LYA-2013

For the LYA convention this year, we started off our trip to Mankato. It was by far the most comfortable car ride I have ever been in, seeing as how we flipped the car seats down, and just laid in the car on the luggage.

After spending the night in Mankato, we got in the bus, and left for Tennessee.. casually driving by St. Louis on the way.

I think this was Nashville, but I'm not 100% sure, because the St. Louis pictures, and the Nashville pictures are right next to eachother on my camera.

The first whole day in Florida we had an enjoyable day at Universal Studios. At one point during the day it downpoured on us for about half an hour.. the coldest half an hour in Florida..

This is our group at Universal Studios.

I think this was Harry Potter?...

Eating Harry Potter food. :) It was delicious.

Then the next day we went to the Atlantic Ocean. :)

After the day at the ocean, we finished it off by a beautiful meal and church service. Then headed back to our dorms.

This is a picture from the beautiful campus we were staying on.

Another highlight I'd like to mention.. the bible studies were AMAZING! I'd like to give a huge thank you to the Pastors for taking the time out of their busy lives to provide us with good Christian bible studies.. a big thank you specifically to Pr. Ring, my friends and I really enjoyed and learned a lot from your bible study. :) Also, thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible for us.

the change

I'm at home, but it's so weird to be here.

I'm finally most of the way adjusted, after almost a month of being here. :)

I got a job the week after I got here, it was washing dishes, but now I'm a cook there. I did my first shift as a cook last night.

The last few weeks have been chaotic, I'm always busy, but I like it like that. I get my energy from doing something always. When I'm just sitting at home on the computer, I feel lazy, or like I'm wasting precious moments.

In 11 days I'm leaving for Florida. Rachel is coming with me! We're going with the youth group for the LYA convention.

It's been really hot and muggy here, there's been dry thunder and lightning storms almost every night because of the humidity in the air.

Next week is the Thief River Falls fair. Then after that we leave for Florida.

Ready for the next chapter of my life

I'm sad about leaving the sea, and the few good friends that I've made here. But I'm finally feeling very ready to go home. It's been a long year, and I miss my family, my church, my friends, and my school.

I'm trying to enjoy my last 12 days here, but they're going to be incredibly busy and exhausting. I'm so glad that this year has been such a good learning experience, and it has taught me many important lessons.

Haaaaa

I have so many emotions all going through my head.
SCARED--HAPPY--SAD--LONELY--EXCITED--FREAKING OUT

I don't know what to do. I am not upset, so I can't cry. But I feel like I'm having a hard core freak out right now. I can't express what I'm feeling. I can't express the emotions. I have 2 weeks left here. I'm so sad to be leaving this, but it's something I've known to expect. Knowing I had to expect it though, doesn't make it easier. It's strange realizing I'm leaving these people, and most of them I will never see again.

I'm so happy and excited to be going home. I know my family is ready to welcome me back with open arms. But I'm also so sad and scared to be leaving.

I've changed over this year, and I'm scared that I won't fit in, I'm scared my old friends won't still be my friends. I know I will make new friends. I know that I've gotten a lot more real about life. I'm a year older, a year more experienced. And I've gone through so many things that most normal 17 year olds would never even imagine. I've been very blessed with my life. But that doesn't mean it's been easy. I'm so happy with everything, and I wouldn't change anything that's happened because the hard things have just made me stronger. But will everything be too normal at home for me? Will I come running back here first chance I get?

AHHH I don't even know what I'm saying. This is not even what I'm freakin' out about. I don't know how to explain anything. I'm so confused.

Hope you all enjoyed this blog post. Haa!

Any suggestions on ways to blow off emotions that I don't understand? :P

A little bit of Christa time. :)

Monday night I got on the train and went to Paola. I love Paola, I think I've mentioned that before.
On the train, I was sitting near one door, nearby a lady, and a few stops down two boys got on the train. They sat down by the other door, they were probably about 18. Anyways, they kept leaning over between the seats to stare at me, I'd lean the other way, so they couldn't. When I stood up to get off the train, they stood up to get off too, they came to my door instead of going to the door closer to them. I could tell that they were going to hit on me, and my phone rang while we were slowing down to stop on the train. I didn't really feel like dealing with annoying guys, so I answered my phone in English, and they started talking about me then in Italian. I took so much to keep from busting out laughing, they had no clue the whole time that I understood their whole conversation about me. I wanted to at the end turn and look at them and say 'just so you know, I speak Italian', but I decided not to, because then I'd have to figure out a way to get rid of them.

Tuesday morning my cousin arrived in Paola, she got a taxi to the house I was staying at in Paola. We went to school, riding with my teacher, but on the way there we convinced her to let us skip and walk around in the old town. We went and saw the castle, then at break time at school, we went into the school, and I introduced her to the people at school. :) Then we went down to the new part of my town, and on the seafront, we stopped by my house, and then ran to get on the train, but we missed it. So we wasted another 2 hours waiting for the next train, when we got to Paola we cleaned up a little bit, and then stayed with my friends at Paola. :) We tried to get it arranged so Christa could stay another day, but the travel agency was already closed, so we couldn't switch her ticket. I'm so thankful for that one day with her though. We've already made plans of things we have to do when we are both back in the states.

I posted this picture, because this is one of my favorite things in Italy. It's so incredibly relaxing riding along the sea front, on a bike, watching the sunset. One thing I'll miss.

Today is a better day :)

I'm happy to say that today has been a wonderful day. Nothing so interesting has happened, but I'm just in a really thankful mood to be alive.

I'd actually like to mention a few important people in my life here. I probably haven't talked about them so much, but I'm really happy to have them here.

The first person I'm going to mention is Sally Dwyer, she's my Australian bff. ;) She's been here for a few months, and so she's experiencing a lot of the same hard things that I went through at first. But it's really nice to have a friend who I can just completely relax and say absolutely anything to, and she'll just laugh. Also, she is funny, because she calls me at random times, and texts me random texts all day long. :) I don't always have money on my phone, so I can't always respond, but it's so much fun hearing from her.

The second person I'd like to mention is Elisa Scavella. She's my host sister. She's a very serious person, but when she gets tired, she gets hilarious. She isn't quite as crazy as I can be, but she is a very sensible and reliable person, and it's so good to have her to go to, when I need someone to punch a boy for me or something. She's really like a brother to me.

And last, but definitely not least, my Italian teacher and her family. Maria Cavallo is one of the sweetest, and most thoughtful and understanding grownups I've met in my life. Her and her family are a lot different from my family in Minnesota, but they've adopted me in and treat me like one of them. When I go out shopping with her, or we're out for a walk, she brags about me being her first daughter. She has two sons, but no daughters. So I feel very inplace and wanted when I'm with her. It's so comforting to have her with me. But in with this person, I'm also very thankful for her niece, Renata, she's a hilarious, unique person. I love hanging out with Renata because she doesn't have any interest in what other people think of her, she does what she likes. She's a very artistic friend. :)

Ok. I'm done being thankful. ;)

Right now I'm sitting in French class, and my classmates are doing a test. So my teacher lent me her computer. Tonight I'm going to spend the night at my friend Alice's house. :) I'm excited for that obviously. It's a good day. :)

Not the happiest post I've written.

Before reading this post, I hope you've read the title, so you're warned.

I get snotty, jealous comments all the time. It drives me insane.

Here at school I can do a lot of things that I want, like for example, I can switch classrooms more or less whenever I want. I don't have a lot of studying that I have to do, because obviously I'm not fluent enough to do the same things that my classmates are doing.

BUT I HATE when I hear people who say things like 'you're so lucky, because you get everything you want', or 'you don't have to do anything at school, I wish I didn't.'. It's true, I don't do much at school. But you know how boring and long the days feel? Try sitting in school 6 out of seven days a week, not doing anything. I tried to see if I could remember all 50 states in America the other day and I wrote them down. That's just an example of how bored I get. One day I wrote the numbers 1-500something on a piece of paper. The day at school drags on and on, and there's so many times when I wish I could be doing work.

And about the other comment? About me getting everything I want? HA! I get exactly what I've earned. The only two things I haven't paid for over here is because I won a scholarship, that I worked for, which paid for some of it. The other thing is my parents gave me some money for my birthday that was to go towards my Spain trip. I've worked really hard for this trip. I'm nowhere near spoiled, I've been paying for almost everything I want myself, since I was 11 and started babysitting.

I know I'm lucky, but it's not because I get everything I want, or because I don't study much at school. I'm lucky because I have a God who watches over me, and He has blessed me with a wonderful family, teachers who have inspired me, and good friends who support me.

Sorry if I made anyone else crabby by reading this. D: Also, sorry about any writing/spelling errors.

Thoughts written down.

I'm just going out a limb here, and I'm going to guess that this post is going to be really pointless. I feel like writing, but I don't have any stories to tell. I'm listening to "Just give me a reason" by Pink. One thing that has been driving me crazy lately is the words 'in love'. They're really strong words. You can't be in love with someone, you've only seen a few times. That's a crush. It's not love. You can like someone a lot, but love is different, isn't it? Love is bigger. I have never been in love, but there's more to relationships that loving eachother. I guess I can't talk, what do I know of this?...

I'm having mood swings about going home. I can't wait starting working, then I'll have extra money. I hate being on a set finance this year. I can't work here in Italy, so I only have the money that I earned from last summer. It'll be nice to relax about using my money a little bit. A few months ago, I had the idea that I'd go to South America next summer, but that idea has changed. I hope to return to Italy, and improve my Italian more. I feel sloppy only learning a language halfway. I can speak easily now. But I'm not fluent. I don't know all the words. I just know enough words to easily make myself understandable. I have trouble switching languages, and I have trouble remembering who speaks what language. A few weeks ago my grandma and two of my great aunts came to visit me. There was many times when I went in to them and started saying something in Italian to them, then remembered they wouldn't understand me.

My time with my relatives was really fun and relaxing! We saw all of my town, and went shopping. I drink coffee now, but I drink it strong like the Italians. I drank too much though when I was with them, and I started shaking. I think I scared them a little bit. Sorry Grandma. ;) I've spent way too much money in the last few weeks. I'm only here for another month though, so I should just relax and not worry.

The other thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is success. I think about this always, but right now more than normally. When people sit and wait for their life to start, it bothers me. When I see peoples' parents paying for their things when they are grown up, I wonder. If you want something with your life, you have to get off your butt and get it yourself. Would I be in Italy if I had sat on the couch all summer? No, I went and applied for a job, I worked all summer to earn the money to come here. It wasn't easy, but it was possible. A lot of people tell me I am so lucky, I am really lucky, but not for the reasons people think. I am lucky because I have an amazing family, and great friends, and a God who helps and takes care of me. I wasn't lucky to be able to come to Italy, I worked for it, and this is my reward for what I worked hard for. Many things are possible, but you have to be willing to try for them.

I can't use the spellcheck on this computer because it's in Italian, so I'm sorry if I messed up on anything. I hope everything I wrote is understandable. :)

The festival of St. Francesco

I've had the most eventful, interesting, and entertaining week.

There was the festival of the Saint, in the town of my Italian teacher. I've been in Paola for the last 8 days, and I just got home today. The thing I like most about these festivals, is the markets they have. I can find amazing things, for very little amounts of money. I bought a lot of presents, and a few clothes for myself. My Italian teacher bought me a pair of shoes too. :)

The festival ended last night with fireworks. It was rally beautiful, and I am so glad I got to spend so much time with my friends at Paola. I am so lucky that I have friends like them.

Paola is a beautiful town. The people are friendly, and not judgmental, and so that's why I like going there so much. I'm going to miss my Paola friends/family a lot when I return to Minnesota.

Pie

I could go for a nice piece of Lemon Meringue Pie right now. I know this is a random statement, but seriously! I want pie!

Anyways, everything has been going pretty good over here. I've been going to the beach almost every day for the last week. The weather has been really sunny, but the rumor is there's rain coming this weekend.

My grandma and 2 great aunts are coming on Tuesday! I'm super excited for that! It'll be so great to show them my new home.

About leaving, I am coming home on the 20th of June. I got my eticket in my email a while back. I'm not ready to leave, but  I know it will be good to be home too. I hope I will be able to return to Italy within the next 2 years.

I went for a walk yesterday, it was the longest walk I've had since I've been here in Italy. I think my host family was proud of me. But after I was done I went and bought ice cream and brought it to my friends house and we ate it. :)

Food is amazing here, but it's not special anymore. It's just normal life. I don't pig out anymore, and I'm not gaining weight anymore. I think I've actually lost some of my 10 pounds I put on at the beginning of my trip.

Spaaaain

I'm not finding the words to describe my trip to Spain. I'm not feeling so great today, so I guess maybe that's why I have no imagination right now.

We traveled by bus to the port nearby Rome, then boarded a huge cruise ship that took us to Barcelona.

 I was a little bit disappointed by the buses, because one of my good friends was in a different bus that me. We'd been planning to spend this whole trip together, but then ended up on different buses. The first day I was kind of alone, I spent most of the time taking pictures. After the first day, I was slightly disappointed. I was sad, because I thought with my luck, the whole trip would be like this. We got stuck with a tour guide who knew way too much about Barcelona, and had to tell every little detail.

The inside and outside of one of the churches we saw the first day.

 This was the coolest thing we saw on the first day, it was a really pretty seafront, I kind of had a peaceful atmosphere, even though it was crowded by hundreds of people.

 Then the second day rolled around. I had higher hopes, I didn't wanna waste the whole trip moping about how lonely I felt, and how I didn't really care about what the tour guide was saying. I'd spent a good 354 euros on this trip, so I intended to enjoy it.

On the second day, we saw the house of some artist, I can't exactly remember his name. But I think it was Salvadore Dagli, or something like that. It was really unique at the house. But once again we were with the talkative guide. About an hour and a half into the house, and still being stuck on the first floor, my Spanish teacher snuck me and a few other people out of the tour and left us to wander on the 2nd floor. In the bathroom at this house, 2 sweet little Chinese ladies came up to me and asked for a picture with me. I'm pretty sure that made my day.

 Oh, I think this photo is from the first day. But anyways, we saw this place the first day too. I'll explain it later on though.

 Also on the second day, we visited this town. I don't know where in Spain it was, or what the name of the town was. But it was cool. I really liked this town, because not only was the stuff cheap in the stores, it had a country like feeling. I kind of felt at home here.

 This photo was on the bus, my friend decided that he was going to decorate us with 4 of the 6 scarves I bought while I was in Spain.

 The 3rd day, we went back to Barcelona.

This is the view of the city from one of the parks we visited.  :)

 Then we saw the hugest church ever, pretty much. It was so big, but I can't remember it's name. I'm sure most of you probably know what church it was anyways. It's the cathedral that Barcelona is famous for. I am horrible at remembering names.

 This was at the park. One of the more interesting places in Barcelona.

 The 3rd day we had a few hours of shopping after the site seeing, they dropped us off at a fountain area at the beginning of a big street.

 Then after our shopping, we went to go see this. This was by far my favorite thing in Spain.

I can't describe in words, how amazing this fountain was. It's name was the Fountain of Magic, and it really was magical. If I had the option, I'd go back in a flash just to see this one more time. My camera died halfway through. But the feeling with the music playing, in time to the colors in the water, was just incredible. It was a really romantic feeling. The Palace at the top of this hill, is the Palace in the photo earlier in this post. We went to this 2 times. The first time was cool, but the second time, was sensational.

 This is one of the photo's before my camera died. The photo before this one, is one I managed to take after my camera died the first time.

Also, on this trip we went to a disco, it was fun, and the music was actually really good at it. But I don't really like that whole grinding up and down on each other dancing stuff, so after the first 2 hours, I hung out with my friend. The night before the disco, I did two guys makeup, which was fun, obviously. But then they decided to do mine too. If I can get ahold of a picture, I'll try to post it. 

Quick update, info on SPAIN!

I'm sitting in school right now. My Italian teacher is gone, so I don't have anything the first three hours. The first hour we sat up in the Piazza, but then the 2nd hour we had to go into the school, because after the first hour, you aren't allowed in. My classmates and I sat in my classroom watching the funniest parts of Scary Movie 2 over and over in Italian. I went over to the other school at one point, because I had to talk to my first host mother about a paper thing, so one of my good friends went with me for that. It was raining out, so it's not such a beautiful day. The sea is dirty brown close to the shore, but then blazing turquoise a little ways in. The third hour, one of the teachers found out that we weren't supervised, so then she came in and took over, now we're sitting in the computer lab watching a movie in French, I think. But I'm clearly not watching it. I figured I should post on my blog.

I'm going to Spain in 5 days. :) We're going to the Romeish area on on 3 buses, I'm not sure if I'll be in a bus with my classmates or not though, because one of my friends asked me to sit by him. So I might sweet talk the teacher into letting me switch buses. Once we're done on the bus, we're getting on a cruise ship and going to Barcelona from there. :) It's going to be so much fun I think. On the cruise ship, I think, there's a disco one night. So that'll be interesting to see how that goes. I've been to one disco type thing since I've been here, but I am excited for this one. :)

I'm currently listening to my Brad Paisley music, waiting for the bell to ring. I still got another half an hour to wait though.

Last night the new Pope was announced, I'm not sure how we say that in English, but anyways, it was really cool being in the same country and looking at the tv and thinking 'I've walked there! I've seen that place' it just made it all more interesting.

My birthday

My birthday morning started out all normal.. I had Italian the first few hours, but about an hour and a half into the day, my friend said that she needed to tell me a story in the bathroom. Her and I headed off to the bathroom. Upon return in the class, I was showered with confetti, and greeted by many kisses. 

My class made an amazing surprise birthday party for me. <3

Then later on in the day, Elisa and I went out. She told me it would be just me and her. But nooooo.. I was sitting on a bench with her, when people came up behind me, covered my eyes, and sang to me. I've never had a surprise birthday party before this year, but in this year I had 2. 

In about 10 days, I will be leaving for Spain.. :) We're going on a ship, I'm very excited for this.. :)

I have a lot of emotions that I'd really like to write about, I'd really like to share them with somebody. But I can't write them, a lot of them are not so nice. I've written about them one time in my diary, but then I flushed the page down the toilet because they're hateful. I'll just write this though, I love Italy so much. I love my family here. Most days I just wish I only had the life in Italy. I can't stand the thought of going home. I miss home so much sometimes. I miss my piano music. I miss my church. I miss always sleeping in the same bed. I miss cooking. But honestly, I am so happy aside from anything to do with Minnesota. I now feel like I have two lives that I have to pick between. The teenagers are so kind and caring over here. I'm going to miss that so much. I know when I get back to Minnesota, it'll be so nice to eat whatever I want, and look however I want. It'll be really nice to just relax and be myself and not feel out of place. But I know I'm really going to miss the friends I've made here so much. When I first arrived here, I thought "I wonder if I'm ever going to come back to Italy once I leave", now my thoughts have changed a little bit now I think "when am I going to come back". It's not an "if" thing anymore. I know, God willing, I will come back to Italy sometime.

I get a lot of people asking me to compare things, which is better? Italy? Or America? You can't make a comparison. They're both wonderful places. There's downsides of both Italy, and of America. 

Okay.. I'm done with feelings.. the rest of what I'm thinking, isn't blog or anyone appropriate.. I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping the thoughts in my head.. 

I don't write on my blog so much anymore, because really, I don't have so much to write about. I go over to my friend's houses. I eat pizza, lots of pizza. I do normal things. But they aren't exciting to write about, and this blog is suppose to be an exciting blog.

As probably everyone who I have on facebook or twitter knows, this last week was carnival. We had two days off school, and did crazy makeup and stuff.

 This is my makeup from Tuesday night.

 This is from a nearby town.

This is a photo from Saturday. Saturday I went with my friends to a disco type thing. We dressed up in costumes (Mine was what I'm wearing in the picture plus a mask) I didn't get a picture with my mask though, so this picture is gonna have to be good enough.

silly little problems

I really have no clue what to do as far as pictures, and posts goes. There's no point in bringing my computer upstairs, because it doesn't work. I don't like asking my host sister to let me use her computer all the time, especially for the quantity that I take pictures in, I don't want them to have to all be on her computer.

The other thing that stinks is my diary only has a few pages left, so the last few months I've only been writing every few weeks in it. I was always thinking that I have my blog, but now I don't really post as often because it's difficult to access. 

Rome

This is the first place we went, and while we were surrounded by big, old buildings, I asked for a picture with Tigger. This was the first picture on my camera from Rome.

 I don't exactly know what this is.

I'm gonna make a guess and say this is named the Fountain of the Spitting Lion.

 Mimes.

Altare della Patria!

 Old Rome.

 Tossing our coins into The Fountain of Love.

 At the Vatican the Nativity Scene.

 Nearish the vatican, I think.

 The Colosseum.

 At the volleyball games. This kid was so funny, at times it was hard to understand him though "because of his accent".

 The coolest town ever.

Today I am in the greatest mood of all time. Why? I have no clue. Realistically I should be crabby. This bright and sunny morning started out with me walking 8 blocks in pouring rain. My host sister didn't go to school today, because she had homework. So I was on my own for this adventure. I passed two bus stops, but being the Minnesotan that I am, and thinking buses are a little scary on my own, I passed by. We normally ride with our friends, but it's a long walk to where we meet up with them, so when it is raining we always ride the bus.

Since I live at the bottom of the mountain, I was walking through a waterfall everytime I crossed a street. On the plus side by the second half of my walk I didn't have to worry about trying to avoid the currents with heavy water, because my shoes, and socks were already as wet as they get. I was officially soaking wet by the time I got to class.

Once I reached the classroom, I discarded my shoes. Everyone looked at my weird, because they even wear shoes inside the house. But I really didn't care. I don't exactly want to sit in soaking wet shoes all day. We'll see who looks weird when they're all sick tomorrow with snot running down their noses, because they sat in wet shoes all day.

Now, as to why I am in a good mood? Instead of rain, to me it was a challenge. My host mom had asked me if I wanted to skip school, but I decided to go.

Another not as in depth, but still amazing thing to me is this. The clouds sweep in around me, they cover the mountains. When the clouds leave, we're surrounded by beautiful white, snowy mountians.

There's been several things in the last few days that have happened. I just have a hard time getting on the computer to update my blog more often.

For those of you who didn't see it on facebook, tomorrow I leave for Rome.

This morning while I was at the waiting spot for my friends, a lady walked out of her house. She looks at me and goes "Hello! Good morning! You're name is Louisssss?" She trailed of hesitently with the ending part, I told her, and she said "It's really nice to meet you!" It still amazes me sometimes with how news spreads in a small town. I don't know who she was, but sometimes it's just really cool being the "Exchange student" or "the girl who speaks English".

Sorry if there's any spelling errors, or typing mess ups. I don't feel like looking over it anymore, and my stupid blog has the spell check for Italian words, so I almost all of my words are underlined red.

The volcano from the previous post

Yeah, I obviously didn't take this photo. But remember how I mentioned the volcano across the sea steaming 2 blog posts ago? And how I questioned if it was normal, and they assured me it didn't mean it was erupting? Yeah. I'm feeling like a boss right now beause it erupted a few days ago. BOOM! My host mom showed me it last night on the news. I know this is a really pointless blog post. But I really felt like sharing that I am living near a erupting volcano. It gives life a little more excited twist to it for me.