I am so sorry to everyone who has been checking this blog and hasn't seen any updates. I feel like I have so much to say that I don't know how to write it all down. I've been here for about 3 and a half months now and I cannot believe Christmas has already come and gone. I've already learned so much about myself and I feel so thankful to have had this opportunity.
It hasn't been easy, at all. It's so much harder than I anticipated. Italians don't really believe in privacy, or at least they don't practice it very often, haha. They like to leave the bathroom door open when they are using the bathroom or whenever someone is on the computer everyone has to watch what they are doing. I'm used to doing everything pretty much alone, but here everybody is with everybody - all the time! It's nice sometimes but at the same time I'm someone who needs their down time. But nobody has down time here.
I'm getting to know my family really well. However, it's been slightly difficult because the way of communication here is so different. Everything is yelling. Everything. The way they talk is just very loud and it can become a lot at times. My host mom seems to be angry all the time, not with me, but with her kids. I don't think she's angry though, just tired. She works and she takes care of the house and does housework usually all by herself so I would think she just gets exhausted. But it's been hard to adjust to it.
I get along well with my host siblings. They are all kind of crazy, and I can be pretty crazy at times too so I think we're a good fit!
School at this point is terribly boring! I still am not participating in any of the courses but I'm gradually starting to get books. I still don't understand a lot though so I don't know when I'll actually start doing all the work. Lucky for me I don't need to pass any of my classes, haha.
Christmas in Italy. So very different from that in America. It's actually not really that different from any other family gathering except that Santa comes. Everyone in the family came to the grandma's house at about 9pm to eat dinner. We had a total of 7 courses: appetizer of olives, cheese and cold cuts, first course was lasagna, then we had meat, then salad, then nuts, then fruit, then dessert. And we had two rounds of dessert because one of the little girl's birthday was also on Christmas so we had cake. After dinner they put music on and everybody starting dancing (they even had to take a table out!) Then Santa Clause came. They don't put presents under the tree here, but Santa comes Christmas Eve at midnight to hand them out to everyone from his sack. One of the Aunts in the family dresses up and comes into the room ringing a bell and dancing. All of the little kids are very excited up to this point and then they become shy and even scared of Santa. So some of them refused to go to him to get their presents. But then Santa leaves and they are all running around screaming again! We left grandma's at about 2am.
I don't have school for over 2 weeks because they start celebrating the 24 and don't stop until January 6 because that is when Befana comes (the witch) who brings with her coal or candy for the kids depending on if they were good or bad. This is also the day they take down all of their decorations. Then it's back to school the next day :(
Today is the first day of the year and we ate so much food! We had these noodle things rolled up with meat in both a tomato sauce and then others in a cream sauce. Then we had lasagna and after that was meat with a potato puré (something like mashed potatoes but a little runnier and more butter). I am so stuffed right now, but everything was sooo yummy! Nothing like great food to bring in the new year!
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