Halloween!

Ciao tutti!

So I requested I actually stay in Faenza until November 2nd, because I wanted to stay for Halloween and have one last thing with my friends. I love my friends here so much, I didn't think I was going to get close to them. Oh none of them are in my class, I'm invisible to them. I'm talking about my brother's friends! They all love me and I love them and it's going to be hard making all new friends! I wonder what my new host brother does on Saturdays..
I am definitely visiting November 23 for my friend Nicolas' birthday party. I hear it's going to be a lot of fun, so why not? It's only about 10 euros for a train.

But I never realized what great friends I've made here and I actually am kind of sad to leave them. But I have to remember,  I live with the family, not my friends.

Also today my brother's friend complimented my Italian and said it's really coming along! That was so great to hear because I've really been struggling with Italian here haha. But yeah, today's Halloween! It's currently 4 PM and our friend is going to pick my brother and I up at 11 PM and we're going to a party. No one here dresses up! That's strictly for the kids apparently. Thank god though, I never liked dressing up.

(from left to right) Martina, Maria, me, Romina, and Francesco :)

(I actually forget her name sorry!!!!) Friendsss :)

Luckily today was my last day of school here in Faenza, and none of my class even cared haha they just left the class like a typical day, which was fine with me. But however, there's All Saints Day break which is 3 days, and then after those three days, I have a week off because I'm going to Rome with STS! I think I mentioned this earlier, but I miss all my friends from Milan so much so I'm so excited to see them again! And after Asia, apparently I'm going to Paris, London and Amsterdam in December (with my natural parents!) and Dubai in January and Spain in March????? What. I'm so excited it's just so exotic! I'm shocked I never expected this but I'm surprised this is all happening. And February teachers and students come! I have a lot to look forward to, and starting Saturday, I start Italy 2.0! An all new beginning, and I'm excited what these next 7 months hold for me :)
Still definitely going to keep in contact with my friends here in Faenza though and visit every now and then for parties and just to hang out.


So I kind of update this blog too much, so I'll update November 2nd or 3rd! Ciao! :)

Art and New Friends!

Ciao tutti!

Sorry I didn't update on Saturday, I tried. I had my last weekend here in Faenza with friends and it went out with a bang. We went to a restaurant and we just had a ton of fun around the town, I'm gonna miss these psychos.

Over this week, nothing's actually happened, but so much has actually happened today!
So I didn't know English was cancelled today, so they sent me to the 4A English class. At first I was reluctant to do so, but turns out this class was so excited to see me! My regular class never pays attention to me but that class loved me! They just asked me random questions from my music tastes to life in general, but I had the best time! For my music I had to write my favorite artists on the board and their genres so I had to write like in huge letters "LANA DEL REY - INDIE POP" it was the funniest thing. It felt so natural there, with older, relaxed people. And it was weird because they were so curious about my life, and the hour went by too fast. It was a good weird though! But the teacher saw me a few hours later and she told me the class loved me and thought I was "quirky and funny and relatable." AWW shucks thanks guys. Today I was photocopying a magazine article and like three of the guys came up to me and offered me to go to a Chinese restaurant with them (AND THEY OFFERED TO PAY) tomorrow. Did I mention they offered to pay. I love Italians. I'm so sad though I'm also making new friends and I'm leaving so soon. I promised my friends I'm visiting November 23 for a party and just to catch up.

Also during art today, they had a test (?) And I was excused from it, so in Italian (like a pro) the teacher and I got in a really deep conversation about art. Everything from Botticelli to Carvaggio to Warhol to Pollock to Abramovic and Koons and even Lady Gaga, who we both see as an artist. It was probably the best conversation I had while I was here. That was for about 2 hours and it went by so fast. She then introduced me to a biannual art festival in Venice that's going on for one more month! It goes from June to November 24. I plan to do everything I can to go. She gave me a magazine and it had a section about the festival that was like 12 pages and I read them (in Italian!!! I did have a translator on my phone by me though) about it and it was really thought-provoking, so my teacher and I discussed that after, and I was so glad someone has the same views as I do! I wish I could draw or something, if I could I would want to be a successful artist in life.

Some people discussing some art pieces, it was such an interesting read.

But the other day I called my host mom (who just got back from Dubai what) and she was like "Hey Elijah, we're excited to see you! We're just getting your school ready and you'll be here soon! Oh and by the way, we're going to Asia soon and it would be great if you can come with us! Okay we have dinner, ciao!"

Hold up
ASIA
WHAT????????

Ever since I started learning Japanese in second grade, I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Asia! Now that's coming and I'm so excited!!!! Ahhh it's unreal to me and they casually travel around the world all the time! I just hope I'm here in February because I wanna see my teachers!

But those are some of the crazy things that have been happening in my reckless life. But lately I've just been anticipating new music which has been taking over my life these past few weeks.

I'll update probably on Halloween, a presto! :)

Parties and Leaving Dates!

7 Saturdays of my life (including the one that just passed) with these people. I WOULD have pictures, but I don't really have any because my friend usually brings a camera. So while I'm here, I'd might as well talk about my weekend!

Saturday

Oh Saturday, you never fail to put a smile on my face. At 9 PM, my friend Gallo picked Roberto and I up and it was my friend Romina's birthday party, so she rented a space to hold a club-esque party. That was AMAZING. It was up to me and my friend Minguzzi (by the way people here in this region are referred to by their last name I know almost none of their first names) to DJ for this party, so things actually started at 10, so he chose like 20 songs and I chose 20, and it was just an amazing experience to see people dance and have a great time to the more upbeat songs I just regularly listen too. It was so funny when some of the songs built up before like a breakdown or before the beat got really big I would get so excited I would just be jumping and all this fun stuff. It was one of the better Saturdays. And even though I'm moving, I promised my friend Zannoni to come to a party he's having on November 23. Oh and at this party, I was offered cocaine. Twice. Oh how one can mature so fast in just 7 weeks. Oh and my friend Cantoni (his first name is Filippo I KNOW THAT) went to another club and apparently he got mugged by 3 people from Algeria, and one was armed! I WAS going to go with him, but thank God I didn't. That scared me. Here it's so weird I get offered drinks and cigarettes and drugs all the time, so it doesn't even phase me anymore. I'm just saying this for those back at home. But I DON'T do any of these. Not only am I severely underage, but when I get back home I'd rather not have habits, just saying. I came home at around 4 in the morning, and passed out on my bed since I was so tired. My friend threw up a little on my boots :(


Sunday

Sunday was much more relaxed. I woke up at around 11 in the morning, and I just did my normal things until around 4, where the family and I went to a town called Forli, and they had this HUGE shopping mall! I got really happy over this, and I bought 2 long sleeves from H&M. They're slightly oversized plain white and like a cranberry red long sleeves, they're so comfortable!

I fell asleep in my white one yesterday and I just woke up and went to school in it, still wearing it :)

After that, nothing really happened. I'm just keeping up with music I like and waiting for some albums to come out. By the way, in Italy, they are OBSESSED with the song Wake Me Up my Avicii. I'm not a fan, it sounds too generic, but the people here love it. Along with like 3 other songs, but I don't know their names. With every song I knew at the party (and that was a LOT) I always sang along to it, I always do that it's the funniest thing.

So on November 5th, I'm going to Rome for 5 days with my STS friends again! I'm so happy to see them again, I miss them so much and I still talk to them all the time, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Well that's it for now, this post is insanely long. Have a good day, a presto! :)

Interrogazione

Ciao,

So today in science class, there's an interrogazione! That's Italian for interrogation. What they do the teacher grabs one student or several (in my case several) and the teacher asks them various questions on the spot. It's so nerve wrecking watching the kids attempt to answer the questions right there in front of the whole class while watching. They have 90 seconds on the clock while the teacher asks them on specific subjects. It's kind of like an arena right now (I'm writing this in class because the teacher is only focused on them). The four or so students are across the teacher and it's like a standoff. Lucky for me I'm excused from these! Thank god because I'd be freaking out every single day.

Aside from that, class has been boring, but I'm excited for my new host family in Florence! Nothing's really happened around the house or life in general. Tomorrow I'm going to my friend Romina's birthday party! That's it for now, hope y'all have a good day, arrivederci :)

NEW Host Family info!!

Ciao tutti!

So today's Sunday and we're just relaxing and I went to another party last night with some friends. I have so much fun there, the only thing is like everyone smokes! So I always come home with my clothes smelling like cigarettes and I'm always coughing when I wake up and yeah I don't like it. But it's okay.

So thank god, but I got my NEW host family information! I'm going to be living with the Turrini family, in FLORENCE! That was my number one city, and I was so excited to hear the good news of my location. So there's the mom, Silvia who's a travel agent, the dad, Massimo and I think he's a firefighter. They also have 3 kids. There's Filippo, who's 18, Stefano, who's 16, and one who's 20. I forget his name though. But they live in a 3 story house just outside Florence on the hills. This family is perfect for me! They love to travel all around the world (The mom called me yesterday an hour before her flight to Dubai okay) because Silvia's a travel agent. They also love to cook and bake and play tennis and that's exactly what I love! It's like this family was made for me :)

It's such a nice change from my current family, who's all currently out and they never tell me where they go. And the dad's here playing computer games like he always does (?). As usual, I woke up to fighting with the host family, with the younger kids making these inhuman noises and as usual,  I woke up in frustration, wondering why STS placed me with them. I'm having the worst time here, and being here makes me want to return to Los Angeles so badly. However, the mom's in Dubai until the 22nd,  so nothing can happen until at least then. I'm not sure how much longer I can take this family. Also in school, none of the teachers really do anything to help me, so I just lay there trying not to fall asleep because I have no idea what's going on. I just don't like anything here at all and I'm counting down the days until the mom returns from Dubai so we can finally set this whole host family thing up. I'm more excited than ever to switch. I'm just imagining the amazing times I'm going to have with everyone, and I just need the 22nd to come faster!

Okay an hour just passed by and the family came back, much to my dismay. Everyone's fighting. Again. What else? I'm just here in my room every day on tumblr because none of the family really interacts with me and when I try to they either switch back to English or they always sound uninterested to talk to me. I'm so tired of this place. Tired of this negativity and tired of this place bringing me down constantly. October 22nd, please come faster. If I'm able to last a month here, I can make it through 9 days. Things are really going to look up, and I'm excited :)

UPDATE: Today is October 14th and because I was 3 minutes late the dad starts screaming at me and almost hits me and the older brother starts screaming at me too and I nearly got out of the car to walk home. I am so tired of this place and I nearly started screaming at the brother and nearly started yelling and cursing at the dad but being raised the way I was, I decided to keep quiet and just keep the anger inside. And I never even think of cursing unless I'm seriously furious or overwhelmed. It's blatantly obvious that the dad doesn't like me, and everyone knows that. Whenever he eyes me, he always has this stone cold look on his face, a look of disapproval, and whenever I try to do something, he always pushes me aside and does it himself. I'm 15, not 2. Can I really last another 8-12 days? I don't know. This place is stressing me out more than I can imagine. But the dad just left the house to I don't know where and I'm starting to finally feel at peace for the brief time I can. The 22nd is so far away, yet so close. I need this more than anything else.

Oh and it turns out my class is full of THIRTEEN YEAR OLDS! I learned everything I'm learning right now! I confronted my host family about this. Their exact words "oh we signed you up for that so you don't have to do anything. This is a good thing! You can do nothing and sleep!" But the thing is I need to LEARN while I'm here for junior year! And I actually have a crave to learn things, not review everything from 8th grade. So before my new mom left for Dubai, I asked her to put me in year 2 or 3. Are you actually kidding me right now? Oh and the mom encouraged me to dye my hair and get piercings or tattoos while I'm here!! I do want some tattoos, but only things that mean the most to me and when I'm in my 20s, NOT when I'm 15 years old. And piercings, forget about it I'm terrified of needles beyond belief. This family is not a good influence..