a badly punctuated stream of consciousness

so much to say, so little time

it's not the same without you around me
it's so lonely here
photographs still replay in my memory
the colour's wearing thin
kepping me here is making me how much
i love you....
i close my eyes to see you and i see you standing near
i'm giving all i have because i know that's what i need
to carry on here
-Alabaster Box

ok well, first things first: A BIG THANKYOU to all the people who emailied me! it is so ironic, because last week i had about 4 days in a row where i had the opportunity to check my email, most of the time at school, and nearly every day i had nothing, or only one from mum and dad. i have to admit it made me rather down. and today, after not checking them for 4 days, i have about 15 new mails in my inbox!!!!! hooray! it really cheered me up guys so thank you. i haven't read any of them yet, and i dont think i have much time now, so i am sorry if i dont get to reply straight away, but you can bet your bottom dollar that i will.

ok, next. a HUGE happy birthday to Yoko for last monday (i wrote you a letter, but havent had the chance to send it yet as havent been to the post office to find out how much stamps to japan are), to Rebekah for yesterday! To Christie for today! and Nigel for Wednesday! Happy 18th all of you, I hope you stay safe and are very happy now that you are officially adults!

alicia, i am so glad to hear that you can ski! it sounds like you had an excellent time! your whole blog sounded pretty happy actually, which i am glad about. it is good to hear things are going well for you. and i know how hard it must have been for you to go to school on saturday. i have to do it too! i miss you lots. *meng*

A big Congratulations to Alice and Brendan on your new baby boy Thomas!! Hooray!

now for some unpleasant news, I have the flu! Not good, but I am feeling rather ok at the moment. I woke up yesterday morning with tonsils that felt like bowling balls and a head that was pounding so hard i swear the rest of the house must have heard it. Alas, nobody was awake, until i started vomiting that is :( so that was fun...NOT. unfortunately, yesterday we were supposed to go to this carnival thing where everybody dresses up (sounds like the same as your alicia) and erica, my oldest host sister, had made these absolutely terrific minnie mouse outfits! they were so good! with these little white frilly pants and red skirt and top! and we had ears and everything. there were four outfits, and it was going to be me, elisa, and ele and ele, her two friends (and yes, they have the same name which is very confusing). but i couldn't go cos i was sick! but i slept all day and then when i got up finally at about 4.30 i turned on the tv to find 'The Real Macaw' was on, dubbed in italian of course. so i watched that and nearly cried at the end (stupid soppy music!), and everytime they were on the beach i longed sooo soo much to be at home on the beach too! i guess i didn't feel very good yesterday. or this morning when we got up to go to school. i ust rolled over and went back to sleep. i felt so terrible, but when i was woken up to be told we were going to the doctor at 11, i felt suprisingly better. So i did a little reading in my 'idiots guide to learning italian' book to learn some phrases about going to the doctor, fearing i woud have to explain my symptoms. but luckily, once we got there, orianna did all the talking and all i had to do was say 'aah'. then i came home, had some lunch and watched Aladdin and Gli Aristogatti in italian! I thouroughly enjoyed that, although, dad, 'I'm the leader' and 'Where's my beddie-bye basket?' doesn't have quite the same ring in italian! But i was thinking of you when i was watching it :)

I actually feel like i have quite a lot of news, since i havent updated this in maybe a week. Last thursday i went to my history teacher's house for dinner, Professa Mondini. She is so very nice and is also giving me an italian lesson once a week at school, on top of the ones i will start with my exchange company here on friday. So i went to her house and despite being really really nervous, i had a really good time. Her family has just hosted Simon, a NZ boy, so they were full of news and pictures (oh so many pictures) about him, which was actually kind of nice to hear. And they showed me the video of him doing the 'kumate kumate kaah kaah' rugby yell thing which was really funny. her 11 year old son plays the clarinet in a philharmonic orchestra here, and after finding that i played brass, and was interesting in being involved, she has told me she would look into it. I have also been invited to see one of their concerts sometime, which they apparently have about once a month, and to go to one of Sergio, the 16yr old son's soccer matches, and to go back for dinner another time, all of which i would like to do. They were very nice people and I really liked them.
The next night, friday, elisa and two of her friends and i were goig to go to the movies, but ended up spending all our time at the circolo, which is a public tennis club with a games room and cafe/bar thing where all her freinds hang out. have i said this already? anyway, i spent most of the evening chatting to elisa's freind doddy, who speaks excellent english (with a very american accent, so we did get confused sometimes).
then on saturday after school we went to the piazza for a while and just wandered around and had an icecream from the gelateria (oh my god, the ice cream completely lives up to what i had been told, it is FANTASTICO!!!!) and then later on we went to the disco, which i think is basically like our niteclubs (although i have never been to a nightclub) and you dont have to be a certain age to get in. it was pretty crap. after waiting in the freeezing cold for ages to get in, we then went inside where it was really really hot. i have never been a huge lover of parties, especially as i often get shy and find it hard to talk to people, but i would pick that anyday over standing around not being ABLE to talk to people. after a while the music started and it was black eyes peas i think and i thought, oh well, at least i can dance. alas, after about 4 decent songs, the music changed to techno. i thought, ok i will jut wait for a good song to come on. alas! it never changed! it was techno the whole time! aaah. most of the time there wasnt even a melody, just beats thumping over and over again on the same note. i tried to dance, but somehow found it really difficult and ended up just bobbbing my head up and down and kind of half jumping, which is pretty much what everybody else was doing anyway. luckily, elisa hates that disco so i don't think we will be going back there. by the time we went home at 1.30 i was really really tired, and that has probably contributed to me being sick.
well that is about all i have to say. dont worry about me cos i think i am getting better, althouhg i am hot all the time and am only wearing a tshirt at the moment, which probably is a bad sign considering last week i was waering 5 layers inside and was still cold.
anyway, i am going to go read all of your emails now. keep them coming
i love you all
ellen

posted by Ellen of Taranganba @ 7:38 AM