So the holidays in Italy have officially ended almost as quickly as they came. A few days after my birthday, before Christmas, we celebrated the birthday of my host mom (from the second family). It was a lot of fun; we threw her a surprise party at her brothers house! All the family was there and there were tons of treats. I had made cookies :) Anna opened presents, we ate cake, and just spent the evening together. I had a fun time and spent most of the night with my "cousins." With the Mingione family (the second family) I became good friends with my host cousins, especially Gaia (18) and Viviana (20). They are so nice, and invited me over for lunch a few times, Viviana's party/game night with her friends, and to spend the night. I also went shopping with Gaia once and another time was invited to go to Naples with her, but the weather was too bad to go.
It was really interesting to learn about how Italians celebrate Christmas. Here, the main festivities take place on the 24th. Originally the plan was for all of the family members to come to our house, I think because my host mom is the oldest living family member who owns their own house (the grandpa lives with my host mom's sister). Anyways, Nonno (grandpa) wasn't really feeling well that day so we all went over to their house to eat. The 24th goes like this: during the day little is eaten, and you are not allowed to eat any meat. For lunch they just have a small amount of food (well, in Italian terms anyways) because dinner later will be very large. For dinner, everyone goes over to a family members house and they eat a lot of fish. Then the evening is spent talking, playing cards, etc. At midnight, the family goes to church. I went with my two older cousins and their friends, while the adults went to a different one. As always in Italy, we arrived late. The church was absolutely packed, so we stood in the back. But oh my gosh, what a gorgeous church it was!
The 25th was more relaxed, which was totally different than what I'm used to. We woke up in the morning not too late, but not early. Back home, we usually don't sleep in a ton because a certain little girl in the house is eager to open presents. Here, it wasn't such a rushed even because there were no children in the house, but it was kind of strange to me that we didn't go directly to the gift opening. When we got up, everyone wished each other "Auguri" which is a word that is said on all holidays, birthdays, etc., meaning "wishes." We then spent a little while just hanging out, and if I remember correctly waiting for my host sister who decided to sleep in a little. After she finally got out of bed, and after another half hour or so, we went to open presents. It was kind of nice that there weren't a lot of presents to be opened, and I was really glad that my host family didn't get me a lot because I didn't get them a lot and I would've felt bad! But in general, the total atmosphere of the morning felt so Christmas and family-oriented, instead of just focused around presents. For the family I made my host parents a ball for their tree that was silver, red, and green and had the words "grazie mille per tutto!" (thanks so much for everything!) on it. They loved it :) For my host sister I bought some cute thick socks like the ones she wears a lot and some slippers with a giant dog face on the front as a joke :) My host parents gave me a new purse and my host sister gave me a cute hat. I loved my gifts :)
After the holidays, I realized how close I'd become with my host family, especially Anna and Federica (mom and sister). Federica and I became really good friends and her and her boyfriend are are looking into coming to Seattle at the end of July when I go home :) And the Mingiones said I'm welcome to come visit when I want!
On January 14th (last Thursday) I moved in with my third and final Italian family. They are really nice and so far I like them a lot. I have one sister named Roberta, who is 17, and two brothers; Alessandro and Ricardo (15 and 10). Roberta is cool and we share a room, but the room is big so it's not a problem. Alessandro is nice but Ricardo is my favorite brother. He's hilarious and pretty much a ten year old version of Michael Jackson. That's right, Michael Jackson isn't dead. He's living through my ten year old host brother :) Oh and I also have a dog named Filipo! I've always wanted dog :)
The mom and dad of my new family are very nice, I like them a lot. They own a hotel right down the street from us, and the house is situated on a street next to the center of the city, which is very convienent :) I'm basically within walking distance of everything. Their house is nice. They live in an apartment like most people here, and it's not super big. But the way they furnished it and decorated is very nice. I share a room with Roberta, but the room is big so it's not a problem.
Today I found out probably the best thing about them owning a hotel: free gym! My host mom and sister go to a different gym, but it's way too expensive for me, so they said I could just go to the one at the hotel whenever I wanted :) It's not huge or super fancy, but there's a treadmill so I'm happy! I went today and I plan on going often :)
So that's basically everything right that's been going on right now! I'm glad to finally be settled and I speak Italian pretty well by now :) Again, I'll try to keep updating often but life seems to be going by fast these days and I tend to forget! I hope everyone had great holidays and I miss you all :)
-Zoë
