Ciao!

Seriously, where does time go? I can not believe it has already been 3 months in this beautiful place! I hope everyone has had a great start to their holiday season!!! I'm still absolutely in love with life in Italy... Here is a short summary of my time here...

First, I have never been as close to someone as I am to my host sister Benni. I cant imagine not living with her! She is definitely my best friend here and basically in the last 3 months, we have spent every moment we were not in school or sleeping, together. But I have also realized that her speaking perfect English might now be such a great thing after all since it doesn't force me to speak Italian. I'm afraid its getting in the way of me learning Italian as fast as I should be! I have the basics down, and I can say lots of offensive things (this is what teenagers have most fun teaching me) but I cant say anything really interesting yet...

I've managed to keep my school week busy. I would have school days of regular school for the first 3 months, but in the last 2 weeks i have started doing half the week in an Italian class for foreigners which I think is more helpful then sitting in a classroom not understanding anything! I have been receiving extra help in math, and my Italian teacher in school has given me some small projects to do, but other then that there is not too many expectations for me. I think their expectations will increase second semester though. After school for the first 3 months I would have private Italian lessons 3 times a week, and the days that I didn't have a lesson I would go to the gym. I also joined choir, so I have that every Tuesday!

On Saturdays I usually have dinner with friends in the center (of Perugia) and either stay there for the night or go to a birthday party. 18th birthday parties are a huge deal here, and they are soo much better then parties in Chicago!! We also go to the cinema a lot, and ice skating!!!

We will be spending Christmas in Perugia and then the day after we leave to go to their house in the mountains for 2 weeks!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

:)

I'm Here :)

Ciao!!!!!!!

Its been way too long since I've written... So here is a little update of what is going on...

I arrived to my host family's house on Sunday, September 12th to a very great surprise that my host sister (Benni) speaks perfect english. Literally with in 3 minutes of being with her I felt like we were sisters. Me and her have had very few hours in the last 2 weeks where we weren't glued to the hip. She has been helping me with my Italian and schoolwork everyday... I can not even begin to describe how fortunate I feel to have her.

School is not bad.. but its not good... I think if I understood Italian I would love it, but sitting in a classroom for 5 hours being lectured to in a language I don't understand is... very stressful. The school in general is so different from my school in Chicago, but I like it. Everyone has the same class for 5 years, and we don't leave the classroom everyday, the teachers come to us. Also school on Saturday is going to take some serious getting used to... But only having school until 12 or 1 each day great! There is a very sweet girl who sits next to me named Maddie who tries to help me whenever possible but the language barrier makes that difficult. The rest of my class is also extremely nice to me and I cant wait until I have improved my Italian and can have more exciting conversations then "come stai?" "bene è tu?"

To describe how gorgeous it is here is impossible! The view from my room is incredible :) Its very hilly and green just like I was told it would be. The food is also amazing. Last night me and Benni made pizza and I can honestly say that it ruined American pizza for me. Lasagna has also been ruined for me. I'm missing my skippy peanut butter... but nuetella is not a horrible replacement :)

Luckily homesickness has not hit me yet... but its only been 2 weeks since I left so thats not saying much... But its so amazing here I cant imagine wanting to leave! Also just like I had hoped and wished for, I already have a plane ticket to another European country!!!! Benni, my host mother and grandmother, and I will be spending a few days in Barcelona next month for Benni's birthday! :)

I would jsut like to say thanks again for all the donations and support I recieved!!!

Love you all,

Grace

2 weeks 'till Turkey, 2 months 'till ITALY!!!!!

So my first month of summer has been relaxing, but of course, busy. I've been taking my consumer ed class, working, hitting the beach with friends, trying to make time for everyone I'm going to miss! Although summer is great.. I'm really just ready for it to be September 8th! On that particular day of the year, I'll fly to New York (first time I will be going on a plane alone!!!!!!!!!!) I will have a overnight orientation there with all the other AFSers from the U.S., then on September 9th we'll fly to Switzerland and then have a connecting flight that will have us arriving in Rome around noon on September 10th! We then meet with all the other AFSers from around the world that are studying abroad in Italy, and we have another overnight orientation. Then we all split up and go to our part of the country... My part being Perugia!

AFS let me know this week that I would be staying in Perugia. although I already had a heads up because my host sister actually added me on facebook a little while ago and told me she thought I would be living with her next year... But I didn't want to say anything until AFS confirmed it. My host sister is 16, like me, and I will also have two younger brothers.. one is 13 and the other is 6. I don't know too much about my family but me and my host sister have been talking and she knows some English, which is a huge relief to me. Perugia is located almost exactly in the center of Italy and is a city full of hills and known for its chocolate (: Its the capital of the region of Umbria. I can not wait to see Perugia and every other part of Italy.. and hopefully every other part of Europe!!!!!!!

But before I get to experience the very promising country of Italy, I will be taking a pilgrimage with 10 other students to Turkey! We will be getting a "Taste of the Second Holy Land". Although my group has been together for 4 years, and we have been planning this pilgrimage for the last 2, I wasn't that excited about it until recently. Its going to be a very religious trip and I'm still at a point in my life where religion is not a top priority. So 10 days of "searching for God" did not excite me as much as a month in Costa Rica did. But I do think that my view on religion will change as I grow older and mature and this trip will be a big contribution to where I go with religion. My group had a meeting on Friday to discuss the final travel plans, and what exactly our expectations and thoughts for the pilgrimage were. I've come to the personal decision that if I have a open mind I could get so much out of this trip. It might not be some glamorous vacation full of tanning and relaxing... But I am such a lucky teenager, because by my 17th birthday I will get to say I have lived and experienced 4 different cultures (Costa Rican, Turkish, Italian and of course, American). That is something that very few people my age get to say. So I am ready for 10 days of trying to grasp a better understand of religion!

Of course I'm still fundraising and accepting donations for Italy! Thanks everyone!
I Hope everyone has some travels and adventures of their own this summer!
Love, Gracie (:

SUMMER!!!!!!

OK, so clearly this whole blog thing is easier said then done, but I promise once I'm actually in Italy there will be way more frequent updates!! It just always feels like there's no time at the end of the year and finals are super stressful, but now that its summer there are no excuses! Its crazy how fast time flies! A year ago I was getting ready for my month in Costa Rica which seemed like such a huge deal, my little 15 year old self had noo idea a year later I would be getting ready for 10 months in Italy!!! The next 3 months are actually going to be thee longest months of my life because I am so anxious to leave! But here are some of my plans for the summer...

Today, I started summer school. Consumer Ed... blahhhh so boring! But I need to get credits out of the way for obvious reasons, and this is a required class to graduate... So I'm learning to make sacrifices (such as being able to sleep in) to make sure my year abroad does not effect me graduating on time. I'll be doing that for 6 weeks as well as spending as much time as possible with the friends I'm going to miss oh so much. Then the day summer school ends I leave for Turkey! I will be going to Turkey with my youth group which should be interesting. We have been fundraising for this pilgrimage for the last two years. Its going to be a trip that really opens our eyes and helps us understand religion more. Originally me and my friend Lindsey were aiming to go to Greece, and were actually disappointed when the group chose Turkey... But hey as long as I get out of the country for part of the summer, I'm a happy girl! I'll also spend sometime in Michigan with my family at the end of the summer. And of course I will be working, and baking in my free time!

I've been working on my Italian, its so similar to Spanish! Its really difficult to not to start speaking Spanish when I'm practicing Italian!!! For the first few weeks in Italy I'm definitely going to be speaking my own language.. a combination of English, Spanish and Italian. But by the time I'm 21 I'll have it all sorted out because if you didnt know, its my goal to be complitely tri lingual by my 21st birthday... which is in 5 years so I think thats do able.

AFS has still not directly told me where I will be living... But hopefully they will be in contact soon. Hope everyone is having a good start to their summer!
xx
Grace :)

It's Starting to feel like it's Actually Going to Happen...

For a while, studying abroad next year seemed so out of reach and like it was not going to happen. But lately it's starting to feel a lot more official. I had my first pre departure orientation which was really interesting. We went over all the rules and things to expect next year. Apparently Italy doesn't have peanut butter and no one wears sweatpants to school...ever!!! These are the things I am most worried about. I dress very casual half the week.. and I guess that's not the norm for Italian teenagers. They dress to impress 7 days out of the week. And no peanut butter?? Oh my goodness... I think I might pack like 17 jars of Skippy peanut butter to crack open when I start to feel home sick. I also got to meet the AFS students that are currently here from Italy. They were so genuinely nice and gave me some good info. I asked them what they missed the most about Italy and they said "good wine." I laughed a little at such a mature answer from people my age.

It is somewhat weird to think I'm not going to be here next year. Yesterday, everyone's class schedule for next year were posted so all my friends were trying to figure out if they had any classes together. It felt strange to keep saying "ohh.. we definitely don't have any classes together.. I'm going to Italy for 10 months." It was very ironic though because the day all the schedules were posted was the same day AFS sent me an extremely large packet stocked with information about pre departing. Basically, the two most stressful things right now are how I am going to get the rest of the money and the fact that I know zero Italian...

For those of you who don't know, I am actually currently taking Spanish in school and have been on and off since 1st grade. So clearly, my first choice of where I wanted to go was a Spanish speaking country. I originally applied for Spain but apparently I submitted my application to late and the 30 spots AFS had, had already filled up. I really wanted to be in Europe, so my second choice was Italy, which thankfully still had room. I haven't exactly started yet but my plan is to self teach the basics of Italian and hopefully pick it up fast once I'm completely immersed in the country. I'll keep you posted on how that goes...

The whole money thing is definitely the biggest stress. I promised my parents I would raise a large portion but fundraising is not my specialty. If anyone has any good fundraising ideas... let me know :) I work about half the week between baking cookies at the Buzz Cafe, "floating" (which is hosting, clearing tables, serving food etc.") and babysitting at my church. I'm getting good at saving which is a useful life trait. I have a clear goal and I plan to meet it! Also, if you do make a donation on this page I don't get a list of who donated until the end of the month, so I'm sorry if I don't get to thanking you right away but I promise it is very much appreciated and I am extremely happy to have people supporting my dream! :)

Lots of love, hope you are having a great day!!!!
xoxo, Grace

5 Months Until I Leave!

There was no "hmm.. studying abroad would be cool, maybe that's something I'll consider..." There was no contemplating if I would rather do my junior year of high school at my current high school or in another country. There was no "Mom, Dad, can I study abroad?" It was me having an epiphany that studying abroad was an option, deciding right away that I was going to, and calling my parents from Costa Rica to tell them I would be studying abroad my junior year.

Of course I've always enjoyed traveling, but I never realized I actually loved it and was bored without it until last summer (summer 2009) when I went on a month long trip to Costa Rica. I went with 17 other teenagers (including my best friend Asha) that were all brought together by a company called Walking Tree Travel. It was the most exciting 30 days of my life! We did something new everyday, things such as; learning to salsa dance, seeing breath taking waterfalls, going on long hikes, living in the rain forest, learning to surf, zip lining, living by gorgeous white sand beaches, seeing active volcanoes, white water rafting down raging rivers, and living with host families. We lived in a very small town called Las Brisas for 17 days while we worked on a service project. We each got to live with our own family, which was intimidating at first, but turned out to be the most memorable experience ever. It was amazing to see complete strangers take us in with such loving arms. I was treated like family 100% of the 17 days. Everything about the trip was amazing but the best part was the rush I got from being someplace new everyday! And that's when I realized I didn't just enjoy traveling, I loved it more than the average high school life!

I know exactly where the payphone is in Monteverde, Costa Rica where I first said "mom, I'm studying abroad my junior year." She probably thought it was just something I was saying because I was in the moment of traveling, but I was dead serious. I said the same thing a week after I got back from Costa Rica, this time she took it more seriously and said no. But I said "don't worry mom, you have a year to get use to it, but I promise I'm studying abroad next year." It has been about 8 months and I am proud to say I have changed her mind. :) So thanks mom and dad for helping me make this happen and signing all the forms you had to sign on the application, even though I know its so hard to let your baby go!

My Adventures Begin...

Hey Everyone!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Grace and I am currently a sophmore in high school outside of Chicago. After months of anticipation and working on my application, I recently found out that I have been accepted to study abroad with AFS (American Field Services) in Italy. I will be leaving in September 2010, and returning in July 2011. I am very excited and looking forward to the 10 months I will be spending learning about the Italian culture, but this experience is going to cost my family a lot of money.

I have started fundraising to help pay for the cost. I have made a deal with my parents that they will pay for a third of the cost, I will make a third by woorking, and I will fundraise for a third. The total cost is $12,000.

I currently work at a local cafe, baking cookies. I plan to be a pastry chef when I'm older so this is the perfect first job. I also babysit at my church every Sunday and for other families. Since September, I have saved up $1,300.

Over the next several months I will be writing this blog to tell you about my past travels, my preparations for Italy, and I will write while I am in Italy.

To sponser my AFS program now, please click the ChipIn button.