Del pane caldo

Since the last time I've posted - well you know what to expect from me after those words - I've felt a lot.

I want to start off by saying that after a few not so lovely days, yesterday there was warm bread on the table. Genuine bread that's just been baked, less than ten minutes out of the oven. Then I ate it with nutella for colazione (breakfast). It comforted the cold morning.

PANE!

I ate half of this package.

Yes, I did feel the culture shock that I had been anticipating, but it kind of dripped into my emotional state. Feeling homesick and downcast for no reason seems to drift in and out. Sometimes I feel so extraordinarily gleeful to be here and at other times I miss driving cars, talking to my dad, holding my mom, and the rest of my family. These past three happy days have been getting progressively further and further away from sad feelings. Probably because school is finally (FINALLY) getting organized (I hope!) and italiano is chunk by chunk finding its way into by brain. 
Thank you Wikipedia authors, you can read more about this "stage" in an exchange program here:
Culture Shock

All the Sardegna AFS students had their first camp this last weekend. It was wonderfully fun. We even went to the sea and went swimming. I think that bonding is so much simpler with other exchange students. We always seem to have something to talk about. Either about our experience here or what life is like in our own country. Almost every continent is represented by an exchange student here in Sardegna. I now know at least one person from Japan, China, Norway, Iceland, Bosnia, Thailand, Mexico, nearly every country in South America, France, Iceland, Finland, and I can't remember them all. These international friendships make me so very happy.

Some other exchange students from my local chapter.
From left to right, Me-America, Karitas-Iceland, and Da-Thailand.
We're friends. :)

At school, I wasn't very content at first because of some of the classes I was put in, but now I've slowly crammed myself into a place here. I will change classes for certain subjects which not very normal in Italy as usually only the teachers move. Getting textbooks is also making me extremely happy. I had to purchase more than eight books and received another couple from the school. Too many. At least, Intercultura (AFS Italia) pays exchange students back for books if they can't find them elsewhere. New books are so thrilling, but reading the required material in italiano takes hours.

History book, completely in Italian!

I've gotten far enough into the school year to where we are having our first interrogazioni. "Interrogations" are when the professor asks you questions and you have to respond orally in front of the class. It's super frightening and they seem extremely difficult.  Especially if you aren't fluent in Italian. The students in my class don't seem nervous at all to stand in front of the class though. At least, I get to be interrogated last, but I don't think it will make much of a difference.  I already took a verifica: or questions and big spaces to elaborate, no multiple choice here. You have to know your stuff.

At my school, we also had a pubblicità (assembly to advertise) for Intercultura. It's strange being on the other side and telling people about my experience in Italy. A bunch of students took pamphlets and I hope they go with Intercultura. I think high school exchange programs are more common for students to take part in here.

So I'm inevitably trying to find an Italian inside of myself. I still am so accustomed to putting on a seat belt in the car that I put it on even when I don't have to. You only have to wear a seatbelt in the front of a car in Italia. My dad would not approve. People look at me oddly when I accidentally forget that I don't have to wear it. The same would happen in the US if someone wasn't wearing it.

Today was the birthday of my host father. I wrote him a card and we all sang "Tanti auguri!" (happy birthday!). It was a really lovely day.

After this, I'm going to go open the package my parents sent me. It's sitting in the corner, a tinsy fragment of home. I'm still here, that Sabrina that grew up in the Bay Area, I'm just trying to add another element now.

Finally! RASBERRY (lampone) GELATO! That's my fresh element: gelato.

A piece of Nuoro...

Scuola e la festa di San Cosimo

I've been in Italia for three weeks now. I feel a little bit different and have consumed more than four kilograms of pasta. I've also locked myself in my host family's bathroom approximately five times. I had to slide the Cinderella key underneath the door for my host family to open it from the outside. All the locks in this house baffle me.

I'm attending school in Italy now! Besides the first day, it has felt surprisingly normal.
School can be confusing like the locks in this house, but often subjects like science and math are simpler and similar to what I learned last year. It's fascinating to learn some of the same concepts with the fresh gleam of a new language. I had school today, Saturday. The school week is long and I actually want to go to bed earlier so I don't get so terribly exhausted.

I like the fact that school gets out at 12:30 or 1:30 (13:30) everyday here. After calculating it, we spend less hours in school in Italia than the US. We have many more subjects, but for much less time per week. You also stay with the same class (there is no moving around here!) throughout the day, which is wonderful for getting to know the personalities of your classmates. I spend an equivalent amount of time in some classes as I would if I took them at a recreational center in America. Two hours per week for certain subjects. Italian and history are exceptions; the two most difficult classes for me I have most frequently! I take the bus (or pullman as they call it here) home from school almost everyday. It's enjoyable, but fairly noisy when everyone plays their music out loud and no one tells them to stop. I still prefer it to a car here. Cars zoom quickly on the autostrada (highway).

My host family and the delicious meals we eat together have been wonderful. I also really enjoy spending time with my host sister, Marcella. She just got her license (patente in Italian) which you can only get once you are eighteen in Italia. I like driving around with her and blaring music on her phone and watching the hills of Sardegna streak past.

The yearly festival of my town was this last week. Many people go and spend their nights in tiny cottages at San Cosimo every year. At San Cosimo, the cottages encircle a large church. It's about a fifteen minute drive from my host family's home. There's even a mini pizzeria there and many people go there every night to hang out, eat dinner (cenare), walk around, or watch the various entertainment. This festival at San Cosimo is most famous for its Mamuthones and Issohadores.
There are more photos...click here!

Mamuthones

Issohadores

Gli Issohadores!

The Mamuthones and Issohadores danced through San Cosimo dressed up and masked as part of the celebration. Watching them was slightly frightening but very entertaining. They also have various entertainment almost every night at San Cosimo, including traditional Sardo (Sardinian) dancing and singing.

Un ballo sardo!

It was a dip into the diverse culture in Sardegna. The huge party is now over and everyone has cleaned out their little house at San Cosimo.
I think I'm going to go try and read a textbook completely in Italian now. Or maybe sleep? We stay out extremely late here, trying to slurp up every minute of the day before we become weary.

I primi giorni

It's strange that we're actually here, in Italia on the island of Sardegna. I never really fathomed how it would actually feel. Guessing is never accurate.

It feels more like average life than I thought it would though. Except for the fact that everyone is speaking Italian and I'm in a completely different culture among wonderfully different people. It's really not as frightening as my ten year old self might have thought. Another reason I believe more people should go abroad.

How this feels and what the Italians see everyday?

Graffiti (a word of Italian origin not surprisingly) is everywhere (dappertutto in italiano!). I might have thought before that it would be really ugly and horrible. It really isn't though. It's quite vivid and intriguing and makes walking through the narrow and food scented streets different as time passes.

Looks a little bit like this...

Taken from http://perle-lys.blogspot.it/2008/06/scarperian-graffiti.html

I know I had read many places before I left that the Italians never wear their hair out wet because it would most definitely make you sick, but my host sister did without any problems or scorn. The same with shorts. I thought I wouldn't see anyone in shorts, but I've seen many girls and boys wearing shorts. Probably only for the summer! An example of how people differ throughout every country to nearly every extreme.

It is extremely difficult to communicate in Italian. I'm thanking every lesson I was ever given in this language. Especially the first day, I felt super confused and didn't know what was gong on and was frightened to admit it. Everyday though, it has become slightly easier to be immersed in this language. My host grandmother (is that the right word?) speaks mostly Sardo (the dialect of Sardegna!). She's so kind, we don't even need to speak the same language. Similar to the orientation a few days ago for AFS. People from all over the world like me came to Italia to study abroad. We didn't all speak the same language, but we could still be amici (friends).

I haven't met anyone who wasn't kind or welcoming to me or other exchange students. All the Italians seem willing to help you and meet you and ask you questions about your country. I believe the average amount of eye contact usually held with someone is longer here because sometimes it seems like people are staring. It doesn't seem awkward to stare for more than five seconds at someone.

My host sister who speaks fluent English (but not to me!) because she went to the US with AFS last year has helped me MOLTO (very much)! I've met many of her friends and feel a little bit like they could become my friends too now.

Driving is a little bit petrifying coming from the "safety first" USA. People drive at varying speeds. Slow, extremley fast, and in between. You don't have to wear a seat belt in the backseat, but only the front. I'm so accustomed to always putting on my seatbelt, it's bizzarre not to.

A little glimpse of the town.

Food...oh Italian food, we've heard enough about this country's brilliant cuisine.

Il tiramisù di Mamma

Il mio primo cappuccino! (My first cappuccino in Italy!)

It randomly just began raining and I hear booming thunder. I want to soak this in. I'll write more soon, but I hope you're having one of those perfect days.

Please go to Italia too!

La partenza e l'arrivo

So the day and night have finally arrived... I'm leaving right now to fly to New York, the first huge step to ITALIA. It's exhilarating but it was difficult to leave my family for so long. It's 9 PM and I'll get to JFK at around 6 in the morning tomorrow. Lovely... Then I have to find my way to the AFS orientation.

This fantastic opportunity awaits.

Vivo per lei, qualche volta.

Just discovered quest'artista fantastica. Well I had heard her before with Andrea Bocelli in "Vivo per lei". Giorgia. She seriously needs more fame in the US. She came in second at that Italian Sanremo Music Festival--to Andrea Bocelli. Her voice equals bliss. Hey reader, let's become buddies who both like the same Italian artist.

Italy in less than two weeks. PREPARE PREPARE I'M SLIGHTLY SCARED in an awesome way.

La dolce vita

I just finished watching Fellini's La dolce vita and was a left a a little stunned and baffled in the chair afterwards. It wasn't really all Anita Ekberg prancing around in the Trevi Fountain and an embodiment of the sweet goodness of Italian life. It was very captivating and interesting. I found myself lost a couple times. I read that it was supposed to be a kind of path through the morality of the main character, Marcello. Anyways, here's what I was expected of the movie which turned out to be only fifteen minutes of the three hours. I think jumping in the Trevi Fountain is illegal, but it wouldn't really matter because I think we would still be blocked by busloads of tourists until we reached the water. Still I can't help but loving all this.

La mia vista

Receiving a visa from an Italian consulate means that you're departure is quickly speeding towards you,  correct? I leave for Italia in 17 more days. SEVENTEEN! The excitement is bursting out of this text box.