Sono appena tornata!

Phew! I have so much to write!

Well, I just spent the past two weeks in Courmayeur (which is the proper spelling.)

It was a pretty little town, about 15 km south of the French border. My host family went skiing almost every day, and I stayed home to watch movies and read.

We arrived in Courmayeur the evening of December 21. December 22 and 23, Bea, my little host sister, was sick, so I stayed home with her while my host parents and older sister, Cami, went skiing.

Christmas Eve, we went to Torino (Turin in English, I think) to spend some time with my host mother's side of the family. We all went to Torino's museum of Film, which was a lot of fun. The exhibits there were like the sets of old movies, and we got to play around in them. I took a lot of pictures, which I will upload later, as I am at school right now, and don't have my camera. After the museum, we went to Zia Lodo's house to kill time before we went to the restaurant. Zia Lodo is pregnant, due any day now, so while we were at her house, they showed us some of the things they had prepared for the baby. We all went to a restaurant for Christmas Dinner, and as usual, I asked my host father to order for me.

My host father, being an Italian man, knows a lot about food and the specialties of restaurants. For the first course, he ordered me octopus and artichoke, I think. The waiter placed the bowl in front of me, and I was a little intimidated: there were purple octopus legs with the suckers still on, swimming in broth. Being brave, I gave it a little taste, and was surprised: the octopus was absolutely delicious. After the octopus, I had angelotti, meat filled ravioli in meat sauce. That, too, was fantastic. After we had all stuffed ourselves, the whole family went to Zio Toto's house to exchange presents and eat pandoro. I used this time to call my family, and wish them a Merry Christmas. Of course it was great to talk to my family, but it sounded like they were having so much fun, and I got a little homesick. After I finished my call and collected myself, I went into the living room, where Zia Chicca gave me a necklace, Nonna gave me a bracelet, and another relative (I don't really know who she was) gave me some lotion. I didn't expect any presents, and the fact that they remembered me made me feel warm and fuzzy. After all of the presents were exchanged, all of the younger cousins recited things that they had written about Christmas. At school, Bea had been learning "Silent Night", and she asked me to sing it for the family. Considering it was one in the morning, I was falling asleep, and I don't particularly like singing by myself, I declined, only to be pestered by the family. Eventually, I realized there was no way out, so I gave up and sang a verse of Silent Night for them. One of the Zios was really impressed, and told my he could tell I've studied singing, which was flattering. Finally, my host father decided it was time to go, so we piled in the car to return to our home in the Mountains.

We arrived back at Courmayeur at two in the morning, and my host father and I carried all the presents from the car up to the living room. I went to bed exhausted, hardly realizing it was Christmas.

I will continue this post later, but the bell just rang, and I've got to run off to Geography!