I can do it!!!

I haven't fallen yet!

Para Gliding 2

I can fly!!

Para Gliding

This is me Para Gliding in Italy, Wow, it was amazing. I thought i was going to be much for scared than i was. I actually wasnt too scared. Before it and waiting for the wind to pick up before i ran off the mountain was so nerve racking. After the take off it was so beautiful, flying over the mountains and looking over the lake. The day i did it (Sunday 22nd) wasnt the best day because there were some low clouds around but just to be up there was amazing! The landing was good, apprantly i did really well. I was probably only up in the air for 10-20 minutes, i'm not sure its hard to say. I was so wobbley when i landed!! WOW! I want to go again!! I want to learn how to fly by myself now!
Bye for now!

The latest

Hey,

I’ve FINISHED school!! I finished on the 7^th of June. The last few days of school where great, but I will tell you more later.

On the 28^th of May there was live music in the park, in Arsago. We saw a poster for it when we went for a run earlier that day. There were two bands, the first one was just a few boys from Arsago, some of them went to my school and others I have seen around at the Oratorio. They were quite good, they sang a lot of covers of English songs. I am assuming the second band was local as well. They were older men! It was a lovely evening and was just lovely to be out and listening to live music. Every Wednesday evening there is going to be something going on at the park. There will be either a band or cinema. Next Wednesday Pirates of the Caribbean is showing.

On the 31^st of May at the Arsago Gym there was a gymnastics and dance performance. Francesca was in two dances, It went on for quite a few hours, lots of kids showing off in leotards! There were children probably as young 3 or 4 and then older more experienced people.

On the 2^nd of May Jackie and I went with the rest of the Oratorio people to Stadium in Milan. All day we practiced all these figurations for the final performance in the afternoon at 3pm. Cresimandi 2008, it was for all the children and parents who have recently taken there children through the cresimandi earlier this year. The final performance was amazing, it looked so awesome. The only thing I was doing was taking out a big white dove. While practicing it was fine but then in the actual performance it stuffed up of course! It was heaps of fun though. I couldn’t get many photos because I was involved in it but there are some photos on FlickR of before and after the performance.

The 7^th of May was my last day of school, school finished at 11am, after school a lot of us went and got ice-creams. Jessica and I got the train home at 1pm. The last few days of school were really good, I had heaps of fun, I think because the atmosphere and the people were so much happier and just everything was really good, I felt more comfortable and more talkative. If everyday was like that then I would have really enjoyed school. Oh well its over now, and I am assuming when I got back in September it will be better because I will be able to speak more Italian. We did a lot of dancing and listening to music in class for the last few days. Saturday night (7^th) most of my class went out for pizza in Sesto Calende. I managed to sit there and not eat anything while everyone was eating pizza, torture!!

I am happier in this family now, I am talking more, there isn’t a negative atmosphere in the air and the family are talking to me more as well. They are so different to me and I have to follow rules, difficult. Like there is no watching TV in the morning but in the afternoon its fine. Health comes before anything for Loredana, not so much for me. I am a little sick at the moment, and that isn’t going to stop me from doing anything but its different for Loredana. Everything is just so different.

I feel closer to my school friends, the last few days have really helped our relationships get stronger. I will defiantly try and stay in contact with them over the summer, well for the next few weeks anyway. I have a friend’s party on the 21^st. On the 27^th I am going to the mountains for a month, the last two weeks i will be doing a lot of walking with Stefano and Giorgio. On the 30^th I am off to England for 3 and half weeks! Argh, I am so excited! It will be nice to have a break from the Italian culture and language! And.., I get too see my sister!

Loredana is basically talking to me all in Italian and I am understanding so much of it and its so exciting, I just wish I could speak as much as I can understand. It will be so good when I can understand and speak Italian. I can only really understand when Loredana or who ever speaks to me one on one. Jackie and I are going to start only speaking Italian to each other, we can teach each other words, because she know some things I don’t and vice- versa.

Basically I am quite happy at the moment but of course my moods are still going all over the place, defiantly not as much! I love having Jackie there all the time, although I do sometimes feel guilty for speaking English or spending time with someone I can really get on with. It is making life easier though!

Anyway, that’s all for now,

Hear from you soon! Lots of love and hugs and kisses!

Byee! oxoxoxo

Alps

Hello all,
All my photos are now on Flickr.
Well i have been at the Alps from the 30th of april to the 4th of May. It was so spectacular, the area is amazing. There was still heaps of snow, and so many ski fields. Alot of the fields where still running and people were skiing. i want to ski or just play in the snow, but my family aren't really like that. Lets just say we are completely different. We went for a walk to Lago Dei Caprioli. Gorgeous walk, and amazing snow covered lake. We had lunch up there. I had the option of trying horse meat but i couldn't. I went for a little adventure up the mountain behind the house for over an hour. Just amazing views when you get higher. The family have a house up there, well more of an appartment. Quite small but a good little holiday house. The area well being the Alps and all was beautiful with snow covered mountains surrounding. Only Loredana, Francesca, Stefano and i went up there. We are going back in July for 15 days or so. There wont be snow then!
Bye for now, i have to go.
i am at school.
Bye!!
Ci Vediamo!!

Still here!!

Hello,
Sorry it’s been a very long time, its just I haven’t done anything really exciting, but I just thought I would let you all know I’m still alive and kicking! Easter wasn’t very exciting and the holidays weren’t at all very exciting. On Easter day I went to church with the family, yes I know I did say I would never go again but I just thought since it was Easter I would go. It was still not very fun and I couldn’t see what was happening. Wasn’t much different to the last time I went, except the time did go quicker. I went to Milan in the holidays with Jackie. Jackie for you that don’t know is another exchange student from Australia that lives close by well she is now moving to my town. Jackie and I went to Milan for the day, since I hadn’t ever been there. I saw some very beautiful things and some very strange things! There were a lot of red Indians playing on the street, the music was so peaceful. The “Duomo” was such an amazing building. We walked to the top of it and saw the view. You could see so far and it was such a beautiful day! Going back to school after the holidays wasn’t much fun! I need to start talking me, so if someone can send me some confidence, that would be great! Thanks!! School has got a bit better now, I wrote a letter to the class and since then it has been better and I have started talking more Italian. Italian is hard but I can only learn by my mistakes. The family I am in is good, nothing to complain and nothing to boast about but it’s good. When Jackie moves to my town it should be better, we should be able to do more stuff together, especially in the afternoons after school. Tomorrow night I am going out with some people from school for dinner. Jackie is moving on Saturday. The time I have been here has gone so quickly. I have been here for now over 2 months! I’ll be home before we know it! I have only got about 2 months of school left and then 3 months holidays. The weather is defiantly warming up, I think today was 22 degrees. I went to a gym to just have a look at what was available and who would have thought, there is another Australian boy there. Out of all the gyms I could have gone too. I don’t know anything else about him but hopefully I will b able to meet him and find out where he’s from etc.
Well that’s about all really for now. Haven’t been doing much apart from school.
Bye Bye! Xo
See you all soon!

Ciao!

All those photos are from my day in Genova!
Have fun!

Photos from Genova!

Firenze photos!

All those photos are from Firenze. and then one of my family!

Firenze (Florence)

I left for Firenze on the 20th. I met up with Jackie the other exchange student in Gallararte. We got a train to Milan at 10:03. Once we arrived in Milan central we had over an hour until our next train to Firenze. We had to meet the STS reps and other students at 11:30. Jackie and I spotted a bright yellow STS bag over by a shop so we went over and introduced ourselves. He was Michael from New Zealand. We had so much to talk about. We went for a walk outside of the station trying to find a pizza shop. Surprisingly we couldn’t find one and we didn’t want to walk too far just in case we got lost!! Milan is very nice, well the little square that we saw. Michael is very nice, we were always talking it was great to talk to people who were going through the same thing! He has already gone on a school trip to London for 5 days! We went back to the station to get food and we saw another STS bag. We went over and said hi, it was Alex. I remember this from flying over. After picking a few students we went and got food! While walking to the shop which we had to meet the STS reps we saw another student. Emma, I also remember her from flying over. Her host parents were with her. Once we had all arrived we had a short time before the train left for Firenze. We weren’t all sitting together. Jackie and I were in the same carriage, Emma was going to be by herself so she just came and sat with us. Her host parents bought her the train ticket and bought her second class tickets and gave her 100 Euro for spending money! After about an hour we all went to the Bar. We found a very empty carriage so we all (Alex, Michael, Emma, Jackie and I) just moved there. It was a very quick trip, we talked a lot of the way. Once we arrived at Firenze we had to meet all the other students at MacDonalds. There were about 16 students and then 3 STS reps or just people who worked in the office. We were all just standing in this circle waiting for one for person. The circle was quiet no one really said anything to each other for the first like 10 or so minutes! We walk to our Hotel, it took about 20 mintues. We walked past the Piazza San Giovanni and the Duoma. They are so beautiful. As you will be able to see from the photos when I get around to sending them! Firenze is so beautiful the best city I have been to. Haven’t been to many though! I was in room 21, it was a 4 person room but there was only 3 of us in there. Mel, Jackie and me. It wasn’t a bad room. 4 beds and a bathroom. And an ugly picture of a shell! Haha We had a meeting which was just any questions we had and just going through all the rules and regulations of doing exchange! Everyone has broken at least one! No one has been sent home soon! STS way paying for dinner, we went out too a very nice restaurant. I didn’t get pizza because I thought well since I wasn’t paying I should get something a little more expensive! I got steak and a tomatoey sauce. It was ok. We then went for a nice gelato shop and we all got an ice cream. It was a cold night too! At 10pm the Pure Night Space Club opened, I think that’s what it was called! It was heaps of fun. Quite expensive though but then all these night clubs are. They put a big black line through our little card thing which meant what ever drink we bought or got because you get a free drink when you pay to get in. The black line meant that we couldn’t have any alcoholic drinks! Mel was sick, she spewed up. I had to look after her for some of the night. We aren’t really sure what was wrong. We didn’t leave until about 12:30 and then Jackie and I stayed up talking until about 12 and being immature by playing a knocking on the wall game with the people next door! Ahah Breakfast was at 8:30 and then we had the rest of the day to do what ever we wanted. We all left the hotel as a group and then just slowly split up. I was with Michael and Natasha from NZ and Sonia from Austria. Florence is so beautiful!
Such fun travelling!

Top photo: Me going for one of my little adventures on the bike!

next one down: the bike! its quite hard to ride! but its fun!

next one down!: Jas, Bini, Jess and i the night we went out for pizza last thursday night.

next one down!: Snowy mountains!!

Next 3 photos down: GORGEOUS sunset! it was so beautiful.. as you can see by the photos!

BE JEALOUS!!

CIAO!

All these photos are from the carnival that i went to on saturday, as you can see in some of the photos the models are just so amazing. The bottom photo is from the Arsgago parade and the one up from that is Lorodana and Francesca getting ready to go into the parade.

Buon giorno!

Ciao,
I have just finished a long weekend. We had Friday and Saturday off school because it was carnival weekend. On Saturday afternoon at about 3 in most towns there is a parade around the town. Anyone can get dressed up for it and join the parade. Francesca and Marvin got all dressed up crazily and walked with the parade. Everyone throws around confetti and sprays this sticky stringy stuff! Its quite fun to see. The Arsago parade is quite small. The grandma took Stefano and I to Busto to see their parade. It was much bigger and they didn’t just have people walking, there was a horse and cart and then heaps of trailers, with lots of people dressed up. Each trailer had its own theme. On most of the trailers there were huge models of different things. There was a Harry Potter trailer, all the people on that one were dressed as wizards and they had made a model of Harry and the 3 headed dog and then castle walls around the outside of the trailer. There was a Ratatouille (the movie) trailer, with 2 huge models of rats! As you will see in the photos! It was good fun.
Thursday night I went out with 8 girls from my class, which was heaps of fun. We had pizza for dinner, it was very nice just to sit down and have dinner with group of friends. We then went out and had a look around Sesto Calende. Sesto is the town where our school is and where most people live closest too. I had a look at my first bar. They are quite different to Tassies! Well I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been in one, but from what I can see! People from the age of 14-15 can buy alcohol here. The bar I went to was a café where you could then buy alcoholic drinks. Luciana and I shared a “Sex on the Beach” cocktail! It was very nice! Friday there wasn’t anything planned. I went for a shortish bike ride in the morning and got some nice snowy mountain photos. I watched a movie and then got some lovely sunset photos. On Saturday night we had people over for dinner and that was quite boring because there wasn't much of the conversation that I could understand!
On Sunday we went to a lovely little town called Stresa. Stresa is on the edge of Lake Maggiore. It was quite old, we went for walk through one of the little streets and then back along the side of the lake. The street we walked through was very narrow and the buildings were very old. Of this one lane way really, we went up a few other even smaller lanes. There are so many people and so much traffic! Trying to get out of a car parking spot and then keep driving can take quite a while or a bit of road rage! I saw quite a bit of road rage and angry drivers. That’s when I realised it is so much better to travel by bike! I would love to do Italy again with my family on bikes!
I was back at school today, it wasn’t too bad day. I did my first test today, it was on the computers and we had to write out a letter and set it out all correctly. I got 8 for it. They mark up to 10! I was happy! I really don’t know how I am going to get my results. Or they're going to be really bad!
I am going to Florence next Wednesday the 20th and spending the night there with STS with all the exchange students that came here in January. It should be really good. We only have to pay for the train ticket and STS pays for the Hotel and Dinner. I will be getting train to Milan from Gallerate. Gallerate is about 20km from Arsago. From Milan I will get a train to Florence, it’s a 4 hour trip or something. There will be other exchange students so it shouldn’t be too boring! I have a few hours in Florence before I get a train home on the Thursday so hopefully I’ll be able to see a bit of Florence. I am a bit scared getting the train to Milan from Gallarate though! I should be fine. I am learning Italian so fast, I am doing those extra Italian classes. I had one today and the teacher I think was very surprised at how much I have learnt. "Non a Capito" means "I don’t understand!" I am still saying that a fair bit though! Hehe but I am getting there. I have just spent the afternoon with Luciana, it was very nice. I went to her house for a short time and that’s really nice too! I am hopefully going to a dance club this Saturday night. A guy, Sasa, from my class is turning 18 on the 14th so most of the class is going there is celebrate!
Well that is all from me know, hear from me sooner or later! Here are some pictures, enjoy and be jealous!
Ciao! Baci (kiss)

The first photo is of a few of the girls in my class and the back of the class room. this photo was taken when we had a few period just in the class room because the teacher was there.
The next photo is just a few more girls and the front of the class room!
and the the last photo is my BED! yay!

First photo (top down): The first 3 photos are from Brissago Valtravaglia, which was where the families friends lived. It wasnt that nicer day so the photos didnt come out very well and my camera batteries were dieing.

The next two photos are of my house! The front and the side with the backyard. It is a pretty ordinary house, with another house underneath, thats where Nonna (the grandma) lives. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I share a room with Francesca.

The next photo down was from the garden in Varese. I attemped to do a 2 plus photo thing (forgot what its called!) but the light is different! But justy focus on those BIG WHITE SNOWY MOUNTAINS in the background. they are so spectacular. I havent been to the snow yet.

The last two are from a thing that happens at the end of January every year. They have a fire with a girl burning. not sure what the story was behind it! i didnt quite understand it.