Trivignano, Padova and Palmanova

DAY 73 : 25 January 2015

This Saturday I headed out of the city to Trivignano, where Cristina (my new host mum), runs a horse and dog breeding farm that is in the process of being built. The property is very large, but there isn't much on it yet besides big holes and construction gear, as she only bought the place in September. So we drove to the farm, and picked up a huge dog of which the breed I cannot remember, and drove to the town of Padova, to watch a dog show and meet some owners with dogs of the same breed. Afterwards we went actually into the town, had some lunch, and took some photos...

Lunch and Dessert..

We stayed the night in the very large, very old, rather cold farmhouse on the property. On Sunday, we drove to a nearby kennels that held the 30 or so Foxhounds that Cristina and her partner Sergio own, and took them for a little training and walk. The foxhounds basically hunt foxes, bears etc but these were mostly puppies so they were just practicing walking together. It was such an interesting thing to see, and felt like I'd gone back in time..

We also stopped in to have a look at Palmanova, a city that is famous for being shaped like a 9 pointed star. Was quite small and not very exciting, but good to see anyway! 

(The picture from the sky I stole from Google, because you can't really tell from the ground)...

My New Host Family!

DAY 71 : 23 January 2015

The drama is now officially over with, and I'm now in my new family enjoying my last 3 weeks here!

So on Sunday I moved in with Cristina (48) and Caterina (17) to their home in the very centre of Udine! 

They're both very lovely people, Cristina runs a sort of farm out of town, so she isn't home very often, so I spend most of my time with Caterina. 

On Monday I started at her school, Marinelli, which is actually quite good, and it's nice to be in a class with people more my age! 

Caterina loves cooking so we've had some cooking adventures already, brownies, pizza...

And I have also joined her gym for the next three weeks! We go a few times a week with a friend, Emma, and do the Zumba classes!

Me, Caterina, Emma at the gym

This weekend I'm spending with Cristina at her farm, which should be great! 

Loving my new family!

Love,

Jen

 

Drama, drama, drama

Hello hello!

Well, what an eventful two days it has been! I am no longer living with Francesca, Dario and Allegra in their home, and will be having a new family for the final 4 weeks of my time in Italy. The following blog contains some very dramatic and frustrating things, but no worries, it has a happy ending! I'll start at the beginning...

Thursday evening, I asked Allegra to translate for me. I asked if it would be alright for me to go and meet my Australian friend Natalie for lunch for the next two days as she was leaving on Saturday. I said that I would be fine going only once, or not at all, they just had to tell me what they wanted me to do. After Allegra translated, Francesca said I could go out with no problems.

Friday I went for lunch with Natalie, came home and just went about our daily life, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then the drama comes. Saturday morning, I was home alone with Allegra, and I asked if she remembered that I was going out, if it was still alright for me to go out, and if she wanted to come with me. She said that she'd forgotten, messaged her mum and said "yes yes you can go out no problem". So at 11 I said goodbye to Allegra and Dario, said I'd be back by 3, they said "bye jenny see you soon".

Then, just after Natalie and I finished our lunch, I checked my phone and had a text message from Francesca, basically saying she came home at lunch and I wasn't there, she didn't know I was going out, she has no time for me and sees no sense in me staying with her, and that I had to call Ferraro and be out that evening. I was completely shocked, thinking everything was alright (as she had told me it was). I rang Francesca first, and asked if I could come and talk to her, that I didn't completely understand, and what she responded was "no I see no sense in you staying, I don't want to hear an apology and I don't want to speak with you" (that is the shortened version, but you get the idea). I then rang my Local Coordinator, Maddy Ferraro, and when I received no answer, I called another contact at the company, who yelled at me and wouldn't hear my side of the story, saying Francesca had said that as I was going out, Allegra said "Jenny, my mother doesn't want you to go out" and I said "okay" and walked out anyway. Which is a complete and utter lie, and I have no idea how it began but I was very very frustrated and upset. 

I then headed home, saying a very quick last goodbye to Natalie (who is now back at home in Australia), and only Allegra was there when I arrived. I asked her what was going on, and she said she had no idea and it had nothing to do with her, that she tried to tell her mother not to send me away but failed. 

So, I packed my suitcase, Ferraro picked me up at 5, and Allegra and Dario were both there to say goodbye and said that they didn't want me to leave. I wrote the family a note thanking them for their hospitality, and for the memories they gave me, and left

After a long chat with Ferraro, we established that Allegra is the one that most likely began the lie that got me kicked out, that Francesca was most likely sick of having a student and looked for the smallest excuse to get rid of me, and Francesca, for the past month, had been writing Ferraro complaining about every little thing I did, every thing that didn't fit into her high expectations of a perfect exchange student that was exactly like her.

Ferraro listened to what I had to say, and agreed with me that I hadn't done anything wrong, and that Francesca was to blame. I stayed with Ferraro that night, and after some very emotional phone calls to home, things were starting to look up when Ferraro said she'd found a new family for me to stay with already. 

Sunday afternoon I went to meet with Catarina, my new host sister, who is in the 4th year of high school at a Scientific school called Marinelli, she is 16 or 17 years old and seemed so so so lovely. I will be living with just her and her host mum, and am moving in tomorrow evening. I will be starting at Catarina's school on Tuesday and I can't wait. This whole weekend, Ferraro, with whom I'd previously disliked and had problems, was very very good, gave me a place to sleep and found me a new family in a matter of hours. 

So for my big happy ending, I am very very positive that these last 4 weeks are going to be the best yet, with a sister my age and a much less dramatic host mum! I am in high spirits and very excited...who knew Italy had so many dramas! But I have definitely discovered how strong I can be, and how nothing is bad enough to give up! 

On another note, Natalie, who has become my best friend and my biggest supporter has gone home, and I am left to take on the streets of Udine without her! No doubt I will see her soon! 

That's all for now, I'll post again when I've move in with the new family!

Love,

Jen

Little Italian Adventures

DAY 58 : 11 January 2015

In three days time it will be exactly 2 months since I left Australia, which leaves me with only one month left of this magnificent trip! I honestly cannot believe that I'm already two-thirds of the way through when it feels like just yesterday I had reached the one month mark. I'm not yet ready to leave this land of pasta, pizza, gelato, pastries, cobblestone roads, multicoloured houses, millions of dogs, amazing sceneries and my wonderful host family. 8 weeks down, 5 to go, and a whole lifetime's worth of memories.

Anyway, my past week...

This Wednesday was the end of Christmas break, and the start of school again. So my week has basically consisted of school, food, home with occasional trips into the centre to do some more eating or shopping. School is...bland, I guess. The only subjects I like (and understand) are English and Gym. I got given an English test during the week, that the whole class had to do. It consisted of having words written, for example "Went/Michael/party/to the/yesterday" and had to rearrange it into an English sentence that made sense. It was rather easy for me (for obvious reasons), but it was quite amusing to see everyone looking so puzzled! At the end however, there was a section of translating italian to english, and it was my turn to be puzzled! I am quite proud that I was able to fully translate 3 of the 6 sentences, and could do half of the other three - my up to 25 hours a week of just italian practice is paying off! 

On Saturday night, Allegra and I went to Fiera to see Francesca and her display in "Udine Sposa", which is a wedding expo that takes place every year. We wandered around, handed out flyers for Francesca's shop, then went for dinner at about 9pm and ate fabulous gnocchi and pannacotta. 

On Sunday, as Dario was in Austria, and Francesca had the wedding expo,  Callie's family offered to take me out with them for a trip to the nearby town of Cividale. We visited a few museums and such, but the real beautiful part was the bridge that connected the two halves of the town!

Some photos of Cividale (and the bridge)..

That's all I've got for now!

Love,

Jen

Buon Natale ❄️⛄️🎄🎅🎁 & the week in the mountains & 2015

These are the adventures of my week in the mountains for the Christmas break - I've left a few days out where we did nothing exciting..

DAY 40 : 24 December 2014

This morning we headed to the mountains, to the home in Pontebba, this time bringing the cat, Miki, with us. We listened to the lovely tune of miki's meowing for the whole 40 minute drive, and arrived in Pontebba around 11:30. We ate gnocchi and tortellini for lunch, put the presents under the tree, and did nothing very exciting all day. For dessert, we ate a traditional Italian dessert, known as panettone. I'm really loving getting to experience my very own traditional italian Christmas!!

At 11pm, we went to the local church, along with all of the residents of Pontebba, for the Christmas service. It lasted about an hour, and was really fantastic to experience. I've never been to church before, let alone at midnight, spoken all in Italian, in Italy, at Christmas! It was beautiful despite my lack of understanding. 

After the ceremony ended, we headed home, and in the true Italian style, opened the presents at 12:30am on Christmas morning! They loved the presents and cards I got for them, and I was very very surprised (and thankful, of course) when they each gave me a present! Allegra got me a pretty little notebook, Francesca bought me a beautiful shirt from Zara, and Dario got me a leather DoDo bracelet (which is like the Italian equivalent of a Pandora, they're very popular around here). The whole day was just incredible. I'm almost half way through my exchange and they've just made me feel like such a part of the family, I don't know how I'll ever be able to leave! 

Opening presents at midnight..

DAY 41 : 25 December 2014

~ Christmas Day ~

So, it turns out that in Italy, the 24th / early morning of the 25th is definitely the most significant day of Christmas. They use the 25th as a day to just relax and hang around, which is fair enough considering how much work they do! Nobody was out of bed until at least midday, and we went straight to a huge Christmas lunch of stuffed turkey, potatoes and peas, followed by an Italian Christmas chocolate cake and biscuits! The rest of the day consisted of nothing exciting, but was a good Christmas nonetheless. Unfortunately there was no snow, but it was the first completely sunny day we've had in Pontebba! 

The view when I woke up..

Here's a picture of Miki under the Christmas tree..

DAY 42 : 26 December 2014

In the morning of our third day in the mountains, Denise, who's Francesca's friend that we met up with in Lignano, came to the house, and is staying for the next two nights. I've moved downstairs and will be slumber partying with Allegra for those nights! Sometime after Denise arrived, Dario went away with one of his friends, so it was an all girls day going around. We first went back to Villach, and had a walk around, then ate Austrian McDonalds for lunch, which was much the same as everywhere else, just had a few German foods added in. After another hour just wandering around, we drove back into Italy to Tarvisio, had some apple juice and did some shopping.

Some photos I took along the way...

Villach, Austria

Tarvisio, Italy

{ quick note - I thought this 1 degree was cold... Trust me when I say that seems warm compared to the -6 degree day we had later in the week }

DAY 43 : 27 December 2014

TODAY WE HAD SNOW! We woke up to about 5cm already on the ground, and lots of snow still falling. It was just so so magical (and absolutely freezing outside) but it made it an almost white Christmas for me! 

Francesca had a Christmas lunch party with 16 people at the house eating Austrian food - salami, bread, sausages, potatoes... There were quite a few good English speakers in the group, so I had some new people to talk to as well.

A photo of everyone...

Around 3pm Allegra and I had to go outside for a walk in the (-2 degree) snow. We looped around the whole town of Pontebba, and were the only people out and about. The view was just incredible!

DAY 45 : 29 December 2014

This morning we woke to a completely blue sky, but everything was still white from the snow of the last two days. We did a shopping spree in Austria (it still amazes me that we can just drive to another country for a few hours), and then went a little further north to have lunch.

And we ate the biggest plate of ribs and bread you could imagine!

This is also a photo of their home in Pontebba... ( it's the white one on the right )

DAY 46 : 30 December 2014

Today I am exactly HALF WAY THROUGH MY EXCHANGE! Where has all the time gone??? I can't believe that all these amazing adventures I've had (and still am having) will just be memories in no time at all! And I'm definitely not ready to go back home just yet! I'm excited for what the next one and a half months bring me.

DAY 47/48 : 31 December 2014 / 1 January 2015

The decision was made to spend the end of the year back in Udine, so we drove home (again to Miki's constant meowing). Allegra and I attended a sleepover party at one of her friends' houses, and we ate lots of food and watched movies and the (fairly low key, and probably home made) fireworks of Udine. The girls we were with were lovely, I had never met them before but unlike most of the Italians I've met, they didn't just ask me questions about myself, they included me in on all the talk and spoke lots of English (even to each other, so I knew what was being said). It was nice to spend the end of the year / start of 2015 that way! 

And all of a sudden, 2014 was gone and 2015 arrived! 

The tradition is that everyone gives/gets something to give them good luck in the new year, so I've been given lots of little pigs/coins/ribbons/clovers. With the amount I was given I should (hopefully) have the best luck to last me all year long!