Ciao a tutti, sono Taylor. OH DIO 5 months already, where has the time gone? I know this blog entry is very overdue but you know as they say, better late than never! Time is just whizzing by here in Italy, I'm just a week over my halfway point and cant believe everything I have already eaten, seen, done, so much in such a short about of time. So much has happened  to me since my last blog entry in september ill try to catch all you guys up as fast as I can.

The best night ever. Which is what I would describe the night I got to see Macklemore in concert for his last night of his european tour. My AMAZING host brother and sister had given me a ticket for a early birthday present, my first real concert! The stadium that the concert was at was huge and the total number of people that fit in there is 13,000. The concert was sold out, and I was, to say the least, beyond surprised! I guess you could say I had a pretty good first month on my exchange. 

Speaking of surprised, making pasta... not that hard. I cant believe I had never done it before in Alaska! My host dad, being an amazing cook taught me the recipe using only eggs, water, and flour! I definitely felt very italian that night! Though, the hard part was waiting for the pasta to dry out and using this pasta grinder...not sure what its called but my host dad has this very old pasta press that he got from his grandmother, and what it does is basically flatten the pasta and cuts it into strips at the same time... pretty nifty if I do say so myself. Definitely writing that recipe down. One thing I have learned here about Italians is NO WE DONT EAT PASTA EVERY DAY, at least not in my family, I was told that it was a little strange I wasn't eating pasta 2 times a day..and I've only eaten pizza 3 times since Ive been here. (and Pappa I promise the next recipe I will learn is how to make Pizza.)

One thing that is not very italian is Halloween. This halloween I spent it with Dani, Guido, and Nene in Austria. My host mom and dad have a house in the town of Igles which is about 5 minutes outside of Innsbruck. I definitely felt that the hills were alive with the sound of music! It was so peaceful and relaxing to get out of the hustle and bustle of Milan for a couple days. Austria is so green and there are so many hiking trails near the house! My italian family took me for a major hike up to the no snow ski trails, and we walked up and up in and out of the forest, and as you know me I only grew my relationship with my butt and the ground. But needless to say I didn't break my tradition of carving pumpkins. My host mom brought a pumpkin along for the trip and on Halloween we carved and we showed our halloween spirit by putting it outside all lit up. My sister, going to an art school designed the face and the carving was left to me. Needless to say I got a little crazy with the carving but in the end it was a success, and yes the seeds were delicious! 

I don't know if any of you guys watched the new Great Gatsby movie, but the 18th birthday parties here are definitely close to that in the movie, but modernized. Here the 18th birthday is like the 21st in the states but with more umph. My sister and I attended a 18th birthday of a friend she knows and it left my jaw in aww. There was music, dancing, photographers, good whine and champaign, d.j, good food, and very elegant attire, and about 300 people. I definitely felt like I was in a Gossip Girl party.

So as christmas creaked around the corner, intercultural *afs, had a really nice idea of getting together everyone on exchange living in Lombardia and going to Bresia, a semi small town about 1 hour outside of Milan. There we got to explore the city and go Christmas Caroling dressed as nothing better than...elves, santas, and reindeer. It was a Hoot! Defiantly never sang in front of that many strangers before in my life. Its still an adjustment for me that everything is so  close together here in Europe, it only takes 1 hour to go to other countries, and lots of towns.                                                                                            a day trip you can go to Rome and back, or Switzerland, or Austria.

  Christmas break was very different than usual. 2 days before Christmas Eve Danis whole family meet at the family house by Lake Como and we ate till we couldnt stand up, drank until we couldnt sit down and of course watched soccer until our throats were dry. In Milan there are two teams: Milan and Inter Milan, my new faviorte official team is Milan... or else my family would kill me ;) The day of christmas my family went to Guidos parents houst and we ate until 11 am until 6 at night i didnt get up from the table unless to go lay on the couch!... as you can tell christmas is a very big part of the Italian culture, and food is a major part of that. For New Years my Italian family took me to Austria again, but this time for 10 days, and 9 of those were spent snowboarding, or skiing. There are so many different places to ski and so close together, and yes I did ski on olympic hills! New Year's Eve was also spent there as well, I have never eaten so much in my life, between Christmas and New Years, thankfully I was snowboarding almost every day in Austria! New Years Eve I have never seen so many fireworks in my life! 

Other than that not much has happened with me since December. The class I was taking with Afs for italian ended, so I recently started a new course with a school just for foreign students, at the beginning of February. Im feeling pretty strong and more confident in my italian than I did 2 months ago. School is going a lot easier and better for me now that I understand more. Ive met and made so many new friends and people from all over the world! Still waiting for snow in Milan but everything else is pretty perfect! Cant believe its allready been 5 months since ive left Il villagio piccolo viccino al mare and started my adventure, seems like a lifetime ago. Cant wait to come back and tell you all about my adventures! but until then CCCCIIIIIIIIAAAAAAOOOOOO!