Pictures

To see all my pics go to my online album at...

http://picasaweb.google.com/jesuschick0511

Sorry I can't get them on here, It just doesn't like me I guess :)

3 MONTHS!!!

WOWOWOWOOWOW! Yeah sure doesn't feel like its been 3 months since i've left home. So many things have happened this week. So once again It'll probably be long and there will be a lot of spelling mistakes because my english is terrible now but just push through lol Also I finally have almost every picture of my trip on here, so take a look :) Forgive the fact that there isn't any captions and they aren't all right side up but I'm pressed for time.

GITA-Fidenza
Every year each class goes on a trip to another city and my class went to Fidenza and toured churches and a monestary. It was pretty cool except the not understanding any of it. They all spoke in Dialect so i was totally lost. And of course with my luck it rained on us all day. My favorite part was the end of the day when we got to go to this city on top of the hill. It was beautiful! It was like something you see in the Movies but usually there are knights running around. Over all it was so cool. I was so amazed by the castle and my friends were all like, no biggy. Its normal to them, Crazy!!

American Weekend
This weekend my other foreign exchange student friend came to my town so we had a good ol' American weekend. After my Volleyball game Friday we got pizza (11pm) and then gelato. Saturday we had pancakes with my host family :) :) and rode around my town all day. We purposely got lost and found some awesome new places. Oh and check this out, we found a English Christian bookstore! We got home and went to the Vignola Castle. It was really cool. Oh and there was this famous spiral staircase and at the top people were taking pics after a wedding and they asked us to be in it so i'm right next to the bride&groom in pic forever lol. Even tho we were super tired we went bowling. Yeah they leave all the lights on in their alleys and only play one game. It is just different. But it was fun!

MILANO!!!!
So we woke up and got on a train for Milan. Dispite the rain we got a cab (first time in a cab) and went to the fashion street. My good friend who knows Milan really well was with us and he took us to all the best stores. We went into 6 D&G stores! and LV and Versace and lots of others. They are so beautiful, the stores themselves blow you away. Oh and the italian life style is so odd. I mean my friend needed to buy his friend a gift so he bought him a 180Euro shirt from Aramani. And he just casually bought LV sunglasses for 375Euro. Crazy. Oh and we went into Gucci, the biggest one in the world. And armani is HUGE!!! like bigger than a football field and 4 floors with everything imaginable! About lunch we headed to the gallery (absolutely gorgeous) Then we walked to the church. Wow! Words cant describe it! I got goosebumps just looking at it. Of course it was down pouring so we didn't get to get lots of pics :( Oh for lunch i had BURGER KING!!! i was so excited! lol After fighting the weather we headed home. I love love Milano :)oh and on the way home I started talking to some college kids from the US that studied in London and it was so cool to be able to say i live here. It was good to talk to them about studying abroad too.

There has been so many lil things that happen every day that just make you go Wow but by the time i get to sit down and blog i forget. Yeah a problem. lol But I do remember Monday, my host grandma said all the schools and churches in the USA were closed cause some virus, well atleast thats what my sister and i thought we heard so we freaked and I got on my Laptop and looked it up and called Erica. It was like 6am but she picked up and I was like DUDE WHATS GOING ON WITH OUR COUNTRY!? no worries lol Glad all of you are ok. :)

Finally the greatest news, I had my first dream in all Italian :) That means my brain is turning over! it was so exciting! When i woke up I ran to my host sister and was like OMGOSH GUESS WHAT! It is so odd to me some days that I am acutally here and will always have this as a part of me. I don't understand a lot of this culture but thats why I'm here, to learn, to grow and to except those things we don't understand. Time is going by really fast so I'll see all of you in 2 Months. I found out i'll be at the Springfield Airport about 11pm July 5th. Wow time has flown! Love you all!

Venezia :)

So this last weekend we went to Venezia. It is so amazing that I can just take a weekend trip to one of the most famous places in the world! It was a little bit cold and wet but yeah i was in Venice!! We left after lunch on Saturday and started driving. I was a little confused when we no joke turned the opposite way of every sign that said Venezia but it was because we were staying at a little hotel like thing outside of Venezia. It was so cute! We dropped off our bags and had to rush to the Ferry which we got on as they were closing the gates. it was so pretty :) And it was my first Ferry ride which made it even better. We arrived in Venezia right in front of San Marco's Square. WOW. IT is just like what you see in movies, and the Gondola drivers are exactly as you would imagine. It is definately a tourist spot though cause there was so many different nationalities there. Anna and I tried to spot the foreigners lol It was so easy. In San Marco's Square there are so many pigeons, like no joke if you have any food you'll have them all over you. We walked around and just looked at everything. It was so pretty :) We ate and then made our way back to the Ferry at like 9pm. The next morning we ate and headed off once again. This time we rode the front of the Ferry but went inside when it started to Rain. We walked the entire day, looked at all the amazing wonders of Venezia and shopped some. They have some of the most beautiful glass in the world! By about 3pm we were so tired, walking and the rain just killed us. We rode the water bus to the train station and went to meet my host dad who had the car.Its hard to describe it in words so i'll put pics on here. It was great for sure :)

Another big week ahead...Volleyball, Gitta with school, My american friend is coming to Modena for the weekend, Disco, and Sunday MILANO!!!!! AWWW can't wait!

Love ya lots!

Half Way

Today is my half way mark

Not fair, I really really am not ready to leave. Not at all.

One happy note of the day, my box from home got here...3 Jars of Peanut Butter! Thanks family!

Buona Pasque!!!

Happy Easter everyone!!! Hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed the time with family. It was sure different not being home this year, i'm used to Sunrise service and getting all dressed up and all that jazz. Here was really great though too. We had a week off of school so we got out Wednesday. Wednesday night was my friends B-day party at the disco so we went, and so did a billion other people! It was so full but we got in fine cause it was Abo's B-day. It was definately my favorite disco though. Thursday was a 'do nothing day' so we just chilled. Oh and since there is a whole supposedly in the ozone near here the sun is super powerful, I'm as tan now as i usually am in June.

Friday began the adventures lol On the way to Flaibono we went to Ferrara. It was so neat! (like every other italian town) Of course once in Flaibono we ate way to much! The cliche` Italian grandmas cooking is so true. It is just so so so good! lol She makes no joke the best Teramisu in the world. Saturday we went to Aquilea and Grado. They were both so pretty and interesting. The floor of the Chapel in Aquilea is all mosaic and is one of the most historical floors in the world! The sea was beautiful in Grado, I could have stayed there all day! We went back to Flaibono for dinner (ate to much again) and we finally had corn! the first time in 2 months! I ate the whole thing. For Easter we had a HUGE meal and then there was a 2kg chocolate egg. Yep it was awesome! we broke it open and we are still eating the chocolate lol Once lunch was cleaned up we went to Lignano and walked on the beach for a couple of hours. It was definately not like any other Easter.

For the culture things, and how they do easter it was interesting. Black Friday is different, In the evening the church and the people of the town walk the streets with a cross and sing and quote different things. And everyone prepares a nice lil table in front of their houses with a cross and candles and other stuff. It was pretty interesting. Sunday everyone when to church and that was the end of the Easter excitement religion wise. For me, Easter is a big deal for my family so I did it all on my own. Friday I read the story in the Bible and sunday when everyone left I went out on the deck thingy and ready the passage of the Bible where Jesus Rises from the grave. Then i just sad there and turned on some music. I have learned so much. I was listening to the song "You Raise Me Up" and i got goosebumps cause it made me realize something. Everyone morning I wake up to a giant mountain, A mountain made of language barriers and 6000miles of distance between me and the ones i love. The great thing though is even though most days i'm not strong enough to climb those mountains He raises me up to stand on top of them and help me get through each day. I know that there are people at home having a really hard time but hang in there cause He doesn't give us mountains we can't climb.

For my closing note, can you beleive tomorrow is the half way mark? Where has the time gone?! I'm going to miss it here so much! Thank you all for helping make this possible, its changed my life!

All my Love

Tanya

No Quake for Tanya

So about 30 people have asked about the earthquake. Luckily i'm in norhtern Italy so we didn't feel it or have any damage. My facebook was covered with wall posts asking about it and emails so i'll put it on here too, i'm A-OK lol. Emily did tell me that her and Erica were on the phone super early that morning and Erica measured and I'm 4inches on a map away from it so I'm safe lol There has been a lot on the TV and the papers obviously about it. It is kinda weird cause in my opinion they don't make a big deal out of natural disasters where in america we talk about it at school and everyone talks about it, not here. Strange.

On another update of life...its amazing! This last week I had volleyball (which was amazing! I love love my team) and i went shopping at the Armani Factory with my best friend here. The Armani Factory is about 5-10minutes from my house. Love it! Saturday I went to the Disco with my friends and it was a lot of fun, more like what i had pictured the disco. It had huge screens all around and it just looked like in the movies. Oh and like the whole time on the screens was things about America and the Election and other things, it was funny. The weather is finally nice so I've spent every afternoon in the park studying or just laying there. I have this podcast that is a youth group in the USA and its amazing so I listen to that too! Today was so hot so I spent the whole afternoon laying on a hill. I sure got tan! I don't know what it was but I mean I just got tan, FAST! It was crazy. I have this terrible line on my wrist where my LIVESTRONG bracelet was even. After I ran with Frida and here I am once again blogging. We are going to Udine for Easter so I'll blog about it when i get back. I'm sure going to miss being home for Easter. won't be the same without all of you! LOTS OF LOVE!


Oh real quick a culture thing to think about...there isn't air conditioning anywhere. Not even at home. Its going to be a interesting summer for sure :)

2 months Already?

I <3 ITALIA


Really? Two Months?! like how is that even possible? Just doesn't seem right to me. This has by far been two of the greatest months of my life! My week of no english really helped cause Saturday at school I don't know what it was but it just clicked, just kinda started talking only Italian. It was pretty awesome no joke! Last week was great, I played a lot of volleyball, hung out with Frida and my friends a ton and just had a blast. Really there are a lot of days that I still don't believe i'm here, like this is something that will forever be apart of who I am. It is kinda crazy to think about. Oh so Sunday was awesome too cause I had 4 of my best friends come over for lunch. We talked and ate, A TON! and we ate some or i guess almost all of the American candy I had. They loved it! We all stayed around and talked and they all left about 5:30pm. To say the least it was a lengthy lunch. Oh it was really cool cause one of our friends came over to introduce us to her friend from France who is here for a week. So at one point we had 4 nationalities in one house. (American, Italian, Norwegian, French) It was pretty cool.

This week so far its been raining and ugly outside so now fun days in the park :( but on the other hand I have lots of Volleyball this week. Monday I had a game and got to play the whole time! I had so much fun! Tonight is practice, tomorrow i'm playing in a game with my class at school and then a game with my team right after it! Lots of volleyball :) Its really funny when i call the ball cause the whole gym just kinda looks at me since they have no idea what i just said. lol Friday I plan on sleeping cause Saturday Night i'm going to the disco again! I'm so excited! Then next week we only have 3 days and then Easter break! WOOHOO! i'm really going to miss being home for Easter, it just won't be the same.
Last thing.....March 25th was a very important day. It marked the one year point since I decided to do this. Thank you everyone who made this possible. That is really cliche` but i truely mean it. Every single day I experience something new and without all of you amazing people in my life supporting me I wouldn't be here. So thank you for being you! I'll never be able to pay you back for what you've done for me :)
Love you all!