April and Florence!

****Sorry! I've been really busy here, but I'm really am going to try and write more often. I'll finish up my wedding story and more of may in the next post, which will hopefully come soon! And pictures too! I felt I owed you all some of the blog...so, here's half. I started writing it back in the beginning of April!****


Hi everyone! Spring is here in Italy (well, most days) and school is almost out! April was pretty nice...in the beginning things were a bit rough with my host family. But I really don't like dwelling on it, and with some timely AFS intervention, things have worked out for the most part. Easter was fun, even though my family is prety laid back, so we didn't do much. I was able to talk to my Nana and Papa, along with Aunt Sherri, Jennifer, Aliesha, Reed, Kayla and Layla. Spent some time bonding with my brother during boring easter vacaton days...and Claudia dragged me off to the beach twice that week (I have now been to the beach 3 times this month for sun bathing!) And, no, I'm not any tanner. But I haven't gotten burnt once, yes! Sorry, that was a bit random....

Florence - April 21st - 24th

Well, 2 weeks ago, I went to Florence with another class of mine (not Claudia's, but a 2nd years!) It was a lot of fun...though unfortuantley I didn't learn much of the historical parts. The trip was basically based around haveing fun, not really going into depth about the history. We just shopped a lot, saw stautes and churches...and of course we walked the city a million times! It's such a beautiful city! I really enjoyed the company of the classes too...many didn't speak very much english, and so it forced me to use my Italian more, which was helpful. Except when they wanted English lessons! A lot of the guys would ask me to teach them bad words...except when they used used them out of context! (I taught them shit, so they would scream at randon intervals, "you shit!" to someone=)) In turn, they taught me how to say things in Italian (I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure they were variations of penis) then have me repeat them, and laugh. Haha, I did have fun...they were younger, around 14 and 15, but they seemed to enjoy life more, not worried about acting sophisticated all the time. I bought a nice shirt for my dad (not going to say what it looks like, because I would completely ruin the surprise. And i do that enough of the time!), bought some postcards with beautiful pictures of the city (Nana and papa, melissa and grandma, you will all be getting a postcard from Vico and Florence in the mail!!) and I bought a Godfather t-shirt for me....it's awesome and I couldn't resist it! I'm not wearing it in italy though; they are not to fond of the reputation the godfather has caused. But, i assure you, it's an awesome shirt=)) Florence is beautiful....it's really what you imagine an italian city to look like...the perfect italian city. The kids finally convinced the teachers to go to a disco while were here. i know the word "disco" sounds weird, but it's really a club. Most people don't go until they are older, like 17, 18 years old. it was alright...the music was bad, but it was fun being with the everyone. Unfortuantly the girls all thought I was a freak. I had NO idea when i was packing for the 4 day trip to Florence that I would need high heels or nicer clothing. But everyday when we went out for dinner the girls dressed up...Claudia assured me when i got back home that this is the way it always is. Oops. So i partied in my boots=)) That was all that happened in Florence...it was a lot of fun!!

Wedding in Rome - May 10th

Claudia, Antonio (her boyfriend of one year) and I went to Rome for her cousin's wedding. The train trips to Naples, and then to Rome, were long, but Claudia and Anotnio were fun to talk to. We stayed with Claudia's dad, who I've meet once before, and his wife. I was very nervous about meeting Claudia's family, but they were very sweet and really nice.*****