So over this weekend I had my one month afs orientation weekend in Aprica! = )

I got to sleep in thursday morning and packed my carry on size bag for a long weekend. My papa drove me to the train station where I took an hour long train ride to Milano. Luckily my friend Michelle from Hong Kong got on a few stops later so I wasnt alone the whole way. We got off the train and met with other afs kids and advisors. We walked outside the train station and there was a HUGE pack of afs exchnage students. It was so great to see everyone that I hadnt seen for a month. There was over 50 of us and we all took a double decker style bus and drove three hours to the beautiful city of Aprica. This town is lagit on top of a mountain and was really cool seeing all the mounatins and lakes on the way up. It was wicked cold in Aprica, lucily I bought some boots and a winter jacket to take up with me or I would have froze my bum off.
So when we arrived we all piled off the bus, got room assignments- i roomed with a girl from Denmark and a girl from Thialand, they were really sweet girls! Luckily for me my afs advisor was on the trip so I got extra attention from her, esp since her room was about 2 feet away from mine.

During the orientation we played lots of lets just say touchy/feely/kissy type games. Its true that Italians are into that sort of stuff. We played a lot of ice breaker type games where we quickly got to know each other! The main point of the weekend was to talk about our expierence so far. I realized after talking to everyone that my expiernce has been really great so far, and that I dont have any problems. A lot of kids have problems with their families, school, or friends. For me Im not having any difficulites, I just wish I could learn Italian faster!

One activity we did was to get a big piece of paper and write our countries name on it. Then everyone would write down their impressions of that country. For the US people wrote down things like Hollywood, mcdconalds, new york city, fat people, fake blondes, stupid people, disney world, fast food, plastic surgery, big houses, big cars, celebirites, gossip girl, the oc, melting pot, lots of races, american dream... when we had finished writting we had to go to our piece of paper and say what was true and false about the comments. It was hard to explain to everyone that yes those things do exisist in the US but its not all common everywhere in the US. And a lot of it is around the world as well. A lot of people had comments for the US, Italy, Germany and China. And not much to say about Thailand, Norway, Finland and Chile. In another group there was a girl from Bosnia and a girl from Serbia . Now I have never heard of these countries let alone know where they are. So when they were speaking about their country not that many people wrote comments for them. Their piece of paper mainly said small european countries, near Italy, near Croatia, unkown to most people... It was kind of awkquard when I first asked them where they were from. When they told me and I told them I didnt know where their countries where they asked me if I was American. Sad I know. I asked some of the Europeans about these two countries and they said there kind of the lame countries of Europe becuase there so small and nothing really famous about them. Oh well...

One of the big high lights of the weekend was the talent show. I know it sounds lame but it was actually really fun! For my group it was a few americans, a guy from Belgium and a guy from China. Since America doesnt really have just one tradition we decided to show some American culture but dancing thru the decades. Cheesy I know. We did cotton eye joe, swing, souja boy, crumping, macariana.... and a bunch of other American dance moves. The whole dance went well, and the talent show itself was wicked long cuz there was so many of us. We ended with a dance party where I learned that the brazilians and americans are the best when it come to dancing. When you put over 50 teenagers from around the world in one hotel for 4 days you are gauranteed to have fun and some craziness.....

Overall it was a really great weekend. It was awesome seeing everyone one again and meeting new friends. I realized during the trip that the Americans are by far the loudest and biggest group with afs. We are constantly talking and together. Out of the 50 kids 8 of us were American. We mainly hung out with kids from Norway, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Finland and Belgium. They were the most outgoing and American like I think. Most of them didnt have that strong of an accent and were a lot of fun! Its sad to think that Im probably not going to see some of them again since they are only staying in italy for a trimester or half year and some live a good 2 hours away from me. I miss Aprica and the afs ppl, it was a very fun trip and was great to get away for a few days.

Now I have to go pack for my trip to Florence, Rome and Naples! My aunt and uncle told me a couple days ago that they wanted to surprise me and take me away for a trip. I love Rome so much, its probably my favorite city. And I get to see my old host sister and her family for a day! I guess this is two weeks of traveling and no school for me = ) I didnt even unpack last night when I got home, I just threw a few more tops and an extra pair of pants into my suitcase for this week. Very lazy I know... oh well. Ill write a new post at the end of the week when I get home. Until next time...

Arriverderci