SOo where did we leave off...

On friday I had my first volleyball practice. It was good! Of course I didn't really understand very well, but this girl Simona was wayy nice and helped me the whole practice, knowing what to do with the drills and stuff. Oh man it felt so good to just be playing sports again! Goin to practices! I miss it a TON! It was a good work out, all went well. Since girls don't really play sports here at all, the team is made up of the girls that actually wanna play. So that means my team is made up of a range of ages from 14-28 or something hahaha. It was different, but all good. In America I didn't really stand a chance of being a super good volleyball player because I am not 7 feet tall like the rest of them. But here its perfect, I am one of the tallest. That night we had dinner with best friends of the family, Francy's Godmother and Father. and their daughters who are adorable. It was way frustrating not understanding them because they kept talkin to me and I wanted to talk back so bad! They were soooo cute. We had pizza. The little kids pizzas had hot dogs and french fries on them haha. The other pizzas had horse meet, which is very popular, and there was a veggie one..I had a cheese one but tried this zuccini one which was good. Yeah...pizza here has some crazy stuff on it I'm learning. After dinner, friends from the neighborhood came and picked me up and we hung out at the piazza. It was fun.. we just sat on a bench then lots of other teenagers come, join you, and all hang out. You just talk and take it easy.

Saturday was cool. So.... this weekend it was a holiday I guess and you celebrate St. Maria... I am pretty sure that is her name. It is hard to completely understand as I am sure you can guess why. ( Knowing italian would help.. ah Im learning!) We went to Sarrda, a neighboring city, and met up with family friends. There was like a little parade on the street... it is hard to explain...but families dress in their historic clothes.... hmm you will have to see the pictures to get what I mean. So a bunch of families pass, and St. Maria is the end of the parade. At one point I leaned over and asked Irene, a girl my age who, now, is my friend haha, anyways I asked her what do we do at the end and she leaned over and told me in her shotty english, that we all go under the Saint. I was soo confused. But a few minutes she was like OHH no no no, not under, we all go behind her! So it made more sense. SO when S. Maria passes , everyone follows for 4 kilometers. It is tradition. So we walked and walked and walked way slow... to the big church where there was a big festival. I was with Irene and her friends, it was fun, they were all very nice.

The festival was cool. There is music playing everywhere, a mini carnival of rides and games and such, and a bunch of stands. The stands sold all kinds of things, whether it was food, jewelry, shoes, purses, underwear (yeah .. weird haha), food, clothes, basically anything. Just like this big flea market or something. They have like these really really long grills with all kinds of meet... whole pigs (gross looksin) swards with eels cooking on them.. all kinds of fish and stuff. yeah...Um all the sellers were african american.. I don't know if that has any significance..but I have never seen black people just living normally in Italy..they are always sellers and stuff. Hm who knows. So me and my friends just had fun lookin at the stands and eating and whatnot. Since I have been here I haven't spent more then 5€. They buy me everything!! I ask and try but nope they won't have it. Even food at stands, Irene insisted on paying. I really do try. I can't say I don't like it haha, but it is different! They are very relaxed with their money. Certainly no tight wads haha. Sunday we went to Irenes house again and had a hudge lunch with friends and just hung out. It was funny, the big meals have like 5 courses or something.. I am not sure how many, i will count one day. They are always bringing out more food..but anyways this man was passing me some meet to try and he was lookin in the dictionary to see what is was called and he was like "meet of kid!!" I was like... what the............. lemme see that. so i looked and sure enough it said kid. So I was really confused, but then saw above it the word for goat and then remember a baby goat is called a kid. Ha so no worries, Italians aren't canibals. Also, after lunch, you just stay at the table and talk and talk and talk and talk. People go take naps in the house, then come back and talk and talk and talk. Its fun! I got tired, went inside on the couch, slept for an hour, came back, and continued talking. Or in my case, saying ridiculous sentences all in the wrong order that make probably little sense. but hey, im trying.

School! I got up around 7:30, got ready, and Sandra drove me to school which is really close and I will probably start walking soon. When I got there, Sandra pointed to a group of people and told me those were my class mates. She called one over, Hilary, and I went with her to meet everyone. Its weird, most of them were smoking..just right there in front of the school. No biggie, everyday thing ha. They were all dressed super nice even in the hot weather. Everyone was just outside talking.. all the what.. 150 students at my school? I know, thats so much. The kids go from elementary to highschool. So quite a range of ages. But since I go to private school there are only 11 in my class and probably like 200 max students in all haha. So different, but I like it! I like the people in my class, and am excited to become very good friends! I don't think i could handle going throught all of highschool with the same class though..I would get so bored.. but this year will be fun. My english teacher was soo nice and is very good at english (of course) so that was nice talking to her. When the principal enters the room, everyone stands up. I picked up on that one haha. So after like 20 minutes we went to the little chaple or whatever in the school and had this mass kind of thing. It was.... interesting!! I didn't understand a word. And randomly we would all stand up and sing and sit down and stand up and sit down. And repeat things. After that, school was over! It was only 2 hours today. And tomorrow and the next day. Then it goes until 12:30 until the end of October. Then from then on 8:30-1 or 1:30. Woo hoo.

WOW that is way too long for anyone to read. But if you have made it this far, ciao!
Laurie