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.