Non può essere che io sono stata qui per 4 mesi...
If you haven't learned Italian yet because you aren't here in Italy with me, I forgive you and will translate the sentence above: It can't be that I've been here for 4 months. And I mean it.. It just doesn't make sense! When I was younger and adults would say "trust me Maeve, time moves extremely fast as you get older" I would just smile and nod and secretly tell myself that I would never
ever let my life go by too fast; and now here I am reminiscing on how fast these four months have gone. Now I've got this feeling that if the first four months are the hardest, therefore go by the slowest, that must mean that the next six will seem like 6 days and I really gotta enjoy them.
Okay I'm gonna be honest, that whole last paragraph was a thinly veiled excuse for why I haven't posted anything in a month.. but come on, I'm enjoying myself here! To make up for my lack of posts, I will now provide you with a truckload of photos and explain them:
Event #1: Christmas and "maeve's blonde??"
Yes yes, I dyed my hair blonde Christmas eve so as to be as blue-eyed-blonde-haired-classic-american as I possibly can ;)
After the drastic hair change, my family and I went to my host grandma's house for a late dinner and to play cards with the whole family (late dinner here in Italy = 9:30 pm) and we ended up getting home at 3 am. I present to you some photos of my sister and I messing around with the iPad for you to "ooh" and "ahh" over:
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| So cute :) |
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| No caption necessary for this one |
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| Me, Valeria (host mom), Lucrezia |
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| Me, Sofia (cousin), and Lucrezia |
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| My little tiny 9 year old Beatrice |
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| Me, my adorable host grandpa, Lucrezia |
For some reason, although I'm in a country dominated by Catholics, Christmas day itself is pretty uneventful. We got a gift each, and then went to eat lunch at my other host grandma's house. I think the food is considered the gift part (and what a gift it was.. still recovering from the amount I ate). Christmas night I went out with friends, which usually just wouldn't happen back at home but was really fun.
Event #2: Birthday party
This is self-explanatory, just a fun birthday party for my friend Carola. Here are some photos of us being weird.
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| Giada & me <3 |
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| All of us, with the birthday girl front and center |
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| Giada, me, and Carola |
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| Anna, Giada, Giulia, Carola, Matilde, Zaira, and me (in no particular order) |
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| Giada messing around with Carola's dog |
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| THIS DOG > |
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| Miley Cyrus? |
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| no no, it's just Anna and Maeve |
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| Valeria & me being American |
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| <3 |
Event #3: Capodannooooo aka New Years
This was an extremely fun night. First we went to my host grandma's to eat dinner at 10, then celebrate at midnight, then right away jumped back into the car so I could go to my party, and my host family could go to Modica Bassa (the town center) to celebrate there. I ended up getting home at 5 am, so that was cool, though I didn't really feel the same way in the morning when I woke up...
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| the girls |
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| our boots |
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| before (yes scandalous dress i know i know) |
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| after (i promise i didn't do anything illegal i was just tired) |
Event #4: Taormina
Last Friday night Sebastian (my friend from Denmark), Mai (my friend from Thailand), and I packed up and headed to Syracuse for the night. In the morning we woke up and went to Taormina with all the kids from Syracuse, Catania, and Messina for the day. Taormina is absolutely stunning and I love spending time with other AFS kids, so that was a blast. Here's a map to help you understand where everything is:
