not long now
well school goes back tomorrow, which makes it exactly 5 days until i leave. 4 really, considering that we are driving to brisbane on friday, so i only have 4 days left in yeppoon. things are getting pretty close now, and in some ways i feel like it still hasn't hit me that i'm leaving, and in other ways it feels like everything is very final. i keep thinking things like 'this might be the last time i see the sunset in yeppoon' or 'this might be the last time i go to the keppel bay plaza,' in a way that seems like i will have no life after my exchange, and completely disregarding the fact that i am coming back, and so of course will see the sunset and go to the k.b.p. again. silly me.
this week, as i have told some of you, i have felt like i have been on an emotional rollercoaster. there have been many very happy moments, and also many rather sad moments, lots of laughter, and also some tears. the good news was that sage is back from canada! hooray and welcome back sagie, we all missed you. so i have spent a fair bit of time with him, however, after the happy socializing was over, i kept getting very sad, and couldn't stop thinking about the fact that i am leaving and will be lonely and not get to see all the people i love. so i end up in tears. however, in a break from the norm of the last week, today i woke up happy and excited to go, rather than sad and scared. perhaps that was because i had a dream about the actual flight, maybe because it is now inside a week, or maybe just because i slept really well cos it wasn't as hot. who knows. the point is that i am still feeling sad, but not AS sad, and rather a lot more excited and eager to go.
so this week i have a hell of a lot to do, but hopefully that will be easier since many people (including my sister) will be at school (making the house less full of disruptions and distractions, not that i don't like your distractions naomi, but there is work to be done). packing is of great importance, but so is saying goodbye to and spending as much time as possible with my wonderful friends and family. so if i don't get a chance to see or speak to you all, know that i love you and will miss you and will be thinking of you a lot. :)
perhaps the thing of most importance, learning italian, will not happen much this week, as it hasn't happened much in the past weeks. as christie said today, there is always the plane ;). this of course is not my motto, but simply a reality, and since packing and seeing people cannot possibly be done on the plane, i think that perhaps it will get last priority, even though it perhaps deserves first.
and with everything there is to do, i am most looking foward to the sand sculpting on australia day. it will be great fun, and a lovely opportunity to see everybody for the last time :)
well, i'm tired so i'll end this
have fun those of you going back to school, in a way i am jealous,
and have a great australia day everybody
love ellen
counting down
hello again
well, there is not many days left until i leave. 18 to be exact. it seems very close now, as opposed to when i started this blog, less than a month ago, when it seemed very very far away. i am getting nervous, and excited. and sad. lately i have found i have been quite sad, thinking about leaving home, freinds, family, and all that is familiar. it gets me rather down sometimes, but then i think about all the fantastic things i'll be doing and i get excited again.....until i think about all the people i love so dearly and will have to leave, which gets me down again. and so the cycle continues. however, i have found that i have been more 'up' than 'down' these last 2 days since i've been home. for those of you who didn't know, i was away for a week after new year at a place called queen mary falls. it's kind of near warwick and is very pretty, with a waterfall and birds to feed and caravans everywhere! and it's in a national park so there's pretty walks, and all of the countryside is just beautiful. it was nice cos when we were there it rained a bit and the whole condamine valley got all misty and everything is so green so it reminded me of england....not that i've ever been there, but the pictures i've seen and stuff.
aanyway, so while i was away i was getting very sad, i suppose because i was away from my friends and i missed you all very much! and that got me thinking about the fact that in less than a month i woudln't be able to think, well i miss them now but i'll be home in a week, cos i'll be away for a while. however, since i've come home i've seen almost all of you (mostly at josie's surprise party) and i feel much better now.
i've also had an email from ms primavori, who will be my english teacher at the correggio instituto technico, where i will be going to school. she was wanting to line up a bit of a time table for me, and after reading my profile she put me in the corso ERICA, or a language course, in the 5th class....whatever that means. i assume that is maybe gr5 of high school or something like that. not sure yet.
so anyway, the list of subjects was something like this: italian literature (cool! i might get to read Dante in his mother-tongue), Arts (hope that includes music), history (always great), geography (cool cos i've never done that before and i'm sure it's interesting), religion (obviously this is of some relevance and particular interest to me, and interesting cos it's roman catholic as opposed to protestant, which is what i am) P.E. (which will be good, and will hopefully help me to not gain too much pasta-poundage), maths (i can deal with that i think), economics (i've never done that before either so that is cool) , english (it will be interesting to see how they teach it), spanish (cool! more languages, although perhaps i shoudl concentrate just on italian), and also french and german, but i don't know if i will be doing those lessons. so, despite the fact that i will be studying twice as many subjects as in australia, i am really looking foward to it! being the square that i am, thinking about going to school there makes me really really excited! i can't wait to study all those different subjects, especially the ones i've never done before like economics, geography and spanish.
for the next few weeks i will be focusing on spending as much time with my freinds and family as possible, learning as much italian as possible, doing as muhc background reading on italy and it's history as possible (although luckily i already know a lot of the ancient stuff from ancient history), doing my last shifts at good old stackies, and packing, which consists of organising my clothes and deciding what stuff to take, obviously, but also putting all my songs onto my new iPod, organising my piano sheet music into a really minimal amount and deciding which songs i want to take, which i think will be a harder decision than the clothes, and making sure i have things like money, adresses of people, presents for my host family and stuff. so there's a lot do to.
and i will leave this blog there for the night as i'm fairly tired as i was up rather late last night on the internet talking to alicia!!!! (miss you heaps and it was great to talk to you), and then domenic rang me up very early this morning - 8am shock horror! we saw lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events today and i thoroughly enjoyed it.
ok. that's it for now
love ellen
pinch and a punch
pinch and a punch for the first of the month! happy new year everybody! and happy birthday alicia for the 30th, and congrats to troy and camelia (hope i spelt that right) on thier wedding. and yay for ellen, who finally has a host family. this news is probably not very new to some of you, since i've actually known for nearly 10 days now but was just too lazy to put it on here. it is a great load of my mind, since i was not only a little anxious about when i would find out, but was also rather sick of explaining to people why i did not yet know exactly where in italy i am going. well it is official now, i am going to Carpi. it is a town about 100km southish of Milan, and is actually much closer to Bologna than Milan so i don't know why i used Milan and not Bologna to explain where it is. Well, it's north west of Bologna. it looks pretty close on the map. i dunno how close exactly tho, i couldn't be bothered working it out on the scale. so anyway, i am going to Carpi, and will be staying with the Carretti's. Hello Carretti's if you are reading this! The Carretti's are Vanni (dad), Orianna (mum), and Elisa and Erica. Erica doesn't live at home cos she's married, but Elisa does. according to the profile thing i have been given, she is 18 and is very good at tennis. so that's cool, i might learn how to play tennis. ok, i konw how to play. i might learn how to be good....or probably not. but hopefully i will be able to work some tennis into my busy schedule of commuting to and from school in another town! mind you, the town is only 10kms away so it's really not far at all. tha'ts like from my house to the Causeway or somewhere. not far, not far. I will be attending the 'istituto tecnico einaudi' in Correggio, which is, like i said, only about 10km away from Carpi. coool hey! I am expected to start school on the first of feb, which worries me a little since i leave australia on the 29th jan. that doesn't give me very long to settle in and sleep of my jet lag. i leave from brisbane airport at midday sat 29th, and then wait in sydney for a few hours, then i do the big flight accross the world and land in vienna i think. then to hamburg. and then another flight to verona. something like that. so quite a few stops and change overs. anywho, that is my latest up date. now i'm going to go finish reading little women. oh dear. i really do think jo should have married laurie. but what can you do. now that i've actually read most of the book and not just seen the movie, i am happier about the fact that amy and laurie marry, cos it is more detailed and described and seems ok. love always ellen
