Family

While I'm in Italy, I obviously live with a host family. My host mother is Maria. My host father is Antonio, and my host brother is Matteo. They are a very typical Italian family. We eat pasta for practically every meal (and I don't mind) and we spend a lot of time together. My host family loves to watch television and all of the shows here are American but dubbed in Italian, so we watch The Simpsons, Lie to Me, True Blood, and Doll House. We live in an apartment in the middle of Cagliari. I go to school with Matteo, though we are not in the same class.

Friends and Free Time

Already I have met many new friends and on Saturday night, I got to experience what Italian teenagers do on the weekends. Our whole class went out for pizza at a local restaurant in Cagliari. Though I couldn't talk with all my friends very well, it was still fun to sit and listen to them talk about school and family and anything teens normally talk about. Afterwards, we walked around the city center, getting gelatos and meeting up with other students at our school. With all the outdoor cafes and places to hang out, the city center is where many teens go to hang out at night. We didn't even finish until about midnight, but that seems to be pretty common. The city certainly offers a lot of things to do.

Weather

As much as it snows in South Dakota, it was nice to get away from the cold weather. The temperature is always in the 70's, even during the winter. There have been a couple of thunderstorms and showers and they were so loud that they rattled the windows. The humidity is not as bad as I had expected. My host mother has even told me that occasionally there will be water cut-backs because of the lack of rain. I didn't expect a drought in the Mediterranean but I guess I was wrong.

Running

I've gone for a run in some amazing places and running in Italy is certainly another wonderful place to run. My host mother doesn't let me run on the streets because we live right in the middle of the city, so traffic can be pretty dangerous. Instead, I run in a city park that's very close to our apartment. The park is pretty popular for anyone who wants to get off the streets and out of the busy city to work out. It has some great views of the city and the hills beyond Cagliari and I definitely don't mind going out for a run every day.