Best week yet (:

Lunedi 29th: I can't remember anything that happened this day.. it was boring! haha

Martedì 30th: School was so strange but fun on Tuesday! First thing in the morning I walked into school and there was a massive crowd outside the entrance. I found one of my friends from class and asked what was going on, there was a strike. My school Darwin, and a technical school called Oscar Romero are in the same building, if you turn right you go to my school and if you turn left you go to Romero. So anyway, the students of Romero were on strike because part of their roof fell. They refused to go to school until it was fixed and stood outside the front of the school screaming and yelling. It was crazy but I found it really cool because in the United States we've never had a strike before! I wanted to stay outside and watch all the craziness but my classmates wanted to go inside so I went with them. When we were walking inside one of the boys from Romero slammed our school doors open and started yelling, pushed a teacher, and started saying that he was going to break everything in our school. I asked one of my friends why he was so mad and I guess that some students from Darwin offered to help protest with Romero but they didn't want our help and started freaking out. It was a little bit scary, once we went inside to our classroom we weren't allowed to leave the building again. Since about half the kids in my class were missing and most of the teachers were outside trying to stop the strike we didn't do anything for the first hour. After the strike finished for the 2nd hour my class went outside and cleaned up the front of the school. It was freezing outside but it was definitely better than having classes... then after everything was cleaned up the whole school came out to the front. It's confusing to explain but for an art gallery asked our school to have all the students stand in the shape of some design and hold up books, then they took a picture from the top of the school. I forgot to bring my science book even though I guess they reminded us a million times.. oops I didn't understand.. I'm an exchange student it happens (; Thankfully someone had an extra book though! After the picture was taken everyone rushed inside since it was so cold and we had classes until the day ended. I love days like this because obviously no classes but I love being able to see all my friends from the different classes all day (: I didn't get any pictures or anything though :/

After school my friend Sanni waited for me outside for over an hour! I felt so bad ): She goes to Romero so she was on strike all day and finished early but still waited for me to go to the Italian lesson together. It was so nice! She said that for the strike they walked all the way to the city center and stood in the street protesting. I think her school is just insane (; Anyway we went to the Italian lesson and then afterwards went shopping for outfits to wear to the Halloween disco! We decided to be devils and ended up buying the same skirt and heels. hahaha after shopping we went back to the Italian lesson and our Italian teacher drove us to her apartment for a Halloween party with all the other exchange students! I don't know if I've mentioned everyone before but in my local chapter there's a girl and boy from China, a girl from Venezuela, 2 boys from Honduras, 2 girls from Denmark, a girl from Finland, a boy from Bolivia, a boy from Thailand, a girl and boy from Germany. I love my local chapter it's so fun hanging out with them all the time! (: We listened to music from my iPod, ate a bunch of delicious and talked. The girl from Germany who's house I went to last weekend for the party was there with her former host sister. It was her last night in Italy, they're so nice and made a cake for Halloween and for all the birthday's in October and November. Sanni, Paula and I all blew out the candles for our birthday (: It was a nice night, at around 10:30 a group of us left to walk to Porta Nuova. It ended up taking longer than we thought I got home at nearly midnight. My host parents weren't too happy with me.. oops.. 

Gao Yung Ming from China (definitely spelled his name wrong..)

Paula from Germany <3 Love her 

Yay Happy Halloween!

The cake they made for us (: 

Bleue <33 

Mercoledì 31st HALLOWEEN: School was nothing special ): Afterwards I came home took a nap and then got ready to go out to the Halloween disco with Sanni! No trick-or-treater's came to my house which was kind of depressing but my host mom said there's usually some but none this year since it was raining. Anyway, Sanni and I met up at the front of the disco. It was completely packed with everyone from my school, Sanni's school and a bunch of other schools. We waited forever to get into the club and it was raining too which sucked! Once we got in though it was so much fun, by far the best night I've had in Italy so far (: Disco's have got to be my favorite thing about Italy. I saw a bunch of my friends from different classes and when it turned midnight it was Sanni's 18th birthday! I hope she had as much fun as I did celebrating her birthday! I can't wait to go to another disco (: Initially I was sad that I couldn't go trick-or-treating like I do in the U.S but clubbing was a thousand times better! Also, in Italy trick-or-treating is only for little kids, no one my age would be caught dead going.. haha

Don't ask me who the guy in the background is.. I have no clue..

Giovedì 1st: My host family woke me up bright and early at 8 am to pack and then we were off to their beach house on the sea in a city called Laigueglia! I was exhausted and slept the whole car ride but when they woke me up and said we were here I thought I was dreaming.. It sounds cheesy but I looked out the window and it was just so beautiful! It's crazy how one minute we're driving through the snow-capped mountains and then  the next we arrived at the beach. We went to their beach house un-packed, ate lunch and then I took a little nap on the balcony in the sun. The weather was surprisingly really nice! It's supposed to be getting colder now for winter but it was beautiful and not too cold while we were there. We spent the late afternoon walking around the beach and looking at little shops. My host mom bought me a pair of bright pink slippers to wear around the house! I forgot to mention but in Italy everyone always wears slippers! Laigueglia is a small beach town and the tiny streets with all the shops were adorable. My host dad told me the small narrow streets are called "budello" which means the intestines because they're so tiny just like the intestines! hahaha oh and I forgot to mention that my host sister Federica's boyfriend, Andrea came with us so when we drove into the city in one car Nini had to lay across our laps, it was so funny! Anyway after shopping around in the Budello we went to a cafe and got cioccolata caldo (hot chocolate) and looked out at the sea! The hot chocolate here is so different and so much better, it's extremely thick almost like pudding and there's a bunch of pane (cream) swirled on the top. It's so delicious! We went back home for a little while then left again for dinner. We ended up having to wait about 45 minutes for a table at the restaurant! Everyone was getting so tired, hungry and cold. We were joking around saying that we should go into the restaurant and say there was a bomb so everyone would leave and we could have a table! Finally we got a table and ordered and then of course my pizza came about 20 minutes after everyone else's food. It was torture watching everyone eat their meals and having to wait for mine!!

Driving to Laigueglia!

View out my window of the Alps during our drive!

The view from our beach house in Laigueglia!

The whole fam minus my host dad who took the picture!

Aw Nini wrote this for me! (: 

Venerdì 2nd: This was probably one of the most amazing days I've had so far! We got up early at around 8 and drove to France! The car ride was maybe about an hour and it was all along the coast so I just stared out the window the whole time thinking about how lucky I am. Once again it was a perfect day with blue skies and not a cloud in the sky (: We stopped and got out of the car to take pictures of the view of Monte Carlo then we finished driving to Nizza in France! We went to a grocery store and picked up some food for cookies and biscuits. It was so weird hearing French, I've never realized how odd the language sounds but I liked it! It was pretty but also very strange.. I forgot to mention it was my first time in France! When we passed the border of Italy into France in the car I started cheering. Hahaha I think everyone thought I was crazy because for Italians it's no big deal to travel from one country to another. My host sister said it's just like traveling from one state to another because all the countries are part of the European Union. I love it! haha anyway after stopping at the grocery store we got coffee's from a little French cafe! It was pretty good but I'd have to say Italian coffee is ten times better (; Then we waited for my host parents friends who live in Nizza to meet us! We meet up with the couple, they were super nice! We walked to the beach and just relaxed for a while. I took my shoes and socks off and went in the water. It was such a warm day out I wanted to go swimming so bad but everyone said I was crazy so I settled for just going in up to my ankles. When I went back to put my shoes on Federica and Andrea hid them from me.. meanies... hahaha then Nini and I played on the playground (: Federica asked me "Quanti anni hai!?" (How old are you?) It was fun I miss being a little kid sometimes! We went out for lunch at a cafe on the beach, I got a focaccia and it was delicious!

Our drive wasn't so bad (;

A is Ligueglia, B is Nizza and C is Monte Carlo! 

Amo la mia sorella Federica! (: 

The French Rivera

FRANCE ! 

View of Monte Carlo when we drove by!

Amo la mia sorella Nini (:

After the beach we walked through Nizza a little bit then drove to Cote d'Azur, the French Rivera! We walked right next to the coast and I took a thousand pictures! It was so beautiful, the water was a perfect blue and ahhhh just so amazing! After admiring the view we walked throughout the narrow cute streets of Nizza and looked at all the cute little shops. My host mom and her friend legit stopped in about every single store it was so funny (: I got a crepe with nutella it was amazing! I felt so French strolling down the streets eating a crepe. hahah we saw a pink Vespa and I wanted it so bad! After spending a few hours in Nizza we went to my host parents friends apartment for a little while. Federica, Nini and Andrea tried teaching me a tongue twister in Italian.. it did not go so well! I kept messing it up and it was so funny. Then I tried teaching them a tongue twister in English and I think they were ten times worse than me so HA! lol

Nizza

French Rivera!

A candy store we stopped at in France! 

Crepe! It looks ugly in the picture but it was delicious!

I WANT! 

Flower shop!

Loved the cute narrow streets in France!

Love them!

After staying at my host parents friends house we drove to Monte Carlo! It was so beautiful at night with all the lights from all the buildings and boats. There was a carnival going on with fair rides and stuff so we walked through that. There was a huge ride that flung you into the air, I wanted to go on it so bad but no one would go with me!! I didn't really want to go by myself so I ended up not going on it ): Everyone's a bunch of wimps! We saw the castle of the princess of Monaco, it was so gorgeous! We went out for dinner in Monte Carlo at an American style restaurant/bar. I honestly forgot that other food besides Italian food existed in the world. For the last 2 months I've pretty much only eaten Italian food! In Italy they're not very diverse, there's not much foreign foods because Italian food is so good! Anyway at the restaurant the menu was in French and English so for once I had to help my host family figure out which foods were which instead of the other way around! There was hamburgers on the menu and it reminded me of a sports bar from home! Except I ended up ordering sashimi, raw fish, because I haven't had sushi in forever and I miss it so much! It was delicious and reminded me so much of my family because we always eat sushi ): After dinner we drove back home to Laigueglia. On the car ride home I said something in Italian and Federica was surprised that I had understood what they were talking about and I was like, "Sono non stupido!!" Which I thought meant, I'm not stupid! But it turns out the grammar is completely wrong and I used the masculine form of stupid soo it completely proved my point wrong and I actually am stupid.. hahaha

MONTE CARLO!  

Castle of the princess of Monaco!

At the carnival thingy in Monte Carlo!

My sashimi for dinner mmmm (:

Sabato 3rd: This was a much more relaxed day! We all slept in till about 10:30 then had breakfast. After breakfast Nini had to study and do her homework. I felt so bad for her ): She's only 12 and probably has more homework than I've ever had in my life! Italian school is so intense :/ While she did her homework I decided to go for a run. Sadly, no one would go with me so I just listened to my iPod. It was nice and relaxing, I ran all along the sea on the sand and on a pathway next to the beach. I ended up running pretty far I wasn't tired for some reason. Then I turned back to return home but I got lost and couldn't find the right street that led to our house. I was running up and down all these tiny hilly streets and by this point I was so exhausted from running so far. I was starting to get really worried because I couldn't find the right street and I didn't have my cell phone. I decided to go back into the city center to the area with all the shops and caffe's. I was going to try and ask someone to use their cell phone and call my host family. Thankfully though just as I was about to ask someone, Federica and Andrea turned the corner. I ran up to them so happy and we all walked home together. It was seriously a miracle that I found them! It was so lucky! We went home and I took a shower then ate lunch and after lunch I took a nap for about 2 hours because I was so dead from my crazy run that morning.. That night Federica, Andrea and my host dad went to the movies to see the new James Bonds movie! Italian movie theaters are so different to American ones! It was super crowded like I mean extremely crowded. I don't know if this is normal in Italy or not but I was like sweating in the theater because there was so many people! Then half way through the movie there was a 5 minute intervallo (break) it felt like I was at a live show or something! The movie was in Italian (obviously) but I surprisingly understood alot more than I thought! Yayayyyyy (: I liked the movie too it was good!

Domenica 4th: We woke up and packed then went home! Not a very exciting day I worked on my blog uploaded pictures to facebook and just relaxed at home after such a fantastic vacation! (:

Well that's all for now! Ciao! Baci tutti (: