JESSICA'S NEW ADDRESS!!

Jessica Kuh
C/O Fontana Family
Via Croce della Pietra 17
21019 Somma Lombardo VA
Italy

i believe thats correct....
i will be there as of wednesday!!
CIAO! Jess

hello somma lombardo!

hey everyone! sorry it's been a while, but a lot of things have been going on. dinner with my family 2 sunday's ago went really well, i like them a lot! then we were trying to figure out when i am switching, and a lot of drama started. but now we figured it out, and i will be switching next wednesday. i'm not really excited about switching in the middle of the week, but it's okay, it'll all work out. okkkayy. 2 weeks ago, i believe. saturday night i went out with my friends and we went to the irish pub ('your typical italian irish pub..') and we walked around the center, i had a good time. i spent most of the night translating songs that the boys wanted to know. like what eminem songs meant, it was quite comical.... and my friend chiara's dad drove us home. and i already told this to audrey, but his ponytail rivals riley's. it's like thick and black and it was in a braid. i was like WOOOAHH YOU ARE AWESOME! so that was cool! sunday i went to somma (my new town) for dinner with my new family. it was a lottt of fun, i like them a lot. i met my host sister's boyfriend, and one of their aunt's. we went into the town that is inbetween busto and somma, gallarate. they were opening a new plaza, so we went for the festival. then we had lunch/dinner and walked around somma. I have a 23 year old sister named martina, a mom and a dad, and a brother who is 17, but in the states for the year. (he's in buffalo! i was like 'I KNOW WHERE THAT IS!!!') monday i had my first italian class that my school is paying for. and it went well, i had another one this monday. basically it's me and these 3 nigerian girls. and occasionally this chinese girl, a russian boy, and a ukranian girl. but they come and go. i'm the only afser, everyone else lives here with their families. wednesday i learned that one of the pictures this man took of us in rome is in this intercultura booklet that i got. so thats cool, i'm going down in intercultura history! ohh yeah. and it's just me and this other usa kid, thomas. on tuesday (last tuesday) i went to my friend sofia's for lunch, so she could help me study for spanish. her mom made this awesome pizza, and this apple pie type thing. but everything was amazing. then we hung out and studied. wednesday instead of having classes we had an all school assembly--all day. so we go to school and we walked to this small theater right by the school and it was like complete madness, everyone was trying to figure out where to sit. but eventually we all got seated, and quiet. the assembly was about picking new school representitives. so the old ones got up and said like thanks for a great year, blah blah. then they announced the new people that were running, and we had this huge debate for like 5 hours. it was really bizarre. and in the beginning i knew what was going on, but once the debate started, (in true italian fashion..) everyone was yelling at each other, so it was too much for me to follow. so i listened to my ipod and studied for spanish. thursday was normal, but i studied for spanish like all night, becuase i had that oral test friday. i passed my test! it was wayy easier than i thought it would be! i got a 7.5! i was soooo proud of myself! i whipped out my first legit italian outfit that friday. the sweater and collared shirt thing. it was actually comfortable, so i have to go get more sweaters. i dyed my hair brown. i really like it. (pitures soon! hopefully tomorrow!!) i got to talk to mk, jen and aud that day, which was awesome! i got a card from grandma and the postcard from the mchughs! i went into 1P by myself and it went horribly. i had this small lesson for them, then we were going to hang out and talk, but they talked over me the whole time, so i got really angry. but i was doing something nice for them, but not working out of their book, and we were going to watch a movie at christmas, but i don't think we are anymore. so it was annoying, and they took advantage of me, because i was doing something nice for them. i'm over it though, and they aplogized. so it's all okay. saturday was good, everyone was like WE LOVE YOUR HAIR! i was like good, i was nervus. and 2P made a cute sign (pictures soon!) i stayed in this whole weekend, because i needed to pack and whatnot. so saturday i just hung out and lety and i watched a movie. sunday i slept in and we went out for lunch, and i packed more! for some reason on monday i wanted to play rollercoaster tycoon. i spilled nail polish on the classroom floor on accident, and the janitor people still haven't cleaned it up.... i got a letter frm jen with these bizarre pictures of cats. kind of creepy... tuesday was funny. i watched gossip girl, and i cannot wait for the next episode. i attempted to teach the kickline pinwheel in gym and it went really horribly. i had a spanish written test, and she like marked the ones that were wrng then gave me time to correct them. and at one point she stood above me when i was doing an excersize and goes 'no, no, no. no! no!! no!!! sí!! finalmente!!' so that one took me a bit, apparently. chiara fell during gym on tuesday, and i about peed my pants. yesterday was fun! math was sooo funny. he kept asking me why we don't say the s in island, and the h in herb. then someone threw a tinfoil ball and so then we started a paper/tinfoil ball fight. he started to write in japanese on the board, and one of the girls in my class called a snowman 'teddy snow' like teddy bear, so that was great. we drew names for this secret santa thing we're doing. i'm taking a mental health day today, and i went to the police station to get my residence permit, but i need to bring daniela, so i have to wait. sunday i am going out to somma to meet stefano's (my brother in the states for the year) friends. i am excited! then i switch on wednesday most likely. i talked to both my mom and my dad last night, that was good. here's a few of simone's latest quotes. 'la vita non e'quella si e'vissuta ma quella che si ricorda e come la si ricorda per raccontarla' meaning (the jist?!?!) 'life isn't about what you have or what you buy, but about the memories you make, and if you can be there to tell them later' or something like that. and this one i do know the translation of 'il corpo ci e'stato dato soltanto perche' lo mettessimo al servizio dell' intero creato' meaning 'we were given bodies to service the human race.' and the one i added is from maya angelou (even though i don't even like her that much..) but 'try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud!' HAPPY THANKSGIVING! i'm jealous i don't have school off, but it's okay. i will be back in a minute to put up my new address! i miss and love you all! happy thanksgiving. eat some cranberries for me. and mashed potatoes, i miss those! Ciao! Jess

the lucky bull!

okay, so i don't know who that was from, since there wasn't a name, but here's the lucky bull explaination. In Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle (which was the world's first shopping mall, by the way...) under the center dome there are these little moasics of the 12 zodiac signs. There is a local legend that if you visit this place, you should go to the bull and spin your heel into it's privates 3 times (and you have to spin to the right, or it doesn't work, i guess?), while making a wish. and supposedly the wish will come true, and you get good luck. (or something along those lines?!?!) so here is a picture of the bull, http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Zga4jPgB2eg/R_FLHs4fehI/AAAAAAAACos/0036gkADPTg/IMG_7739.JPG
and the hole is where you put your heel.... does that make sense? so i have pictures of all of my friends and i putting our heel there and spinning, i'll put those up soon hopefully! hopefully that helped, let me know if it all makes sense! Ciao, Jess!

more more more!

sorry i haven't put up pictures in a while... and i meant sunday dinner with family and pictures, hopefully. i got an email from afs saying they want to use my pictures, and they love my blog, so thats good! papa connors and grandma jean, email me please! yahoo is being a butt and not letting me email unless i am replying to a sender, becuase my internet is so slow here, it doesn't work. Miss Joyce wants me to be the POSTER CHILD for study abroad, so i am attempting to find a picture of me and something italian! Thats about it for now! i'll keep everyone updated! hope all is well! Ciao! Jess

bologna, milano, etccc.

Where did i leave off? i keep forgetting what i have already written, so sorry if this repeats itself. Last monday i had tumbling class, which was cool, i enjoyed it. but it was very different than anything else i have ever done, they were having me do things i have never done before, so that was a bit hard. Tuesday was as normal as possible, i had my private lesson with my english teacher, then i shadowed her for two of the first year classes. 1st P is my favorite! Wednesday was fun and sad. the morning was fun, the italian prof wasn't there, so we just hung out and talked, for2 hours. the afternoon was sad though, because it was Enrica's funeral. which was different than anyother funeral i've ever been to. They keep the dead in the house, then the priest comes and blesses them, all in the house. Then we walked to the church, which is decorated like nothing i have ever seen in my life. it's beautiful, everything has bright colors and jewels, it looks soo gorgeous. The ceremony itself was normal, but it was in rapid italian, so i was a bit confused. but we all got communion, and he puts it directly into your mouth, so that was a bit bizarre for me, i was like ummm in the states we put the communion into your hand?!?! then we walked to the cemetery, and it was like pouring, so that wasn't very fun. and their cemetaries here are soo different. there is no grass, first off. and each toumbstone has like a statue or something on it. AND they all have flowers, constantly. we've been back to the cemetery already, and every single headstone had flowers on them. The people here take good care of it, i guess? then thursday we left for bologna. I had school off on thursday, since there was a national strike of students and teachers, against the new head of schools. and i had saturday off too, since it was the day of the dead. On thursday we drove down to bologna and got stopped by a huge group of college students who were squatting in the street, so we had to wait to go around them. then we went and saw artemio's apartment and then daniela lucia and i headed out to walk around bologna. we stopped and got some food for dinner, and looked at all the stores. When we went back home, we got locked out of the apartment, while letizia was locked inside. we had one of the bodyguards from artemio's company come rescue us! he got the door unlocked, thankfully. and that night i had the first OFFICIAL ITALIAN WORD IN MY DREAM: Guarda, which means look. and i remember it being in there a lot, so that is a good sign! halloween was a LONG day. we got up late and hung out, then went out and did sightseeing in bologna, and shopping, all day! Leizia and i went to McDonalds for lunch, because we didn't want to wait for another hour to have lunch with daniela and lucia. and i learned a huge fact, that McDonalds in italy sells beer. i was like WOOAHH Mickey D's! crazy stuff! we were going to see HSM3 that night, but we didn't know where the theater was, so we got lost and missed our show. So we spent halloween night hanging out and watching cluless on mtv! and i learned another cool thing, they don't dubb mtv shows, they just put sutitles, which makes mtv my new favorite channel. We didn't end up going to Firenze or Piza because the weather was really bad. but we head out to piacenza, and we saw HSM3 there on saturday. their cinema's here are soo different. they give you assigned seats in the theater, there are more seats, a bigger screen, intermission during the movie, there's a candy store, pizzaria, a sub restaurant, a bowling alley, and about enough games to fill dave&busters. So cool though! On Sunday i found out that karen and bob got engaged, but via facebook (thanks for that one guys..) and we came home from paicenza and ate at nonna's (grandma's) i got cheapo ipod speakers on the way home, so that was cool! MONDAY! was a blast. i went into Milano for the day! i met up with keyne, catherine and kalee, all from the states. i got lost on my way in, but on accident. i got on the wrong train, and ended up in the wrong train station, so they had to come and rescue me. But atleast i ended up in milano, it could have been worse. We found some cool thrift store and met these like 20 something canadian guys, so we talked to them for a bit. did a lot a lot of shopping (it was needed!) and walked around. Ate a lot of yummy food, and met up with some of the other kids for a bit, but then we continued with the shopping... We found an international bookstore, so i bought a few books (which I'm almost done with...) I rubbed my heel in the lucky bull's private areas and made a wish. Goodluck, apparently... So then we get on the metro to get back to the train station, so catherine and i could get on our trains to go home, and the metro breaks down. i was like WHAT?!?! and then we had to run through milan's central station to get catherine on her train. thankfully i got on the correct train home, so that went well. Election day! So all the girls cry in class when they get a bad mark or whatever, and this whole time in my head I've been like 'wow, that is soo dumb, who cries at school?!?!' So then on tuesday when i started bawling in spanish i felt like a total hypocrite, which was true. But i started to cry becuase for the past few weeks my spanish teacher has been oral testing. and before she started, she told me that i would go at the very end, and she would tell me what she was going to test me on, beucase i have to know the spanish, italian and english. SO then on tuesday she goes 'okay jessica, you'll go tomorrow!' i was like oh my god. because i've been studying, but not enough. considering i have to learn 90 verbs, over 20 different grammer rules, and over 500 vocab words in 3 languages. SO THEN i just started bawling, because that is the most overwhelmed i have ever felt here. The teacher noticed i was crying (because i made one of those dramatic like gasping for air noises.. on accident, i was attemtping to breathe!) and she came over to like rub my back and whatever, and we rescheduled my test to a week from today. so i'm studying my butt off, and a bunch of the girls are going to help me, so thats good. Then in gym we continued to learn the maneater kick dance. did i mention i have been teaching that in gym? it's quite comical. once we get it down, i'll take a video and put it up here. Sofia's mom invited me over for lunch one day, so i think next week i am headed over there. i watched gossip girl, amazingness, as usual. Then i met with Ornella, my afs helper person here, and eduardo, the like afs leader of our area.We went and got hot chocoate, which is like hershey's syrup heated up, you eat it with a spoon, its crazy thick. and they have a vanilla version which is super good too! We talked about my new host family, which i am really excited for... Mom and dad, 25 year old sister still at home and goes to university in milano, and 17 year old brother in the states for the year, but he comes back before i leave! and i guess they're really excited to have me, so thats great! and they've raised teenagers, and know the whole afs experience thing. They already gave me a later curfew, and since they don't live in busto (i have to take a train for 10 minutes to get back and forth to school...) they already said they are willing to take me back and forth for saturday nights, since the train at night is shady here. so it sounds awesome. on sunday i am going out there for lunch! i woke up like 10 minutes early and ran directly to the computer, to see who won. i about peed my pants (literally....) when i found out it was Obama! Daniela and i were dancing and singing all over the house, it was so funny. Then when i got to school, curly haired boy (i learned his name! it's simone!) comes into the classroom, and goes CIAO JESSICA! i was like 'ciao simone!' and he goes, 'well, are you excited?' and then he walks over to the board, and in his freakishly good handwriting writes 'OBAMA HA VINTO!' (which means Obama has won!) and grabs my hands and we start screaming and yelling and dancing, then like 10 of the girls from my class walk in, and we are all laughing and dancing. one of the most bizarre moments i've had here, but it was super fun. And for the past few days random kids have been coming up to me at school and shaking my hand and saying 'I am so proud of your country' i'm like ME TOO! so that has gone over well... Nonna bought us these cute winter socks with snowmen on them. they're the kind that you wear in the house, since they have that sticky stuff on the bottom, like on the socks for little kids who are learning how to walk. And i got a package from mom that day too, but i just got the big one about 20 minutes ago! and the tea and peanut butter have already been cracked open.... I talked to my dad and the boys on wednesday. Yesterday was normal, but i was making fun of my english teacher and how she always loses things. and i was explaining to 1st P why my class was mad when she blamed her wallet being 'stolen' on us, becuase she loses things all the time (and i can't talk, becuase i do too, but i don't blame it on other people...) and she walks in and stares at me in this like laughing way, she had her hands on her hips like 'i know you're talking about me, but i don't know what you said...' and i don't know if she does know or not, but i don't think she would have cared. I had my first re-italian class last night, and it was fun. wayy better than the other ones i have gone to. The teacher actually spoke english, and there were only like 5 or 6 of us there, so the thai girl and i actually got a lot of attention, so that was nice. And today was fun, our english conversation teacher talked about Obama and what the italian prime minister said about him... very amusing. I just got my mom's other package, and i am going to italian class later. and in about 30 seconds i will hopefully be eating peanut butter! i have no clue what i'm doing tomorrow night, possibly going out with Sofia and all of them. Hopefully updating flickr tomorrow after my lunch with my new host family (i find it very bizarre that i get a trial run with this family, but i didn't get one with my family now.. maybe it will be a good thing... i hope!!) Ciao, Jess