Terza settimana!

I hope no one is getting bored of reading my blog because I feel like I write WAY too much but I just love writing everything in my blog it's so much fun for me haha but shout out to my cousin Rachel cause I'm pretty sure she's like the only person who actually reads this.. lol love & miss you rachel <3 Okay anyway, I'll run through everything I did last week! It was a really fun, busy week! Sadly my camera isn't working so I only have kind of crappy pictures from my iPod ):

LUNEDI - Monday the 24th: I don't actually remember much from this day.. it was pretty boring! I know that I went to school (obviously) I had math, philosophy, history & science. Oh I remember something funny from this day, in Math I asked my teacher for help because I didn't understand. She proceded to explain in verrrrrrry fast Italian, I only understood a few words at most.. my Italian friends sitting next to me told the teacher "Lei non capisce!" (She doesn't understand!) But the teacher looked at me and then looked at them and was like "Oh no she understands everything, she's smart!" I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'm actually not as smart as she thinks.. so I just said "Si!" Then she smiled and left, as soon as she turned her back I turned to my friends and just gave them the most confused look and we all burst out laughing because I'm so clueless. It was sooo funnny. hahahaha I think you had to be there to understand! Anyway, afterschool my host mom and Federica picked me up, she stayed home from Milan an extra day! We had a delicious lunch then I ran some errands with my host mom in Rivoli, we got some meat from the local butcher and things like that. I actually don't mind running errands with my host mom because it's fun to see all the different shops and stuff in our town! Plus I'm pretty sure my host mom is a celebrity or something because whenever we go out she sees at least 5 people that she knows! Everyone's always like "Ciao Giovanna!!" I asked her about it and she said that it's because she's lived here for so long. I love the cute small town feel where everyone knows everyone it's so cool <3 Even I'm starting to run into lots of people I know!

Making new friends at school!

MARTEDI: Ahhh this was a superrr fun day! For English class, I go with 5B now, there's 5 years of high school in Italy so they are the seniors and it's really fun! I really like 5B, the class is super nice, friendly and fun! I'm good friends with one girl, Michela, she's so sweet and probably one of my favorite people I've met in Italy! Anway, I only had to go to school until 11:30 because the Italian teacher was sick or not at school or something so we simply just didn't have class! I love how at Italian schools they don't even bother getting a substitute teacher or anything. So after school finished me and my friends Sarah, Federica, Martina, Elena and Ilaria took the bus together to Martina's house for pranzo (lunch)! She lives in an apartment in Rivoli, it was cool and the food was really good! You'll never guess what we ate.... PIZZAAAA! hahaha omg I already love my new Italian friends so much, most of them speak pretty good English and Sarah is basically fluent so she translates everything for me! Sarah is another really good friend, me and her get along so well and sit right next to each other in class, we already have like a million inside jokes and we're planning for her to visit me this summer in the USA! All my Italian friends are so nice and we just laugh at everything, I love them (: While we were eating lunch, Martina played the new One Direction song for me cause we both lovee them and I was like "I love One Direction!!" Then Sarah made a face cause she hatess them and Ilaria laughed so hard she spit out her water, it was so funny! And they think my accent is so cool, they always ask me to say mozzarella cause I say it so funny! After pizza, we had nutella wraps, like thin warm bread folded up with a ton of warm gooey nutella inside. They were amazing <333 After we were done eating, they showed me a bunch of their favorite songs and Italian singers on Youtube! Now I'm obsessed too with all the same music too! Some of my favorite songs they showed me were: Click - Entics and One Day - Asaf Avidan oh and we also watched this Youtube video of Italian Abercrombie models dancing & singing to Call Me Maybe haha (: I had to leave Martina's at around 2 and I took the bus and subway to my Italian lesson all by myself! I got some really good gelato before the lesson too ahhh I swear all I eat is gelato and pizza! haha Italian lessons are fun, I feel like I'm starting to learn a lot more every week! After the lesson, me and some other exchange students went shopping and I bought a bracelet! I can't remember the name of the bracelet but everyone in Italy has one so I figured I'd follow the trend and get one too, they're made out of cloth and come in a bunch of different colors and are only like 5 euros! One of the exchange students, Victoria from Denmark, and I were in search of new boots so we would go up to random Italian girls and ask them "Tu scarpe, dove comprato?" (Your shoes, where'd you buy? I think and hope that's what it means....) It was a fun day, I love the other exchange students because we can talk forever and just relate to each other so easily! After a long day I took the subway and bus home then my host mom met me at the bus station in Rivoli. We had to stop by the church for a funeral ceremony for one of my host family's friends dad ): Then we went home and after dinner I fell dead asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!

My friends from my class having lunch at Martinas (: 

PIZZA!

The bracelet I bought that everyone wears in Italy!

MERCOLIDI: Another pretty uneventful day! I went to school, nothing exciting! In English we watched a movie in English, I understood it! Obviously.. haha but my classes assignment was to like summarize the movie so everyone was asking me what happened, it made me feel like a genius! Then afterschool my host mom picked me up and we got lunch in Rivoli, I got this delicious pasta with tomato sauce and prosciutto  Then we drove to Torino to get my permit to live here! The building was kind of gross and really crowded with a bunch of people.. but thankfully we didn't have to wait that long! One thing I found weird was that I had to get fingerprints taken of every single one of my fingers on both hands.. not just my thumb, it took forever! We went home and I went running with my little sister Nini and her friend!

We ate an entire fish for dinner, it was delicious!

GIOVEDI: Ahhh omg I have a really funny/embarrassing story from this day.. in the last period of the day at school we had Philosophy/History (it's just one class with one teacher) and this teacher is the strictest, scariest teacher that we have in all of our classes. She scares the crap out of me, she never smiles and is the only teacher that hasn't asked me if I needed help with anything. Anyway, during her class, of course my cell phone starting ringing... at first I just kind of pretended it wasn't my phone but everyone including the crazy teacher was staring at me so I quickly grabbed the phone answered then hung up immediately so it would stop ringing. It was my friend Sanni calling me because her school finishes 20 minutes before mine and we were supposed to meet and she didn't know where I was. Of course, she called me again (I wanted to kill her for this!!) So my phone started ringing AGAIN. The teacher was so pissed, she glared at me and slowly yelled at me in Italian "Turn the phone OFF!" It was so scary but also really funny! As soon as the class was over and the teacher left, all my friends and I started laughing and they were all like "Brava Jacqueline! Brava!" I'm just lucky that she didn't take my phone!! After school I went to Italian lessons in Torino then after me and the other exchange students shopped around and then sat and had pizza and coffee at a cafe, I felt so Italian (: haha and I bought some black heels! I took the subway & bus back to Rivoli then my host mom and I went out for dinner, I got pasta (surprise, surprise)! There was a family sitting at the table next to us and I could just tell that the one girl was an exchange student because she looked foreign and was speaking very basic Italian. So after we finished our dinner I went over to the table and asked if she was an exchange student, it turned out she was from London! Her name was Stephanie and she had the coolest British accent and was also 15 like me! When I told her I was American, she said she could tell, I get that alot, everyone says I look like the typical American girl haha I take it as a compliment (: Anyway when Stephanie asked me how long I was in Italy and when I told her one year, she was completely shocked. She was only in Italy for one week! I think that's way too short but it's with her school. 

The black heels I bought, only 20 euros!

VENERDI: At school I had a meeting with my school tutor and she taught me some Italian and we talked about my credits transfering to my school back home! I'm so lucky because my school in Ohio is so understanding and basically all the classes I take here, I'll get credit for when I come back. Plus my school here in Italy is so understanding and is providing me with curriculum maps for all the classes I take. I've heard stories of some people who don't get any credit while studying abroad and they have to repeat the entire school year when they get back :/ That would suck! Anyway afterschool me and my friends Sarah, Federica and Martina walked to Rivoli to meet Kaylin (the other American exchange student from Ohio). It was crazy, as soon as we walked out of school I ran into Stephanie, the girl from London! She was rolling her suitcase along with other girls from London (she goes to an all girls school) and they were going to the airport and leaving already! All the British girls thought I was totally insane for staying in Italy for an entire year, they kept asking "What about your friends and life in America!?" On the walk to Rivoli, we stopped at Sarah's house which is kind of like a townhouse in the center of Rivoli, it was soo cool and nice I want to live there!! I asked her if I could move in and she said only if she could move to my home in the United States hahaha anyway we met Kaylin in the main piazza and got some pizza and ate it in the park! I kind of felt bad because me and Kaylin were just speaking really fast English to each other, there's just so much to talk about! It's crazy cause we're both from Ohio and only live like 40 minutes from each other so we could still be friends once we go back home! I told my Italian friends that I'm sorry me and Kaylin only spoke English to each other and they were like "Oh it's okay, watching you guys talk is just like watching MTV!" hahahaha that made me laugh so hard! After pizza, we got gelato ahhh it was so good! Sarah told me to try biscotti and panna gelato which is cookies and then whipped cream but the whipped cream is so rich and amazing! We took pictures on my camera but it's being stupid and I can't upload them to my computer ): Federica came home from Milan and they picked me up, we went home and had dinner then I went to bed early because I had school on Saturday. Kill meeee.

SABATO: Saturday's in Italy have got to be the longest but funnest days ever! It started out with only 4 hours of school, 2 hours being ginnastica (gym). Gym is so weird here.. The girls and boys go to separate gyms and our gym was really tiny and in the basement of the school. It kind of felt like we were in a concentation camp because the teacher was really strict and we just did a bunch of exericises, stretches and drills and only finished with like 20 minutes of actually playing a sport. At least, it'll keep me in shape, hopefully! After school, I made 2 apple pies, one for Federica's friends birthday party that night and one for our family. Then later that afternoon after lunch, Michela and I went out shopping in Rivoli! It was raining, but we brought out umbrella's and still had alot of fun (: Early in the week she invited me to her friends party Saturday night so we went shopping so that she could buy him his birthday present and I could buy a new shirt to wear to the party! After buying what we needed we went to a caffe and I got marocchino con pana caffe (basically coffee with nutella around the rim of the cup and cream) It was so fun! I'm so lucky to have met Michela because she invites me to do hangout and go to parties (: After coffee, I had to take the bus home to Villarbasse by myself. I was kind of nervous because I've never taken this bus before, it only comes once every hour and not many people use it because it only goes to the small cities. Michela double checked with the bus driver that the bus went to Villarbasse, so I got on and wasn't so worried. I'm not really sure what happened but we drove by the stop that I needed to get off at, I didn't say anything to the bus driver because I assumed that we would turn around and go back to the bus stop in Villarbasse after we did the route to the other cities. After a while though we drove so far away into tiny towns and everyone got off the bus, it was only me and the bus driver. I started freaking out and images from the movie Taken were flashing through my mind.. I was alone with a random bus driver in Italy in the middle of no where away from home. It was the most terrifying moment in Italy so far. I told him "Ho bisogno di andare Villarbasse!!" (I need to go to Villarbasse!) He didn't speak any English and explained in Italian that we already passed the stop but he could go by it again in 10 minutes. At least I'm pretty sure that's what he said.. So we kept driving and picked up more people and the whole time I just kept asking "Adesso andiamo a Villarbasse?" (Now we go to Villarbasse?) I think he was getting annoyed with me but I just wanted to make sure! I finally made it home safely, thank goodness! I'm so proud that I was actually able to communicate in Italian or else I might have not gotten home! Anyway, I spent the evening relaxing at home and getting ready for the party that night. My host dad drove me to Rivoli at 9, where I met Michela and her parents drove us to the party! I'm so thankful that my host parents allowed me to go to the party (: They weren't so sure about it at first because they were worried about me going to a party with the seniors at my school, they said they would prefer me to hangout with kids my own age. I understand their point of view but I've always gotten along better with older kids and I'm beyond grateful that they trusted me enough after only 3 weeks to let me go to the party! The party was really fun and I met a lot of new people from my school (: There was maybe 20 or 30 people and everyone was really nice and spoke good English! I can already tell that I like Italian parties 1000x better than American parties. Everyone just wants to have a good time, the music was so cool too, it's all like dancing music that you would hear at a club. And unlike American parties where everyone just stands around awkwardly talking, people at this party actually danced to the music haha it was one of the funnest nights I've had in Italy so far. My host dad picked me up and I got home from the party at around 1 am, then I fell asleep in about 2 seconds!

Perfect rainy day shopping with Michela!

marocchino con pana caffe <3

One of the apple pies I made (:

First Italian party! whoooo (:

At the party! (:

yayyy such a fun night (:

DOMENICA: I slept until noon on Sunday because it's my one day to sleep in all week! haha it was amazing catching up on my sleep (: As soon as I woke up I helped my family set the table for a huge family lunch! My host moms 2 sisters and their families were coming over and my host aunt Elena made seafood spaghetti! I love having the classic huge, loud, crazy, loving Italian family (: My 2 aunts are our neighbors and we share a backyard with one family so everyone is really close! There's my host moms older sister, Elena and her husband John and their 2 sons Alberto, 14 and Alessandro, 19 then my host moms younger sister, Louisa, her husband Dario and their 2 sons who are younger, I forget their ages and names :( I will find out! Anyway, everyone sat together at one huge table and spoke loudly in Italian, it was crazy and really hard for me to understand because there was so many different conversations going on at once but it was really fun! This family, especially my host mom and her sisters, reminds me a lot of my mom and my aunt Sandy and aunt Beth because they're both so crazy and funny when they're together. They were telling me all these funny stories from their past (: The food was delicious too and for desert we ate my apple pie! After lunch, I took the subway and bus into Torino to meet up with Victoria, Sanni, Olivia and Paula, some other exchange students! Since most shops are closed on Sunday we kind of just wandered around the city and found ourselves in Valentino park right next to the river Po. It was a fun, relaxing afternoon and walking around the city a lot hopefully helped me to burn off some of the calories I ate from the huge lunch! Hearing about some of the other exchange students complain about their host families makes me feel so lucky because I have absolutely no problems with them at all, I love my Italian family and I would never want to change! <3

The seafood spaghetti I had with my Italian family (: 

Love these girls (: 

Sanni from Finland & Paula from Germany! 

Some pretty church we walked by in Turin

The Po river 

Ahh I love fall weather, especially in Italy (:

Po River 

I want this car!!

Po river again! 

Ahhh I love them so much (:

Well that's all for now! I'll post again as soon as I can! My birthday is in 2 weeks and I'm kind of excited but at the same time I feel like I'm going to be sad and miss my friends in the States ): It's my sweet 16 and sometimes I really wish I could be back home for it! Ciao! Arrivederci! Jacqueline <3