Le Vacanze!

            On the Friday before our winter holiday vacation, we had basically the entire 5 hours of lessons in school for a Christmas party!  We ate pastries and chips, drank soda and juices, talked, played Taboo, sang Christmas carols (I taught some of my classmates the words to “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and we all sang it together).  And when the bell rang, announcing the end of the school day, I have to admit I was pretty glad I wouldn’t have to go to school for two weeks.  I love seeing classmates at school and all, but school isn’t the most exciting activity of mine here.  It’s basically 5 hours straight of listening to a teacher talk, without moving classrooms or moving at all for that matter.  So at that time, 2 weeks off sounded pretty good! 

           

            The vacation was rather uneventful before Christmas, with only a Rotary Christmas dinner.  The dinner only included my mini-district with only one other exchange student.  We were served pasta, fish, risotto, Sardinian flat bread, along with pandoro, a bread-like cake with powdered sugar traditionally eaten during the Christmas season.  At the beginning of my break, I also had my first choir concert with my Italian choir!    

           

            On Christmas Eve, my host family and I went to my host grandparents’ house for a Christmas Eve dinner.  A huge table was set up on the roof sunroom.  We had many different and delicious dishes, including full roasted lamb and pork (complete with the heads), a dish of lamb intestines, trippa, (or tripe), couscous, an octopus pasta dish, tiramisù, chocolate mousse, and ricotta mousse desserts, and many many other dishes that I can’t remember or describe.  I tried for the first time lamb intestines, tripe, and lamb spinal cord, which weren’t that bad but not exactly to my liking (spinal cord has a very creamy, fatty flavor, and is creamy in texture if you were wondering).  As I ate, I talked with and listened to my giant host extended family, which in many ways reminded me of my own extended family with the loud and enthusiastic conversations and arguments, the jokes, and the energetic younger cousins (it’s a pretty intimidating thing talking to little kids who are better than you at speaking a language).  At one point I asked my host sister what type of animal the intestines were from, who asked my host grandpa, who didn’t hear her (he’s a bit hard of hearing), and my host grandma repeated it to him in a louder and shriller (but loving) way.  It really reminded me of a favorite scene of mine and my family’s in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (If you were wondering what type of animal the intestines were from, it was lamb).  When we finished the dinner, we all conversed with one another and around midnight, Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) had come to deliver presents!  We went downstairs to find a living room filled with presents for everyone.  I hadn’t really thought about receiving anything, but I got two or three t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a black button-up shirt, and a scarf from my host parents, siblings, grandparents, uncle, and great-grandmother.  I was so grateful for everything, and I really felt like a part of the family!  This family Christmas Eve was the perfect medicine for an exchange student with a small case of holiday homesicknessJ. 

            The next day, Christmas Day, was very similar.  In the morning, I went to Christmas Morning Mass with my host parents.  We went to one of the most famous churches in the city, so needless to say it was packed.  It was difficult to understand the priests because the sound system was a bit messed up, but it was extremely interesting to go to a catholic mass in Italy, especially on Christmas day.  I don’t think there was that much of a difference between catholic mass in the states, except for the language obviously.  However, it was quite an experience going to catholic mass on Christmas day, in a big cathedral, in the world’s capital country of Catholicism. 

            After mass, we went home for a bit, picked up Silvia and Ale, and made our way to my host grandparents’ house for Christmas lunch.  The lunch consisted of the same delicious food, which I had absolutely no problem with.  Afterwards, I took a little nap on the couch up on the roof sunroom.  When I woke up, I conversed with my extended host family for a bit, then my host family and I headed back home.        

            The following week, my exchange student friend Matthew’s parents were in town visiting so I spent a couple days with them.  On the first day I spent with them, we showed them a little bit of the city of Cagliari.  We walked through the city streets, got gelato, and went to one of the city’s malls.  Then we went to San Gavino, the town where Matthew lived with his host family, and had a late lunch (later than the usual 2 or 3 pm Italian lunch) of delicious bread, cheese, and sausage in the apartment his parents were renting behind Matthew’s host family’s house.  Afterwards, we met Matthew’s host dad, and had a filling dinner of pizza at a pizzeria, followed by gourmet Italian hot chocolate, which is much thicker (and much better in my opinion) than that of the States.  This particular place had between 20 and 30 different kinds of flavored hot chocolate, including milk, dark, and white chocolate varieties flavored with fruits, mint, cayenne pepper, coconut, nuts, and others.

            The next day, Matthew, his parents, and I had a breakfast of cheese, bread, and meat, along with cappuccini, biscotti, and juice.  This was most definitely the biggest breakfast I had had since I left the States (having eaten just biscotti and caffelatte every morning), so it was a bit strange to me but delicious nonetheless.   After our breakfast, we left for the ruins of the Nuraghe close to the city of Barumini in the center of the island.  These are megalithic ruins of the Nuragic civilization of Sardegna, built well before 1000 B.C.  Essentially, it is a village comprised of 4 or so huge towers in the middle with smaller stone rings spreading out in all directions.  It was built on a hill surrounded by grasslands and other hills.  We climbed up to the top of the middle towers and could see for miles around.  It was unbelievable.  It was probably the oldest structure I have ever seen.  It was strange standing in the middle of the small stone rings or the giant towers thinking about what was happening in that exact same spot thousands of years ago.  It was such an amazing experience for me and I hope I get to see more of those structures.  

View from the Nuraghe sight

The Nuraghe

Smaller stone rings 

View from the top of the Nuraghe, and a herd of sheep!

            Afterwards, we made our way to San Sperate.  It was my second time to San Sperate, but I was glad I came back.  We walked around the town, looking at the murals, and made our way to the musical stones again.  We walked through the field of stones.  After we looked at the stones, we walked past a house where we stopped at last time to pet a Labrador puppy and chat with some townspeople.  We saw the puppy again, which grew to twice the size of when we last saw it.  At that moment, I realized that I had been in Sardegna for quite a long time even if it didn’t feel like it, and the time I had left would go just as fast, maybe faster.  It was a weird feeling, both sad and motivating. 

Here are more pictures of San Sperate, but you may want to go to my past entry to see some better pictures.  

San Sperate

More San Sperate Murals

After our trip to San Sperate, we made our way back to Cagliari and to my host family’s apartment building, I said goodbye to Matthew and his parents, and went up to the apartment. 

            On New Years Eve, a few exchange students and I went out to eat at a Japanese sushi restaurant for dinner.  It was basically my first time at a real sushi place, but it was really good.  Later, we just walked around Cagliari, met some of my classmates, rode some carnival rides at a fair at the marina on Via Roma in the center of the city, and went to Bastione di San Remy, an entrance to Il Castello, to prepare for midnight.  The whole piazza on Bastione di San Remy was crowded with people, and fireworks displays could be seen on two sides of the piazza.  At midnight, everyone yelled “Auguri!” and celebrated the New Year!  It was an amazing sight to see so many people up on that piazza on New Year and a bit strange too.  Usually, back in Northfield, I would celebrate New Years with group of friends.  It was a very interesting experience being with so many people to welcome in the New Year! 

            On this past Thursday, one of my exchange student friend’s from Australia invited me to come to a party in Terralba with his exchange program to celebrate the Italian Epiphany holiday of the coming of La Befana, who is an old woman with a broomstick (similar to a witch) who leaves candy and/or other gifts in good children’s stockings and coal (or a black rock candy) in bad children’s stockings on the eve of Epiphany.  The city was in the central area of the island, near the west coast.  So in the morning we took a train to Oristano (a bigger city near Terralba), not really sure what we would do once we got there or how we would end up at the party.  We arrived there and wandered the city, seeing an old cathedral and a tower left from the original medieval city.  

Oristano 

              A little after lunch time, we took a bus to Torre Grande, a small, slightly touristy town on the west coast, not far from Oristano.  This trip was actually quite unplanned and spontaneous, and we got to test our Italian while we asked when and from where we could take buses!  We arrived in Torre Grande, and basically explored the town.  We walked on the beach without our shoes, certainly looking like dumb foreigners (it is January, remember, and quite cold).  We stepped into the cold sea a few times, found and explored a forest, and walked along the deserted tourist-season streets along the beach.  This trip was such a great feeling, because we hadn’t really planned anything or how to get places, we just went.  

The forest we came across

Then we took our bus back to Oristano, followed by a bus to Terralba.  We arrived in Terralba, explored a bit, bought some pizzette for a snack and headed to the party.  We arrived at the party and conversed a bit with the other exchange students and Italian outbound kids until the exchange students’ area representative from their program asked them, along with me, to give a little speech.  I was fine with that, but I did think it was funny that she asked me when I’m not even a part of their program.  I was a bit excited to give the speech actually, because this would be my first real test at an unprepared speech in Italian (the one in Alghero doesn’t count because I basically wrote down everything, even if I wrote it down 15 minutes before giving the speech).  This would be the first time I would have to talk (with no notes or anything, just what’s inside my head) in front of a large group of people.  So eventually the time came, and I nailed it!  It obviously wasn’t that complicated of a speech (it consisted of the Italian equivalent of “Hello, my name is Daniel Martinson.  I’m an exchange student through Rotary and I’m living in Cagliari for the year.  I’m from the Northfield, Minnesota in the United States, it’s a small town of around 20,000 people, so it’s quite a bit smaller than Cagliari.  I’m having a lot of fun!”  Simple, but I spoke it without troubles!)  After the speeches, we had a dinner of pizza, pasta, pork, and not much else but it was all extremely good.  Later the Befana came!  Or two…. Two men from the program dressed up and handed out gifts to everyone present.  Soon after, we got a ride back to Cagliari.  And the morning after, I got my candy-filled stockings from the Befana!     

The group of exchange students/outbound Italian students/inbound Italian students/friends at the party

And after these two weeks of fun and adventures, I have to start school again.  In some ways I’m excited to start school again, but in others I’m not so glad.  I can say I’m excited to see my school mates though!! 

I’ll try to keep up on the posting!  I’m aiming for one at least every two weeks!

A late Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and Best Wishes to all of you on the island of Sardegna, on the mainland of Italy, back home in the States, or elsewhere!! 

Uno ritardo Buon Natale, Buone Feste, Buon Anno Nuovo, e Auguri a tutti nella isola della Sardegna, nella terraferma dell’Italia, in America, o da qualche altro luogo!!

Ci sentiamo!

Daniel