Core of my heart, my country
hello again
allora. (this means well.... and it is one of the few words i have learnt so far. the others are freddo, meaning cold, stanca= tired, zampina, which is the command for the dog to shake hands! and piena, meaning full, of food that is. :)
i don't really know where to begin. firstly i should say thank you to all those who have emailed me. it is very nice to hear news from home. hard to explain exactly how wonderful it was to see my inbox with about 7 new emails when i checked them at school on thusrday. however, i must say it was difficult, and very embarassing, as i was almost crying reading some of them (mum and dad! sage!), and i was surrounded by a whole class who kept glancing at me strangely. lol.
i guess i will start with the sad stuff first. to all of you who say you hope i am not missing you, i am sorry to disappoint you, but i am. a lot. however, so far it hasn't really been like i thought it would. i have had only one time where i was really really upset, and that was yesterday afternoon, but i will get to that a little later on. so while i have cried a few times, most of the time the homesickness hasn't really been as cripling as i expected. it is almost as if i am still waiting for it to hit me. i think that perhaps it might when i have been here a while and things start getting more routine and less new and exciting. having said that though, i should also mention that i think about home almost every single minute. sounds a big cliche i know, but i can really, honestly say that i dont think a minute goes by when i am not thinking about one or other of you, or of the beautiful sunshine, (god it is cold here), my room, my house, yeppoon high, band or whatever. i am already beginning to yearn for the space we have at home. i am telling you all now, next time you step outside and have a big wide road to cross and a huge backyard and at least 5 metres between your house and the next, appreciate it! here, all the streets are incredibly narrow ( i cant believe they can fit two lanes in) and everything is all packed in so close together. i have never been one for cities i suppose, and every day i miss the beauty, space and sunshine of yeppoon. it is so true that you don't know what you've got til it's gone, so domenic, appreciate the beautiful days! dad, in your last email you said that you can't imagine cold, well it has been less than a week and i can no longer imagine heat! however, i must say that it is much warmer here than it is in germany by the sound of it (see alicias blog if you don't know what i'm talking about). it was a whole 4 degrees here when i got off the bus today, which in comparison, is pretty warm.
it was saturday today, and yet we went to school. I don't think I will be able to get used to this, no matter how long i am here. it didn't feel like friday yesterday because i knew i had to go to school today. i got confused today about what day it was, because i am just not used to going to school on the weekend. we only go to school from 8am to 1:15 pm, but really i would much rather do 9 til 3 and have saturday off! so while you are enjoying your space and sunshine, enjoy your weekends for me too!
despite those complaints, for the most part i am doing well i think. as i said, i miss you guys and thing of you very very often, but so far i mostly smile when i do, rather than cry. it has been only the days when i am very tired (as i was on tuesday when i wrote the last blog and yesterday) that i have been very sad. the rest of the time, especially if i am occupied, it isn't so bad. school has been up and down. yesterday was a bad day, but that was probably mostly due to the fact that i was very tired, having been out late the night before, and i had a headache. yesterday i had my first meeting with Roberta, from AYUSA, the exchange company i am with over here. She checked my passport and return tickets and stuff and then began to ask me some questions about my stay so far. I am sure it must have been hard for her to believe that i really HAVE been having a good time, when i was choking back tears. She understood though, but of course once i started, i found it very difficult to stop, and was probably crying for more than half an hour. But so far that was the worst it has been. And luckily Maddy, a girl I met on the plane, arrived to have her documents checked and once that had been done we talked for nearly an hour I think. It was sooo good to see her, and to swap experiences and most of all, to speak in complete sentences, at a normal speed, in a normal accent, with absolute certainty that she would understand every single word i said! That really cheered me up and I went home feeling much better, although still exhausted, and I fell asleep before dinner again.
It hasn't really been too hard to communicate so far, especially at school, because all the kids i havemet speak english really well. Having said that tho, it isn't perfect and thier pronounciation and accent is both humourous and at times frustrating. It has also affected me in that I am already speaking with an accent without thnking, and saying things such as 'also me', and 'tie-red' and 'where is the car' instead of 'me too' 'tired' and 'where the car is.' And for some unknown reason (sorry sage) I have started saying 'Ya' in manner of 'I am Inga from sveden, Ya' instead of 'yes' or 'si.' I think that when I come home I will not be able to speak correct english anymore, and my accent will be Italian!
The only other thing I have done worth noting so far is that I went to a real pizzeria on thursday night. Until then, the only pizza I had eaten here had been just like the pizza from australia, except it was square and had less toppings. On thursday night however, we went shopping and i bought more jumpers! and there was an awesome disney store - I have never ever seen so many soft toys in mylife! After the shopping we went to the pizzeria for tea (at 9pm) and for those of you who dont know, in italy, they serve each person a whole pizza. I knew this and so was expecting it, but it was still bigger than i expected. It was absolutely delicious, on a thin base with only cheese and tomato/herb sauce and mushrooms, but I couldn't eat it all. I didn't realyl expect to, and I was rather proud of myself I must say, to have gotten through the 2/3rd that i did, as well as eating bread and softdrink before it arrived. We took the rest home and I ate it for dinner last night. Yum yum yum, i absolutely recommend real italian pizzas, yum!
And so, after making you all jealous, I will have to end this because i have just about run out of things to say. i only ask you again to enjoy our sunburt country with it's sweeping plains and jewel sea! how i miss the sea. josie, i wish i had been on keppel with you, it sounded like it was so beautiful. and no, i haven't got any photos of keppel, so if somebody would like to send me some that woudl be great. :)
thinking of you all very often
love always
ellen
posted by Ellen of Taranganba @ 5:22 AM
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