Italian Youth

i wrote this last sunday on the 19th, sorry it took forever to load up, but here it is. Recent one from Orientation coming up as soon as I load up pics and organize them!

---------------------------------------------------------

9/19/10

Yesterday was another exciting Saturday in Viterbo.

Last Saturday, I stayed home and was really bored and wanted to do something, but everyone was busy hanging out with their host families i felt alone.(stayed home since 6pm-12am by myself).

So my mom suggested I met up with some italian friends I met during Santa Rosa and ask to hang out.
So i did and (Ilaria and Cristina) said yes!

I asked my friends, to stay later and we all met up at the Piazza del comune (or the one before the post office, took us 2 couples later to figure that out!).

We walked around shopping, and Ilaria kept us laughing with her mannerisms and her made up English words, she kept apolgizing, but we loved every single minute of it. (they were both spoke really well in English!)

We were also impressed by Madi's italian skills as she was to get her point across to the italians.

from left to right: Francesco, Cristina, Luigi M. and Ilaria

Around 7pm,  Cristina and Ilaria met up with more friends and everyone was introduced ( I was re-introduced)  to Francesco, Luigi M., Elisa, Luigi B., Eduardo, Daniele, and Michi.

It felt great being able to hang out with Italian people and in all honesty I felt like we actually belong in Italy (with exception of not knowing Italian!)

As the night went on, I noticed how affectionate and caring the Italian teenagers (and people in general). Hugs last longer than 2 minutes, boys were able to hug it out and kiss both cheeks, everyone seemed like family and their closeness is something I vied for everytime I am with my friends back home (without the kissing...haha).

At first, coming to Viterbo the teenagers here looked so intimidating, all of them fashion-awared and trendy. They took a breath of smoke from their cigarettes non chalantly, grab wine, and just chill.

It's like these kids are 21 instead of 16!

I guess the difference is that they are given more responsiblity and independence, especially living in a small town where everyone knows you. It seems really cool to be apart of the same culture as them.

but we aren't that different.American teenagers and italian teenagers are very similar: we like to hang out, watch movies (they saw the Hangover before meeting us), like the same music, televison shows...etc.

Hopefully in the year fews months those new friendly faces of italian friends will become like family to me in the end.

haha group pic! Ilaria taking the pic!

--------------------------------------------
sorry it was short and not detailed like my other ones
but another one might pop out as this year comes!

a presto,

Maya

Guest Starring Alice

Hi this is Alice on Maya's blog, GET JEALOUS. Maya and I just had dinner with our host families and now we are facebook stalking a lot of people. Who's excited for our class trip this week?? If you want to have fun come to my hut cause its going to be awesome. And now I would like to give people a few shoutouts.
First to Taylor Kendrick---you are nice and then mean all at once, i love it
Justin Beauber/Chad Dylan Cooper---if you do not respond to to these names, you will be shot
Michaeljam---you are from England
Sheridan---I LOVE YOU
EJ---we are breaking up
Max--- get scared, i'm obsessed
Okay that's all for now, I will be posting again soon. Ciao!


-----------------

yep, alice really loves this  blog
Ciao for now

Maya

The Great Ol' USA

On behalf of some concerns that I am being very "anti-american" in my posts (the little posts I have) Taylor Kendrick said I should write a very "pro-american" post because america is "the best freakin' country ever!"

So here's to you Taylor, I may not be able to fully cover your love for america, but i will express the desire on what I have been thinking about for along time

The USA...and the rest of the world.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

If my other blog posts make me appear to be "anti-USA", then I apologize. It is not my intention to be like this. I am just simply pointing out the flaws I have found America to have since I have been aware of America's influence on the world.

I feel that America could learn from several countries about being healther, more knowledgable and more accepting of our lives and our history and our people like Italy.

I like the USA, we have the best of everything (and even then some), the best cities, and the diversity of its people is something other countries could envy. We have an abudance of wealth and are the leading nation in the entertainment industries.

And that is all great, in a sense

But I feel that, as Americans (and America in general), we are missing some critical links that ultimately Americans need to regain.

1) We need to be more relaxed.

America is in such a frenzy these days, always racing back and forth, to and fro that we never stop and actually stop and ponder about our lives.

America is one of the leading nations (developed nations) with less vacation time and more work hours, and as much as that helps out the economy, and our well beings in an economic sense, we, as human beings are still in a mess, disarrayed.

In Viterbo, during the Festivale di Santa Rosa, everyone, including people who work full-time, are still able to take a breather and relax on the beautiful days that they have here. Everyone is out on the streets, communicating and catching up with community activities, gossip, stories. Heck, even on regular days workers have a moment of  siesta during the hours of 1-4 (or 13:00-16:00), to eat lunch, sleep and recharge for the evening hours to come.

Yes, these siesta times can sometimes be a bit obnoxious and frustrating for the curious tourist or american student who are on the move and want to buy stuff at a certain time, but when one is walking around the streets, the silence that fill them makes that single moment of a day seem a little less stressful.

2) We focus less on the family unit.

The family unit (which can consist of good friends, and others one considers family) appears to be severly lacking with many Americans. And the social structure of families, which includes being together, eating at dinner, discussing family events, seems to disappear in front of us.

As I noticed  here in Viterbo, la famiglia is very strong, as everyone here tries to make it home to dinner by eight o'clock (scusa, 20:00), and during siesta 1-2 for lunch. Special weekend days are reserved for family outings and visits, and special holidays are, for the most part, a tradition that is also apart of the family. Even sitting around for hours watching television is an Italian bonding moment!

Now I could go on and on about how Italy is better than America and blah blah blah, but as I said before, that is not my intention. The main point I want to make is that even though America has everything materialistic and wealthy, we should remind ourselves of where we came from, the identity that forms who we are: the family and the community. I think that we need to find our stronger values of support, trust, family bonds and relaxation so we can actually take a step back and enjoy what we have in front of us.

And I know that America has extreme pressure to be always on top. That America is looked upon by a huge telescope (called the World) and that we have big influence on policies, ideas, predictions, solutions,money, fame, music, movies, books, techologies that we have to set up and be the "model country" for everyone.

Not only do we have to be to be leading role model for the rest of the world, we should be a leading role model for ourselves, and become a single identity that lives under common values and morality that America, seems, yet to find.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

hopefully, this is okay for my explanation for my "anti-america" speech in the previous posts....so Taylor, can you take down my facebook pictures from the school computers? its kind of creepy to see me all the time :)

Ciao,

Maya

Verduras: Green Zone

My taste buds seem to change suddenly in this whirlwind of the first week being here in Viterbo (really? only a week?).

Now, I  did tell myself I would be open in trying new foods and categories of the food pyramid that I have never tried before, but I didn't know that my taste buds would expand SO much in the category of....

Vegetables.
Verduras.

It is amazing how one month ago, I despised things like zucchini and green beans, but now I can tell you that I am eating them casually (and with second helpings!). A month ago, I was never into tomatoes, and now I am slowly getting used to their taste...

Who knew that at dinner last night, I ate a good amount of what looked like to be a vegetable omelet.

hm....

This is a sentence I thought I would never say...

I think vegetables are good.

*GASP!* I think I heard Mom and Dad and my doctor pass out right now...but its true, I am not joking with you

Vegetables are pretty good.

Now, I am not talking about the crap we have in the US, where the green beans are canned, and sloppy, and the vegetables are not even healthy----either stale or fried.

I am talking about the healthy, farmer's market vegetables that aren't chemicalized, the ones that are sauteed with some extra virgin olive oil and a dash of salt for flavor. The vegetables that enhance the food we eat instead of cringing the next bite.

Those are the vegetables that I want to eat...

But still in a perfect world I would like all vegetables, but there are still some vegetables that I will never taste nor want to taste. There are still vegetables that I hate, and others that I have to get use to, but this step into the green zone of healthy eating is a bullet train forward into a good, healthy future.

Terzo notte: Festivale di Santa Rosa

here is from last night (well technically two days ago from the time I am looking at) enjoy!!!
Update: new pictures courtesy of Alice! thanks!

--------------------------------------------------------

wow.WoW. WOW WEE.

Best night of my life.

One thing that I would like to say is "Grazie Giovanna, per sei amica bene con Alessandra!" (hopefully that is a good italian sentence) Alice and I had a blast!

First, we went up and had drinks with Michi (Alice's host brother and good drinks mind you) and his friends Enrico and Tommas (Accent over a).

aw, best friends forever!

We watched and listened to music and finally around 9:30-10:00 pm we saw the grande macchina, which was eye-striking. I can't believe all those men carry it over their shoulders...they must be crazy! Actually, friends we met (written about later in this post) said it reminded them of Christmas and Santa Claus (and it kind of did...).

Grande Macchina!

the men that carried it

me, Matteo, Alice
(where am I looking at?)

   Then, Enrico's brother Matteo comes in sits in and chats. Virginia's friend (Alice host sister) had her mouth open when she saw him...he looked like a model, by the way. Then around 11:00 we headed for the fireworks.

"We look so cool right now" Alice whispered to me.

I totally agreed. I almost wanted to shout out "That's right be jealous!" but refrained from that embarassment.

We walked around and finally got to the "hill" (well its actually a hill...huge hill) which faced a GINORMOUS castle. Alice and I also met up with nuoi amici americani.

Chance and Taylor K. tried to figure out ways to get Italian girls to fall for them, but Lauren (who has made many many Italian friends) said that most Italian girls/women don't like American guys. Taylor and Chance still tried to come up with tatics like playing innocent and tiger crawling...

The fireworks finally came and went and  Alice and I finally met up with Michi and everyone who were talking to some friends. Alice already knew them, but I finally was able to meet her newly acquainted italian friends...(it was SO COOL...unbelievable!).  Right now, I know 2 Cristinas, A Francesco, a Georgia and many more names that whipped by me in a blur.

They spoke to us in English (and it was even more awesome because accents rock!) and they were really good.  Which got me thinking...

I guess the difference is between European and US schools is that in US you don't really keep a language for more than 4 years...maybe more, and the usual case for learning another language for a long time is either A) you are going to an international school where you become bilingual. B)or you go to a bordering school or private school that teachers a language from elementary to middle school. It is hard to find that in public school settings.

On the Other hand, in Italy, you can be with on language (most occasion is English) for several years even in a public school setting, or in any setting really. So most kids who act like they don't know English tend to know since they were like 10 or so!

Anyway, Michi's friends were super friendly and molti simpaciti and I wish I was able to talk to them longer, and speak to them in Italian! But we headed back to Alice's house (so the boys can chill out and eat) and 15 mins. later we parted ways.

This terzo notte di Santa Rosa e (with accent) molto bene and epic! I am keeping that night in my memory forever! Especially the added Italian mix

Ciao bello,

Maya

Festivale di Santa Rosa: Secondo Notte

okay this was made on Sept. 2 so enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------------

This was the second day of Santa Rosa and the costume parade was really cool. They have people of all ages dress up like monks, nuns, knights...all surround the centuries between 1200-1800 A.D.

This costume parade expresses how long this celebration has been going on and the centuries that follow it.

In front of the parade, a religious communion went on and the monks (real ones), priests and the bishop (?) came and walked with Santa Rosa's heart in a basket

It was creepy and sort of dark, but fascinating at the way they still celebrate someone's death for such a long time...almost like 800 years!

In America, we do not have a celebration like this. A festival that is so important to every single American. Even though we are a young country, every national holiday, whether we celebrate our freedom, our labor laws, or presidents, a fake mexican holiday (Cinco de Mayo) or even a man who brought two races together, seems like another drunken holiday or just another day off in the year. But it doesn't appear to be like that here. Well, maybe to the younger people who see it asa party opportunity, but not for the older crowd. They see it as something that brings them a strong sense of nationalism (in good terms!), basically a strong sense of their hertiage and themselves. And in America, we have yet to discover that...

I mean seriously, we hypenate ourselves like White-American, Black-American, Korean-American, Mexican-American, but we never lump ourselves as Americans in america! You only say "American" like its important in another country where we become the minority.

Why can't we call ourselves Americans, instead of being hyphenated? I mean, I am a Mulitracial-American, half Arab-American, half Black-American, but I always thought of myself as an American, no matter if I had to choose the "other" box or not.

I wonder whe countries (especially America) stop being immature and start to become the ripe old country (like France or Italy or England) and get their act together.

I guess North America (Canada and US) has not had that experience yet...

For now,

Maya

---------------------------------------

*its hard putting up video, so the costume video is replaced by costume photo!

Festivale di Santa Rosa: Prima Notte

hey everyone! I finally got internet access so here is my new post...its from 9/1 so yeah...I'll post my other one later!
---------------------------------------------------------------

So school was a half day today and thhe beginning of Festivale di Santa Rosa. This is the biggest holiday in Viterbo, almost bigger than Christmas most people say.

The whole day is anticpation for this a parking lots are covered up and police and other head authorities are directing the streets. Streets are also cut off (Even though you can still get through them)

meet alice! posing on her bed

Giovanna (my host mom) and I went to Alessandra's house, who is the host mom of my friend Alice.  Giovanna and Alessandra are best friends, so dinners over there house is very frequent.

We ate and talked (well, I mostly listened) and around 9:45-10:00 we headed to the streets and saw the mini macchina (figure/statue) of Santa Rosa.

mini macchina

Preteen-ish boys held up the mini macchina and carried around the streets while people clapped, as the marching band played a festive song.

The mini macchina looked almost like a huge seven-tier cake and it is lite up so that when you see it coming in your direction the whole square is filled up with its glory. It was so admiring and crazy at the same time.

"Viva la Santa Rosa!!!" a man called out, and the peopel cheered with grace. I bambini (little kids) held up by their fathers shoulders, shouted "Ciao, macchina!" with Italian sweetness, as if they are little Italian adults.

When the mini macchina pasted, Giovanna, Alessandra, Alice and I we headed toward the piazza del comune, or basically the main piazza. It was so filled up with people in the gelateria ( ice cream shop) and vendors were selling glow sticks and Disney character balloons.

The night was filled with fn and laughter, which also included the beloved Reed (my friend and classmate) who became a favorite with the SYA host mom's by saying "Ciao! Come stai?" and kissing them on both cheeks. This happened with everyone he met. His southern charm probably worked out for him.



I still have about 3 more days of this maddness before school! Hopefully tomorrow is filled with more cheer and laughter for the future!



-------------------------------------------------------------------

I am probably gonna be behind on these things so sorry about that...I'll give you heads up when I am back on schedule with post...

hey enjoy these pictures instead of videos, cause my videos won't upload..haha ciao!


For now,

Maya