#week32 (spring break)

Hi everyone,

at the end of March, I had a week off because it was spring break! The only thing I had to do was soccer practice, but it was just three times, so it wasn't a big deal.

On Monday, I had practice at 8:30 am, and waking up that early wasn't very nice, but it was better than the usual 6 am lol. Then, around 1 pm I had lunch with Grace, since she was the only friend that wasn't gone. We usually go for brunches to eat unhealthy, but super good food, so this time we decided to go eat a salad. It wasn't bad, but I mean do we wanna compare a salad with waffles, pancakes, sausage, biscuits with gravy, eggs, hash brown, bacon, ham, or all the other brunch food? No, you don't wanna do that haha. I LOVE BRUNCH FOOD SO BAD!!😋😍

On Tuesday, I had practice at 11 am (much better), then right after practice I went to Altitude, the other trampoline park in town where I have never been. It was so fun, but super tiring since I had a 2 hours practice right before haha.

On Wednesday, I went to Chicago with my host sister and my host mum. We first went to dunkin because a road trip is not a road trip without dunkin lol and then we left. When we got there, we went to the shedd aquarium. Then, we went out to eat, and around 3 pm we went back to watch the dolphin, penguin, and sea lions show. It was super cute!!

In the evening, we went shopping, and then we grabbed 6 frozen deep dish pizzas and one cooked, we drove all the way back, and when we got home, we ate the warm one😍😋

On Thursday, I had soccer practice, and then the priest of my host family's church came over for dinner. I made tortellini, and he asked me how to fold them, so I taught him. It was super cute and fun!

On Friday, I hung out with Grace, and since the salad of Monday was way too healthy for us, we went getting brunch. I got french toast because I hadn't gotten them in a while.

On Sunday, I went to ihop for the first time with Sydney. I got around four strawberry banana pancakes, even though I had breakfast with my host family before that, but they were really good! Then I went over her house, and she showed me her new room. I love it so much! It's pink, white and black, and I think I'll take some hints for when I'll renew my room. I haven't seen Sydney in awhile, so we talked for a little bit. She is super funny! Around 4 pm, Luna came over because I haven't seen her in awhile either since she went to Oklahoma with her host family during sprink break. We talked and we watched Netflix! I love when she comes over because it's super fun, but relaxing at the same time.

#day224 (Starved Rock Park + PROM proposal)

Hi everyone,

on Saturday March 23rd, I woke up at 5:20 am to go to Starved Rock Park! Jacob went to get breakfast from dunkin😍, and then he picked me up around 6. We drove for around an hour with the sunrise on one side. It was so pretty!!😍 Around 7:30 am we got there, and we starting walking around. It was really pretty, and it wasn't to cold!

In the afternoon, we decided to come back, but before getting in the car something happen. First, he asked me to open the back of  the car for him, and I kept asking him why because he never puts anything in the back, so I was confused. Then, I was just like "ok", so I opened the back of the car, and some balloons came out and flew away. I looked and there was a big poster surronded by other balloons that said "will you go to  prom with me?" and he made like google traslate with the translation in Italian "vuoi venire al ballo con me?". That was super cute!! Then, he gave me a bunch of flowers, I said yes, and I hugged him. 😊

Then, we had a cook out with pizza.

#week31 (team bonding + bowling)

Hi everyone,

week 31st was the last week before spring break, a weel-needed spring break.

On Tuesday, I had my frist away game (which I talked about in my last post), and it was pretty good.

On Wednesday, I had my second away game, and it was just 15 minutes away. That game wasn't very good because the other school had only one team that played against Varsity and against JV, so they were really good for us. In addition, it was cold, dark, and I was still super tired from the game I had the day before.

On Thursday, I hung with Evan, one of my friends, and we went to get some sweet food from a cute bakery shop. We tried pumpkin bar and a zucchini cookie. The pumpkin bar was super good!

On Friday, I just had half day at school, so every class lasted around 30 minutes, and we just chilled, played kahoots or quizlets online, or watched a movie. Around 11 am we were all out ready for spring break!! I went to Olive Garden with my soccer team for team bonding right after school. I love team bondings! Basically, you hang out with your team out of just the practices and the games to form a stronger bond, and get to know each other better. They are all super nice, and we ate a lot (as every time I go to Olive Garden). Then, Luna's host dad picked us up, and he took us to the furthest DQ in the city just because he knows we love the s'mores blizzard that only that place makes in the entire town😍 That was really nice of him!

At night, I went bowling with Ben, Jacob, and Emma. It was super fun!! We played two games: the first one she won, and I got second, the second game, I won (and I got as many strikes as never before), and she got second. Girls power lol😂

#day220 (first away game + dress up)

Hi everyone,

On Tuesday March 19th, I had my first away game in Pekin, an hour away from where I live. Since my team and I wore jerseys at school for the first home game, we decided to dress up for our first away game. First, I thought about wearing a dress, but it was too cold for that, so I wore a pair of dress pants, a cute white long sleeve shirt, and heels that I borrowed from one of my friends. Wearing heels at school is one of the most uncomfortable things ever, but I was feeling myself because everyone was giving me compliments😅

That day, we got to leave a little bit earlier from school since we had our bus at 2:15 pm. After an hour we got there, and varsity played first. 

During half time, we started warming up and around 6 pm, we started playing. This time, I was a starter, but when the coach put me in after like 10 minutes, I almost played all the game. At the end of the game, I was happy, because I thought I did better than the last times, even though I was super good. Then, I talked to my friends that play in varsity, and they were like "you went crazy today!!", so I was even happier lol. Before going home, we stopped at mc donald's to eat because we were all starving. 

#day217-218 (prom dress shopping + 5 feet apart)

Hi everyone,

on Saturday March 16th, I had my second soccer game. I was super tired, so I did not do very good, but I was still a starter and I played a lot. Anyway, as a team, we keep getting better and better.

As soon as our game was over, varsity started playing, so I stayed them for a little bit more to see them playing. They did really good! Around 1:30 pm, I got home, I took the fastest shower ever, and at 1:45 pm Maddy and Katie's mum picked me up. Then, she drove us and their grandma to Champaign to look for a prom dress. First, we went to this expensive, but super pretty place, and we tried some dresses on. There, I found my dress, but then I looked at the price at it was $350, so I had to leave it there😭. Then we went to another store, where I tried like 10 dresses on, and show them all to their mum and grandma. That was super fun!! After 6036295420496 dresses, I found my dress, and I bought it. It was the color that I wanted it to be, and I feel like it fits me good. But I won't post it yet.. suspence.

After that, before going home, we stopped at MEATHEADS like always, and I got my favorite double cheeseburger with fries😋😍

When I got home, I was exhausted, but super happy because I had so much fun!!

On Sunday, I went with my host family to the movies to see "5 feet apart" with Cole Sprouse haha😍  We went to this movie theater where there is a menu in every seat, and you can order whatever you want. To order you just have to press a bottom and a waiter will show up to take your order. That is crazy!!😂 Anyways, that movie was really good, but super sad at the same time. I have never cried for a movie, but I was about to when I was watching that one.

#week30 (first game ended up with a bandaid)

Hi everyone,

on Moday March 11th, every soccer player got their jerseys and their shorts. For this reason, we all had to pick our numbers. I picked #11 because it's the day that I got here and it's an easy number to pronounce lol😂 In addition, the JV team voted their captains, and I'm one of them!! The other two are Itzel and Danni, two girls that have played before in this team. I was super happy! I would have never imagined that the girls would vote me as one of the captains😊

After practice I went to the movies to watch "Captain Marvel" in 3D. It was very cool!!

On Tuesday, Mattea came over after my soccer practice and her softball practice (they were at the same time at school) to study for a hard anatomy test that we would have the day after on the heart.

On Wednesday, I went to Dunkin Donuts right after practice to do my English assignments with Luna and Evan. I was very tired because I have been out all day since 6 am, and that week was super stressful. We did our homework for almost 2 hours, but at least I had a lot of fun with them haha. Then I finally went home.

On Thursday, I had my first soccer game at home. During the day, I was nervous because it was my first game and I didn't know what I should have expected from it. Right after school, we went to the field to set it up and start warming up. In the meanwhile, the other team got there, and they strated warming up to. At 4:30 pm the refs called the captains, we shoke hands, and they threw the coin to see who would get the ball first and in which half we were playing. They got the ball, we chose the better half. Then, the game started. I was a starter as a midfielder. Basically, one moment we were just chilling, the other we heard the whistle and we started playing. I didn't even have time to realize that I was playing a real game, my first game.

I think we did a good job since it was our first game even though we lost. I really liked it! Even though, it got me super tired, and freezing.

During the game, a girl kicked me and my thigh was kinda bleeding, but I didn't even notice it. One of my friend saw it and she told my coach, and I was like "it's nothing, I'm good haha". The coach made me go to the trainer that was right behind the bench to get a band aid, and I was so confused about the reason why everyone was so worried about basically nothing haha. For this reason, I asked the trainer, and she told me that you cannot have blood on your body while you are playing because the ref would make you switch with another player until he doesn not see blood anymore. So, I ended up with a bandaid on my thigh in order to keep playing lol.

#week29 (student vs staff game)

Hi everyone,
during the first week of March, I started having soccer practice everyday after school. Hopefully, we were inside because it was freezing!!!❄

(In celsius)

On Thursday, I went to one of my host sister's basketball game and the students were playing against the staff of the junior high. It was so fun!!😂

On Friday, I went to Imax to get ice cream with Mattea right after soccer. We looked so bad and sweaty haha. There, I got a huge waffle cone, and we talked for hours and hours.

On Saturday, I had soccer from 10 am to 12 pm. In the afternoon, my host dad's brother's family came over, and I made Italian food. They were cool. Since my host dad's brother travels a lot for work, he knows a little bit of many languages, so he tried saying some things in Italian. He was the first person that I've met that knows a little bit of Italian lol.

On Sunday, I went to a pub with my host family for the first time. As soon as we got in, a waiter was like, "you have to be 21 to be here", but then he saw my host parents and it was all good. That was one of the pubs that you see in the movies with the big "counter" in the middle with all sorts of alcohol, all tables around it, a lot of TVs, and random music. There, I got one of my favorite thing that I found out here: boneless wings with parmesan garlic and ranch😍😋

#week28 (soccer tryouts)

Hi everyone,

on Monday February 25th, soccer tryouts started. Since we were inside because it was too cold and we didn't have a lot of room, we had 4 tests that were like dribbling, kicking the ball, and other things like that.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were outside even though it was super cold and we played little games and a scrimmage. On Wednesday, the two coaches decided that they did not need the all week to make the two teams because they already knew. For this reason, at the end of the game everyone received a messaged with the new teams, and I made it! The two teams are JV and Varsity. JV are usually people that have never played before and need to learn, Varsity is for people that already know how to play. For this reason, I made the JV and I already love the coach!

On Thursday, we just had a small practice for conditioning so we basically ran and worked out.

On Friday, we didn't have school, so I had soccer in the morning from 10 to 12 and then I went home. Around 6 pm, Kyla picked me up and we went to Champaign, a town near when I live to watch a basketball game where our school was playing. I love road trips! After that, we went to Steak 'n Shake and then to her house where we slept.

On Saturday, we both had practice at 10 am, and of course, we didn't hear the alarm clock, but we still made it in time! After practice, we went to Chipotle and I had a burrito😋😍

#days196-197 (ice skating + coolest thing ever)

Hi everyone,
on Saturday, I hung out with Maddy and Katie. First, we went ice skating! We all haven't ice skated in a while, so we just went and gave it a try. It was super fun! At the beginning, we were holding ourselves with the wall, but then we let it go and we did good! Nobody fell and I laughed so much because Maddy was so scared😂

After that, we went to meatheads. Meatheads is the best burger place ever! I love it so much😍

In the evening, I went to the movies to see "Isn't it romantic". I have wanted to go to the movies for a while and that movie wasn't bad, it was funny.

On Sunday, I went to an ISU basketball game and I recorded one of the coolest thing that I've seen here, so I'll add it below.

In the evening, I went to get an ice cream Mattea.
After today, I decided that I'm gonna start eating healthier and not always going out to eat. Tbh I don't think I can do it, but I'll try haha. It's gonna be super haaard!!

#week26-27 (fever + random)

Hi everyone,

on Moday February 11th, we didn't have school, so I went with Grace to Fort Jesse Cafe to have breakfast, or lunch, or brunch: basically, to eat. I had biscuit with gravy. Before trying the grvay around a month ago, I thought it was disgusting because it didn't really look good. When I tried, I fell in love haha and now I love biscuits with gravy. Then, we went to the mall, but since we are both trying to save money, that was hard.

On Wednesday, I went to Olive Garden with Luna and we ate a lot, but the bread and the chicken alfredo are too good😅😋

On Sunday, I woke up without feeling good and I ended up with a 101.something fever. That was not fun! For this reason, I slept almsot all day.

On the next Monday, there was no school, but I was still I little bit sick, so I stayed at home. I was bored, but it was good for me to stay home because I had to write an essay on The Great Gatsby that was due on Tuesday😀

On Tuesday, I went to my host sister's concert, and they were all really good!

On Wednesday, I went to DQ again to get the s'mores blizzard haha. That blizzard should be a summer one, but in one of the three (I think there are 3) DQ in Bloomington, they still make it😋

On Thursday, Luna came over because se needed help with her essay, and then we went to soccer together.

On Friday, I went to Imperial which it's basically a buffet, so you just go there and eat whatever you want😅😋

#week25 (assembly + frog leg)

Hi everyone,

the first week of February was a normal week with school.

On Monday, after school I went to DQ to get a blizzard with Luna. I love their blizzards so much! There, we watched mean girls (fact about me: I have never seen both of the "mean girls" movies).

After that, I went to see Sydney cheering at her school. She was so funny!

On Tuesday, I had soccer from 6:30 to 8. Right now, soccer is just open gym, so that means that the season hasn't started yet, but there are some practices before the tryouts and the season. Today, during second hour my Anatomy teacher gave me some chocolate ice cream before she had some left.I love this school!😋😍

On Friday, there was the assembly at school. For this reason, all the classes were shorter to have the assembly last hour. During the assembly, all the winter sports were announced and walked in the gym. Then, the cheerleaders performed, and it was super cool! At the end, a couple of the people in each sport did a challenge for our entertainment haha. Basically, they were blind and they had to find chairs where the music was over. That was fun!

On Saturday, I went to Imperial buffet and I had my first frog leg. Of course, I didn't know it was a frog leg when people told me to try it, and it was good. Then, I figured what it was, and omg that was disgusting haha. However, if you don't know they are frog legs, they are good. It was like chicken.

On Sunday night, since on Moday there would not be school, Maddy came over and we thought about watching a movie, but we just talked for hours and hours, and we didn't even start a movie😅

#week23-24 (-30 degrees celsius)

Hi everyone,

on Friday January 25th, school got canceled because it was too cold. Basically, nobody got out of their houses, if they didn't have to haha. In my opinion, this is so crazy!

On Saturday, Sara, an Italian exchange student that lives about 40 minutes far away from me, came over. We made Italian noodles, and we talked, and talked.

On Wednesday and Thursday of the week after, school got canceled again, and the temperature was even worse than last Friday because it was like -30 degrees celsius. Wednesday was the worst one between the two days because the wind made it feel like it was -45 degrees celsius. That day, I hung out with Kyla, and it was freezing cold. I couldn't stay outside because first it felt like you couldn't breath, and I'm not exaggerating. Your nose just gets super cold in like 0.1 second haha. On Thursday, it was kinda better, but it was still too cold for me that I'm not used to it.

Since nobody wants to add more days at the end of the school year, the school district made them count giving us homework to do. Basically, we had to send an email to our teachers saying that we were doing our work, and they would count us present in "class". That was smart because we don't have to go to school more days in May when it's nice outside.

On Friday, I tried another "Italian" restaurant, Avanti's, with Maddy and Katie. I got noodles with pesto, and it wasn't that bad, but it didn't really taste like anything lol.

On Saturday February 2nd, I went to a girls basketball game with Kyla, and then I went to Peoria, a city 45 minutes far away from where I live, with Luna, the Tawaneese exchange student. In Peoria, we went to one of her friend's Chinese party. Basically, since on Wednesday it would be the Chinese New Year, this guy invited some of his friends over, and Luna invited me. There, we cooked dumplings, and a Chinese soup, and we ate everything. It was really fun and I met so many new people! After that, we tried to write some words in Chinese and that was hard, but they told me I did a good job, so that's good.

On Sunday, there was the super bowl on tv, so I invited 3 of my friends over, but instead of watching the super bowl, we talked all the time and they tried some of the Italian food that my family had sent me from Italy. Their comments were so funny!!

For those who don't know what the super bowl is: the super bowl is basically the last football game, that everyone usually watches. In addition, during the breaks, there are a lot of funny advertisment.

#week22 (a new week means just more food)

Hi everyone,

on Monday January 14th I hung out with Grace and we went eating to 4 different places: chick-fil-a, Mcdonald's, taco bell, and DQ. That was a lot of food haha but we did it!

On Tuesday, I started open gym for soccer, and it was super fun! For the ones who don't know, open gym is basically working out and playing soccer before the actual season starts. It is not a real practise, but it hepls you to get ready for the tryouts. On the team, I almost know everyone, and even though at the beginning I sucked, at the end it wasn't that bad.

On Wednesday, I went getting food with Maddy and Katie (of course lol) and then we went to the swimming pool to eat it since there was a boys swimming meet.

On Thursday, I went with my host family to a German restaurant and I had coke mixed with fanta: I've thought I would say this, but I like it!

On Saturday, I went sledding for my first time, and it was super fun! We went on this hill near my house and we just went up and down so many times that we weren't even cold. After dinner, I went bowling with my host family, and I did pretty good!

On Sunday, I went to have breakfast with my host family at Shannon's after church, and I love that place. Basically, there's a buffet with a lot of things and you can get whatever you want. In addition, I got my new glasses since I broke mine more than a month ago.