Giorno di Graziamento in Italia

here is my post! hope you like it!!!
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I want to make this brief, but this day was really a different day for all of us at SYA.
first because we had to go to school on Thursday (which sucked, but we got like no homework out of it so it was cool…)
and the fact that we are celebrating one of most significant American holidays in a different country.
It was different, but fun.
We had a potluck dinner that the SYA students and their families attended…

the church hall was packed and when we finally started to eat, it was a frenzy…I felt like it was black Friday trying to grab food..
and since there was barely any real ‘turkey dinner’ meal, I decided to head over to the desserts..which were really good….
eating pictures are always hot…
After dinner, everyone just hung around and the SYA treated ourselves with taking pictures of each other and laughing and being together on this special day.
group pic! (Miles, me, Lindsay, Amelia)

There were also some students that talked about the first Thanksgiving to everyone in Italian…
-Pic-
Overall, it was a short night, but I really enjoyed myself…I mean lots of kids were really disappointed not being home with their American families and became nostalgic with Thanksgiving memories.
but I was fine. I mean yeah being home is a comfort zone for this day, but I got to hang out with some of the  most awesome friends ever and eat tons of dessert without a care of the world.
I mean who wouldn’t want that?
ciao for now,
Maya

P.S. this is the best prom picture I HAVE EVER SEEN! (Emilie and Max together for ever…<3 <3 haha)

Umbria Trip! A Post of Pictures!

LOOK YOU GUYS ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!
i was trying to do the umbria post again and it came back up, fully in tack!!! YAY!
hope you enjoy it! more blog post soon!
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so I decided instead of doing a really blog post with my writing, since I want to get this out sooner than later…and I really can’t remember the specific details of everything, I want to share pictures I took and then talk about what happened. including some funny pictures of course….

thank you for the people who let me use their pictures!!!! (if you know)
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so to start off…
SPOLETO
 
so it rained all day when we were in Spoleto, and we went to meet with Italian students from an art school, they took us on a tour around the town.
ART SCHOOL-
it was really nice at the school. very creative students!

so building I don’t know about

this is the death bridge…its not really called “death bridge” but this guy told us that some people kill themselves off the bridge..and since it was raining and I was miserable I was like “I should just end it now on this death bridge…”

group pic near death bridge: (Share, Lindsay, ME!)
Amelia trying to go over death bridge…haha

we also stopped at this church in town and this church had paintings from the artist Fra Flippo Lippi among others…take a look!


PERUGIA
in Perugia, it did not rain so I had a pleasant time in this city. This city is know for the universities…the Perugia one and the Universitá di Straneri (The University for Foreigners)
we took a mini-metro to the top (isn’t it so cute?

there was also a MAYA store…I felt special especially since the clothes were expensive…a hat for 50,00 euros….
the main street

a student protest for students’ rights was there…a huge group of kids wanting change (which was really cool to see)

and of course, whenever there is a protest…the communist come a following
ASSISI
this is one of my favorite towns on the trip, but my least favorite part was that I had to walk a 7km hike to the temple of San Francesco (for enlightenment as Mr. Sanmartino says)
one of the main doors to Assisi

from up the hike….
the big man himself…San Francesco

both pictures are from the sanctuary…they must have been really small (picture on right)

Assisi, the town itself…can’t believe this town’s population is only 2,000!
we went to the Church of…(San Francesco’s confidant)
and the Church of San Francesco
I don’t have pictures of the inside (not allowed to) but I saw, Giotto and Cimabue artistry in there….

We also got to visit the Church di Santa Maria di Angeli (?)
and it was so beautiful…it was monstrous…

MONTEFALCO
this is the town where people come to die…aka old people’s town aka…Amelia’s paradise…

group pic at the Centro piazza (share, Lindsay and Amelia)
view from the city
TODI
yeah I am going to give you three different pictures of Bramante’s baptistery (?) because it is so gorgeous…
one view…
me in front of it so you know my pictures aren’t postcards

sunset picture
picture of Todi…nice town btw.

ORVIETO
the town was nice…but the best thing there was…THE CHURCH
isn’t Gothic Architecture awesome….

oh so magnificent..oh so gaudy
proof that I was there….I am not making this stuff up!!!
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well there you go! hoped you like it…yeah I know I am a bit lazy but its hard now to right about everything…I like showing some pictures instead…so hopefully this gave you an overview of what I have been doing…
ciao for now,
Maya

No parlo Americano

Look at this, I wrote this today and it is getting POSTED today
see, when i got something i got it!
haha enjoy!

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So it has been about 2 months since I left Indiana to come to small town of Viterbo.

Still, I love this place.

 Yes, I could go on and on and on about how much I like Viterbo and how much this experience means to me, but I am going to skip that for right now.

Right now, I bet some of you (back at home) are wondering how my language skills are holding up here and if I will be fluent by the time I come back.

Am I right?

Well in all honesty, I think my Italian is going pretty well.

Maybe on a scale from 1-10 (1 being the worst, 10 the best) I would say that my Italian is at a…6 (piú o meno)

Usually my Italian wanders between a six depending on my mood, what I have to say, ecc….

I feel like I am definitely better than when I first arrived, in which I ONLY say “io parlo italiano poco”,       " sto bene",  “sono stanca” , “ho fame”  and “mi piace”

So yeah, I managed to get by with these words  for probably the first week or two.

Now I feel like my vocabulary has expanded and I am able to understand (For the most part) what other Italians are saying, or doing on TV. I can (sometimes) understand my Italian teacher when she decides to go off in a tangent in Italian.  

I feel like I am halfway there.

I guess an advantage I have here is that my host mom does not speak ANY English whatsoever, so I have to make sure study hard to tell her about my day or where I am going on Saturday, etc…

Sure sometimes I do get frustrated because sometimes I wish she just knew slightly more English to help me out, or at least meet me half way

And it is amazing that in just two months I can understand and speak Italian more than I could ever do with 4 years in Spanish. I mean, if I ever take Spanish again, I am going to pass that shit with flying colors

Because Italian is hard

Molto difficile

Not only do you have say EVERY word and every hard consonant sound and vowel sound and move your mouth in different ways, but also the GRAMMAR is unbearable

É troppo. 

Too much.

The way we have to combined prepositions with words, and how much the masculine and feminine works, and the fact that if you don’t say “anno” right (“year”) then you could be saying “anus” (“ano”).

Sometimes I really want to walk out of my Italian II class and just kiss my hopes of learning a language goodbye, but I feel like I have to keep striving and working on this language, because one day I could have a “click” moment.

A moment where I could understand almost anything

It would be amazing to come out of this program fluent in Italian. Being able to tell people back at home that I learned a language and understand it in a year than what most of my friends could not do in four or five years learning Spanish in school.

It would be amazing to walk down the streets of Viterbo and be able to have a full conversation with the il barista and be able to actually understand and say jokes in Italian to Italian friends.

It would be amazing to go on an independent travel trips and speak Italian in a different cittá and complimented by your Italian skills, or BETTER, actually mistaken for being Italian.

But that time will come, and that “click” moment could be here in January, or March, two years from now or 10 years from now, but hopefully the “click” moment will be that moment that makes  me stand back in amazement and pat myself on the back.

That would be so cool!

Ci vediamo,

Maya