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From Abroad

So to tell you the honest to god truth, the last couple days I was kind of thinking maybe I shouldn’t have come here. This is definitely not what I thought I’d feel like and it surprised me. It’s just like starting completely over. Meeting new people, learning a new place, everything’s different. It’s real hard too because of the 6 hour time difference. Like right now I’ve already done so much in the day and just ate lunch and it’s only 6 in the morning in the US. I miss talking to my family and friends, but I’ll get through it.

Today I realized that I’m so glad I came here. We had an orientation to the leadership program that we will be going through and I’m so excited!!! The sun came out today too (it’s been so rainy) and I see mountains now that I didn’t even know were there before because it was so cloudy. With the sun and no fog this campus is so beautiful and the surrounding area is breathtaking!! Me and Von are starting to click with people from other schools and were beginning to plan trips to go places on our travel breaks. I’m kind of disappointed in myself that I felt uneasy about the situation at first- but now I’m loving it!! The only thing I am disappointed about (and I’m sure that WVU isn’t going to like hearing this! Haha), but I was hoping to come over here and take easy classes. BUUUUUUTTT I think I’m really going to have to work this semester. This school said they take pride in the fact that they still take class work seriously. This is good from an academic perspective and also it will teach me a lot because there are so many new distractions here and I’ll have to really be a great time manager.

The food here is either…pasta or pasta. Ha! They usually have one other choice, but honestly the main thing is pasta. (I’m not going to lie, it’s the fourth day and I’m kind of already sick of pasta!) We did have pizza today for lunch (woohoo!) something different so that’s cool. And today my group is going to a mall in Castelfranco, Italia so we’re going to eat dinner there. The school has divided us all into groups of about 40 or so to do these leadership activities. So that’s what I mean when I say my group.

This school is actually split into two parts. Half of it is CIMBA (where I’m studying at) and the other half is a very prestigious Italian Boarding School. It’s funny to see the high school kids running around yelling in italiano and none of us really know what they are saying. I am learning though. This morning my group had a two hour crash course in Italian. I guess we’re going to have those for the first couple weeks so we get to learn the language better.

Ciao! Mi chiamio Julie. Sono di Pittsburgh, Pa. Ti amo Joey e mia famiglia!! Prendo un panino con prosciutto crudo e insalata e pomodoro. Prendo uno spritz anche! Ciao a presto!

(Hello! My name is Julie. I’m from Pittsburgh, PA. I love Joey and my family! I would like a sandwich with raw ham (I know it sounds weird, but everybody loves it here and it’s actually pretty good), lettuce, and tomato. I would also like a spritz! (It’s a drink here that the local young people love. It’s a mix of champagne and a few other things…realllly good!) Bye!

There is a store across the street from the school called a tabbacchi. The owners speak very little English so when you go over there you get to practice asking for things and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool. The town I’m in is real small- only about 2000 people live here (that’s less than my high school!). Sometimes I do wish we were in a big city, but it’s kind of cool too because we really get to know the normal day to day culture of Italians rather than the touristy cities that can be mixes of all different types of people. Plus, the scenery is gorgeous around here! I’ll have plenty of time to get out and explore the big cities. I was hoping to go somewhere this weekend, but we have this leadership stuff straight up until next Friday. So maybe next weekend I can go to Venice or somewhere close.

Well got to run! I have another leadership meeting at 2 (Dr. Lang would love all the stuff they’re teaching us about leadership!!). I’ll write soon!! Byyyyee!

<3 Julie!