Finally

Ok! So I am finally here and living my Italian life. And finally I am writing about it. Sorry it took me so long but it's hard to find time for stuff like this when you are an exchange student! To shorten things up both orientations (NY and Rome) went fine and I made lots of new friends! I'm pretty sure I doubled the muscle in my arms just from carrying my insanely heavy luggage. On the plane to Zurich I was tired but they had all these movies and nothing makes me happier than movies so instead of sleeping I watched The Great Gatsby, The Internship, and Goodfellas. At the Rome orientation we stayed at a hotel that used to be a convent I guess and I had an awesome roommate. It was so cool to meet people from all over the world!

I have been in Cagliari for 2 weeks today. My first week was filled with homesickness and feeling lost in a new city and home. But now that I am getting used to my city and the language and meeting new people I'm loving it more and more! The food is great and I eat pasta for almost every meal. I don't think I will ever get tired of it! I also love the fact that they drink so much coffee here because not only do I love coffee but I really love Italian coffee.

I was definitely made for city life. Coming from a small town to here makes it so much more interesting! I love that I can walk next door to a bakery or gelato shop, which I could never do at home. There is so much I want to do that I constantly need to remind myself that I have all year to do it!






I also love the people here! Everyone is so nice and helpful. When people hear I am American they get very excited! My classmates were so friendly on my first day of school and made me feel really good because it sort of freaks you out when it's your first day in a foreign school. But everyone talked to me, invited me to sit with them, and translated when the teachers said something I didn't understand. It feels great to finally have some friends here! I'm also getting close to the AFS group of kids living here. I don't get to see them as much but when I do it is sort of relieving to be able to talk to other kids who can understand what you are going through.

That's it for now! I'm going out with friends for the first time (finally) and I am really excited!
Ciao for now!

Saying Goodbye

Heyyy guys! I have 2 more days at home. 1 more night in my own bed. Whaaat?! I can't even think about it. It's too crazy. AND I'M NOT READY!

This weekend has been bittersweet because I am saying goodbye to everyone. I've had a blast seeing everyone one last time before I leave and I can't even believe that I won't see them for a whole year! Of course there is facebook, twitter, instagram, skype, email, etc. it will be weird not being around any of them for so long. So to say goodbye I had a goodbye party with my friend Olivia (who is also going to Italy) at my house. There were just 15 people or so but we had a fun time talking, eating tacos and ice cream cake, and playing Rockband.

Made by my little sister!

I also had one last hurrah with 4 of my best friends that I have known all my life. Basically everything we did all night was stupid or crazy but it was ok because yolo right? We played (and failed miserably at) ping pong, gave my friend Shannon a magical makeover, sent a bajillion snapchats, played monopoly until 4 in the morning, and ate an entire chocolate cake. It was the best night I've had in a very long time. It definitely helped me relax from all my stress!

                                                                       Surprise cake made by Shanny!

We're only a little weird...

 Our monopoly game was actually quite amusing. There was a lot of yelling, and bargaining, and singing, and throwing money, and just total chaos. We all of course started out fairly evenly and could hold our own but, as the game goes, my friend Kate started making tons of money and monopolizing on multiple properties leaving me, Tessa, and Shannon to all get married so we could share money and property. Together we owned 3 sides of the board but Kate was still piling on the hotels so we had to temporarily throw out our moral standards and resort to desperate measures. For example, stealing money

from the bank, pretending to be paid from chance cards, and not moving the right number of spaces to avoid landing on one of Kate's properties. Sometimes Kate would show us some mercy by letting us serenade her instead of paying a full $6,000 for landing on Boardwalk. After 3 hours of playing, the game ended when I had the unfortunate luck of landing on Park Place and there wasn't even enough money in the bank to pay. So after all of our cheating, stealing, and fighting, Kate still won in the end.

Another exciting thing that happened in my life is that my cockatiel laid an egg! She is a few years old and her name is Benny, just for some background info. And well I didn't know it was possible so as you can maybe imagine I started freaking out as I walked into my room and saw a little white egg in her cage! Apparently it is possible but it's just an infertile egg, so we wont have any baby bird hatching or anything. But as grumpy as my bird is, she is just so freakin' adorable when she sits on her little egg.

Grumpy but cute.

 So. Things are coming together. Sort of. I'm getting my goodbyes said, my clothes washed, documents in order, schedule figured out. There are still many things to do. The biggest of them is PACKING. I'm sitting in my room surrounded by piles of clothes, bags full of stuff, and overflowing boxes. We are only allowed one suitcase (44 lbs), a carry on, and our personal item. Then there is another detail: we don't have access to our luggage during orientation so everything I need for that has to be in my carry on. Packing is a complicated process because I need to decide what goes in the suitcase, what goes in the carry on, and what gets shipped. Which means factoring in weight, temperature, what I need and don't need, and so on. SO NOW YOU CAN ALL UNDERSTAND HOW FRUSTRATING IT IS. It's bad enough to pack for a whole year but with all this extra stuff to figure out it makes my life 10x harder! Doesn't help that I'm sort of doing this last minute but hey I do literally all of my packing last minute.

My room was clean for almost a day.

Ok well this is it for now. I smell my last meal at home cooking. Of course I chose the most American thing possible, hamburgers! Even though, since I'm semi-vegetarian, mine is actually a venison burger. I'm soo hungry oh my gosh so I'm going to go eat and get lots of protein to stay up all night packing. Woohoo! My next post will probably be in New York or even Rome! Ah!
See you next time lovies!