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