So I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do in my future and it's complicating to keep it all in my head so I decided to write it down here so you can all give me some input! So please do! Give me as many ideas, information, pointers, and warnings as you can think of! Here is goes.
- i will finish my year here in Italy and learn Italian the best I possibly can.
-Once I get the hang of Italian I'll start looking at French, just to get some basics because it is a beautiful language and is more widely spoken then Italian.
-I'll get the information I need for my possible Senior Project I am thinking of doing that I'll explain later on.
-I'll return to Seattle and start working as soon as possible, before I return I will try to find a job, maybe you Seattle folks can help me find one! B&O possibly...
-Start senior year and continue working part time to save up for traveling in my year off and for university.
-Senior Project: I'm thinking of doing a compare and contrast thing about teenagers all around the world and they're ideas, thoughts, beliefs, hopes and so on, focusing on Italy because I know it best, but also get other information other ways (this is where I could use some ideas, where is somewhere I could get in contact with other teenagers straight from them?) I will also get information from the other AFS students with me in Italy since they are from all over. But maybe I'll do something more specific to kids who have done exchange and how that effects there lives, now and later on. I kind of like that idea because then I could talk to people my age and find other people who did it when they were younger (like members of my family). With both of these ideas I could do my volunteer work with AFS.
-NEXT will be summer and I'll continue working and maybe I'll be able to go on the trip my friends and I have been wanting to go on together to California maybe, but I don't know if I'll have the money.
-I'll find a way to become a resident of California, or whichever state I choose to go to college in. I hope I'll be able to get one or both of my parents to move there, because after this year I kinda want to keep them close enough that I can see them regularly. Then if they do I can say I live with them and become a resident, that's how it works right? After I "live" there a year I become a resident? Then I get the cheaper price for university...?
-I think I will stay in Seattle for the first six months of my year off and stay living with a family member. I'm thinking to stay in Seattle because I will hopefully be able to keep the same job and I will maybe have a better position that pays more at this job then if I started over in California.
-I will have to find something else to do in these months because working isn't enough for me, maybe I could volunteer somewhere (any ideas for the things I'm interested in? Something that would benefit my career of education and child aid).
-I will apply for college to start in the fall of 2013, I am very interested in UC San Diego, to study international studies and education.
-IF I have saved up enough money I will go on the trip through Europe I am planning with my friends, to return to all their cities they lived in during this year abroad to visit our families and friends there, but that depends strongly on my position with college and how much I'm going to have to pay, because it's EXPENSIVE!
-Then comes what I'm really excited for! My trip to India with Jordan, which is basically all planned out. We are still trying to solidify the dates, to leave at the best time there. We will be working on a farm founded by Vandana Shiva, if you don't know who she is she is a miraculous woman and here is the site link for more information http://www.navdanya.org/home. We intend to volunteer there for about 3 or 4 months. It is a very good program, all we have to do is pay for our travel there and pay a very small fee to stay there and were given housing and food.
-After I return I don't know what my plan will be for the summer, make my way to California maybe and establish myself there with a job and some friends before I start university.
-Go to university for the first two years then in my junior year I intend to do another exchange through my school, one where I work or volunteer in another country and still get credits for my school in the states. For this program I hope I can find one where I can teach English as a second language or something with children, otherwise I'll just take classes in another country. I'll look into my options when I have a better idea of which school I'll be going to.
-I still don't know how getting a Masters or whatever works but I'll probably go to school longer then four years.
-After I graduate I hope to work for a year or two in the U.S. with children, education or some program to help children in some way, I'm not sure with what yet.
-Then I will find a job or maybe only volunteering for a while in education, maybe teaching English as a second language in a developing country. I would really like that. I like this job because I have the opportunity to travel almost anywhere in the world and have work, because everyone needs teachers. As long as I know some of the language I can get by teaching English, this is why I want to study and learn as many languages as a can so I have even more opportunities.
-Then on goes life, obviously I don't know the exact details of how the next 50 years of my life is gonna go but I'll eventually have kids (after 30) and I'll make sure they know AT LEAST English and Italian and any other languages that I know by then.
-Hm then I want to retire and open a bakery because I think that would be really chill and interesting, maybe in Italy, but now that I've lived here for a bit I'd like to maybe go to somewhere I haven't lived but that has a good economy, maybe Norway...
Well that was a really long post, but I guess it is my life...
But please please share anything you think when you read this, I want to think big but also be realistic, so help me out here!

Love you all!
Ciao,
Kali

Protesting

So to update you all on some politics here in Italy, recently there have been major budget cuts to schools all over Italy, making students and parents furious, of course. This has resulted in less teachers and bigger classes. Some really mean person up top has also decided that school will start earlier and end later, this especially infuriates me because the new school times are one of the main reasons I had to move from my beloved art school. Now school hours are closer to those in the States, but still 6 days a week.
Because of these changes, mostly the budget cuts, students all over the country organized a strike where no student would go to school on Octobre 8, 2010. And parents back them up, agreeing that we can all not go to school because it's for a good cause. Then the ideal would be that those students would go to a protest in one of the bigger cities. However, I didn't go to a protest, to my disappointment.
This is how my day went on Friday: I woke up normal time and drove to school with my host sister, we then met up with her class where we decided who would be the ones to go into the school (only to be excused after a few minutes when there was only 3 people in class). My host sister and I were not the one's to go in, so we went back home with her cousin. We then headed to the shopping center, Auchan, did some shopping, met up with friends, and then I went to a concert that night that was sweet:)
I have decided that I don't mind these strike days if they result in days off and I look forward to more in the future!

Changin' Things Around

Ciao everyone!
I am writing to you while sitting on my couch, in my Pj's, watching the FairlyOdd Parents dubbed in Italian, on this fine overcast Wednesday morning. If you are wondering why I am not in Brindisi at school at the moment, I will tell you that it is because I have decided to change schools! Which makes me sad but I know it is the right decision.
On Sunday night I went to Brindisi with my mom, sister, youngest brother, my mother's friend and her daughter for yummy calzons. On our walk there we stopped by a performance of Pizzica which I have grown very fond of. It is a traditional Puglianese dance and I have been told is about a girl and a tarantula. It is mesmerizing and beautiful, enjoyed by young and old people from Puglia and of course the visitors. It is performed with live singers as well. I will try to put some pictures of it up.
Last night I experienced my first tropical thunder storm and it was fantastic! Nothing like Seattle storms that are just cold, dark and wet. Yesterday it was hot and humid while it rained, and the wind, the wind howled around our flat so loud, whistling like from a horror movie. I was so happy. I now know what my mom is talking about when she says how much she loves storms from the south and from the Martial Islands.

I am now about to begin reading "Amore e Psiche", which is an adorable little book with a Greek myth written about Eros, Afrodite, and Psiche in Italian. It is my self-proclaimed challenge to read this book. Wish me luck!

There will be more to write soon!
Ciao!