The End of Week Two...

First off, sorry I haven't blogged in so long! I know my mom has probably been checking obsessively every day (probably even more often than facebook) to see if I've posted something so here I go :) I'll try not to take so long again.

Well, I have officially survived here for two weeks. Actually by now I guess it's two and a half.. (I started this a few days ago). It has been crazy trying to adjust, go to school, make friends, and all while learning Italian. I can't say it's been easy.

School has been great so far. It really has been a good way for me to get out of the house and have fun with people my age instead of being stuck with these little monsters all the time. The kids at school are wonderful. They have totally accepted me and are always trying to talk to me in class. Sometimes, usually in between classes, I'll be sitting by myself because that's when everyone gets up to go get food or stretch and a group of people will just suddenly be standing around my desk talking to me. Italians are so social! I love it. And the cool thing about my class (and the other classes too, I'm sure) is that there aren't really "cliques." Of course, there are certain groups who tend to talk to each other more than everyone else, but everyone is pretty friendly to each other and gets along well.

Today I FINALLY got to do something with my classmates. I'd been spending a lot of time with AFS liasons because I hadn't yet been invited to do anything with my school friends yet, and don't get me wrong, the AFS people are wonderful and I have fun with them, but it was nice to finally feel like I've actually made friends. I mean, I knew I had but now I know that they probably feel the same way about me! Hopefully... Anyways, today I went out for pizza with my friends Jessica, Zaira (Z-eye-ear-uh), Antonella, and Laudonia (Loud-own-ya). It was pretty fun. We just walked to a little bar near the school and got our food and then ate it. There was conversation but a lot of it was in Italian (as usual) and I didn't understand it. Thankfully, Jessica likes studying english so she's usually able to translate enough of the words for me that I can understand the jist of the conversation. Don't get me wrong though, I did have fun and I'd love to go out more with them! It's a lot more fun than eating lunch at a table with four boys screaming and refusing to eat their food.

After lunch, the girls came over to my house. I think the original plan was for me to help them with english homework.. but that didn't really happen. They came in and we were just standing around like hmm.. what should we do? So I showed them a few of my things and then brought out my laptop (which they were excited about) and we spent the rest of the time on youtube, facebook, listening to music, etc. It was fun :) We took turns showing eachother videos and songs from our own countries. Finally the girls had to go home. Before they left though, they said we'd do this again sometime next week. Unfortunately I had to tell them about Monica's stupid rule about not going out with friends except on saturdays and sundays. They were shocked and asked why (I have no idea why!) so I had them ask Monica for me if I could go out with them again next week. She STILL said no! It's ridiculous, how am I supposed to make friends? AFS has told us that we should accept every invitation to go out with friends in the beginning because it will help us with the language and making friends, and later in the experience when we are fluent and no longer new and exciting we will get fewer invitations like these. I have asked my liason what to do about this and she is going to talk to someone for me.

So today english class was... interesting.

We ended up having a debate about designer clothes, which started because the other ANNOYING kid in my class who speaks english is spoiled and a total show off. Seriously, he's constantly trying to be "cool" and only does things that he thinks will make him that way. A few days ago the english teacher asked him what breakfast was like in England, where he is from, and it is a lot like American breakfasts (the big ones you have at restaurants). Well when she reffered to them as "fatty" and "big" he got all self conscious, and was worried that, heaven forbid, everyone would think he ate huge breakfasts despite the fact that he looks like a twig and it wouldn't matter either way. But as soon as she said these he changes his story and says "no, no.. uhh well we don't eat them often and I only eat them when I go to London and blah blah blah.." Seriously, no one was listening anyways.. Just get over it.

Another annoying thing about Giammarco is that he thinks he knows everything. Or atleast, he tries to act like he does. Today we got in an arguement about freaking Gossip Girl! He insists that Gossip Girl exactly portrays the lives of rich American teens (particularily ones in New York). I repeatedly told him how unrealistic it was and that no one lives this way, but of course he insisted that I was wrong. I literally said to him, "Uhm, I'm pretty sure I LIVE in America and I know for a fact that no one lives like that, not even rich people." Seriously, who is he to tell me how people in my NATIVE COUNTRY live?! So annoying.

ANYWAYS, the debate today all started because my teacher decided to talk about spending money, or "pocket money" that we get from our parents. Yesterday we'd talked about weekly and monthly allowances and today we talked about spending money for clothes. Well this kid, Giammarco, claimed that his budget is 2000 Euros. That is ridiculous!!! I guess his dad is some rich buisiness guy or whatever, but still! No one should spend that kind of money on clothes. So this started the debate. The teacher proceeded to ask me how much I get for clothes, which Griammarco went on to say was "nothing!" and dissed American fashion. This I would not stand for! Earlier in the day, when I had jokingly mentioned how the attire of one of my classmates would make him be seen as "gay" in America, Giammarco said that "Americans don't know anything about fashion and fashion is very important in Italy. It's not gay, it's fashionable." Well excuse me Mr. my-daddy-gives-me-everything-I-want. So the debate began. The teacher had both of us stand in front of the class and give our opinions (American vs. British) about buying "designer clothes" instead of ones that aren't so expensive. Of course Giammarco had lame arguments, two whole arguements to be exact, and I had plenty more. Everyone in the class totally sided with me and agreed that you shouldn't spend so much money on clothes :) They also agreed with me that Giammarco was showing off and spoiled. Haha.

One of the points that I made, which my classmates loved, was that people in America would rather spend that money on nice houses and cars than clothes. Well, Italians love American houses, especially here in Caserta where there isn't a single house anywhere and everyone lives in condos. As soon as I mention "American houses" they immediately think of houses in suburbs and American tv shows that they've seen. They'd probably be so shocked to see how few people actually live like that. But anyways, they all nodded in agreement that having a nice house and nice cars is so much better than designer clothes. Especially if you can buy clothes just like those that cost way less. Giammarco's main point was that if it costs more, it is better quality, made from better material, and lasts longer, which I countered by saying that although this is sometimes true, the expensive material also costs more to take care of! I don't want to have to pay for dry cleaning everytime I wear my nice clothes.. BAM. Shut down, Giammarco.

Anyways, these are basically the highlights of my past week. I'm still making friends, learning the language, and getting used to my life here. People in my school, other than ones in my class, are starting to recognize me more as the "American girl" which is nice.. Hopefully I'll have plenty of friends soon and Monica will ammend her rules so that I can spend time with them.

This is the end of this post, hopefully it was long enough to satisfy all of you who have been nagging me until the next one! Arrivederci!

-Zoë