Carnival in Venice

Hello people of the internet! I went to Venice!

Yup, it was one of the best experiences I've had over the course of the entire exchange. So here's the story:

We left Saturday morning from Cagliari, and arrived about an hour outside of Venice. We were a group of exchange students from all around Sardinia, 12 in total. We took a bus into the heart of Venice, where we met a second group of exchange students, for a grand total of something like 23-24 people. I was absolutely amazed at how fast we aggregated at became friends. I firmly believe that there truly is something special about exchange students in that regard. As far as I've experienced, they are the easiest and most fun people to have as friends. So after getting lost in the maze that is the city of Venice upwards of four times, we eventually found our way to the grand Piazza di San Marco. The central city square. It was packed with an insane number of people all dressed up in festive carnival gear. After socializing and picture taking there for a few hours, we headed to our hotel. A train, a bus, and 2 hours later, we got there. Dinner was a very welcome pizza feast followed by more socializing with all the students (both groups) and generally staying up 'till about 4:00am. 

The next morning, we went to the beautiful city of Trieste. We never actually went back to Venice, much to the disappointment of several, myself included. In Trieste (technically we were just outside the city limits in a neighbor city) we saw a massive parade with lots of music and crazy costumes. Again, lots of pictures. We were fairly northerly however, so the temperature was much colder than any of us Sardo kids were used to. But there was nothing that Italian coffee couldn't fix. Yum. ^_^

We also had the wonderful opportunity to go and see the greatest WWI memorial in Italy. Right on the border of Austria, it was a gargantuan hill of stone carved all over with the names of the soldiers who had the misfortune to perish there. The sheer magnitude of it all was the most impressive thing. It left quite the lasting impression.

But by far the greatest experience I had the pleasure to enjoy was a 2 hour ski trip that we made on the third and final day of our trip. I have missed skiing more than almost any other activity with the possible exception of playing the piano. And so to have that opportunity was for me, one of the happiest points on the trip so far. I feel that I earned something of a reputation among the other students as something of a zealot, but it was very worth it, and I was very, very happy. The fun was dampened quite a bit however, when one of our exchange students from Mexico, Javier, broke his collarbone whilst snowboarding. We were all somewhat vexed as to how he managed it on the bunny hill. But last I heard, he's doing okay, and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

And that was my trip. I enjoyed every moment of it. We had quite some trouble with the return flight; we were delayed from 9:00 pm until 2:30 am. Bleh. But we got home without too many hard feelings and I can't wait for the next opportunity to go see more of the world, which as it stands now, will be a full Euro-Tour to a dozen or so cities in south-central Europe at the end of the exchange year. We're all looking forward to it with quite some anticipation. 

I apologize for not including any pictures in this blog, but I post again tomorrow with just pictures of the trip. With this and that, they'll complement each other quite nicely I hope.

Lots of love to everyone, I miss you all, more than I think I've let on, and I can't wait to see everyone once I come back near the end of June. Ciao!! DFTBA.

-Caleb

How long has it been since my last post? Well if you know me well, I'm re-directive, rhetorical, and relativistic. Just like time. : )

It's been since before Christmas, and so let's begin there. Christmas was a lot of fun, but very different from the highly commercialized version I grew up with. It was low-key, and there was no 24 hour Christmas music constantly and ubiquitously everywhere. It didn't feel like Christmas as I know it, so there was a significant "Christmas Spirit" that wasn't there. One of my best friends said something really good: "There's something in the air. And it's not here." (that was me by the way.) I'm brilliant. : D

But all said, while I certainly felt a deep pining for the roaring pines, blankets of white snowy bliss, hot chocolate by the fireside with a good book or puppy at the foot, and the background din of 25 relatives reminiscing over a feast of kings for their own pasts, I was content with my life and satisfied to be in this exquisite country. *Giant inhale* I guess I should also mention that I miss the vibrancy and fluidity of expression that comes with fluency in a language. So Christmas came and went, and I don't think I noticed all that much. I don't know if I wasn't looking, or simply looking for the wrong things.

I didn't do much by the way of presents for Christmas, I plan on simply bringing all my gifts back with me, and celebrating with my friends and family at home.

After Christmas, we went on a week's vacation to the beautiful City of Rome. Caput Mundi. The Capital of the World. Wow. There's a civilization as arrogant as I am. Yay, I'm not alone. I think Rome earned the title however. It was incredible. By the time you read this, I should have a fairly good amount of pictures up on my Facebook, you can check those out there. Here's a preview, me at the Colloseum:

That was a bunch of fun. Rome was incredible. We stayed there for a week with some friends of my host-family. We saw all the major historic sites: The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza di San Pietro(St. Peter's Square), the Colosseum, the whole lot. It was incredible. We saw so history and I certainly gained quite a bit of perspective on time. When you think about it, 6 weeks between blog posts is nothing. And when you extrapolate to geologic time, all of humanity's existence is a single frame of film, in a tape of the Earth's life stretching from Seattle to L.A. Really quite something to behold. And just think what we as people have accomplished in that infinitesimally small amount. Just makes one wonder what the Earth will be like and where we'll be a frame from now. Will Rome still stand as a testament to our origins? Will we still remember Caesar? Will we remember anyone? I can only hope that some of us stand our tests of time. And with these thoughts I leave you for now. Think, and ask big questions with me. And irrelevant and relative though it may be, I promise to put up some more new content soon, and regularly. I love you all, you're in my thoughts, and I wish you nothing but the best.

DFTBA - (Don't Forget to be Awesome)

-Caleb

Thanksgiving and the Rest

And now it's time for a new blog. I've been really bad at updating this as much as I'd like, so if you're up to it, send me an angry email or yell at me through facebook next time I don't put something out here when you want it. :)

So probably the biggest thing that's happened since the last time was our huge Thanksgiving Day celebration. All told, here in the greater Cagliari area we are about 20 foreign exchangers plus Italian friends involved in some way with Rotary or the other organizations. And since we're only 6 or 7 Americans, I thought that it would be really cool to celebrate what I consider to be the most American of festivals in a gigantic inter-cultural holiday. So I put one together. Which was really hard, mainly 'cause I'm lazy, but oh so worth it. All in all, I think we had 19 people at any given time for dinner. We had it in a conference room of a local church that my host-dad was able to hook us up with. That was great, we had the whole place to ourselves, were able to eat, and then play with the foosball, ping-pong, etc. in the next room. I was such a happy camper, I think I really freaked out a few of my more timid friends. Oops. :D Well it all turned out great so it's all good. I, being the organizer/host/head-guy-in-charge made the Turkey.

That was just about the most beautiful thing I think I've ever made. Well, okay, best food I've ever made. We also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, real gravy, broccoli salad, deserts, the whole enchilada, ...but no enchiladas. Just turkey.  :D And the turkey was great. The friends were great, and overall just a very happy experience. I will tell you though that finding the stupid turkey in the first place proved to be just downright impossible. But I finally was able to track one down in the fifth butcher's store I visited, the morning of Thanksgiving. That was hectic day. Thankfully it wasn't frozen.

I've continued my drawing, and here's one of my favourites, if you haven't seen it already, of my good friend Keren, from Colorado:

I like it.

In other news... now that Thanksgiving is over, things naturally turn to Christmas, and all that entails. So I've done a little bit of shopping, but I won't be sending anything through the mail back home, I'll just bring everything back with me on the trip home and give presents and things then. But feel free to send me all you want!! Although I must warn you, the Italian postal system has a bit of a reputation for losing items, *coughmycameracoughcough* so pay attention and use caution. Things ordered online (e.g. Amazon) are generally just fine though. But things are definitely swinging into gear Holiday Season-wise so that'll be a bunch of new experiences and a ton of fun! I am anticipating a little bit of homesickness coming up though, but I'll pull through, I'm sure.  

I've also just finished a 3-month long writing project, a philosophy essay weighing in at a whopping 23 pages. I originally just started that out of boredom and a desire to get a few things down on paper (or a binary code represented on a pixelated screen if we're getting technical) and it just kinda grew from there. I'm pretty proud of it and if you've got some time to kill, you can check it out here: Philosophy Essay. 

And that should just about sum up the big things, except for the absurdly annoying Rotary Trips, which I don't feel like getting into now. Maybe next time. Let me know if you've got questions, comments, concerns, or just feel like saying "hey."

Don't Forget to be Awesome

-Caleb

2 Months and More

Hey everyone, glad to see you're all doing okay (I know that cause you're alive enough to be reading this). :)

It's been a week or two since my last post so I figured it was due time for another.

So I've been going to school, hanging out with friends, eating, sleeping, learning. The usual exchange student experience. And so far it's pretty sweet. If anyone has ever been on the fence, or has children/siblings/nieces/nephews/access to children, I highly recommend looking into an exchange program, there's nothing else that can possibly compare.

Halloween was a while ago, and it was really quite strange for me to not see Jack-o-lanterns, candy sales, and costumes everywhere, but I saw a few festivities that gave me that nice little taste of home. (Now I just want that taste of pumpkin pie...) I went to a fun party with tons of my Exchanger Friends and we've been all hanging out fairly consistently, which is really nice. I like having that group of people who are automatically going to be great friend material and just as willing to do things as I am. But then I also have all my Italian friends, a group which is slowly but surely growing. Add in a little chatting in the nether-hours with friends and family back home, and I'd say I'm doing okay socially.

But as any person who wants to retain a bit of sanity, I've got some time to myself to relax (a concept highly revered in Italy). So I've taken to self-education through YouTube. And it's actually proving to be incredibly effective AND interesting. I've taken a 40 week course of World History, I'm half-way through a similar Biology one, and I'm reinforcing my Mathematics with the Khan Academy, which is almost certainly the image of future education methods (look into it if you're interested in epic-ness as it relates to education and innovation: http://www.khanacademy.org/ watch the video about half-way down for the real deal). I figure that as I'm sort of missing a year of school back home, and the Italian school isn't filling all the gaps, I need some supplements. And it's working. I've also taken up drawing, which started when I was doodling a picture of Einstein on the back of my math homework and my desk-mate liked it and suggested I draw Obama. So kind of jokingly, I went home and drew a fairly awesome picture of our re-elected president (YAY!!)(This was before the election though) which everyone thought was just amazing, and soon I got all sorts of requests for me to draw my classmates, which I'm trying to do. Here's one that I really like of my dancer-friend Cristina:

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that...

Oh! I've found a piano, which has just been one of the greatest things ever for me. As it turns out, there's one in my school directly underneath my classroom (I only realized the location AFTER the first time I went down there to play and my class applauded me upon my return.) I'm allowed to go and play whenever I'm in a class where it would be really unreasonable for me to try working on their level  i.e. Year 3 Latin. I've been playing much quieter after that first time...

And that's what I've been up to. Lots of fun. Contact me through e-mail (which is now completely fixed) or Facebook and let me know what you've been up to.

Don't forget to be awesome,

   Caleb.

Hello everyone, it seems that I've had a bit of a problem with my email lately, so if you've gotten a message from me saying I was in the Philippines or asking for money, know that wasn't me. Just get rid of that. I've beefed up my security a whole bunch, but if this keeps happening, I'll delete the accounts.

Sorry for any inconvenience,
    -Caleb

One Month!!

Ciao tutti! It's been a while since my last entry, and so I feel I owe you all an update.

It is currently Day 28, and at this point I feel like I'm settling into a pretty manageable routine. I get up everyday around 7:20 and eat breakfast and get ready for school and all that jazz. Then I go to school from 8:30 to 1:30, and have five class periods a day, six days a week. Here in Italy, we all stay in the same classroom with the same group of kids, and it's the teachers that change around, which is really different from what I'm used to, but it's got it's perks of getting to know your classmates really well. The classroom itself is much more impersonal however; as it's not devoted to any one subject, it has no decorations. The class schedule is not constant, and we're told what the next weeks classes will be every Friday. I'm taking Italian Lit., Latin Lit., History, History of Art, Philosophy, Math (right now it's on par with Algebra II, but liable to change topic), Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, English, Religion, and Gym for a whopping total of 12 classes. The only hard thing is the translating the language, when I can cross the language barrier, I understand everything. We don't eat lunch in school, that's only for home, but we do get a 10-15 minute break around 11:30 to make things bearable. After school, if I'm not studying with a classmate or don't have any immediate plans, I'll walk back home (5 min. tops) and eat lunch with my parents. Then I'll read or play a little guitar before tackling the night's homework. About half the time, I've got plans with friends or someplace to go with my parents, and that's always fun. Recently, I've been joining my friend Enrico and some of his band-mates to jam out in their studio. That's about as awesome as it gets for me.

Now that I've hit the one-month mark and started to adjust to life here, I'm entering the next phase of the exchange. Reality.

Typically, for the first few weeks, it's all new experiences for an exchange student and you're in what they call the "Honeymoon Phase." That's done now that a routine is being established. Now I'm starting to realize just how different life is, and how much of a struggle it's going to be. It's all fatigue from the constant stress of the language and troubles with communication and things like that that make life a pain. I'm pretty sure this is when the worst of the homesickness is supposed to occur. There are certainly things I miss about Idaho, like weekends, but I've never had a desire to go home. But I'm only in the beginning still, and everyone has a different experience.

Tomorrow is Marie's birthday, and I've got a couple pretty good ideas for presents and I'm excited to experience the celebration in the Italian style. I've already gone to one birthday party for a friend so far, but we played laser tag and had a huge arcade tournament. While that was more fun than I've had in a while, I'm pretty sure that Marie is going to do something a little different. :P

I love it here. <3 And here is a picture of why.

Ciao for now!!

   -Caleb

First Week

Hey everyone! It's been a little more than a week since I last posted something, and I figured it was time to tell you what's been going on so far.

My first week here has been absolutely crazy and I'm pretty sure I've met over 30 people my age that could reasonably be considered my friends. Then there's dozens more that fall in the acquaintance level and all my family. School actually started quite a bit before I thought it was supposed to, and I've been going for three days now. I like it well enough, but my first day of school was my 8th day here. Which is nowhere near enough time to get adjusted to the language or the culture. My classmates are all very kind and helpful, and infinitely curious. We all ask each other questions, and I'm sure Rotary would be very proud of all the cultural education that's been going on, on both sides. I've gone into town on several occasions with several different groups of people and I'm really going to like it here I think. The city center is right out of a movie and it's about as old as anything I've ever encountered. The castle in the very middle is over 1000 years old, and some of the auxiliary structures are even older. It's all been modernized, but it's still quite thought provoking to walk into a coffee shop built into a 1000 year old wall.

And that's another thing. Everyone drinks coffee. All the time. For breakfast and lunch, and maybe a snack. I've started getting used to it I think, but I still don't consume half as much as what the normal person here will drink. Alcohol is a lot less common, but I have sampled with my parents some of the local wines and beers, all very impressive. It also seems that everyone and their mother drives a Fiat, but I guess that's just cause I'm unused to seeing them at home. Saturday night, I went out after school with my fellow exchange students and got to know all them fairly well. A fun group, I think that there's twelve of us, plus a few more outside of rotary. Last night (Sunday) we had a big party on the beach and played volleyball with my exchange student friends and some of Ludovica's band friends I met when I went to a their concert. That was a ton of fun, and I'll probably getting together with some of them later to jam out in their studio. My Italian is really taking off, but it doesn't hold up in a formal setting like school. The teachers talk far to fast and I can't ask them to rephrase like I can when having a one on one conversation with a friend. My math and science teachers are really helpful though and will help me with translation issues. My other teachers don't slow down though, and I'm really starting to doubt if I'll be able to keep up. I think I arrived waaay to late. School started on my 8th day, and I feel that if I'd had more time, I'd be better off. The exchange student here from Argentina -Juan has been here for a little over a month now and still hasn't started school. His Italian is amazing, and he studied about the same as I did before coming over. I'm jealous.

But aside from that, life is going great! My parents are nice and helpful, as well as understanding which is a great help, and I've got a solid group of friends forming. The food is just amazing, but the few times my mom has tried to cook something off her traditional menu for me, it hasn't turned out quite the same. So I'll have to start stepping in and helping out in the kitchen to learn some Italian secrets and show her some American methods. I've been going to the beach a lot and I just can't believe how amazing it is. I'm fairly sure that in the  winter the water will be warmer than anything in Idaho during the summer.

And that's my life in Italy so far!
Questions or comments: leave 'em below. Concerns: not wanted :)

Ciao!
   -Caleb