A More Patriotic Entry

September 11, 2010

Day 16

            I’ve never been out of the country on the anniversary of 9/11/01. Remembering the day gave me, and the Americans I was with, a real sense of patriotism. In this strange environment we 47 minors lose a real sense of who we are. Here we’re trying to lose our sense of identity, doing our best to blend into the Italian way of life, sharing their pride their hometown, learning their traditions and assimilating into our new families. September 11^th is a bona fide, albeit harsh, reminder to us all that we are Americans, that on this day, almost a decade ago, we were all receiving the horrifying news that people we didn’t and would never know wanted to hurt us.

            I was, and still am, woefully ignorant of how this news was received in other countries.  In America even the younger children know the importance of this day, people who escaped the plane by pure luck or circumstance sigh in relief that they escaped a terrible, if heroic, death, and families who lost people weep and receive extra pity on this day. However, when we hear of bombings in other countries, we frown and sigh and spend an extra five minutes at breakfast repeating how sad it is. We might even bring it up to discuss in a history class, but ask us on the anniversary of that bombing 9 full years later and we would all be hard pressed to recall the significance of the day.

            As I was chatting with Maya, she mentioned that she will soon turn 18, and in Afghanistan there is a girl who will turn 18 on the same day as her. When they have both reached this age of maturity the most horrific thing my American thing has “experienced” heard about and been within 1000 miles of, will be the bombing of the twin towers on September 11^th. She then said that the Afghani girl will have gone through so much more. Her life will have been filled with much more tragedy, and that that fact alone belittles her own sorrows.

           

X

Thalia

PS. The thing I did that I referenced in my video is actually very hard to guess if that video is the only thing you have, so I will give a hint on here: I walked away from it with both more and less.

I think I’ll continue hinting until someone gets it, either here on the blog or on the video.

Restrictions

September 9, 2010

Day 14

            If normal circumstances applied I’d be a bad blogger, having had no prior existence and writing highly unedited, occasionally vulgar posts without a regular schedule. However, nothing about my current circumstances is normal.

IT is currently 3:29 AM, Queen is blasting in the background, I’m in a foreign country, and I’m only awake because I was woken up by intense stomach pains, (an impressive feat, I'm probably the world's deepest sleeper) and felt nauseous for a couple hours. So…. the culmination of these events and situations brings you this blog! Of course, 'twould generally be bad when a daily blogger misses not one but five days, but as NONE of them are posted as I am writing this, when you read them, you can read them continuously, experiencing my past fortnight in one sitting of a few hours or less.

 You know how you can read the comic in the newspapers? You get to read a new one every week, and if it’s not amusing you merely sigh and wait for the next week’s issue. However, if you’re patient you can buy or borrow a full book of the comics, giving yourself the wonderful and terrible power of whipping through months and years of artistic effort in a few minutes. This is how I view this blog. The entries aren’t perfect by any means, but you can see all of them and if one isn’t not interesting, ignore it and move on to something that happened as much as two weeks earlier or later.

So no, I will not apologise for my lapse because I didn’t assign myself requirement as a precaution and additionally because you wouldn’t even have known unless I told you, I could have blatantly lied and claimed that this post was no more than the next day, Day 10. It would have been all the same as you spent 30 seconds scanning my blog, and you could have lived a perfectly happy life without knowing the truth. In fact, studies show that people who haven’t read all my blog posts have gone on to lead perfectly healthy normal lives.

Wait? What was that? Oh yeah! I’ve literally typed three paragraphs about my own blog, without putting any actual information in here. Today I went on a quest to find Pocket Coffee, only to fail miserably and be depressingly uncaffeinated. Hey, speaking of caffeine (or lack thereof), tomorrow's going to be HELL.

(Narrator’s voice announces “many hours later…”)

Ahoy! It’s 10:35 pm now. My dire prediction proved to be…completely true. Morning was awful, worsened by the twinges of nausea I felt throughout the day. However, the day was enjoyable as a whole. I spent a pleasant 47 minutes studying Latin during a period filled by Ancient History every other day, and I walked around the city for almost three hours after school, something that is rapidly becoming a habit. (This is all part of my grand scheme to be able to navigate from my house to the school by Christmas by the way).

I have an Art History field trip tomorrow. I’m not particularly excited for another field trip, but I feel like it would be akin to a sin if I went to Italy and didn’t study Art History.

X

Thalia

First Day of School

September 6, 2010

Day 9

            If I were forced to choose between Italian cioccolato and my family, the decision would take a few minutes of guilt before I said goodbye to my family forever.  Ciooccolato is just so incredibly delicious, despite its unfortunate physical resemblance to tar. I feel that I deserved my miniature cup of this ambrosia today to make up for how many clumsy incidents I caused.

            Off the top of my head I recall stopping an entire bus by accidentally catching my bag’s hanging strap on the handrail, failing to get into a chair until I raised a ruckus moving it and the chair next to it around so much that the other chair eventually gave in to my accidental destructive power and dramatically toppled, arriving a full two hours early for school and confusing the Italian words for female anatomy and French fries.  In other words, my first day of school!

            No, this is not the blog of a gifted 4 year old describing her day in kindergarten, this is the unfortunate recollection of an accident-prone teenaged upperclassmen.

            How ironic that on this most momentous day, my first day riding public transportation here, first day of school, first day as an upperclassman, no one where I live can exchange any similar tales. Today is Labor Day, a holiday most of the highschoolers value for the three-day weekend it provides more than any respect or even knowledge of Labor Day itself.

            For more information, including my story of the good and evil identical twins I encountered see my video for today 

X

Tally

PS. My military time informs me that it’s 00:00. It’s strangely ominous. Ah, the simultaneous waves of disappointment and relief as its sixty seconds of allotted time elapse and it is gone.

Un Viaggio Verso l'ospedale

September 5, 2010

Day 8

            Hello you lovely people. It’s 12:00. I don’t care; I say it’s still the fifth. I finally got the damn clock to work, clock: 0 me:1 (HA! What a lie, more like clock: 5 computer: 100 Internet: 60 me: 1). Today I just became a much worse player at Never Have I Ever. I have now made a long distance phone call, have communicated by myself completely in another language for hours at a time, and have ridden in an ambulance.

            To make a long, rather tedious, story short, while I was at her house, Grace asked me where the appendix was and then declared that her side hurt and that she needed to go to the Hospital. She sat down (that didn’t hurt as much) while I used her phrasebook to explain* to her family what was wrong. Their car was out at the time so her sister (Laura, you’ll know if you watch the videos) called an ambulance. We made plans to meet our (bilingual) Resident Director at the hospital and immediately set out.

            During the ride and while Grace sat across from a secretary, they questioned her as to when she was hurt. She was in no condition to answer, so I tried my best to explain myself. Unfortunately, the few well-learned words of Italian that I recited to the medical staff convinced them that I knew Italian, so they fired me with rapid questions that utterly confused me. It was like that one day when you’re learning to swim, and you braggingly paddle a bit in the shallow end so the instructor sees you and plunks you into the deep end. In other words, I was soon in over my head.

            Fortune smiled on us when Mr. Scanlon (the Resident Director) showed up to assist us. He was the only one permitted to stay with Grace, though he texted me updates on her (In Italian by the way, the cheeky bastard, would it kill him to inform me of crucial information in, say, English, both of our first languages?)

            Three hours of waiting around were worth it in the end when Grace emerged from the hospital, full of a pain-killer that made her “floaty” in her words, but feeling much better and with a prescription for the next two weeks. She had an IV and a blood analysis, which proved her pain to be due to kidney stones. Poor Grace, I’ve heard they’re very painful. Anyone here had them? Let me know. A video about it is here

            Ha, I just reread this post and I saw that I promised a shorted version of the story…. Pushing 400 words. Oops :P

            However, lies aside, it’s now after 1 and I have to wake up for my first day of school as an upperclassman in less than 6 hours. Goodnight carinos.

X

Tally

*I use explain in the broadest sense here. My “explanation” was mostly comprised of side-clutching and repeating “medico! Abiamo bisogno di un medico…ospidale!”

Long Days Make Hectic Posts

September 4, 2010

Day 7

            You know that huge drop of energy on Boxing Day? When everything is unwrapped, the clothes have been tried on, and the stockings are empty? That’s how I feel today.  La Macchina di Santa Rosa was HUGE, and now everything is so **sigh**.  Grace slept over last night and we had a decent time chatting. It was quite funny looking back on it, but simultaneously, and without and exchange of words, we both were overcome with weariness and lay down on the bed and rested for almost an hour.

After our siesta Grace and I played Egyptian Ratscrew and Spit for a little over half an hour before we packed up to go to her house. There, I rested again as Grace tried and failed to access Internet. Her house has wifi but weak connectivity.

A few hours later we ate (again). This meal wasn’t quite as good, as we had a…. well a repulsive fish dish. Fortunately, it was tempered by bread with olive oil, green salad, white wine and a banana. This blog isn’t even a blog anymore; it’s merely become a food diary.

I gathered a little energy/went crazy from the language overwhelming me and lack of Internet (apparently the same in my mind) right before I made my vlog for today, so you’ll see that if you watch those. However, with one (current) exception I try to at least feign some excitement even if I’m completely devoid of any energy. Yeah… I care about you (awwww lessthanthreeee)

It’s late now, and I have “miles to go before I sleep” in a semi-literal sense. I shall speak more upon this later, now it not the time.

X 

Thalia.

PS. You know what should be a word? Overwhelmsion. Or maybe: overwhelmption. How splendid, right? Hell of a scrabble word too.

A Better Day

September 3, 2010

Day 6

            According to my calculations, today was *pauses* 648% better than yesterday!

            Of course, today had it’s low parts, which I will say now to get out of the way so I can end on a positive note. Firstly, I only managed a few hours sleep because I couldn’t sleep until well after 5am (I stopped checking the clock).

(See last night’s video link here. Worse, much worse was the food for today. If you read this blog consistently then (well firstly props to you, as it’s not very interesting) you’ll know that food is superbly delicious and that yesterday it was the highlight of my day. Today was very different.

For lunch my mum served me hamburger patties. Oooh, that was an awkward situation.  I haven’t eaten red meat in about 3 years and greasy bun-less ground beef did not seem to be the way to break that record. Yet I couldn’t merely refuse to eat it, it seemed to be quite the quandary. Just between you and me, I can share how I got out of it. As soon as her back turned, I wrapped my hand in a napkin, snatched the first patty and hid it in my lap until I could surreptitiously throw it away. I’m a sneaky bastard, I know.

However, my food situation did not improve from there. As you may or may not know, I have never eaten pig meat of any kind. Today, I did. It was awful; I did it completely by accident. A friend’s mother handed me a tin foil wrapped package and I, in my confused, sleep deprived state, I unwrapped it and took a bite. That one bit proved it not to be a roll of bread, but a sandwich, containing some pinkish meat. Unhappily, I thought I’d eaten turkey, but I swallowed anyway and then set the sandwich aside. A little while later, after a few jokes that the meat was cow tongue a girl there reassured me that it was ham.  I was horrified and felt utterly nauseous. My spirits were a bit dampened then but I tried my best to enjoy the day, which I will describe now :)

More of the chocolate cake and the unexpected presence of my sister, Bianca, brightened what I had thought would be a slow morning. Bianca and I chatted about juice for a good time. After I’d eaten, around 10, my mum sent Bianca and me to walk down to the bank. We were eager and willing, but both rather clueless. We walked up and down and back and forth and left and writing, asking many shopkeepers before we reached the ATM. Once we finally got there it took several rough tries to actually get it to work. I’m apparently extremely technologically impaired in this country, ATMs, cell phones, Internet keys, computers… However, when I finally got it to work, we happily returned home to eat pasta with pesto (along with the burgers :-/) and Bianca popped in the Italian Aladdin for us to watch.

The last part of my day was to meet up with Grace and a few other friends in the city. We chatted amiably for hours, and I managed to get some cell phone numbers on our kind-of working phone! (Yes! Technology going my way!)

At 7 we went to a piazza to find a seat and wait for the statue, which didn’t come until after 9. That was an unpleasant ordeal as there was one more many person than there were chairs, so we played a slow, grotesque version of musical chairs where each person dreads the music stopping as it means half an hour of more discomfort and dirt.

I was very sleepy at this point, and only the hope of seeing the statue kept my lids open. It was gorgeous when we finally saw it.  I really ought to put a picture in here… 

Ah well

ciao, Thalia

Short Blog Post Today, I Haven’t Much To Say

September 2, 2010

Day 5

           

            I slept late intentionally today, until around quarter to ten, and then had breakfast, which was the highlight of my day. I discovered the chocolate Grace and I saw being chopped up in a slice of breakfast cake.

            Unfortunately, my day only got worse from then on. I waited for hours hoping to be able to call home, but I seem to be cursed when it comes to cell phone and Internet issues here.

            We saw Grace again today, as la Macchina di Santa Rosa pre-festival started today.  I realize I haven’t fully explained what this is about. Okay…storytime! Santa Rosa was an extremely devout girl who lived in the 14^th century. After she died, the pope himself saw her body, which was thrown into a mass grave, as she was female and poor, and saw that her body remained perfect despite the years six feet below. The catholic belief states “perfect body, perfect soul” and Santa Rosa is now considered a saint (though on a technicality she is not a saint). Every year her heart and a six-story statue are carried through town by 100 common men dressed in the uniform of the cardinal.

This will happen tomorrow; today is the set-up and all the people getting pumped for the next day.

            When we arrived near the town I was shocked.  We were greeted by neon lights, balloons, carnival rides and white candy floss (that was a smaller surprise, I’ve only ever seen it dyed pick or blue).  I was surprised that this religious ceremony was commemorated by lurid lights and merchants.

            My mum bought earrings, as did Grace’s mother. We will go again tomorrow. This entire paragraph is brief. This post is full of passive voice. The green squiggly line doesn’t like it. But it’s appropriate. So I’m not changing it.  Fuck the green squiggly line. Short sentence. Fish. 

First Day of Classes

September 1, 2010

Day 4

Today, (Wednesday) was much like the Wednesdays I used to have back home. By this I mean only that it was a half-day, ending at 12:30. We all made up our schedules today, circling the courses we want when we want them; the leeway was lovely. Immediately after our new schedules were photocopied we proceeded to go to a shortened version of each class.  I have 6 classes filled out of a possible 7. There are 9 periods, one for lunch and, on some days, another for a supplementary Italian class. The 9-period day is something I have always wanted, so I think it’s fantastic, I have always wanted to have a free period, and now of some days I’ll have two! *Happy dance*

However, my classes aren’t as simple as I thought they might be. I am torn between two different Latin courses (I adore Latin and it’s mandatory). The first is a class that treats Latin as any other language, giving it no preference for being an ancient tongue that died out thousands of years ago. In this class we would read the Latin books just as normal book s to be talked about instead of the usual method of assigning lines. The other is the AP Vergil course, which is exactly what it sounds like. The entire course is in preparation for the Advanced Placement Latin Exam. This is a very challenging course; just as much as the other, but more suited towards my interests (poetry), while the reading seems less interesting, but more suited to my level. I have had two years of high school Latin, so the choice is not an easy one. Now I’m trying out both workloads and taking a couple of weeks to decide for myself.

Speaking of workload, we didn’t know that we were trying out our first school day today, so few of us brought the necessary supplies. I brought only a small daypack, which is completely sufficient for a spare top, a few pencils, sunglasses, chapstick, a wallet, and two notebooks, the cargo with which it was previously burdened. It is, however, inadequate when faced with the challenge of supporting all my bulky new books. My current textbooks alone rack up an impressive 6.4 kg, add to that one binder, two journals and an array of papers and you get a small bag struggling hold itself together, nonetheless its contents.

However, I will be much more prepared for Monday. (School does not start until after the Festa di Santa Rosa, which I’ll write another post about).

I couldn’t write yesterday because directly after school I collapsed on my bed in exhaustion, my body and mind too confused to process the day. I awoke at 10, after dinner was served and spent a sleepless night trying to figure out what to do. Unpleasant to say the least. I expect a better night tonight though.

My mum and I went to visit her friend, who is harboring Grace Brown. We all ate pasta at her house. The pasta was thick and utterly delicious. The white wine with dinner was sweet and tasty. If only Grace and I could talk less awkwardly it would have been perfect. As it is attempting to talk to someone seems rude when your parents are chattering away in Italian.  Back at my house Grace and I watched my mum chop up chocolate and we went to my room to talk. Now, I must get to work on my homework. I’m typing my English now, while chatting with Grace.

She’s wonderful :)

Lost and Academic Testing

Day 2.                       

           Just in case you were wondering, I would make a horrible invader. If I ever tried to ransack your city you would likely find m curled up in a pathetic heap in the friendliest corner I could find after a few hours. Translation: I am lost in Viterbo. Today we started the day with a tour of our scuola. This was delightful, as I was expecting our placement tests first.

We broke into small groups to see the entire school. Entire makes it out to be enormous, what a lie. We saw the administrative office, and Mr. Scanlon’s (our resident director’s) office as well Dave’s (our extra-curricular coordinator’s) office and the small kitchen. There are five classrooms; the four main ones (A, B, Z, E) are named after the winds (i.e., Aeolus, Zephyr, Boreas…), which I thought was wonderfully cool. The fifth is a spare. The most unique classroom is the Art history, which has a half barreled ceiling, giving it an echo. We also get a self-assigned cubby. I tried for a top one but was promptly kicked out of it by Sheridan, who is a good 5 inches above my respectable 5’6. I don’t mind though, it was a talking (cough cough arguing) point.

After that tour we were taken on a tour of the city.  This showed not only the streets we were on, but also the best gelato shop, cafes and pizzerias. After our hour-and-a-half tour (with a gelato stop half way through J) I am still lost. My current plan: travel in a (smarter) group!  Come to think of it, that’s probably what the real invaders did in the first place. I’ve got you figured out, Vikings.

Today was actually so easy. After our two tours we were granted another two hours to travel the city as we pleased. Even better, Mr. Scanlon, explaining that the program couldn’t provide lunch until after the ceremony of La Macchina di Santa Rosa, the third of Settembre, gave us each ten euro to budget accordingly for today’s lunch and tomorrow’s as well. Overjoyed, we set out immediately.

In my mind there was one and only one thought: We’re in Italy, let’s go get pizza. This was quickly supplemented by other such cumbersome thoughts such as: how can we get to a pizzeria, who am I going with, and I don’t yet want to wander the streets of Italy alone. Bah, who needs thoughts anyway? In the end I went to go buy pizza and afterwards, gelato. Could we be any more stereotypical? That made for my third gelato in two days by the way. Interesting fact about that group today, we’re two redheads, two brunettes, and two blondes.

Finally, after our outing we returned to take the 100-question Italian placement test. By question 48 I was suffocating in the stuffy room, guessing on every question and praying to get out. I already knew I’d be in Italian I though, I’ve never taken it. I rushed through the remaining 52 and then took as short oral test, which went much more smoothly. In the ever-mature words of a student here (cough, cough, BEAU) “Yeah, I’m pretty good at oral.”

Tomorrow we take the Math, and for some, Latin placement tests. After our Italian test, around 3, most people left, although school didn’t end officially until 4:07. Living far away, I waited until five, when my host mum came to pick me up. Due to our visits, (to the store (negozio), seeing her friend and fellow host family, and meeting her granddaughter, daughters, sister and mother) we didn’t make it home until seven o’clock. I was already quite tired and gratefully ate the pizza and vegetables she served me an hour later. I’ve been writing for most of today, hopefully I can get in some reading, (The Odyssey and the Ovid are my current reads) tomorrow. Now it is 10:24, and I should put down my computer and sleep. Buonnanote, Thalia.

The Trip Over

Day 1

I have arrived at my house! Yes, it’s 8:52 PM, in Bagnaia, in the province of Lazio in Italy! I’ve finally made it. When our flight from Paris landed here we claimed our baggage and took the two-hour bus ride from Roma to Viterbo.  It was rather unpleasant at first, as everyone was perspiring in the 90-degree weather. We all felt a bit stupid after complaining about the intense heat of the bus until one girl pointed towards the vents above us and suggested we open them. Ahh, fresh, delicious cool air! I don’t recall too much of the bus ride or even the flight to Roma because I managed to sleep. I do know, however, that a newly married Japanese girl gave me her centre seat so Reed Bruce and I (SYAers) could sit together. How do I know she’s a newlywed? Because I am such a sketchy person that when she pulled out her camera to look at pictures I saw dozens of pictures of her in a white dress and veil standing next to a smiling man. Yeah… I’m fucking creepy.

            Moving on, when we arrived in Viterbo we stored our bags before enjoying a lunch of penne pasta and crustless mozzarella tomato mayo sandwiches along with orange Fanta(the Fanta here tastes like it's made with pure sugar, which, now that I think about it, it probably is). Afterwards came the suspenseful wait for out families. One girl commented (rather truthfully in my opinion) that “it felt like an auction.” We all sat in chairs and one by one our family’s  name and then ours was called. I was in the last 10  sitting of the 45 students there. Yeah, stressful.

            I finally met my host mother. She is a short, dark haired smiling woman who always seemed to be laughing or talking or congratulating me (in the beautiful, false encouraging way mothers are known to have) on my Italian. Her granddaughter, who accompanied her, is also named Bianca, has fair skin and prominent freckles and is adorable. She was a bit shy around me, but kissed my cheeks willingly and when we dropped her off at her parents’ house, shyly presented me with her drawing.

            The last thing I can talk about before I unpack (yeah, that’s right, I sacrifice everything for you guys, I haven’t unpacked, showered or even brushed my teeth. Lovely) is the LANGUAGE. God, it hit me like a fast moving, giant (albeit beautiful) train. I am, in every sense of the word, a train wreck. However, I did expect this train wreck so I’m not devastated, but merely trying to stay afloat before I learn how to swim. Wow, I just changed metaphors. Grr, the train one isn’t even a metaphor! It’s a simile! Kind of! I really should eat and sleep and shower and...make myself presentable. Until next time my lovelies!

X

Thalia