i really am sorry

everytime i think about my blog, i say,

no, i just updated that, i'll do it later. then when i actually look, i cannot believe how long its been. so seriously, my bad.

i really cant even believe its the 11th of december already. the towns gearing up for christmas, as shown here. this is the front of my house more or less, and the christmas tree. i think it looks pretty cool in the dark, but i added light filled shot as well for all you ornament fans. i've told a few of you, but italians decorate their tree based on color. ours is goldish silver, but really any color will do. i never realized that the ornaments at home were basically tradition, but some families here buy new decorations every year.

i've started volunteering at a home for young mothers down the street. its pretty simple, playing with their kids for an hour or so while they study or work.

tonight i'm headed to a choir practice at a church in town. the school choir wasnt quite satisfying enough. i mean sure, 2 part harmony is okay, but i at least need some good accompaniment. actually thats a lie, at school, there is also a music school and our director teaches piano i think. he is really really really good. but so are all the kids. its kind of cool to listen to them when you walk down the halls. their wing is on the other side of the building, but everytime i'm over there some 7 year old is busting out mozart.

i woke up on monday and was greeted by a fresh layer of snow on the mountains. you know what that means, skiing galore. the nearest lift is about an hour away, and i'm not quite sure yet if skiing is done the same way here as at home, with the lodge and the ski patrol, but the tickets are a definite. i dont know if italy uses the word free very often. i'm really missing the cookies at giant and the coffee at the ragged edge that i didnt have to pay a dime for.

i'm going to really try to update before a month has passed. but i cant promise anything.

love you guys!

austria

can i just go ahead and tell everyone to forget about italy and just go to austria. because it is the BOMB.

as shown here, carnivals are open year round and have been for 30 years. totally old, totally fun, totally safe. i hope.

just driving down the highway was amazing. all the fall colors, the rolling hills, i pretty much felt like i was in a movie. a really good one.

we tasted the food, picked up some postcards, walked around, had a blast. i'm not gonna lie though, i havent found anything quite as good as banana fudge pie from kilwins yet.

i started some yoga classes and joined the gym. i know, what would i want to do in a gym, but believe you all me, this gym is really cool. my trainers name is claudio who lived in rochester new york so i talk to him about peanut butter and all the other things i'm dying without.

i've finally started taking tests in school, and theyre just about as fun as they ever were. except in a different language. my art history test i did pretty well on. every

thing is out of 8, and i got a 6+. i also took a biology test, and today had an oral test in philosophy. that one didnt really go so great, but i totally know everything about pitagora and his theories.

i also have been meeting some other exchange students in the area. miho is from tokyo, japan, and although its weird to think about, this american girl is speaking in italian to a japanese girl. i'm just running into all kinds of culture. then i met sandra from oregon, alana from nova scotia, canada, and sara from kansas. when i first got there, i remember my brain kind of went into shock after realizing that i could speak english and they would understand me and i could understand them, no problemo. but dont worry, italian is coming along as nicely as expected. its crazy to think its already been 2 months!

hope everyone had a great halloween and is preparing for the feast that is thanksgiving. i was pretty embarrassed when i had to ask mom when turkey day actually was.

i'm going to have to find the recipe for grandmas swiss apple pie and introduce italy to heaven.

love you guys

megan

rickarickaawesome

its pretty crazy to be able to walk out the front door and go shopping. its even crazier to be able to walk out the front door and go hiking.

crazy as in awesome.

things are picking up around here. my school is opening their new gym this friday, and this guy wrote a musical, and the choir is singing in it. so its a big party, musical style.

it should be pretty happenin.

this mountain is about a 5 minute walk from the house. its supposed to be 300 steps, but from my burn my legs were feeling, it had to be more. even so, it was definitely worth it. theres about a million little churches hidden all over the place, and a little restaurant at the top. through the woods, we even found some houses. i dont know how those people got their cars up there, but this is italy, anything is possible.

my class went to germany for a week, so while they were gone, i got to hang out with all the other classes in the school. more importantly, the italian teacher. it was a really great way to meet everyone and for everyone to ask me what i thought of bush. when i answered, my teacher said i was very diplomatic. which i am. youre welcome rotary.

hope everything is going good at home.

uno giorno in una barca

thats right, venice. we successfully made it around the ctiy, which i had no idea was so enormous, on a boatbus. it was truly amazing

to see a normal city, but with boats. we saw police boats, ambulance boats, and of course, gondola boats. there really arent enough words to describe it, just check out these pics. dont worry, i have plenty more, but they take forever to upload and i have to wake up for school tomorrow. cool.

everything here has been going pretty great. this week, my class took a trip to germany for 10 days, but i stayed home to study. so i move around from class to class following the italian teacher with my learning italian books for first graders. trust me, their harder than they sound. i can usually understand a conversation, but when asked a question, i freeze up and forget everything. but i've found a few friends who talk with me, forcing me to get comfortable with talking.

instead of getting my tounge peirced, i've decided to just get a tatoo instead. because peircings are temporary, tatoos are for life.

just kidding, i need to learn how to ask if the paints and needles are sanitary or if i'm going to get hep c first.

sike, again.

love

megan

buon compleanno a me!

let me just tell you about this cake. a halo of cream puffs drizzled with chocolate, crowning a layer of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate ice cream, stabilized by the solid gold that is cake. its genius.

as you can tell by my face, my birthday was a memorable one. thanks to everyone for their greeting and cards, it made things a little more like home. not that i even miss it or anything. but i went to school and bribed my classmates to hang out with me when i gave them some sandwiches and coke. then it was off to treviso for some lunch and exploring. yet another beautiful city of italy. i met gios two daughters, frederika and carolina. they were both so nice, and from what i could understand of the conversation, they probably liked me too.

in the evening, we went to the american air base which is east of where we live to eat chicken, the only thing that americans truly love. we met some of gio and cris friends, but didnt eat until 11, so as you can guess, i was pretty wiped. my brain stopped processing any italian, but i totally annihilated that bird.

tonight i'm headed to a punk concert in front of the church on the square, called the duomo with my friends guilia and chiara. dont be surprised if i only wear black nail polish and have my tounge peirced when i get back.

back to school, back to school

this week has been full of meeting new people and not understanding them. there are 11 other kids in my class, only one being male. bummer, i know. but i made some friends, of course, and can understand everyone if they talk slowly. however, the chances of a group of 12 kids sitting in a tiny room and spending time to try to talk with me about my hobbies, habits, and overall ideas about life is pretty slim. they're all...crazy. at least it sounds like it because i cant understand anything and the bell to begin class doesnt mean anything. teachers walk in 10 minutes, half and hour, or an hour late, leaving me to show off my 30 gigabyte ipod in this world of mini and nano everything. luckily, smiling is a universal gesture, and i have definitely been relying on it heavily.

the weekend before school, we went to a beach about 45 minutes away. We ate, practiced our frisbee skills, and I, once again, got caught asleep on film. We were going through the pictures that Gio took and lo and behold, my wrinkled sleep face comes up with my "Beginners Guide to Italian" on my lap. Needless to say, we've crossed more social boundaries in a week than most do in a lifetime.

I must correct my statement in the previous post that there are "dont stop" signs. Even though they were really "no parking" signs, that doesnt change the fact that all of the signs are "not rules, just guidelines."

What a country.

let me take your picture with my camera phone

the view from the porch and a nearby lake with gio

TaDa

so. already, i know this was the best decision of my life. cristina buys me candy, gio gives me a bike that is named freestyle. italy and i are meant to be. i've eaten spaghetti and been to the post office, i've seen the churches and read the newspaper. things are definitely different. instead of stop signs, they have "dont stop" signs. the cars are small and fast and reckless. cri says they only have accidents at night when the men are drunk. i am located in the middle of downtown vittorio veneto eating all the gelato you can imagine. if i get fat, its going to be so worth it. every day has been incredibly busy, so i havent had much time to miss you all, but i do very much. hope all is well.

ciaociao