Buon Natale

Cara amici,
I hope everyone is having a great time preparing for the holidays. The biggets news for me is after a long and stressful process with afs I have decided to stay in Italy. Right now I am staying with a temporary family because my real family is in Trentino(the mountains) for vacation and it was too late for me to go with them. I have met the new family and they seem really sweet. The mom is an english teacher, I have a 15 year old sister, a brother who is away at university in milano, and a father who works in Rome. I will have my own room :) I am hoping this new situation will be much better than the last one. Christmas for me this year is going to be very odd since I am away from my real family and not in my new one here yet. I am just thankful though that everything worked out.
And now for some lighter news...
One of my good friends Renee from our first orientation is coming down to Bari to visit her relatives for christmas. We should have fun going out shopping and to the bars. Its so funny whenever I go out with friends they all ask about the drinking age in America and when I tell them to legally be able to drink you have to be 21 they just get a look of shock on their face. Another cultural difference is on thursday we had a party in school and the kids are allowed to bring champagne to toast and celebrate for a school party I just laughed because it's so different than in America. Its going to be awkward because I am still going to be going to school with my ex host sister but I change classes every hour so it should be ok. I have finally reached a point with my italian where I can basically understand everything when people are speaking at a normal speed and I am getting way better at expresiing myself. The other day I was speaking and I used a verb I didn't even know i knew how to conjugate and after i used it i was surprised haha. About 2 weeks ago it snowed in Bari for the first time in years and everyone was going crazy. The kids at my school are so cute and they were like Tess did you see the snow did you see the snow!!! Right now 6 more months here feels like forever but i know it will all be worth it in the end I really belive I will be fluent in Italian by the end because right now my italian is so much better than my spanish was. I miss everyone and lots of love to everyone in the states.
pace e amore
-Tess