Strange Kiwis

Halloooooo :)
Not much to report, just wanted to say "hi". I guess I am sort of homesick because I seriously think of my friends, family, and home every single day, but the truth is that I wouldn't REALLY be ready to come home right now, so I guess I'm just thankful for what I have (at home) and thankful that I'm here(now).

Tonight we had an absolutely wonderful dinner out on the patio in the rain (with the roof- all the rain was blocked from our table)! It was also a multi-cultural meal because Stefano and Federica bought Chinese food, we ate Italian pasta soup, and had peanutbutter and jelly sandwitches :)

Marco actually TALKED to me for pretty much the first time today, while we were setting the table together. It was SO fun to talk with him because he is SO adorable and cute! I have the FUNNIEST picture of him playing with his two cousins at Nonno Piero's house today. Sara asked them "What are you playing," (they are all probably about 5-6 year old boys), and they answered, "That we are getting married"! >:D Marco did this hillarious little runway, hip-swinging walk and fluttered his eyelashes like crazy, and I heard them all saying "Julia!" in a very high-pitched, sing-song way. It was hillarious. The picture is of Marco holding up his hands like a priest behind his two cousins, the brothers, who had a hand between their two mouths and were pretending to kiss each other at the wedding ceremony! Oh my gosh, it was simply TOO cute and hillarious.

The sunset was incredible in the rain. What beautiful colors and what incredible clouds.

Tomorrow Kika (Federica) and I are going to Città Alta! I am so glad I get to go back there! She showed me a panoramic view of the main old square, and I remember being there, climbing the belltower with my mom and Melanie, and screaming when the bell started ringing while we were under it and it was so loud our ears nearly broke! I also saw the little shop we ran into after Melanie fell on her head on the stone steps. Ouch! She had this HUGE, terrible bump on her head, and when we went into the little shop I saw in the picture (and will see in person tomorrow), to ask for ice, the lady came out with a stick of BUTTER and stuck it to Melanie's forehead! HA! I can't remember, but I think it actually worked pretty well!

Stefano called around today and the bus driver said that for absolutely sure, without a doubt, the bus was completely empty. Then he called the hotel that we left from and they said they hadn't found it there. So either my bag somehow fell out at our lunch stop when kids were getting their sack lunches from their backpacks, somebody accidentally took it with them when we arrived, or my bag got raptured! Seriously, it's EXTREMELY strange. It feels so wierd to to have my things, because it feels like I have nothing, but actually I have quite a lot, and everything I need. Stefano had an extra new toothbrush and toothpaste, and I bought a stick of deoderant today at the store (though my Italian teacher, Ms.Bergstein has warned me that deoderant here doesn't quite do the trick. I bought Dove because it's an American brand, incase that will make a difference). By the way, I bought that deoderant while riding my bike to a few different stores a few minutes from here this afternoon- by myself! Sara strongly encouraged me that it would be good for me to try going out alone, and I didn't think it was such a bad idea myself. It was raining a little, so I thought it was very nice. I also bought two movies for 8,90 Euros each: Flushed Away and Night at the Museum. I bought them because they are in Italian and I like both of those movies so it will be a fun way to practice learning Italian when I get back. Also, because they are American movies, there is the option to watch them in English, so we'll also have two new movies that we didn't have before for much cheaper than I have ever seen in the U.S. I thought it was pretty cool. I was going to buy the 5th Harry Potter but I didn't have enough money with me, and I thought that it was not the best pick to buy in Italian because I already have that movie and also because I love it so much that to watch it in a language that I can't completely understand would be rather hard for me, I think! I don't know- it makes sense in my mind... By the way, Mellie, I've already set the date in my head: when I get back, one of the first things I wanna do together is go see a late night showing of the new movie! Everyone who told me that it comes out way later here was right, and besides, I'll be on an Island in the middle of the sea... I have a feeling I won't be watching Harry Potter while I'm there ;)

So, the bag has been on my mind a lot lately. It's not that anything absolutely neccesary, or extremely expensive was in there, but I am very sad to lose it. I had just bought clothes that I really liked, and I had wanted to be able to wear them to school this next year. Also my Once Upon a Matress shirt, which makes me very sad to lose-though thankfully I still have my Dysney Trip shirt. Mostly I feel bad about the money, because it was expensive to buy the clothes, and also my contacts were in there- I have a pair to use for another couple of weeks, thankfully, but all of the extra pairs were there, and contacts are so expensive. I just feel really bad. Unfortunately, though I have both my camera and my ipod with me, both of the chargers were in there, as well as the memmory coverter to clear my card, which only has about 50 pictures left on it. I feel really bad to Melanie about the ipod charger, and I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a new one when I get back. It's also pretty dissapointing not to be able to take sufficient pictures for the rest of my trip. Thankfully I have another Bible with me, and for some reason I'm not feeling as terrible as I thought I would about losing that one. The most heartbreaking thing to me, that I care more about then everything else is that my dear traveling companion, Trashbag, was in that bag and that is rather devistating for me to lose. I am very thankful to still have my Kay, though. The thing is, it was such an absolutely strange, even impossible thing to happen, that I know that there must be a reason that it did. I'm sorry that I'm talking as if there's no chance of getting it back; for all I know we'll get a call tomorrow and by similarly unnexpected circumstances it will be returned to me. The only thing is that there's really nothing more that we can do about it. What more could we do? It is so strange. I feel absolutely sure that there is a reason why this has happened, just as there has been a reason for every part of my trip. So I'm sorry that I wrote this sad paragraph... Honestly, though I have been very positive about the situation to everyone, I have been thinking about it a lot and have been pretty sad that it happened, so I guess it just felt good to sort of let it out by telling you, but I am sorry because I don't want anyone to worry or feel terrible- because I know that for reasons of nostalgia and convenience it does seem like a pretty bad case. It's actually not so bad, though- It is so wonderful to feel like I have very little and yet I have everything I need! Oh- at first I thought that the journal that I had completed was in there, and I was thinking "this is the first journal that I have ever lost." I remembered a time in Italy when I was nine, when we got to ride on the sailboat with Stefano's mom and dad. One time when we were getting off the boat and walking along the docks, I was looking down inot the gross, green-slime filled, dark, cold depths of the water below (I was a little girl and it seemed like quite a terrible place down there). I was holding my journal and my teddybear (my hear companion then), and the terrible thought came to my mind: what if I dropped one of these two precious things into the water!? What would I choose to save: my teady bear or my journal? It was a terrible choice, and now I really don't know why such a thing occured to me, but this is what have thought of with this situation now. Because, in a way, I have dropped my teadybear off the side of the dock and it makes me want to cry, as just the thought of it did then; but I still have the words, and I suppose that, that is eventually what I had decided was necessary to save then, too. Strangely, I have always thought in the back of my mind, when the question arises: what would you save in a fire? that I would take my journals. I think that would actually be a terrible safety danger because there are now 28 of them in total and they are all precariously stacked on top of a booshelf in my room- I take that back: they WERE precariously stacked on top of a bookshelf in my room, but my room is currently in a very exciting state of home-makover! What a wonderful surprise and gift to come back to! So, when I am organizing my things again, maybe I should make my journals more easily accessible in case of fire! haha, just kidding. Words of my thoughts, life, feelings and contemplations since I was 9 years old. That is pretty important. It is important to me. It is my proof of life that I have lived. Saying that I am 17 years old means far less than the content of those journals, which SHOW what seventeen years have meant to me. So to realize that in the last moments of packing, for some completely non-related reason that probably had to do with space and weight, I happened to put my journal in the bag I had with me makes me very, very greatful indeed. I hate to bring up remorse or regret, but I do have to admit that while packing my backpack (the one that I do have), I had the thought to put Trashbag and the camera card converter in there instead of in the luggage, but I decided against it because it would be a tight fit. Listen to that little voice, no matter how wierd or wrong it may seem! Really, it is amazing how important it is. For instance- and this is very important, serious wisdom here ;) - when I was on the vacation in Switzerland, I went to go get fruit for desert and picked up a peach, which is what I had wanted, but I had a feeling, I just had this really strong feeling, that for some reason I should also grab a kiwi. "Alright," I thought, "Fine. I'll take the Kiwi." So I did. I sat down for desert, cut into my peach, and jumped back because it was crawling with ants! ah! Ot was shocking, gross, and even rather disturbing, especially after I killed them all with the end of my knife so that they wouldn't crawl onto the dinner table of the nice hotel. Wow, that's gross, this is alltogether a terrible blog entry, don't you think! D: Well, you get the point: pack the trashbag and take the kiwi, and listen to that wierd little voice in the back of your head that tells you to do that kind of thing!

Um, thanks for reading this strange, probably gross and depressing entry. I am probably far too tired to be writing, so I appologize just in general... though I must admit, I'm still kind of chuckling ;)

Have a wonderful day! God bless <3 Good luck with all of the endevours that may come your way!

(By the way, did you know that "Kiwis" is also called Chinise Goosberry, slang for a New Zealander or for a member of an air service, as in WWI, who is confined to ground duty, or a type of flightless bird in New Zealand? Like I said... strange Kiwis).