Tour de Quarryville: 40 days to go.

Ciao ragazzi!

It's kind of been a while since I've posted.... Well actually I'm just to lazy to look it up so let's just say I didn't blog yesterday. It's been some time. Stuff has happened since then, too.

Daaaang girl, look at dem wisdom teeth.

Yes folks, it's that miserable time of life where your hormone-imbalanced body starts sprouting up teeth when you're in the midst of your teenage years, and I just got there at the beginning of this week. Since my mom works from 8 to 5 every day, I had to walk to my dentist. It's no biggie, because it's just a couple blocks away. So I got out of bed that morning, ate some grapes, filled up my 32oz. water bottle and headed out. I just got some x-rays done and discovered that it was, in fact, my wisdom teeth coming in. But there is actually a glimmer of good news in this story, and that would be the fact I only have 2 wisdom teeth! 

Wisdom tooth. Wat r u dooin. Wisdom tooth. Stahp itttt.

Tour de Quarryville

Since I was already out and it was only a little past 9 in the morning, I decided to take a walk. My town, Quarryville, if you haven't guessed, is very small. Meaning that in the 2 hour stroll I took I covered all of town. I've been meaning to take a day to do something like this before I left, taking odd pictures just to remember stuff by. The stuff that was trademarked to my area that I knew I wouldn't see for ten months. 

I went to my elementary school and sat on top of this big plastic rock that was installed during my second grade year, I believe, and just reminisced about all that happened to me in this town. I just looked around and thought of everything that happened to me, just on that playground. I remembered telling my third grade teacher all about the book I was reading, and how she tried to shoo me away because I was an annoyance, but I didn't realize it back then. I remembered me and my friends at a carnival in the fifth grade getting "dumb and dumber" painted on our forearms, then getting sunburnt and having it there for the next week. I remembered singing a PG version of Hot and Cold by Katy Perry at the weird version of American Idol the fifth graders put on in my classroom. I remembered being so proud of myself for getting to write a story about the Rugrats in the first grade. I remembered being too afraid to climb the rockwalls and being too lazy to run around with the other kids, so I spent most of my time sitting on the bench and walking around, just talking about things that didn't really matter. I remember (here's how weird we were back then) making choreographed dances to "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga the year it came out when I was in the fifth grade. I remembered all the lines of the "funky hat" song from Wizards of Waverly Place, and then thought briefly about where all my childhood role models are now. Story being, I sat on that rock for 20 good minutes just thinking about what made me go to where I am today. When I was probably in second or third grade, Olympic skater Johnny Weir came to my elementary school and gave a little speech about how we will grow up to achieve and carry our generation. Johnny Weir attended my elementary school, by the way. But anyways, I remember one thing that he said, if anything, and that was "I don't know which one of you is the next Britney Spears or Donald Trump, but some of you will grow up and change the world in some way." Even when I was 8, I had this gut feeling that I would do something to put myself out there before I graduated. I guess going to Italy is it. Instead of Hannah Montana pulling into my driveway and inviting me on to the seat next to her in her limousine and riding off into the sunset for Los Angeles, it's about getting out there. Out there. Out there where all the girls my age talk about and fantasize about and pin to their Pinterest accounts but I get to live there. I get to learn there. I get to be a part of there. It makes me want to scream just to know that I actually made it. I made it out of my goody-two-shoes and trying-my-hardest-to-fit-in persona I had for 8 bloody years and I pushed myself to achieve more than my hometown had to offer. And I'm doing it. I got a grip of reality and realized that achievement isn't going to just pull up in your driveway in a blonde wig, but it'll more likely show up in an email attachment and a flyer in your Spanish classroom with a lot of time spent in Google Docs and filling out paperwork. So, if you're caught in a mediocre life and waiting for your version of Hannah Montana to pull up in your driveway, just remember; the world is waiting for YOU to pull up in its driveway and say "I'm gonna do this, and you can't tell me no."

Woah, holy preacher moment. Sorry kids.

Anyways, my day resulted in this. 

The panoramic shot from where I sat on the big plastic rock and thought about life.

It was an obligation to make a dumb face in this picture, but this is like a national monument in Quarryville. A house has a most-likely-10-foot-tall metal dinosaur in their front yard, as shown behind me.

I looked like the ultimate teenager taking this photo, but it's just the main stretch of road in town. Christian music store, funeral home, Rite Aid pharmacy, bank, store run by Mennonites, Turkey Hill (gas station), Ford dealership, Supermarket (plus stuff like Family Dollar, the thrift shop I work at, and some bad Chinese food), Burger King, Subway, an ice cream joint, and a laundromat. Phew. 

Ragazzi, I hope you enjoyed reading about my life as much as I enjoyed writing this post. There are a few posts I really hit home in my heart writing, and this was definitely one of them. Tutti siete fantastico. 

Fino successiva!

Let's play catch-up/it's seriously the end of July already

Buongiorno i miei amici!

I've been too lazy to blog the past 3 days, which is amazing because even the laziest of humans sit around and blog all day. I think it's the whole thing with doing things and actually having to leave the house and go outside (every teenager's worst nightmare) that is wearing me down into not even wanting to go online, with the exception of checking my email. I am literally completely unmotivated to do nothing but sit around and scroll through the newsfeeds of social media that barely ever change. 44 days until Italy, and I haven't blogged since that number was 48. So here's what's been up.

I went to the bloody godforsaken DMV for the first time in my life on Saturday. Why go to the DMV a month before leaving the country and when I'm only 15? I needed a student ID for the satanic student visa and my school is very low-key and doesn't distribute them. So we get to the DMV and sort of just look at all the miserable people waiting in chairs in front of us, laugh, and really want to turn around but we can't. We get one of these numbers on a deli ticket of pain (it's like a receipt with a number on it like you'd get at a deli) and wait around for our number to be called. We are only about 13 numbers behind so we just sit anywhere. My number is called and it turns out, we were in the wrong line and were told by an extremely (pardon le french here) bitchy woman that we were not only sitting in the wrong area, but we had to wait with all the miserable people across the room. We get a ticket and this time we are 80 people in front of us and no seating room (god forbid strangers sit directly next to each other and put their belongings on the floor) so we sit in the back on the floor. After 15 minutes and only 5 numbers being called we realize that we have well over an hour to kill before we are called for this, plus we saw a Chinese buffet before walking in, so we decide to check it out.

We walk in the door of this buffet, and would've been better off turning the heck around and walking out the door. But we didn't, of course. The hostess (who was a man so I don't know if there's a manly term for that) upon us walking in the door asked us to follow him to our table. Long story short it was like playing Fear Factor with your lunch.

Ended up with a TEMPORARY student ID. Nothing makes sense.

After becoming an hour or so late, we headed up afterwards to my grandfather's house for a little cookout we were having, and because my uncle was in from Michigan and it would be the last time I'd see him before I left.

I went to Rehoboth Beach yesterday with my mom and ex-coworker, Julia, who spent 4 months in Italy when she was in college. My mom and her used to work together wrangling wild mini humans (my term for "working at a daycare") for the first few months since we moved out of my dad's house until she found a better-paying job. We always try to hang out a little here and there, normally just sitting around while my mom and her have a drink and I sip lemonade and pretend I'm doing the same. Anyways, we woke up at three in the morning and left around four, as soon as Julia got to our house. The world's a barren place before 6 o'clock, and you can't help but wonder why the people are out that are.We got to the Rehoboth block of shops right at 6, where we ate breakfast at the one restaurant open that wasn't a fast food joint. After breakfast, we headed straight to the beach and basically slept on the beach until 9, when the rest of humanity decided to go to the beach for the day.

The rest of the day, until about 1 or 2, we were on the beach. I actually fell asleep to the point of snoring at one point, toasting my back a little. It was nice not being with kids for once, but there were plenty surrounding us to give the full effect. After being the lazy bums on the beach, we decided to eat and shop the rest of the evening. We ended up eating at a Spanish restaurant that looked more like an Italian restaurant from the outside (white, red, and green, called Cilantro, etc. Deceiving.) It was pretty good, and it also tested my knowledge of Spanish from the last time I had my classes back in late May. (It also reminded me of the homework I have put off....) I really was dying to go to this British-style restaurant that I spotted as soon as we got there in the morning called Go Fish, so popped in to look around after we were done eating. Not only was it packed with people, but they had British merchandise. It was like my nirvana. I ended up buying a belt with the Union Jack as the buckle from their display case, and wore it the next day to work when Kate and William had their baby. :3

Bringing me to my work day on Monday. I work at a thrift shop, and Monday was the first day of our "bag sale". The bag sale is held near the end of every season to get rid of the seasonal clothes (we have one in July and one in January). If you fill up a grocery bag with clothing and shoes, it's for 10 bucks. People go crazy for this thing. I had never worked during the bag sale before, so it was my first day on bag sale, and my first Monday working with the crew. As you probably know, thrift shops are never busy, normally quaint and quiet. Not today. We had people waiting outside the door at 10 o'clock for us to open. Within 5 minutes we were probably the busiest I have ever seen the shop. I priced clothing for an hour and a half, steamed the clothes (giving myself a wicked steam burn on the side of my finger) and then, I got to go out and work the floor. By working the floor, I basically folded clothing the fastest I ever have in my life. I was out of breath by the time we got through one of the lines that formed in our "rush hour". It was actually the most I have ever enjoyed working there.

Well, that was catch up. I can't believe it's the end of July already. 43 days to go (it took me 2 days to get this post out). Some more good news is that this post will put me over 1,000 views, because I am at 996 right now. Thank you for following my weird, mediocre adventures as of now. It makes me happier to know someone is able to share my life with me, across the world. (:

Arrivederci!

Hello, my name is Student Visa. You must fill me out. Prepare to die.

You most likely don't know this is you aren't familiar with the becoming-an-exchange-student process, but if you are, you know what this rant is talking about. Student visas are sent up from the depths of Hell and are meant to make your life a living version of it's home residence in so many different ways it seems like it's impossible. Well, it is possible and it will do so.

For those that don't know, a student visa is basically a form that people have to fill out if you are going to another country for over 90 days so that (fill in destination country) here knows about you and you aren't a random person living in their country. Within the realms of this visa, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops for these people, like getting not one, not two, but five bloody passport photos, ringing you up at like 30 dollars at your nearest drug store. Not to mention your parental consent, insurance, 4 page visa, school forms, host family forms, and a bunch of other happy stuff that makes life a little bit more worth crying about. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! You need to drive to the nearest big city with a consulate, mine being Philadelphia, and sweat your little heart out knowing that if you missed one little detail that they could say "noooope" and turn you out the door on your marry way. Sounds like fun?

Basically if you didn't understand anything of that, imagine you're drowning, then someone ties bags of cement to your ankles, hands you two screaming babies, and tells you how you are living your life completely wrong while they need you to fill out every detail about your life, and if you get one detail wrong, you die. 

It sounds like I'm believing over-dramatic but the funny thing is I'm definitely not.

Don't let this discourage you from being an exchange student. Even though this part of the process makes you want to die, it will all be worth it in the end. At least that's what I was told, and what I keep telling myself....just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

On a more positive note, Matt Smith is in the same country as I am at Comic Con. Swoon.

This is Matt Smith, in case you're not a part of the fandom of Doctor Who or don't have a tumblr. 

HE'S BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS ME AT THIS VERY MOMENT.

ARRIVEDERCI MIO BELLO.

Oh, Canada! (and other things)

Ciao amici! Lungo periodo di tempo, non ci vendiamo!

The reason I haven't blogged in quite a few days (for me, at least) is because I was with my friends up in Niagara Falls, New York for about 3 days. They took me up on their family trip because being the theater geek that I am, they thought I'd enjoy seeing my friend's older sister in The Sound of Music. But before I get to that, while up there, I noticed that I am now kinda the poster child for the AFS blog page!

Remember that post? I guess they actually find me interesting! 

Okay, back to the travel journey. On Thursday night, my mom took me to their house. Scratch that, their friend's house where they were having dinner a few streets/cornfields over. I also ate 3 dinners that night, when originally I intended on eating only the sandwich I prepared earlier that day for a 2 o'clock lunch. After the adults drank a little and Katie (not the one going to Italy with me...I'm friends with like, 5 different girls named Katie. It leads to really confusing conversations. But I digress.) and I were on our 3 round of orange juices, we went home to watch our odd movies. We slept in her basement and watched a movie called Shakespeare in Love, which is probably one of my favorites now. If you have interest in Shakespeare or any bit at all in Romeo and Juliet, watch this movie! 

Friday we left around noon after eating a fantasmic omelet Katie's older sister prepared for me, we hit the road. I finished knitting my new favorite scarf on the way up, that is a British brand produced in Italy! It's like my heart and soul in one scarf! It's also the colors of the Union Jack. Wee! Anyways, we watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (oddly funny in a weird, late-80's movie way) and the 10th anniversary of Les Miserables. If your only exposure to Les Miserables is through the 2012 remake with Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe and so on, you're missing out. This was the dream cast, where the best of the best from all around the world were on one stage just performing the songs from the musical. It's much better than the 2012 version (sorry, theater snob breaking out here), plus my girl Lea Solonga is Eponine. If you don't know who Lea Solonga is, I pity you. Just kidding. She's the voice of Mulan and Jasmine (Aladdin), also playing Miss Saigon, Eponine, and Fontine in Les Miserables. I'm pretty sure she's also the secret identity of Wonder Woman.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, my crazy obsessive theater child sprung out of it's shell.  We got to our hotel late Friday, but not late enough to keep us from getting dinner at Red Robin and getting ice cream sundae material from Walgreen's. So we went back to our hotel and made sundaes and watched some James Bond movie that BBC America was airing at the time (at least we think it was James Bond, we didn't really know what we were watching). 

On Saturday, we dressed up nicely and went out to breakfast with all of us and Katie's older sister who was Maria in The Sound of Music. The restaurant was very cute, and it got me all excited because it was called "Mangia", which is the 3rd person singular term for "eat" in Italian. It turned out that the restaurant had nothing to do with Italian culture and it just had a clever name, so my excitement was lowered. Not until I saw the menu. I'm pretty sure we all got pancakes of some sort, but these pancakes were phenomenal. I had banana walnut pancakes with huge hunks of banana and walnut in them. They weren't skimpy with their ingredients. Katie and I also shared a side of home fries, which were equally savory and tasty. 

After breakfast, Katie's one older sister had to go for her call time, so we went to look around at a few shops down the block. I sadly didn't have my wallet, but I don't think I would have bought anything anyways. So then we went to see her musical. If you aren't familiar with The Sound of Music, it takes place in Austria in the late 1930's (1938 to be exact) where a girl named Maria (who is "training" to be a Nun) is kicked out of the Abbey for a few months to be the nanny for 7 kids of a Navy captain. Long story short, a lot of musical numbers happen and then Maria becomes the children's new stepmother, afterwards they all flee Austria after it has been taken over by the Nazis. The show was absolutely fantastic, and afterwards we went out to eat (starting to see a pattern?). I don't know the name of the restaurant, but I do know that it was right on the waterfront and across the river was Canada. 

 This photo wasn't posed or anything...(; It's me looking at Canada.

Canada with the sun on the water. In real life, you'd be blinded like I was trying to take a picture of the sun on the water.

Dinner at this restaurant was slow but very tasty, as I was choosing what I wanted to eat I went from petite salad to huge sandwich because of hunger. Kara hungry! Kara want meat! 

That night, Katie's mom and two older sisters went across the border to Niagara Falls, Canada just for funzies. Katie, her dad and I went home and made chocolate chip cookies in a skillet and watched Food Network til I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up from my slumber, she presented us with little keychains she had gotten from the other side of the border. Painting a picture with my words, it is a beaver with a red Canada sweater on that is now on my suitcase. I will probably keep it on for Italy, so TSA, don't you even think about taking it away.

The last day we ate breakfast at Mangia again, where I had a spinach and feta omelet that was just as delectable as the pancakes from the previous morning. This day, we ate with the guy who played the beautiful Rolf (or however it's spelled, the kid who delivered telegrams and Liesl fell in love with) and his family. We spent probably well over 2 hours just talking over our breakfast, and then we went browsing the shops again. This time, we wandered into a little olive oil shop. This shop was a dream for anyone who finds themselves again and again at Carabba's ordering loaf after loaf of bread to dip in olive oil. You could taste test different flavors of oils from around the world with little strips of bread. The little woman running the shop kept on telling me to try different flavors of oils, and I happily agreed to. Everything from 5 different garlic flavors, butter, truffle, herb, chipoltle, all things like that. I came really close to buying a bottle, but didn't see much point in it because when would I use it? 

We headed off home, but not before one last stop.

Niagara freakin' Falls.

I thought it would be a very short stop and we'd just look at it from afar, but we did the whole shebang! We took the Maid of the Mist boat tour with the silly ponchos. Maid of the Mist has been around since 1846, which is actually quite terrifying to think about. Nearly 20 years before the American Civil War and people were going out in boats to one of the world's biggest waterfalls. They're scary enough to look at in 2013! It was just one of those things that were pretty terrifying, but you couldn't help but to take a billion pictures in awe. And get soaked at the same time. 

 "Woah, I can't believe we're this close! WOAH, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE THIS CLOSE."

Katie and I!

 One of the Canadian boats carrying Canadians. They're wearing the exact same ponchos on identical boats! We waved them as they passed by us.

The US falls.

 The whole shebang.

 Probably my favorite picture from the trip!

 Canadian boat underneath the observation deck.

 Rainbow Bridge, the road used to cross the border!

The Blue Poncho Brigade.

Me!

So I guess you could say this was a successful weekend. Stocked up on postcards, basically crossed the border, watched a full season of Canadian telly, made cookies in a skillet pan, went to Niagara Falls and saw Canada for the first time, and ate half a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Life is good!

T MINUS 50 DAYS, MUCHACHOS.

Arrivederci!

WAIT SO I'M NOT IN PALERMO?

Well friends, turns out I was told the wrong area of Sicily. Instead of Palermo, I will be in Catania, in southeast Sicily. It is still near the beach, and added bonus, I'm 27 kilometers away from Europe's most active and tallest volcano, Mount Etna! Weeee!

 Catania!

Mount Etna erupting on August 6th, 2011.

I also found out a little more about my family. I have a younger sister named Arianna who is 8, and a mom and a dad. I believe the mom is a teacher, and I share a birthday with my father. (: 

Ciao per ora! 

Why YOU should become an exchange student.

Buonasera a i miei amici di i Stati Uniti, e Buongiorno a i miei altri amici!

Woah, how awful was my grammar there? I honestly don't know.

So friends, tomorrow will be my 12th day without my information about my host family. Also known as I am slowly going insane. No offense to anyone that is working on getting it to me, it's just that I'm so excited to find out who the heck decided to let me live with them for 10 months. Hopefully I will get to know them in the next day or so (I say for the 11th day in a row).

Anyways, the intentions for this post is to speak to the hearts and souls of all those future AFSers that happened to click on this link. First off, I LOVE YOU. And hopefully, welcome to the AFS family! Hopefully you are seriously interested in becoming an exchange student. Speaking from the fact that I haven't even left the country yet, there will probably be another post about why you should become an exchange student during/after my actual exchange.

1. Make new friends that share the same interests as you. I live in the cornfield-infested part of southern Pennsylvania, and there really isn't much movement in and out with kids. Since kindergarten, I've had almost all of the same classmates in my grade and the surrounding grades. The only way I really ever got out and made friends in other districts was through youth group and my community children's choir I was a part of for 5 years. That's literally it. AFS opens you up to meet new people. Through a group I found over Facebook for just kids going to Italy with AFS for the 2013-2014 school year, I have gotten to know people from countries I could never imagine to have contacted. Skyping with Icelandics, Turkish, chatting with Canadians, Chinese, Italians, Russians, Chileans, Hungarians, and Japanese... I haven't even left yet and I have made friendships that will last me a lifetime. The best part about all of these people is that most if not all of them share your interests. It's like discovering the version of you from across the planet. They're going through the same waiting periods and paperwork you are, sharing stories and many, many laughs. I talk to more foreign AFSers than my friends in the USA anymore...
2. Becoming independent, mature, and determined in your choices. Being an exchange student causes you to be away from your home, family, friends, and school for 10 months. Though some think it's a pro to the situation, there will always be challenges abroad. On the program you may choose, be it for a few weeks in summer or a whole year like me, you will become independent. Flying almost alone internationally with only you and other AFSers, putting yourself out to other kids in your host community school, just to make friends, having the self discipline to get the paperwork done and getting yourself on that plane. That will make you a stronger person. Past AFSers say that you will find yourself on the exchange; you find just where you fit in this big world. And that, friends, is what everyone needs to find somewhere in life.
3. It's good for your education career. Colleges love seeing that you're fluent in a different language and that you studied abroad. You also get to learn in a different setting than you have been in the past 9+ years of schooling you've went through. 
4. Extending your family. Living with a family across the world brings in a whole new family to you. You'll spend 10 months with new grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and parents. If you're an only child, you could be put in a house with 3 kids. If you are the oldest in your family, maybe you'll get an older brother or sister. For me, I only have a younger brother and I'm hoping for a sister of any age, and/or an older brother! There are many ways it could go in this, but in any scenario you are placed in, you will create a lifelong relationship with your family. 
5. Experience the world from a different standpoint. Even though we live in the world of television, smart phones, computers, and radios, we still are sheltered from a lot of the news around the world. Witness news firsthand in a different area of the world and learn about what has been going on, but living in the USA has not given you the information. Economies are failing, revolutions are rising, segregation is being broken, languages are being spoken, disasters are creating havoc, and miracles are born. You will experience them in a different way than all of your family and friends could ever imagine back home.

There you have it. 5 reasons you should become an exchange student. Be it to Italy like me, Japan, France, Ghana, Brazil, Russia, or Indonesia, you will experience the same things...in different ways! Motivate yourself to achieve more in life; the world is waiting! Actually, your world is waiting.

 "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

~Gandhi

Peace, love, and pasta,

Kara

Ninety's Kids Will Understand (not what you think!)

Ciao miei amici, nuovi e vecchi!

"A wise traveler never dispises his own country."

-William Hazlit

Today is a special day for plenty of reasons. Not only are both the Nationals and Orioles on TV from the comfort of my living room, but it's also Independence Day for the United States of America! Today, our country is 237 years old. Woah! So, here is how I'm spending it.

Everyone else seems to be having some sort of glorified picnic with tons of food, explosives, and most likely alcohol for adults. I am sitting on my couch, youtubing videos of comedians and simultaneously watching baseball, and my mom is outside cleaning the deck. I honestly don't think we've ever done something for Independence Day.... Ironically, I am walking around the house singing Fratelli D'Italia, known to most as the Italian National Anthem...I'm just the epitome of irony today.

For Italy, I have gotten into watching kids shows for a better grasp of the Italian language. I started out with just looking up little songs like Old McDonald Had A Farm (Nella Vecchia Fattoria) and it snowballed into the whole Sesame Street/Caillou/Mickey Mouse shebang. If you are in the midst of learning a language, struggling, growing, or just curious about how a show would sound, look up some videos from your childhood on YouTube! Caillou are very easy to understand. The first video in this link I understood completely (shoutout to Rosetta Stone). My Spanish teacher actually had us watch Sesame Street and a Spanish show called Pocoyo numerous times during the school year. We actually had a few tests on them. So trust me, they really help you grow! They also make you feel kind of stupid, because you have to actually think about what the characters are saying and put it with what they are doing. So, jog those memories of the diapered years, kill your laptop battery, and watch those videos! (;

gmail, postcards, stolen ideas, and wikipedia

Ciao ragazzi!

64 days until I take off for Italy! Well. actually I will be taking off for Zurich, Switzerland. And then to Rome! I'm actually a really big geek and pumped that I actually will be in Switzerland for under 2 hours, but I will be there!

A lot of little trinket news today. If you pay any attention to the blogs on the AFS USA website, you know that links to American kids going anywhere are located on the right side. So, this girl just got hers posted yesterday. The reason there are both arrows pointing to my name and the girl Katie below me, is that she's my best exchange friend (BEF) who will be staying in Trecase in the Naples area.

If you have any interest in looking at the blogs from past, present, and future AFSers, you can find them here.

In other news, I have been refreshing my gmail feed every 10 minutes to see whether or not my host family information has come in yet. I've also been spending a lot of time on Google Maps, playing "Where Could I Possibly Be Living" Roulette with the street view man. I just drop him anywhere within the district of Palermo and take a little virtual stroll around town. Some make me super excited, some are more ".....oh God." Time will only tell where I will be. I'm sure I will be happy and 120% pumped to go. I just want to know!!

If you are curious about culture, want to make new friends, or really really like the post office, then the website PostCrossing is for you! PostCrossing is an international website that you can sign up for and receive/send postcards around the world. I just sent my first to Taiwan yesterday! 

I'm actually getting a steady stream of views now, and I know I haven't done this yet. So, if for any reason at all, questions about exchange, yada yada yada, my email is karaloveswhales@gmail.com. Feel free to email me questions about the exchange so far! (: 

To close out today, I found a poem on another exchange blog from a Norwegian girl coming to the USA for a year. It's written in English, and it really sums up what being an exchange student is like. Read this, no matter if you just stumbled upon this blog, are a peer of mine, or are an exchange student yourself.

I am an exchange student. 

How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one?

 How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one?

How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears?

How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying?

How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world?

How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it?

How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself?

How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it?

How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “ I am so far away”?

How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends?

How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “ I love my country” holding a flag in your hands?

How do you know what is the true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one? How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one. 

How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished?

How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast.

 How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones?

How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally?

How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours , to see what there was on the other side?

How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home?

How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student? 

WHAT SOMEONE ACTUALLY WANTS ME?!

Ciao i miei amici preferiti!

Short post, but exciting post! I got a host family!

I don't know who they are, but I do know where they are. I will be living in the area of Palermo on the island of Sicily. If you don't know what that is, this is it.

Palermo is rich in culture, art, history, music, and food. It contains attractions such as catacombs, cathedrals, museums, and of course, beaches. It is located in north Sicily and it is the capital of Sicily.

So, to the kids that picked on me or thought I was weird throughout my life, 

have fun next year without me. 

Sincerely, living the dream.