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

Finally there!

Okay, I'm alive. Just in case anyone was worried.
It is currently 9:00 PM in Sardinia and I'm about as tired as I've ever been. It's been about 31 hours since I've had any real sleep, so I'll be eating dinner soon with my amazing host parents Luciano and Marie and then going to bed. The flight stuff over was no problem, I met Kenneth in Seattle, and we had the same flights from there all the way to Cagliari. No major problems with the travel, but it was very very tiring. My big fancy Rotary jacket proved its purpose several times today. Kenneth instantly recognized me by it, and I was stopped by one other Outbound Rotary student and three adult Rotarians who wanted to say hi and wish me well. Once we finally got to Sardinia, Kenneth and I started freaking out over how epic the island was. It's pretty sweet, there's a 10k beach just a kilometer or so from our house, and my school is even closer. My Italian is as rough as I expected it to be, but communication so far hasn't been a problem. I've gotten by with a really messed up amalgam of Spanish, English and Italian.
Sardinia itself is just breathtaking. The beach is incredible, and the people are so warm. Everything is smaller, in Italy, the streets, the cars, the houses, the people, everything is smaller compared to America. It'll take some getting used to, but should be a lot of fun. My first few hours here my parents drove me around Cagliari showing me the sights and trying to get me familiar with the city. Tomorrow we'll be going around to meet some of Ludo's friends and hopefully get me into the social life of Italy. I think there will be things i'm going to miss here in Italy.
When I went to the supermarket with Marie, I asked for milk, and she got a type of milk designed to stay at room temperature for a  couple weeks without going bad. She looked at me funny when I requested the kind that would go bad in less than one. (I don't think I'll be having my fill like I did in America.) Gotta find something else then. I also came into Italy with the expectation of having no piano for me to play on and no guitar either, as I left both of mine at home. Ludo however left her guitar here and has a small electric keyboard that I can utilize, that should help a bunch with homesickness and things. And that is the sum of my first day in Italy. It's tough. But I'm sure my Italian will really start to improve and things will get easier from here on out.

Ciao!!

Just about ready

   Hey everyone, this is Caleb once more and before I get into the blog I just want to point out that at the very bottom left is a box where you can now type in your email and get notifications when there's a new post. If you'd like that, go ahead.
Anyway it's currently Tuesday evening, on the day before I leave. My countdown timer reads 11hrs and 2 min till I go. I'm starting to feel quite scared and nervous, but that's normal. I've spent the last few days saying good-byes and packing up. I went into my school on Friday to say my last farewells and make sure that my friends remember who I am for when I get back. It's been crazy these last few days trying to pack everything and finalize all my details. My room is absolutely empty at this point, as Ethan will likely be moving in. It's quite depressing in reality. everything is bare and it no longer feels like mine. I suppose that's the truth, my room is now in Cagliari. I've had a lot of "last things" here in America, and I think that I'm finally ready to go. My Italian is still rough and incredibly slow, but it'll improve, of that I'm sure.
I'll be travelling with another exchange student on my trip, his name is Kenneth, from Washington. He'll be staying in Cagliari same as me, and it's certainly a possibility that we might end up living with one of each others' host families. He seems nice enough, and I'm excited to meet one of my first friends I'll have in Italy.
The goodbyes have been brutal so far, especially on Mom and Aamon, but it's all good and everyone will be okay. My luggage is currently completely full to the limit, even though I have been told several times by the Rotary guys that I need to pack less than what I think I need. I have to suitcases with 50 pounds each and my carry-on is bordering right on the limit of 26 pounds.
My flight for Seattle leaves at 9:25, and from there it's on to Paris - Rome - and Cagliari!! Ludovica (my host family's daughter) has given me a heads up that they've got an awesome house and that her mom is the best cook ever. I have to say, I'm looking forward to meeting my new family! I'll finally meet them at 2:30 PM the day after I leave, meaning just under 24 hours of travel for the entire trip. I'll post once more when I get settled in with my first impressions of Italy. Ciao!!

Finally a Departure date!

Hello everybody! Caleb here again.
I guess this is my second post in my foreign exchange blog, and since the first, I've had some new developments. I just got back from a nice relaxing trip to McCall, and during that time, I received an Email from It's Your World Travel that I will be definitively leaving the States on September the 5th. As far as I know I am the last RYE student to depart from my district. Some of my friends have already left. And some have arrived. Ludovica, the Italian daughter of my host family has already arrived in Pocatello and spent some time there. From what I can tell, everyone is happy and excited. I personally don't know what to think. I'm nervous and about to explode with varied emotions, but as my departure date draws nearer, I think that I'll be okay in the end. My Italian is still quite rough, but I've had a recent experience with Spanish and that's given me some confidence. My aunt Alecia is in the process of moving from Spain to Brasil with her Brazilian boyfriend Gubio. I spent the weekend in McCall with them and had to speak only Spanish with Gubio, and did okay. I hope that I'll do as well with Italian when I get there. Alicia is a world traveler herself and left me with some quality advice on what to expect in a new culture. One of her biggest recommendations was to chose a football (i.e. soccer: remember we talk funny in America) team before I get there as a way to integrate myself into the culture. So I am now a proud fan of the A.S. Roma team. Woohoo!!

I'm just now getting into the intense part of the preparations for leaving and in the next two weeks, I'll be trying to squeeze in as much as I can.

So that's it for now. Remember I'm open to questions, comments, or large amounts of chocolate :D

-Caleb

Hello,

   This is Caleb Renshaw with my first blog about my upcoming trip. Now, as many of you may or may not have heard, I am going away from Boise for all of next year to live as an Italian on the island of Sardinia. I have included a Map of just exactly where I'll be. My city is called Cagliari  (pronounced cah-YAR-ee). This trip is one of the most exciting things ever to happen to me, and I'm so looking forward to having my eyes opened up to see the world in a whole new light.
   I am almost done with the processes of figuring all the details for arranging my trip, a series of events that has taken almost a year now. I am doing my exchange through Rotary International. They are a great group of folks all around the world that do non-profit charity and humanitarian work. They have organized two meetings thus far, and a mountain of paperwork for each one. In the first meeting, we found out where we will all be going. There are 18 of us who will be leaving from district 5400 this year, each to our own unique district worldwide. The reason it's called a "foreign exchange" is because in return, each one of those 18 districts will be sending another student back here to live in Idaho. I have friends who will be all over the world next year, France, Brazil, Taiwan, Turkey, or Sweden, each one of us will learn a great deal and have our own experiences. The purpose of this blog is to share mine.
   In the second RYE (Rotary Youth Exchange) meeting in Sun Valley, everybody had to give a five minute speech in the language of their host country. Considering that most of us only had four months to learn anything about our respective languages, we did okay as a whole. Mine was pretty good, although Federico, the Italian here this year, said I didn't move my arms and hands enough. :) That got a couple laughs.  During the conference, we figured out lots of fine details about really interesting topics such as insurance and money. I'm sure Mom and Dad found all of it to be vital insight as to what they needed to do for this trip, but I am willing to bet a very large sum that I never will become an accountant.
   A little about the trip itself. I will be staying in Cagliari for the entire duration of my stay which will last around eleven months. I will most likely be leaving in early September, if not, then late August. RYE usually arranges things so that the students will spend their time with three families, and receive a fair, unbiased and full view of the country itself as a whole. I will probably have two or three families, depending on how many they can find, and I already know one of them. About a month ago, I was contacted through Facebook by Ludovica Medda, who is my sister. She is an only child, and will be coming to Pocatello while I am in Italy. So, unfortunately I will not have a huge mafia-sized Godfather style family. I'll have two loving host parents all to myself. So that's going to be one of the many different things about living in Italy. I don't know of any of my other families as of yet, but that's normal. School will start on September 17th, and I don't know much more about the system there, though I've heard rumors that they go six days a week 9:00-1:00. I'll post again once I know more.
   I'll try to blog the happenings of my trip as they occur, but if you have any specific questions, or if there's anything I left out, let me know and I'll include it in the next installment. Until then,
Arreviderci!
   -Caleb