home very, very tired.
Saturday at school was extra extra boring, and that night i had a sleepover at my host dads hosue with some other americans. We made salsa, burritos, cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies. We chilled on the roof for a little and had a ton of fun. For breakfast we had some crepes with NUTELLA and strawberrys! You people need to try and eat nutella!. It was really good, and i have pictures on my facebook. on sunday i went shopping with kylee and john and bought some really great clothes.

Im trying really hard to update more often!
Milans really been great so far, and i can kidna communicate in italian. Not alot. But i can and i feel like im getting better, little by little. Though i cant really speak english too well anymore! I keep forgetting words!
I start having italian classes tomorrow too so that should really help with learning grammer and more vocabulary.
ciao everybody!
a dopo.... forse domani o mercoledì.
lattterrr. maybe tomorrow or wednesday (that was a translation for all you non-italian speakers. which i believe is almost all of you. but i dont think there are that many yous....)

One Month

Im sorry i havent been updating very much... I really do have to work o nthat. Time is flying by here and i cant believe that today is 4 weeks from the day i arrived. Im going to do a quick review for you, so i dont feel so guilty about keeping you in the dark for so long...
Week One: I dont remember much. Everything was pretty much a blur, and i didnt understand much of what was happening at all. It was fun though!
Week Two: I had a rotary meeting the 14th of september. There i met all the other inbounds to the district! there are 25orsomthing of us! We spent the day around milan and i reunited with the other inbound from hawaii. I met the other kids who are goign to my school! I started school the 15th. My first day was intersting... But not much happened.
Week Three: What a week! With school 6 days a week from 8am-1pm, that took up alot of my time. It got quite cold and i had to go out and buy winter clothes. It was expensive! But worth it... Very much... I got a haircut this week. Very nice. I found a soccer team to play on here and this week i had my first practice. Its very fun, but the practices run late! They are from 9pm-11pm, but thankfully the "field"(its more like turf with sand" is only about 2 minutes walking from my house. That saturday i went to the birthday party of my host sisters who is in new york right now best friend. It was fun and i practiced my italian. Officaly broke by the end of this week!
Last week:This is when the fun started. I finally found the other exchangers at my school! (At which i am still waiting for my schedule to be fixed.Im in all the wrong classes! It is so boring!) We have been hanging out almost everyday after school. One day last week we went walking around milan (the 4 of us) and saw some pretty cool thigns. Like a church decorated with bones, and a nutella crepe! The day after me and one other girl went exploring milano. We had alot of fun. This saturday night i went up to Lecco (a little city about 40 min norht of milan by train) and met up with the other hawaiian and some other girls. It was so muchfun! i spent the night at her hosue and sunday morning went on a bikeride around the lake and later a hike into the mountains. Yesterday, my birthday, i went to the Scalla and saw a ballet. It was pretty amazing! Today after school i went out for lunch and got some tea. This was really condensed and ill come back and post pictures later! It will be better and i will try to update every other day or something!
Miss you all.... Ciaoooo Jody

Ciaoo

Ciao a tutti!

I arrived in Milano 3 days ago, and so far everything has been meraviglioso! (wonderful).
(my italian house is on the corner)

The plane ride was long, and the layovers were lonely, but i did arrive safely and very tired to milan tuesday night. Both of my bags made it (i didnt think they would, seeing as i had two nine hour layovers! I thought they would get lost!) And my host family greeted me with a belissimo sign that said "welcome Jody!". It was wonderful! My first day here was quite hectic. We applied for my residency permit, which took several hours, and then we went to my host fathers house for me to see what it looks like. I was very tired! My second day was much more relaxed. I played some cards with my host sisters, and we walked to a street called Corso Buenos Aires. It is very busy there, but very intersting. I tried something very intersting... Melon with Prochutto(ham)! The food here is molto bene! I think today i ate the best pasta i have ever eaten in my whole life :). But back to yesterday night, when my family and i went out to dinner with my rotary counseler at a jappanese restaurant. He is very nice! I ate Gelato di Rizo (Rice gelato. It was so good!)
(at dinner)

Today my host mother had to go on a buisness trip to venezia. So she got a babysitter to take me and my host sisters around to milano (my sisters are 8 e 11). We walked around, to the park in Porta Venezia

(in the park)

We ate some gelato (i had taramisu gelato.... mmmmmmm....) and went to the center of the city.

(see the duomo)

The streets here are so bella! Around every corner there is a suprise, a statue, and just the streets themselves are just amazing. Well we went to the Duomo by foot, and it was AMAZING!

(the front of the duomo. it was like, 50 million times bigger :) )

This icture des it no justice! It was so grand and magnificent.... I also saw the galleria, which is the oldest shopping mall in the world. I turned three times in the eye of a bull or something. It was funny :)

(the front of the galleria)

We then also saw the scalla, and went home on the subway. It was kind of smelly :)

(with my italian sisters)

It is beautiful here and the food is so good... I am learning so much of the language. I have been here for only 3 days and i can actually sometimes but not very often follow a conversation. My host sisters are wonderful, and they are so much fun. Ciao for now, and i do miss everyone at home! ciao!