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Danielle's Third Report from Italy March 9, 2006 |
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Hey everyone,
Wow, these months just seem to be
flying by. This last month has been a roller coaster of emotions. It
all began at the end of December, Christmas! I celebrated Christmas
on the 25th with all of my host family. We had a huge dinner, which
included everything from Lamb, to octopus, wine of every kind,
bread, Spumante and what's an
Italian meal without the pasta! So that was basically the main meal,
then came the sweets! Which we had
dozens of. They included a beautiful Christmas cake covered in
fruit, smothered in chocolate, pandoro (an Italian cake, which
is basically your regular vanilla cake without the
frosting), tons of chocolates and other sweets and last but not
least, the treats that I made! Rice Krispy
treats and Christmas butter cookies. They turned out delicious my
family and friends loved them. Thank goodness because I went threw
the world of trouble to find MARSHMALLOWS! Everyone thought I was
crazy when I tried to describe what marshmallows were. It was
hilarious.
After we all ate Christmas dinner, we
opened presents. That's when it hit me, 12:00 while we were opening
presents, "I miss my family, this is so weird, my 1st Christmas
away from home". haha... I just went into a 5 minute crying
spell and then everything was great again.
Later on that night two of my best
friends came to my house and surprised me and my host mum with
presents, then we headed out to a street where you can see all of
Cagliari, and there were truly all of the young people in Cagliari
there. It was Amazing!
After Christmas, came NEW YEARS. New
years was the frosting on the cake for me. Two other Rotary students,
my friends and I all went to a small town nearby to celebrate New
Years together. It was this small little town named Nuragus, which
had absolutely nothing, and consisted of no more than 100 people.
But nevertheless , we had the world of
fun. We roasted a pig by the fire place, played games and one
morning we woke up to the ground covered in whiteness, but
unfortunately it wasn't the snow I'd hoped for. It was hail.
But I was happy, because it
was the first time in my life I'd seen hail. It was my one step
closer to seeing the snow. haha.
Now it's February, and February in
Italy means CARNEVALE (carnival). Carnival consists of two weeks of
sweets, costumes and parades in the main streets, but this year it's
been a bit quiet here, nothing big, but for me it's amazing to see
the kids dancing and singing in the street. The
guys dressed as girls with their high heels, and eating the zepole,
which once you start to eat, you just can't help yourself. Zepole
is basically our typical doughnut without the frosting, it's
fried dough covered in sugar.
This weekend I am going to Oristano
to see a traditional Sardegnan festival, it's called the Sartiglia.
I'll let you guys know more about it when I get back. Until
the next time.
Danielle Chestnut
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