finalmente!

april is the rainy month alright. i've spent the past few days dodging puddles and hoping i remembered my umbrella. luckily i have, for the most part.

these are some pics from france and some from italy. it was a fun trip, even if my wardrobe doesnt seem to change from that green jacket and white scarf. it was sort of cold, which was a bummer, but the sights were good and the food even better.

milano

yet another month has flown by without even telling me.

schools been going good, we've moved onto plato in philosophy and sine and cosine in math. theres a picture of my classroom, the one i sit in every day for 5 hours excluding sundays. the gyms been going good, this is my last conversation with my best friend/trainer guy claudio:

me- claudio, what was your favorite subject in high school?

claudio- well there was this girl with a red jumper, i liked her a lot.

me- no, i mean like, school subject

claudio- oh i know, that was my favorite. all of my effort went into that one. i had an a +. haha, no i'm just joking.

me- yeah, haha, i figured

claudio- i had a b-. hahaha.

yeah, hes the bomb.

so we went to milan the other weekend to check it out. i actually hooked up with an italian girl who lived in gettysburg for one year as an exchange student and hung out with her most of the day, luisa is her name. she was really sweet and we talked about her host families, the hubers, you know with the twins sam and the one that dated sydney cullison, and the levans, dont worry, i've already informed dani.

we walked around a lot, ate some of the delicious cuisine, and chit chatted it up. we had lunch with two of the other exchange students living in milan this year. one is from connetticut and the other just got here a few weeks ago from australia. they were both pretty nice, having a good time, you know.

then this weekend i'm off to rome with my friend alana from canada. meaning even more picture and a little bit warmer weather. and probably a more timely update. haha.

hope all is good, love megan

ski time.

so even though my feet did not seem to have a great time, skiing has been the thing to do this month. instead of skiing down the same mountain for 6 hours, you just move from town to town, crossing streets and passing houses and seeing some kickin mountains. we ususally go to zoldo, which is about 45 minutes away. i've stopped falling, which is a plus, but have a long way to go to match my skills with the 12 year olds racing down the mountain beside me.

i totally rocked out christmas eve at church. it was pretty packed, but the choir sounded awesome as usual. church is basically the same, but way colder and way more awesome paintings. i really dont think they heat it, and the tile floors are no help.

today i went up to belluno with my friend alice to hang out with her grandma. its really crazy how even old people versus young people have different dialects. ho capito, meaning i understood, becomes ho capi. bello, meaning beautiful, becomes beo. they basically just cut out letters and sounds where they want, and yet it still makes sense. every region has its own dialect and accent. thanks for the heads up italy.

the saint day of my city is wednesday, so no school. i'll be drowning myself in shopping/pizza/hot chocolate. seriously, the hot chocolate here is comparable to thick runny chocolate pudding. none of that swiss miss crap. i dont know if i'm going to be able to live without it.

i've got to get back to my knitting. i'm trying to average one a month, and this month needs some work.

love

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