Stiamo per Finire

It always takes me a second to jump into these updates.... lets see whats been going on these last days!

April went right by in the matter of seconds. Highlights include a wedding, beach days, vacation village, Sant'efisio, trekking, and a fair. It was a pretty good month:)

The wedding was pretty much like the first wedding I went to way back in September. That puts my Italian weddings at 2. Mass, million hour dinner, lots of pictures, and some kareoke. Good times.

The beach days started way back at the first of April, where only crazy tourists like ourselves would go because it is still very cold on the seaside. But don't let the wind and clouds fool you! I came home a red lobster, it was insane! The sun here is SOO strong. Unfortunatly I live about an hour and a half in bus from the nearest beach, but that doesn't stop me, I am there as much as possible!

Wednesday the 23rd Sandra, Giuseppe, and I got our bags and drove to Villaggio Dei Pinni. Our beach resort-village! It is in north Sardegna at a place called Platamona, and it was amazing. It was a really nice place, with three huge swimming pools, one of which was indoors, a really nice courtyard, tennis courts, soccer courts, bocce courts, walking trails, and best of all....it was all right on the beach!!! We were served a HUGE breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. It has got to be a sin to each that much, really. In the 5 days were were there, we enjoyed Bocce tournaments, laying out by the swimming pools, going to the beach, swimming when we were daring enough in the icee water..it was super fun and relaxing. These friends of my host family with two daughters my age were super cool, and invited me to go to Lu Bagnu and Alghero with them, two very gorgeous, popular Sardinian towns. Lu bagnu was beautiful, with a big boat port. It is on the sealine with large hill/mound looking thing with a big castle on the top, called Castelsardo. It looked like some giant picked up handfulls of houses and just through them on the hills; they were all scattered around surrounding the castle, and soo beautiful. Alghero is also a very popular touristy town, with its adorable streets, good shopping, beach, and most known for its nightlife..that I am still yet to see. So one day back at the village, on the daily activity program, I read "calcietto torneo"... 5 on 5 soccer tournament...sweet! I wanna play. So I went down to the courts...where there were like 30 guys..0 girls. Well, what did I have to lose, I still wanted to play! So I asked if I could, I am sure they were all thinking I was crazy, but of course they let me. Get on a team...and boom. I scored. Anyways, it tourned out to be really fun, and my team won the tournament. We got some pretty sweet metals too haha. Oh yeah, our team name was Team Utah. haha. Another one of the days, I was sitting on the beach, and I see way far down this really cool looking, ancient, stone tower thing..and my family was in the room I was just laying out alone..So I thought I'd go check it out. So I took a nice half hour walk to it, and it was beautiful....the waves were crashing up against it, there were surfers in the little cove..I just couldn't believe where I was!!!! I took a bunch of pictures then walked 30 minutes back to the resort. It was a really nice 1 hour walk! I also would love to learn to kite surf someday, there were a few of them out too. They were SOO super good. Ah it's soo cool! Again about the resort, every night there was a DJ singer guy and group dancing and couple dancing. That was pretty exciting and fun, breakin it down with the adults, since there were probably less than 15 teenagers at the resort.. haha we had fun though. Sunday, the last day, after breakfast we left to see some cool places before heading back into Sanluri, like Pistis, Putzu Idu, Arborea, which are all amazing beaches, seriously describing them doesn't even help, they are incredible. One has water up to your knees/thighs for miles out, very shallow, and the cleanest, clearest water you can imagine. The sand was so fine, and the surroundings so beautiful...it is really a paradise. My favorite place we stopped was Tharrus, a very old town and little peninsula. It was my favorite because of the ancient ruins there, sooo cool, kinda like in Rome with the old houses and Roman pillar looking things..plus, the water and beaches there were also amazing. Anyways, after came along a switch of plans. My friend for Terralba's Mom called and said they were throwing a suprise party for him that night and invited me to come to the party and spend the night. Terralba is close to where we were, so I said sure, as long as I can have a shower (since we had been at beaches all day). I packed a bag and we went there, the party was fun party, he totally didn't expect a thing, then the next day we went to another beautiful beach for the day. Sadly, Tuesday was back at school again...and Wednesday I even had a test, but after school I was right out the door again to Cagliari for the night.

Thursday was Sant'efisio, a big festival/parade which includes a group of people representing all their different towns in Sardegna, dressed up in their traditional clothes, parading through the city, followed by the Saint. It was really cool, I saw some very pretty costumes and learned a few old cultural traditions. I was with all the students from AFS because they do a lot more then Rotary here, and there were a bunch of new students also, here for a week exchange. We all hung out at the beach the rest of the day. Friday I would have gone back to school, but the AFS directors invited me to go on a trekking trip with them and the 50 other students.
So Friday morning I got up nice in early, all ready to go do some hiking or what not! I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. We all loaded on the bus, and our first stop was Barumini, known for its ancient Nuraghe, really really really old houses that they lived in. It was very interesting and I am glad I got the chance to see them. Next we headed three hours to our Hostel in Santa Maria Navarrese, another very beautiful town. We were down at the beach all day, I felt like I was in some un-real dream, with all my friends on this amazing beach, climbing these awesome rocks and cliffs, in the crystal clear water...It was incredible! The next day is where we did the trekking, about 4 hours on a trail on the edge of the mountains looking over the beautiful mediterranean sea the whole time....it felt so nice to be out on the trails hiking again after so long! After we then spent the rest of that day at the beach again, and back home that night.
So it didn't stop there, the next day after sleeping in a bit in my own bed and house, I took the bus yet again to Cagliari, to the fair that was in town. Sadly, it was really lame and a waste of 5 euros, so I won't go into detail there. Lets just say if you are interested in tractors or solar pannels, you would have found it very worth while.

Well now I am back at school again :) Almost done, less then a month left of it! Then a bit of summer, Euro-tour, and hello America. I really feel good about this exchange and all the things I have done, and will come home not feeling one bet regretful! That is most important. I have been so lucky with my family and the endless opportunities I have be able to do and see..really amazing things. I'll save all my analysises and thoughts for the last blog..for now just know I am good, healthy, and vivendo la vita. Living the life!

A million thanks to everyone! See you soon!

Love
Laurie

Oh yeah.... yesterday I registered my classes for my first semester of college! I am going to Utah Valley University, have been accepted into the honors program, and will be moving on campus in August! Crazzzzyyy!!!