Here at last!

     Ciao! It felt like eternity but I finally made it to Italy! I had to take 3 flights with 2 layovers, the second one being painfully long and made even worse because I got sick. Bleh. But it was well worth the wait because I am here and it all seems perfect right now! We live in an apartment in the middle of town on the 8th floor. You can see everything from the balcony, including the high mountains neer the city. One of them has a church way up high on it and the mother told me she would take me there to see it one day. Last night I shard a room with my sister but I dont think I will the whole time because there is an extra bedroom too. The floors here are all marble and the mother is amazed that I dont wear shoes in the house because she thinks it is very cold on the feet but i dont mind it. Also she insists that I blow dry my hair after every shower so that I dont get cold. The shower here is new and is a little different but really cool. It has a radio in it and it can make the water come from either right above you, all around you, or with the hand held shower head thing that has a stand on the wall. It looks like something you would see in a scifi movie like a little shower portal xD And they have a bidet (or however you spell it) in all the bathrooms here. I have no idea how to use that so for now I think I'll just stay with using only the toilet haha.
     They also have another house in the country which we visited today because it is not too far. It has 2 floors and a huge balcony that surrounds 2 sides of the house and on one side is like a patio sort of. Besides their cat, Snow who lives at both places from time to time, the mother has started keeping these 2 stray dogs who came to her house and she named one of them Jo. They are as sweet as can be and they are getting fed very well. They get all the leftovers and anything left in the pot after cooking, and because I dont eat very much at one time, they get even more. Last night we just had pizza from the local Pizzeria and it was DELICIOUS. The crust is not big like in America, but like a thin bread. Yumm. But for lunch today was when we really ate. Lunch is very big for them. First momma made a big pot of spaghetti with pesto. I saw her put it on 2 plates and it was very much so I asked for a little less because i could not eat that much. The amount she gave me could still have fed 2 of me xD Then after that (I didnt know there would be anything after, I was already stuffed!) she put on new plates for us this delicious dish of chicken with peppers and olives and cut bread to soak up the sauce. It was soo good and i felt bad because I could only eat a little bit being that full from pasta. And even more after that was fruit, we had white watermelon, which i didnt even know existed. Whew I was full. We would have gone to see the horses that live in that city, but the place where they keep them was closed, so we will see them another day. We drove into the small town there with Laura's friend accompanying us and got ice cream bars. I couldnt believe we were still going to eat after lunch, haha but im not one to pass on ice cream! For a long time after Laura, here friend, and I walked around town, saying hi to people they knew and stopping at a few parks to sit.
     I have been walking a lot here especially. Yesterday, a while after I got back from the airport and showered we went walking and didnt come home till dinner, then went out again after! haha It seems like everybody does this here because we would constantly bump into some of here friends, walk with them a little bit or just say hi, then carry on our way. It is surprisingly fun really.
     Tonight we are going to a surprise birthday party for one of Laura's friends and tomorrow we are going to go to a celebration in the town where Clara (Laura's friend) lives so we will spend the night in the house in the country. I could write on and on about this amazing place but now I have to go get ready for the party. Ciao for now!

10 More Days!!

Hi guys!
     I'm almost there and I'm soo excited! :) I have only 10 days left  and a LOT to do. I was originally supposed to leave on the 4th but I get to go early and leave on the 2nd instead. My family invited me to come early to go on vacation with them to Salerno where their grandpa lives. I would be leaving on the 28th if the consulate would give me my visa before that, but they're too stubborn...and the lady who works there scares me...a lot O.o
      So I didn't make my $8,000 that I was originally supposed to, but I made almost $5,500 which I think is still pretty good for a teenager to make in just a few months. I didn't really fundraise that much but I did get a job working for my neighbor who turned her garage into a medical billing office. And let me tell you, working there is insanely boring but my neighbor/boss is reeaaly nice so it kinda makes up for it. Also my grandparents gave me $1,300 which was super helpful!
       My host sister, Laura and I have been talking a lot on facebook and once on skype and we still get along great! Oh and you wont believe what I found out today when i was talking to her! Ok so you'll probably believe it because it's pretty normal there but for me it will be crazy. The girls there cant wear shorts to school..EVER or even low cut shirts, or heavy makeup! I mean I don't wear thaaat much makeup so I'll be fine with that part, but the shorts and low cut shirts!! Wow that's practically my whole closet except for dresses and a few jeans. xD Laura doesn't like the rules either, I think especially the makeup rule. I cant wait to meet her and all of my new family! I hope they like the gifts I'm bringing them too. I got my mom a book of California which has pictures of big cities and national parks, things like that with information and history with each. For my sister I got a Santa Cruz sweatshirt that I'm kind of jealous of ;) And for my brother a San Francisco Giants hat, the one that's all black with the orange SF logo thingie on it.
     I know I know, I'm supposed to know at least some Italian by now. And I do! But emphasis on SOME. I got Rosetta Stone to help me learn it but I'm really bad at actually getting around to doing it. Plus the fact that its soo repetitive and aggravating doesn't help much either. So I'll keep doing Rosetta Stone, but I have a feeling I'm going to just have to learn as I go when I get there. And I'll write again when that time comes closer! Bye now!!
    
    

I GOT MY HOST FAMILY! YES!!

      that's right! i finally got my wonderful, amazing host family! i actually found out about them over the weekend but i was soo busy i haven't had time to make a post on here to tell you guys. im going to live in a city called Avellino which is in southern italy, right near naples. and the family sounds perfect :) i have a sister who is the same age as me, a brother who is 19, and a mom who is believe it or not an english teacher. so i didn't even find out my host family from CIEE, i didn't get my email until yesterday! xD what happened was this girl names Laura added me on facebook so i sent her a message asking if i knew her, and she said she was going to be my new sister!! i freaked out! i seriously screamed and my dogs who were downstairs then started barking. We've been massaging each other on facebook after that and she seems really cool! i can't wait to go meet her and the rest of her family. she says they live on the 8th floor of a big apartment building in the middle of town(cool!!), and that she has a cat named snow which she showed me a picture of and hes reaallyy cute!
     as far as fundraisers go, I've made about $150 so far but am going to start working next Wednesday. im working across the street for my neighbor who owns a medical billing agency thing. not very fun, but i have to pay for this trip somehow. :P also i remembered another bank account i made a few years ago with some money in it which i moved over to my main bank account. now with all the money in the account i have $4,000, so that means $4000 left to make. also, the garage sale is the weekend after next so i'm hoping to cut that amount down even more.
     thanks for the comments guys :) and no i'm not going with AFS, im going with CIEE because it's pretty much the same but a thousand dollars cheaper :P or at least for this years program it is. hmmm.. i never know how to end these posts, we should have a mini contest. leave a comment in the comment section below with a phrase for me to say at the and of each post and whichever one i like the best or maybe the one that you guys like the best i will say :) but until then, i'll write back when i have news, bye!! -piper

Spring Break!

hi guys! so about that interview i was telling you about, it was fabulous. it was more of a quick get to know me and orientation kind of thing though, and not really an interview, but there still were some hard questions. :P Also about a week ago i had a fundraiser where me and 2 other people in my schools foreign exchange club sat out in the pouring rain in front of Nob Hill Grocery for a few hours with a donation box, Italian flag, and sum music but it was actually pretty fun. Plus we made $115! haha now i just have $4,885 left to make...woohoo. At least i'm going to do another one of those this saturday so hopefully i'll get some more help with that fee. :) by the way, i'm sure you guys have noticed that i have terrible spelling and grammar, and i could try and like proofread these posts to fix them.. or i could just leave them messy. i like that plan better haha. As far as host family goes... nothing yet. absolutely nothing. o well, i'll just have to keep waiting like many other people going abroad next year, but it's hard. i want to know so badly who my host family and every day i keep checking my email for those special words "here's your host family!" or whatever they will say when they email me, but for some reason thinking about it all day isn't enough for them to send it. oh yeah! i totally forgot the title of this post! yeah it's spring break this week for me and as fun as it has been, i keep having this guilty feeling because i know that when i come home, my dad is going to ask me if i have gone through any boxes for the garage sale. we're having a garage sale to help pay for my trip and all the money goes to my $5000 or now $4885 that i have to pay. the catch u say? oh just that i have to do all the work! haha so i know that is what's fair and that it will be worth it ten times over when i get to italy, but right now there's just so much that needs to be done and it is not fun. hopefully i'll get my host family soon and that will motivate me enough to get away from the t.v. and start sorting things into garage sale and keep piles. :P that's all for now but i'll keep you guys posted on how things go!

i feel so accepted! xD

         so i am home sick today and being the geek that i am i was reading other foreign exchange blogs from people who went to italy and i saw my email on another tab get the little (1) next the gmail logo. i checked it out and its an email from CIEE saying that i got accepted into the Italy program for the academic year 2012-13!!! yay! :D other than that i have my phone call interview with a representative next monday so i'll tell you how that goes too. i can't believe it, im actually going to italy next year! i cant wait! i'll write back when something that might be actually interesting to you guys happens but in the meantime dont forget to pleeaasee donate and help me go. i havent got any donations yet but i hope that'll change soon! byee now!!!  
       

Applications Applications and more Applications....

so I'm almost done filling out my applications and scholarship forms (yay) but it seems that when i think i have done just about everything, I'll look back through the biiiggg stack of forms and see i still have something like 2 more essays to write or maybe a form a need to get the doctor to fill out. sooo frustrating! xD but i know it'll be worth it soon!! not much else thats really exciting going on with the foreign exchange thing. im going to start doing a fundraiser with the foreign exchange club at my school. well actually a few fundraisers. we are making tee shirts with some cool design on them about foreign exchange and are going to sell them. also we're going to ask grocery stores if we can set up a table in front with a donation box. we will have things from the countries we're going to displayed too (like food, music, games, ect..). one that im doing by myself is that ill be going around to businesses and fast food places and asking them for donations/ to sponsor me. lets hope i can make enough!

my first post eveerr!!

Hi! My name is Piper Pontrelli and I’ll be using this blog to tell you all about the adventures, mishaps, delight, and homesickness I will come across throughout my year in Italy. That is, if I get to go. You see, as perfect and amazing this sounds (or at least to me it does) there is one small catch.. well a pretty big catch actually. the cost. 
My parents have generously agreed to pay half of the cost and the rest I have to come up with. I have about $2,000 saved but I still need to make $6,000 in order to pay my part. I am doing jobs like baby-sitting and fundraisers, and I’ll get a summer job when that time comes around but that wont cover it all. At the top right corner of this page there is a Donate button which will allow you to donate any amount. If you could donate anything it would be extremely helpful and no amount is too small. I would greatly appreciate it if you could also forward my blog to anyone else who you think might be interested in helping me make my trip to Italy possible. 
So now that I’m done with the soliciting part of this entry, lets get back to blog stuff. When telling people you’re going to do something as crazy as packing up and moving to Italy for a year, they usually have a few questions lined up. One of the most common ones that should be one of the easiest as well is, “Why do you want to do this?” Simple enough right? Well I surprisingly still don’t have an answer for it. Maybe it’s the adventure, maybe it’s learning a new language, or maybe I’m just a loon and should be put in a crazy house. (: I’m not quite sure about that one yet. But I do know that I want to do this and I’m going to work as hard as I can to make it happen.  For years now i have dreamed of going off to Italy, and now I might finally be going. There‘s no way to explain how excited I am. :) 
My Grandpa came over from Italy on a boat when he was 7 and it's always been one of his many topics of choice to talk about, so I've been hearing stories about Italy for all my life. It’s funny at family get-togethers listening to him and his brother yelling “Mangia!” at the dinner table like they speak fluent Italian still while in reality that’s pretty much all they know how to say in that language. 
Next school year (my junior year) I am leaving in the end of August for Italy and will be there until June comes around again. It's taken a long time of pleading and bugging my parents to get them to let me go and now I'm super excited to finally get the O.k. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Also I'll write again when I get more information on more interesting things like my host family and city where i will be staying!!