Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas in Italia!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in forever! I've been so extremely busy and being in Italy now just seems like my normal life, I feel like there's nothing special that I should write down! haha okay so the last time I posted was about the fashion show! Since then I went to a party at my friends house.. had a dinner with my host parents friends & their daughter.. made Christmas cookies & cupcakes.. celebrated Christmas.. finished the first trimester of school.. went shopping in Milan.. went to discoteca and tried a cow tongue.. hahhaa I'm really starting to feel so comfortable & happy with my life here. It just feels so natural now. I feel like my Italian's improved a lot and I can finally communicate with everyone. Oh and I'm so happy in Math I got a 7 for this trimester (: Anyway, my last day of school was on Saturday but we only had 2 hours of classes and then a one hour party with a bunch of desserts that everyone brought. I made sugar cut out Christmas cookies and everyone went crazy for them! haha then on Saturday during the day I went to an AFS party with all the other exchange students and met 2 girls from Perth, Australia (where I lived for 2 years) who are here for 2 months! Then my Italian friend Giulia came over and we got ready together for the discoteca on Saturday night. The disco was so much fun, I love them so much! On Sunday my family and I went out for lunch with my host dads side of the family for a Christmas meal. The restaurant was really nice and served the best food ever. They just brought out plate after plate of food. We literally had like 6 antipasta's, 2 different kinds of pastas, fish, meat, salad, bread, deserts and everything imaginable. The waiter's just kept bring out more and more food and I kept thinking that we were finished. Everyone was laughing at me because I was like "what?! more food!?" my host aunt went to New Jersey for a year when she was my age and she gained like 30 pounds in one month.. so she kept shoving food on my plate and telling me to eat more because I'm only here for a year and have to try everything! The lunch lasted like 4 hours. Then we went back to my host grandparents house and exchanged presents. I felt so bad because my package with all my presents didn't arrive yet so I didn't have anything to give anyone. I wasn't expecting to get any presents either because I've only met this side of my family like once but they gave me a necklace and pair of Scooby Doo slippers which I thought was so sweet! (: On Sunday night I went with my host sister and her boyfriend to their friends house for a Christmas dinner that they do every year. It was so sweet one her friends got me a book about Turin in English & Italian! Then on Monday, Christmas Eve, I woke up at about 1 for lunch. Christmas Eve was pretty relaxing, in the evening I went with Federica to her boyfriends house to give him his present and we walked around Rivoli for a little while. Then at midnight we all went to church in our town for the Christmas mass. It's a tradition, my family goes every year at 12 and always end up falling asleep for a little bit. haha (: After the mass, the church served hot chocolate and everyone gathered around outside the front entrance and wished each other a Buon Natale! (: Then we went home went to sleep and woke up early the next morning to open Christmas presents! I felt really bad because my package didn't arrive on time so I didn't have gifts for everyone :( We're actually still waiting on my package and I reaalllyy hope it gets here soon!! My host family got me really pretty leggings, a sweater and tanktop. I got some pink gloves from Milan and a red bra & underwear set from my host aunt (: I got my little sister Nini the game Just Dance 4 for Wii but I wrapped it like a thousand times with a bunch of different packages so it looked really big & took her forever to unwrap (: After presents we eat breakfast together and watched the top 20 Christmas song countdown on MTV then got ready and went to my aunt Louisa's house for a huge lunch with the entire side of my host mom's family. My host aunts have been preparing this meal since last Saturday! They made home made agnolotti and it was amazing! We also had cow tongue.. I tried it but I didn't like it at all.. hahaha the lunch lasted like 3 or 4 hours because we took breaks in between like each course. It was fun hanging out with all my cute little cousins and stuff. I really feel like I'm part of the family now, I'm not just the awkward random girl anymore. For desert we had panettone cake with this amazing cream that my nonna made. Ahhh heavenly. We returned back home ande everyone took a little nap because we were all so exhausted from eating so much food! Then I skyped with my family back home and I participated in our yearly gift exchange through Skype. hahhaa (: I don't think I was really that homesick this Christmas! Since we ate so much for lunch, we didn't really have dinner, just some cakes, cookies & coffee for dinner. Then after dinner we watched an Italian movie and I actually understood a lot of it! Then yesterday was a pretty lazy day, we all just kinda slept and ate and just relaxed all day! Then today we're off to the Alps until the 30th for skiing! (: My host family has a house up in the mountains! I'm so excited I haven't been skiing in forever.

Oh and I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago I went to Milan with my host mom, aunt, sister, cousin & my aunt's friend! My cousin and I got to skip school for a day to go (: It was so much fun! I didn't buy anything though cause we mainly just looked at all the really expensive shops like Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana. It was a nice trip! I really liked Milan and I hope we can visit again!

Okay well that's all for now, we're leaving for the mountains now! I'm gonna finish with a bunch of pictures from the past couple of weeks now! (:

Federica wrote this hahhaa 
The xmas tree in Porta Nuova is covered with letters to Santa! (:
So grateful for all my amazing presents from my family & friends in Italy! 
Last day of school festa! 
mmm Christmas cupcakes! 
Ice skating in Torino! 
My cute little cousins on Christmas!
Christmas!
My crazy loud Italian family during our Christmas lunch  
The cow tongue.....
Our Christmas tree!
Federica! 
3F my class!
First snow! 
The village of babbo natale in Rivoli!
Babbo natale!



MILANO!
















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