January 31 2016

This weekend has been all about Anna's Birthday! At midnight of Thursday (The first minute of the 27th) Anna's friends surprised her by sneaking into the house with cake. Dorottya had casually suggested that the two of them watch a movie before going to bed. 

Friday was the second night of celebration. Dodi, Anna, and I getting ready for Anna's 18simo! .

At the party.

The party started at 10 (Meaning that as the host Anna showed up at 10:15, and everyone else around 10:45), so instead of a dinner there were a million types of desserts including cakes and cannoli.

Saturday I was able to sleep in, and then Davide (who had flow in for Anna's party), Giogio and I went down to Marina di Ragusa to run some errands. The view of the ocean!

Since we were at Marina we stopped at a nice sea food restaurant for lunch. This was the appetizer! 

It was mussels covered by bread for dipping! (My camera got fogged up from the steam).

For night number three of celebration, we went to Anna's Uncles house (Bruno had flown in that afternoon!). The house is on the hill across from the Ragusa, so the view is amazing. The photo doesn't do it justice at all. If my camera was able to capture everything, looking farther into the far left corner you would be able to see Ragusa Ibla continuing down the hill.

On Sunday my class took a school field trip to the top of mount Etna to play in the snow. It was really interesting talking to my classmates because a few of them had only ever seen snow from a distance. When we started getting closer to the top of the volcano/mountain, the snow made me feel like I had a small piece of home!

Everyone was so excited, and surprised by how exhausting it is to climb up a hill of snow.

So much open space!

The views from the top of the mountain were amazing! It was really nice to be able to have the opportunity to connect with a few classmates outside of school.

When we trekked our way to the top of the biggest hills I have ever climbed in my life, we sledded down on plastic bags, snow pants, and a few types of rental sleds. It was terrifying looking over the edge of the steep hills and pushing off the edge, but it was so much fun even when we spent most of the time flying out of the sleds and tumbling down.

Dance classes have been going well. Yesterday Mati and I came in half an hour early to go over the basic steps and I feel like I am slowly improving and catching up. 

Today was Dorottya's last day in Ragusa. Hopefully I'll make it to Budapest sometime soon. You never know!