I am working with my host sister, (who by the way is the most gorgeous, loving, and wonderful person, ahh I am so grateful, and honored, that we will live together!) to schedule a Skype date for my family and her family, just so we can all see each other and say hi! the language barrier will be a real challenge, considering my parents speak even less Italian than me, and I barely speak any:) but it will be lovely to see each other in cyberspace! with each passing day, my mind and body increasingly fill with more and more readiness and excitement, It is coming down to the single digits and i absolutely cannot wait! My mum and I went around the town over the last week and picked out some lovely little gifts for my host family (famiglia ospitante!) that are all either locally made or display something local (like postcards, etc). I hope that my new family likes the things I have chosen/made for them! they seem really accepting and open, so I think they will:)
It is going to be truly amazing to meet them in person.
the course I was taking at Olive Grove charter school is now complete! cramming in a 6 month course into 4 weeks was quite the undertaking, but with modern US History part B behind me, I feel as though leaving for Italy is even more of a reality, which it is! :)
upon arrival home from class today, I eagerly checked the mail (as I have been doing for the last few days), hoping my visa had come. instead of the express mail envelope I expected, I found a little peach coloured slip that said the postal carrier had missed me and couldn't leave my envelope if I wasn't there to sign for it. It also said that I would have to go to the post office on Tuesday of next week (and no sooner), to pick it up. I'm like, TUESDAY? I can't possibly wait that long, its going to kill me! so my dad and I hopped in the car and raced around the neighborhood looking for the mail carrier. guess what? pleasantly, we found him! about 6 blocks away! and he let me sign for my envelope... thus, MY VISA IS HERE!!! hallelujah, no stress, no worries, I'm set!
As it seems I have forgotten to post my travel Itinerary, I will do so now:
1. January 21st: my family piles into the car at 8 am and drives up to San Francisco
2. We dine at Chez Panisse... a dream which we all share, coming true!
3. Spend the night at the SF aeroporto hotel
4. Sunday January 22nd: fly from SF to Dulles airport in Virginia, 7.50 am
5. Arrive in Virginia sometime in the evening, Auntie Phyllis picks me up
6. January 22 evening to January 25, 3pm, make our way up to New York visiting friends and Family:)
7. January 25, 3pm: enter AFS departure orientation at (Hilton?) by JFK, until Jan 26th
8. January 26, 9pm: fly from JFK to Zurich through Swiss International Airlines
9. January 27, 10.50 am: arrive in Zurich
10. connect to flight to Rome
11. Italy:)
Through my fundraising, I am ecstatic to state that I have raised 7,700 dollars! thank you to all of those who have contributed, with the most thanks possible. I also wanted to give a special thank you to my loving grandparents, who contributed $5,000. you are the most wonderful and supportive people, and your generosity means the world to me. I love you all!
also, I wanted to send out a special thank you to my auntie, who will be driving me up to New York for departure from the D.C. area. I am so grateful to have such amazing east coast relatives!
Thank you all for following along with my journey via the blog world:) If you want to get email updates each time I post, just type your email in the little rectangular box in the mid-upper right hand corner! It will only send you an email when I post, and will not send you junk mail or spam.
fino al prossimo aggiornamento...
Xoxo
