Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I guess I should start learning Italian... ?

So I recently joined the AFS Italy 2012-2013 group on facebook and it seems like everyone knows at least a little bit of Italian, except for me... oops. I guess I should probably start learning the basics of the language soon! I mean I doubt I'll be able to survive with my current vocabulary of spaghetti and ciao.. haha hmm so what else is new? There's not a whole lot going on with Italy yet because I'm still in the early stages but I'll just fill you in on some of the little things(:

I'm legit OBSESSED with reading past AFSer's who went to Italy's blogs. Like as soon as I open my laptop I automatically start reading someones blog about Italy. It's so exciting to read about other people's crazy experiences in Italy as an exchange student! I seriously can't even believe that is going to be me in 160 days (I don't have a countdown or anything...)

I've been working on fundraising a lot more lately and I wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of my amazing friends and family who recently contributed to my "March Madness" fundraiser. We raised $640 towards my trip! It means the world to me that you guys donated because it's such a huge help!(: Thanks again!

The other night, I got the chance to talk to my returnee mentor, Jessica! Basically, a returnee mentor is an AFSer who went to Italy as an exchange student in the past. We talked on the phone for over an hour! It was so awesome to get to hear about all of her fun times and get some first-hand advice! The main thing I gained from our conversation is to always keep yourself open, outgoing and friendly when traveling as a foreign exchange student because you'll have the most fun if you're open to try new things.

However, there was one little thing that I kind of worried me during our conversation... When I asked Jessica if there was anything specific that I should pack, she said, "Pack loose-fighting clothes that can stretch." Umm.. to say the least I was pretty confused, "Why stretchy clothes..?" I asked her. She said, "Because you will gain weight." FML. Yeah.. so to anyone who knows me now, when I get back from Italy, expect to see a whole new chubby me! Yay. haha I mean I honestly don't really care that much but I just thought that was a funny story to tell you guys(: It really surprised me because Jessica said that everyone she knows who went to Italy gained weight, some up to 30 pounds! And I read a blog about someone who gained 30 KILOGRAMS! (That's like 65 pounds) All I'm saying is that I would probably be an unhappy camper if I gained 65 pounds... but it's just like whatever. I'm going to Italy, so hello, of course I'm going to stuff my face as much as I possibly can! Pasta... pizza... gelato... BRING IT ON!(: I can't wait.

Weelll that's about all that's going on with me!(:
Ciao,
Jacqueline

P.S I changed my twitter & facebook so that they're in Italian, except whenever I try to use them it bugs me because I have no clue what I'm reading, so I'm constantly changing it back to English! I think I pretty much defeated the whole purpose... oh well

3 comments:

  1. I totally know your dilemma with language, I'm going to Japan next year and speak very little Japanese. But I figured I'd give you one of my favourite ways to learn a foreign language. It's called livemocha.com. It's rossetta stone clone, but it's all online and 100% free! And for Italian there are 4 levels of "basic" Italian (i.e. introductions, counting, directions, countries/nationalities, travel...) and they also have four levels of something called active Italian. These teach you more complex things. And you also can hold role play-like setting with your partner being prerecorded.

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  2. Oh wow Japan, that's going to be so fun! (: Thanks so much, I'll be sure to check out that website it sounds awesome! I want rosetta stone but I really don't think it's worth all the money, so this is going to be way better! Thanks for the help! (:

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  3. lol, I know right? And yeah, I've heard that rosetta stone isn't worth it. and no problem!

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