Friday, June 24, 2011

I got the wrong host family...

BUT NOW I HAVE MY NEW ONE!!!!

And they are seem like such a better fit than my old one!

So, my host dad, Giuseppe, is a dentist. I have a stay-at-home mom, Battistina, and they have three kids. I have two sisters, Magda and Egle, who are 16 and 14 respectively, and I have a brother, Silvio, who is 11. I'm going to live in an apartment right in the middle of Cosenza right next to a really pretty church.

Now I'm really really excited! I don't think I've ever wanted the weekend to be over so badly before... xD

Ciao Ciao!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I GOT MY HOST FAMILY!!!

So, I my computer crashed today. I had my email open for the past three days because I wanted to see if I got any news from EIL, and then it crashed about 20 minutes ago. I think it may have crashed because my computer just received a super, amazing email and it just couldn't handle it's awesomeness. I know this because just as this happened, my mom brought me my blackberry saying, "HEY!! YOU JUST GOT AN EMAIL ABOUT YOUR HOST FAMILY FROM EIL!!"

So I'm going to be living with the De Benedictis family in Belvedere Marittimo. I don't think I have a host mom because the email didn't say anything about a mom, but I have a host dad who works as a store clerk and I have two host siblings. My host sister, Rosella, is 23, and my host brother, Aldo, is 26. But I don't know if they're going to be living in the house or not because of their age. I can't help but be kind of worried because I'm not going to have a mom and my siblings are so much older than me, but I know it's going to be great.

Well, I leave in 4 days, and I'm super excited! Our program doesn't let us bring laptops or anything, so unless my family has a computer I can use, I'm not going to be able to update this blog until I come back. In case that does happen, I'm going to keep a journal when I'm over there and post it all when I come back.

Ciao Ciao

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Pre-departure stress = NOT FUN

RANT

I just feel like writing something for the hell of it... Soo stressed out... I'm preparing for my three exams on tuesday and wednesday which includes a crap load of studying. I have a 6-hour long chemistry review thing and then too many tutors on Monday...

And because of all these exams, I haven't been able to get ANY sleep from studying, so I'm absolutely exhausted, but I can't sleep, because I NEED TO STUDY SOME MORE!!!

And now I have a 102.2 fever, so I can't play in the concert I have tommorow, and the conductor is gonna be pissed cause it's the last concert of the year. I feel like crap, even though I'll probably be fine in a day or two.

And on top of all that, I haven't even started to pack for Italy, even though I leave in about a week. My mom won't even be able to help me because she got surgery the other day so she can't bend down or anything. I need my dad to help me find some suitcases in the attic because only he knows where they are, but he just got a new show that he's working on, so he's been coming home really late, which really sucks...

END RANT

I know that I probably make this week sound a lot worse than it actually is. I can't wait for tests to be over. There's only three left, which I'm happy about.

I've started to slowly say goodbye's for the summer to some people that I won't see 'till I get home, which is pretty exciting. I promised everybody that I would send a postcard or two from Italy. Maybe I should write them in Italian...

So all I've pretty much been doing lately is studying for my exams and learning some more Italian, which hopefully will give me a head start. Even though I leave in about a week, I haven't heard anything my host family, though I did hear that we'll find out before we leave.

As I'm writing this, I'm shocked to say that I just found a silvery-whitish hair (my hair is dark brown) which is really messed up, because I really shouldn't be getting grey hairs at my age. Maybe it's all this pre-departure stress. Oh well. xD

Ciao Ciao

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Host Cities and Itineraries

Hey!! I kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth... but I'm back now! And while I was gone, as my title says, I got my host cities and my itinerary!!

Orientation - Rome (3 days)

Language Training - Cortona, Tuscany (8 days)

(insert 7 hours of traveling here)

Homestay - Cosenza, Calabria (16 days)

Travel - Ravenna & Venice

Departure - Venice

And now, random stuff about my city, Cosenza (as copied from wikipedia -.-)!!!

Mayor: Mario Occhiuto
Total area: 37 sq km (14.3 sq mi)
Elevation: 238 m (781 ft)
Coordinates: 39°28'00"N, 16°25'00"E
Population: 69,603
Demonym: Cosentini
For anybody who's curious, it's near the toe on the boot of Italy.

Well, that's pretty much it for now...
Ciao Ciao!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

My weird dream...

I haven't been on in... wow, exactly a month. So I just thought that I would share some of my randomness with you:

I had a dream. It was a very nice dream where I just happened to be in Indonesia, in the province of North Maluku. The only reason I know that is because I just happened to see a map in the dream. Anyway, I stood inside a house. It was very small compared to where I live. The room I was in, which was some kind of living room, looked to be about the size of my bedroom. On the ground were white tiles that had a simple green leaf design in the middle of each one. There were people standing around me. A boy, a woman, and an old man. They were all faceless and without names, but I felt as if I knew them all very well.

The room itself didn't have any expensive furniture or anything. There was a couch with a thin, wooden frame and really old, ratty looking cushions. But at the time, I didn't think anything of it. The woman was apparently giving me a tour of the house, because she then brought me into the kitchen. It was really small. It only had a small stove, a sink-like thing, and a table with a bowl full of water. She started to boil the water on the stove while the old man watched. While they were preoccupied, the little boy grabbed my wrist and pulled me outside the house.

I remember the place I was in being absolutely stunning. The house from the outside was a plain white box with a redish-pink colored roof. We were at the base of a hill and I could see hill after hill as far as I could see. The ground was covered in light green grass dotted with houses identical to the one I was just in. Beyond the houses was the edge of a forest, but I could only see the deep green leaves over the rooftops. I remember just looking at the sight for a really long time. I think the boy got annoyed that I wasn't moving, so he turned me around.

The house was right on the water. I looked out into the deep blue ocean. There were a few docks branching out from the land. In the water, there were small sailboats. Some of them had fishing lines coming off of them. In the far distance, I could see the deep outline of a bigger island. And then I woke up.

When I woke up, I remembered this dream so vividly, which never happens with me. I almost felt like crying, having to leave such a beautiful place. I don't believe in any god or internal energies or any of that stuff, but I can't help but think that this was some sort of sign. Maybe my subconscious was trying to tell me to travel to far off lands. To just forget everything and go for an adventure. To just leave everything behind, forgetting all of my worries, and just... live.

One thing I do believe is that your subconscious is always trying to teach you something. And I do think that this is one of those lessons. I can't constantly work all of the time. Sometimes I just need to stop time for a moment and take it all in. But I know that that's impossible. I can't stop time, as much as I wish I could. I can only try my best to enjoy each and every moment to the best of my ability. For even though moments alone are nothing, put them together, and you get a memory. And whether it is amazing or not, it is still a memory that makes me who I am.

In 49 days, my plane leaves for my epic journey to Italy. I know that when I come home after 5 weeks in a foreign land with no direct connection to my family and friends, I will be a different person. And whether everybody at home thinks I will have changed for better or for worse is up to them to decide. But I now know that it's my duty to take in every single moment and turn all of those moments into cherished memories.

---

Thanks for anybody who got this far into my post. It means so much to me that you took the time to read my post. I kinda went of on a philosophical rant at the end... And sorry it was so long, but I guess I was just making up for the past month of nothingness or something...

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Package from EIL

So now I'm officially going to Italy! And I got an awesome package from EIL! I mean, it wasn't that great, because most of it mostly applied to my parents (insurance, communication...), but there was one paper that made the entire thing great.

I now have my flight itinerary.

It's pretty much this:
June 27
New York 7:00pm -> 8:35am Paris
(1 hour layover)
Paris 9:45 am -> 11:50pm Rome

RANDOM AWESOMENESS IN ITALY!!!

August 2
Venice 9:45am -> 11:50am Paris
(7.3 hour layover)
Paris 7:10pm -> New York 9:10 pm

Well, that's all for now. I'll update if anything else come up.

Ciao Ciao!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Say goodbye to Asia...

and hello to Europe!

So I had a big talk with my parents and I decided that we would have to compromise. They really didn't like the idea of me going to Mongolia, where the medical facilities aren't that good. So I just thought, Hey. They're letting me go away for the summer anyway. I should at least go somewhere they want me to go, and not make them worry by going to the middle of nowhere.

So now I'm probably going to go to Italy. For anybody that's wondering, the program that I'm now looking into is here. I know absolutely no Italian, but I've been told that it's somewhat similar to Spanish, being that they're both romance languages. So hopefully my Spanish will help me a little bit, but it probably won't. xD

On a side note: For all of those classical music nerds out there, I'm sooo happy because Bob Sherman from WQXR is visiting my school this Wednesday. We're going to play 'Peter and the Wolf' and 'Lincoln Portrait' and it's gonna be AWESOME!

Well, I guess I'll post when there's anything new going on in my life...

Bye bye!
Ciao!