When I originally put Italy down as one of my choices, I had a, now very apparent, misconception about the temperature in Italy. I conjured up images of beaches, sun, heat; not rain, wind, even snain (my made-up word for very wet snow). I remember when was told I would be spending this year in Italy, I said "Imagine if I end up somewhere where there's snow". Well the misfortune gods were listening, and they really seem to like me so I am not surprised that it is cold here. Although seasons are nice, although it is VERY wet here, all the time. A cold winter is what I am used to so it isn't too bad.
The past month has been much of the same routine. Attendance of school (it is still hard to get through the day as I don't feel like I am actual a student at the school, more just like a listener) , biking around town, drinking coffee and tea, studying Italian and not too much else. At the beginning of the month, my grandparents arrived in Udine from Germany after spending some time in London with my cousin. We spent a couple of days taking trains to Venice and Trieste, and just playing cards and lounging around. It was nice to see some familiar faces. I traveled to Gorizia (about 30 minutes on a train) to see the town, and visit my friend and a chocolate festival! The chocolate festival was interesting, just a lot of chocolate and rain and a few rides (which were crazy and definitely would have been deemed unsafe if they had been in Canada). This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Milan with my host mom and little sister. We went by train and stayed with my host aunt's family. Milan is a beautiful city always bustling with action and excitement. The exterior of the duomo (cathedral) is probably the most incredible church I have ever seen. We browsed through a Salvador Dali art exhibit which was amazing for me because I studied his work last year in History. I could have spent all day trying to figure out the meanings behind the intricate randomness of his art work. While I was in Milan, I was able to spend a few hours with another familiar face (my friend Kiah, from Kamloops). Her life in Milan is basically awesome, and the Milanese Rotary actually has.. functions and trips (weird for Italy, I know). My highlight of this weekend was eating pancakes, peanut butter and maple syrup, which I have missed so dearly, as well as visiting a rainy, cold Venice which was interesting because it seemed  more like a livable city and less like a toy that tourists play with 90 percent of the year. We found grass, and a basketball court, in Venice! Imagine calling up your buddy and asking him to come shoot some hoops, in Venice. 
This week will be full of packing, for my trip to Bologna to see Kings of Leon, no big deal, (and eat bologna sandwiches although I have been told like a tacky american, no offense, that they don't, in fact, have bologna sandwiches there). More importantly, packing to move host families. Next Sunday, on my three month mark, I am moving into my second host family. I am excited, but nervous because the change could have a better or worse impact on my already kinda difficult life. These next three months may continue to be the hardest months of my life, but after meeting my third host family, I am one hundred percent positive that the last months of my exchange will be great. I will have similar-aged host siblings, who are awesome by the way, as well as very welcoming parents. Also springtime will bring the visit of my parents and Reidy (hahaha), our trips to Rome and Florence (hopefully.. Mom? Dad?), as well as a mini exchange to England with my classmates to improve our English skills (should be helpful for me..), and a trip to Leon, France with my school soccer team. Spring is wonderful.
Christmas is fast approaching and I am really missing the beginning festivities of home like Christmas music in malls and at work, and Christmas lights, and snuggling with the girls in front of some stupid movie with tea and cookies, putting up our ugly, homemade Christmas decorations at home (although that is usually around Dec 23), and a winter wonderland. Honestly, I am a little nervous for Christmas here mainly because I have no idea what to expect with my next family, but fingers crossed that it will be just as festive.
Also as a perfect example of my somewhat enjoyable, but a little depressing life, I went and saw Harry Potter 7 alone at the theatre, but still sat there at the ending credits trying to pull myself together to leave because of it's amazingness.... and I saw it in Italian! Harry Potter is just awesome. Punto.

A summary for the Rotary Roundup Newsletter at home.. in case the rest of you want to check it out.

While almost everyone else is nearing their third month abroad, I am sitting here after being asked to sum up just two months, as I arrived at the beginning September. On September 5^th, my plane dipped down into Venezia, Italy to begin the hardest two months of my entire life. This exchange has been good, but far from easy and so different than anything I imagined or expected. I am living in Udine, Italy which is about an hour northeast of Venice. It is a fairly small town where it rains often, and for any of you who have a preconception that Italy is decently warm all year long, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but my party was rained on (literally) pretty quickly after I arrived. Currently, it is colder here than it is at home, and I’m from CANADA. Udine is a beautiful city, with the typical old architecture, small streets, crazy drivers, old bicycles, le gelaterie (I should mention the gelato really is as good as we think), expensive clothes, beautiful and fashionable people, tons of pasta, great pizza and everything else Italian.

                The first week was spent sleeping and walking around Udine, getting (somewhat) accustomed to the streets. I also had the chance to see Venice on one of the most beautiful days of the year.  Venice is easily the most beautiful place I have ever been. For someone who loves the ocean and water as much as I do, Venice is like a dream, with canals as streets and boats as cars and ferries as taxies. I am seriously in love.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to actually visit any of the museums or attractions but we walked, through Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal(well, beside it at least) and all Venice’s greatness.

Life in Italy is much different than at home, and that is why I am still struggling to adjust. Not only is the Italian lifestyle different, with everything being later (like lunch, dinner, bedtime etc) as well as everything taking more time it seems; but my lifestyle drastically changed. I went from being someone who was busy all the time either working, or out with friends, to having nothing to do most of the time. I attend school in the mornings from Monday to Saturday (it is a struggle pulling myself out of bed on Saturday mornings), which I might add is very different from school in Canada. We stay in one classroom and the teachers move around and basically lecture for an hour and then leave. It is different from the interactive, stimulating type of school that I am used to, where we have relations with teachers and have time to move our feet and get reenergized between classes. The students here work very hard though and school is quite intense. I am in a linguistic school, which means I am in English, German, French, Latin, History, Italian, Philosophy, and now recently after my insistence some social sciences classes which I am actually interested in. I spend most of my time at school studying Italian or desperately flipping through my best friend (aka my dictionary) trying to keep up. The Italian language is beautiful, and although I am not nearly as far as I would like, I can usually understand most of what people are saying, and I can carry on conversations with horrible grammar, but hey I’m still learning. My afternoons are spent studying the language, biking around town, sometimes meeting up with classmates for coffee and shopping (if they have the time), and sleeping (Exchange is exhausting!!). I have had the chance to see two Italian hockey games, which being Canadian and a huge hockey fan, made me happy. I visited Austria at 2am one Saturday which was awesome and a perfect example of the Italian lifestyle as I was with middle-aged adults who had energy and I was the one who was sleeping on the car ride home. On Saturdays (I have stopped calling them weekends), I meet friends in town, go to the discoteca, go to VERY fancy birthday parties, or other various activities.

                These last two months have been incredibly hard as I am not adjusting as quickly as I hoped or as quickly as others around me. I am a very independent person and it is hard for me to rely on others to do everything for me.  I feel like a different person here, someone much quieter and more reserved, which for anyone who knows me, is basically the polar opposite of my usual personality. I am staying optimistic that once I am more comfortable with the language and the people around me, which will start feeling more like myself, and less like an outsider. Although these feelings are challenging, I think, in the long term, they are preparing me for a little thing we like to call Real Life.   Ciao a tutti! 

Dolce far niente. Ironically, an italian phrase I learned not from living in Italy, but from the novel "Mangia, Praga, Ama"(Eat, Pray, Love), that translates to the "the sweetness of doing nothing". Now this phrase, when I read about it last spring I found it very... inspiring as at the time I was constantly overwhelmed with school, work, soccer, etc. Now, ironically, I am in Italy where this phrase it supposed to come true, and oh, it definitely has, for me at least. My host dad informed me that I am staying in the one region in Italy where everyone works EXTRA hard all the time; the neighboring region parties and the other neighbour apparently, mixes partying and working equally, but Udine, just works; I have definitely noticed.  I have accepted the fact that I have no luck as far as life goes, so I just make the best of it. So in the one place in Italy where "Dolce Far Niente" is not applicable, while everyone else works, I am the only one taking this phrase's advice, and wish I wasn't. But hey, Dolce Far Niente is part of some Italian culture so I am integrated somewhere!
   Plus, I do watch hockey, which unfortunately is very Canadian and not Italian of me. I go watch hockey games in  a northern town called Pontebba, with my adult friends who are much older than I am, but hey, I'm growing up right? The hockey is a decent game to watch, probably around the level of the Vees, and waving around my gigantic Canadian flag in a crowd of Italians makes me happy. After the hockey game, typical of the Italian lifestyle, we sometimes go to Austria at the wee hours of the morning. These voyages make me realize how small Europe really is, and how easy it is to get around.
Other than the hockey games, I have little news to report from life in Italy. School is the same, although I am taking more social sciences classes which I enjoy, I think. In these classes, I am able to understand most words and sentences, but I am struggling with the overall ideas as I still have to focus so much on the individual sentences. Halloween in Italy isn't a grande chose, but I went out with some friends from school and hit up some bars and the bowling alley, which proved to be a bad idea as I am a terrible bowler and a terrible klutz who knocks over big toy machines under the watchful eyes of an entire restaurant of fashionable Italians. Go Misha.
People keep telling me that the first 3 months are hard, and that they are. Unfortunately I cannot say that I am past the uncomfortable stage yet, but tomorrow is only my two month mark so I am holding out hope. Also packages from home with Reese's PB cups (they don't have PB here, my host mom said she's seen PB in movies!) make life just a little better. So, Happy November and Happy Eggnog-is-finally-here-NOT!