Italian Regions

Hello readers, 

First of all, I must give credit for most of this post to Wikipedia! Thank you Wikipedia! :)

Italy is a tad bit similar to America's divided states. Italy has regions, and within these regions: capital cities and other smaller cities. So, first I will list the region's name in English and then Italian (if it's different) and then I will write the capital city and population (there are 20 in all.)

• Abruzzo - L'Aquila - 1,344,955
• Aosta Valley - Valle di Auosta - Aosta - 128,820
• Apulia - Puglia - Bari - 4,086,020
• Basilicata - Potenza - 785,386
• Calabria - Catanzaro - 2,007,908
• Campagnia - Naples - 6,633,891
• Emilia Romagna - Bologna, - 4,465,863 (Yup, bologna was invented in Italy!)
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia - Trieste - 1,235,353
• Lazio - Rome - 5,789,993
• Liguria - Genoa - 1,613,369 (This is where Cinqueterra is! )
• Lombardy - Lombardia - Milan - 10,010,865 (THIS IS ME!)
• Marche - Ancona - 1,568,835
• Molise - Campobasso - 478,488
• Piedmont - Piedmonte - Turin - 4,467,914 (Been here!)
• Sardinia - Sardegna - Cagliari - 1,673,981
• Sicily - Sicilia - Palermo - 5,043,480
• Trentino-Alto Adige - Trento - 1,007,536 
• Tuscany - Toscana - Florence - 3,763,939 (been here, shorty.)
• Umbria - Perugia - 989,965 (been here, not so shortly)
• Veneto - Venice - 4,960,661

Total population of Italy : 60,626,442

Now you know some Italian geography!! 

So far I have not 'scratched' my itching desire to see all of Italy! But, hopefully, I will see a good chunk of it before I have to go back home sometime in June. I don't know how I feel about going back home. I want to go back to my life, but I want to be able to come back to my Italian life whenever I want!! it's such a hard decision!! :) Luckily, I still have 5.5 months left!! 

Thanks for reading!! <3 

~Shelby Kenville

Recovery

Saluti, 

So I am slowly making a recovery. It went from my whole body hurting, to just head and throat, and now I have only a sore throat and a cough! I am almost finished with my sick week.! I figured that I would write some more of my analysis on the difference between being sick in Italy and being sick in America. 

Diagnosis: Thermometers are not put in the mouth here in Italy. The thermometers are the same look-wise but are put under the arm/in the armpit; not in the mouth! How strange is that! I don't know how they measure kids temperatures. Apparently, you have to sit there for ten minutes with the thermometer in the armpit. That's definitely different! 

Treatments: My grandma flinches every time I make one of my dying seal sounding coughs, so today she told me she was going to help me out. Before dinner, I went downstairs to find my grandma with a pot of boiling water. She put 5 drops of this herb stuff and I stuck my head over the pot of water and put a towel over my head and breathed through my mouth. It actually helped a lot! My throat feels a lot better. I want to try it again tomorrow if my throat is not completely healed!! Weird Italian treatment=WORKS!

Tomorrow, I plan to relax, maybe go shopping... For dinner, I am going to a friend's birthday party! Pizza!!! <3 yay! :)

Well I hope all of you are doing good!! I am definitely missing my old life a little bit, but I know that I have to finish what I started here, and I plan to stay here for as long as possible to ensure my fluency in Italian, which is not quite there yet :( I even plan on minoring in Italian when I go to college!! :D

This picture kind of reminds me of my exchange; a curvy path through the unknown forest with patches of fog... Still beautiful and incredible, but scary and difficult!

 This is just a cool picture I found on my computer that I decided to share :)

Thanks for reading! :)

~Shelby Janae

Being Sick in Italy

Hello :)

Alright, so I am sad to say that I am sick :( It totally sucks being sick with out my mom or dad to take care of me! It feels just a tad bit worse being sick away from my family... 

So, the purpose of this blog is not to tell you that I am sick. There are just a couple things I have noticed about the way people handle sickness here that might be a little different than America. 

First of all, everyone thinks I am sick because I wear a short sleeve shirt to bed and for some days not wearing enough layers. I know for a fact that not wearing enough clothes during winter is not a reason for being sick. It has been proven a myth that you can't get a cold from wearing a small amount of clothes, it's just not how it works!! 

Second of all, when anyone wants to touch my forehead to see how sick I am, they use the inside of their hand instead of the outside. I have no idea if this affects the temperature, but I was always under the impression that when feeling for a fever, you use the back of your hand. 

Thirdly, whenever people are sick here, they miss school or work. I very rarely miss school; when I am sick, I try to go about my day as normal as possible. I even went to Athletics yesterday even though I didn't feel good. 

These are just a couple things I noticed from being sick in a different country. I hope no one else ever has to be sick in a country other than their own :)

Thanks!

~Shelby Janae

Sports in Italy

Hello!

So, as I'm sure you know, in Italy they do not play American Football and they don't have baseball teams. The only professional sports I have seen on TV involve skiing, or some type of snow sport, and SOCCER. Soccer is huge in Europe! At least one person in my class everyday has some kind of t-shirt dedicated to the Milan soccer team. 

For boys (teenagers), they have basketball, soccer, athletics (track/cross country) and karate. For girls, there is volleyball, athletics, soccer (I think) and karate. 

Of course, I don't really know everything about all the sports because I only participate in one and not a lot of my friends are in sports. Sport participation is a more rare here because the teams are not connected to the school. You have to pay a lot more and search for something outside of school. Most hobbies are outside of the school. 

Personally, when I arrived I was very disappointed that there was no softball teams any where nearby, and most people did not even know what softball was. But, I joined Athletics... Mind you, I have never been a runner. So, I started this, and I actually really enjoy it. Although I am still incredibly slow, I am getting a lot more stamina and am able to run for much longer periods. Maybe I will take this with me when I return to America! :) 



Officially like running... There is something wrong here... ^Milan soccer team...  :)

Thanks!
~Shelby Janae

My Treatment as an American

Buon giorno,

As you can tell, I am running out of ways to introduce this blog ._. I guess I will just mix it up with random Italian greetings and occasionally something in English... But anyway, as an American, I am treated a little differently but different people... 

In Italy, teenagers are absolutely in LOVE with the idea of America. They constantly talk about how badly they want to see New York, California, and Florida. They practically don't even acknowledge any other states (besides Texas because it is so huge.) So, I consider myself lucky I lived in California for 14 years before I moved to Ohio and still visit there every summer and Holiday! 
So, depending on who they are, most teenagers ask me questions about how wonderful America is... I mean, I can't really describe it as wonderful as they want. Don't get me wrong, I am very prideful in being an American. I freak out when someone lets a flag touch the ground and I put my hand over my heart while singing "The Star Spangled Banner" (and I sing it too;) I love when I listen to my iPod and an American song comes on such as "Proud to be an American" or "Independence Day." I love my America, but I just don't see it the same way these teenagers do. They see the TV (specifically the MTV) version of America. The schools with lockers, beautiful, tall, blonde, women everywhere and tan guys with 6-packs walking down the street. This is the "American stereotype" for teenagers. 

However, though I am American, a lot of people don't know how to act around me... This is probably because they don't know my level of Italian and they just don't know what kind of person I am, therefore, some people never talk to me... On the other hand, there are people who ask me new questions, or the same questions, almost everyday. A lot of the times I am forced to push the conversation and try and get people to open up to me, which is very difficult because I am insanely shy. Hopefully, as my Italian keeps improving, I will be able to get more people to feel comfortable around me. 

Teenagers and adults, however, have very different views on us Americans. You can probably guess. Stupid, fat, lazy... I think that's what most of them think... Of course, no one goes right out and says that, but when American topics come up in conversation with adults, they usually end up saying something that makes me think of either stupid or lazy. For example, the fact that most assignments here are oral and in America, they are mostly writing... A lot of adults think this in incredibly strange and that Italians are clearly more capable than us Americans. Haha. 

However, stereotypes are just a part of life, and we have to deal with them. No one is cruel to me, so all is well :) I can't wait to watch my Italian and social skills continue to grow. 

Thank you so much for reading and for all my family and friends that have kept in contact, thank you so much. I appreciate every message. :) <3 <3 

Made this the other day out of boredom... :) 

Grazie!!! Arrivederci! :)

~Shelby Janae

131 Down

Today, I have officially been in Italy for 131 days. This is the equivalent of 

• 4 months and nine days
• 11,318,400 seconds
• 1888,640 minutes
• 3144 hours
• 18 weeks

I now have only about 168 days to go. So far, I can go the whole day without even using any English and my main thoughts are in Italian. I can't wait until I am fluent!!! I can feel myself getting closer as I understand more and more Italian, but I am still not quite there. 

In these 131 days, I have made great friends. We are already planning for them to come stay with me next summer!! I hope it all falls into place and I hope that I will stay in touch with my Italian friends and family forever. 

I have also been thinking about how much I have changed and will be changing. I can feel that I am more social, though still very very shy, and I have striving to overcome my shyness by the end of this year. 

But anyway, this is mainly just a post to show how long I have been here, and how long I have left. 

 My FIRST day in Italy.

 New Years Party.. I gained weight :( Haha. But I'm working on getting it off now! :D

And there went the hair :P

There is already a major difference in how I look... 

HOPES: 

1. Lose the weight I gained
2. Achieve FLUENCY in Italian
3. Gain self confidence
4. Prepare for college, work, etc. for my return to America

Thanks for reading!!! <3

~Shelby Janae

Television :D

Buon Giorno tutti, 

In America and Italy, I am not much of a television-watcher. I prefer to watch movies, just like my dad... Television usually just makes me angry because right when the show gets good, there is a commercial. Just plain frustrating. I occasionally find that one TV show that I just love, but for the most part, I'm a movie girl. 

In Italy, TV is pretty much the same. There are a ton of commercials, game shows, soap-operas, and all kinds of other TV shows. For the most part, the TV shows are American and they are dubbed. In fact, most TV shows and movies are American and are dubbed to Italian. It is rather annoying because the lips never match the words. I do have a favorite game show that I watch all the time, "Avanti un Altro" It's basically just a bunch of people and you get four questions and if you get two wrong you lose and at the end, the last person have to answer questions, BUT they have to say the WRONG answer!! It's so awesome :)

Also, my family does not have any DVDs and I have not seen movie subscriptions such as Netflix. But there are movies on some channels on TV. :D

So anyway, television is pretty much consisting of the same shows in America. MTV and news, and a ton of other stuff :)

Ciao for now :)

~Shelby Janae <3

Camping in Italy

Ciao tutti! :)

Throughout my four months and 3 days that I have been in Italy, I have gone on two camping trips with my family. My family, along with a couple other families, own a little camper. It is definitely different than the trailer that i have in America. It does not have "pop-outs" and it is pretty small. But it is honestly so perfect. There is enough room for eating and hanging out with my family and that is all that matters! 

So far, we have only 'hooked-up' once. We went to one nice camp ground in one of our stops and it happened to have hookups. But a lot of the time, since the campers are so small, we just sleep in a parking lot somwhere near our destination. Remember, there are not Wal-Marts and Targets everywhere here, so there parking lots near tourist destinations are really made for campers and people traveling. 

From what I know, a lot of people here have little campers. It seems that traveling around Italy with the family is very normal, while in America, people seem to be less open to traveling during vacation. In my opinion, traveling is the best! I love walking around all day to look at as many things as possible and playing cards until super late at night!! Camping, whether it's in a tent or a nice little camper is honestly so much fun! I hope when I am older I am able to buy a trailer or camper :)

 My bed is on the top :)

 The kitchen

 It's a stick shift.... haha

 FIAT :D

 Kitchen table :)

The outside of on of the other family's.. Pretty similar to ours. 

Can't wait until the next camping trip!! :)

~Shelby

The Alpine Mountains

Hello everyone, and YES you read that ^^^ correctly... 

Today, I went with my two little cousins, host dad, and uncle to the Alps in a city called Madesimo! 
IT was soo incredibly gorgeous. I just stood there for a while looking at all the different levels of the peaks. I was a little sad while going up the ski lift thinking about how this is my grandparents dream and how I got to live it out. Here's to you Grandma Dee and Grandpa Gary to teaching me to rough it ;) I love camping and hiking and the wilderness because of you guys! :) <3 And for all you other readers out there who aren't in my family, check out my grandma's blog at ndeewoods.blogspot.com

So, anyway, back to skiing today! It was so gorgeous, but since I have only skiied twice in my life, one being when I was around 7 and the other two years ago, I am not that skilled of a skier. I fell many upon many times. I have a bruised but and some very sore knees. But despite the many falls, I had a great time. At the end, my host dad to me up to the highest point we were allowed to go (it was very windy, so we could not go any farther up) and I was very afraid of the next hill because it was very very steep and I didn't have my ski-legs yet ;)

Now, the slopes here are a little different than I have skiied before in Michigan and California. In America, the slopes are more compacted (the snow) and for the most part flat. Now before I have skiied red, blues, and a black, today, I was having trouble on both red and blue. The snow here is not groomed. It is icy in some areas and loose in other areas with a lot of bumps Very very difficult for the first time out. 

However, like I said before, despite the multiple falls and extreme fear, I always kept getting up and I hope that I will be able to go again to practice more and hopefully be able to go down without fear. <3 
Now some pictures...

 Gorgeous morning. Woke up at 6:15!!

 Ricardo, me, and Lorenzo :) <3 Love my little cousins!

 There they are. The Alps. 

 The slopes! :)

 Waiting for the food to come! :D

 My flag and my mountains <3

 I'm lovin' this <3 And yes, I got a haircut :) This year is supposed to be about change, right?

Going up through the clouds. I believe the highest I went for the day was about 2,589 meters :) Wowzers!

Well, Thanks for reading and looking at all the pictures!! <3 

~Shelby Janae