Sunday and Monday

So. Sunday morning. I wake up, do some sit-ups, and then I get dressed and but things back into order in my room and I go and have breakfast and I find Alba, Emanuela's cousin (she came Saturday night), in the kitchen cleaning mussels for Sunday lunch. So we had a nice chat and I munched on Kellog's Nice Morning Cereal, and then I went and vacuumed my room and I went downstairs for a while with Alba and Manu. For some reason EVERYONE was grumpy that day. It was a pretty stressful lunch of pasta with shrimp and mussels and then after some home made calamari. There was just this angry tension in the air the whole day. From everyone. And you know I had started off great but seriously by the end of the day I didn't want to see anyone to be honest. I was happy to go to bed that day.
Today I woke up and did some more sit-ups and ate more Nice Morning cereal and I got all ready for school. And then we went to school and did what we normally did. And then after a long and boring day at school Emanuela and I went to Catanzaro and went to the hospital to see Aldo. We got there around 3 and we waited until about 6 or 6:30....omg. But I slept on a bench for a while so it was ok.
We went in and saw Aldo and I felt myself smiling almost the whole time and Emanuela was beaming. He talks a little slow and sometimes his words are a little muddled and he moves awkwardly and things...but he's doing much better. And with time all that will get better. He's not brain damaged...but he did take quite a blow to the head so I'm pretty sure that's all normal.
After we talked with Aldo and gave him presents and things he grew very tired so we left and then Emanuela and I went out for supper with two of Aldo's friends, Ferdinand and Dario. We went to McDonald's. Surprise. I've eaten more McDonald's here than I ever have at home O.o That's not right.
But anyways today was a pretty good day. Everyone ended up happy and now I'm going to bed in a good mood.
Cheers everyone!
-Mikeala Mikalina

The Past Few Days

So....not a lot has happened for a while now I suppose...Manu and I are grounded for a while because we stayed out to long one time...so we've just been chillin at the house migrating from T.V. to T.V. and occasionally to the computer and also bed, and the kitchen of course. Nothing really exciting. Although there's some good news...we got to go out tonight for a while which was good. And Aldo is coming out of the hospital on Monday! Manu almost peed herself when she told me she was so excited.
So if you're wondering what we did tonight, well Manu and I went out and met up with Flavio, Francesco, Alessandro, Antonio, Sebastian, and some other guy and we went out for pizza and just wandered around Botricello. Doesn't sound like much but it was fun and we had a good time it was nice to go out and not have to get all fancy or do something wild and crazy but we also didn't just stand around and do nothing. So yeah it was good.
I've made getting back into shape a new space on the top of my priorities....starting to notice some "Nutella effects" on my hips haha. And I've also been trying to play violin more....things aren't too bad. Although I'm really missing home right now because it's close to Christmas and all but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be really. Anyways...so since I don't really have much to write about I'll recount some of the things that happened when I first came here.
1) So we were all at the dinner table and this was maybe a few weeks after I arrived at my new home...and we were eating dinner happily and I meant to say that I like bread in Italian. But I didn't know how to say bread in Italian so I just said bread in french...which is pain. But the way it's pronounced in french means another word in Italian. So instead of saying "I like bread" what I really said was" I like penis." ......................there was a silence as everyone stopped chewing and a fork clattered onto a plate and food was falling out of everyone's mouths. And I looked around wide-eyed and said, "What?" And then it was explained to me. I'm pretty sure my ears almost burned off hahaha.
2)I remember thinking when I first came here how I feel like Gandalf when he's in Bilbo's house. Because we live above the store and so the ceiling is also the roof....so it slopes down nice and low at certain points of the house. And in the bathroom in my room I have to duck to get in the door and almost crawl to the toilet and then I'm sitting on it curled in a ball and then I stand up and hit my head and hobble over to the sink. Every day. And I have to duck to go in the other bathroom and I have to duck to go into the kitchen. And then there's a room where the freezer is and when I go in I'm basically bent at a 90 degree angle and then I try and open the freezer but the lid can't open all the way so I'm bent over the freezer like a cripple and the lid falls on my head and...wow it's ridiculous haha. Just thought I'd share that.
Ok so thats enough for now I've lost the attention span so I guess I'll write more later...ciao for now!

It's about time for another blog.....It's gonna be a long one..

So, last Wednesday, my class and I...as well as a few other classes...went on a school trip for six days. We left at 5:30 am that morning, and arrived in Como (a little town just outside Milan), around 8:00 pm. So it was a long day despite the many stops at gas stations and such. So that was the first day. We all arrived in the hotel (which was a little on the shabby side), all exhausted and grumpy, and the first thing we did was eat supper, and then we got our bags and found our rooms. I was in a room with Emanuela and Eleonora. So obviously, I took my shower last. And after our showers, Manu and I went and visited friends in other rooms. Eleonora stayed in the room and slept because unfortunately she was rather sick. We ended up going to bed quite late...probably around 3:30 am....and then we had to wake up at 7:00 am the next morning to have a nice breakfast of a croissant and a bun at 8:00 am and then at 8:30 we were to leave. Wow. So anyways at 8:30 we all piled on the bus and we went down to the center of Como and toured around for most of the day. Some statues, old buildings, a rather large lake that the town is built around, and we saw a church on the other side of the lake. We took a ferry across the lake. It was pretty neat.

 

 

 

 

And after all our tours, we were allowed to run free for about three hours. And I bought myself a cute li'l sweater. Como was really beautiful. I would live there, but there's not enough snow.

That night we once again stayed up late and visited with friends. And the next morning we got up at 7 and left at 8:30 and we left for Switzerland. Didn't even need our passports. When we got there we were just let loose which was great. And that day I felt super special because we were trying to find the city center and the people we asked for directions couldn't speak Italian but they spoke English so I was like the translator and..I felt so special!! The city we visited was basically in a huge valley and was surrounded by gigantic and gorgeous mountains, and your breath came out in whisps of fog and the air was fresh and crisp...a little taste of home...which, for me is basically the same as a slice of Heaven.

 

 

Sorry if the pictures are a little unorganized...it's a pain in the butt trying to put pics on here.

Anyways....so we ran free in the streets of Switzerland...and it was full of old colourful buildings and such...so here are some pictures of just some scenes in Switzerland.

This was on a bus..thought it was funny

All hand made

HEINEKEN!

I love the guy in this picture!

After Switzerland we spent the night visiting each other's rooms and chilling with friends until the wee hourse of the morning, sharing jokes and playing games and smoking (I DIDN'T SMOKE IT'S OK EVERYONE!) And so of course we took a few pictures here...just before a grumpy teacher came in and started screaming at us :)

I forget this guy's name but he fell asleep
and one person recorded him snoring
and another tried to light his belly hair
on fire before I stopped them

Alessio

Giuseppe and Emanuela

Giancarlo sitting on Alessio

Andrea, Giancarlo and me

The next day we went to Bergamo and I think it was the most beautiful. And when we went into the square I turned to see a guitar player setting on some marble steps playing Bach on the guitar and it was really amazing stuff it sounded beautiful echoing off all the stone buildings. I missed the entire lecture about the history of the square because I was too fascinated with the guitar player. Then we left the square and we went inside two churches, and they were the most gorgeous churches I'd ever seen. They were filled with paintings and the ceiling had giant frescos depicting fat naked kids with angel wings pointing and dancing with curtains and eating fruit...classic Italian. And there was a huge morbid statue of Jesus nailed to the cross in each one. I thought that was nice. But the entire inside was made of white marble, with rows of carved wooden pews and high ceilings and stone pillars. And if you listened carefully you could hear that haunting and sad church music...it was a hollow voice that echoed through the church off the stone and left your heart cold. You wanted to cry and sing with them at the same time. Quite the atmosphere. Yup.

After the tour we had about two hours to go out by ourselves, so Emanuela, Eleonora and some other people and I found ourselves back in the square. Giancarlo and Alessio and Tommasso went and tried to talk to the guitar player, and found out he didn't speak Italian so they called me over. Once I got directions to a good place to eat I had a nice chat with this guitar player. He sounded Australian, but he's actually from England. I wish I would have bought one of his CD's because he was really good. And he was also obsessed with Bach it was kinda funny. The guy was hilarious. But I won't quote anything here...it's too full of profanity. But that made me pretty happy. I love talking to fellow musicians. It's true when they say that music is something that brings everyone together. Small world.

                 

Guitar Guy!!!!!

In the square

Fountain in the square

Tower by the churches

Entrance to one of the churches

The other church

Around the corner...

This was inside the first church
But then I got told off
Because we weren't allowed to take pictures
inside
And my battery died
So I don't have anymore pictures
But I hope you get the idea

I don't know what this is but I liked it

On our way back from Bergamo we stopped at a chocolate factory. It was more like a Wonderland. Let's say a lot f chocolate was bought. And it was freakin' good chocolate too....

And after that we went back to the hotel and did what we normally did. Ate supper and then went and socialized until early in the morn' and got screamed at multiple times by various teachers...the party poopers. I'd say they were a little too.....teacherish. It was almost ridiculous. A lot of people in Italy smoke. And so the window of the room we would be in was often open with a few people at a time poking their heads out the window and smoking. And one time, kids had been smoking in the room before me and Manu came in, so the room smelled strongly of smoke. And the window was still open to air the place out. And at one point Manu and I were close to the open window breathing in the fresh air, when the teacher basically smashed down the door and was like blabbering/screaming in Italian and asking us if we were smoking weed and she looked out the window to see if there were any "joint remenants" and she made all of us turn over the beds and open drawers and stuff and it's like o my God are you really that untrusting? It didn't even smell like weed. It smelled like cigarettes. I tell you she was pretty much a cow. This just bugged me. And one time after dinner Me and Nora and Manu were standing near the door to outside and she comes and starts freaking out at us and accused us of smoking...well...not cigarettes. And it's like woah lady what's your problem?! We can't stand by a door. I think there was something a little wrong with the way they handled things. I'm sorry I just had to write about this it bugged me. And sometimes a teacher would just come in and freak out at us for playing a card game. UGH! So anyways there was some issues there I suppose.

Anyways the next day after Bergamo we spent on the bus and we went to Rome, as well as making a few random stops. This was the last night, and everyone was pumped about going out dancing..until we found out all the clubs were closed because it was Sunday. Great. So what did we do on our last night? Got screamed at by more teachers. I remember poking my head out of our room once...and there was a teacher in a chair in the hall...like a guard or something! Isn't that a bit much like wow. Anyways I'm going to start ranting so I better stop here. And thennn the day after that....was on the bus once more homeward bound, nothing too special there.

Then the next day I stayed home from school and slept in. Manu went to school, though I have no idea why. Anyways so when I woke up I played a good two hours of violin in the empty house, and after lunch I went for a nice run by the sea, found a few nice shells and watched the sun set. I'd say that was a pretty good day. And even better...the next day was a day off from school whoopie!!

But, instead of a nice casual day like I anticipated, something else completely unexpected happened. I am about to get on a very grave subject now. So the night before, a boy who is my friend and also a very good friend of Emanuela, got in a serious car accident and had to go to the hospital. That night (Tuesday night) he was in a coma, but he woke from it and he was put into a "chronological coma".... or something like that...from the doctors. We went to the hospital the next day as soon as we found out and we saw him and I found tears in my eyes. Almost his whole face was bandaged, and the part that wasn't was cut and bruised and he was hooked up to multiple machines. It was pretty heavy stuff, seeing someone you know...like that. 

We were at the hospital all day that day along with many of Aldo's friends and family. There was a lot of tears that day.

So this was on Wednesday last week. And Sunday morning, he woke up and is doing well. He responded well to questions and he remembers the accident. I think at some point he was on his feet. It's a relief. They were afraid that when he woke up more problems would arise. And another one has. It's not serious they think, but there's a problem with his lungs. They may have to operate though but right now they're not sure. So he's doing ok...except for this. And nobody can see him unless he's asleep because if he sees someone he knows he gets extremely emotional and his heart rate goes through the roof. Apparently when he saw his little sister his heart rate went up to about 300, which 

I didn't even think was possible. And when he saw his uncle his heart rate went from 90 to 120. So they're worried about this and we can't see him...which really sucks. Manu is dying to see him practically. But I hope he gets better soon. This whole thing was quite a blow to everyone. So I hope you will all send your thoughts out to this boy and also send the hopes of his recovery. E un bravo regazzo (he's a good guy). So I needed to write about this because I thought it was important. Drive carefully everyone, and don't forget to tell the people around you how much you care. 

So I suppose that's all for now. I'm sorry it took so long for me to post this...but I've been trying to write this for about 5 days haha.

Cheers,

-Mikeala