Everything is wonderful!

I have nothing but good news today! As of yesterday, I have received confirmation of my permanent host family in Italy from AFS. It makes me so happy to know for sure that the family I have been communicating with over the last few months will indeed be my family while abroad. Starting in January, my house will be in Trani Italy! The town is in the south on the Adriatic Sea side, slightly north of Bari. I will be living right on the ocean, within walking distance from the center of town. Trani looks like a very beautiful city, and it has a large beachfront (there is a bicycle path all along the coast of the town!).  I am going to attend a classical school, the same school as my future sister, Leda Caiati, who is the same age as me! I will also have a younger sister, named Francesca, who is eleven, a mother Teresa, and father Angelo:) they seem like the most wonderful family, full of so much love! It will be very exciting to meet them all in person next month!
I absolutely cannot wait. Everything is falling into place, and now it seems time should just hurry up! I am so ready to begin. My visa appointment at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles is booked for December 4th at 2:00pm, which is really soon. I will be going down there with both of my parents and turning in a whole slew of paperwork and forms. Then all I can do is pack, get organized, wait for my visa to come in the mail, and leave!
I was faced with much hassle in regard to booking my visa appointment, but alas, like most things, it worked out in the end! After I sent an email to the consulate explaining my difficulties with their online system, they emailed me back saying to try again in the next few days, and yesterday, voila!
Everything is monstrously happy right now with regard to my trip to Italia! January, hurry up!:)
*I have to apologize for my excess use of exclamation points, It is a way of expressing my excitement, each sentence is an exciting thing! I hope you don't feel like I am yelling at you:)

Trani is in the dark red region! :)

And departure approaches...

It is so crazy to think that in less than six weeks I will be living in Italy! As my departure approaches, I get more and more excited with each passing day. It seems that everything is going so very fast, and there is still so much to do! At this moment, I am feeling rather stressed, mainly because in the last few days my email has been bombarded with messages from AFS regarding things that I need to do and material I need to read. I have close to 100 pages of cultural information and safety tips that need to be read, (which I am much looking forward too!), I currently have a pre-departure meeting set up for December 22nd, and I desperately need to start getting my visa paperwork together. It has been such a hassle to schedule an appointment with the Italian consulate in Los Angeles, mainly because I don't understand how their online appointment system works! On Monday, I will call them and ask for help... hopefully the meeting can be booked in the time slot I need (January 5-13th).
I could never have guessed how difficult it would be to get a visa! there is an enormous amount of paperwork! Thankfully AFS gave me a packet of instructions and helpful information regarding the process... Students applying for a Study Visa have to apply in person with both parents at the consulate (The one which represents our county is the Los Angeles office) and hand in a load of papers. From basic application forms to extra passport photos to bank statements, getting a visa seems like a very threatening and stressful thing to do! I am going to get my nose to the grindstone because I don't want to have to rush around at the last minute... first thing is calling on Monday.
One of the many emails I received within the last week is one including my travel itinerary! I will be flying from JFK in New York on the 26th of January on Swiss International Airline, through Zurich to Rome. Once in Rome, there will be a few days of orientation for all the foreign exchange students and then we will all be sent off to our host families! My fingers are crossed in hope that the family I have been in contact with will be in fact be my hosts... I have not heard anything officially from AFS but it looks as if they are just waiting on my school enrollment in Trani, Italy. The family seems amazing! I would have a mother and father, a sister my age, a sister who is eleven, and 6 cats! (who live in the garden!) In Trani, the climate is much like San Luis Obispo, which will be fortunate for me because I will not need to get a new wardrobe!
On the topic of school, (a dreaded topic... haha) I am currently un-enrolled from San Luis Obispo High, and doing an independent study program through Olive Grove Charter school in order to get credits for Economics and US History part B, classes I will not be taking while in Italy. Thanks to the heavens though, I will be getting credits for all the classes I take while abroad, which will make my senior year much less stressful. In the beginning, I had thought that I would have to take all 12th grade classes as well as 11th grade part B courses during senior year, and the knowledge that I will get credits while abroad is wonderful news!
I will post as soon as I hear officially from AFS about my placement... Hopefully it will be any day now!