Buon Natale!

Christmas Time is my favorite time of the year!! Besides the fact that Im Jewish and I don't even celebrate the holiday, the atmosphere is always so loving and fun and warm!! People get super excited for Christmas Here! My other host family started decorating their house at the end of November for Christmas, maybe even before that It seems like!!

I am actually pretty excited to finally celebrate christmas for the first time!! I have already helped decorate 2 christmas trees!! Its so much fun! And also my other favorite activity to do is eat the amazing Christmas time sweets. In Milan one of their signature deserts which almost every eats during this time is Pandoro, or Panatone, it is special for Milan and its basically this huge volcano shaped cake bigger than the size of my head! And the Pandoro is with out stuff inside like just plain and the other one has raisens or chocolate chips. They come in a huge bag and what you do is open the bag pour a huge thing of powdery goodness on top and then shake the bag as hard as you can so its all over the cake mmmm is sooo good!! Its so biggg gah I want to go eat it right now im getting so hungry writing this! Moving on... So, December 13th is a holiday is certain parts of Italy called Santa' Lucia, in Milano they don't celebrate this but specifically in Brescia they do! So, all or atleast most of the kids from AFS in Lombardia all met in Brescia for this holiday and celebrated it!! Basically for the places in Italy where they celebrate this they get all their christmas presents the 13th, and also lots of candy! And then when its christmas they still celebrate it normally but without getting the gifts on Christmas day! So, when we got to Brescia all of us kids got different costumes in the Christmas theme and dressed up to be in a parade around Brescia! I was an elf! there was also, santa clauses, lumberjacks, angels, mooses, and one girl was santa lucia! After taking many pictures we went around in a huge long line and paraded around the center of Brescia. Since I was an elf I got to be in the front of the line and helped giving out candy to everyone we passed and saying "caramellle? Buon Natale! Auguri!" It was fun! Every few minutes we would then all stop in one spot and start christmas caroling, basically singing, jingle bells, we wish you a merry christmas, ect. Unfortunatley, we had no practice, and half of us didnt know the words to any song!! I felt bad for all the public gathering around us hoping for this like professional choir and we sucked it was hilarious at one point of the volunteers made me go in the front of all 50 of us and help him sing "all I want for christmas is you" which about 5 people knew the words to so that was a fail! At the end of our little parade we actually came across like a marching band so we joined them and as they played we would sing which I think boosted our amount of goodness with them in the background! Also, it was SOOO cold outside! But overall it was a super fun day and at the end we all went and got yummy hot chocolate! By the way, Hot Chocolate in Italy is NOT equal to american, it is like super thick and kindof like hot fudge syrup but its amazing! Esp when you get it with gelato in the inside!! YUMMM Food here is amazinggggggg!

Lets see, hmm well AFS Monza had a christmas Party on Friday night and we all had to bring food so I brought my signature cookie cake and also I made this amazing mexican dip thing which everyone loved!! Unfortunatley the cookie cakes I keep making suck!! I made 2 cookie cakes because I had to bring one into my school christmas party the next day and both of them had way too much butter in them!! Oh well they were still rly good! Sooo hmm yah my school xmas party was about 4 hours long! During the morning of saturday which was our last day! There was soo much food! And also something that would never happen in the US, 2 bottles of champagne which we were drinking in school at our party and also beer, this is so funny for me because this would NEVER happen in the us but hey when in Rome... anyways, I am so excited for this winter break and to celebrate xmas for the first time! Tomorrow I am going to venice and verona with Jasmine and its freezing, snowy and all the water in venice is super high so its gonna be crazy! Ill be sure to write about that!

XOXO Mollie

La Scuola Italiana

Ciao Tutti!

Today is December 9th meaning I have officially not been in the United States for exactly 3 months today. It is seriously crazy to think that it has already been 3 months because it went by super fast and so many things have happened in such little time!! Recently some fun things I have done include, changing families(which is NOT FUN), then since my new host brother is a bycyclist I went to his race in milan which he came in 1st place in all of Lombardia for! He is super good, but hes always working out or doing something for his races everyday its very time consuming, anyways I went to the race in the pouring rain, and I have never been so muddy and wet in my entire life! It was also interesting to watch all the jacked racers getting changed...weirdly enough in the same room as the girl racers in their underwear while rubbing some weird oil all over their bodies and I think I was the only one who though it was a little strange but hey im in italy I guess thats how they do it here no problem there it was a nice show! Anyways, I have been in Milan a lot lately and now they have a huge Christmas Tree in the center of Duomo its soo beautiful!! I love Milan! Sometimes I wish I lived right in the city but im pretty close to it anyways so its not big deal because its not a hard place to get to when I want. I was lucky enough to have this Monday and Tuesday off from school, meaning 1. I got to finally get one nice day of sleep in that I had been waiting for! and 2. Me, Jasmine, her family, and Eva got to go to the Fiera in Milan, there was a HUGE I mean MASSIVE craft shop type thing there it lasts about one week and it has shops from all over the world literally every country, The US section had tons of western cowboy type things that were weird I wasnt impressed but there was sooo much it was so overwhelming! We got there around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and left at 10:30 at night meaning we walked around the whole day in this one place and I didnt even see all of it thats how big it was!!! The picture above me jasmine and Eva took with some random Tiki person we found at the Fiera. NOW moving on to what this entry is actually sopposed to be abouttt!

ITALIAN SCHOOL!! Well lots of you keep asking me about school so I guess I will thoroughly explain or attempt atleast to explain school here. They have 5 years of elementary school, then 3 of middle school and 5 of high school. One thing I find really funny is that in elementary and Preschool here all the kids have to wear the same smock/doctor gown to school everyday which is soo ugly and all the kids look like little ghost children but oh well. For elementary and middle school they usually don't go on saturdays but LUCKY me in Highschool(Liceo) gets to go Saturday morning bright and early yayy! Sooo here the school system is super different from the US in many many ways. Even if I could think of all of them right now it would take forever to write all 10000 of them down so ill skip to the basic ones. Okay, so here when you enter Highschool you choose what kind of school you want to go into based on what you want to do in the future or atleast for the next 5 years, and this school you choose all the subjects are based around it, for example if you choose Liceo Scientifico ( science) you will have lots of science and math classes, or like me Liceo Artistico, I have lots of design classes and not much math or science. I have heard of tons of different highschools they have here such as, Scientifico, Classico( greek, philosophy, latin stuff), Artistico, Sportivo(tons of gym class), Technologico, Economia, Linguistico, Cooking, Farming, Film, and a bunch of random others. Becuase here you cant choose any electives or anything you choose which school you want and they come with I guess you could call them electives but pretty much all classes seem equal to me here in the wanting value of it all. Now, when I say you choose which "school" you want you are choosing the school in the form of study, there isnt actually a school for only science and a different building is an art school they are all in the same building, for example, my school has Scientific-Teconologic, Artistic, Sportivo,and ITIS( another easier form of school kind of science), and thats it. My school doesn't offer Latin to any of the students while most Liceos have it. Also even though im in Liceo Artistico its actually artistico-tecnologico, so a lot of times we have tech classes more than actual art classes. Here instead of saying im in 9th or 10th grade in Highschool well every school here they say im in 1st 2nd 3rd year so technically im in 3rd grade here!! Also here, your classmates stay the same and you never move classrooms you always stay in the same place and the teachers come to you! yay lazyness! Now I am going to write down my schedule and what I do in all my interesting classses!!! I start school at 8:15 and end at 1:45 everyday except wednesday I end at 4.

MONDAY( LUNEDI):

1st hr: Italian Litterature ( studying poems and authors of italy, interpreting latin poems FUN)

2nd hr: Philosophy ( learning ab philosophers! but from a book...lecture style...and not the actual philosophy of it the life of the philosophers)

INTERVALO (1o min break)- during this time everyone goes outside and smokes..even teachers or goes to the bar(cafe) and gets a panino or coffee or hang out in the halls

3rd hour: Math( math is hard in italy! but right now were doing geometry which I did last year so im doing super good)

4th hour: Physics ( I have no idea whats going on in this class its so confusing!!! but somehow im passing! yay being a foreign exchange student)

INTERVALO (10 more mintues)

5th and 6th hour: VISIVA..drawing class( we just did profile designs of faces but now were making collages)

TUESDAY ( MARTEDI):

1st and 2nd hr: Chemistry ( confusing! we take notes, read from our book, pretty similar to science in the US, prob more boring)

INTERVALO

3rd hour: English( were studying shakespear time and also grammar...im failing the shakespear section right now yay!)

4th Hr: History of Art( first I hated this class but now its actually really interesting now that I understand italian and know what my teachers saying)

INTERVALO

5th hour: NOTHING ( my class has religion and I go to the library and go on facebook!)

6th hr: Math (again!)

WEDNESDAY ( MERCOLEDI) (long ass day)

1st and 2nd hr: Italian Litterature

INTERVALO

3rd and 4th hr: Chemistry(for this day I go to prima and I do experiments in the lab with them white lab coat and all)

INTERVALO

5th hr: Math

6th hr: Archetecture ( geometric drawings, drawing floor plans for houses, drawing straight lines with rulers is not something im good at so this class i struggle in also measuring everything using the metric system gets confusing)

INTERVALO

7th and 8th hr: GYM ( only 2 hrs a week, its always entertaining seeing how competitive my class gets over a relay race or a volley ball scrimmage)

THURSDAY(GIOVEDI):

1st and 2nd hour: VISIVA ( more drawingss that I suck at)

INTERVALO

3rd and 4th hour: ARCH ( usually thursday we go to the computer lab with the oldest computers ever and make geometric graphs on the computer or powerpoints fun stuff!)

INTERVALO

5th hr: English

6th hr: Physics

FRIDAY( VEDERDI):

1st hr: Math

2nd hr: ARCH

INTERVALO

3rd and 4th hr: History of ART ( my teachers crazyyyy so my class tends to play this game called Manchuria where we all pick a fruit and randomly during the class ppl will yell out names of fruits and if its ur fruit you have to stand up and then sit down and when they say manchuria we all stand up together weve been playing this almost every friday and it rly never gets old but my teacher is always pissseeeddddd ab it)

INTERVALO

5th hr: History ( we've been studying the reniassance which I learned alot ab last year so when I was interogatted on it I didnt have trouble reciting everything from last yr and getting a passing grade yay)

6th hr: Math

Saturday( SABATO):

1st and 2nd hr: ARCH

INTERVALO

3rd and 4th hr: MATH ( for this math I go to scientifico because theyre doing harder math than artistico that I need to learn for the US)

INTERVALO

5th hr: Italian Litterature

6th hr: English

So in conclusion since one day I was super bored and counted all of this I have exactly:

7hrs of math a week ; 4 hrs of Visiva ; 4 hrs of Chemistry ; 4 hrs of Litterature ; 2 hrs of Physics ; 3 hrs of English ; 3 hrs of History of Art ; 6 hrs of Arch. ; 1 hr of Philosophy ; 1 hr of History ; 2 hrs of Gym...yup thats ab it!!! I really find the schools here way more strict in general, some classes when my teacher walks in we all have to stand up as they enter and we cant sit back down until they do, its very formal. I honestly I written so much I cant feel my fingers so I am going to stop here but I could really keep writing if I wanted to for hours ab school!! Thats all for nowww...CIAOOOOOOOOOOOOO xoxoxo

ALLORA!!!

Well Everyone, I know it has been quite some time since I have updated but I have been feeling really lazy and not in the mood to type out my life on the internet because Id rather just live my life and not have to write it down but I know theres people out there who enjoy reading this so yes I will continue to write on this for yall :)

Lets see, since I last wrote I have had many fun experiences that I seriously cant remember all of them to type right now but I will try and think of the highlights!!!

Okay, First off I went to Venice!!!! It was sooo beautiful even when I was there I didnt feel like I was there because its just so cool! Its a lot more tranquel than the films though with the boat races through the water, nope a lot more calm! I went with AFS meaning 4 volunteers, and 4 of us from the Monza region, minus our Turko because he had already been to venice 4 times and said he had enough of it ! It was about a 4 hour train ride very long and I had to wake up at like 5:30 am to go to the train station in Milan. SO I was super tired! and I had a bad cold but through it all it was a really fun day! I literally think I walked through all of Venice, legit all of it because they showed me on the map and we really did see tons!!! We were also bored so Me, Tohma, Karn and Tomas ( kids from monza) decided to pull a little prank and we convinced the volunteers that Karn and Tohma the most innocent asian kids you will ever meet had broken a rule and gone to a greenday concert in Milan alone! and they totally believed it and were super mad! It was hilarious! and they believed this all day and so at the end of the day I was just like hmm well they already believe this so lets just finish it off with a bang so we added on that they had been driving motorcycles to school and hitchhiking and we just said we broke like every AFS rule possible and the funny part was they believed literally everything actually so much that when we said it was a joke they didnt believe us that it was actually a joke! It was super funny, its only actually really funny because of the people you have to know them to think its funny but they are so innocent and to believe these lies we told is crazy but they did!! oh well sorry aafs :) its just a joke !

Lets see, well we had to say goodbye to Tomas :( Thursday was our last day all together the Monza kids, we all went to our weekly italian lesson together and we had homework to give presentations about cool plases in our home country, I made a superbig poster with my favorite places from the US which included, NYC, Siesta Keys, Palm Springs, Niagara Falls, Chicago and Key largo! I won the poster contest needless to say but I think that was only bc 3 out of 5 of us actually did the homework :) Anyways after we played a bunch of games like pictionary and a quiz game, it was really funny we had to answer questions about another person in the group and I didnt understand one of them where is said number of shoes in italy so I thought like how many pairs they brought with them but it actually meant the shoe size so I wrote 5 and everyone was like pissing their pants but actually 5 is a shoe size in the US but here its all like 39 42 and so no one understood and they were all laughing super hard at this! PS I still dont get the metrics system that much THANKYOU AMERICA FOR BEING DIFFERENT!!!! Euros to dollars, kilos to lbs, celcius to far, kilometers to miles, inches to cm WTF AMERICA! your making me do so much work! all the other exchange students didnt change all this! haha oh well its okay im differnt ! Anyways, after our lesson we went to OFCOURSE the same pizza place we always go to in Monza called Pizzeria Undici (11) we always end up going here I have no idea why but its like our place for AFS I honestly think they should just buy the restaurant it would be cheaper! So we had our final dinner for Tomas which was so sad because he was the only person who actually lived near me that I could hang out with from AFS :( Im gonna miss him! He really didnt want to leave also which suck for him! Oh well, so yah it was also sad because at one point we all yelled DISCORSO DISCORSO DISCORSO which means SPEECH SPEECH and he gave a short but sweet one I actually dont even think I payed attention I was too busy thinking about when I have to do the same when I will be leaving and that just made me sad because I honestly dont want to picture leaving right now! This experience is not ALWAYS the funnest time but when its fun its super fun and when its hard in the end its just worth it everything works out, I really believe that everything happends for a reason and that is why I need this experience to live out the rest of my life and being able to say I learned a new language, emmerced myself in a new culture, made friends, family and was sucessful in a country where I started out knowing no one and speaking bascially 0 of the language, its really rewarding to not only see but feel progress when you make it!

Lets see well this saturday I am switching to my FINAL it better be my final atleast family! wooo I will have 2 host brothers one is 15 and the other 10 they live in a nice house on the other side of the same town I live in now which is good because I can still see my other family which I really like now!!! The kids may be crazy sometimes but I love them! For example, one time they decided to play a game where I have to guess something while being blindfolded so first they put like a fruit in my hand and whatever and then they were like open ur mouth and they put a huge amount of salt in my mouth, it was horrible I think I still have the taste in my mouth to this day!! My little host brother is so cute though we have grown to be great little buds except now he has a new routine of being super annoying everytime I try to do something productive or in general when I watch tv he steals the remote or stands in front of me to make me mad and then when i do homework he loves to find toys and put them down my shirt or pants and then I proceed to take the toy and throw it at him and scream PROVA UNA VOLTA PIU E VEDI QUALCOSA BRUTTO!( try one more time and you see something bad) this is a bad translation and also prob im not even saying this phrase right in italian but it makes sense to me!! anyways, yah he loves putting toy cars down my pants whenever he finds the opportunity when I am laying on his bed Idk why he finds this so funny I certainly dont! but in the end thinking back on it its actually really funny what he does most of the time but not during this time just after let me make that clear!!

Hmm whatelse, well I found a place to dance! I really like it! Its deff different than what im used to and also less amount of dance that I am doing here but obviously I cant expect to dance 4 hours a night like in the USA! So its good for now :) I am also in the musical at my school and dancing and acting in that which is really funny I like it!! The one thing I am getting annoyed about is the fact that my town is far away from my school and a lot of my friends! Noone lives near me that im super good friends with so I am always taking the train somewhere else and having to return early because the trains rarely go to my town at night or in general which SUCKS!

I think I am learning italian fast!!! I really understand so much and I find myself rarely speaking english anymore unless I am with people from intercultura(AFS) which makes me happyyy I also have had some dreams in italian and I find myself waking up and thinking in Italian ...usually thinking that I should wake up and get out of bed but yah woo!

I really dunno what else to write ahh there is too much I could keep writing all day and I would never stop because there is so much to write! anywhooo I will try to update this more for all of you people who are complaining I need to update more! :)


CIAO!

XOXO Mollie

Halloween!

So!! Halloween in Italy turns out to be not such a big deal! Its mainly a holiday for little kids and for the rest of us not very important ! Being so used to such a greatly celebrated Halloween in the US this was weird to find out!!! Anyways, before I get to talking about Halloween I will talk about the highlights of my week prior to Saturday : )





Sooo Tuesday night, Me, Tomas, Tohma and a bunch of Monza volunteers went out for pizza with a girl from Iceland who was in the Monza region 3 years ago and was visiting Italy!! It was really cool to meet someone who had already had this experience in this same region...meaning she knows what its like to live in Monza!! Also, nice to see that she still speaks fluent italian : ) Which I am hoping to be the same by the end! We went to this restaurant that we had already been to before I guess AFS Monza people are usuals there so again we sang kareokee, well actually Fabio sang and made me sing with him, I dont even remember the name of the song but I do remember he knew all of the words to it better than me!!! How sad! Also, there is a new commercial in Italy playing its an AFS commericial and we waited in the restaurant checking the TV every few minutes to see this wonderful advertisement which turns out to be 15 seconds long and not that exciting but it was cool to see an AFS commercial since I have never seen one before in the US!!!





Wednesday!!! I went to a Lily Allen concert with Vale, Katie and Tonje!!! It was sooo much fun, the concert was in a big club in Milan called Alcatraz which is funny because thats actually a prison in the US haha but no here its a fun place to be! So, we had to go early to pick up our tickets and we ended up getting spots really close to the stage which was awesome!! I was so close to her! At one point during the concert I waved to her and she waved back! It was soo cool!!!!!!!! During the concert she would say silly things inbetween songs or just speak about something and obviously I understood but I am pretty sure not many others did! Because living in Italy I have noticed one of their strong points is certainly not english..this is actually good for me because I have no choice but to speak italian many times, but for them not so good. Anyways at one point during the concert me and tonje lost Katie and Val and we were on our way to finding them and I walked in front of some couple and the girl got super mad and she screamed at me " VAI DIETRO" ( go behind) and then she proceeded to shove me back to where I was before and I was so pissed so I said to Tonje pretty loudly " what a little ****** ******* *****" and a few other phrases like that, you get the picture, and anyways at the end of the concert I heard her and her boyfriend speaking english to eacher!!! Turns out she wasnt italian and the rule about bad english didnt apply to her so I wasnt surprised when she was giving me dirty looks since she understood everything I had said about her!!! The one time the language barrier helps, turns out it really doesnt!!!

Comunque, ( anyways) Thursday, I went to my weekly italian lesson with Tohma and Karn! We are now going to a different lesson time than Tomas and Yogi because they are more advanced in Italian than we are : ( After our long and boring 2 hour lesson we stayed for dinner at Silvias house( where we have our lessons) in Monza and she taught us how to make Pasta alla Carbonara which is Pasta with bacon, eggs and cheese on it! It actually sounded pretty gross to me at first but it was super good! I want to try to make it one day!! After we ate we went with her to Monza AFS meeting type thing for kids in Monza who are italian who want to go abroad with AFS or are interested in learning more about it! Silvia and a bunch of other volunteers were there talking about their experiences and about the program! At one point, lucky me had to go up and speak in front of about 50 families in Italian about the differences between American and Italian teenagers...hmm so I dont think I spoke very well but every else seemed to think I did well for being put on the spot! I really cant even explain the difference that well in english so it was pretty difficult. After the whole thing though, a bunch of parents were coming up to me and congradulating me on learning italian which was nice to hear!!! I still dont think I speak very well but ive been getting lots of compliments on my improvents lately so that must mean something!!

Now, finally skipping to Halloween!! My 3 host siblings love halloween, they all decorated our hallway of our appartment and planned for 2 weeks the whole night! I think for halloween they went downstairs and had a little candy party but I dont think they went trick or treating the same way we do in the US. I went with Jasmine, and her two friends to a Disco( club) near the center of Milan called Le Banque! It was super fun!!! Not many people were dressed up though, however there was sooooo many people there it was crazy! and luckily we made friends with one of the bouncers and so we got to cut the whole line and we became some sort of VIPS I guess even though I never found out why or how this VIP is different than anyone else because there was no special room!!! Oh well!!! I then slept at Jasmines that night and the night after because I had no school monday!! However, Jas had school monday morning so while she went to school I went downstairs to work in the bakery with her parents! It was so fun, I got to help make lots of dolce( sweets) and Pizza and other types of breaded goods! Its really cool to see how they make everything and the smell of everything is amazing!!! After working all morning her parents took me to their house in the mountians of Bergamo another place in Lombardia! It was raining really hard though so I couldnt really see or enjoy much of the view of the mountians however it was a really nice day!!!

So thats about all for now, I have come to a few conclusions about italian people 1. They dont like peanut butter!!! 2. Almost all of the boys in my school seem to think its 2001 and they all spike their hair like Lance Bass... 3. Nike here is not pronounced NII- KEE its pronouced NIKE as in rhyming with BIKE....

Ciao Tutti!!

XOXO MOLLIE

Aprica....ect!

Okay! So I havent had much time to write on this but finally I have time to sit down and write! I guess I will start by talking about my trip to Aprica! So all of us intercultura students who live in the reigion of Lombardia went to a 4 day camp in the mountians! It was so beautiful but also very very cold!! For me ofcourse not really that cold compared to Buffalo, but for the kids from Hong Kong and Paraguay they were freezing! I dont even know what the temperature was but it wasnt that bad! Anyways, it was really fun being with all my friends who I hadnt seen since Rome and also meeting all the people I didnt have time to meet before!! I miss them already!! Anyways, during the camp we did lots of orientation stuff. Many interesting games , I really dont know any other way to put them than , they were very "hands on" literally. We also split into groups most of the time and talked about our host families, friends, school and life in italy! It was really cool to find out not one of us has had the same experience even though we all live in the same place! Ofcourse it wasnt fun finding out I was the only person who has switched families, but there were some people who deff wanted to and I feel bad for them for not having already done so. Anyways, my favorite part of the orientation was when we talked about stereotypes of countries. We did one excersize where we put up posters of all of our countries names and we had to walk around with a marker and write a stereotype of that country and what we generally think of it and after the people would explain if it was a stereotype or actually true. It was really funny and I honestly learned a lot from it about the world!!! Ofcourse for the USA people wrote things like, FAT, STUPID, RASCIST...so that wasnt very fun to explain oh well just stereotypes right??? At the end of the camp we had a talent show where people did a variety of things, Me 4 other americans, Tomas( belgeium) and Rui( China) did a American dance type thing we did Soldier boy, cotton eye joe all those fun stupid dances. It was super funny. Other people taught us songs in their langugage or played a game or acted out something funny! Overall I had lots of fun in Aprica, I didnt want to leave!!!

So now I guess I'll talk about my week for everyone whos curious what I did last week.... I am trying to remember okay...

MONDAY( lunedi): I went with Gatto( Alessio -nickname gatto) to the mall of his town Limbiate and he made me try the ever so amazing McDonalds in Italy. People here love McDonalds but I had to explain its gross in America and people would not say the same about it. After the mall we went to his friends house and met up with about 25 other kids who wanted to meet me! They were all really nice and were all asking me questions at the same time in Italian, broken english ...and some kind of attempt at english in the end I just said speak italian ( e meglio) its better.

TUESDAY(martedi): I had my first day of Musical for my school! I actually didnt do anything in it because it was for the people who wanted to try out for a singing role and I clearly dont sing very well....unfortunatley they wont take no for an answer and next week they are making me sing! YAYAYY haha

WEDNESDAY(mercoledi): I waited at school until 4 for a stupid meeting with the president of the school and all my teachers who at the last minute decided to change rooms and I couldnt find them and the hall monitor people told me the meeting was at 5:30 ( so did my host mom) and so I went to that meeting which was actually a parent teacher conference type thing which I didnt understand a word of and basically was at school from 8 am until 8 pm....for no reason at all FML!

THURSDAY(giovedi): School trip to Padova!!! Rainy day full of lots of walking but overall it was really beautiful and nice to see a new part of Italy!! Lots of art and fashion and I went to a new reigon of Italy ( veneto) I have now been in 3 regions!! ( lombardia, piemonte, veneto)

FRIDAY(venerdi): Schoppiero!! No school again because my teachers and the transportation went on strike!! :) Jasmine came and picked me up at night and we went to her house and had a really yummy dinner with deserts after, and then we had our weekly Gossip Girl viewing session and watched the 2 newest episodes which were amazing!! ( my only time to see american tv)

SATURDAY(sabato): Boring old saturday school, After hopped on the train and met up with Emma, Julian, and Katie in Milano and we walked around and got Gelato!! It was very very crowded!! Also me and Julian somewhat watched the race Tomas was in which had about 2000 people in it and he won!!! FIGO! ( cool)!

SUNDAY(domenica): My host family had a wine and cheese party and had some friends over, they used this really cool oven type thing (they said they do this alot in switzerland) and we melted cheese in it and put veggies on top and put them over potatoes ,it was really good! After, Fabio picked me up and we met up with all the Milano AFSers and MONZA for Ice Skating in Monza! It was fun, although my feet hurt I loved seeing everyone! and it was hilarious watching the turks attempt to ice skate because they never had and were so scared !!


So hmmm other things, well I have noticed that in school here teachers and students are very open about grades for example, when a teacher hands back a test or grade they scream it out to the whole class and make sure they know who got what grade. My host mom said they used to put up all the kids grades on the wall outside the school for everyone to see but they chagned it a few year ago because people got mad. I passed my first test! YAAY I got a 6.5...which is passing!! I was so happy to finally pass something!!

So hmm yah thats about all for now, Wednesday I am going to a Lily Allen concert in Milan with Kaite and Valentina!! I am soo excited!!!!!!!!!

Prima Scoppero ...ect!!

Ciao tutti!!

Okay, So Friday I had my first Scoppero (spelling??), this means that all the students decide not to enter the school for whatever reason, therefore we don't have school because no students go!! I love this!! I believe the reason this time was because the minister wants to only have summer vacation for one month instead of 2 and obv. the kids werent happy with this so we went on strike. But this wasnt just my school all of Milan had this strike. Most kids either, stay home, strike outside the school, or actually go to Milan and Protest. I went to my friend Fedes house instead! I love how people here can speak their mind and protest this way for their rights!! I had to attempt to explain to people that in america this kind of striking because were mad doesnt exist because I can totally picture a huge SWAT car pulling up and people in black suits tackling everyone and shipping them to jail if someone tried this at my school, I mean or something similar you get the idea...haha Well anyways so instead of school I went to Federicas, we went shopping, I went to the perruciere( hairdresser), and then we hung out at her house and watched mean girls in Italian with english subtitles which was hilarious especially hearing the different italian voices for the characters of the movie which are so different than their actual voices.

So, the next day ( saturday) I had a nice boring day of saturday school!! Fun stuff, and then after school I went with my host mom and siblings to visit my host aunt and her 3 week old twins, they were sooo cute and little! They looked like dolls I swear they werent real! Che Carinaaaa! Communque( anyways), After Jasmine picked me up from my house and we went to a festa di cummpleanno for her friend Marika ! It was at a place similar to La Cantina meaning you dance on the tables and its basically a club. It was a fun time, we had a little too much Sangria(sp?) haha oh well. Anyways, I slept at Jasmines and then, Sunday we woke up very loud music coming from outside only to find the towns festa was today and so Me, Jasmine, Fattima and Paulo walked around Verano Brianza(Jasmines town) and they had tons of food samples and really cool art and people making pasta, and shoes, and Oh i learn that they dont kill sheep to make fur!! Jasmine thought it was hilarious that i didnt know that for some reason!! And they had people making silk which was really cool. They have this thing called Bacco da seta (spelling??) and its sillk in little balls with a dead bug inside and I took like 10 of them bc they were free I think and brought them home for my host family!! It was a really cool festival, lots of people were in the streets and they had little shows going on too. So after we went to that festival, we went with Fattima and her boyfriend Mattia to the town festival of Seregno which was the same day. I love serengo it has awesome shopping!! In serengo it was basically the same stuff, except there they had like some sort of petting zoo in the middle of the town it was really funny! Yah soo after all the festivals Me Jasmine, Fattima and Mattia went to a happy hour which is pretty common to go to sundays im finding out, its basically where you get a nice sugary drink of your choice and unlimited buffet food for 5 £ which is like I think a great deal!! So that was a fun domenica!! (sunday)

Monday, I decided to bring some American culture into my host family and attempt to make them some pancakes.... now those of you who know me should know , I dont really cook....Okay so my parents sent me the easiest thign to make like the batter was already mixed all I had to do was add water...so I bought a bunch of strawberrries and chocolate chips and got those all ready and for some reason I thought since they had no grease for the pan I should just throw some veggie oil on it right?? Okay DONT DO THAT!! When I started making the pancakes they were like distorted and they were not pancakes so i had to throw those out and try again, meanwhile my host sister is laughing really hard at me becuase I am swearing and laughing in english luckily she has no idea what I am saying but I think she had some sort of clue. anyways, after ab 3 more messed up batches, I finally got the hang of it...well they still looked horrible and deff werent cooked fully but I served them anyways and no one got sick or anything so they couldnt have been too bad right?? Well Overall, I think they turned out pretty good, we had syrup on them, and my host sisters deff didnt like the syrup but my host mom did!! I had to keep explaining while we were eating that these arent really the correct shape and taste of good pancakes ( unfortunatley they were not circles exactly only a few resembled pancakes) but they liked them I think!! or they are really good liars! but we ate all of them so i think i did a good job!!! Anyways, at the festival when I took the silk balls they told me if I put them in hot water they turned into silk so me my 3 host siblings and there 2 little friends experimented with this and it actually worked it was really fun!! and then we cut them open and saw the bug inside which was a super gross bug but it was dead so it was okayyy!!

Today, well right now I am in school, my class has religion right now but I am not taking that class so i get to come to the bibleoteca!! School is soooo hard! I still have no books so i basically cant do anything but they told me next week i should have everything! and I better or else!!! I am so excited because on thursday I am having my 4 day orientation in Aprica the mountians of Lombardia with everyone else from this reigon with AFS!! I clearly dont have the whole italian accent down yet because my friends at school thought I was going to Africa....later on I was corrected AP REEE CAH is the correct prononciation, oh well I tried!!

So I think I have written enough for now, I will write again after Aprica or so!!!

Ciao!

Mollie

Stupid Americans

This blog entrys title will be called Stupid Americans because this week I realized that I am one sadly. Before coming to Italy I knew about the generalizations that Americans are stupid and don't know anything but I never thought I fit into that category of Americans. However, I was wrong, I am one!!! Example 1) When I was walking in Serengo with Tomas(belgium student) and his host parents Tomas asked me something about American history and ended up wanting to know when America was founded, I had no Idea!! I said umm like 1700s??? Andd the worst part is Tomas's host mother was like "I believe 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed".... great I just got corrected by an Italian!!! That was super embarassing, but no it gets worse okay, Example 2) I am at home and my host dad calls me into the room and points to the TV and says do you know who this is? and I was like uhhh no?? Who is it?? and my host parents were like um....are you serious, turns out it was The Secretary of State when Bush was in office..... Unfortunatley I had no idea who she was I still don't know her name actually....So yah its really sad how I don't know much about America. Its so interesting how people here are very in tune with everything happening in the world and esp America. I have been asked many times my politicals views, and what I think about O'bama, and most of the time teenagers are asking me these questions not adults and in America no teenagers really talk about this stuff outside of school so maybe thats why I don't know much about politics. I also have found out that I really do have a lot of pride for my country, despite the fact I am a stupid american I am a proud one. You will never truly appeciate your culture until you immerse yourself in another one and since I am doing that I really love america, I have never once had to say in America, I am an American, but here I say it all the time and I am proud to say it. Hopefully by the end of this year I will be saying I am proud to be an Italian!!! :)

So anyways, school school school, right now its is soo boring I don't understand much though I am understanding more than before it seems impossible to keep up with certain classes!! However, the one thing different about school here is that the kids truly can say their opinions, during class we dont have to raise our hands we just say "prof" that is what you call all the teachers ( not last names) and say what you want. For instance, today we had an assembly, now when they told me we were having an assembly I was like oh where is it, whats it about and I was surprised to find out that assembly means its in the classroom, so for 2 hours we had an "assembly" where we basically did nothing and hung out while deciding out 2 class presidents who would be in charge of organizing the class trip!! We are debating between going to Athens, Paris, London, Rome and many other places/ maybe more than one of those!! I am so excited!!!

At home, my host family is super nice!! I love little kids, and they are very happy people which is good to be around. Unfortunatley, I think I will only be living with them for 2 months atleast thats what they are telling me, but who knows right now. Sunday, we took a trip to Piemonte with another family, and my host grandparents to visit a friend of my host parents from school and I saw the most beautiful mountians and landscapes!! It was amazing !! and then we had amazing food and delicious wine at a restaurant and ate for about 3 hours!! and after we relaxed on a picnic blanket in the shade on a beautiful hill. It was a perfect day!!

Ciaoo!!

Mollie

Cambiare

Well since the last time I wrote on this there have been many many changes in my life in Italy. I ended up switching host families because I was having lots of problems with my first one. They were just very different from me in many ways and we werent compatible at all. So for the weekend I stayed with my assisstente (Jasmine) which was so much fun! First off, she lives on top of the bakery her father and mother work in which has amazing bread and dolce!!! and second she went to alaska for a year so we have tons in common!!!! Anyways, thursday after I left my host family Jasmine, her sister and friend took me to Milano where I got to witness the first ever in fashion week history in milano, a fashion show open to the public. The line was CNC (abbrev) I dont remember the full name but I know i cant spell or pronouce it!! It was the coolest thing ever!!! I wish I could see more but unfortunately, you need to be invited to the rest and I dont know anyone who could invite me sadly. SO, after a fun filled weekend of meeting new people, I moved into a new family! They live in Meda which is close to my school sort of, I now take a train to school! I have gotten lost too many times so far to count, everytime I try to go somewhere on my own i get lost and then eventually get to the right place at the very last second! Example, this morning almost missed the only train and got onto it ten seconds before the door shut! My luck! Well yah so I have 3 host siblings, 5 year old boy named Francessco, 7 year old girl Katerina and 10 year old girl Margherita. They are very cute and nice! I am actually sharing a room with Francessco, yes me and a 5 year old boy are sharing a room! At first, I was really upset about it , I mean anyone my age would be! However, we dont get in fights, he is a sound sleeper and, he doesnt complain about anything, so for now its perfect!! School is getting harder here and I am really realizing how easy I had it in the US! Gah school is so hard here! Its not even the language its school in general! I am learning that I am not a polite person and keep breaking rules by accident, for example, saying Ciao to a teacher is not acceptable here which I do all the time when I should say Salve. Also chewing gum here is not okay, and I have been yelled at many times about it!! Oh and lets see since no one told me toccare ( tocar in spanish=to take) isnt the same meaning as spanish, I have been telling my MALE teachers that I want to touch them in many different ways and the best part is no one said a word! Also, I had thought Dio meant I say, but no I say= Ho Detto and Dio means god, so people must think I really like god because I say Dio all the time!!!!!!!!!! Well not anymore ofcourse. But actually living with little kids is helping my italian thankfully :)))

Ciaooo!

Xoxo

Mollie

OOH Italiaa

Ciao Tutti!!

So now I have been in Italia for a little over a week and so much has happened its hard to think about everything. School is so different, but really fun! I love talking with all my classmates and they are all sooo nice. I have met so many new people this week but in gjueneral I have to say I love italian people. I dont even remember what I did when so I guess I will wrsite about what I did this weekend. On friday, I went to Milano with Martina and some of her friends, I got a really cute pair of shoes and saw the duomo and also many high fashion italian stores!! Ahh it was fashion heaven. Im still trying to figure out how I am going to sneak into fashion week because I found out you need to be invited in order to go to it :( Then ahh saturday, I had my first day of saturday school which was not fun !! But anyways that night I was invited by some friends from school to go out for Chiara and Gatto's birthdays! We went to this crazy restaurant called La Cantina, and its insane after you eat your meal the waitors clear off the tables and the restaurant turns into a night club and everyone gets up and dances on their tables, it was so much fun!! Everytime they would play american songs everyone was amazed that I knew the actual words. Here in italy they say most of the words wrong to the song or if they dont know the words they say jaja bluuu or something you know not the actual words. Ah but I love my school friendss! I also love my afs local chapter , they are amazing! We had a dinner to welcome us to the Monza local chapter. They gave us Miss Italia sashes which said welcome to monza on them and then we sang kareokee, they love singing " I want to be a part of this , New York. New York" a lot of people seem to sing that when they hear that I live in New York haha but I keep having to explain I am from la cascada di Niagara not la citta di Nueva York. Most people are disappointed when I tell them that. Haha oh well! Anyways, Afs also had another orientation where we had a lunch and everyone from each country had to make a signature food from their host country. I made a cookie cake, which was a fail because it got burnt and did not resemble a cookie cake what so ever. But what can I say , im no chef! But I have also learned that I suck at drawing!! I am a horrible artist. I have 2 art classes which I thought wouldnt be too hard but I am the worst in the class. Its so annoying how bad I am. Everyone is very advanced at drawing and I am so behind its really hard to keep up with everyone. I really am having trouble understanding certain teachers only a few know english i think maybe 2 total including my english teacher. So yeah they all talk very fast and also something new here they dont write notes on the board they say them and we are sopposed to write down what they say. However, i cannot understand or spell for that matter anything so its been hard but luckily my friends help me with everything and my teachers try to help too which is really nice. Well this has been pretty long so I think I will stop writing

Arriverderci (sp?)

MOllie

la mia vita italiana è bella.

Ciao everyone,

So now I have been in italy for about a week or so and this is the first time I have been able to sit down for a small amount of time on a computer. So, I guess I will try to start from the beginning of the journey. I took a one hour plane ride from Buffalo to NYC with Bill (afs) and we met all the other 43 kids from around the USA in the Double Tree Hotel where we had a long boring orientation that seemed to never end. We finally after about 4 days of traveling, one of those days with no sleep what so ever, we made it to Rome. And arriving in American style we were the last people to arrive. Great first impression of Americans, but it wasnt out fault. We spent one night in Rome and the next morning split into different groups where we took different transportation to our new homes. I was in 1-Nord Centro(north central) with 50 or so other kids. When we got to Milan we had to go to a waiting center and put our bags down and then enter a room which had all of our host families in it and say in front of hundreds of people in italian, Hi, my name is mollie, I am american, I am going to be in monza, with the Savino Family. It seems easy but it was the most nerve racking thing I think I have ever done in my life!!!

Okay, so I met my host family, my local volenteers whom I absolutley love!! They are hilarious and sooo nice. And I just love everyone, everyone is super nice. There are so many differences in Italian life I never knew before and I cant even think of all of them right now but hmm...okay well for starters the food, I am used to eating one plate for dinner, they have 2 plates, and also breakfast they eat like chocolates and sweets which I love! Also, the coffee, more like expresso is super different, very strong but I love it!!

I am trying to keep this semi-short so I will skip to my first day of school. I was like sooo nervous I really didnt know what to expect. None of my teachers know any english haha but when one of them introduced me to the class and they heard I was American they were like OmGGGG american!! WHAT!!! It was really funny. Later on they told me they expected me to be a fat, ugly , red head with lots of fat lmao....but I don't think I fall into that category. I actually think people think I am italian that is..until I start speaking.. well okay heres a funny story I had to take the bus for school , they dont have school buses here so Nadia my host mom showed me the way a few days ago and I thought I knew where I was going so I asked some girl once we were on the bus, is Cesano Maderno the next stop and she said yes the next one, i thought she meant the next time the doors opened but no , So i got off at the wrong stop and had to ask random girls how to get to Cesano because I was still in Seveso, so i ran around with them i got a train ticket and took a train to Cesano and met some boys on it who go to my school, I guess they had heard of me from their teacher or something , and they helped me get to school which was really nice. So yeah Im pretty sure that story seemed way more stressful in my mind but actually running around ab to cry because I thought i would be late for my first day of school was scary! Luckily everyone was really nice the train people even let me go in their office so I wouldnt have to wait in line for a ticket. Haha, hmm well I really have too much to write its not even funny, I actually hate writing but I know people want to know about this stuff so I will try to keep writing on the blog.

Ciao for now,

Mollie xoxo

Departure

So, the time has finally come. Only 5 days left until I depart. I can't believe this is actually happening i've been waiting all year and now its time! I hate saying goodbyes to people. I feel like I will talk to everyone and the way people act all sad makes me feel like I am never coming back to Buffalo but I am, just a year later. I wish people would stop making this so hard to say goodbye. The more sad people are the more sad I get. How do you say goodbye to things you are so used to? I don't know what I will miss the most because I haven't even left yet. What I am trying to say is sad goodbyes are not necessary because this is a happy experience and I wish everyone felt that way about it. I have not even started to pack yet, I feel like I should do it soon though because when I realize all the things I still have to get before I leave I will be running around at the last second to get them. Anyways, I am excited to find out what is in store for me, but with that excitement comes nerves. I am a little nervous but the excitement for this adventure over weighs it : ) If that even makes sense? Well the next entry I write will hopefully be after I arrive in Italy at my host families house!!! I hope this turns out to be every thing I hoped for and more!

XOXO

Mollie

The Dreaded Visa

So I'm sure many of you may have heard that Italian Visas are very hard to get and it is the hardest part of the whole pre-departure experience? Well you are completely right if thats the case because in my opinion it certainly was. My parents took care of all of the paper work but sitting in the small crowded italian consulate in New York City for 3 hours waiting while many people in line in front of me were getting rejected was not something I like to consider fun. For anyone reading this who hasn't done it yet, make sure you have all your paper work because trust me you don't want to go back there twice!! Other than that though, my trip to New York was fun! It was the first time I had ever been there so I was the typical tourist taking many pictures of times square and all those tacky people walking around. I have been taking Italian lessons at this womans house since the end of April and I feel like they are really helping. I can't imagine how much harder it would be for me if I did not take these lessons. I feel like the langugage will not be the hardest adjustment I have to make there because I already know a decent amount of grammar and stuff. Plus I've heard when I get there we have italian lessons everyday after school!

Well thats the lastest update for now!

Ciao,

Mollie

2 Months.

Hi!
Okay so I know I haven't wrote on this blog in a while, but again there is not many intersting things to write about since I am not actually in Italy yet! However, Since I last wrote I have found out so much information about where I am staying and such. I have been e-mailing my host sister, Martina very often and she has told me a lot about Seveso! I also have been talking to my 2 liasons in Italy on facebook there names are Jasmine and Clio! They seem really nice and I can't wait to meet them. I have the website for my school in Italy, www.iismajorana.it I am pretty sure its a Science School whatever that means. I'm sure going to find out! I looked at pictures on the school website and it sure looks different from my school now. I am so excited to go! I feel like this whole thing is a dream, it really hasn't hit me that I'm leaving I feel like its just something I say and I won't realize the reality of it for a long time. Anyways, I have gotten an e-mail saying its time to go ahead and get my visa...I am actually secretly excited to get it because the consulate is in NYC! I have never been to NYC and I live in New York! It's really sad, so even though my parents are mad they have to pay all this money and ofcourse I heard italy is one of the hardest countries to get a visa to besides Russia and China. Other than that though, besides the long boring process, there is some good to come of it! Well I really don't have too much else to say! I hope these blogs I'm writing are somewhat interesting for people! I have 22 views yay!

Ciao!

Mollie

My Host Family

This is a picture Martina took this in Cesano

Another picture she took in Seveso or Cesano(5 min from seveso)...not sure

Front of my house

My house!

Hey Everyone,

So for all of the 16 people who have viewed my blog so far I will tell you more about my host family! My father's name is Franco, my mother's name is Nadia, my sister's name is Martina, and my brother's name is Luca. They live in a small town about 19 km from the city of Milan, which sounds awesome! Martina says it takes 30 minutes by train to get to Milan and we could go there once a week or twice a month If I want to! I have been e-mailing Martina almost everyday for several weeks now and I have found out so much about her and her family so I will share! Martina is currently in 11th grade, this means we will be in different grades next year because right now I am in 10th grade. She told me that AFS said we will be going to different schools, she is at a language school, and they will put me in a school more similar to the one I go to now...I am not sure how similar it will actually be but Im assuming I will find out. Luca is in 7th grade and he loves to swim and play video games. Martina said she paints, listens to music, hangs out with friends, or plays the piano in her free time. My father and mother like to travel, read, go shopping, see movies, paint and much more! I feel like I have many things in common with them and I think we are going to get along great!! The pictures above are some pictures Martina has sent me! She is actually doing a summer study abroad with AFS in July, she is going to Austrailia so when I come to her house, she will probably have a good understanding of how I am feeling when I first get there!

Tomorrow is my pre-departure orientation, I am going to have a sleepover with a bunch of other kids going to many different places and we are going to talk about how we feel about everything. My local AFS coordinator said I was the first one in our reigon to recieve a family so far, but we had that conversation a month ago so I am not sure if anyone else has received any news! I can't wait to find out more about this experience I am going to have and I hope its fun!

I still haven't heard anything about my student visa so I am waiting on that, I have heard its not a fun thing to do but I will find out hopefully soon how it goes.

XOXO

Mollie

The Beginning of the Journey!

Hey Everyone!

Okay so I have finally decided to actually start writing on my blog. I have been waiting for something to write about because for a while I didn't know much about what was going on, all I knew was that I was accepted into the AFS Italy 09 Year program and couldn't be more happy.

But now, I am so thrilled to say I have have a host family!!! On Monday I recieved an e-mail telling me that they have found a family for me in Seveso, Milan!!!! MILAN! Wow it couldn't get any better. First off, I can't believe that I already have a family I was not expecting this at all. And to top it off, I never would have guessed I would recognize the name of the city I would be living in! When I think of Milan I think of the fashion capital of the world!! Who knows what it will really be like when I get there but im sure I won't be disappointed. Now, all I have to do is wait to find out information on how to get my student visa and at the beginning of September off I go! I am so excited ah! I don't know much about my host family except for their names and ages. I have a father, mother, a sister my age!( a big plus) and a brother who is 12 or 13! I have recently e-mailed them to introduce myself and im waiting to hear back hopefully soon!! I want to find out all about them.

So for most of you reading this who don't know me at all I guess I will introduce myself a little. My name is Mollie Snyder, I live in Buffalo New York and I am 16 years old. I am a dancer, tennis player, snowboarder/skiier and I love dogs! I had never really heard or known much about AFS growing up. My dad went abroad with AFS for a summer when he was in college to Finland and I actually talk to his host brothers daughters on msn and facebook and I might even visit them! But anyways, last year AFS was desperate and they emailed my parents asking to be a welcoming family for exchange students who did not have a home yet who were to come a few days later to the US. I was at overnight camp when my parents decdided this so when I got home and had a new sister I was so confused but excited! Cristina was from portugal and she ended up living with us the whole year! She is truly my sister now and I miss her soo much! She is a big part of why I wanted to become an exchange student myself. I never even considered the possibility until last year. But when I set my mind to wanting it, well here I am today actually going so look what happened!

I really don't know what to expect as far as anything really. I don't want to have any expectations because that way there will be no disappointment. I am really up for anything so I can't wait to see what happends. I have already started taking weekly italian lessons and am slowly, and I mean slowly trying to learn as much as I can before I leave.

Ciao for now :))

Mollie