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.