The second "roundup" for our Rotary district in Canada

After living for eighteen years in one place, it is strange how familiar life can become, in a completely new situation on the opposite side of the world. When the thought of being back in Penticton crosses my mind, it seems utterly surreal. Life in Italy has become just life; there are high points and low points, and then just endless time spent simply, living in that middle grey area where it is not exciting or amazing all the time.

            Over the past five months, specifically the last three, I have continued to see diverse parts of Italy and become more accustomed to this northern Italian culture, which is extremely different from the southern culture and much less “typical Italian” (although pasta, bread, and prosciutto are still fundamentals of the daily diet). I have had a chance to see one of my favourite musical groups perform in Bologna, a beautiful and historically important city; as well as visit Milan and much of the Friuli-Venezia Guilia region. My Christmas in Italy was surprisingly low-key, due to my small host family, and consisted mainly of eating and a present exchange on December 25. The task of finding something to do for New Year’s Eve is much simpler, as there are bars and festivities in the city all night, including music, dancing and fireworks. The Sixth of January is also a holiday in Italy in which, a figurative old woman, The Befana, brings children stockings (much like our stockings on Christmas morning); these festivities also include bonfires, as they burn the “bad spirits” from the previous year and predict the outcome of the New Year depending on the direction that the smoke blows. At the festival I attended, typical of Italian culture, they had predictions set for if the smoke blew to the west or to the east, unfortunately, since the smoke blew south, I am not able to tell you how this year will be, as they didn’t have a prediction for that particular direction. For the first time in my life, I was extremely excited to go back to school, as the Christmas holidays were long, and in my case, boring. With the Alps only 40 minutes away, I did not have the opportunity to see the mountains, and the fact that I was\am relatively friendless really hit me over these two weeks, but that is all part of exchange.

The “friend” factor and the language are, in my case, the two most difficult aspects of this student exchange.  Unlike university, students at school are not necessarily looking to make new friends, and as friendly as they may be, for the most part, the friendship stays virtually within the doors of the school. I have not yet had the luck of having similar aged host siblings, or even host siblings at all, which makes the “friend” issue much easier. In regards to the language, similar to what we were told, at approximately the three month mark, something just clicked. Italian is an incredible beautiful language (the language of love) and a stupidly complicated language in terms of verb conjugations; for example, one of the most important verb tenses in Italian doesn’t even exist in English. I am, in no way, fluent, but I am conversable, meaning I can easily hold conversations, and I speak only in Italian with Italians, even if they know English. The language factor is still the most frustrating obstacle, as even on good days, with the combination of the stutter I already have and this new language; it seems as if my klutziness has transferred to my speech resulting in constant stumbling over words.

With spring slowly creeping up, this year can only get better. As much as I miss the familiarity that is home, and as much as I loathe this “exchange fifteen”, we might call it (thanks to the Mediterranean diet of pasta every day.  I mean, is that really healthy?), this spring is looking positive, with a move to a new host family (with siblings my age!), a visit from my family, a chance to see a little more of Europe, and Carnival in Venice, just to name a few. Expectations are perhaps the biggest weakness of my exchange so far, as I came here with a set of expectations, most of which have resulted in nothing but disappointment. This experience, as it is nowhere even close to what I was expecting, has resulted in, an important learning experience; a greater appreciation for diversity; some answered questions regarding the type of life and area of study I want to pursue; and a much greater love for Canada. 

Since I last got around to writing, a lot and nothing has happened. Life has changed, yet has stayed the same. Christmas has come and gone. 2010, my graduation year, the year I spent so much time looking forward to, has now gone. Now onto my fifth month in Italy, life is becoming normal, which is both positive and negative. Positive, because I have ways to fill my days and enjoy myself and constantly put myself out there; negative, because life here is just normal, nothing special or exciting and a little lonely still (although I am getting very used to the loneliness). After switching families at the beginning of December, I am living in a huge and old house with 2 senior citizens both of whom I love. They like having some young blood around the house, and think I am a little crazy because I don't always where wool *gasp* (winter here is not like Canadian winter) and make fun of my accent constantly. I am living in a little apartment above the house, which is nice because it gives me my own space. Christmas in Italy was not a huge deal,  just a big lunch and a present exchange. I missed the soup on Christmas eve, the stockings and cinnamon buns on Christmas morning, the do-nothing of the day, and the big family dinner with turkey and stuffing, but hey next year will be twice as exciting and when will I ever be in Italy for Christmas again right? The Christmas vacations are just finishing up, and I can honestly say I have done nothing. I, unfortunately, have no cool trips or excursions to report, and these vacations have made me realize my lack of friends in Italy as I have seen none of my Italians over break! On New Year's Eve, I went to Gorizia to stay with my friend, and we danced and partied at a party in the city. When I think about New Year's in Canada, if there is no house party, the night is usually spent in the snow, so it was a nice change to actually have somewhere to go, even though we didn't really have anywhere to go. In Italy, the sixth of January is a holiday where they celebrate the Buffana (which is really just an old, scary looking woman who brings candy to children in stockings). A Rotarian took me and my friend to the celebrations in a small town outside of Udine, which consisted of a parade of people in traditional costumes and then in medieval costumes. Later, all the festival goers in town trekked a VERY slow 2 km up a hill to watch the bonfire getting lit. This bonfire is a tradition that is said to burn the bad spirits of 2010, and then depending on the direction of the smoke, a positive or negative prediction of the new year is made. The problem is, very typical of the interesting, but slightly unorganized Italian culture, was that they had predictions for if the smoke went east or west. The smoke blew south, so no prediction was made. Quite comical, in my opinion. After this ceremony, the Rotarian took us to a fancy Italian restaurant, which further proved the Italian expertise in the kitchen, as we ate very well that night. School starts on Monday, and it will be back to .... real life? I don't know what to call it. Hopefully it will result in a reconnection, you could say, with my class\school mates. I am still missing my friends, family, hockey games, and life back in Canada, but Italian is really cool and now I can speak it pretty well, which means I have accomplished at least one thing here in Italy. Happy 2011 and I hope this makes some Canadians happy!