Sunday, June 30, 2013

A Long Post about Missions in Nashville, Tennessee (sorry y'all)

Ciao amici!
Hey y'all.

The Rundown.
On the 21st of June, at 4 in the morning, me and 11 of my "eh, sorta close" friends went off in a fleet of two vans to Nashville, Tennessee for a week of missions in the city. We slept over at the church (not really, we just played Uno and froze to death because we cranked that thermostat down to a cozy 65). We did manage to set both the regular alarm and fire alarm off, at the same time. For a nice ten minutes straight.
There I am in my Ferris Bueller shirt. The reason I slightly resemble Princess Leia is because my hair was in a braided ponytail. PS, my absolute favorite 20-something-year-old ever is the short guy on the left bottom, Joe. 

Life is a Highway (goodness I hate that song)
The rest of the stay at the church wasn't all that funny, until the sun came up and we started complaining for McDonald's poopfest food and we had to all go to the bathroom because we drank 3 Gatorades a pop. We stopped at some mountain-town in Virginia (I have no idea where, I was uncomfortably asleep most of the ride there) to eat some breakfast. Now, normally I hate on McDonald's with all the flaming passion in my heart, but I was hungry and Lord knows I am not eating protein Special K bars.

Walking into this McDonald's, you immediately figured out two things: it had to be the only fast food joint in a ten mile radius, and that it had more flies than all the employee's teeth combined. The toilets were overflowing and you had to hack your way through a swarm of bugs to get to a stall. Not to mention my sandwich tasted and smelled like one of the stalls. Classy.

Around hour 11 of the 13 hour drive, we reached Tennessee. I've never driven that far into the Southwest, so I made this.

You know you're in/on your way to Tennessee when...

  • you can't drive 5 miles without seeing an ad for McDonalds, Cracker Barrel, or a fireworks superstore
  • "Jesus is Lord" and "We buy guns" are appropriately placed side-by-side on a warehouse. 
  • every city on a roadsign has been referenced in a country song.
  • there's more Confederate flags than American ones.
  • caverns...so many caverns.
  • people actually still smoke pipes
  • billboards are always borderline politically incorrect.
Monday: the first day.

After a night of extremely painful and pointless orientations and housing Vietnamese food, we woke up the next morning drowsy and hot. We were staying in a church in East Nashville in dorm-style rooms. It was hot. The air conditioning really didn't do its job well and we only had one fan in our room, which was hogged by the room behind us. I volunteered to sleep on the top of a bunkbed, where I slept without covers and with my shirt pulled up so I didn't sweat that much overnight and was disgusting by morning. That night I also made the horrific yet moderately hilarious discovery that I had forgotten my towel, so I used the T-shirt I wore on the way down to dry myself off. It honestly wasn't that bad. But anyways, Monday Funday.

We started out at a place called Project C.U.R.E. in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Project C.U.R.E. takes donated medical supplies from hospitals all over the country to send to developing third-world countries. The Nashville branch was the second biggest, right behind the branch in Denver. We had a choice to work inside or in the warehouse, where there was no air conditioning and lots of physical labor. I was in a really good mood and just ready for a week of serving, and I was the only one of 6 girls who chose to work in the warehouse. It honestly wasn't bad at all. We moved shelves, placed boxes of supplies all around the warehouses, and rearranged them for shipping so they could fit more boxes in an area. If you'd like to find out more about Project C.U.R.E., visit http://www.projectcure.org/ to see what they're all about!

After that, we ate lunch at a park called Centennial Park in the city, where we sat on the edge of an extremely large and beautiful pond and ate our sack lunches. I didn't take my camera or phone with me on this trip, and the only one who did take pictures hasn't loaded them onto facebook for me to mooch off of yet, so Google Images is my best friend.
Holy instagram photo, batman.

After that, we did something called a Prayer Tour. A Prayer Tour is a tour, but you're in a state of prayer the whole time. It was around 2 and a half hours to finish, and it wasn't really about how amazing Nashville was or where Johnny Cash spit on the ground or Elvis took a picture. It was more for looking at where the struggles of the city were, and bringing them to light as we prayed in various locations all over the city. We prayed in locations such as Jefferson Street, the state capitol, and the Rose Park Magnet School overlooking the city. 

We had a quick and early dinner following the Prayer Tour at a Thai restaurant where they served cafeteria style dishes. I completely forget what I had, but I only remember the women who work there were so hospitable and kind. A girl in my group had a stomachache, and they gave us a Sprite free of charge, and then they let us play on this huge xylophone thing they had sitting in the corner. It was cute. 

Our last activity for the day was with an organization called People Loving Nashville. PLN is a bunch of volunteers, most of them younger and very stylish, that make dinner and receive donated clothing to give to the homeless/needy on every Monday night (at least that's when I think it is). Some of our group worked in the kitchen and probably around 4 or 5 of us went to a storage unit a couple blocks away to pick up some clothing. Since I worked at a thrift shop, I was almost obligated to sort clothing at the storage locker. Oh well.

We took all the food and clothing to a place in downtown Nashville that I really don't know the name of but it was beautiful. I was a person who handed out the food to the visitors, so I got to interact a lot. Some of them were very thankful, some didn't even want to look at me. I didn't really mind. After we served the people, we had to walk around and talk to some of the visitors. After talking to a guy who was pretty boring and didn't really want to talk to me, Joe and a few other people met up and we walked over to two men that had a guitar and were playing. As we approached, we realized the song the one was singing was about weed. It was kind of like making eye contact through a bathroom stall crack. Insanely uncomfortable and you try to not let it get to you. Both men, referred to as Guitar Mike and Guitar John, were very friendly. They played Wagon Wheel where I sang along, then they each played a song they wrote. Including the 5-verse long weed song. So if you're in Nashville and hear the weed song, say hello to Guitar John for me. It ended up that we left early because two girls got in a fistfight. We were told that if it happened we were to leave, and it was right behind us. One of the men working for PLN rounded us up just before they started flailing limbs. Working with them was a fantastic experience, and they are a great organization with even better motives. If you'd like to check out PLN for yourself or even volunteer a night, check out http://peoplelovingnashville.com/. They are incredibly friendly and willing to serve through God.

End of night 1.

Tuesday: dude where's the water?

Tuesday was a brand new day. On this trip, we only repeated an activity two days, which luckily was my favorite thing to do while on the trip. Before we went to my favorite site of all, we did an activity called "Beat the Heat". It was also referred to as "Operation Hydration" but at that point I really didn't care. The point of this was to hand out bottles of water to people who looked like they needed it. It was surprisingly hard, but if someone you didn't know handed you a bottle of water, would you drink it either? That's what I thought.

My favorite site however was called Project N.I.C.E. Don't ask me what it stands for because I have no idea. But the motive for this is to help struggling refugees in countries all over the world adapt, live, and work in a new country. In this location, we were working with children that were either refugees straight from Egypt or their parents were refugees and they were born in America. What we were doing was helping for 2 lessons of an English class taught by a local 2nd grade teacher from Nashville with the kids, with them speaking Arabic as their native language. Most of them were already in school, but since it was summer vacation and they only spoke Arabic around the house, their English speaking ability would plunder through the months of vacation and being out of school.

As we pulled into the development of apartment complexes, we were looked at. A lot of people were hanging out on their porches or kids were out playing and just stopped to watch our fleet of 2 drive over the dozen speed bumps. The building we were going to was at the other side of the development, so we drove a while through it. Halfway through, a kid started running alongside the van's pace from the sidewalk. Okay, maybe he does that a lot. He'll just get tired and stop.

He didn't.

Before we knew it, there was a kid on a tricycle following behind with even more kids running behind him. When we parked our vans, ours was swarmed. There were probably at least a half dozen Egyptian kids telling us to put our windows down, open our doors, climbing on the back and front, looking/banging/clawing at our windows....ever see the State Farm Rate Sucker commercial? It was exactly like that.

So we got out of the vans and immediately the kids wanted to play outside with us. One kid got really good at using us for his own personal jungle gym, just running and jumping on our backs. I couldn't really tell if he was really badly behaved or just super excited. We then had a lesson where we sat down and helped the kids come up with answers as they learned about the beach. The kids spoke decent English, enough that you could understand them but they may not necessarily understand you. The lesson of the day was learning about the beach, where they'd read clues and say what each item they'd use at the beach was, and using the 5 senses at the beach. It was surprising that some of the kids didn't even know what the beach or ocean was, and some of them have never seen/felt sand before. Those kids had a hard time grasping the subject of what to bring to the beach, especially when it came to things like sandcastles, goggles, and sunscreen. In my reading group, I had 3 kids: a boy and 2 girls. The two girls were wonderfully behaved and spoke fantastic English, and had very little trouble writing and comprehending their questions. The boy however needed me to spell basically everything he put on his paper. He was a fantastic artist, though.

Sitting there and have these kids just rattle off to each other in Arabic while I sat there not having a clue what was going on was a newsflash to what Italy may be like. Let's hope it's not that much of a language barrier for me to comprehend simple things!

That night we ate at a Turkish restaurant called Istanbul, where we ate rice with lamb and chicken with vegetables and some form of cucumber sauce. They served it and it was pretty good, but the definite highlight was their homemade hot sauce that they served with it. I'm not one for spicy foods, but that stuff I housed with everything on my plate.

In my Dollar General journal my youth leader prepared us all with at the beginning of the week, I wrote a few rants about how there's a difference between being a Christian who spreads the Word and is easy to trust/follow/love and being a "Bible Thumper", who shoves it down people's throats and doesn't communicate with you if you don't go to church. I've encountered quite a few Thumpers through the years, and let me tell you from a standpoint with both believing friends and non-believing, that there is nothing that steers a person away more from God than a Bible Thumper. In the wise words of Cody, don't be that guy.

End of day 2.

Wednesday: woah, what?

We started out this hump day in an air-conditioned room. Big deal? YES.

Within this air-conditioned beauty was a seminar from Nashville Cares on HIV/AIDS. We sat for an hour and listened to a woman named Eva talk about the disease(s) while we ate the snacks and sodas they provided for us. It was just like the health class I had a month and a half ago but with adults that giggled more than the freshmeat I was stuck with back in May. This seminar didn't tie in until Thursday.

After we ate all their snacks, we went to a park where we wrote letters to people we have met over the past 3 days. I chose to write mine to a man named Tony that was at Project NICE as a teaching assistant (I'm actually not quite sure what his real title was, that's just a shot in the dark). I made sure to tell him all about how amazing it is to give the gift of language to children that need it, and how they will remember him and the language all their life. I was so thankful to be a part of that organization for 2 days (Tuesday and Thursday). We also played on a giant baby swing and walked for gourmet popsicles up the block.

After that, we went on an excursion called Urban Exposure, where we were supposed to find out more about the city and the people inside it from the firsthand sources: the people. We were supposed to do things like give a lunch to a person and then eat with them, ask random people questions about homelessness, talk to a person selling the Contributor (the newspaper), etc. We tried...sorta. After 45 minutes of unsuccessful attempts we gave up and went to do tourist stuff. We shopped and tried on boots, got ice cream, and just wandered around Broadway.

We did that for around 4 hours, and when we got back, a girl in my group had become extremely dehydrated and was unresponsive on the floor as we walked into the market where we started. Not going into that much detail (there isn't that much) but she was eventually taken to the hospital and released later that night, and woke up fine (but weak) the next morning. Thank God!

With her in the hospital for the remainder of the evening, we were stuck with 1 leader out of 3. Jen, who is kinda like that one relative that lets you do anything that you really want, took us on a late night adventure to the Wal Mart across the street to get ice cream and liters of soda. Funzies!

End of day 3.

Thursday: sweat, work, sweat, love.

Thursday began with the tie-in from the awkward AIDS seminar from Wednesday. We were going to a Nashville Cares participant's house and did some yardwork for her, like weeding, trimming hedges, cutting grass, and weedwacking. We were done in a little over an hour because it was a small lawn and we weren't the first people to help her out in her yard, so we got to play with her cute little doggies and then go eat lunch back at the housing site.

After finishing our mediocre bagged lunches we hopped in our van and went for our second run with Project NICE. I was pumped because of all the fun I had there on Tuesday, and I was really hoping the little Rate Suckers would be back for more van-attacking fun. Not many showed up at first, but there were so many new faces at class that day, including mah girl, Youstina. Youstina immediately became my favorite person to work with and I'm pretty sure I became hers. Throughout the whole lesson, I was the only person over the age of 10 on the carpet because she wanted me to hold her hand the entire time. The teacher was reading a book on the water cycle, and every time a vocabulary word was mentioned, there was hand motions. We'd do hand motions, and then she'd just grab my hand again. I'm not around little kids like, at all. This was absolutely amazing for me to do and kinda made me tear up a little to know this kid actually liked me.

We went through the same written sheet, snack, and craft routine as Tuesday and I didn't have to spell every word because the boy I originally had attached himself to a boy in my group. It's alright though, I only cried for 20 minutes because he hated me. (;

After that, I discovered my long-lost love: Indian food.

Even though curry looks like vomit, it tastes like mush of the heavens. Housed that stuff, yet again. See a pattern?

That night, my youth leader and a few of us devised a plan to go exploring through no-man's land of the church. This church was MASSIVE. It was also a secret mission to retrieve a freaking fan from another room, because the girl's room was sweltering. So three girls and four boys from my group all come up with a plan, with Joe being our ringleader. The absolutely genius youth leader I'm proud to be a student/friend of made a plan where we all left our rooms in 1 minute intervals to leave and meet up outside the hallway where it wasn't completely obvious we were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing. So we sneaked out and pretty much almost got caught the full 30 minutes we were out there. Who cares! We didn't get caught and
End of day 4.

Friday: it's the final countdown duh nuh nuh nuh.

The last day, we started out at an Adult Day Care, where we sat around and talked to all the people there. I sat down at a table next to one of the volunteers at the site, and said a lady who was in the bathroom was coming to sit next to me who was named Mary. When Mary came out of the bathroom and I saw her, she was definitely the retired version of me. She came out in a bright tye-dye tee shirt and her frizzy hair up in a pony tail with the underneath part still down. I introduced myself, and she introduced her self as "Trouble".

My day with Trouble.
     Trouble has a bug collection and loves nature, so we went on a long walk with her and the most boring man in the world who worked at this daycare. While he went on about oak trees and crabapples, Trouble would grab sticks and hit us in the butt with them and talk to me about life. On the road, while we were paying no attention to his 12th spiel about some sort of bush, Trouble pointed to the ground and pointed out a penny. I just agreed and walked over it, but she forced me to pick it up. So I picked it up, and she looked at me and said "it doesn't matter if it's heads or tails, you're still a penny richer."

At this point, I knew my grandmother (who died in January) was within
the soul of this woman.

At the end of the day, after our walk was over, we danced to some motown, and we did some arts and crafts, I had to say goodbye to the woman who I saw my grandmother in. I started to tear up as I told her I had to leave. Just like my grandmother, she picked up on the fact I was on the verge of crying. She asked me why I was crying, and I just said I wasn't so I didn't have to say anything. She told me, "well, you know if you ever start crying, they can always be happy tears".
My penny from a day with Trouble.

After that emotional few hours, we went to an organization for homeless, wounded, disabled, or poor veterans called Operation Stand Down. I sorted clothing for their thrift shop they had that employed veterans and sold good stuff very cheap. I got a good job, because everyone else was doing janitorial work. We then got a tour from the epitome of a southern lady named Tami, who was amazing. At the end of the day, we were given hats and patches with brochures for Operation Stand Down. http://www.osdnashville.org/

Friday night was our final night, and we had it off. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown outside, with really loud, obnoxious live music. Everyone was beginning to annoy each other, so at the end, 3 of us went shopping for dumb little trinkets for gifts while everyone else walked around. I had a great time and came home with a T-shirt for my mom, a snowglobe, and three post cards. I was very pleased. 



We left the housing site at 4 in the morning on Saturday and I slept a of of the way home. Everyone was tired and slightly grumpy because all we wanted to do was go home and with all the traffic on the Washington-Baltimore Beltway and the numerous bathroom stops because people drank way too much for small bladders, it was around a 14-15 hour drive home. 

BUT I GOT A HOST FAMILY.

To be continued.

Ciao, il miei dolci amici.





Thursday, June 20, 2013

just call me an ethnic hipster.

Bonjour!

Had to switch it up, my cool mamma jammas.

But really, buona notte de il mio letto (nuovamente!).

Being in this stage of my choice in life, even though I'm the meek 15 years of age (lol nope), I'm getting more aware of the world around me every day. Not the kind of aware that I know what is going on in every country and the economical downfall of a country in southern Europe or the riots breaking out in a country different from last week's rioting, but the way people think around me. I've been on rants and condescending yelling conversations with people that share the same views of how life should be lived for a long time. If you know me and I've had one of these with you, you know exactly what I am talking about. I really don't have the power or the audacity to say that the way people are living is wrong and that I'm right, I just don't understand how many opportunities people are given that they aren't willing to take because they actually involve work. Know what makes me frustrated, possibly more than anything? When people say they want to leave, want to start over, want to get out of the town, state, country, yet they don't do anything about it. I mean, what?

Look around you. We are surrounded in a society now that we have the terrible tumblr phrases pasted everywhere, like "I live in a small town that everyone claims to hate yet never leaves". Well you know what? That's true. I never really could figure out the logic behind that. Because, if you aren't looking for a way out of it, you aren't going to leave. It takes self initiative (oh no, physical labor!) to actually get stuff done. You want to leave this town you grew up in? Fine by me. But don't just wait around to scratch off that lottery ticket or marry some person wealthier than you. You want it? You gotta get it. If you don't get it, you aren't really trying.

Which brings me to this: you can't hate where you come from. Hating where you come from just blatantly prints "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING" on your forehead. All it is, is a sign of immaturity and being too adolescent for really understanding the beauty of the world. You can be 109 years old and still be too young to absorb your surroundings. Yet another example: if you claim to hate where you came from; your country, your hometown, your family, your ancestry, your history, your culture...you have literally a 1% chance of enjoying the world and what it has to offer half as much as a person who respects their roots. Sitting around, complaining over the internet to all of your friends about life here gets you ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. Not that I am one to not complain because believe me, I get really rammy to be leaving in almost 2 months. If you constantly find yourself behind that computer, behind that smartphone, just tapping away about how much you are going to leave, but never do, then is that what you really want? I found a way to not only get away for a little while, but to find out where I really am in life. Find out who I am. Cause in all honesty, it's a question still whether or not I know for sure.

You get one life. You can either be a tourist or you can be a traveler. Tourists go to see what they go to see. Travelers see what they see. (This is a quote from somewhere, I'll have to get it for you guys.) So what are you? A tourist, or a traveler?

Moral of the story is, nothing gets done without work. The more work put in, the more you get out of it. No amount of waiting will ever do the trick, as I have found out many times before. If you want something, you have all the power you need to get it. In the words of Nike, just do it. swoosh.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

"Cool story, bro. Tell it ag-" NO.

Buona sera de il mio letto!

It's almost 10 o'clock at night in the wonderful comfort of my own bed, covered in Disney creatures, pillow pets, and a really creepy penguin I really don't know why I've kept this long. Sitting here and scrolling through my social media feeds, pretty much criticizing everything I lay eyes on, I get really bored. So I go on google images, or sporcle (this really cool/nerdy quizzing site, check it out) and just try to find something that won't really kill off my brain cells or put me to sleep. Plus I am really getting the hang of the idea of blogging almost daily, and I came up with this snazzy subject.

Actually, I came up with nothing.
Or maybe I did.
The quality of this entry will prove so.
You be the judge.

In most of my freetime, I loiter around on the interwebs (mostly facebook nowadays) because of one sole purpose in mind: talking to exchange students from around the world. Me and a girl named Katie (she doesn't have a blog, but she was mentioned in a previous entry with a mishap at lunch if you remember) talk a lot. Normally talking about people we've met and the pains/perks of being an exchange student. We also have this thing where we skype until midnight and talk like we've known each other all our lives. We share the same concerns, views, and not much of a lifestyle because she actually exercises and I eat Nutella straight from the jar while watching my 8th consecutive episode of Doctor Who in a sitting. But here is some of our plans/thoughts.

goat farms vs. city flats
Our primary worry that we joke (even though it has high potential to come true one way or another) is that one of us will end up on a goat farm in the middle of Sardegna with no one around us while the other one ends up in a nice flat in the city of Milan or whatnot. Since Katie got her host family yesterday (yet knows nothing about them), we don't know where on that scale she'll end up. Fingers crossed for goat farm! (;

bunkbeds in Roma
All the exchange students going to Italy are flying into Rome and staying there for a few days/nights before going to our host families. Katie and I hope we are allowed to pick, if not, are at least placed together. To put this in perspective, here.
We've came to the assumption that Rome will be less of a "take a nametag, be awkward, and go speak english to the people from your own country" thing and more of a "WHERE IS ALL MY FRAAAANDS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES I MADE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH LET ME GIVE YOU A NONVIRTUAL HUG FOR THE FIRST TIME" thing. This is why the internet is such a blessing. Speaking of friendship bracelets, that brings me to my next bullet.

crash crafts and survival kits
Some time in the next 2 and 1/3 months (76 days) Katie and I are getting together and conquering arts and crafts alongside of maybe a small shopping trip. We are actually planning to make friendship bracelets, knit some scarves or something, and basically do all that sorts of junk before takeoff. Hopefully I know where I am going before then. So, to all those Italian families looking to host:

Just kidding.
sorta.
arrivederci, il miei amici.


Sunday, June 16, 2013

nonsense rambling (kinda with a meaning)

Ciao ragazzi!

Ah, the things I could write novels on this week. Not that my life is that exciting, it's just a lot of thoughts were running through my head and I probably could make a few million bucks if I ever wrote them down and published them. That can wait til I'm broke from college, though. And now for today's top stories.

Wait, I'm going to Nashville?
Yes, yessiree. A week from today in the wee hours of the morning, me and 13 other rammy teenagers are going down to Nashville, Tennessee for a missions trip. We're driving for most likely about 12 hours (knowing us we'll make a plethora of stops throughout every state we pass through, it'll be more). Down there, we will be giving meals and supplies to the homeless, working in a type of old person's home that I forget what the proper name for it is, where we will be sitting and talking with the residents, and all that nice jazz. This is my first time going to Tennessee, or driving though Kentucky and the good stuff. Of course, we will be servants of God (as we all should be 24/7!) while working. My goal for the trip is to touch at least one person, just to make their day shine a little more. Just one.

Did I just become a Baltimoron?
Saturday, we went to an Orioles game. Out of the 5 Major League Baseball games I've been to, it was probably the most fun I've had at one of these games. I discovered my closet hatred for all New England sports teams (and some of their more "outspoken" fans), how awesome Baltimore is, and I always get a bad seat. Not the view of the game, but the people around me. I always get those loud kids behind me that really enjoy sticking their feet in the crack of the seat, kicking me in the butt for all nine innings. At an Orioles game last year, a couple behind me was obviously on a first date (they were talking about dentists and puppies like they were actually intriguing subjects). The more they drank the more they....ended up snogging. And splashing beer on me. But that doesn't matter anymore. I got a pretty swagalicious Orioles hat (you're allowed to punch me in the face if you ever see me in public now. I used "swag"). Sports memorabilia is kind of like tattooing a bible verse on your lower back: just because you have it, doesn't mean you follow it. (yes, I did just come up with that on the spot. give credit if/when you use that in real life.)


You ever been part of a crowd wave? A guy two sections over (resembling from afar Duff from "Ace of Cakes") spent quite a few innings when the Red Sox were up to bat and all the B-More fans were bored and tried to start the wave. Eventually, in the top of the ninth, the whole stadium got involved. We got the whole friggin' stadium to do the wave a couple times around! I have it on video but I'm laying in bed and completely unwilling to get up to load it here. So just imagine really grainy footage with me screaming in the background of a wave around the stadium.

A small life lesson (and I mean small, friends).
If another person doesn't live life the way your standards are set, it's not your job to correct it. It is, in fact, your job to accept it if you love and care for that person. Not try to change it. And hey, if you really want a change, why don't you try changing yourself?

That felt good. Maybe that'll be a end-of-every-post thing. A Kara Kwote. lolz.

Arrivederci!




Thursday, June 13, 2013

i've got gadgets and gizmos a plenty....

Ciao ragazzi!

Well, fantastic accomplishments left and right this week. Yesterday, I finished my first level (course) or Rosetta Stone, which means I can speak less Italian than a native toddler!

Joking aside, I am really proud of finishing that. It was mandatory to go to Italy, and if it wasn't accomplished you'd owe 50 euros when you get there. And I finished it within just a month of having it. Here's to the next 3 months of learning more unfluent and rubbish Italian! 

Today, we had a huge storm in the morning. Be it I only got about 6 hours of sleep, it was not very pleasant. My brother has anxiety issues, and he was very scared. I watched him for a little until the rain died down and he went over to a friend's house.At the end of the day, I ended up taking a trip to Best Buy to go for my first errand for Italy: find a non-piece-of-crap camera! Weeee!

It really didn't take that long, and I ended up with a Samsung that can connect to WIFI and has a touch screen (which is exciting for me, cause who doesn't want a camera with a touchscreen?!) I honestly don't have anything to take a picture of now to test it out besides....my couch? MUY INTERESANTE.


Yay for low quality pictures!

Lately I've also been talking to kids from around the world on facebook that are going to be in Italy at the same time as me. Most of them already have host families, which makes me sad because I still don't have mine. So, Italian families, PLEASE LOVE ME ENOUGH TO LET ME STAY WITH YOU FOR 10 MONTHS POR FAVORE I MIEI BELLE. 

Well, until next time my lovely readers!

Arrivederci!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Perks of Being an Exchange Student

Ciao ragazze!

Greetings from a torrential downpour in southern Pennsylvania. Still waiting on the news from a family in Italy saying that they've picked me to live in their house for 10 months, but there seems to be a lag in the system because no one going anywhere has gotten one in a while, at least from my chapter. I just hope it's soon!

What I have to bore you with today, however, is that I am finding a TON of exchange students through facebook, from anywhere, going anywhere! Yet another opportunity I have to learn about cultures through this one trip. AFS has had a lot of groups on facebook made throughout the year(s) by students, which I'm thankful for. I discovered this yesterday, and already have found at LEAST another dozen students going to Italy from anywhere. This is ridiculously exciting for me because I love meeting, chatting, and befriending people from different cultures! So far, I've mingled with a few, friended a few, and my personal favorite, I spoke with a Chilean in Spanish over facebook messenger! How awesome is that?! Of course, I was barely able to keep up with her, but I did it! Hopefully my spanish teacher is smiling somewhere, where ever she may be. (:

In other news, I made a video. Vlog. Whatever. Check it out at this link thing!


Monday, June 3, 2013

5 Things You Hear When You're A Future Exchange Student

Ciao amici!

We have T-minus 6 days until summer vacation, but more like 5 since the last day we all just sit in the gym and no one takes attendance so no one shows up. Whatevs.

This idea for a blog post came to me on the walk home today while blasting the Italian National Anthem (Inno Nazzionale Italiano is what it's titled on my phone). Whenever people here make me sad/mad/frustrated, I just think about Italy and get myself pumped. But today, I thought "what are the dumbest things future exchange students hear from other people before they leave"? And here's what I came up with.


  1. "Are you excited?" It's really not to give a sarcastic answer to this, but it actually is a hard question to answer. I'm not really excited. More like anxious. It's such a big concept to grasp and it seems like such a long time away, I can't really say whether or not I'm honestly excited. But I am very anxious. I'm waiting for it to hit me 2 weeks or so before my departure, when I start freaking out  because it'll hit me out of nowhere.
  2. "Where are you going?" This one doesn't seem to be as annoying as the others, but when you are eagerly awaiting for the call/email/announcement that you've been picked by a family in Italy to live with, it gets irritating. 
  3. "Are you going to go to school there and stuff?" I'm not really sure why people are beginning to think this is going to be a 10 month vacation or something. Exchange student, thank you very much.
  4. "Do you speak Italian?" This one isn't that bad, but I have to explain how Rosetta Stone works immediately after it. So a question turns into a 10 minute demonstration and description of the set up of the program. 
  5. "How'd you get it?" Normally I just say I got a scholarship, to shut them up. For those who really want to know, it's called the Speedwell Scholarship. The Scholarship is given to 30 kids in the Susquehanna Valley (the area of Pennsylvania which I live in), and what we had to do was fill out our AFS application and write 4 essays about why we'd be good exchange students and how we'd go about problems abroad, etc. Only 36 wrote in for the scholarship, and 4 didn't accept it. So there are only 2 kids in the whole scholarship program that weren't offered the scholarship at all. If you'd like to know more on the scholarship and live in Lebanon or Lancaster counties, or the Susquehanna Valley, hit me up! (woah chronic teenage girl syndrome).
Well, that's the most that I could come up with so far. I'm sure I will have a plethora of odd questions once I'm in Italy. Ciao for now!


Arrivederci!