sick.

ciao everyone!
i went to upload more pictures because i am being harrassed now by everyone for them. well i forgot to put them on the stick, so you will just have to wait some more.
i got sick and didn't go to school today. tomorrow i have to though. ugh.
i am feeling a little better.
i miss you guys.
oh and to riccardo stewart...if you even read this.
i listened to matt chandler today...i couldn't stop listening after just one, i listened to 6....he is amazing!!!
makes me really have a fire for God. :)
it had been very helpful.
i love everyone!!!
bacio.

title: Carnival

Blog:

Today is Febuary 19th 2010 and i am writing from my schools computer. at my school we don't have good internet, everything is blocked except google so....my parents will be updating my blog for me...thank you mom&dad.

My week started slowly...i had 3 days off of school, monday, tuesday, and wednesday, for a carnival thing. i guess it is like a holiday here. but only some schools got it off...lucky me.

Monday:i sat around and literally didn't even change clothes. it was nice just to relax.

Tuesday:i knew i was going to be able to get internet so i loaded photos and videos onto my memory sticks. i had recorded 2 videos, one for the parents and everyone, it was a pretty good blog i guess and that i was eleven minutes long and another video for maddy which was nine minutes long. After waking up, taking a nice long shower, curling my hair, and having lunch, Giada and i went for a walk. we walked about 2 km...or 1.2 miles, to Mont Buia. Mont Buia was high on top of a hill so that the whole city of only 6000 people could be seen...the hill wasn't that high...anyways, we walked around and took many pictures, it was so beautiful. That day it was sunny and clear, great for pictures. We came home just around sunsent and relaxed. Laura, my host mom, came home and told me to get ready to leave...we were getting internet. We ended up going to this laundry place and i used a computer there. I was planning on updating my blog with the video, but it was taking for ever and pretty soon we had to go. I got on facebook and recorded a video right there that was about six minutes long and hit share...it didn't work...there was an error. now Laura was waiting for me so i had to record another one really fast. It was only about a minute, and the main topic was that i would be back on facebook and skype on saturday. i talked to my dad for a second and that was really nice. i also got Quinn's number and Liz's number, both girls from America who are within a short train distance from me. We also had become good friends while in New York and Rome. i got off and headed home. We had dinner and went to sleep.

Wednesday: i woke up early because we had to go to the police station today...something to do with my visa. i couldn't understand anything so i just had to guess. After we were done there, Laura drove me and Giada to the center of Udine and dropped us off. We got to walk all around and shop and see Udine. It is beautiful. Everything was great...except...the shoes. For some reason Giada had told me that we would dress up, so i wore jeans and my cowboy boots which have a bit of a heal and she wore my black boots with an even higher heal with jeans. it was all fine at first, but after awhile both our feet were aching. We stopped and got some drinks...i don't even know the name. Giada ordered them for us...i guess they are really popular and that the only thing you get when you go to that bar. We sat outside and sipped our drinks. The drinks were a mix of wine, im guessing white wine, orange juice, and...im not sure. it was okay, but i didn't like the strong alcohal taste. i had about 4 sips and then stopped. Giada had finished hers, so i switched, making it look like i enjoyed mine very much, and gave her mine. After that we got pizza and water, which i prefered much more. we continued to shop around...mainly looking since everything was so expensive. we were there from ten in the morning until three when we met one of Giada's friends. We again went to a bar and got drinks, i didn't order this time though. After that we walked to this building and went inside. we walked up the stairs and entered into a tatoo parlor. Her friend was planning on getting one. from there we split up and Giada and i headed towards the train station. We got there just in time and borded our train at 17.05...or 5:05. we got off the train at 5:30 and waited for Laura. The bad thing was, Laura wasn't picking up. we were about a 20 minute drive from home...way to far to walk. Finally we got a hold of Gelindo, my host dad, and he came and picked us up. he got there around 6:45. we went home and had dinner.

Thursday: we had school, except i had a little stomach ache and Giada had a pounding headache. She wasn't going to school and said i didn't have to either...yay. we slept in and relaxed. I took a shower around 11:15 and half blowdryed my hair. i only do half since here they don't like wet hair and expect you to have dry hair, but i don't like my hair when its blowdryed, so i do it half so the rest can dry naturally and curl a little. After that we had chores. i ironed....i hate ironing. i don't really feel the need to iron five year old's sweat pants...but oh well, when i go back home, i will be an amazing ironer. we had lunch and watched animal planet...animal cops phoenix :) Dinner finally arrived, but i wasn't feeling great. it was mushroom soup, which was good, but i just wasn't hungry. and like you could have guessed, they kept telling my to eat eat eat. and they kept offering my more and more food. we finished around eight and i decided to give my stomach a good sleep and went to bed.

Friday: We are here at school, however, we missed the bus this morning so we had to catch the next one, making us late. Along with being late, we had to walk for about 30 minutes once we got off the bus, just to get to the school. all because, we slept in until 6:30. that is waking up early for me normally in arizona. We arrived at school at 8:40 instead of 8:00 and headed to our first class...computers.

Every night i have been writing down a description of what i do and how i feel, it helps me express my feelings, since the language barrier doesn't allow that. i am getting better at italian...still not great though.

Saturaday i will be back to the laundry place for internet. i will have a few more pictures by then...maybe, but i still will only give a sneak peak and not all the pictures.

This has been crazy amazing and it still feels unreal.

i love and miss you all!

baci baci,

(kiss kiss)

Sarah.

again.

okay so it changed.
mom&dad: saturday at 9am for you guys i will be back on. i don't know it that is the permanant day...but we can start with that.

everyone else. i don't have time to update the blog right now...but i will udate it saturday with pictures and videos.

there is a short video on my facebook and a few pictures. check it you.
love you!!!

sorry.

its been awhile since i have updated my blog...sorry. i went to buy internet and it was going to be 25€ a month plus 99€ to start...wayyyyy to expensive. i found a laudry place that its only 15€ a month so i am going to do that.

parents: i don't know about skype. i am thinking for maybe tuesday nights...well morning for you. it just depends when they can drive me here. i will ask them and next time i am here, i will let you know :)

everyone: i have many pictures but i will only upload a few...just a sneak peak.
i do have a video too with more information on my facebook.

i love you!!

here at last.

so...i made it. sorry for the delay. at my house, i have no internet so i haven't been able to update this. i have been in italy since friday. when i got to italy, i was in rome. it was so pretty, a little cold, but nothing to what i am dealing with now. we did many orientations to learn italian and to understand what we were about to go through. while in rome they took us to the vatican city. it was gorgeous!!! i have never seen so many old statues, paintings, words, and walls. it was absolutely amazing. we had to wait in line to go into the vatican and i had a little scare. right before i walked through the doors, my battery died on my camera. luckily i planned ahead and brought the extra battery that was fully charged. when we were walking around in the vatican city it began to rain. it was so nice. it was bright and sunny with huge rain drops. we left there about 2 hours later and went back to our hotel. we had to get ready to leave, because on sunday we would leave to see our families. sunday afternoon arrived very quickly. i left rome to go to my host family. while in the airport, there were 3 other girls who were going to their families, we were friends and hung out together. we had split up when one of the girls came back and told us her gate had changed. so quickly i had to run to a different gate. once there, i began to get nervous...i was scheduled to leave at 4:45..it was now 5. then 5:15 and then 5:30. my plane was late. also i was at a weird gate. instead of going through the walk way thingy, we got onto a bus and then just walking up the steps onto the plane. it was cool...but way different. we finally took off around 6:15. about 45 minutes later i landed. i just followed the crowd inside and waited for my bag. once i got it i had no idea where to go. the afs people never told us exactly where we were to meet our families. i just headed for the exit. luckily for me, they were right on the other side. i was excited and scared and hyper and tired all at the same time. we piled into the car and headed home. it was a verrrrrrry long drive. very quiet drive. Giada, my sister is the only one that speaks enough english to talk to. My parents, Gelindo and Laura, they just talk to me in italian, get my confused face, and try to change to english. it is very confusing. they let me relax at home for 2 days before i had to go to school on wednesday. i live in Buia. it is very small and right next to Udine. it is all soooo pretty. the alps are my backyard. it is very cold. around 2 degrees celcius daily...all day. the alps are so pretty and covered with snow. there is snow on the ground in some spots...but not all. i have now experienced school. wednesday was my first day and very intimidating. everyone wanted to know about obama and how old i was and where i am from and what music i listen to(which, by the way, is the same stuff i listen to...weird) and if i have family and if i smoke or drink. everyone here smokes...i mean like the 13 year old boys and girls. its crazy. i can't even count the number of times i have been offered one. in school, the classes have about 20 people in them. and instead of the students switching from class to class, the teachers switch and the students stay in the same room. its nice. i have 9 boys and 10 girls. there is only one black person, a boy. he is funny. he asked me if there are black people in arizona, it made me laugh. they always use what they know about america to see if its the same. unfortunately most of what they know is just from tv, from shows like the secret life of the american teenager and gossip girl and the fast and the furious. its totally not true. ahah. today at school my class had a special class day, so i instead, spent one hour in another english class with my english teacher and the rest of the time in the computer lab. the english class that i went to was filled with younger kids. they were very excited to see me and talk to me. one boy who was very talkative invited me to a disco, club, on saturday for another girl in the class's birthday. ha. i said i would ask. its all been so different, but so fun. i miss everyone and am getting a little homesick, but i try not to think about that. i still feel like this is a dream. i love everyone!
ciao.
lizzie.