So... I've just returned from Aprica (well I actually returned on Sunday but this blog is a nuisance sometimes ;). Aprica was where all the intercultura students in the Lombardy region went for their one month orientation... it was a LOT of fun and it was also SOOOO great to see all my friends and all these new people. There were 55 kids there and like 10 volunteers, the volunteers (most of them) are SO cool and I love the really nice ones (most of them haha). It was great, we got to talk about our families, how school was going, how italian was going, ect ect... In my opinion Intercultura is just really excellent they try so hard to make sure you're having a good time (I disagree with somethings but then again, who doesn't), all in all I think it is Great program and the people that work for them are mega sweet! The mountains were so beautiful, it reminded me of home because it was sooo cold and then having the sun rise over the mountains everyday... it looked just like Sitka in a way. Except the part where it wasn't an island, hhaa. We played a bunch of very weird games at camp... like italians are really in touch with kissing? It was like every single game was about/involved kissing. This was new... I don't know if it was just weird for americans or others too but yea, AWKWARD. Haha oh well. We also learned a song from the 70's called Fatti Mandare dalla Mama... one of those awesome songs that just gets stuck in your head and never leaves! I like it though because now when some one asks me something with the word bisogno in it i'm like NEED? NEED WHAT? aha :P There was also a mandatory talent show... this was hard because at first Eryn, Iris and I decided we were going to something from Hannah Montana to capture the american spirit, but then we got bored and couldn't think of anything to do except make fun of Miley Cyrus so then we decided to write a rap. Turns out Erin is the only one who can rap at all and our whole rap was just really stupid and... like mean hahaha. Plus the main word it centered on was bitch... don't really think that would have turned out well. It was hilarious though. Finally we decided to teach them the hokey pokey. Success :D
Camp was a lot of fun but I was really happy to come home too... I realize that although my family may be a little difficult at times I really do appreciate them and am very happy to be staying with them. I am also going to a LILY ALLEN concert on the 28th... SOOOOO EXCITED! Hopefully a volunteer from the camp, Valentina, who is really adorable and a self described "american at heart" is coming too :) What else to tell...
1) guys here don't dress nearly as gay as everyone says they do
2) everybody here is REALLY OPEN. Like, about everything. Please don't make me explain this more.
3) I miss my pets... in Aprica we were walking along the side of the road and this adorable little black cat followed us and let us pick him up and hold him and everything and he was SO cute :(
4) My sister's birthday is on November 3rd... the day that me, her, and Lorenzo will be attending my FIRST soccer match which happens to be a HUGE ONE!! AC MILAN VS REAL MADRID! HELL YES!
5) I still love Italy.
6) Italian is still difficile.
7) I have to go walk the dog now
Here's some beautiful photos of a gorrrgeous mountain town




A bunch of AFS kids, my BFF (haha) Iris, and beautiful BEAUTIFUL Aprica :)

LECCO


Hike thing


So today we went on an AFS excursion sort of thing to hike a mountain in Lecco. It was SO beautiful... the view from the top, unexplainable. Beauty beauty beauty... Italy is sooo full of it. Clear skies, HOT sun (no mi piace), beautiful towns... the towns were nestled in between the mountains! That was super cool to see :) Ale and Andrea came with me, and most of the exchange students also came with their parents and brothers/sisters. I love being together in a group with the exchangers because it just reminds me that we're not all alone all the time... We went to Lecco for a long time... from 9 am till 5 pm! I was sooo tired all day but really happy to go.
New Developments in my life -
- My advisor, Francesca, is AWESOME. She keeps me sane around my family who drives me CRAZY sometimes... she is genuinely a really cool person to be around :D
- I'm gonna kill the dog. Really. She eats my socks... like swallows them and then regurgitates them so they are disgusting and slobbery... she routinely wakes us up at 6:45/7 am by whining and barking... for 20 MINUTES STRAIGHT...
-I hate cleaning. Making my bed everyday... making sure everything in my general vicinity is always clean and tidy... It's not bad? But how is something that is as clean as a hotel supposed to feel like home? Io non capito (i don't understand)
(sorry for the ranting but sometimes you have to GET IT OUT)
- Family here is SOOOOO FREAKING DIFFERENT! It's not like it's a bad different... but its SO EFFIN different. No laying down on the couch... wearing shoes in the house, telling everybody where you go when you leave... One day I went out for a walk, just walked out of the house and started walking.. when my brother stuck his head out the window and was like "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" and I was like... uh, I don't know.. and he insisted on me telling him where I was going when I honestly DIDN'T know. That just IRRRRKS ME! When I got back my mother talked to me about how "italians are very interested in each other's lives!" I also recognize that I have been brought up completely differently... its just weird having family dinners and having to sit at a table for like, 2 hours. Blerrrrg! I gues every afs'er goes thru family problems at some point... and I know I'm not alone, I just wish there was something about it :/
But not to end on a bad note, here are some AWESOME PICTURES!!!
ITALY IS SO BEAUTIFUL

So I realize I kind of cheated everyone out of a full blog post last time... but I was really homesick/tired. So today is Wednesday! Which would normally be a whooooo humpday! - back home. Here I have the lovely, everpresent SATURDAY SCHOOL! YAY! Blarrrrg. On Friday we're having the manifestation and I'll be sure to write about that but until then I don't think anything too interesting is happening. Sohoho this week we do not have Italian lessons, because the teacher is out. This means that I don't have to go to the duomo after school.. which feels weird. Oh well. Last night me and my sister went out with her friends... I was sooo bored after a ridiculous 6 hour day of school and then nothing at night, so we left about 10 and ended up at Parco Pagano. Parco Pagano is basically the coolest. place. ever. It has a platform of trampolines. Big, huge, awesome trampolines, and all we had to do was jump thru a hole in the fence. This was ammazingggly fun and I was so happy because I haven't jumped on trampolines since back home!! These were wayyyy bouncier though, like the gymnastic ones (they were square too). So trampolines are awesome and I forever love them. Other fun things....
1) Bastardi senza gloria (Inglorious Basterds). Nonna and I went to the english version... well at least I thought it was the english version. And apparently it is, however, the english version also includes a majority of the movie being in french and german with italian subtitles. It made loads of sense, yeah. It was really funny though.
2) Motorcycles. Enough said.
3) School is terrible. I have a feeling that even when I understand it I will not like it, because school is a mean mean mean thing.
4) My italian teacher at school also thinks that I have no friends; thus she held my class back from the bell and told them to be nice to me and help me make friends. Glad my teachers have such confidence in me, HA.

Haven't really got anything else to report, other than the fact that boys here are really really good looking. But I'm sure everybody knew that.
:D Ciao ciao, Katie

I'm going to stop counting weeks because I don't like numbers... but I do like Italy. Oh, do I like Italy. A couple days ago I figured out that cookies for dinner were almost as good as cookies for breakfast... that was COOL. Haha ;) School is going.. like school. Today I found out that I have 6 STRAIGHT HOURS OF LEARNING EVERY TUESDAY. This ceases to be okay with me. Plus, they have parking spaces here, right? Yea. On the sidewalk. Actually outlined in yellow, on the sidewalk. Nice :D So... this evening was my father's birthday back home, but it was also my family's best friends grandfather's birthday. So we went to Lecco! The drive was wonderful... a whole 2 and a half hours in a freaking car because we got lost about 7 times. And when you get lost you can't turn around for like, 5 miles. This resulted in a very.long.car.ride. However, we finally got to the resturant, and I don't really know how to put this experience into words.... it was the WHOLE Noviello family with like 3 aunts, 3 uncles, 5/6 kids, 2 grandparents, Enrico's American parents, and my family. That's a LOT of people. A lot of italian people = a lot of love, practically an insane amount of love. Everyone in that room was so happy to be there, around the rest of their family... It was crazy because never have I ever witnessed anything like that. Ever. Even at my family reunion. I mean, I'm not trying to insinuate that my family back home is messed up and nobody loves each other, but I have never actually witnessed something like an entire room of people that were happy to spend 5 hours together over a meal and not argue about ANYTHING. I am so grateful to be in an environment like this. I understand that not everybody's afs experience is like this and if you get a family that you fit in you are truly lucky.