When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream. -John Lennon
I've been here for about 2 months now, and so much has happened.
At first I thought my host family would be good, though I remember thinking from the first night that the mother was very uptight. It only got worse, for the first month here I was yelled at, called names, treated without respect, and basically hated. Even my area rep told me that she knew before that this mother had problems (I got along with everyone in the family except her, especially the daughter, Claudia, my age). They had already gotten kicked out of AFS and every host kid they've ever had has complained about them. At the end, it was too much and after a fun weekend in another family for 3 days in Caglieri, I realized that it was not normal and told Marina (my rep) that switching needed to happen, she agreed. Of course, a lot happened between then too. There is one other ASSE exchange student in my town, Caroline. She's Norwegian and we hang out almost every day. It was a huge help not being alone here. I had a really hard month, half because my host family had rules like "only go out between 5-7, 8 on Satruday, no crossing your arms, no hanging out with exchange students, no closing the bedroom door even at night, only talk to your parents for exactly 20 minutes between 10 and midnight on Sundays, if you miss them wait another week, etc.) Plus, I missed (and still do) miss Caserta more than I have ever missed the US. For a while I actually had nightmares because of it, I hated it here and tried my hardest to get BEC to allow me to go back. I ended up having to learn a hard life lesson, sometimes you can't fix mistakes, you just have to accept the consequences. After I accepted it, it got better. I made a lot of friends at school where I have 2 classes so lots of oppertunity. I got to get used to living in a small town again. I became close to Caroline. I finally switched families 3 weeks ago and now I have the perfect family and the old one seems like a bad dream. Daniela, 18, Clauda, 23, and Ornella and Giorgio are the parents. They laugh, and mind their own busiess. I have freedom, but I feel like such a part of this family. Daniela is cuddly and I joke with everyone, so much easier now that I can finally talk. I think it could have been this way with my second family, but I had to grow up a bit. The last bad family I had actually taught me a lot about how to appreciate a good family and being able to finally speak Italian really helps the communication. The one good thing about my old family was that for 3 days for easter I got to go to Paris! It was fabulous, gorgeous, and everything else I thought it would be. I officially want to learn French, and badly. On Wednesday the other students arrive for the Sardegna trip, which I get to go on for free because I have an amazing area rep and she knows I can't pay. I get to see Jennifer again, and Patrick which makes me so happy! Then June 5th, I go to do my SAT in Rome so Marina organized it so we're all going for a day and Alessia, Martina, Jennifer, Francesca, and Giorgio are coming to meet me for the day. Then, very hopefully, BEC is going to allow me to go back to Caserta for my last week. Crossing my fingers! Basically, I cannot, repeat, CANNOT, believe that I have only one month left. Sad is not the correct word, devastated almost covers it. I am not ready, and I refuse to think about it. So there, that's all I'll say about it. I feel like seeing such a different part of Italy has really opened up my mind and I've seen so many differences between Naples and here. Accent, especially. Anyways, thats really all. Ciao 4 Now xoxo
