a badly punctuated stream of consciousness

i am arrived

hello
well i have arrived
i have so much to say and just cant seem to get it all out. well, on saturday i left on a plane from brisbane to sydney and it was hard. lots of tears at the airport but once i got on the plane i was ok. the flight to sydney was fine and we managed to get to sydney international airport wihtout too much hassle. once there, robert and i met up with the other exchange students, most of whom where going to italy. to my delight, i foudn that at least one other girl was travelling to frankfurt and then verona once we reached vienna. it eventuated that there wre three of us who travelled that route, which was a great comfort to all of us i think, that we were not alone. the long flight from sydney to vienna was interupted by a stop at kuala lumpur to refuel. it took us about 8 hours to get there, and unfortunately it was only with less than an hour to hour stop that i finally felt tired enough to sleep (which was about 2am home time). so i didnt sleep until about 5am home time, once we were back on the plane again, and it was very very uncomfortable. the stop in kuala lumpur was good cos all of us exchange students (nine in total) got to hang around together and get to know each other. fergus, there was one guy, sam, giong to france, who reminded me a lot of you. he plays bass and likes jazz (and that dead american bass guy who played the fretless bass....jaquim historias? anyway, i kind of knew who he was talking about) and was just very much like you, so we got along.
on the plane i slept for maybe 5 hours, but it was very interupted and when i finally woke up for good, i was all stiff and sore. sage, i flew austrian airlines, and they did have the tv in the back of the seat in front of me but most of the movies wre crap. however, i did watch the end of the tigger movie and the song at the end made me cry, cos ti was all about feeling alone and having yoru freinds a long way away, which was exactly how felt. i was very embarassed for crying on the plane but maddy, the girl next to me made me feel better. the flight from vienna to frankfurt was gorgeous cos it was like a sea of clouds below us and as the sun was just coming up everything was all pink and orange - just beautiful. and when we got to frankfurt it was -4 or 6 degrees and ws just soooo cold. the worst part was when we got on the plane to verona, cos we had to get on a bus from the airport building to the actual plane and then stand outside int he freeeezing cold for about 5 mins until we all got on the plane. of course none of us had been expecting that since at all the other airports we never left the buildings but instead went down thost little tunnel things to get onto the plane. also, it was a tiny dash 8 type plane and was rather scary compared with the other planes that had been all big and i felt much safer on them. anyway, when we reached verona we parted and i met my host family. elisa, my host sister, speaks very good english so she has been the translator so far.
well italy is in many ways very different from australia, but in some ways it is very similar. the first thing that hit me was the cold! it is about 2 degrees right now i think (outside that is) but i even get cold inside. i am wearing 4 layers inside and when i go out i now wear an old jacket of elisa's cos the one i have is not warm enough at all (sorry mum). the other thing that struck me pretty much immediately is that they drive on the wrong side of the road!!! elisa can drive and already we have been out and about a fair bit and everytime i go to the car i go to the wrong side. lol.
on the first night, despite my being absolutely exhausted, elisa and i went to the piazza, or square. there is a big castle but i have not been inside it yet. there is also many shops and we just had a look around with some of her freinds. when i finally went to bed it was only about 8:30pm sunday here, but the equivalent of 5am monday in yeppoon. so i was pretty tired, considering i had only had about 5 hours of bad sleep between about 7am saturday and 5am monday. then on monday i treid to call home which was a big hassle cos my phone card thing woudlnt work. eventually i got through using a phone in a shop that was owned by elisa's boyufreind's mother. sorry for crying mum and dad and naomi, i was just relieved. but i really have had a good time so far. on monday afternoon elisa and her friend ele and i went to modena to some markets. we also went shopping for some new jumpers for me, as i needed something a little mor suited to this climate. everything is so close here, and everytime i get in the car i know it wont be long until we are in a completely knew town. from carpi, modena was only about 20 mins drive. and markets were realyl cool. big and exciting, and reminded me of a the show a bit, cos there were lots of food stalls, but of course no show bags :) we also went up into the tower of a realyl old church. it was fantastic! so very old and just gorgeous and the view was awesome.
i went to school today and it was interesting. as i cant speak italian i thought it would be realyl hard, but most of the students seem to speak really good englihs. the teachers are another matter. there are two english teachers, one of whom is actually from england, and i had two english classes today in different grades. they asked me lots of questions and in one class we watched a bit of a movie with michelle pfiefer so that was good. and then i finished the day in a spanish lesson, where i understood nothing at all. and all of this was finsihed and we were home by 1:30pm which was so strange. it felt like so late in the day and i was exhuasted. at the moment my host mum and dad are at work and elisa is at a tennis competition in another town so i am home all alone. i think i will go and watch a movie and probably sleep, as i am still completely exhausted.
hope to hear from you all soon
love always
ellen

posted by Ellen of Taranganba @ 3:46 AM