last day.

once upon a time:

wow. this is it. this is the LAST DAY. like i remember when i was in the single digits, but it was for how many days i had been here. i still remember playing "speed" in the airport with dawanna, lily, and elizabeth waiting for our planes back in January. this has gone by so fast. i wish i could have a lady from the court who could type all that i was thinking really fast so i would always have it on file. my stomach is queasy and my throat is sore. its like half of my body is telling me, "don't go, sarah, you have made so many new friends and seen such amazing architecture and people. you know you will miss simply waking up with the alps in view and wine vineyards everywhere!" and the other half is saying, "OMG! in two days you get to hug mom and dad, not blowing kisses over skype, but feeling them embrace you and smelling their comforting smell. you get to show them and madd and kayla and everyone else, the little things you got them that you know will make them smile. what a story you have to share!". my goodness the different emotions that are running through me are unexplainable. oh how i will miss all my new friends here, it is sad having to say goodbye, knowing that we are all going on with the same experience and now are going to live our lives back in our normal habitats. crazy....

tomorrow i leave in the morning around 7 and catch a train close to Lignano. we stop to pick up more people in Venice and then head towards Rome, picking up more and more students at each stop. we get to Rome aroun 3:30 and we have the night to hang out, maybe do a few activities, and to enjoy the last night with all our new friends :) && ): Friday morning we leave for the airport and the americans take off just before 7 am. we land in New York at about 1 pm and all go our separate ways. I head to my gate and at 4 o'clock i leave for Arizona. i get to Arizona at 6:56 and all the whole trip right then, becomes just a memory. how quickly all this is happeneing. this time tomorrow, i will be almost to Arizona :( && :) ahhh.

how fast this went by.

then end:

ciao ciao
ti voglio bene
sarah.

Venezia

so wednesday morning started with me hopping on the train to Venezia. i was meeting Claire (Australian friend) and Avio (american friend) and we were gonna just spend the day there. we met around 10 and headed first towards the little venders. i needed to buy some gifts for my family and friends so i figured i would buy them before i wpent my money and then was unable to. well anyways. we made our way to this huge market. there was fish and shrimp and clambs and everything you could think of. it looked so....well raw and smelled pretty good, but i bet if you added some of that sward fish and a really great italian cook then you could get some amazing food. along with the fish part, was the fruit and vegetables where we bought some figs and cherries to munch on and the meat station, which included chickens who still had their heads and horse meat...yumm. anyways. we walked around and soon decided to get pizza. i have become some accustomed to pizza that the size or taste doesn't surprise me anymore...but holy moley. this tiem i was take aback. the pizza was 4 euro for once slice. but its totally understandable. they were the biggest pieces of pizza i've ever had. not only was it huge...but it was thick too, where are most of the italian pizza is thin. it was soo intense. i think it took me a good 20 minutes to eat. it was covered in artichoke, mushroom, and proscciutto. delicious!!! well after that we found a nice little spot to sit and we just talked and ate our cherries. at 3 we headed back to our cities. i got on my train and arrived back in Udine after another successful day in Venezia.

gotta love italy :)

ciao mandi

sarah.

.......can't think of a good title.

how my emotions have changed. i wanted so much to leave before. but now i am so not ready to leave. the people i have met here really have changed my life. Monique is one of my best friends and its only a matter of days until we are literally on the opposite sides of the earth. talk about separation. i wonder if we will actually stay in close contact with each other. or if we will visit. i sure hope so. i have shared about 89% of my experiences here in italy with her. i only wonder how it would have changed if we hadn't been in the same area. this trip has been the most exciting, surprising, amazing, unforgettable, marvellous, stupendous, spectacular, memorable, crazy, life-changing, awe-inspiring, fabulous, fantastic, outstanding, extraordinary, maturing, eye-opening, wonderful experience i think i will ever get. this has changed who i am and shaped me to be this whole new person. i can't wait for whats to come and how this has grown me for the future. life has a crazy new path ahead of me. i will never forget what astonishing opportunities i have had. whats next :)

25 days :(

ciao. ciao.

sarah.

cambiato

so a lot has happened in the last week. i will start with Verona. we got there after 2 long train rides. we met everyone at the train station in Verona and immidiately started to reconnect. i was able to meet with one of my American friends who i haven't talked to since we split up in Rome back in January. it was so great to be able to talk to her and stuff. so we got our little name tags and i ended up with another Austrailian friend of mine, Claire, while Moni was with Elizabeth (my American friend) and our other American friend, Avio, was on his own. it was pretty much the 5 of us the whole time. we were having so much fun, but i don't think the others likes us that much. the camp was made up of about 89% year students who all spoke really good italian and us "english speakers" were all 6 monthers so we couldn't as well. Avio is a year student though, but he wanted to speak english instead. many of the other 6 monthers were also from South America and other places where the transition from Spanish to Italian was easier than it was form English to Italian. anyways. we still tried italian and when we did the activities with AFS and stuff, it was always in italian. it was at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the free times when we would all be crazy and speaking english. so thursday was filled with activites....the first one which Moni, Liz and i were late to. we were up in the room and didn't know we had to meet. when we were told we ran down, but then moni got a bloody nose so we had to go back up to the room so that she could get some tissues and stuff. that kinda made the AFS people mad. everyone was waiting and when we got there, they made us to 10 squats in fron of everyone since we were late....yah it was great. lets see. Friday we had more activities and we played soccer and football and yah. that night i talked with one of the AFS ladies about my family. for awhile i had been unhappy at the house. i guess so were they, they had called the local chapter lady with AFS and said they wanted me to switch. it was pretty saddening. i didn't know they felt that way either. so yah. the camp was filled with more activities and then sunday we headed home. yesterday was monday. i had packed most everything on sunday night and just finished monday. i realized how truely bad it was when my host mom didn't plan on coming home to even say goodbye, but instead leave a note that said to clean the bathroom and stuff and to leave my keys and have a good trip. unfortunately for her, Giada needed to go to her driving class so she had to come home. she came up to me and shook my hand and then left me to wait for my new mom. i was an emotional wreck. i had talked to mom and was in tears and i was wondering if i had done something wrong and if i could fix it. finally my new mom came. i was so expecting to cry again, but she actually made me feel a lot better. she told me we lived right inside the center of Udine so i can go out whenever i want and do whatever. i now have a 19 year old brother(i have met him before because he is one of the liaisons of the other students...he's pretty cool) a 16 year old brother and a 12 year old sister(who i get to share the room with). i got there and it was just me and my mom. and i have internet!!! yay like i have wifi on my computer so now i can skype which again made me feel even better. i unpacked...blahhh...and then got on facebook. i talked to maddy and checked my facebook. then everyone came home. i watched as the dad set the table (a first for me here) and then sat down and ate. it was pretty good. The dad actually talked...like he would join me in the conversation when they wanted my opinion. after dinner the mom cleaned the kitchen after i asked if she needed help, i was told to go upstairs ahah. well then i checked some more facebook and got ready for bed. today i woke up at like 7 and got a ride to school. so much different than how it was before. i already feel more comfortable. its great. so anyways. life is good. i am planning a beach party with the "english speakers" sometime kinda as a going away party. it should be fun. and as far as i am concerned. the switch was the best choice i have made :)

la vita è grande

ciao ciao. bacio
sarah.

38?

so the days are slipping by. but not without a fight. mike was here last week. it was great. we went to Venice and Trieste. we visited my school for a little bit and definitely road the bus a lot. we played Uno with Giada and Daniel and watched movies on his computer. the week went by so fast. and unfortunately i had to say goodbye to him at the train station yesterday. Verona on Thursday :) talk to you soon.
ciao ciao.
lizzie.

days.

its weird to think we only have a few weeks left. i have definitely had a rough time, but i am so used to it now. i don't think i am ready to leave. just a short update. few things that struck me this week.

1. it was raining and there was about a 65 year old man riding is bike through the town wearing a suit and tie while smoking a cigar...does it get more cute than that?
2. i bluetoothed "somewhere over the rainbow" by IZ onto my phone and now listen to it on replay.
3. my hair is pretty long....finally i can say long and not just medium, but with that, the tips all are blonde...weird.
4. learned to make an italian strudel by my italian grandmother. crazy && oh so delicious.

miss you and love you all.
ciao ciao.
sarah.

spring.

spring is here. it is definitely here && i love it. the weather is about 60 in the morning and around 75 or 80 in the day. its amazing. in the front of my house, there has been a dead peach tree sitting there this whole time i've been here. well we were gone for the past four days and when we came back last night, it was covered in bright purple blooms. even if i hadn't seen that, it just smells like spring.

so last wednesday i went to Verona with my class. it was so pretty. i got to see an old coluseum that Alicia Keys is having a concert in soon and also Romeo and Juliet's houses. pretty crazy.

thursday to sunday, i spent in Cavallino. Its a small beach village close to venice. it was a little cold and rainy for most of the trip, but yesterday it was amazing. we even got our swim suits out. now i have a nice red back. ahah. hopefully it turns to tan. but anyways, it was amazing. we went there for a church camp kind of thing. i wasn't told until we were there. my family here is catholic and they didn't understand that i wasn't catholic, but christian. they just kept thinking the same thing. after this trip they finally understood. i had my bible out and we were talking and i explained that we don't pray to la madonna or the saints, but only God. so now they understand. its good now. ahah.

well the bell just rang. means i have italian for 2 hours now!!! wooo. ahah. well love you and miss you all!

ciao ciao.
sarah.