Okay so I have been in Italy a little longer than two weeks but all the days are starting to blend together that it wasnt until today when I met with my adivsor that she asked me "so how have your first two weeks been??" Wow okay so time here has mushed togther into this big blob of new expiernces and repeated ones. Good thing I have this blog to keep everything in order.

Okay so lets see here... Not much new to report becuase monday-saturday grr saturday i have school and guess what?? I know have an extra hour of school. YEAH!!! hahaha i was wicked bumbed when i looked at my phone and was wondering why the last bell hadnt rung yet. Turns out that they start of slowly here with school and sneak in an extra hour or more each week. School is well.. hard and boring. Im hoping it will get better in time... if not oh well im in Italy so I really shouldnt be complaining at all. Im really starting to realise how much more advanced Italian schools are compared to ones in the US. I dropped down a grade so im in my third year and the students are a lot smarter than me. Hmm but the US does have better colleges and universities. School here compared to US schools pretty much have nothing in common. Except they both have a buliding, teachers and students. Everything else is very different. Im writting a list that is constantly being added of differences with school. Its only been two weeks so ill have a later post about my difference list. Its actually kinda interesting and funny.

In other news I had met with my afs advisor today! Also a girl named Michelle from Hong Kong who lives near my town. We met with our new Italian teacher who we will have lessons with on tuesdays and fridays for an hour and a half. After we met with the teacher, my advisor Chiara showed us around Trevilgio which has a bunch of really expensive outdoor outlits. Good for window shopping and gelato. Im finding that gelato places are everywhere. Its worse than McDonalds in the US- you cant escape them!! Oh and big yet patheltic news for me- I took a city bus all the way home by myself = 0 hahaha! In Duxbury, MA there really isnt any buses to take, you simply drive everywhere all the time. So when I go to italian tutoring I will walk to the teachers house from school and get lunch. then take a bus to a town. walk a block and hope on another bus to my town, and walk to my house. And when I say walk I mean 2 minutes of it. I love having buses to take me places, having sidewalks and gelato places. I makes me feel more independent. Im so tired of saying "mom... can you drive me to this place and can we stop at far fars" (a local ice cream place in my town)

I had a fun weekend, Federico picked me up after school on saturday and we went to Bergamo which is a mini city with great shopping and beautiful view of the mountains. He could only stay for the afternoon so Saturday night I went out with some friends from school. Very fun saturday = ) then sunday slept in, ate another huge lunch and went to island with the family. This island was so beautiful with this giant castel over looking the water, great little boutiques and shops. Oh and it has sulfur beaches which stink like rotten eggs but the water is soooo warm. In certain areas the water is naturally bubbling and steaming. Its very dfifferent for me to see older men wearing spedos and older women wearing thong binkies. Very European... ! I went with my papa, aunt, uncle and three little cousins. When ever we go out as a family ive noticed we kind of cause a lot of attention. First of all were a big group (10 people), three very adorable and loud little kids, half of us speaking in English, and me who looks completly opposite with my annoying light features. (why cant I be tan??) Anyways I had another great weekend in Italy!

I finally feel like im getting into a beat here. I have a daily schedual which tends to change when i dont expect it. Being an exchange student means going with the flow... Overall Im happy, and now healthy (my little cold had gone away) So im all good here. = ) Until next time...

Arrivederci!

Okay so here in Italy we have very shortweekends compared to weekends in the United States! Here we have a little thing called saturday school. Yes saturday school, as in you loose a full friday night of going out and a full saturday morning of sleeping in. Two things I really enjoy! Now I would like to know who came up with the idea of having saturday school. Seriously I want a name becuase this isnt right! Italy is known for many great things like its amazing architecture, yummy food, great shopping... the list goes on and on but one thing that is not so awesome is saturday school. I know that Im really lucky to be here in Italy and I usually dont complaine but this really isnt floating my boat. School is very hard here, esp when you dont know italian. I come home everyday so tired, not becuase Im doing anything physical but that Im learning so much! I constantly feel tired and drained during the day. Today in school I almost fell asleep so I had to use the pinching myself method to stay awake!

Anyways Im writting very quickly today to talk about my first full weekend here. Okay so friday, I went to school, went to McDonalds for dinner with my papa and sister. And the people that worked there thought it was cool that I was an American eatting at a Mcondalds in Italy lol. So I was craving a cheeseburger and fries after eatting lots of pasta and pizza. The thing very different about McDonalds is that its more of a restaurant, and people arent ashamed to be eatting there. There are less choices, fries are more salty, they put a weird sauce on the burgers and charge you 30 cents for ketchup. Thats right, no more taking a bunch of free ketchup packets. After McDonalds we went to a town near my house and went window shopping cuz all the stores were closed.

The next day was Saturday and as usual I got up at 630 am and got ready for school against my own will. I kept thinking this isnt right, this isnt right... School was boring, but was only 4 hours so I got home, had a huge home made lunch and watched tv with my brother. Me, my brother, sisters and some of my sisters friend all decided to go to the local pool for a swim. The pool was wicked crowded with kids doing lessons. so there was only two lanes for free swim where intense older people were taking laps. After an hour of laps we took a break and went in the little kid pool. My brother decided to be funny and tell me all about how little kids pee and spit in the pool. Lets just say he went into such detail that I doubt ill be swimming in public pools ever again. Saturday night I went out with some new friends from school. We went to one of the girls town where they were having a festival. So there were music bands playing, people dancing, fancy cars for display, bars, pubs, and ice cream places were open. It was a lot of fun!!

Sunday morning my sister and I got to sleep in (YEAH!) til 10 and we quickly got ready to go out with the family for the day. We got chocolate pastries and orange juice to go becuase everyone else was up and ready. We drove about an hour to this town that was on a lake, a very very big lake! From the town we took a boat to this cute little island that had old churches and the most amazing view of mountains that had houses on the coast. If only we had rememebered to bring a camera. The island wasnt to big so we decided to walk around it, which was a lot more walking than we had planned or wanted. It was about 7 miles, and was over 80 out. And all of us were wearing jeans and t shirts. It was a very long walk and very warm weather with lots of hills but thank goodness for the view lol. After the walk we all got big ice creams and headed home to celebrate my aunt noras birthday with very yummy pastries = )

All in all it was a very fun weekend, I just wish it wasnt so short! Oh well life isnt always perfect so you have to make the most of it. Now I have to go and have italian tutoring. Oh and for future notice when I say brother, sister, aunt I mean host brother sister or aunt... it takes to long to say or write it that way and sounds silly. And I dont have any natural family here so its just easier this way.

My first week here was really cool, crazy and totally different than I imagined it would be! This has been the fullest week of change that I have ever had. Until next time...

Arriverderci!

Okay so I had my first week here in Castel Rozzone, Italy = 0 !!

So on Monday, September 14th I had my first day of school at my new high school. Luckily my host brother and sister go to the same school. So that early monday morning we did our two minute walk to the bus stop. Now when you think bus and school you probably think big, emarrassing yellow school bus. But this bus was the kind that are super long and you see in the city. Okay so we took the very crowded bus to school, and my host brother should me the meeting spot for after school (which i forgot where it was cuz all the hallways look the same) and my classroom. Normally I would be doing my senior year but since italian schools are more advanced I am in my 3rd year of school. Its okay becuase I am young for my grade I rather be taking "easier" classes. Luckily I wasnt as neverous as I thought I was going to be. So I walked into the classroom and only half the students were there and they all just stared at me... and didnt really say anything... wicked awkquard! And I dont speak Italian yet so I could kind of introduce myself to them in italian. Luckily a really nice girl came over to me, who spoke english and introduced me to everyone. And told me to sit with her and her friends. My first teacher came in and just endlessly started talking in italian. She didn roll call and noticed that she had a new student. She asked where I was from in english and then continued talking in italian. For majority of my teachers this is what happened at the beginning of class.

So these are my classes:
Science, German, Gym, History, Art, Philosphy, Religion, Enlgish = ) Italian, Latin, Math, and Spanish.

Okay so Science, History, Philophy, Religion, Math, Latin, and Italian dont make any sense to me at all. They are tought in Italian and the teachers talk really fast and basiclly lecture for an hour, some times two hours!! Imagine two hours of math (omg!!) I thought I would at least understand math but no, the numbers look different. For example the 1 looks like a 7. The 4 looks like a triangle. The 5... I dont know what the 5 looks like, just a squiggley line. And the 9 looks like a g. And they way the solve problems.... no idea how they are doing it. The teacher just picks a student and for 20 minutes they are at the white board doing a long problem. At home with math class the teacher takes 20-40 minutes explaining the lesson and how to do problems then we do a worksheet for the rest of class. I have never had a religion class in school before becuase I go to public school. Here they can teach religion buts it your choice to listen in class. The teacher was actually a priest and half the class did other things that hour. I tried to follow what he was saying but at always i didnt understand him... yet.

German class is kinda hard too, the teachers saw my last name which is hofmaier and she sais oh your german, do you speak german? And of course I dont, and that looks bad... Im guessing Im not the only American who doesnt know their nationalities language. Esp when your a european mutt like me and have many different nationalities like german, irish, french, english, austrian.... I think that I would like to learn German when I come back home, its a cool language but right now I really need to learn Italian first!!

I have been taking Spanish for a few year now. My spanish isnt horrible but it isnt as good as the other students in my class. The first day of class we had to each talk about what we did this summer and our goals for the year. Not to hard, but I couldnt understand fully what the other students were saying. And they know a lot of vocab words that I havent learned. And the students can speak spanish so fast. My favorite class is English as sad as that it. Its the only class I understand fully because the teacher is British. She helps me learn new italian words and wants me to do some creative writting and read some English literature instead of American Literature, which I like so that class is good.

Oh and I have school on Saturday! There goes my friday nights going out and saturday mornings sleeping in. School this week was only 4 hours (8am-12pm) But next week it will be for 5 hours. My school in Italy is a lot smaller and the students are there just to learn. There is no school sports teams, mascots, or spirit. Its very serious and kinda boring, but not everything in life can be fun. I basiclly dont understand what is going on my most of my classes right now. Kind of feeling like a fish out of water. At least im a senior and I only have to pass english literature and gym to graduate which wont be a problem here becuase they are my easiest classes.

Ive only been in Italy for a week and I have already had a cold. Kind of a bummer and its ironic that the last time I came to Italy I got a cold as well. Maybe its something in the air my body isnt used to. No worries though, my mama bought me some serious meds that made me feel all better even if they tasted nasty.

Tonight Im going out with some new friends from school so ill write more about my short weekend in my next post.

Oh and good news for me, I have another exchange student from Southern Cananda living 2 minutes walking distance from me. He speaks english, and is a senior but is taking 3rd year classes too. We both kinda in the same boat lol. Until next time...

Arriverderci!

Okay so I have arrived in Castel Rozzone, Italy yesterday! It took my 4 days to get here, I took trains, planes, buses and cars but i am finally here! It was a wicked long journey, over 4,000 miles but i made it in one piece. so basiclly this is how everthing went down:

September 9th:
I got up really early that morning to get a ride to school with my friend peter. i had some last minute things i needed my school to sign. after that my mom picked me up from school and we went to get a state id card from the dmv. and of course it had been a long weekend so the dmv was wicked packed. it took us two hours to get the piece of paper!! while i was waiting my mom got euros for me which look like monopoly money. by the time we left the dmv it was 11 am and my flight was at 2pm. i made a quick grilled cheese and headed off to the airport with my mom and sister. sadly it was my little sisters birthday so i felt bad leaving her but i knew the second i left my mom would take her out shopping. I was really happy to see my friend emily from marshfield was at the aiport too. we got to sit next to each other for the 30 minute flight to new york city. normally it take 30 minutes from boston to new york by plane. for us it was 2 1/2 hours because obama decided to land in jfk right as we were taking off. and we could take off until he left. When we got off the plane afs voluneers and other kids from around the country were already there. I claimed my very overweight bag (75 pounds) and headed to the hotel. At the hotel we had two days of very boring orientation.... wont go into detail

September 10th:
All the afs kids from the usa flew together to zurich from new tork that evening. there were about 40 of us. and only two volunteers. check in wasnt to much a problem, exept i had to pay $150 for my bag cuz it was twice the size it should have been. anyways we had a six hour flight to zurich. luckily the food was good and we had tv and i got to watch movies during the flight. but it was inpossible to sleeps cuz we had no room. so we missed a full nights sleep.

September 11th:
Yes i elizabeth hofmaier flew on sept 11th but we had no problems exept two of the kids left their passports in the air plane so that was actually a huge problem lol. we had a four hour layover in zurich, so we just hung out, ate chocolate and drank coffee. We had a quick flight from zurich to rome which was only an hour and we got see a lot of italy via plane. i got a sick picture of the alps from my window seat = ) When we got to rome afs ppl meet us and we got our bags and met up with the japanese exchange students. Now the walk from the aiport to the bus was extremely long, esp when you have a 75 pund check in bag, 20 pound carry on and a 10 pound back pack!! We all tried to stay awake on the bus ride to the hotel but we were all sooooo tired that we ended up falling asleep for that hour. When we got to the hostile we dropped our stuff of in our rooms and took quick showers. When we came outside there were 400 exchange students from around the world! They came out of no where!! It was soo overhwelming with everyone there, speaking different languages. But everyone was really nice to us! We were the last country to arrive so we had missed the rome orientation ( no complaints) I went to bed kinda early cuz i had only gotten 2 hours of sleep for the last three nights.

September 12th:
All of the exchange students had been broken into groups depending on where they were going. We were all leaving that morning to meet our host families... finally! People left from 6am-3pm. i left at 1030 so it wasnt to bad. there were about 50 students going to the milan/bologna/florence area. We all piled our stuff onto the train and had a 4 hour ride. wasnt much to do so i ended up playing uno, coloring in coloring books and reading 17 magazine. my ipod was dead and there was no internet connection = ( after days of traveling we finally made it to milan!! i was feeling so gross from the long ride to milan and carrying all my stuff. 10 minutes before we arrived in milan the afs ppl told us we had to introduce ourselves in italian to all of the hosting families thats a lot fo ppl!! okay so my italian sucks so the afs ppl wrote down the four sentances i had to say. they where:
ciao, me chiamo elizabeth
sono americana
vado a treviglio
dalla famigilia spreafico
hi, my name is elizabeth
i am american
i am going to trevigilo
i am stay with the spreafico family
I had the sentances down perfectly but the second i saw all of those people i got wicked nervous and froze after sono americana... alot of the kids did so the afs ppl would whisper our next line lol. I was sooo happy to finally meet my family after talking to them for the past few months! I have a mom, a dad, an 18 year old host brother (alessandro) and a 14 year old host sister (ottavia) and three cats. little did i knew i was entering an episode of full house. when we arrived at my house i realized that i have an aunt, and uncle, three little cousins and a grandma. They all live in a big beautiful house and each family lives on a different floor. They are all extremely kind, sweet, loving, helpful and fun. I know that I will fit in great here and will love it all. Tomorrow is my first day of school and im wicked nevervous!! If i was fluent in italian i think i wouldnt have any fears about living here. I hope to learn the language very very fast!! I miss my home, family and friends but im trying not to think about it cuz it makes me very sad knowing i wont see any of it for 10 months. Until next time...

Arrivederci

Today is my last day here in Duxbury, Ma aka the most bittersweet day. I have so many thoughts running thru my head. After a year of planning this trip the day has finally come for me to leave. Many times I didn't think this trip would happen. I had so many obstacles thrown at me like money, school credits, language, visa, host families, not to mention a serious case of cold feet where I almost called of the the trip all together. 

Only four more days til I leave for New York City! Like many of the other exchange students I'm totally freaking out on the inside. Right now its crunch time, I have 4 days to do everything before I leave. That's not a lot of time at all!! Right now these are my priorities//agenda:

Ciao!



As you might have been able to tell, my name is Liz and I am going Italy! Im 17 and I am going to be a senior in high school. I leave in about 10 days for a little town called Castel Rozzone, about 45minutes outside of Milan. It crazy to think that I will be leaving my little town of Duxbury, Massachusetts and flying across the Atlantic and living with a new family, in a new town, going to a new school, making new friends... its going to be an amazing adventure.



I have known about the organization of AFS for a few years. My freshman year of high school my mom made me join a club at school and I remember looking at the long list of choices and choosing the first one, which was AFS. I ended up loving it, hosting kids my age from places like Germany, Thiland, Greenland, Norway, Indonesia... After many talks with my parents I figuared out that maybe I could go abroad with AFS. I remember looking at the many, many options and narrowed it down to 5 countries. Australia, New Zeland, Italy, Argentina, and Spain. After weighing all my options with the countries, and trying to figuare out which one would work best. I finally picked Italy as my first choice, New Zeland as my second and Australia as my third. With my pre-application I was constantly changing my choices thank goodness for white out!



After a lot of paperwork and time I got an email from my advisor saying "Congratz you have been accepted to Italy!...." I was so excited, finally I knew I was going somewhere. To me there are three parts of becoming an exchange student:

1. Getting accepted to a country

2. Getting a host family

3. Getting a visa and passport

After being accepted to Italy I had to do a lot more waiting to get a host family. The entire time your waiting people will say "oh ive heard your going to Italy, where are you stay?" And you have to sadly tell them "Im not sure yet, I dont have a host family yet..." It makes you feel like a puppy waiting for a nice family to take you to there home. Fortunetly I found out in about 4 or so weeks that I had a family that live near Bergamo, Northern Italy.



I was sooo excited that I would be living in the North, I dont mind the cold weather, being from Boston and my town is near the mountains and Ive always wanted to ski. I got a sweet email from my host family saying welcome, and that they were very excited to have me as a part of their family. I have a mom, a dad, an 18 year old brother named Alessandro and a 14 year old sister named Ottavia. My host brother had spent a year in Michigan with AFS so his english is great and knows how AFS works. He also plays lacrosse like I do. My host sister is the same age as my sister, and she love to dance and travel. My parents both seem very kind, sweet, fun, and hard working people. They love to go to the mountains in the winter to ski and to Venice on their boat to see friends. I am so excited that I have a great family, I couldnt be happier with everything!



The last part in waiting is getting your visa and passort. Luckily I already had my passport so I got to skip a few steps. But getting a visa, is the hardest and most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. There is so much paper work, phone calls, and signings you think to yourself "is this ever going to end??" I had to call the Boston Consulate for about a month and no call back from them. Thank goodness for AFS they really helped me get an appointment and get all my paperwork. Today I picked up my visa, and the biggest rush of relief came with it. I thought to myself, finally I did it, I have everything I need now. =)



For the next 10 days I will be organizing and dividing up my clothes between my sisters who are going off to college and my sister who is starting high school. We are all the same size so splitting up our clothes wont be easy. My summer job as a junior counslor at a kids camp is over for the summer and school starts in few days. All I want to do is spend time with my friends and family and go to the beach while Im still here. Until next time...



Arrivederci!!

Liz