Holidays

Hello, fellow readers! Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been really busy but now I'm on break and have time to write. Well not that much time. I'm going skiing next week and I'm super happy. Now if only my ski stuff would get here. I was ready to run after the SDR (the Italian version of Fed-Ex) truck when it passed by our house today to see if my package was in it. Except this idea occurred to me 5 minutes after it had passed. There's always tomorrow.
Where to begin? Even with my journaling I've been having a hard time keeping up. Guess I'll just start at the beginning.
August 26th I arrived in Gorizia, Italy.
Kidding! Kidding! Not that far back. But I would like to say my 4 month anniversary was the other day. I've learned so much in 4 months and I don't know if I'll ever come back to Colorado. Well I have to, to finish my senior year but after high school, who knows. I've learned that if I have a dream than to go after it. There's always going to be a way to catch my dreams. So I guess we'll see what happens in the next few years.
From Christmas Eve to San Stefano (Dec. 26) I ate. A lot. No joke. I mean a lot. Christmas Eve, we had dinner with my host father's brother and both of my host parent's moms. Antipasti was a cod spread   and bread, then pasta with fish, and then polenta with a fish sauce. Does anyone see a pattern here? In Italy, they don't eat meat on the Virgilia. They eat fish so I had a lot of fish. I think it's meant to cleanse. Not sure. For dessert we had cookies filled with Nutella and marmalade. Plus chocolate covered candied oranges. So good! We talked so much and everyone was interested in what Christmas in America and in my family is like. Well for starters, we don't eat this much food. I stayed up with my host family until midnight so we could ring in Christmas.
Christmas was emotional. I think for every exchange student, Christmas brings homesickness with it. Thanks Santa. Christmas morning we opened presents. I got two new sweatshirts for running, two pairs of gloves, socks and a soap/body cream set. Everyone loved their presents that I'd gotten them. I think my host brother's reaction was my favorite. It goes: gasp "Un maglia di Chicago Bulls!" (A Chicago Bulls shirt!) SUCCESS! The first ever gift I've given a guy is a success. Woohoo!
Here in North Italy, we celebrate Christmas with a huge lunch. Not a dinner but a lunch. And this time we get to eat meat. We had for our first plate lazanna with ragu (meat sauce) and then our second was a mish-mosh. It included, eggplant with Parmesan and maranara, chicken with a white sauce and sausage with sour kraut. It was all really good. Dessert was a home made gubanna (traditional Gorizian dessert) that Claudia's mom had made. We had both of the moms with us and then later after lunch, once we were done food coma-ing, we skyped with Sara. (My host family's oldest daughter who's in the US right now) Both of our Christmas experiences have been really different but really fun. Then I got to call my family later.
The next thing I tell you shall not leave this site: I cried after I skyped my family. I'm at dinner with my host mom talking about what had been said over skype and I just started crying into my burger. Thank god for my host mom. She gave me a shoulder to cry on and told me it was okay. That we all need to cry a little bit. She has become my mom in so many ways. I love to think that now I have 2 sisters, a brother, 2 moms and 2 dads. Exchange is a wonderful thing, it really is. There is so much love going on in my life right now. It's a pretty awesome feeling. Now, I don't want to hear that any of you readers ran around the Battle Mountain parking lot screaming "Annie cried at Christmas!" Thanks.
So for the 26, also known as Santo Stefano day we had a dinner party. My host mom said she's been doing it every year with the same people for forever. We had 11 people in total. 5 was my family the rest, friends. There were two children too. Ages 9 and 11. Both of them are adopted and the 9 year old was just adopted by the family last month. She was born in Columbia and the family just got back form Columbia 12 days ago. The son is from Cambodia and both of them are extremely cute. Really cute! The first plate was another mish-mosh of polenta with a rosemary-pear sauce, two different tarts with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli and my host mother's friend brought over this type of egg roll thing. I had so much that I was unsure if I could eat the main meal. The main was rice with mushrooms. It was really good too. For dessert we had a yule log, strudel and this yogurt with nuts. I only had a slice of the yule log and strudel.
As you can see, I've ate log in the past few days. And it doesn't stop there. Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's surprise birthday party and then New Years is next week. But as my host dad says, there's always time to start dieting after the holidays.
Okay I know this isn't all of what's happened to me this past week but I've already wrote a lot and I want to spare your eyes. So I'll see if I can write tomorrow.
Happy Holidays, Tanti Auguri, Buon Natale, Merry Christmas!