4 Months.

Well, today marks four months here in Italy and I have a little over 5 to go. I cannot believe it is almost half way over! It seems just a few weeks ago that I got here. So much has happened in these past four months than has probably happened in all my life. Every experience has been amazing, and I still have to pinch myself every now and then and saw "KARRIN YOU ARE IN FREAKING ITALY!" haha. I am in love with Italy, period. I finished packing up my room today because tomorrow I am switching. There have definitely been some emotions, but I am ready! I love my host family right now, and they told me that I can come over whenever I want (which makes me feel pretty good because I will miss them a little)! My next home family is really nice too though. Every change in life is hard. I know that. So off to a fresh start tomorrow! Today was also the first day back to school since break started. Talk about ROUGH. It was probably the longest school day I have had yet. That is always true though after a long break! It is always a pain to get back into routine. Now I am going to eat dinner with my family, and then hang out with them a little bit! BYE BYE!

Le Vacanze di Natale.

SO MUCH FUN.

The day after Christmas here they celebrate as like a second Christmas day, which I LOVE. We went to Zio Pippi's home all day and ate until our stomaches were bulging. IT WAS DELICIOUS AND COMPLETELY WORTH EVERY KILO I GAINED (yeah, I am using the metric system...no big deal). At night I went out with a girl and some of her friends who were also at the dinner so that was fun! Then I went to Cerreto (skiing mountain) for the rest of the break. I haven't tried skiing yet, but I plan on very soon (a.k.a. next weekend). New Years was a blast also! They had these people ski down the mountains carrying torches with the colors of the italian flag and it was so pretty. Then there were fireworks over the lake! They were pretty awesome (but 4th of July in America is a little bigger ;D)! Then we walked around and went to a bar and then danced for a little bit! I got home at 4:30 am. I was exhausted! We are slept the next day, except I won the award for sleeping in the latest (3:45 pm OH YEAH)! Then on the 6th of January there is another holiday here called "La Befana." I like it a lot! It drags out the Christmas holiday even longer! Befana is a friend of Santa Claus (Babbo Natale is him name here) and she comes down the Chimney on January 5th. We put the stockings out and then she puts either candies and chocolates or coal and onions in your stocking! The sweets are for good children, and the cruddy gifts are for bad children (duh)! We do the same thing (the naughty and nice thing and the stocking thing), but it is just that Santa does it all and we put other stuff in our stockings! It was really fun! I got a ton of chocolate and candy, and then two pieces of coal hehe (: I thought it was really funny! Then that day we returned back to La Spezia. I also love everyone at Cerreto that I met. It is so small and everyone has been there for so long that they are all so close! They treated me just like a family member. I cannot wait to go back! Tomorrow school starts up again though, and then I change host families on Tuesday. I am definitely having mixed feelings because I am SO content with my family right now (they are literally amazing, I am so blessed), but I know my next family is also really nice. I am really nervous though to switch. Oh well, it has to be done! I will write again tomorrow while I am packing up my room! CIAO CIAO CIAO!

Christmas Day.

BUON NATALE A TUTTI! Merry Christmas everyone! TANTI AUGURI! Best Wishes!

Just in case you didn't know, I am obsessed with Christmas. It is my favorite holiday out of them all (even over my own birthday). It is just a whole month or more of joy and happiness, lights and candy, and so much more! When I woke up this morning I got all dressed nice and then Andrea and I went STRAIGHT for the gifts! I got a lot of nice stuff (: My parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle also sent me a package! It was really nice of them. THANKS FAMILY! Then we ate some breakfast and started getting ready for the day! We decorated a little more and nonna, nonno, and Paola came over for lunch! We had a huge lunch. There were appetizers, champagne, pasta dish, meat dish, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and then dessert! I WAS STUFFED. Everything was amazing though. After lunch we hung out and enjoyed the company. Then some more of their family came over, and it was so nice because they got me a gift too even though we had never met! I was so thankful! They are really nice, and their son is hilarious. Apparently he saw me at Seven Apples a few nights before, but he didn't say anything! Haha. Then at night Fabiola and Francesco went to a party, and all of us kids had a party of our own at my house. We ate AGAIN, watched some TV, listened to some Christmas music, and then we all went to bed! It was an awesome Christmas in Italy and I will never forget it. I am so thankful and grateful for all the people in my life that have helped me get this far in my exchange. Every day is a blessing, and something interesting always happens which makes me keep going even on the hard days. During this time of year, I do remember that it is about more than just gifts and friends and good food. It is also about Jesus and what he has done for us. I wouldn't be where I am in my life right now without Him. He has kept me strong (and I have had some weak moments), and I know I can talk to Him whenever I need to. I think this experience has truly strengthen my relationship with Christ, and that makes it 100 times more worthwhile (even though it is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING already!). I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH, AND MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Eve.

IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE! I am so excited! I woke up at 7:00 I was so excited, and it isn't even Christmas Day. I didn't do a ton today, but it was still a really good day for me. We made some of the food for tomorrow, I finished my cards and wrapping last minute gifts, and other things too! We are a lovely lunch all together (including la nonna). Then after we all hung out and watch the soccer game! I listened to a TON of Christmas music also. I am just totally in the Christmas spirit. I love it. I am trying to make the best out of it because I am really missing my family and friends right now during the holidays. So far everything has been fantastic. I have enjoyed every second of the holidays here, and I cannot wait for tomorrow! I also skype with my family and then my aunt, uncle, and cousins! It was awesome. I am really happy I got to talk to them, and they really cheered me up a lot. They always make me laugh! Then at around 5:00 pm I hung out with my friend Caterina and it was fun! We went to a bar and got some appetizers and this delicious mandarine smoothie. It was so delicious. We then went around and said "Merry Christmas" to some of her friends and relatives. It was fun because I got to meet some new people! They were all so nice to me! At around 7:00 pm I returned home, and then at around 9:00 pm we walked across the hall to nonna's home to have Christmas Eve dinner! It was so yummy. We ate these yummy fried breads with meat and cheese (I don't recall the name of them) and then fried fish! SO GOOD. We then ate typical Christmas desserts like panettone, torrone, nuts. dates. raisins, chocolate (lindt), and breads! I was STUFFED. Then we opened some presents! The way they do it here is they open some presents on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day. It is like two days of presents! I opened a journal for my italian recipes, an italian purse, and this wrap around scarf I have wanted for forever! I was so happy. Then I gave them the card I wrote the them in italian, and they loved it. They also said I wrote really well which made me feel pretty boss about my life haha. After that I skyped my sister for about an hour. I cannot tell you how much this girl cracks me up, I miss her so much. I don't know what I would do without her in my life. LOVE YOU JULIE. Then I talked to my dad and mom, which was amazing. I love and appreciate my family so much. It makes you realize it even more (by like 123837058575 times) when you are away from them for such a long time and especially during the holidays. I love them so much. I hope their holidays are amazing too (: I am so happy here in Italy, and I thought I should let you all know that so you wouldn't have to worry about how I am doing (: TUTTO BENE (everything's okay)! Now I am going to sleep, and when I wake up it will be Christmas Day! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

December.

WOW GUYS. This month has been so busy for me, I didn't write anything for almost the whole month. I am just going to say everything that I did, it probably won't be in order, but I do not remember so well now!

So today is Christmas Eve, and right now my host parents aren't home so I have some time to write! Here goes nothing!
The first weekend of December there were a lot of dinners and luncheons that I went to with Fabiola and Francesco. They were so much fun too! We went to Zio Pippi's home for lunch on a Sunday, and it was delicious. We did fondue dipping! Then that night for dinner we went to their friend's home for a birthday party! We made a toast with champagne (which was really good) and we ate a ton of appetizers and desserts! I was STUFFED. I couldn't stand up completely straight without my stomach hurting... yeah. I slept really well that night!

In the beginning of December I went to Cerreto (ski resort) with my second host family! Fabiola and Francesco went to Budapest, so I got to stay with them for the weekend! It was so much fun. Apparently all three of my host families have a home up in the mountains, so I will get to go there a lot! I didn't ski this time because it was really icey, but I still want to try! I have never done it before so they told me the next time I can do it! The houses are so cute and small, I loved it. It really felt like the Christmas season to me. We drank cappuccinos and hot chocolate and ate sweets, it was delicious! We also ate pizza from their favorite pizza place there. Everyone knows everyone and I think that is so cool! Everywhere we walked (because it is really small and quaint) they introduced me to someone! I also went inside the house of Daniel's boyfriend and it is gorgeous. It truly looks like an italian home. They said that's what the mountain homes normally look like, and I might get to see more if we go to the Alps (I hope we go haha). I also taught them how to play the card game "rumy" and they LOVED it! They said they want to play it again! It was funny because my host dad didn't understand AT ALL, yet he won every single time we played (I think he was bluffing haha). That night for dinner we stayed in the home, and it was lovely. We ate polenta and sausage. I love polenta so much! We also watched Balto and Happy Feet, so it was a really good weekend for getting me in the Christmas mood! There were lights everywhere! I cannot wait to go back!

The third weekend in December Mie and I were planning on going to Genova for a day to see our friend Jamie and do Christmas things! At the end of the day we decided we probably were not meant to go to Genova, and here is why:
-Our train to Genova was an hour late, so we told Jamie (our friend) but she didn't respond. We just hoped she saw it!
-Once we got to Genova we could not get a hold of Jamie and we couldn't find her at the station! So we just decided to go walk to a restaurant and eat until we heard from her.
-Two hours pasted, nothing from Jamie. We went shopping haha.
-At around 5 we noticed that BOTH of our phones died. This might have been why we didn't hear from her for an hour or so (they were still charged until about 3:30 or so). Then we worried that she was trying to get a hold of us, and that we couldn't respond! Also we didn't write her number down so we couldn't call her on the payphone to tell her our situation.
-We really needed to get a hold of our host parents to tell them our phones were dead so that they would not worry about us, so we tried many tactics. Tactic number 1: We went to a gelato shop and I bought some gelato thinking "oh, if I buy something maybe they will let me use their telephone" and this was so not true. I asked nicely and told them we were exchange students and that we don't live in Genova. They didn't care. They just said "sorry that's a shame, but you can't use it" UGH. Not cool. Tactic number 2: We went to a convenient shop and bought me a 10 euro phone card that I could use because I didn't have any more money on my phone (it turned out my phone was almost dead, but I needed to pay for the next month to use it). We tried 4 times to get the card to work, it didn't, and then my phone died. Luckily we memorized Fabiola's number right before it died (we didn't have pen or paper, obviously with our luck). We went to a payphone then and decided to call her. THE STUPID PAYPHONE WOULDN'T WORK. We were getting really frustrated at this point haha. Tactic number 3: I remembered that I brought my iPad, so if we went to a coffee shop with free wifi I could use it! This worked! We wrote 5 people, none of them answered. Then I decided to try Andrea (host brother) and he answered! PRAISE THE LORD! He told Fabiola, so everything was fine on my end. Mie still needed to get a hold of someone in her family though. The last possible thing we could think to do was to go to a TIM store (like Verizon or Sprint) and asked them if we could use a phone charger just for 5 minutes. They gladly said yes! We were so grateful and happy! She told her host parents and everything was okay. This took up the last 2 hours of our time and we never met up with our friend. We headed back to the train station and waited, only to wait and wait and wait because our train back was an hour late. Yupp. Then the train itself changed so we would have to be super attentive on the way home for our stop. We were thinking "okay so it's been like 50 minutes we should almost be there" and we looked out the window in the dark hoping to see a sign that said "La Spezia," then once we did we jumped up and ran to the door as to not miss our stop! We were so happy to make it back alive. Oh, but our interesting day wasn't quite over... the door to let us off was stuck. We were freaking out at this point thinking that we would have to wait until the next stop, and who knew when that was! There was another guy with us trying to get off so he ran to the other side of the train car and we followed. We BARELY made it out the door. When I hit the ground I was literally the happiest person alive. THANK YOU JESUS FOR BRINGING US BACK HOME! At that point we just started cracking up from everything that had happened. Then we ate pizza, so it was all good.

The 16th of December I went to Florence! IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I love it, I want to go again so badly (which I am with Mie!). We went with Zio Pippi and his wife, and we walked around Florence seeing all the sights. It was so beautiful with all of the Christmas lights and decorations! Also music was playing everywhere. It was amazing. We also got a cappuccino at one of the cafe's that is known throughout the world, and of course I don't remember the name of it. It began with a "P" and that is all I remember! We also met up with Zio Pippi's brother because he lives there! We ate well, and I saw Florence for the first (and hopefully not the last) time!

This past weekend was so much fun. On Saturday we went to school because it was the Christmas party! We ate food, took pictures, danced, sang songs in the hallways, and said Merry Christmas to lots of classrooms! We were just party hopping! It was such a joyful day at school, and also my favorite day so far at school (haha because we did nothing). Then after we stayed for a little bit at the Christmas party for the people who had just recently graduated. Our italian tutor asked us to come, so we did! Then we went back to my house and ate lunch (lasagna, mmm) and then got all my things ready to go to her home. Then her family came to visit her (her family family, in Denmark!)! It was so awesome to meet her parents and brother! They are here until the 2nd of January, so I will get to see them again! We all ate dinner together (pizza and farinata) at her host family's home, and then got ready for the night. We were going to go to Seven Apples for the first time (discoteca)! We were so excited because we had heard it was a lot of fun. We rode on a bus there (because it is 40 minutes away more or less) and they played music the whole time which was cool! I thought it was funny because they said "NO SMOKING" and then about ten minutes later we all started to smell smoke. Haha, typical. When I say almost everyone smokes, I mean almost EVERYONE. I only know a handful of people that don't! Once we got there we told them our names (you have to prenote to say that you are coming) and then went to check our bags and coats. THEN IT WAS TIME TO DANCE! It was so much fun. It was also a really nice establishment. I enjoyed myself very much! Also a lot of people from my school were there! We got home at 5:00 am and I was exhausted. I am pretty sure I was sleep walking from the car to my house. I crashed. Then I woke up at 3:00 pm! Yesterday was a sleepy day for me!

Now it is Christmas Eve! TIME TO CELEBRATE! I am so excited for these next few days! I wish you all Merry Christmas!


Oh and most importantly, we all survived the Mayan Apocalypse. DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING!

Day Eighty Five.

I WENT TO SCHOOL TODAY GUYS! It was so good too. I talked with a bunch of people, and there are a lot of people who want to hang out with me and make plans! I am really starting to get out there, and I love it. I can communicate really well, and I fell I can start to know these people on a more personal level now! SO PUMPED. In one class some of our friends needed help with their english homework (I love helping them with english!) so it was a blast trying to figure out the meanings of some phrases and words from one language to another. Some of the girls said they want us to come to Seven Apples (a discoteca) with them sometime! I love meeting new people and broadening my horizons (wow that sounded so mature, hehe.... ah that just blew it). After school I went home and talked with Fabiola while she made lunch! She was preparing a pumpkin for something and I got so excited because she knows I love pumpkin! She told me we were going to eat it for dinner! YAY! Then we talked about how we are doing a cake baking class together on the 16 of december, and so I had to go confirm with the lady that we are coming! So I went and did that on facebook, and then we ate lunch! I love our lunches together. When it is just me and her we eat in the kitchen and watch "Beautiful" (this super cheesy and old American soap opera) and it is actually somewhat interesting. At first I hated it because it was SUPER cheesy and I couldn't understand a word, and now I can understand them speaking so the cheesiness doesn't bug me as much. We also talk about our day and what's going on in our lives. She is just so amazing. I really couldn't be more lucky (with all three of my host families in general). After lunch I watched The Vampire Diaries, and then I went to go hang out with Mie! We went shopping at some stores and saw all the Christmas lights! We went in one store that is like an italian Victoria's secret. It has some really cute stuff, and then some really strange stuff haha. We were having fun looking at some of the things that just did not make much sense to us (we are 5 if you hadn't noticed already). Then we were hungry so we went to a bar. We got hot chocolate and 2 different pastries to split! This hot chocolate was amazing. We were watching her as she made it, and wow. She first poured the hot chocolate in the mugs, then she added 2 inches of whipped cream on top (I love whipped cream here, it is so different), then she dripped more of the hot chocolate on top, and finally sprinkled cocoa! IT WAS HEAVEN. We didn't talk at all when we drank it. Then we had a chocolate filled pastry and a vanilla filled pastry. Both of them were delicious. After this we met up with her host sister, Beatrice, and went around to more of the shops! We saw all the pretty lights, and just enjoyed the nice evening. Then they had to go to a gym class, so I went home! When I got back I skyped with my aunt again. Cullan (my cousin) is also sick, so we are in the same boat right now (sorry that you're sick Cullan!). I am getting better though (grazie signore)! We just ate dinner, and I cannot taste anything. This is the first day (while having my cold) that I couldn't taste anything, and I ate so many things that would have tasted delicious! It was torture. I couldn't taste my chocolate, my sandwich for breakfast, my potatoes and meat for lunch, and then a hot sandwich roll, pumpkin salted cake, pumpkin soup, or meat for dinner! HOW TERRIBLE IS THAT?! Then we had panna (like whipped cream) and cocoa for dessert. I didn't even torture myself by eating it. They had a fun time with it though haha. They were saying "OHHHH CHE BUONAAA" haha I WAS SO MAD (but in a joking manner, of course!)! Now I am just chilling at home because everyone else has school tomorrow, which means my Friday nights are always super relaxing. I like it sometimes! Tomorrow I have a big day though! CIAO CIAO CIAO!

Day Eighty to Day Eighty Four.

This sucks, but I was basically stuck in a bed for these days. I WAS SICK AS A DOG. I felt terrible, and I pretty sure I just wanted to cry all the time... pathetic. MY throat hurt, I had a bad cough, I was congested like crazy, I had a headache, and sometimes a little stomache ache came about. Yeah, fun. It came out of no where too! NOT COOL. Oh well, at least I got to catch up on some of my favorite shows, eat a lot of food, and sleep the pain away. Tuesday night I went out with Fabiola to the grocery store because it was around the corner and I thought I could handle it, but I really couldn't. After we ran some errands we went home and I changed right back into my pajamas. Ugh. I didn't go to school Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I pray I can go tomorrow because I am bored out of my mind! I want to see people! I skyped with my mom yesterday and she told me if I am not better soon I need to go to a doctor (I hope I get better before that is necessary)! I don't like going to the doctor, but I know I will have to if it gets worse ): Wahhhh, poor me. I also skyped with my Aunt Sonya because they just got a new laptop with a webcam and she wanted to try it out! It was really fun, and I am glad I got to talk to her! She cracks me up. I miss my family a lot sometimes. That is definitely a part of this though. You can't just pretend like you don't miss the people you love. I would rather admit it and talk to my host mom or my family than hold it in and have it eat me up from the inside out. You have to get your problems and difficulties out there in the open, man! Haha. Okay, now I am going to go to bed because I am actually going to try and go to school tomorrow, I think. Night world! Sleep tight (: