BLONDE - MONTH 3: THE VISIT

December 16^th, 10 p.m.

Dear Clare,

finally I 've seen my mother after three long months! It has been a fantastic weekend and we spent it all together: my host family, me and my mother.

On Thursday afternoon, after school, I went with Lucia and Francesco to Valerio Catullo airport just outside Verona. I was happy, but really nervous at the same time. As soon as I saw my mother, I ran towards her and gave her a big, long hug: she had the perfume of Barcelona on her clothes. Afterwards I introduced her to my host family and then we drove back home. During the journey I talked with her about every single amazing moment in Vicenza, at school and with Lucia's family. My mum was surprised to see me so happy and enthusiastic.

On Friday and Saturday I didn't go to school because I spent all the day with my mum. We went sightseeing the historical centre of Vicenza and then we visited the main monuments and buildings that I’ve recently seen, such as Teatro Olimpico, the Basilica Palladiana and Palazzo Thiene.

At lunch we had dinner in a restaurant where we ate Vicenza's traditional dishes like Baccalà alla Vicentina. Since Andrea suggested it, we spent the afternoon close to the nature at Parco Querini.

On Saturday we went to Venice to visit the city and its main monuments, parks, museums and the typical narrow streets called “calli”. It was the first time for me too. The city was fantastic even though the weather wasn't really good.

Unfortunately ,early in the afternoon, my mum flew back to Barcelona, because she had to go back to work. She has told me that she sees me more responsible, stronger and self-confident. I hope she's right!

Only when I said “Don’t worry, I’ll see you in a few weeks!” I realized that my homestay is 2/3 over!

Such an amazing period of time has passed really fast; I don't want to go home so soon. I'm really enjoying myself here! I have so many other things to learn here in Vicenza.

Now I must go, I'm really tired. Sadness has taken me. Good night Clare!

Federica Gaspari

NINA - Week 8: Celebrity

December 3^rd, 7 p.m.

Dear Claire,

Two more weeks have passed and I have so many exciting news to tell you!

First of all, I felt immediately better after the last time I wrote you, maybe because I knew that a celebrity would come to speak at my school and when I heard that she was Penelope Cruz, I forgot all about being homesick. The actress has come to Italy to make a film in Rome but she is been spending some more months in this country to promote it in various cities. “To Rome with love” is an upcoming romantic comedy film composed of four episodes where the protagonists are some American tourists in the capital city. Penelope talked about the plot and different related topics. After this interesting speech I even got to meet her and I got an autograph! I was so nervous but the beautiful actress made me feel at ease and noticing my Spanish accent, she wanted to know something about my stay here in Italy. I’m sure that when I come back to Spain, Lola, Pilar and the others friends will be so jealous! 

Furthermore, a few days later my mother told me that she was going to come and visit me next weekend and now I’m really impatient to see someone from my family. With my host family I have planned several activities to do with my mum around the place that has become my new home. I decided to go sightseeing in the centre of Vicenza, showing her the main monuments and buildings that I’ve recently seen such as Andrea Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico, the oldest surviving enclosed theatre in the world as the guidebook say, the Basilica Palladiana, a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori and Palazzo Thiene. 

Andrea suggested that we spend an afternoon close to nature at Parco Querini (how sweet!) and Lucia said that I must absolutely have dinner in a restaurant where my mum can have a taste of Vicenza’s cuisine with traditional dishes like the Baccalà alla Vicentina, made from stockfish and served on or next to polenta, or rice and peas. I am looking forward to seeing my mum and show her around Vicenza. I’m sure she will enjoy this city. 

By the way, Francesco is calling me because dinner is ready so I must go. 

See you, Claire!

Martina Scortegagna              

BLONDE-WEEK 6:HOMESICK

November 2^nd, 10 p.m.

Dear Claire,

I’m here in my bedroom and I want to tell you about the last few days. I had the opportunity to spend more time with my host family thanks to Halloween holiday and once again they have been so understanding. Actually on Friday I felt really homesick: I know, I’m having fun and learning a lot, but three months suddenly seem a very long time. As I didn’t want to worry my host family, firstly I talked to my parents on the phone. That made me feel a little better and I said goodbye to them as cheerfully as I could, but when I hung up I wished I could just go back home immediately. Lucia, however, had noticed I was really sad and she tried to involve me in the preparations of a little party. Lucia, Chiara and I have carved three pumpkins, we added some candles to create the right atmosphere. Then we tried to improve our culinary ability by making Spanish cakes: los panellets! They weren’t perfect, but this time I didn’t cut myself!

 

The Halloween party with all the family was pleasant and Francesco made fantastic roast chestnuts as we do in Barcelona! Andrea and Chiara introduced me to so many relatives of theirs: their grandparents Angelo and Maria, their grandparents Antonio and Ludovica and lots of cousins whose names don’t remember! For the whole evening I listened to their gossip and every kind of stories.Actually I was able to understand  more than a half of their words. There were also two boys(I think two of the lots of cousins they have) who spoke a perfect English and I had fun chatting with them, but when I went to bed I was exhausted!

I tried to sleep, but my dreams were full of pumpkins, relatives from everywhere and panellets!

On Sunday morning, I don’t know exactly how, I was again homesick and I burst into tears…luckily my family is really patient and also brilliant: after some minutes they found a way to cheer me up. They had been thinking about getting a pet for some weeks and they thought it was the right moment to do it: they told me about their idea and we went together to a pet shop. There we looked around wondering which animal would get on with Sissy: another big dog was too demanding and we weren’t sure of cats. Finally we found a hamster and we left the shop with him. Sissy seemed to get on the new entry and we set up a perfect home for him. The last thing was the name: after discussing for some minutes I suggested Ricky, like an English friend of mine and they all agreed with me! It was been incredible the sweet way we discussed: jokes, coalitions and…a good laugh! I think Italians love making noises, but at least here they prefer ending up with a good laugh!

Today, after school I spent some time playing with Ricky and now I’m in a really good mood because I feel part of the Bianchi family.

Goodnight Claire!

Debora Carolo

BLONDE- MONTH 2:ROUTINES

Dear Clare,

two months have already gone and I can say that now I’m perfectly integrated into the school,  the family and   the language, ….. I feel almost like a native speaker. At school I’m not considered “the new student” or the foreigner anymore. Everything is going the right way. Everyday  I try to  learn new things from this culture, and everyday is a discovery for me.

 I wake up every day at 7 o’clock, I go to school and I finish at 12.35 or 1.30 pm, I come back home and I do my homework . In the late afternoon sometimes I hang out with Andrea and his friends, now everything sounds usual to me. 

 Italy is incredibly fascinating and I really love it,  but of course sometimes goes wrong. Last week, for example, I got back from school and Lucia was waiting for me in the living room. I felt a bit worried because she was looking at me in a strange way: I felt guilty , but  I didn’t know why. Suddenly she smiled at me and told me that we were going to make  dinner together. She exactly told me these words :” Nina, you are going to cook a typical Italian meal…”Baccalà”, but don’t worry  I’ll help you out!” (Clare you know that I’m a disaster at cooking and I really hate it!).

   So, a little embarrassed,   I explained to her that I can’t cook at all and I told her about  that time  in Barcelona when I put sugar on  the salad. I said that the only thing I can make is Paella, but we already had already made it the first week I spent in Vicenza. But Lucia was very confident of my cooking skills, so she showed me the recipe: dry codfish, onions, a litre  of fresh milk, little white flour, grated parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

 In the kitchen everything was ready; my first task was to cut the fish. At first it seemed so difficult but when I understood what to do, cutting the fish became very funny, I started to sing an Italian song learnt here at school and Lucia sang along with me: cooking has never been so funny! But when I started to dance with the knife in my hand, there was a terrible consequence: I cut my finger instead of the fish.  Lucia looked at me very scared and worried , and immediately she brought me to the hospital, where I got 4 stitches. When we got back home Andrea, Chiara and Francesco had prepared   Baccalà for me, and I think that was one of the sweetest thing that my host family have done for me so far. , I really felt like a member of their family.

At dinner we ate Baccalà all together;  it was excellent. I must say that every time  I think of the accident,  I smile at myself, it happened in a such a  funny way! 

Now Clare I have to go to bed, I’ll write you soon.

Valentina Gentilin

Lyudmilla-Week 6: The Homesick

Three days ago I spent the worst day in my life. Everything started on Wednesday morning, I was at school, in the corridor, talking with Amber and her best friend Lucy when I saw a scene that I will never forget: James, my only true love, and Greta, my worst enemy, kissing passionately next to James' locker. At that moment I felt an emotion that I can't describe, it was anger, grief, jealousy and disappointment, all mixed together. Later on, while I was in the toilet crying , Greta and her friends came in .When they saw me, they started laughing at me, so I ran away. Fortunately there was only a class left, and when the bell rang I could go back home.

Once at home I immediately ran into my bedroom, I laid on my bed and started crying again. Some minutes later Jenny arrived and tried to cheer me up, but in vaiMn. That evening I didn't go downstairs for dinner; I stayed in my room.

At three o'clock in the morning I woke up screaming because I had had a nightmare and all the family rushed into my room to see what had happened. Jenny and Amber tried to calm me down , but they couldn't because I kept on screaming and saying that I didn't want to stay there any more and that I wanted to go back to Moscow. Christopher decided to phone my mum hoping that she would be able to calm me down. After a half-an-hour talk with my family I got clamed and I decided to not to leave.

On the day after I went to school, but luckily I didn't meet either James or Greta, so the day went by quickly. At late in the afternoon the family entered my bedroom and they told me to get ready to leave because they had a surprise which certainly would make me happy. When I went downstairs, Mark asked me to close my eyes and then Amber blindfolded me and after that we get into the car. After almost fifteen minutes Mark took the blindfold off and I saw the big surprise: we were at the dog pound, so I could chose their new dog and also his name. As soon as we entered, I saw a dog which immediately stole my heart. It was a female cocker spaniel which had been abandoned along the motorway by its owner. While we were getting back home, we discussed about its name and finally we chose to call her Nikita, which is the name of my mother's dog.

 When we Arrived at home we prepared dinner, then we played the whole evening with Nikita and then we went to bed happy because we had a new dog and because the on the next day I was not going to school because of the Australia Day. We had a long weekend ahead and I wasn’t going to see Greta and James flirting.

Today I feel a bit better, but I still wish I could go back to Russia, far from my troubles.

This morning Jenny is going to cook her fantastic pancakes with syrup and, after that we are going to the city centre to watch the parade and the flight exhibition. At night we are going the concert at Sydney harbour and then, at midnight, we will see the firework display . I think it's going to be fantastic!!

Luca Stefani