Camp was amazing. Seriously, it was the best time I'd had here so far. I made so many friends from all over the world! To name a few places, there were people from Finland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Norway, France, Thailand, China, Tunisia, Albania, Turkey, Indonesia, New Zealand, Chile, Guatemala, etc. It was crazy! There was also one other girl from USA, and it was so nice having her there. We pretty much were always together because it was nice to be able to not only speak english, but speak it quickly and with "slang" and the other person was still able to understand! Seriously, it was such a relief after 4 or 5 weeks of talking like a 2 year old. And even though all of the students understood english, we still had to speak slowly or sometimes explain things. It was nice to reassure myself that I still knew how to speak english :)
Don't think I totally isolated myself with Abbey though! We became really good friends with so many people! And of course everyone had a lot of fun making fun of us and telling us the stereotypes they've heard of the states. We of course tried our best to correct them.. but there were a lot! For example, everyone seemed to think that all Americans ever eat is McDonald's, or burgers like ones from McDonald's. They also think that high school in America is just like High School Musical. I assured them that no, we don't sing about everything that happens in our social lives. Although we couldn't really deny that high school "cliques" exist.
We arrived at our hotel on Monday. The journey there was, to say the least, uncomfortable.. First I took a train with the other five girls in my city from Caserta to Naples. The Naples train station is one of the craziest... You really have to watch your bags and be careful. And I've heard that quite often there are strikes and riots, so you may arrive on time at the train station for a ten o'clock train, but may not actually end up getting on it until two hours later. You never really know what is going to happen there! Thankfully our train was on time and no one lost any bags to the crazy thieves or anything.
When we arrived in Naples, we joined a group of students from around Campagnia, and as we waited even more started to arrive. We then hurried to our train. Once we were on, it became apparent that the ride was not going to be a very fun one.. We rushed onto a train that was dripping on the inside because of rain on the outside, and it was packed with people! Not to mention that every time the train stopped or started again we jolted forward or backwards! I don't know how many times I said "scusami!" to the people around me who I kept falling into! Oh, and did I mention we were also carrying our luggage for the trip? So while the train was jerking us back and forth, I also had to watch my little suitcase because it kept falling over! Between all of that, and the humidity of being packed together like sardines, it was not a pleasant ride at first. Thankfully, as more people kept getting off than getting on, we were able to make our way to some seats and got more comfortable. I sat next to a girl from France named Fiona and a volunteer. I got to practice my two years of high school french on Fiona and I'd say we held a decent conversation!
Finally we got off the train at a tiny station that looked like one of those bus stops in the middle of no where.. There was hardly anyone there and looking around, we realized we were basically in the middle of a bunch of mountains! It was actually really beautiful though. It reminded me of the drive through the mountains in Washinton because the mountains were covered in trees. The coolest part, though, was seeing all of the little houses on the mountainside! They were so cute and spaced randomly on the mountain.
Packed again like sardines, we boarded vans in groups of 8 and took off for the hotel. We found ourselves winding through the mountain, and as we go through a turn we'd get a glimpse of the most beautiful view of the sea! It was wonderful. Finally, though, we reached the hotel, got our room keys, and went to see the rooms we'd be staying in.
The rooms were lame. They were almost exactly like the ones in Rome, with a single bare room, a desk, and three creaky twin beds. Our hotel had no pool, and no heating, but it did have the most AMAZING view, which I'll put at the end of this post. We also had our own little balconies that were small, but we managed to fit about 5-8 people on one at a time. Days were spent with a mix of orientation (which included various activities related to our experience so far, and talking about our problems, etc.), free time, meals, and partying at night, of course. We also got to go to the sea one day for a few hours, and it was so much fun! We didn't swim, except for a few people, but we took tons of pictures with the beautiful view of the water and Mt. Vesuvius. We also made sure to take lots of pictures with each other because we won't see each other again until final orientation in June! So sad, we all became such good friends.
The final night at orientation, I decided to finally take my computer down to the lobby and go on the internet. To my surprise, I found a bunch of emails, facebook messages, etc. from my mom who had been frantically trying to reach me. It had turned out that Monica, my host mom, had found my blog while I was at camp, used a translator to read it, and taken some things very offensively. I didn't think I'd written anything too bad, but she got very angry that I'd written anything at all and decided to "comment" on one of my posts. She wrote some very mean things to me, and I didn't know what to do. I decided to get the head volunteer, Camilla. I brought her to the lobby and showed her what Monica wrote, and she told me in the morning she'd call the volunteers in Caserta about it, because AFS hadn't informed her of it. Well, long story short, I ended up going back to Caserta thinking I'd be met by a volunteer, only to be met by the person who had written those things about me and going back to her house. I really didn't know what to do, and I just wanted to leave their house. The situation was very awkward. She had a meeting with AFS that evening, and when she came back she gave a short apology and asked (assuming I'd say yes) if I wanted to keep living with them. I told her I accepted the apology, and apologized for saying things about her family, and then politely told her that I didn't want to continue living with them. Of course this angered her, but it was what needed to be done, otherwise I'd be stuck with a family that I didn't feel comfortable living with for my entire stay here, and I didn't want that to happen.
It took two whole weeks exactly (I returned from camp on thursday the 15th and left for my new home on thursday the 29th) but I am now with a new family. I must say, living with the other family for those weeks was tough.. There was a lot of tension and it was at times very awkward and stressful. But that is all I'm going to say on that matter because this is the internet, and I don't want to cause any more problems.. Of course you can email me for more details.. :)
My new family is wonderful. I love them :) Unfortunately, they are only temporary, but maybe they'll change their minds.. ;) They are very, VERY different from the other one, and in good ways. I no longer feel the pressure to have everything in perfect order, and I feel so relaxed here. For example, they have the tv on during meals, I don't have to make my bed PERFECTLY (but I make it up to look decently nice), I can put my things around my room where I want, etc. My days aren't boring, although I haven't yet gone out a lot with friends from school. But every day I'm offered to go out with one of the parents or my host sister somewhere, and they let me go to a party at my friend from New Zealand's house last weekend. At the old house, I felt like I was constantly watching the clock tick away slowly.. but here I find myself saying "it's already 11pm?!". I love that my days aren't boring and miserable. They're fun and I really am learning the Italian culture! Too bad it's nearly two months late.. But better late than never!
So about the people I'm living with: My host mom and dad are Antonio and Anna. They are so sweet! They're a lot older than the other host family, so I they definitely feel more motherly and fatherly to me. They treat me like a daughter and I feel welcome in their house, but not as a guest like the last house. My host sister is Federica. I have another, but she doesn't live here; she lives in Bologna. Federica is really nice :) She's 25, but she doesn't treat me like she's nearly ten years older than me and it's nice to have someone who can relate to me in the house, instead of four little children. She also speaks english well (and Antonio is learning, so his is pretty good too) so she helps me with a lot of things. We've had some nice conversations and she doesn't seem to mind talking to me :) She's cool and it's nice having another "young adult" in the family.
Well it's getting late and I think this post is long enough.. I will try to get back to blogging more often again! Below are pictures from Sorrent (or Seiano..). Enjoy!
-Zoë
did you know that guy was behind the window? and is bologna pronounced bolony?
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