Ottobre!

So we have just returned from the afs intercultura camp for 4 days in catania! it was an awesome camp and was great to meet up with everyone again especially the new zealanders and our solo australian. the days were usually taken up with heaps of activities about dealing with things which i found really useful. they also said that the next 2 months will be the hardest. so that sounds like fun!! apparetnly its the time when we start losing contact with our home countries because we have intergrated here which i can already understand as i am finding it hard to find time when i can come on. not because im always out but with homework which takes twice the normal time because i dont understand but just talking with everyone.. but also the family holidays christmas... natale here.. where one day we are like YAYYYY happy and the next we are all sad, so those mood swings are something to look forward to. hahahaha. but now im enjoying every day. my new friends are awesome and im off to Cetti's 18th birthday tomorrow so that should be fun! and this saturday im off to a disco with my classmates. my intercultura friends are the best though! spent the last 2 weeks with annabel except for 2 days. and we didnt get sick of eachother! which we both were suprised about.

unfortuantly,as with any camp, there was a talent show. this involved the countries getting together and doing something from their home country.. so of course we were begged to do the haka.. this of which you can see the video on facebook.. please dont. we are the whitest people in the whole of nz.. but everyone seemed to like it so thats the good part! 

other then that it was a normal camp.. not sleeping much.. eating too much.. you know the drill.

so in 2 weeks im off to paris for a week!!!! we are going to be in a flat in the city centre!! im so excited! apart from knowing no french whatsoever! so im hoping charles wil teach me basics before i leave. charles is with afs from french canada. so ill definatly make sure to write about PARIS!!!

I miss everyone so much! the language is getting easier to understand everyday... and even if i dont understand i just say si and hope its to the right thing!

miss you guys heaps! off for a bike ride around ortigia now! hope summer is going well!

xoxoxox

Update!! for the exact month i have been here!

Please realise that my english is not getting worse. i am just too lazy to go back and change my mistakes and i am usually typing fast because its italy!! so its been exactly a month since i left new zealand. when i think of the days here they go so fast.. but when i review that on tuesday everyone was at my house saying goodbye it seems so far away that it is scary. so much has happened in such a small amount of time..
so im happy!!
i have a toilet seat and a keyboard! ahahha im so spoilt.. i never realised how much i would miss piano. it seemed to fit into every mood i had and was usually the only thing (other then a good book) that would make me completley focus and zone out. so my assisstente had a keyboard she never used so she gave it to me!!! i cant play half my songs because it is too small but im not complaining!! im gonna go buy a pedal for it soon! so thats really good!!
ahhh im missing reading!! i ahve read twilight 3 times and angels and demons 2 because it is a relief to actually understand and so i read!

i have changed school! i was at a science school in their last year and it was soooo difficult and all anyone did was study and not talk to me and i had a really hard time so i changed schools!! im now at istitute dell'arte which is an art school and yes i know im terrible at drawing so im taking a arcituture class where we study restoration of old italian buildings and design churchs and make sculptures! it is awesome!! i actaully understand maths and italiano(we are studying theatre so im really happy about that) and all the teachers talk to me and try to make me understand which is completly different from corbino where they ignored me. im in the 4th year in a class of 13 and they are soo awesome!! i have really connected with the girls and we ahve been out 3 times after only knowing them a week. they are really patient but speak really terrible english and have fun trying to understand my really terrible italian. ok my italian is actually quite good but i ahve off days where i cant understand anything and get really bad headaches all the time but oh well!! all part of the experience! so i love school even if the hours are crazy. we only ahve a 15minute for the whole day which is monday 8-3 tuesday 8-5. yes 5. in the night 5. and wednesday thursday friday and saturday are 8-2. but i ahve had a couple of days off because the school is on strike.. with the insane lenght of certain days so its been good to go out with friends!!

I have another orientation camp next week in catania which should be great! its good to catch up with everyone in sicily again! haha i love my intercultura friends, the are awesome! there are 5 of us in the chapter and we hang out heaps!

i have been out sailing and it ends up im a natural at it!! so i egt a free memeber ship into the club and get to go kayaking and everything!! so its really cool!! and i ahve salsa as well and the classes are really small so i met this one lady and she is awesome and is tryna get me to do belly dancing! haha so that should be exciting!

tried a whole lot of fish things today at the markets down the road. my friends had a good laugh at my face... i can say with uttermost certainty that italian food is never bland.

so im going to bed now!! because unlike you guys i have school on saturday .. ehh groan! farewell new zealanders!! see you in 9 months!

San Vito Lo Capo and other things

Hey!! this is my first post in a while. its been really busy!

last week we travelled to San Vito Lo Capo which is about an hour outside and up from palermo (the capital of sicila) it was about a 4-5 hour drive so that was fun..

the cous cous festival was amazing! they had the whole town practiclly filled up with stores of cous cous from different places. the mediterranen africa israel everywhere. and the cous cous naturaly was great! they also had dolcemente.. which is sicilian sweets.. sooo good! the town was filled of store selling heaps of ceramics and food. ceramics are such a big thing here. seriously you think of something and they ahve it ceramictised. chairs lamps tables... its crazy.

i also saw a small tornado!!!  palermo was having terrible flooding because nowhere here has drains.. and houses were destroyed etc.. i pointed out several times how stupid it was having no drains. the weather was crazy. one minute you'd be out in the sun, tanning and the next you'd be drenched! and it was the hardest rain ever.. and everything flooded.

so on the 2nd day we went down to erice which is an old old old historical town, there are some photos on facebook of it. everything was made out of stone and it was up a really really really big mountain, so it was very cold! 

on the 3rd day we went to madasa which was rather similar but less beautiful. they highlight of that day for me was going to segusta.. where there was a greek theatre and a huge temple!! please check out the photos they are amazing. unfortuanly it was bucketing insanely!

here in italy you know when it is going to rain because they have huge thunderstorms before hand.

oh and that day i also brought my first pair of designer jeans!!!!! and i got them on sale, does that still count? but hey i love them!

we then went to this really famous resturant(please ignore the really bad english) that translates to something like the dogs uncle. sounds gross but it was the best cous cous in the whole of sicila. they had people waiting for hours to get a table. luckily we got in early. it was just amazing!

on the last night the palermo afs chapter came to san vito so it was good to catch up with some people who spoke english. 

the holiday was awesome!! lots of swimming and tanning. i now understand why italians are so tan. noone swims. they lie there on the beach all day.. i would get soo bored.. i was often the only girl swimming. 

yesterday i went down to noto to visit my american friend in my chapter. its about a 40mintue bus drive. the bus dirvers here are crazy. they will sit there driving on their phones, screaming at other drivers. its amusing.

noto is a small little town but its where gelato apparently originated(this information is according to anabel and everone knows you can't trust an american (man i hope she reads this)) she is one of the people who believed me when i said that in the capital of nz we don't have running water.. sooo many people believed that.. its sad.

anyway noto!! is beautiful and we had a couple of gelatoes and walked around catching up. we are starting salsa together which we are going to tonight after italian lessons. like i said  before its so amazing how quickly you connect with these people. i've known annabel less then 3 weeks but shes my best friend here. i also understand why at newlands college the exchange students stick together. its the whole familarity thing. 

so im still having an awesome time! might be changing schools! i'll undate on tha when its been confirmed!

miss you guys heaps though.. adele is really awesome and patient though.

ciao ti amo tanto!

xoxoxoox

food!! mangiare!!

hey guys!!

as you can probably tell by the title this blog is about food!!!
last night we went to a pizzeria that was a 40mintue driver away from siracusa in a samll town called sorbino. o m g.
dominoes you should be ashamed..
so this type of pizza had what us pizz experts call a thin crust bottom BUT it also had another thin crust on the top and all the toppings were inside. they dont use sauce and the ingredients are so fresh and amazing its just sooooo good!!! then you have dessert pizza. same deal with the crust but stuffed with nutella or white choc. whatever you choose. hannah you would love it! its like a better version of nutella on toast.

the gelato. my utter weakness. so i have probably 1-2 gelatos a day. probably why ive put on a couple of kgs.. just found out today that they are pure cream... eek!! better cut down... but you have these gelato shops lining the streets and a full store will be dedicated to gelato with a good 50 odd flavours... i mean YUM!

something im finding quite hard in lunch. they ahve such big lunches but im more of a snack heaps after school person..

oh and they put wine in everything..
anyway im going away for a week now to a couscous fesitval past palermo, so this will be my last st and contact for a week. so have fun!!

ciao!

facts

some interesting facts about italy.

1. there are no toilet seats. sounds like a weird thing to mention but its really bugging me. i mean why??  awfully uncomfortable!

2. italians are hilarous when they graffiti in english! you walk around siracusa and ther is heaps of graffiti in english spelt wrong and nowhere near correct. for example in my school there is "bitch you here when was i" i mean what the hell does that mean???

3. designer is soo big here. you won't see a glassons or other store like it. everything is designer shops. you know the ones noone goes to in welly.

4. chocolate is really cheap here. really random but thought i'd mention it.

5. kidney and wine is nice.

6.noone txts.. noone.. at break in school everyone will be calling people.  important fact.

7. you know in the simpsons when bart calls australia to see if the water turns another way?? i looked in nz in the sink before i left and it's completely untru. i'm very disappointed.

8. everyone here is tiny.. im like a giant.. i'm taller then all the girls and most of the guys.. and they all gasp when i say i'm average ish height in nz.

9.italians love nz. they have never been to nz. but they love it... odd..

10. other then chocolate evrything is incredibly expensive. for me anyway. for example bread is 3-4 euro. and italians eat A LOT of bread. maybe they earn more then we do in nz. coz in nz dollars thats like $7 for bread..

11. i wore jeans to school 2 days in a row.. YAY ME!! i cooked alive but hey i fitted in!

12. they don't have toasters! you put your bread in the oven.....

13. the driving is crazy. i know you've probably heard of this before but it is!! people triple park! and i've learnt that you just walk out in front of cars. you don't wait because you'll be there forever.

i can't think of anything else at the moment but yeah the main thing is the toilet seat. it really annoys me.

hahaha love you all!! 

had a bit of homesickness. talked to rosie and she said i was getting it really early but so is another girl i met, elsha. so we console each other. its ok really. i just blast it out on this running machine thing for 20minutes.. 

mr hueston would be proud.

tatata!!!!!!

p.s whoever wants to tell mr fedelov- his famous last words to me was "at least you'll understand maths"..

hahahahahahaha it's crazy man! these people are so smart. i pulled out my graphics calculator and they all gathered around and played with it.. it was so cute. they were amazed..

they don't use calculators here.

i'll try and write the maths problem we did today. well they did..

y=f(x)

lim    f(x)=(this curly l lookingthing) (a = with a slash through it) 0

x--c(infinite)

ts ]Ic/v(with a slash through it)xEIc/f(x).(curly lokking thing again)>0

infintie >0 > 1/x<(curly looking l thing)

did you understand that??????????????? well considering i can't do half the thingys i don't blame you. but you get what i mean.. and i'm sitting there like huh!!! but the guys came up to me after and were complaining about it. they want to go to nz now. I'VE PROMOTED OUR TOURISM!! i should earn some sorta income..

have an awesome day!! me and adele are going for a walk now

ciao!! a presto! xoxox

prima giorni del scuola!!

So today was my first day of school! in italy the teachers move around the class and the students stay put. my school starts at 8 and finishes at 12:30. so we ahve a 15minutes break. there are 5 lessons in a day and i am in my last year of school.

so today i had maths... we  were doing calculus.... now calculus is hard enough in nz.. but in italy in italian and probably at a higher level then what the year 13's study... its crazy. i sit there and smile.. 

the teachers are really nice. before every class they spend about 10mintues talking with the students. the students also respect the teachers far more then what we do in nz. we stand everytime someone enters the room and noone speaks while the teacher does unless it is a conversational topic. in my class there are 3 other girls. i sit next to someone called marta. she is lovely but very shy. and so we sit almost in silence because i can barely commuicate with her. but luckily she has adopted me into her group. they are very nice!! pretty much everyone smokes and i get offered one regulary but don't worry i always turn it down.

my english and physics teachers are awesome!! physics is hilarous and the teacher is soo nice to me and always tries to talk to me. he is the only teacher that speaks slowly. 

the school is very old. along with everything else and is quite white. there are a lot of pictures though. you can definalty tell different cliques... the popular girls dress up amazingly for school while everyone else wears jeans...

i feel my italian getting better every day and i'm becoming more confident. adele is very patient and my classmates are really nice but still speak sooo fast!

note for mum: if you are reading this im not sure if i will be home when you call. adele is taking me with her to visit some friends and i can't remember what time you were gonna call. sorry! i love you!

ciao e a presto!

oxxxo

seconda!!

today was very exciting!! my first ride on a scooter! me and adele went into siracusa and went shopping, i now have "suitable" clothes for school which starts tomorrow! im very excited about it!

i am also attempting to read eclipse which is a twilight book in italian. it took me 10minutes to read one paragraph but i am elarning!

tonight we went to see an italian movie called segeo cabal(i think icant quite remember, im very tired) i understood the plot but very little of what was being said.

only a little post today. i'm gonna go to bed now!!

goodnight everyone! 

xoxox

prima giorni in famiglia ospitante!

ciao!! sono molto felice! ma sono molto stanca! non io italiano molto bene ma ortigia e' stoprendere. io vedere bella viale e piazza! 

ora per inglese

today was an up and down day.. i went through a sad patch because i couldn't understand anyone but then relalised there is nothing that i can do so i should just open my mind and try my hardest! it was 26 degrees today. this is apparently cold in Sicilia and i got many weird looks as i walked around in shorts while everyone else was in jeans. ortigia is beautiful. i really can't describe it. it's an incredibly old part of siracusa. everything is crumbled but in an authentic amazing way. the tiles on the roofs are so colourful! they have bars over every window to stop theifs which kinda makes everything look a bit like a prison i mean what happens if there is a fire...

but once you get used to it, it really is amazing. you definatly can't walk bare footed.. the tiles are very uneven and everyone walks on the roads anyway. noone was kidding about italian drivers.. our bus driver in rome nearly crashed twice. 

it feels like i ahve been here longer then a day. my host mum(adele) is so nice and tolerates my lack of italian. and my host father(enzo) treats me like his own daughter. he can thankfully speak some english.

i'm still terrified about school which starts on tuesday as i am in the last year! (which means i am in university level in nz education...) so that should be fun. i am worried about meeting people but my cousin(luca) says not to worry as people will like me because i am forgeign. i also fournd out that sicilian dialect is like a whole other language and of course only the teenagers speak it.. 

luca is taking me out tonight to meet some of his friends and we are going to the centre of siracusa which is a big big city.. i am really looking forward to that.

today me and adele went for a walk around ortigia and went for a swim in the beach that is in the photo on my blog. it really looks like that and is beautiful. along with everythinig else.everything is white... or and off shade of white or orange.. but you get what i mean. its so luminous everywhere you go..  adele kept joking with me that i am white.. although now i have slightly tanned shoulders.. and also that i brought the bad weather with me.. it rained for 10minutes today. the first time in 2 months.. and apparently you guys had lovely weather today form what i heard from david. this is the part where you should be thankful that i have left.

i didn't really say anything about orientation on my last blog so i shall now since i have time.

I reallly met some awesome people. a girl from chch is about an hr away from me in catania and her and me are very good friends. it is funny how i feel i have known these people forever just because we are going through the same thing. and josh, the only guy outta all of nz going to italia is in palermo which is 3 hours away same with amelia.

at orientation there were 400 people from everywhere. the finland and denmark girls were awesome and the swedan guys were hilarous. the orientation itself was boring but the opportunity to meet all these people from around the world... 

i am still suffering a lot from jet lag after the 30hour flight here. since we are 10hrs behind it's very disorientating..

omg the food!!! today at lunch we had ricotta and this pressed pasta thing. and then swordfish pasta. yes swordfish!! i thought it was chicken.. then we had dessert which was chocolate gelato wrapped in solid white creamy type thing covered in chocolate and nuts.. it was soooooo good. like 20 times better then kaffee eils.. jealous?

so yeah i miss home but im not going to be sad about it. italy is so beautiful and firneds it really isn't to late to do this.. it is so worth it and i've only been here for one week. its gonna be the best experience of my life!

and yes i have met the italian male! i got wolf whistled at and got called bambina which means baby. they then got an evil look from adele. also my first insult in italia from josh. he called all the nz girls butch at rome airport. he was joking but we hold it over his head.

 just went out with luca and met all his friends. it was so fun! and they were so awesome and had a good laugh over my lack of italian. i found one girl who is in my year going to my school so i am not too scared now. didn't have to pay for a thing. ooh the chilvary of italian males. hahaha nah they were really sweet!

so if i talk to you and i am down just tell me to take a cup of concrete(thank you jordan) and get on with it because the more happier i am the better the experience i will ahve.

ciao!! a presto!! Ti voglio bene/amo!

xoxoxoxox

ITALIA!

So i have entered Italy!! us new zealanders ahd the furthest to travel with 30 hours... which sucked. but i met so many awesome people from new zealand and australia! we spent he whole 2 days mocking each other.

the views from rome were amazing. unfortunaly we weren't in the city and didn't get to see any of the sites but i saw the vaican church from afar!! the food is amazing. i mean noone is exaggerating when they come to italy and say that. and the fruit is so juicy ah!! im gonna get fat!!

oreientation camp was awesome with over 400 people from around the world going to italy! out of all the nz's we had one guy named josh and he was fun to mock.  it was really unfar how you connected and made friends with so many people only to be split up again... thats when we really felt the homesickness... 

so now im in sicily. my house is amazing and my host parents are to..the brought me ooo many clothes i would hate to think of how much they spent since everything is desigener over here. origia is the most beautiful place ever. i will put photos on facebook when i ahve the time.

it's really exhausting ahving to continually think in another language, especailly one you barely know.. i ahve scjool on monday. im really pancing aboutthe

so italy is 10hr behind nz... so im off to bed now. i don't feel i've said much because ia hve done soooooo much.

i do love you guys. ad sorry if i don't get in much contact coz even writing this, knowing that yo uys will be reading it makes me homesick..

i love you!!

xoxoxxoxoxoxo 

Italy hit.

So at the moment i am trying to scan this nice photo of me on the computer instead of having none and its not working and its frustrating me and it hits me..

this is my second to last day in nz. and tomorrow will be my last.
so now im venting all my fears on this poor printer which isn't scanning my stupid photo.

it really does hit you suddenly... i mean i started crying yesterday while cleaning the handbasin... because it was the last time. i mean how crazy is that!!!! who starts crying while wiping toothpaste!

so there is two days... and i feel so unprepared.

shit i haven't packed...

and I'm really panicing about being on a plane for 24hours... i hate flying and i hate sitting... i can't sit through a movie. i really feel sorry for the person next to me...

quattro giorni andare

4 days to go. I'm setting up this blog so all my family and friends can see what I'm up to without me having to spend my life on the computer whilst in Italy. wow 4 days is sooo scary. and with school out I'm not gonna see a few of my not so close friends for a long time...
i got kidnapped last week by the best of them!! dragged me down stairs and hills at night with a blindfold on... it was great fun.. ah 4 days!!

anyway see a lot of you tonight!