Tired

Italians have too much energy.
they go to bed late, wake up early, go to school, come home and study, then go out till late and do it all over again the next day. i dont know how i am going to keep up!!
Where do i start? well it has been a busy first 2 weeks. the first week went unbelievably slow but this week has just flown by and i am beginning to get used to all of the customs, foods and routines here. my spoken italian is still not very good but i am surprised at how much i understand now when somebody actually speaks slowly enough and with enough hand gestures. my parents have come up with a special vocabulary for me too. they use very simple words to describe what we are doing or what we are eating etc. my little brother is the same and though he has the most limited english of my siblings, we communicate more effectively then i expected. his words are simplier so they are easier for me to understand. viky, mamma and i use the dictionary ALL the time but we are getting really good at flicking through to find what we want to say.
We had the first afs meeting since ive been here yesterday and it was fantastic to see the 4 other students from the chapter giuseppe and i belong to. 2 of the girls (one from paraguay and one from holland) are in gravina with me but at the school next door to mine. the 2 schools are connected by a common gym but they dont have pe when i do. it was the first time id spoken to someone who wasnt italian since ive been here and it was great to hear different accents. gave me a little bit of a break.
School. its boring at the moment because i dont understand alot but i do work for french and english (i do italian in these periods - my class translates things in to english and i do them in to italian). the french teacher is so great. i dont think the class is too much better at french than i am so she has started with the basics and you would not believe how easy it is to understand her when shes talking about verbs (etc) because the italian, french and english words are all very similar. in my other classes (german, tourism and economics, religion, law, italian language and history, and art history) i pretty much do nothing but read or teach my self italian using my handy dandy little dictionary (thanks douglas).
Today (sunday) we cut and squashed grapes in to wine. it took most of the morning but it was good. it was at the family farm (pappas family) and it was really nice to have all the family there just relaxed with each other. then we had a massive lunch with lasagne (it was fantastic!!).
this week will be pretty cruisy again. we have only 2 hours of school tomorrow then we have some big assembly thing. then on tuesday and wednesday we dont have to go to school because the town celebrate saint michael, the saint of gravina. then next week, Giuseppe, Viky and i are going to Milan for a wedding of one of their cousins so that should be good but im really not looking forward to another plane flight. i am so sick of them it is unbelieveable!
I think thats about it for now. will update u all after milan!
CIAO!!

ps hi paige.
pss does anyone else want shout outs??