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! :)