Another week.....

So a week has offically gone by since my last post, and I thought you all might like another! My schedule hasn't changed much...each day Claudia and I wake up at 6:30 and get ready for school. I take a shower everyday, something that Italians really don't do. Claudia and Mariannna only wash their hair once a week, in fact tonight Marianna tried to convince me to stop washing my hair everyday (it's actually very good for you not to wash your hair everyday. The natural oil is good for your hair, but my hair gets very oily, very fast and I always feel really dirty when I don't wash every day.) But the showers every morning are horrible...the warm water runs out after 5 minutes, so I have to shampoo and condition very faster before it gets cold. I can towel dry my hair, and it takes only half an hour to completely dry naturally...which is nice. But it is frezing here. FREEZING! My family doesn't have a very insullated house, with wood floors and no rugs makes for a very cold morning. And the window in the bathroom I use doesn't lock, so if the wind is strong, it blows open. It's cold here all the time....and the wind! Oh, most of the cold is probably wind chill. Anyways, after getting ready we eat breakfast...nothing very Italian, yogurt, nutrition bars and these weird, but delicious biscuits. I've actually taken to drinking this Peppermint tea with sugar in the morning and...Mom, Dad you guys will never believe this, but coffee. Not so much the Italian espresso, but caffe americano con lette e zucchero (which is American coffee with milk and sugar). I actually like it...and it's warm=)) Then Claudia and I hurry (sometimes run if we are REALLY late) to catch the train because we are usually behind schedule. We meet Claudia's friends at the train station, usually only 2 or 3, and her boyfriend, Antonio. He is nice, but he doesn't speak any English and he speaks a lot in dialect, which I don't understand any of. Claudia's grandpa speaks only in dialect too and he's determined to have Claudia teach me, but I think I need to learn Italian first=)) We get to Castellammare and walk to school (I was so proud of myself the other day when I walked from school to the train station in Castellammare and took the train home, then walked home...all without Claudia. She had to stay after school for 5 hours. I remembered the way, got my ticket and got on the right train! It was exciting. And now I can navigate most of Vico on my own too!) After school Marianna picks us up at school and takes us to Titos for lunch. Claudia's uncle and aunt own it with Marianna and they all work there...they are both very nice. Whenever they see my at lunch or at night, if we go in, they usually automatically bring me a coke...except sometimes I drink coffee or beer (last night I had my first Italian beer and I didn't really like it that much, but Claudia told me that there's some other that I might like. Mom, I fill up a little glass, I don't drink very much at all. It's ok.) Last night I bought my first cigarettes (sp?) too..they were for Marianna and Claudia's uncle (who's name is Benji, not Tito...I'll explain that name later.) We go home and Claudia studies for hours and then sometimes we go to the gym or walk around Vico. Laely it's been to cold. I promise to get pictures up as soon as I buy batteries for my camera.

School...ahh. Some more negative and depressive people that I know might call it hell, but I only call it that sometimes=)) Sometimes I am very happy and sometimes I feel like crying or screaming. Italians are very friendly people, you say hello to everyone and give everyone hugs and kisses, it's nice. Very intimate and friendly, like they really care about you. But the other day was not one of those days....first the German teacher decided that he wanted the new American foriegn exchange student, who doesn't even understand most Italian, to learn German. And not just start learning German, but catch up on the 4 months of German the class had already learned. I almost lost my head....I don't cuss. People who know me, know that if I do, it's because I mean it....Ilze could only stare at me when we got out of class that day. I think my Facebook comment line that day was "WTF!", I was so mad! I have to translate the textbook from German to Italian with the German-Italian dictionary, turn around and translate from Italian to English with the Italian-English dictionary. There's something wrong with that picture. But that's life, and I....am studying German. Oh, but that's not it....the Math teacher decided that even though I don't understnad any of the math, I am taking tests with the rest of the class....Argh!! That was a bad day. Actually bad is an understatement.

Yesterday was better. We had P.E...it's nice. I like to play different sports when I'm not forced to run and do structured things. These classes are a joke. This lesson, the teacher sits in the corner, 5 kids surround a ping pong table and the others sit and talk...that's it. Sometimes kids play volleyball, but they really aren't very good. They slap with an open hand and it's pretty bad. Ilze doesn't like to do anything...so I found a basketball and started shooting by myself. It felt great....at home I shoot hoops when I feel lonely or just need to think and it felt like my little bit of home. I was all by myself, for some reason nobody plays much basketball here, for awhile, but after an hour two boys who were playing handball joined me. It was nice to just shoot and not have to talk...although I was better than them. They weren't very good, and seem pretty surprised when I made shots they couldn't make=)) And I'm not very good at basketball. So new friends...I even saw one of them in the hall later that day and said hello! Yay for friends=))

Oh it was funny, there's this Italian boy who went on a foreign exchange trip to Alaska last year and I met him the other day. Now anyone who speaks english here doesn't speak very good English and they have that Italian (or in Ilze's case, Lativian) accent. So when this guy started speaking English with an American accent and American slang, I felt like hugging him! I was so happy! Hopefully I get to talk to him more=))

Oh and I know someone is going to ask me this question sometime...the guys here are not that cute. Sorry, the stereotype is wrong. And maybe it's just me, but they all look alike. Tall, dark hair, tan, scooters and leather jackets...all the same. Some are cute, but I personally prefer American guys. There's my 2 cents and now no one has to worry about my runing off with some Italian guy. (First of all, I would walk away with them, not even to trust getting in the car. Claudia's friend's boyfriend who took us to the party on Friday was a good driver, but I don't trust any of these other guys...no way am I hopping onto a scooter!) I've got some friends willing to take pcitures though for Rachel and Nicole...I'll get them to them for the AVID DBACK)

Tomorrow's Valentine's Day! Hmm...does anyone have any questions for me? I promise I'll get pictures up for everyone soon! Miss you all and have a fantastic Valentine's Day! Oh and they don't have bagels here! -K

***This doesn't have spell check...sorry if things are misspelled****