Ciao, tutti!
First little tidbit of information, now all my articles for the Herald can be accessed from one quick and easy link: www.heraldonline.com/chandler/
So, at the moment I am frenzied, flustered and frustrated with the stressful labors of applying to college. It's annoying, but really not as bad as I expected, if I'm being honest. The good thing is that I can work on my essays, resumes and such during school, while the rest of the class is studying Latin, physics, or some other lesson I wouldn't understand even if they were taught in English because I didn't study them in the States. Since there's nothing else of much interest to do, it's easy to buckle down and focus on what I need to get done.
Sometime soon, though, I'm supposed to stop taking these classes that don't do me much good. I talked about it with the AFS school coordinator and now my English teacher, who's the one that helps me and makes sure everything is going well, is making me a special schedule. I will get to move around instead of staying with the same class all day. I'm going to miss 5B, but I think I'll still be with them quite a bit and besides this way I get to meet way more people at my school. I'll be taking Italian on a less advanced level, and going between several English classes to help teach. I won't have to do Latin or physics and I'll probably find a math class that is similar to something I remember learning back home. It might be confusing at first to move around so much, but I think this is going to be much, much better for my language-learning. I'm excited!
I know this is a very short post, but I'll try to blog again very soon. I have Monday and Tuesday off from school this week, so I ought to have a chance. Ciao for now, though, because I'm going out with some of my wonderful AFS friends!
xoxo, Chandlerwww.heraldonline.com/chandler/
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Mia Famiglia & Mia Casa
Ciao, everybody!
It's been awfully too long, I know. Here's why: I get a little behind, then more and more keeps happening, so I can't catch up. So I'm scratching every lousy attempt to sum up everything thus far. The main points and most exciting things have been covered in the articles I've written for my local newspaper back home, The Herald. I'll give you links to those. Enjoy: my first article, my second article (fashion show), and my third article (flash mob). If you haven't read those already, please do, because I believe they'll get you more or less caught up.
Okay. So.
I have a host sister named Lucrezia and a host mother named Daniela. Lucrezia is one year younger than me. She's very nice and very beautiful. We get along quite well, I think. It's awesome having a sister. Sometimes she lets me borrow her clothes, which is fun. Last night, for example, I was going to an 18th birthday part for one of my classmates and she picked out a gray ruffly dress from her closet for me to wear, as well as a pretty Prada purse. With that and my new 12 centimeter high heels, I felt wonderfully Italian! Lucrezia also invites me to go hang out with her and her friends on a pretty regular basis, which I enjoy. Even though we're both high school aged, we don't go to the same school. She goes to Calini and I go to Luzzago. So her friends are a different crowd from the friends I've made at school, and this way I get to meet way more people than I would otherwise. It's awesome. Another awesome thing about having a sister is that there's someone around to watch Italia's Next Top Model or whatever with. And she helps me with my Italian, too!
I get a ton of Italian practice from Daniela because she only speaks Italian. I think that's good for me. Lucrezia can help out if there's something important that I'm not understanding, but through attempting to communicate without any English at all, I learn a bunch. Daniela is an elegant lady. She has a shop in the center where she works, which sells pretty jewelry and antique things. She's very organized and helpful and on top of things, which helps our household to always run smoothly.
The other person who makes our house run smoothly is Clara. I'm not sure what the word for her job is, but she tidies up the house and does laundry while we're at school and Daniela's at work, and she makes us lunch when we get home. She is super sweet and I like her a lot.
We live in what I guess you'd call a townhouse, although I don't think that's exactly the name. It is connected to other homes, but it has its own front door, yard, garage and everything. I like it a lot. There a three stories. On the bottom is the garage, the laundry room, Lucrezia's bedroom and Lucrezia's bathroom. The middle has the living room and the kitchen. The top has my room and bathroom and Daniela's room and bathroom, as well as an extra bathroom and a little sitting room. My room is cute. There are lots of shelves on the walls. Some hold Lucrezia's old books, all in Italian, of course, some of which I read in English when I was younger. I might try to tackle one in Italian when I get to that level. (Right now I could probably only handle the simplest of simple baby/children's books.) Other shelves were cleared out for me and now contain my laptop, books, jewelry, nicknacks and some clothes. The rest of my clothes are kept in an armoire in the hall. Besides the shelves, my room has my bed, a desk, a lamp, a row of hooks for hanging purses, and a bulletin board with my AFS event schedule, some pictures of my friends and family back home, and a few little notes from my mom, dad and brother that tucked into the packages of clothes they sent.
There's another member of the family that also lives in our group of connected houses: the grandmother, or Nonna. She pops in and out often, and she makes us lunch on Clara's day off and sometimes comes for dinner and brings something she's cooked. Like Daniela, she speaks only Italian, but it is harder to understand her, because she talks fast and in complicated sentences. She's really cool, though, and it's nice to know there's someone else nearby that I can ask for help if, for whatever reason, Daniela and Lucrezia aren't home.
And there's more family too! Lucrezia has an older sister named Chiara who's grown up and has two kids. There's Luca, who just turned 14 and goes to my school, and there's Alessandro who's 3. They live about 5 minutes away by car. Alessandro is probably the most adorable guy ever. He's got the curliest light brown hair and the cutest giggle. I played with him a lot the other night when we went over to celebrate Luca's birthday, and it was super fun and a bit exhausting. He likes to be pulled around by his ankles on the floor and tickled, and he has a TON of energy.
I really like this whole family a lot and I am super lucky to have been placed with them. I can't imagine it could be any more perfect than it is. Now, I must go to sleep! I'll try to start updating this more regularly, even if that means just doing quick posts instead of trying to cram every single little thing in. Ciao ciao!!
It's been awfully too long, I know. Here's why: I get a little behind, then more and more keeps happening, so I can't catch up. So I'm scratching every lousy attempt to sum up everything thus far. The main points and most exciting things have been covered in the articles I've written for my local newspaper back home, The Herald. I'll give you links to those. Enjoy: my first article, my second article (fashion show), and my third article (flash mob). If you haven't read those already, please do, because I believe they'll get you more or less caught up.
Okay. So.
I have a host sister named Lucrezia and a host mother named Daniela. Lucrezia is one year younger than me. She's very nice and very beautiful. We get along quite well, I think. It's awesome having a sister. Sometimes she lets me borrow her clothes, which is fun. Last night, for example, I was going to an 18th birthday part for one of my classmates and she picked out a gray ruffly dress from her closet for me to wear, as well as a pretty Prada purse. With that and my new 12 centimeter high heels, I felt wonderfully Italian! Lucrezia also invites me to go hang out with her and her friends on a pretty regular basis, which I enjoy. Even though we're both high school aged, we don't go to the same school. She goes to Calini and I go to Luzzago. So her friends are a different crowd from the friends I've made at school, and this way I get to meet way more people than I would otherwise. It's awesome. Another awesome thing about having a sister is that there's someone around to watch Italia's Next Top Model or whatever with. And she helps me with my Italian, too!
I get a ton of Italian practice from Daniela because she only speaks Italian. I think that's good for me. Lucrezia can help out if there's something important that I'm not understanding, but through attempting to communicate without any English at all, I learn a bunch. Daniela is an elegant lady. She has a shop in the center where she works, which sells pretty jewelry and antique things. She's very organized and helpful and on top of things, which helps our household to always run smoothly.
The other person who makes our house run smoothly is Clara. I'm not sure what the word for her job is, but she tidies up the house and does laundry while we're at school and Daniela's at work, and she makes us lunch when we get home. She is super sweet and I like her a lot.
We live in what I guess you'd call a townhouse, although I don't think that's exactly the name. It is connected to other homes, but it has its own front door, yard, garage and everything. I like it a lot. There a three stories. On the bottom is the garage, the laundry room, Lucrezia's bedroom and Lucrezia's bathroom. The middle has the living room and the kitchen. The top has my room and bathroom and Daniela's room and bathroom, as well as an extra bathroom and a little sitting room. My room is cute. There are lots of shelves on the walls. Some hold Lucrezia's old books, all in Italian, of course, some of which I read in English when I was younger. I might try to tackle one in Italian when I get to that level. (Right now I could probably only handle the simplest of simple baby/children's books.) Other shelves were cleared out for me and now contain my laptop, books, jewelry, nicknacks and some clothes. The rest of my clothes are kept in an armoire in the hall. Besides the shelves, my room has my bed, a desk, a lamp, a row of hooks for hanging purses, and a bulletin board with my AFS event schedule, some pictures of my friends and family back home, and a few little notes from my mom, dad and brother that tucked into the packages of clothes they sent.
There's another member of the family that also lives in our group of connected houses: the grandmother, or Nonna. She pops in and out often, and she makes us lunch on Clara's day off and sometimes comes for dinner and brings something she's cooked. Like Daniela, she speaks only Italian, but it is harder to understand her, because she talks fast and in complicated sentences. She's really cool, though, and it's nice to know there's someone else nearby that I can ask for help if, for whatever reason, Daniela and Lucrezia aren't home.
And there's more family too! Lucrezia has an older sister named Chiara who's grown up and has two kids. There's Luca, who just turned 14 and goes to my school, and there's Alessandro who's 3. They live about 5 minutes away by car. Alessandro is probably the most adorable guy ever. He's got the curliest light brown hair and the cutest giggle. I played with him a lot the other night when we went over to celebrate Luca's birthday, and it was super fun and a bit exhausting. He likes to be pulled around by his ankles on the floor and tickled, and he has a TON of energy.
I really like this whole family a lot and I am super lucky to have been placed with them. I can't imagine it could be any more perfect than it is. Now, I must go to sleep! I'll try to start updating this more regularly, even if that means just doing quick posts instead of trying to cram every single little thing in. Ciao ciao!!
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