my belated, turkey-less, thanksgiving post

Happy it's-now-acceptable-to-talk-about-Christmas Day!  A.K.A. the day after the day after Thanksgiving. Another part of being an exchange student is that you're wonked up for months after even though you're used to the time zones, languages, family, etc. To me, I feel like I've been stuck in September for 3 months when in reality I should have been excited for Christmas and switching all of my music on my phone to Bing Crosby and Straight No Chaser 2 weeks ago. DOESN'T MEAN I AIN'T LISTENING TO IT NOW THO. (I had a little dradel, I made it out of clay! and when it's dry and ready, the dradel I shall play! DRA-)

But since yesterday was Thanksgiving and I need a token American status telling about all of the things that I'm thankful for.

1. My support group in the States. I don't really know what returning will be like. I really hope you haven't totally forgotten me which is actually pretty scary for me, but for those of you that have bothered to stay in contact with me, thank you. I miss American humor the most out of all the things, besides my capital foods that I have been going through withdraw of (I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN DO THIS WITHOUT TURKEY HILL THING MUCH LONGER)
2. My AFS friends. Roosa, Anthony, Jude, Lauren, Thorunn, Ari, Luis, Mook, Mariano, Lucy, Hiroshi, Andrea, Marie, Linde, Michelle, Leticia, Isabela, Iris, Veronique, Moeko, Ko, Carlos, I will always love you all to the ends of the earth and back. I will forever skype you, send you post cards, hug you unconditionally, and be awkward with you. I love you all more than life itself.
3. AFS Intercultural: This organization changed my life from a very, very mediocre Disney story of a small town girl with big dreams to an actual classic Disney movie, which is what dreams are made of (has that joke been overused yet or what? hardy hur hur hur). In the words of a girl from my town in the States who's currently studying with AFS in Germany, thank you for giving me the opportunity to "make my dreams my bitch" here. 
4. Jenny and Mike Messner:  the couple that so generously gave me the scholarship for my rear end to sail (fly over) the seven seas (the atlantic ocean), and made really everything on this list a reality. I will never be able to thank them enough for this experience, and I honestly will never, ever, trade this experience for the world. I've gained so much here (but not weight lolz) and I know I will use it for the rest of my life. You've changed me, you've changed my view of life, you've changed my education, you've changed my experiences, you've changed my life. Grazie mille, gracias, merci, danke, thank you.
5. My whole student body at school. Special thanks to:
• Gaia: my previous host sister. She really got me introduced into the "real" Italian teenager lifestyle that in all honesty I don't know if or when I would have discovered without her. I also got out of my "just classmates" bubble of friends and now am pretty well known over the school.
• Trinacria Studentesca: one of the major political groups that allowed me to sit in a ton of their meetings and just listen to them yell at each other.
• Marco, Claudia, Mateo, Simone, Federica, Alessandro, Elenora, and all you guys: Thank you for being my lifelines, my English speakers, my acceptance when there was no one else, and my friends. I know I'm really dependent on you guys but I really would be no where without you all. You're my favorite people on this planet. 
6. My classmates, who I haven't really said much about in detail yet. 
• Chiara: Chiara or "Pugli" as some of us call her was my first friend in my Italian classroom. In order to switch families the first time here, I used her phone to contact my liaison the third day of school after almost having an emotional breakdown in math class. To this day, she is still translating physical education for me because the teacher thinks I still speak absolutely no Italian, and just being the awesome person she is.
• Damiano: Ugh this kid is so awesome it's disgusting. He's class representative and one of those hipsters that isn't really a hipster, but really, he definitely is. He has the best English out of everyone in the class but of course he doesn't think that, and he's helped me out ever since day one. Now, with everything crazy that is going on in the Italian school system (that will be an upcoming blog post within the next week or later if I'm super lazy) he has been the most explainatory and has helped me maneuver around all of the crap that has been flying around my school. 
  
• Lucia, Cristina, Sonia, and Marta: The four most unique girls in my class that I have had the honor of being taken under their wing(s). Lucia and I are already close enough that we will play hang man and iSpy during class and almost beat each other up when the other wins. Cristina, Sonia, and Marta all normally sit relatively close to each other so they can whisper condescending things. Last Saturday I went out with Sonia and Cristina and had a ton of fun, when we spoke 95% in Italian and loitered around the Italian version of Barnes and Nobles for an hour and a half. We enjoy coffee runs in the middle of class, sneaking potato chips while the teacher isn't looking, fangirling really hard over the Hunger Games, and sopraccigli. Inside joke. None of them wanted to get their picture taken, and the ones I took of them without them looking were immediately confiscated upon finding.
• Hilary, Laura, Irene, and Giulia: spontaneously sassy and adorable. These girls are of the highest fashion and are always willing to give me hugs and make me feel really dang good about myself. I feel like their child because they're always telling me how cute I am when I make mistakes while speaking Italian. CHE CARINA!
• Naomi and Paola: Naomi and Paola are the two sweetest, tiniest girls you will ever meet in my school. Both are die-hard One Direction fans, and will make conversation with about anything. Naomi taught me most of my animals and objects during French classes when I was a distraction. Paola and I speak in English, because her English isn't as great as she'd like it to be (or as my English teacher would want it). 

Naomi and I! Apologies for the fact it's sideways and off centered.

Stay tuned for this upcoming week. I'm pretty sure it will be....interesting. No spoilers yet, though. Just wish me luck! (;

Ci vediamo!