 So it has been a magical month. Some parts more like the scary
dark magic in Harry Potter as opposed to the happy Unicorn magic. But magical
nonetheless. When I first stepped foot off my plane I knew I was in Italy, in
good part because it wouldn't have really made sense if I wasn't. However the
security guard who escorted me to my luggage and then to the interrogation room
was speaking Italian, another giveaway. So after having all my bags searched, I
was free to go. As I walked down the hallway my heart was racing as I neared the
door into the lobby. I had memorized my greetings in Italian, and now I would
finally get to use them! The door opened and there was my family with my little
host brother holding a sign with my name on, very cute. I dragged my bags over to
them with a huge smile, and then it happened. I forgot my Italian greetings, and
ended up choking out a raspy "Ciao! "
But of course they still smiled, and greeted me in turn
and motioned towards the door. Just in my brief greetings with them, I had a
feeling I would like them. Then we walked out into the sun, all the golden
pins on my Rotary jacket sparkling like... well, much like gold. And here,
standing in the sun, is where I realized, Sardegna was a very hot place.
Then we loaded up into their SUV, which here is pronounced "soov" and rode
off into the horizon.
When we finally reached home after a decently long drive,
I was surprised to see that we had driven past the apartments and then down
a road, and the houses kept getting further apart, as well as bigger, and
then we turned into my driveway. Our lovely 2 story villa with a pool and a
tennis court. Not what I expected. Then my host brother Enrico and my host
father Antonio helped me move my 2 bags from the car, and up into my room.
Formerly my sister's room, but she is in America as a Rotary exchange
student. It was wonderful, the walls were painted a soft shade of pink, that
allowed them to match almost every other aspect of my pink room. On my wall
hung a large poster of Leonardo DeCaprio? It already felt like home.
Later on that night, I learned another important lesson.
Italian eat A LOT, or at least a lot more than I was used to. I couldn't
even eat half, and then there was 2 courses still left. It goes something
like, Pasta, Meat, Salad, and then fruit or ice cream. The ice cream, or
gelato, here is much better, but alas no cookies and cream. Then I crawled
up the stairs to my room, and let my jet lag sleep itself away :] On a side
note, I think I handled jet lag quite well considering, I'm no world
traveler, in fact, this is my first time outside of the continental US. But
since then I have grown accustomed to my large meals, sometimes even taking
seconds. I'm sure I'm putting on the pounds, but my scale is broken, it says
I weigh like 64 pounds.. how ridiculous. Heh, only kidding, I understand the
concept of kilograms. But the scale is still broken.
In the last month, I have already been to my city mall,
which happens to have Sassari's one and only fast food restaurant,
McDonalds! I still haven't eaten there yet, I'm waiting for the homesickness
to kick in before I go down and order some fries though. I have also gotten
to go the beautiful Stintino Bay Beach, which sadly, is much more betterer
than the beaches in Florida. AND! Sardegna had all it sharks hunted to
extinction, sooo, there are no sharks in the water. It has got to be the
safest I have ever felt swimming in the ocean. Though, there is a strong
possibility that they only told me there was no sharks to get me out of the
boat. Then, sadly my host brother had to leave for a month long work program
in France. So I had lost my Italian English helper ;[ because with the basic
language I had, I could pass for a read up tourist, but I still can't hold a
conversation in Italian. So for a while it was really hard to relay
difficult, and in some cases easy questions to my host parents. But they
still showed me around, taking me to the ancient fortified city of Alghero,
and then their family cabin up in the mountains to check on their mushrooms
;D
Then I started school. The first day went pretty well,
everyone was nice, and there was even another exchange student in my class
from California. Which considering there are only 18 people in my class, the
odds of that would seem very low. So I started making friends with people
who sat around me, which is still hard because, Italian to me is still a
different language, and it is certainly a lot more difficult than I
imagined, but less difficult than German or Japanese, and I thank Rotary
very much for seeing it fit to send me to Italy instead!
Oi! There I go getting side tracked again. Well things
have been great, my host sister ended up coming home from America, things
there didn't work out so well. But it's kind of turned into a blessing for
me, because she speaks really good English, but still does her best to make
me speak in Italian all the time, and she drives me lots of places on her
moped. Which leads us to the most important thing, Mopeds, I love them. When
I get home I must buy one. I don't know how I have lived in such ignorance
of them in America. But no longer! I have become an advocate of their
awesomeness.
Other important things.. School is very different and very
boring. I'm glad in a way that I stay in the same class all day, because not
only does it save me from being constantly lost in between classes, but I
get to become closer with all the students in my class. On the other hand,
it does get boring sitting in the same chair all day, and I'm in a lot of
advanced classes, and I don't get to meet as many people as I would if I was
always in class with different people. But I'm still quite happy. Also I am
taking Italian night classes, which are even more boring, but twice as
useful. I walk a lot, I would guess around 3 miles on the average day. I
like it.
Italy is great, and I really love it here, and I love my
family here. Oh and remember how I said I walked a lot? Well some days I
walk a lot more than others... and by that I mean I get lost. Not like "oh
wrong street lost," but like "3 hours later I end up on the other side of
town without a cell phone yet, kind of lost." But, I do get to see lots of
the city, and I have only gotten badly lost 5 or 6 times.. and I have been
accident free for almost a week now. This is good.
I cant wait to experience more and more wonderful things,
and have my language skills grow, and make lots of new friends! Thank you
Rotary!
My classroom |
My school protesting |
Piaza Italia -
the place to be |
My sweet new scarf |
|
Timothy "Tim" Rushing
