What do you do when time is not on your side....make the most of it

Ok so in typical Tanya fashion I am going to start this blog out with the apology for not writing in like 3 weeks. So this will be slightly longer to catch you up on my Italian Summer :)

The first week of summer i chilled at home and hung out with Frida basically everyday. Then every night we'd go to the park. Even though I really really didn't want to I left to and AFS camp on Thursday morning. Its not that i didn't want to see my friends with AFS I just didn't want to leave all my friends here. Anyways there was like 60 of us and it was fun! We spent most the time with orientations but when we didn't have to talk about going home we hung out. Oh and it was in Tuscany :) The first night we all sat in this room and there were candles in the center of the room...you could light one for all the good moments or put one out for the bad. After about 15minutes half the room was in tears. That was when i was like wow, this isn't just a semester abroad this is much more. I mean what can take a room full of teenagers from countries all around the world, who have seemingly nothing in common and have them all brought to tears by one thing. Italy. Its the love for this country we all have and our new lives and families here. Everyone was finally brought to the point where we realized, wow we have to go home soon. Anyways AFS did that all weekend, tried to get us to the point where we can emotionally handle leaving. The second night we hung out on a balcony and found the brightest star in the sky and named it Taker because we were all together under the Tuscan sky staring up and the star...in the country that 'took' our hearts. Cheesy i know but still. The last night we stayed up all night talking and chilling on one of the balconies. No joke i slept like 20minutes waiting for breakfast and that is all. Oh but on a stupid note...since I am just made to get hurt we were teaching them Souja Boi (on mattresses on the balcony) Some how i tripped and hit my head on the edge of the wall. I am pretty sure that is another one for the count lol. It was another super long day but we finally got home. Oh and not to add it was super super hot, the Tuscan sun is so so hot! Anyway it was a fun weekend but it was good to be home.

Monday I got up and made pancakes with my sister and then my friend picked me up. I spent my last days with my friends from school and we just hung out, went to the pool, did fit box at the gym and had a blast. I am really going to miss them! After being at the pool for 9 hours i went directly to volleyball. Oh and it was 38C (AGH!!!) We had a super short practice then went to pizza as a team. I got a pizza with french fries on top! it was good! then my coach and my team gave me presents, they said I'm welcome back to play any day. The gave me a shirt and a vball signed. It was sad to say the first set of goodbyes but we got it done.

The rest of the week was hanging with my friends. I have this set of friends that are literally with me EVERYDAY! Frida, Giulio, Rigo and Matteo. Like they have asked off so much work to just be in Modena before I have to leave. Oh and I even went to the gym again on Friday for Fit Box. Its crazy fun. Saturday I got up after like 3 hours of sleep and got ready to get Erica from the train station. After 3 delays, and not being on the first i finally got to see my sister after 5 months! it was great. we did so much in a week...Disco, Park, Verona, 5 Terre, Milano, Modena, Park again. it was great! I had to be a translator all week and it was so much fun! It was hard too cause her being here showed me that i have changed and that i have to go back to my old life and hope that everyone accepts the changes or at least understands. Saying bye to her at the airport was easy cause its only a week.

Now to the super hard stuff....tomorrow starts the goodbyes that are going to hurt so much. My very best friend here who I am with everyday and is my sounding board here leaves to go home to Norway tomorrow. I am not ready. Like I know I will see her again but I mean when someone becomes apart of your life and is there everyday then all of a sudden like 9,000miles is between you two...yeah it sucks. I think if i can say bye to her the rest will be a little easier. I already talked to my boys and they are all coming over Sunday to help after i say bye. Frida is the greatest friend I could have asked for over here!

But I am done writing a novel, sorry for the length. I am off to have my last Saturday in modena :( I leave next Saturday afternoon. Time is defiantly definitely not on my side so I am going to make this the best week yet! Ti Voglio bene Italia!!!

Bye Bye Wiligelmo :(

It seems like everything these days is bitter sweet. Last Saturday the 6th was our last day of school. It is great that summer is here but at the same time i miss school. The last week was great! On Monday we had our class dinner and then all hung out all night. Toward the end of the week my friends came over and we made some more American cookies so I could bring them to school on Saturday. We didn't do really anything the last day but it was all because the excitement comes after the bell rings.(I'll get to that in a second) But as i was walking out of the class i just was like wow, I'll never be a student here again. Then I have no idea why but as i was walking out of the school I started tearing up, man has this place impacted me.Everyone was like awwww and i was like no seriously this is sad stuff, its the end of another chapter in my life. Growing up kinda sucks you know :/ But then right when the bell rang eggs were launched into the crowd...and so began the longest water fight I've ever seen. I went across the street to find my friends from the 5th year and i found them, next to the open fire hydrant. lol They had opened it up and water was everywhere! Within seconds i was soaked. Luckily I avoided the flour and eggs that were flying all over the place. After about an hour we went to the park where we found like the every kid in our town. What little I was dried off on the way over there was useless cause i got soaked again. Oh and attacked by shaving cream. There were people everywhere!!! And then people started jumping in the lake and throwing people in. It was crazy! Sure don't do it like that in America! the end of school is craziness for sure! Then i came home to shower before going to Armani with Frida and Leo. I finished my gift shopping for people at home!! Ian is going to be the classiest baby :) After I met my friends in Corlo. I also discovered that it is very very hard to ride a bike with 2 people, 5 pizzas, and a 2liter of coke lol. We got ready together and then went to Rockville. Pretty much everyone in the area goes to the Disco the night of the last day of school. It was the greatest time for sure because it was all outside in the mountains, the music was great and I was with my besties here :) It was an AMAZING DAY!!!


And now that summer has started I've taken it slow. well I'm trying to slow down everything cause I'm not ready to go home at all! I am trying to spend a lot of time with my family and friends. And my closest friend Frida. She goes home before me so we both are just trying to not think of going home. At the same time we spent 30minutes yesterday thinking of reasons we want to go home so we can convince ourselves we are ready.But no worries I'll be glad to get there once i say my goodbyes. Oh almost forgot, on Friday night I called Erica with the web cam and I got to talk to Nick, Gracie and my nephew Ian Troy(OK well he's in her belly still so it doesn't' count completely) And then since they were in Nebraska for our family reunion Erica took her laptop around at dinner and I got to see all my family and say hi. Yeah it was like midnight here but hey i was at my family reunion for a while :)

Since I always right something about the culture or something I've learned I have a big one for you guys....I have decided to start all over, from square one. When I get home I'm selling like all the crud in my room, selling most of my clothes and redoing my room...starting over. This semester has really changed me, I mean I have survived just fine for 5 months with just a small fraction of what I have always had so why do I need all of it when i get home? I already know what I want to do with my room and it is basically going to be my bed, side tables, shelf thingy and a table and that's it. Its about time I simplify things. And the clothes thing, I really don't use all my clothes so why do I keep them? I have no idea, I'll just get rid of them. Life is going to be a lot easier without all the materialistic things. Another thing I've learned is that you can live without the material things but without your loved ones its a challenge. The 6,000miles is nothing when it comes to all the stuff I have at home but the family and friends being so far away for 5 months is what really affects you. Right now I'm stuck, I have to leave family and friends here too but to return to my other friends and family. I think its going to be the hardest thing I've ever down. My best friend here goes home the 28th so that will be a real challenge. Adding 6,000 miles the other way hurts hurts just as much. But with all this in mind I'm coming back, I have to. Talk about a lasting impact. With my recent decision to start over and all the other things I've learned and grown from I can honestly say that coming here is the smartest thing I've ever done with my life.

Love you all, I'll be on US soil in just 25days :/ See you soon!

Sadest thought since i got here...

So today I realized one month from today i'm going to have to leave Modena and my new life behind. Right now i don't know if i'm mentally strong enough but I will survive...i hope. I was talking to my friends at school and we are all so sad. I have some many amazing people in my life here, i've been so blessed. I discovered when i left the USA i suck at saying goodbye and this one is going to be even worse than saying goodbye to all of you. My best friend here Frida leaves 5 days before me so thats then and at the Station the 3rd i have to do the rest. Oh wow. I'm going to lose it, for sure. Anyways once i say bye i'll want to be home. And unfortunately now i'm flying into KC :( So i'll see everyone either at 1am the 6th or after i wake up. Wow has time flown....

"Its Getting Hot In Here"-4 months

Ok so i'm well aware i am terrible at keeping this blog up, so sorry for that. Things are starting to go into hyper speed, I wish they would just slow the heck down! Thursday was the 4 month mark, how? I have no idea! It seems like i just saw everyone at home yesterday but then again it seems like years. its an odd feeling for sure. But we get out of school next Saturday (THANK GOODNESS!) and then its just summer, time to hang out. I have lots of things planned so it'll be a great last month for sure.

No concerning the other part of the title....ITS SO STINKING HOT!!! and yes some people are like well Tanya you might be exaggerating. I'm not, it hasn't been this hot of a May in Modena for 180years! Yeah awesome right? and there isn't air conditioning anywhere really, not school, not at the house. Yeah and this heat is different. The first week it was really hot i had lots of problems. You have to leave the windows open at night so you don't melt but with all the stuff in the air and the heat i was having an asthma attack every night, i'd wake up not being able to breathe take my inhaler and go to sleep again. Thankfully its not as bad. Last week it was in the 90F all week. Now its a bit more bareable. Oh and i played a vball game in a gym that was 3C hotter inside than outside, yeah it was 96F in the gym, thought i was going to die lol

This last weekend though I went with a group of AFS kids to Cinque Terre. Oh wow was it pretty! Like its a place that you only see in movies and only wish you can go to. Of course it was super hot but it was still great. AFS tends to be super smart sometimes so we climbed no joke a couple thousand steps at 2pm in the afternoon. It was the first time in my life i really thought i physically can't do this, but so did everyone else lol After a slight recovery we went on a 4hr walk before calling it a day. The second day was a 2hr hike and then we went swimming! oh it was awesome, yes the jellyfish made things slightly interesting but still. :) After a ton of delays with the trains we got home about 10pm, 2 hours after we were supposed to. Besides all of that it was a great weekend, I even lost close to 3kilos, thats like 6lbs!! I sure love this country!

Anyways, there are a lot more things i've learned culture wise but I can't remember if I typed them or not so i'll spare you the rereading. Life is absolutely fantastic! As much as you all want to hear me say i'm ready to come home i'm not, i realy can't even think about it. I never thought i'd get this close to everyone here and leaving them is going to be the hardest thing i've ever done. Atleast when i left all of you I knew I'd see you in 5 short months, everyone here...its a bit longer. I miss you guys i really do, once i have to say goodbye to everyone here (and after probably crying a TON) i'll be ready to be home. Its just about 20hours of travel and I'll be there in Springfield with all of you.

I'm done rambling now...hope everyone summer is going great! Love you all, see you sooN!!

Can You Believe How Far We've come?

Ok so I had one of those out of the movies type events. I was riding my bike to meet my friends in the Center and I have to pass the elementary school and as I did there was a little girl that ran along the inside of the fence as her mom was walking to the car, trying to keep up with her cause she wasn't ready to leave her. Which got me thinking, how did i go from that to being in Italy 6000miles from my family. Oh how much we all grow up, its kinda a crazy thought.

Anyways so sososoososo much has happened. I had my last volleyball game, which is sad cause i loved playing. And on the 9th or should I say the 10th at 2am i listened to my big sister graduate. I was so tired but i made it through and then all of a sudden right after they threw their caps I got a call and it was ERica, I was the first person to get to talk to her :) And now she officially knows that she is coming here for a week. She gets here the 20th at 9:55am and i can't wait! Oh and this last week my younger sister and I went to the ballet. it was awesome! i never htought ballet was that amazing. i was wrong. Then Saturday at school I had my big presentation. I got to present my religion and I was super nervous cause my faith means a lot to me and i had to do it all in Italian. So i wrote a ton and was prepared and it went beyond perfect. I even got the big Standing O :) The prof said he was very happy and thought i did great. that always makes you feel good lol Its been great lately, but I mean the entire experience so far has been great. Still sorta a dream. Anyways I'm going to Cinque Terre this weekend with AFS so that should be good :) Summer is Almost here!!!!

Random things I can't seem to work together lol....

So you have to have a permission thing from the police to live here and we applied for mine my first day in Modena. Then they said to come in for a meeting thing in March so we did. We waited for an hour for them to tell me to come back in 2 months, fantastic! So we called them to make an appointment this month and the only open appointment was the 19th of June. And it takes up to 20 days after that to get the paper so i'm basically not going to get it lol Love Italian time :)

I MISS AIRCONDITIONING!!!! Like really bad, they don't have it anywhere here so I'm slowly melting. Its only in the upper 20s now but it gets in the 40s during the summer, fun fun! Not really, lol. For example, one day i ran at like 7pm and when I got done I took a super cold shower and when you get out you instantly start sweating again. woohooo lol

I'm getting my hair cut this week cause I can't really see anymore lol My host dad always makes fun of me cause i'm always flipping my head lol.

Last night I talked to My lil sister here and it was funny cause we talked about how before I got here we were both so scared that each other would be crazy. At lunch earlier my host dad was like we'll get another student and Anna was like NO! She was its not that I don't love you Tanya I just can't do that preparing again, it about killed me lol.

All of us exchange students have discovered that our favorite channel is MTV cause its the only one we understand almost all the time.

So i've discovered this wonderful thing called the public Library so now I have books to read. I finished Breaking Dawn in 4 days and now i'm reading 19 Minutes, which is AMAZING! oh and check this out, I'm reading Twilight in italian! Crazy Huh? I know i know its Twilight but i've watched the movie in italian so its the easiest for me to understand.

Anyways i'm done rambling. Love you all and I promise to try to keep the blog up a little better!
Ciao!

Roma-"I think I'm Crying...."

….no exaggeration I really was! So Friday morning after 3 small hours of sleep the night before and a crowded 5 hour bus ride one of my biggest dreams came true. We caught a cab and headed to the ancient Roman city. We were pulling up close and all of a sudden I could see the wedding cake and I started crying. We got out and there was the Coliseum in the distance. Yeah I know it’s girly but you won’t understand the feeling until you get to be there yourself. It is absolutely breathtaking! I know it’s kind of silly but being there, standing in front of the most historical structures kind of gets to you. Anyways my best friend here, Frida, was with us so we walked around all afternoon and took way too many pics (over 400 hahaha) so I’m pretty sure that I have every angle of the coliseum documented. When we were walking around the base of it I just walked up to it and put my hand on the column and was like “look Frida, I’m touching History” Like I said to really understand it you have to go there. The entire day amazed me; I mean I even ate lunch looking at it. And it was a perfect perfect day, blue skies, nice and warm  Even though we were super tired we walked to Piazza di Spagna. To be honest I thought that it would be bigger but maybe the fact that the stairs were covered with people had something to do with it. It was still beautiful though. We then took a cab back to the hotel to meet the group we came with. After a slight freak out that they lost our bags we ate, got our bags and left again to tour the city. Rome is so pretty at night  in typical teenage fashion all of us didn’t sleep we hung out and played cards till we were about to pass out and finally went to bed. It was even worse because when Frida and I get that tired we get to the point where we can’t speak Italian so no one understands us.


Anyway the next morning we went to some churches. One of the little boys on the trip finally discovered we were foreigners so in came the questions, which literally lasted all day. Just to see his reaction I gave him US Dollar for a gift and he literally stared at it all day, randomly pulling it out to look at it. He became attached to our hips from that moment on. Then because I’m so lucky it started to rain. That makes 5 cities that I’ve gone to when it’s rained. Luckily it cleared up when we headed to the Centro it was clear. We walked to the Trevi fountain but I was super bummed because I was there for like 5 minutes and didn’t even get to throw in a coin  but yet again I can say I’ve been there so it’s ok. We then got Gelato at a world famous place that has 150 flavors and ate it as we went to the Pantheon. Oh that was so cool too!!! After some time we went to the Senate building and had a tour. To be honest almost everyone fell asleep because we were all so so tired. Plus the whole not understanding the slight Roman accent added to the confusion. One would think that we would all be exhausted and fall asleep instantly but no we stayed up and listened to music and watched a movie in English because I was the only one who had movies.
The lack of sleep made Sunday really hard. We toured a really cool villa then went to the Castel Sant`Angelo. It was so cool!!! Ok except the fact I tripped 4 times within 10minutes…one time I tripped as I was going out to look out the edge toward the top and thank goodness for safety bars is all I have to say. There was a ton of people there so by the time we got out we were tired and ready to eat. Then one of the moms said we could go to the top and I was like what the heck I got a lil more energy (or at least I hoped I did) so I climbed all the stairs...again. It was so beautiful! You can see all of Rome! Once I got down Frida and I escaped to eat and shop. We returned to the buses and headed home. Oh and we watched Twilight (In Italiano) and as pathetic as it is I understood it all cause the entire book and movie in English is in my head. It was a really long trip home but we made it at about 12:30am. Luckily my mom let me stay home so all I did was sleep till 11:30am the next day. It was by far one of the greatest weekends of my life. Everyone has to get to Rome some time in their lives, it’ll really make an impact I promise!!

Oh and I know its already super long but here are a few culture things I’ve noticed lately…..

Our group (all the younger kids and their parents) got lost Saturday getting back to the buses and the Italian moms like took over. They are so protective and sweet. They took care of Frida and I like we were there own. Ok well not all, this one mother only cared about her son, I think that if I was on fire she’d first make sure her son was ok before helping. But all the others are so sweet. And even with their sons they show affection and the boys don’t care. I met the best Italian boy yet this weekend too. He had a lil brother and was so sweet and showed affection in public and didn’t care. He even was that way with his mom. Usually boys would like move away from their moms if they tried to play with their hair or kiss them but no. Yet again he is one of the only good ones I’ve met. I was talking to one of my better friends here on the way home from Milano and he explained Italian boys to me. The reason why they ignore the girls sometimes and act like they don’t like them is because they have to ‘keep the girl in her place’ what’s with that? Boys here also don’t pay every time cause then the girl would have too much power. Yep I sure love my American boys now  lol Oh and even though Italians mothers are very sweet they sure like to argue, one of the nicest ladies on the trip was the one that argued with people most. Its kind of funny how in dating in this country the boy is in control but in marriage the wife is somewhat. Anyways you are probably tired of reading my rambles so if you get a chance head to my online photo album and look at the pics from Rome. (The link is on the blog below)

Lots of Love

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 :)