First Orentation Camp

So I have officially been in Italy for 1 month today because today is October 5th and I arrived in Italy on September 5th. I can not believe that it has been 1 month already. My journey had gone by so fast I can not believe that it is 1/10th over already because it feels as if I just arrived in Italy because the time here has gone by so quickly. Well on to what my post was supposed to be about. This last week I had my first orientation camp for Sardegna Italy. It was SOOOO much fun!!! I seriously had so much fun with the other exchangers, but I guess when you put 40 teenagers in one hotel with only 6 volunteers your bound to have an interesting time.

October 1st
I woke up extra early to drive one hour with my papà to Cagliari. The bus left from Cagliari at 930 so me and my papà left Carbonia at about 730 because we knew there would be traffic going in to the city at that time of the morning. Well before we left Carbonia we went to a small deli to get me some sandwiches for lunch because the students would be eating lunch on the bus. When we got there he asked me one sandwich or two. When I said 1 he sais "but there small" so I said that I would have two because well it takes longer to convince Italians that your not hungry then to just eat what there giving you. When they started making my pannini they were 2 HUGE pannini!! Then at the register he also bought 2 soda's and chocolate. In my head im thinking. ok wow i can not eat all of this food for lunch. I mean who has 2 giant sandwiches for just lunch. Then we made our way in to Cagliari which took about an hour and a half when it should have only taken about 50 minutes because of traffic. We went and got some breakfast at this small cafè. I had a cafè and a small breakfast cake thingie. And my papà had milk. Ive never seen anyone put sugar in milk before but it seems to be common practice for Italians. Then we went and waited for the other Cagliari - Iglesias students to arrive so that we could get on to the bus. When everyone got on to the bus we started our 6 hour bus ride to Sassari. All of the Cagliari -
Iglesias kids sat in the back of the bus and we talked soo much it was so much fun. About an hour and a half in to the ride we stopped at Tarellba to pick up the kids in that chapter. It was really nice to see all of the kids again because i realized how much i actually missed them. Then we stopped in Oristano to pick up the kids in that chapter. The bus kept getting fuller and fuller with kids we hadn't seen in a full month. The last stop to pick up kids was Sassari. There were a few kids inSassari that I was looking forward to seeing again! Then we drove the one hour from Sassari to the Resort that we were staying at for the orientation. When we got there we checked in and we got our room assignments, I roomed with a Thai girl and a German girl, and we were given one hour to walk around and to go to our rooms and stuff. Well after that hour we went down and we had a big meeting with all of the kids and the volunteers. We introduced our selves in Italian to the whole group which was kinda fun because there were some kids that i didn't remember. Then we were spilt in to 3 big groups with 2 volunteers for each group. My group was really cool i liked them alot. on the first day because we didn't get there till like 3 we only did one section of orientation. We talked about our families and problems and stuff with our families. Then we had free time until dinner which was at 8. so we had about 3 hours of free time. my little "group" here , Me, Lilla (aHungarian girl in my chapter), Ami (aParaguaian girl), Sergio (a Colombian boy) and Efren (a Venezuelean boy) and Katerina (aRussian girl), hung out together for the 3 hours we had before dinner. We just walked around and talked. I like those 3 students alot they are so nice. Ive decided that out of all the people South Americans are the nicest for sure. then we had dinner which
was AMAZING it was like 4 courses just wow. After dinner we had about 3 more hours of free time and my little "group" went to Lilla's room and we played cards and listened to music. it was alot of fun. at about midnight we went to bed because we didn't know the volunteers well yet so we didn't want to push curfue the first night. But when i got back to my room both of my roommates were asleep so i had to be really quiet lol.

October 2ond
We had to wake up at 730 so that we could be down to breakfast at 830. At breakfast at my table every kid was from a different country so that was really cool. after breakfast we had to have more orientation which was really really boring. we talked about our school and about the language and stuff so it was really boring. But we had only about 2 hours of it and then they gave us pool time. Now mind you its October 2nd and we are all going to swim outside. we all went and got on swimsuits and went swimming. it was SOOOOOO cold but oh so much fun. I probably wouldn't have gotten in but people started throwing people in to the pool and I heard my name and i didn't want to get thrown in the pool so i just got in on my own but it was sooo much fun. The whole group (well most) took a big group picture in the pool it was sooo cold but so much fun!! Then we had lunch which we found out is the same size as dinner just minus the dessert at the end. After dinner we played some "tennis" with my group it was so much fun. After tennis we had more orientations but this time we talked about sterotypes for each country that was represented in our group. There was a big poster board for every country represented in our group and each person had to write something they thought or knew about the country on the board. It was fun to see what people thought about the USA and about the other countries. Then the kids from that country went up and told if they were right or wrong about the countries sterotypes. Then we had "personal interviews" I talked to Andrea Sana (the president of my chapter) about our families and school and language and stuff like that so that was nice but i really haven't had any problems yet so it was all good. Then was dinner which was the same as the night before so VERY yummy. Then there was a traditional Sardinian dance performed for us so that was really really cool!! It was nice to see some of the culture that was in Sardegna long
before us exchange students ever stepped foot here. It was so interesting to see that people used to do this for special occasions all the time and how elaborate the costumes were and just it really was amazing. Then we, my group, played bullshit (a card game) for a while while everyone was getting called over for there interviews. After that we suddenly hear some one playing the piano so my group decides to go listen to the music. We all pile on 1 couch and one chair. so basically we were all laying and sitting on one an other but it was alot of fun. and we all stayed up listing to him play until like 130 am (curfew at 1 am but the voluteers didn't care) and after that we went to bed.

October 3

We woke up at 730 again and breakfast was at 830 again. I had breakfast with my little group again and It was so much fun. I love all the kids that I hung out with at orientation. Just they are so nice and so much fun. South Americans are so nice all the time. The weather today was really crappy and rainy so we all had to stay in the piano room and the balcony today because it was so wet. We had to stick around between breakfast and lunch because the rest of the kids had to stick around and do a survey which was really stupid. Then lunch was really really yummy I love Italian food! Then after dinner all of the kids decided that we were going to attempt to draw the world. It was alot of fun but our world ended up really really weird looking but we had so much fun. The "exchange student" world is a very messed up world. With many added countries and many countries that don't exist in our world. But it was so fun to draw because we weren't looking at a map when we drew it and we drew it in pen and marker so there was no going back once we started drawing. (and teachers that are reading this forgive us we tried) Oh one of the Chinese boys in my chapter in Sardegna is named Cao-Cao (pronounced cow-cow) and we all found out that in Chinese Cao-Cao means (excuse the language if it offends any one but this is what it means) Fuck-Fuck. So basically all of the exchange students LOVED Cao-Cao. He was like the most popular kid at orientation. And we basically named all of the Asian boys Cao-Cao.. they were 1 2 3 and 4 but they got a huge kick out of it and liked it. In our world South America and Africa were really close (we ran out of room) and they were connected with Cao-Cao bridge. Our middle Europe didn't exist and we forgot or left out alot of countries or we just didn't know what countries were there but just we had a BLAST drawing the world. Just I guess when you put 40 teenagers together were gonna come up with some weird things. Then we had dinner. After dinner we had a talent show which was alot of fun! Everyone's talents were sooo good and just it was fun to watch. Then we all just decided that we were all going to go on the stage and dance. so the dj put on music and we all just danced and had alot of fun. Then we all went to the pool and alot of people decided to swim at like midnight. It was soooo cold so i didn't swim but it was fun hanging out with everyone. Then me Sergio, Sheron (a girl from Alaska) and Voltier (an Icelandic boy) were walking around hanging out and that was alot of fun. then we went to bed because we were leaving the next day.

October 4th (a very sad day)

We all woke up and had breakfast together but this time I ate breakfast with some of the volunteers and that was alot of fun they're fun to talk to. Then all of the AFS kids went to an outside stage so that we could all take pictures. I took soooo many pictures. We all did weird groups together. Like Cold countries or America. Just it was alot of fun and i took sooooo many pictures. We also took one big group picture which was alot of fun. Let me tell you trying to get 40 kids that haven't slept in 3 days to sit still long enough to take a group picture is not the easiest thing in the world. It took our group about 5 tries before we finally had everyone in the picture. Then we all started walking to the place where we were going to have lunch but lunch wasn't ready yet so we all walked down to the beach. The waves were HUGE and coming in all different directions but we were all taking pictures. but sometimes you wouldn't see a wave coming and you would get your feet really wet because the wave would come up and suddenly you were standing in water. Then we had lunch in a place where we could see the sea. Then it was on the bus to drive back home. We stopped in Sassari and my group began to be broken up because Sergio left in Sassari because that's where he lives. Then we stopped in Oristano and we lost Ami and Efren. then we stopped in Tarellba and we lost Katerina and Sheran and then it was just me and Lilla left and it was sooo hard to leave all of the exchange students because you get really close to them all even if we were only together for 4 days you become friends with them really really fast. so it sucks to leave all of them. I am going to be very sad at the end of this because we are all very close already and just i miss them alot. When we got home to Cagliari it was nice to see my papà and mamma and my family because i missed them while i was in Sassari. Me and my family have gotten pretty close and i like them alot. We came home and had dinner and then I went to bed because i was REALLY tired because i basically didn't sleep in Sassari.

Well that is a summary of my first AFS orientation it was sooo much fun but a little sad at the end saying good bye to everyone.

(Pictures: 1: The first picture is of my "group" of friends at orientation, from left to right its, Me, Ami, Sergio, Efren, Lilla.... 2: Is our group pool picture.... 3: Is the USA poster of Stereotypes (most are bush and fast food)... 4: the video of the dance.... 5: All of the students crowded around the piano on 1 couch... 6: is the exchange student world (forgive us its really bad but it was oh so much fun) ... 7: is all of the kids on Sardegna.... (if i figure out how to put the captions with the pictures i will but i don't have time right now..hahaha) IF YOU CLICK ON THE PICTURES YOU CAN SEE THEM BIGGER)

Ciao