Ashika in Italia

3 Months Later!

2010-01-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

Okay i've been a total slacker! I gota start doing this more. I actually write the blog then never upload it. So this one will be long.
This was written on 13th December.

I fail at blogging. I thought it was about time I finally updated this. I have been here for 3 months now, for me the days are long, but I’m surprised how fast it has been. So to be honest I don’t really remember as far back from the last post. So I think as far back from last week should be enough.
Saturday had school as usual, then after went to the mall with my sisters to buy some new boots. Sunday went to church; I don’t remember the name what it was but it was for my host cousin, like his day of becoming a man I guess. After church we had a big lunch with the whole family which was lovely.
Monday and Tuesday were holidays which I was looking forward to for so so long!!
Monday I went to Bari, a big town in Puglia to do a bit of shopping and meet my kiwi Amelia and Dane Massimo. I went with Alia from Russia and her host sister and when we got there I was surprised to see many more afsers. So that was really great. Bari was so beautiful, and the shopping was amazing! But was extremely gutted I had hardly enough time to shop because me had to leave by 4. Also doesn’t help that all the shops close from 1-5. So gutted for me. When I got home Carla and I put up the Christmas tree, it took her about half an hour to sort out the lights. She went a little over board In my opinion, but it does look pretty cool. Hmmm on Tuesday we went to lunch, and after went to the mall with my sisters, host mum and Alia. Wednesday it was Alessandra’s(my host sister) 16th birthday. So we went to school in the morning…bore. And after had lunch at home with maybe 20 of her closest friends. I don’t remember Thursday and Friday too well, except school of course.
Saturday went to school in the morning, but I felt so sick, weird like dizziness + headaches gah so I spent pretty much the rest of the whole day in bed. Finished reading New Moon and watched some Gossip Girl.

This was written on 25thDecember! Christmas!
Tuesday was the last day of school for me. It was weird going to school on the same week as Christmas. In the morning the English teacher/afs president of my chapter told me and Alia (Russian) that we were going to Franca Villa, to see another exchange student Pam from Thailand read something in Thai for her school’s 50th year celebration. It would have been nice to know we were going a few days before, but all in all it was really good to see Pam, I miss her so much, and we never see each other. As we pretty much can’t take a 30 minute bus or train by ourselves. Tuesday night was my friend Simone's 16th birthday party. He really went all out. It was pretty cool. Much better than the other parties I’ve been to here, but too bad it was freezing and I had a bad headache.

Wednesday I did absolutely nothing. It was good just staying home, caught up on some well deserved sleep I must say. On Wednesday my family’s computer broke and I was freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to talk to my family on Skype for Christmas. But luckily it was up and running again on Christmas Eve. Wednesday night I just watched some movies

Thursday. In the morning I went with my sister to do some shopping, as i’m so slack and hadn’t bought any presents yet. Then we went home and ate lunch. After lunch I think I may have had a nap or watched some Gossip Girl. I don’t really remember. Then the computer was working and I was very excited. I shed a few tears thinking I wouldn’t have been able to talk to my family. I decided that I was going to ring Erica using a phone card. “The network could not be reached” lucky for some. At this point I was really frustrated I thought It was just her that wasn’t answering her phone but turns out I couldn’t reach my family either. Gota love international calling.
So I thought I would ring her using my mobile phone. Was so good to hear her voice! Ah I miss her so much. Too bad the call cut out after 2minutes. And I spent 4 euro on it! But still was worth it. =) although she needs to stop being so lazy and download Skype.

At about 9 we went to dinner with the whole family. It was insane. So much food. Star shaped bred. Pasta. First time I’ve had pasta on Christmas. We were probably eating for an hour and a half, after dinner we waited until midnight. At midnight we all god in a big line and the person had a little baby Jesus toy and went and put him in his basket thing. And thus it was Natale. Then all the cousins went into one of the bedrooms and Santa came, apparently all the adults meet Santa, once he left there were presents everywhere. We got home at about 1am then we had more presents with my family. Let’s just say i’m all ready for winter now. My family got me this amazing fleece robe that’s going to keep me warm at all costs. Nonna got me a hot water bottle. And I also got some gloves and a bracelet. I am so thankful for everything my family has given me; it was a really great surprise. I got my family some little things also which I hope they liked. I got my cousin a massager in the shape of the dog. I’m sure he has not turned it off since he opened it. He had it going through all of lunch as well.
I then waited on Skype for my family to come online but was stood up by them so I went to sleep. Woke up at about 9 and went to Skype. Still nobody it’s like they forgot about me O.o
So after finding people that knew my brother and asking them to text him. Finally I spoke with my family and my Christmas was complete.
Well not quite. At 1 we went to lunch at Nonna’s. Wow is all I can say. Has never eaten so much before, And the desert was insane. There was enough for maybe 30 people! It was so yummy. Once we got home I had a nap. I was so tired from eating I think. Then I watched some Gossip Girl. Later in the night I went out with Carla and her friends to a bar, then for some reason we drove around Mesagne for like half an hour which was very random. Then finally went home and got some rest.

This was written on 29th December

On Saturday I went to Brindisi for 3 days. I stayed with a family whose daughter is going on exchange next year. And the dad is American so she spoke perfect English which was nice. Once we got there we ate a massive lunch! They made turkey on Christmas day so we had some left overs of that which was rally yummy. Then Jasmine and I just chilled for a bit. Watched a bit on TV in ENGLISH, E! TV even, which I was very excited about. I missed watching E! And there’s really no point of watching those shows on the internet so I was pretty excited. At about 7 we went out with some of her friends in the centre of Brindisi. She’s really lucky to live right in the centre of the city. First I met her friends then we went to this amazing yoghurt place, Omg it was so good. On the bottom of the cup you choose a sauce, then they put yoghurt then you choose another sauce and some candy or chocolate for on top. I had tropical and strawberry sauce with some smarties. Yum. After walking around for a while we went to a pub. Had a bite to eat, and just chilled there for the rest of the night. We even played monopoly. Or at least attempted to, it was an epic fail. So we just went home after that and got some sleep. On Sunday morning we woke up and made PANCAKES! Yum. Like real American pancakes with real American syrup. Omg it was so good. Then we chilled for a bit at home. Then for lunch we went out to this restaurant with some of her friends from the night before. I have wanted to eat sushi for so long so we found this place in Brindisi where they made sushi. Once we sat down we realized how expensive it was. But after some negotiating we got about 3 decent sized seafood meals, and 2 big plates of sushi. So it was worth it in the end. The people I was with had never had it in their live, so when they tried the wasabi they were really in shock. Like I told them it was really hot but they didn’t understand. So I think there were even some tears. After lunch we went to a café and had a coffee, and then Jasmine and I went shopping! We just went to a mall because it was raining and the shops went going to open again till 5.
I finally bought some good winter clothes because apparently it gets even colder in January and February. After shopping for a few hours we were going to go to a movie. It was so busy at the cinema. There weren’t any tickets left so we just went home and decided to watch a movie there. We had Pirates of the Caribbean in English. But it didn’t work on the DVD player because of the stupid region formats. So we decided to just watch some more sky in English. A bit of America’s Next Top Model. The really old season where Selisha won, must be a year old. Kendra and some others.

On Monday morning we woke up and had waffles! Blueberry waffles! I love American food. We didn’t like make them from scratch they were just the packet ones which you put in the toaster. But still quite good I must admit. After we got ready and went to Lecce with the whole family. It was a really nice surprise that they took me to Lecce. It’s like one of the main towns in Puglia and its wow so beautiful. It was so good to finally see some more of Italy. And Lecce was just amazing. On the way in the car I texted my friend Massimo from Denmark who lives near Lecce to come meet us for a little bit. So it was really good to see him also.
For lunch we had McDonalds. Yay. I got chicken nuggets. At first they didn’t give me any sauce. And I saw pictures of it on the side of the packet and I was like where is my sauce! Then the lady gave it to me after I asked. I asked how much it was and she said it came free with the nuggets, well no shit. You’re meant to ask what kind you want. But over all it was pretty good for Italian maccas, although I missed my frozen coke.
After lunch we looked around a bit and did a little more shopping. Well, atleatst tried to find shops that were open.
We went home at about 4 but before we got to Brindisi we went to their batch for like 10minutes. And they showed me the beach which I can just imagine is so amazing in the summer time!

Once we got to Brindisi Jasmine and I went downtown again just looked around at shops again and ate yoghurt this time I got mine with nutella and chocolate it was amazing. I am definitely going back
Once we got home I packed all my stuff up and helped her get ready for her night. Then I went home. When I got home I got ready to go out to a party. It was in this really big club and it was very well planed. I think it was like for our school i'm not so sure. Or at least people form our school organized it. I’m sure like the whole school was there. Everyone was dressed up so nicely and they were all just so excited. We danced most of the night and went home at about 2.
Once we got home I fell asleep straight away and my feet were in so much pain from my heels. I woke up at midday. God I missed the holidays.
Also i changed family. But ill talk about it later.
Ciao for now.
Baci Baci

occupazione, fooooooooood and more

2009-10-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have been in Italy for a little over a month now, and I love it so far. The city Mesagne itself is really old and walking around its really beautiful. And the tiny street thing is so true. I really need to take some photos.

School is good. Getting use to it now. Deff not use to school on Saturdays though. I am pretty much only doing Italian and English and pe…I sit in Italian and understand nothing and I sit in English pretty much being bored out of my brains because Its so easy. But some English classes they translate most of the stuff that they are learning for me which is good. My actual class in doing English literature this year, which means they are studying Shakespeare (lucky me). Its really weird though because the teacher teaches them in English. It would be like studying some Japanese writer and Mr. Conroy only speaking in Japanese. Oh how t.c would struggle with that. The people at school are great and I have some lovely new friends. Today my school was on "strike" i think. or as they call it "occupazione" i dont really know how i can explain it. But when we got to school all the students were downsatirs and the like class presidents were having a mega disscussion from what i could see. Then they all started chanting and my sister told me we wouldnt be doing any lessons. Pretty much it was like school without teachers, all the students were just in their class all day mucking around pretty much. I went down to the staff room to talk to the english teacher for a bit and they were all just chiling in there. I really dont understand what it meant tbh. And what its going to do. But i guess we will find out soon. All in all a good day though

Most days after school we go to Nona’s (grandma’s) house for lunch. Which is always very tasty, just wayyyy to filling! For desert she usually gives us like a vanilla cupcake with nutella spread in the top half. Seriously you have to try it. It may be the most amazing thing I have eaten so far!
I now know to only eat a small amount of pasta (or what we have first) so that I wont be so full to eat what’s next.
Dinner is at about 830-9. Which is different. And I’m already tired by dinner time. Enough about food though otherwise ill get hungry.

My family is great! I love them! I couldn’t have asked for better sisters and afs pretty much found me the perfect family. My parents went on holiday to America for about 10days. So I spent a lot of time with my 2 sisters. We pretty much went shopping way too much! But I guess there’s not much else to do. They are also hilarious I’m always in hysterics with them. Dinner with the 2 of them = ham and cheese toasted sandwiches (which I can’t decide if they are better than ours or not), hot chips and sausages. Oh how I felt at home. XD
I have decided that ketchup should just fuck off and someone should send me some watties tomato sauce though. I can’t stand ketchup. The mayonnaise is sooooo much better though. And here I go again about food.
I think the parrot is imitating a monkey right row. I’m pretty much over it now though it talks way too much. Although when im in the room it is as quite as a mouse. It’s cool when it calls the dogs though and pretends it’s the phone and says pronto. =)

Saturday nights are a thing to get use to. Its so different to New Zealand. Most of the teens go out to the public villa(park/garden) which is right in the centre of the city. And just chill out there for most of their night. They pretty much all smoke which is something you would not see at home. And they find it so surprising when I tell them about what a usual Saturday night is like for me. There’s I think like one cool bar to go to where its “pumping” called 22. We go there sometimes which is okay. its just different not going to a house party, dancing and drinking. But I will have o get use to it.

I haven’t done much in terms of exploring the city and visiting new places yet. But im sure ill get around to it soon. =)
Next week i have afs camp somewhere i cant remember the name...but its maybe 2 hours away form Mesagne, hopefully thatl be fun.
Anyways all for now. =) miss you guys heaps! x

Im in Italy!

2009-09-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

So ive been in Italy for one week now. After about 33 hours of travelling! Auckland to Singapore. good flight. entertaining. Singapore to Frankfurt not really at all. Frankfurt to roma. Delayed the flight...for some reason they had to scan my laptop. wtf. Then we fianly to Rome. Good fun. Spent 2 days at a hotel outside of rome for orientation camp. That was really mint. really bonded with my fellwo nzers and neighbours across the ditch. funny people. There was 400 people at the camp. which meant i oviously couldnt meet all of them. =( the volunters were all crazy but cool. On the first day we arived we had 'free time' since people from other countries were still ariving. I had 3 cans of coke that day...jetlag + coke + tiredness = very strange Ashika. Also on thursday the cameras came out. We have a model in our group. No other than josh.. the only male out of the 10 kiwis.guts for him. although he must have enjoyed himslef otherwise he would have gone o make some guy mates. =p.then on friday we had our orientation at a school near by, we were in groups of people that spoke the same language and were going to be near each other. it was pretty borrring. sitting in a hot room when we had to lisen. but we got 2 hours for lunch and when we played games and went outside it was fun.Met some pretty cool people from Sweeden, Denmark, Finland, Usa, and South America. Had the worst 5 hour trainride to Brindisi. To meet my host famly. =)what a day tho. Our carrage was right at the end. Some how we were late, and had to get on somewhere in the middle. Which meant i had to lug my massive suitcase, minisuitcase, laptop(which is surprisingly heavy) camera bag, and hand bag. through about 4 carriags filled with people. hardly any space through the middle. I was not happy.On staurday i met my host family at the train station. They are lovely. We had gelato in Brindisi which was good as. Then went out with my hostsister Alessandra and met her friends in town which was cool, although i spoke shit all italian and they knew hardly any english. but still they were all really nice. On sunday went we went to the beach. yay. i can gladly say i already have tanlines. Tts so different to nz aswell. They have beach chairs and umbreallas everywhere. nobody just lies on the groind which i found odd,the water is great! not too cold, not too hot.On sunday night i finally checked my email and facebook. shit i had a lot of emails and notifications.And then for dinner we had chicken with sundried tomatos. which was delicious. and so was the salad! wow amazng olive oil is all i have to say. and the grapes are soo good here. Actualy evey fruit that ive had here has been way better than in nz. Started school on monday. Its verrrrrrry different! its all in one buliding and the inside is pretty much all just white. No pictures or art or photos or anything. i was very surprised. And we stay in the same class insted of changing. And there is school on saturday! I forgot my camera cord to upload photos on to the computers so pretty gutted! =(And the key =boards here are different. It took me so long to find the @ and i still dont know how to use it so copy and paste is working for now. Oooo my host family has Wii, which is mint as. Today i played some wii tennis. I would say its harder than normal tennis. The food here is soooo goood. Its still really different eating so muc for lunch and then not eating dinner till after 9 =(im either tired riht after dinner or too tired to eat dinner so i go to sleep. And schoool is pretty tiring espcialy since i hav no clue what anyones talking about. But i dont stay in the classroom the whole day. Me and another exchange student have a few Italian lessons...with a teacher who speaks no english. So its very hard to communicate. But we sit on the computers and facebook away. =)
Tonight im going to a restraunt with my family, also my other host sister has come down from uni in Bari. And their cousin and she has a little baby boy who is soooo cute!

Wellll. all for now. ill try update this more if i can remember.

Im going to Italy!

2009-08-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

Yay i made a blog! And i would like to thank Nina for helping me. =)

Anyways, in 20days ill be leaving Wellington, NewZealand for Italy! For a year! Wooo. So ill be living in the south east coast-Mesagne, Brindisi, Puglia. I got my host family in May i have 2 host sisters Alessandra and Carla and ill be in the same class as Alessandra. My host Parents are Danilo and Gisella they are both doctors. And also in the family 5 pets! ive never had pets apart from fish so it will be interesting. 3 dogs, 2 cats, and a parrot. coool or what?
So i've been talking to Alessandra over facebook and msn. she is really cool, cant wait to meet her. Also have been talking to some of her friends that go to the school im going to, which is cool so atleast ill know a few people once i start school.

Speaking of school it's called(but i can't actually say it) "Liceo Scientifico E. Ferdinandoscien". "Scientifico" as in Science. Too bad i take Art, Photography, Classics, English and Maths. But anyways should be interesting. If i cant understand science in English, i don't think ill do very well in Italian. Also since i know bearly any Italian at all im pretty much screwed.
I also think travelling to Italy will be an experience in its slef. There like 11 of us nzers going. which is all good. What isnt is that im going to be lugging around a bag thats massive! Cabin bag, handbag, laptop and my slr camera which had to come in a massive bag also. Im deff gonna struggle.

More exciting stuff, i have a new host sister staying with me in Wellington. She's from Dominican Republic, her name is Lisa. Shes Half Italian which benifits me, i really need her to teach me a bit. Also we have exams at school starting tomorrow. I'm only showing up to Maths and Photography. So i pretty much have the whole week off school.

So ill update when i can. =D ciaoooooo.