Sardinia is not Italy

Hi!

So the thing about Sardinia is that in so many ways, it is not Italy. The food is different, the people are different, the culture is different, they even have a different language (Italian is still the most spoken language though). The people here are very proud to be Sardinian, and in many places you can find graffiti on walls that says "Sardinia is not Italy" In Italian of course though. The only thing that they consider connects them to Italy is their government.

At first, this kind of made me upset, because I came here for ITALY not Sardinia, but I guess now I'm realizing, that this is such a unique experience, and I am lucky to be one of the few that are placed on Sardinia. Also, I am lucky enough to learn Italian and a little of another language.

Another thing that took a while for me to understand is that I am NOT in America anymore, which means I CAN'T keep acting like I am. And it is really hard sometimes, because this is a town of 2 thousand people where there is nothing to do a lot, and I come from a city of 2 million people where there was so much to do all the time! And I had so much freedom in Salt Lake, here, I really don't. The kids my age here go into the town square and literally just sit there for hours for fun, and with the language barrier that can be really boring sometimes, but I guess you learn to love it.

Speaking of language, I guess my Italian is coming along little by little. I still get really frustrated with myself, and I hate that a lot of the times I can't express my exact feelings, but for the most part, all is well. Before I came I thought, "oh, I'll catch on eventually!" No, no you will not. You have to study, study, and study some more. Have as many conversations with people, about as much random topics as you can, and your Italian will improve, whether it's by them correcting your language and grammar, just TALK. That's something I've learned I need to do more of recently.

School is.. school.. I guess it's the same in every language! The language does make it more complicated and hard, but once I have more of a language background I'm guessing school will be easier (HOPEFULLY).

I'm going to Rome and Naples in about 2 weeks, which I am so so so excited for, and soon after that is Christmas break, can't wait!

More soon,
Sorry that I haven't been posting more. I never realized how hard it would be to post often.

Arrivederci,
Rachael

P.S. if anyone has a specific thing that they would like me to write about please comment below or  email me (rachiiramsey@hotmail.com or rae_raeramsey@yahoo.com). I'd love to hear what you guys want to hear about, and it will make it so much easier to come up with things to say. 

P.P.S. My host family had my try something the other day, and laughed when I spat it out, Turns out, it was PIGS BRAIN. Thought I'd let you know.
Love you all, Rachael.

Here are some pictures of my beautiful home:

 

Meet Me in Rome

Hello all,
Rome Rome Rome. The most beautiful city on earth. It holds so much history, I love it. I am so sorry by the way, something is going on with my camera and won't load the pictures to my computer. I'll figure it out soon.

The reason we decided to go to Rome was to visit my host sister.

Wednesday (also Halloween)
We left at 4, yes 4AM Wednesday morning to drive to Cagliari. (I have the HARDEST time pronouncing this the Italian way, because it has a sound in it that English doesn't use. the 'agliar' part of it is weird) We arrived in Rome and it was raining :(, and we went to a cafe near my host sister's house and then to a museum. I'm really sorry, I don't remember the name. We spent 10ish hours there. I loved every second of it. I have always been so intrigued with Roman history, and I just couldn't get enough of the art and stories that belongs to each and every piece. And it is all right there in front of you. That's what is so amazing, that it has been preserved for so long, and I had the opportunity to stand RIGHT THERE next to it. I feel honored that I had a chance to see it. That night I was exhausted, and despite the fact the it was Halloween, I passed out around 10:30.

Thursday:
Shopping. Lot's and lots of shopping. I can't even remember all of the stores that we went into. I ended up buying a sweater, a scarf, a cardigan, and shoes. From H&M and The Vans Store. I guess there isn't much to say about Thursday, because all we did was shop. That's it.

Friday::
Hadrian's Villa. I'm not sure if I spelled that right. Oh my gosh, it was beautiful. And again with the history, I can't tell you how much I love history. So, I'll tell you a little about Hadrian.

Hadrian was a Roman Emperor in the 2nd and 3rd decades of 2nd century AC. The villa is located in Tivoli, as a retreat from Rome, because the emperor is said to not have liked the palace on Palantine Hill in Rome. Hadrian's successors used the villa after his death During the fall of the Roman empire, the villa fell to disuse, and crumbled. Parts are still standing today however. Anyhow, Hadrian is best known for building Hadrian's wall, which marked the northern border of Roman Britain. He also rebuilt the Pantheon. He was the third of the so-called 5 good emperors. 
If you want to know more about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian

It was magnificent. Here are some pictures that Wikipedia provided:









Saturday:
The Pantheon. Last time I was in Rome, the Pantheon was under construction, and this time, as far as I can tell it wasn't. Gosh it is so large and extravagant. I can't even imagine building it in times without our modern technology. How did they do it? Well, they tell you how they do it, but it's truly incredible.

Saturday night we flew home, an unfortunate end to our time in Roma.

Random thought:
I never knew how much I loved eggplant until I came here. 
I really can't think about going back to not eating Italian food everyday. What am I going to do!

Arrivederci
Rachael

Long Time, No Blog

Hi!
Oh gosh... I haven't posted for a while. I never thought I'd be one of THOSE people, I have never been someone to start something and not finish it. But here I go. I PROMISE that I will update once every two weeks from here on out. It's just been like "Oh I'll do it tomorrow" then, it gets to be 9:00 the next day, and I do the same thing. Well, it's 11:13pm, but I'll start now.

So since camp...

School:
school has gotten no easier, and I still don't understand anything that goes on during those 5 horrid hours of school. Like don't get me wrong, if I understood what went on in class it probably wouldn't be so bad, just like American school, but I don't. So, school pretty much consists of me trying to focus on what the teacher is saying, me dazing off, then 40 minutes later realizing that I missed half of the lesson that I probably wouldn't have understood anyways, but I am still frustrated with myself anyhow.
My goal by the end of the year is to be Just Another Student, not "OH MY GOD THAT'S THE AMERICAN!"

Language:
No one knows how truly hard it is to not understand anything of what anyone is saying to you, until it happens. I feel like a child. No, not a child, a toddler.
Don't get me wrong, my Italian is improving at an incredible pace, I already know more Italian than I did french after taking two years! And I can have a pretty decent conversation with only a couple "cose??" ("what??")'s here and there, but it's still so hard. Sometimes I want to skip ahead to January where I might actually be able to understand school, and talk with people normally.

Life here has gotten to be pretty routine, so it's difficult to remember things to write about. It's just life now.

But I did go to Rome, and it was beautiful. I was there from Wednesday until last night late, and I love love love Rome. I got to see Rome as an Italian, rather than a tourist this time, because my host sister lives there and showed us around like a local. We went to monuments, cute little restaurants, and did tons of shopping! (Spent a little over what I should have probably though)..

I'll do a post about Rome TOMORROW. I promise that. (Pictures too)

But here are some pictures of camp:

"Stargazers"

We got to go to the ocean:) Be jealous

Ocean ocean ocean<3

All my lovely Sardinian AFSers

In the ocean again!

The AFSers from my chapter (Ogliastra! Heck yes!)

Ahhh I'm tired, and honestly can't remember the rest of what I was going to post about. So I'll write tomorrow. I pinky promise. 

Arrivederci,

Rachael

Team Stargazers (AFS camp)

Hi!
Oh gosh, I feel bad that I haven't posted lately, but I have been so unsure about everything, that I didn't want to post something and have it all change. So I'll make this one a long one.
Well I just got back from the 2nd AFS camp, so I'll write it all down before I forget!

October 11th:
We were scheduled to leave Lanusei (the town next to mine) at 2:30, so technically I could have gone to school, but I figured that I would need the extra sleep I would get if I didn't. So, we drove to the Liceo Artistico (Arts High School), and we met up with the other students in my local chapter, and awaited the bus. Which happened to be almost an hour late. The Ogliastra local chapter was the last to be picked up because the camp was IN my chapter, in a town outside of a different town called Tertenia, but getting onto the bus and seeing everyone was so much fun!
Once at the hotel, we ate lunch, than started with the afternoon activities, the only one I remember in detail from that day was the "kissing" game that we played. There was a post-it note, and we had to suck it to our mouths, and pass it to our neighbors without using our hands! For the first night it was pretty awkward, I think they should have waited until the last night when we were at the point where we just didn't care. Than we had dinner, and didn't go to bed until 3ish, and I ended up crashing on the end of a friend's bed, because I accidentally misplaced my roomkey.
October 12th:
We woke up early (7:30), and met everyone for breakfast, than did activities that I don't fully remember, but we talked a lot about problems, and then we did little skits that we were assigned about problems with teachers ect.
At some point during that day we went swimming and it was way fun, but we were too excited about the plan to go to the beach the next day, to fully appreciate the pool.
At night, we all sat in a circle, and there were 6 candles in the center. One at a time we would go to the front, and either say a good experience or a bad experience, if it were a positive one, than you lit one of the candles, if it were negative, you blew one out. I think it would be more useful if most of us hadn't only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before, and it weren't 12 in the morning. Yes, I almost fell asleep. A couple people actually did.
October 13th:
We woke up early yet again, but this time we were all willing because 1. we figured out that we could just go ask for coffee, and 2. we were going to the beach at 9am. When we got to the beach me and a few other students went swimming and it was tons of fun.
The volunteers also had an activity planned, where we sat on the ground, really really close to eachother, and starting at the back of the line we had to lift a person over our heads (kind of like crowdsurfing) to the front, where they would sit. We had to do this until we crossed a line. Oh, and it was against the other team. My team won.
Then there were lots of pictures and more swimming. I don't really remember much about this day. We did a lot more activities that were more to talk about our problems.
*edit* we also had a talent show, where we had 4 hours to prepare a talent. Some of the kids were amazing, with playing instruments, and singing, and some were really interesting and showed more information about he or she's culture. My group's however, was just to be funny. We dressed up in the boy's clothes, and I painted a mustache on my face with eyeliner, and we danced to N'SYNC's "Bye Bye Bye". It's what happens when you can't figure anything else out. I'll try to get the video of it and post it on here with my next post. 
That night, the volunteers held an "open-disco", which was pretty much a giant dance party with music from all around the world. Me and my friends were the last ones standing and gave up dancing at 2am. Than we all went back to a friend's room, and we got a bunch of the hotel's comforters and layed them on the ground and watched the stars and counted how many we saw. The highest someone got to was 25 I think. We didn't get to sleep until after 4.
October 14th:
We had to be out of our rooms by 8:30, so we all got up early once again, and went down for breakfast. We played a bunch of running type games, that just weren't fun when we were all so exhausted, but at least we spent time together. Than we took more pictures and got ready to leave the hotel for home.
We got on the bus at 1, and it departed. I only had a 20 minute drive, but others had more like a nine hour one, because it was circling around the island.
After that weekend we were so close, and it was hard to say goodbye. I don't know what it is, but AFSers just click with eachother. I can't believe how close we all are after just 4 days.

Now for the bad news:
I forgot my camera, and only got a couple pictures with my Iphone before it went dead, so it might be a few days before I get pictures (I'll have to wait a couple days for all the Sardinian AFSers to post all of the pictures.), so I will post them as soon as I can.

Be expecting another blog post soon.
But I've done enough rambling in this one for the night, I will write another one soon about school. I know I have talked about school before, but I'll be more specific.

Love you all
Arrivederci,
Rachael

PS. Sorry for the rambling in this one. My English is deteriorating, and along with it my organised writing. So I really do apologize for all you grammar-Nazis! 

Like a Roller Coaster

Well, this last week and a half have been so up and down I don't know where to start. So, here I go.


 1. Everyone told me before I left that exchange was hard, the hardest thing that they have ever done. And I tried to understand that before I left, but I didn't ever truly grasp the concept of it until this last week and a half. And it is so true, it is so hard, but at the same time I absolutely love it. My feelings are so complicated right now that I doubt that I could explain it correctly.

2. School. Oh gosh. So, school isn't hard yet, I just started on Monday, and most classes we just sit and talk and the teacher just sits there and does who knows what. The classes that I have taken so far are:
English- My easiest class! Even though my teacher uses the completely wrong grammer. example: she tried to pluralize "you" even though you don't really need to, and made the students write "use" "Why do use need to learn English?" was the question. I was too scared to correct her.
P.E.-Another easy one! We played volleyball, and yes, I fell.
Math- I understand this too, because they are learning something I have learned before, so I feel like a genius in this class. :) Plus, the teacher speaks English and told me that he will give me English assignments that also have Italian written on them so that it will help me learn!
Biology- So, I have taken biology for the last 2 years, (human biology, and regular biology), and I pretty much understand what we are learning. Mendall's Laws. And the teacher has an English textbook that I use which helps.
Latin- During this class my mind is like "...What the heck?" I pretty much don't even pay attention, and the teacher doesn't expect anything from me, so for now that will do. I think that I am going to switch out of the class soon. Hopefully at least.
Italian- I don't understand 99% of what goes on in this class, because it is complicated Italian grammar stuff. The teacher hasn't really said anything to me, and I am pretty sure that I am switching to the lower class for Italian.
Physics- We haven't really had class yet.. I'll let you know when we do.
Philosophy- Nothing is understood. Niente! Probably switching out.

So school, it goes from 8:30am to 1:30pm, and we have 3 classes a day. About 15 minutes into our second class we have a 15 minute break, which kids usually use to smoke or eat breakfast, and then we go back to class. All my classmates are really nice, and all talk to me and help translate things. And for any of you that are on exchange you understand how amazing and nice this is. We speak together in a mix of very bad English and very bad Italian, and hope that one another understands. My only problem is how fast that they talk. I understand so much more if they slow down. "Like you need to talk at an uncomfortably slow pace." -Nicole DuBois. (Another exchanger). Oh and we have school on Saturdays. So much for TGIF.

3. I love the beach. I have been like 3 times since I have been in Sardinia and it is beautiful. Sunday I went boating and the water was so blue and clear and beautiful. The beach(and chocolate) solves all problems.

that's all I can think to say right now, more to come. Here's a few pictures:

A beach about 15 minutes from my house

Ilbono! And kind of Lanusei (the bigger town next to Ilbono)

Clear blue water on a beautiful day

View from the family beach house

A different beach at sunset

Nicole and I at Orientation! 

Marine, Jacqueline, Nicole, and I at orientation

The Americans! (sorry about the blurriness) 

Orientation with Hungarians

Some of the Americans at the New York orientation

Well CIAO!
Rachael

Safe and Sound

Ciao!
This is my first post from Ilbono, Italy. I arrived to my host family last night.

Right now, everything is still so new, and I understand about 5% of what people say to me, but other than that, everything is good. It's beautiful here. I am not using my computer right now, but I will post pictures as soon as I can use mine. Also, I am not used to this computer, so I apologize in advance for my errors.

It is still so surreal that I'm here, and not going to lie, I am more homesick than I ever have been. I can't help but think ''what am I doing here?'' but things will get better. So now for what I did for that last few days.

New York: I am not going to tell you day by day what I did in New York, but it was amazing. But, I decided that I couldn't live in <Manhattan. too many people. But I still loved it. Times Square-beautiful. We went there almost every day, and I canàt even tell you how much fun it was. We ended up going to Chicago. On Broadway. Which was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done.. and it was on my best friend's birthday, which was a plus. I slept through my NYU tour.. oops, but to justify it, if I hadn't have slept I would have been awfully cynical anyways.

Orientations: New York was well... pretty boring. But I met some really great people. Everyone who was at the Rome orientation was Italy, Spain, France, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, Bosnia, and I think there are more, but at this point I really don't remember. (Sorry). We ate kind of gross food the first night, and curfew was 10:30(what the heck! Half of us didn't even sleep that night.) And we weren't allowed to use the pool. The next day was just as boring and resulted in us playing musical chairs. We needed a distraction. We left the Hilton at 6:00pm that day with all of our luggage.

Flights: You'd think that a 7 hour flight and a 2 hour flight with 47 teenagers would be fun, huh? But no, I got almost 0 sleep, and I was acting like a crazy person by the end. Literally. Plus, we almost missed our flight to Rome from Zurich because of customs and what not. But we made it.

Roma: I love foreigners. So much. And all I can say is I'm not sure if they are actually this attractive or if they are just foreign. It was really boring, but really fun at the same time. Does that make any sense? During the day we pretty much sat in the same place, but at night we got to talk to everyone and it was so fun. We played games, and the brazilians played songs on the guitar while everyone sang along, cool right? And I think the most sleep I got in those four days was about four hours a night. So I am exhausted.

Current: I got to Ilbono last night, and I am exhausted. I have a hard time speaking with them, and I am having a hard time with being away from home. Which is weird, because I never really get homesick. Things are hard, just like everyone told me it would be. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I have cried a few times, and today is only my second day here. But I am overall excited for my experience and excited to learn a new language and new things. I'm going to stay positive. I just needed a little bit of familiarity, so I am on my computer.

I love it here, and I can already feel my Italian getting better. Next orientation camp is in 5ish weeks:) Can't wait to see all the Sardinian AFSers again.

Stay lovely,
Arrivederci,
Rachael. 

Farewell Salt Lake City

It's funny. I've been counting down for just about a year now, to the estimated departure date. Now it's here. It seems almost ironic in a way, that I'm leaving. It doesn't seem real. My home is Utah. I can't be leaving, can I? And yet, my flight is at 8:37 tomorrow morning. New York here I come  :)

So many mixed emotions right now. One minute I am a wreck, and then next I am jumping up and down with excitement. It's so hard to explain. Exchangers, you know what I'm talking about!

So I wanted to say bye, because I don't think I am going to be thinking about posting for the next few days.

Goodbye Over The Counter; the most delicious breakfast place in the world. Is it sad that almost everyone that works there knows my order by heart?
Goodbye my puppy, and two kittys, and my wonderfully comfortable bed.
Goodbye to all of my lovely friends; you're all the best!
There's so much more to say bye to, and things that I have said bye to. I honestly mean every "I am going to miss you so freaking much!!!!!!!!!!" That I have said.

But, hello New York. Hello Ilbono. Can't wait to get to know you.

So farewell Utah. I'll see you soon.

Bags all FINALLY packed

Rosetta Stone completed. (believe me, not easy)

Madi, my puppy Big Mac and I, on one of our last days together:) 

Arrivederci-
Rachael

2 weeks. Luggage tags. Procrastination.

A couple days ago, my luggage tags arrived in the mail. That's how you know that it's close to time to leave. 2 weeks to be exact. Well, 2 weeks until we leave for Italy. 10 days from now though, I will be headed to New York with my parents and BEST friend, Madi.

By the title, I bet you can see that I have been procrastinating everything that needs to get done before I leave. I'm not sure why. For any of you that are going on exchange, or looking into it, let me tell you, DO EVERYTHING IN ADVANCE. I am currently freaking out, at the edge of my breaking point, because put everything off until last minute. I don't advise this at all.

I might post before I leave, but if not, see you all in Italy my friends.
Arrivederci
Rachael 
ps. wish me luck packing