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

Visa=Arrived

Hello All!

Wow! So, I wasn't expecting my visa to be returned to me for another couple weeks, but when I returned home from a weekend trip in California, there was a little post-it thing in the mail that said that the mail (wo?)man had missed me and to come down to the post office to pick some very important papers up.

So, I woke up this morning and headed down to the post office, showed them the post-it and my ID, and there was my passport, and inside was my VISA:)

I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am. All my hard worked is paid off.

Sorry for the short post, just thought that I would share.
Arrivederci-
Rachael

P.S. Less than a month left until I leave for NYC, and exactly a month until I head to Italy. Wow, time flies.

Easier in Black and White.

Hello beautiful people,

So, this last week I happened to have my visa appointment! After all the stress about having such and such paper, what order the papers should be in, what color of pen to write in, and don't forget having to write in all capital lettering, I finally completed all my paperwork a little over a week ago. I also received all of the support papers that AFS had to send to me about a week ago.

After I finished everything, I kind of realized how un-complicated that all of the forms and such were than I originally thought it to be. When you first get the AFS email with all of the directions on how to get your visa, you're like "CRAP, what did I get myself into?" But honestly, if you compare it to the AFS application it is quite simple.

My advice to anyone still working on it, or future exchange students, is to READ THE DIRECTIONS. Follow them exactly. Especially the directions on the consulate's webpage.

I had a little bit of trouble the two days before my appointment, and I thought that I wouldn't be able to get everything approved by (I went to the honorary consulate in Salt Lake City, Utah) the honorary consulate. Want to hear about it?

So, two days before, I was going over the list of things I needed to bring to the consulate's office, and realized that I was missing one thing: round-trip flight reservations. So, I called the AFS office, and asked what I should do, the woman who helped me said that she would get right back to me. She called me the next day, and told me that she couldn't get me a letter explaining why I can't have round trip reservations, because I technically wasn't supposed to have my appt. for another couple weeks. I ended up still going to my appt. without the paper, and the very nice lady at the consulate said that one of the papers in the whole pile had the dates of which I would be returning, and didn't need anything else. She then stamped all of the papers, signed them, and gave me some instructions on sending the papers to San Francisco.

So, now I just have to wait for the SanFran consulate to send all of the papers and my visa back to me.

I think all of us exchange students just make things way more complicated than needed.

By the way, I leave in a little over a month♥♥.

Arrivederci-
Rachael


P.S. The woman (Nancy) at the honorary consulate told me that there is one thing that you have to know when going to Italy. She said "just say NO" and she held her hand out in front of her. She said Italians sometimes don't understand that you are being serious unless you use hand gestures. good to know:) 

New York and other Miscellaneous Things

Hello all:)

So this post is a little over-due, I have just been 'concentrating' on other AFS things... visa, rosetta stone, and other things that I can't remember.

It's been decided and arranged- I will be leaving for New York on September 1st, 4 days before the actual AFS orientation. On this vacation will be Me(of course), my Mom, my Dad, and my BEST friend Madi! We have plans to look around the NYU campus, take a carriage ride through central park, go to Time Square at midnight, go to the John Lennon Memorial, and so much more:) I have never been to NY before, and I can honestly say that I am super excited!

Also, a couple of weeks ago, I went to the PDO (pre-departure orientation), and met some amazing people. Megan going to Finland, Lily going to Brazil, Autumn going to Chile, and Me and Sierra going to Italy! It was pretty boring, going through rules and more rules, but I had a blast meeting everyone. There is this thing about AFS people, as soon as you meet them, you just know that they are awesome. :)

Right now, me and my family is focusing on the Italian visa. One problem-the Salt Lake City consulate will not allow me to make an appointment until I have ALL of the paper work that I need. Which, I won't be getting until the end of July/ beginning of August. I really hope it all comes in time for me to get the visa on time :/ I've had this reoccurring dream that I don't get it all in time, and have to put this off for a year. (Won't happen, but still not the kind of dream I want to be having at this point).

For all of those AFSers coming home from countries in the next few days/weeks, good luck:)

Arrivederci
Rachael