Hello 180 Days!

"How did it get so late so soon" - Dr. Seuss

That is a pretty good way of looking at the situation right now. They say exchange isn't a year in a life, but a life in a year. As true as that is, I then must acknowledge I am starting to approach the end of my life here in Italy. It remains true in this case, as it is true in every case that the end of a life is a sad thing. Although fortunatley for me the end if this life leads to a place where there is always sun. Yes, in a sense I am talking about heaven, but this heaven is called 'Summertime in California'

I last wrote in this blog a little over a month ago. A lot has transpired in the last 40 days. I switched houses, twice, thats right 2 times! I am now living with my first host family until I leave Italy. This is as scheduled. I am happy to be back with the Bettoni family, and finally to be settled in to a house for more than a month. 

It is now March, and I thought the snow would be melting at lightspeed by this time, but oh how I was wrong! In the first three days of March the mountain has recieved nearly two more meters of snow! I guess I will have more time on the mountain than I thought. Speaking of time on the mountain.  A new hobby that some friends of mine and I do from time to time is what I have dubbed "Utimate Sledding". We rent bobsleds, take a lift to the top of the ski resort, eat dinner, and then sled down well over a mile guided by the lights we have attatched to out heads. This my friends, is the future of winter sports!

To continue with the sport theme, I went to Sestriere in the middle of Febuary. Sestriere was the center of events for the 2006 Torino Olympics, and is the heart of the ski/snowboard fantasy land known as Via Lattia aka the Milky Way. I was hosted there by an Italian family who's kid will be going to the US on exchange this coming year. I returned from that weekend and ran my longgest practice run yet, and 18 miler. The marathon prep is in full swing, and I could not be more excited for the race in April. All my hard work will cullminate into an amazing trip to Vienna, Austria where I will complete 26 miles on feet. My goal for the race is under 3 hours and 25 minutes.

 Away from the topic of sports, and straight into lyguistics. I am taking on the challenge of learning dialect. Every region of Italy has distinct dialects of the Italian language, not everyone speaks their regions dialect, but I have taken it upon myslef to learn this regions dialect. I am in Valsesia where the dialect is very unique. The Valsesia was the border of the Piedmont and Lombard regions/kingdoms almost 200 years ago. As a result you get a mixed dialect of Milanese and Piemontese that less than 2500 people speak. 

This coming month I do not have a lot planned so we will see where it takes me. Sometimes the best things come as surprises. I welcome this last branch of my exchange with open arms, and a hope of many many new expiriences, adventures, and educational growth. I will update in the next month or so. 

Until next time, arrivederci,

Logan White

Before ultimate sledding

A rare sunny day in Alagna

Sestriere

Skiing with Gianmario

Half way

Hello to all,

(Pictures at bottom)

So it's been a month and some days since I last updated the blog. The last time I wrote was at the start of Christmas break. So that is where we will start this blog. 

Let me start by saying Christmas break was lots of fun, also shorter than it should be. The break was kicked off with a school party that transcended into the night. The following days were spent on the mountain snowboarding. This year has been amazing to the mountains with more than 9 feet of snow!!! I then spent some days with friends from school, and visited some other exchangers. At some point during the break I signed up for the Marathon of Milan. That is 26 miles of running to clarify. More on that later. Then with the blink of an eye break was over and school was back.

 School was back, but life goes on. I made a trip to Biella during the first week of school being back, to say bye to a friend. Luci the Aussie, had finished her year in Italy. (As Austrillia operates on a different time table)  To commensurate her time we had a dinner with the district head families and other students. We miss you Luci. That night wasn't all sad, as I neglected to mention before Luci leaving wasn't the only cause for the dinner. The other purpose was to welcome the new. Frances, a girl from South Africa arrived the day before, and we all came to welcome her to Italy. That night was very transitional for me. It felt as if a right of passage ritual had been completed. I am the "oldie" and she is the "newbie" as we call the positions here in Italy

Now lets talk about my Visa, and I don't mean the credit card. To come to Italy on exchange you have to get a student visa. I recieved my student visa without a hassle and continued on my path to Italy. Fast forward 5 months. Logan is in his room, and is reading about the return procedure and guidelines. One of the rules says you must return before the Visa expires. No problem right? Wrong.  My visa expires June 7th, let me explain the problems.

-1st school ends on the 6th so I recieve no rest or goodbye time.

-2nd I get no summer

-3rd  everyone elses visa expires late june or early July! Making me the first to leave

Atleast I will get to see my class graduate, I guess that is an upside. So the visa takes me to my next point I am now half way through my exchange which means I have been here for more time than I have left! See you soon Humboldt. (slightly joking, slightly serious)

Now as promised the marathon. I have been running and cross training 5 times a week in prep for the event. Then I recieved an email yesterday saying I am to young to run and will be refunded my money. So now the hard part, find a marathon I can do. After expanding my search a million times I found the VCM, (Vienna City Marathon) yes Vienna, Austria. So now that is the goal. The race is April 13. Now I just need to work out the logistics. I have called upon my first host mom to be my guidance on the trip, but do not have an answer yet. I understand if she can't take me though, as going to Vienna is a lot to ask from a person. For now I just have to keep running, and hope the logistics work out in my favor.

Thank you for reading, and stay classy,

Logan White

Enjoy the pictures

Me, Luci, (Standing) Frances (Blonde) at The farewell/welcome dinner

Milan christmas time

Host grandma

Favorite restraunt on the Mountain

Xmas themed dinner with friends

Who does't love snow and beautiful mountains?

Time goes on

Hello Internet Users,

(Photo recap at bottom)

My last post was over a month ago, and with over a month of time comes over a months worth of life to tell you about. To start its scary to say that it was over a month ago that I last posted. It feels like 2-3 weeks at most. A lot has happend since then, in the way if travel and language ability.

The weekend after my last post my host parents took me and two friends to Lugano. If you ask the internet you will learn Lugano is a small city on the shore of a lake in the south of Switzerland. If you ask me you will learn it is a breathtaking city of the edge of a breathtaking lake with crisp autumn tempetures, rediculously high end stores, and an awesome public park. 

The next weekend I took a short trip north of Varallo to a small town of less than 100 people in summer and less than 5 in winter. The town is called Rima, Rima is beautiful and very cold, you could call it beautifully cold. The town is very old and had been a summer get away for high end politicians hundreds of years ago, but now is almost unvisited. Another intresting thing about Rima is it just had a 4 star resort buit in it. When I saw the resort I thought 2 things. 

1. Brilliant architecht

2. Horrible buisness man

The resort is drapped over a small river, and across from a large waterfall, everything about it is breaktaking its just a shame the only costumer could very well be the owner.

About two weeks later my class and I took a trip to Venice!!! And just to save room as I could tell you about the city for ever I will bullet list it.

• Spectacular views

• Amazing buildings and churches

• I wore a t-shirt for the first time in ever

• Lots of water (the amazing canal system)

• If you have the oppertunity to go, go.

Then I woke up after my venice day trip tired as ever, and made a four hour trek to Cremona where I met up with other Rotary kids from lots of districts and we all enjoyed the large Torrone festival. Torrone is an Italian sweet that is hard to describe so your going to have to believe me when I say it's good. Cremona is a city famous for the violin and invention of torrone, hence the torrone festival.

Since then my traveling has somewhat stopped as the mountain opend for snowboarding and thats been a more than easy choice to me over the last couple weeks. 

But hey thats not all folks!

I have been asking Luci and Jessica, inbounds living in Biella (city 1 hour away) to come visit me in Varallo. This mini trip was accomplished by them a few weeks ago. The three of us went for a tour of Varallo,got cafe, told jokes, and enjoyed eachothers company. 

Now the big news! 

I HAVE SWITCHED FAMILIES!!

This is big people, that means my time is 1/3 over! That is amazing, and also hard to believe. My new family is very nice, and I have no problems with them. Their house is beautiful, and I have host siblings, which is a nice change of pace.  With that said I loved the time I had at my first family, and will be moving in with them for my last 3 months of my exchange. I am thankful for all they have done for me, and my first host mom continues to drive me to school. (how sweet of her)

Christmas break start this coming Monday and I am more than welcoming it! I might even find enough free time to update my bolg before  another month and a half goes by,.

Thank you, good bye, and stay classy,

Logan White

Photos-

Italy 2 months later!

Hello everyone!

I apologize in advance for any, and all mistakes I make in my grammer and spelling.

In about 17 hours I will be celebrating my 2 month anniversary in Italy. It has been a very fast 2 months! I am loving everyday, and the new oppertunity everyday presents to me.

I have seen Aosta and the Aosta valley since last update, and I fell in love with the small city/capital of the valley.  It was the most captivating mountains combined with an ancient history including Roman remains that made it so amazing. The other two big bullet points of travel are that last week (last Saturday) I hiked to a "Rifugio" in that alps with my Family and a friend. The rifugio was a high mountain lodge with beutiful views of large waterfalls, and the golden yellow autumn trees. At the Rifugio we stopped for a lunch before heading back, I had a patato dish, mixed with speck, and a cheese sauce. The next travel news is I believe that I am going  Lugano, Switzerland this Saturday with my family and some friends. For those who do not know, Lugano is a magnificent lake town in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland.

My new goal to accomplish while in Italy is the Haute Route. The trip would take place this spring, but preperation will begin now. The Haute Route, is the worlds most famous ski tour. It starts in Chamaniox, France, and treks through the alps for 6 days, at which point you end up in Zermatt, Switzerland. So I will keep the blog posted on that.

Other news includes my school schedule FINALLY switching today. As some of the classes I were in served me no benefit, but thankfully past fixing the evident, the Italians went the extra mile. For example I will now be taking German again, that is German  taught in Italian. Also they took the liberty of moving me from the math class I was in which was a algebra 1 algebra 2 mix (took 2-3 years ago in America) to Algebra 1 (took in 8th grade).

Why did they do that? Because Hey! Why not? This most likely means I will enroll in some online class to stay sharp on my math while here in Italy.

To wrap it all up my family here continues to be great! I could not be more thankful for that. Every Sunday evenjng I get a new verbal list of options of where to travel to the next  Saturday, and then I'm expected to choose which is very difficult and lucky. 

Thanks for reading,

Logan White

P.S. Stay classy America, stay classy

Rally car race in Varallo

The new winter jacket at the Rifugio

Start of the hike/end of the road

Aosta Roman theater

Biella

Made a blog... 1 month late

My name is Logan White. I am the outbound from Rotary District 5130, and the Acata Sunrise Club. This blog is a record of what happens to me here. So I have been in Italy for just over a month, and I finally gave in and got a blog. I am in Varallo Sesia, it is a small town in Northern Italy. Now for a quick run down of the last month. Well my mind says it's been about three days but my calendar says a month so I'm going to have to believe it. 

Places I have been - Milan, Turin, Stresa, Mountain towns above me, and a Rotary orientation in central Italy.

Favorite food - All Italian food is amazing

Friends - In abundance

School - Take a guess

Activity - Basketball Team and Gym

Language - Progressing

That is a summary of my life, on other notes, I without a doubt have a caffine addiction by now as the amazing coffee stereotypes could not be more true. In the coming weeks I know I'm going to Milan, again, which is a blessing and curse as anything you have heard about shopping in Milan being amazing is true, and anything you have heard about exchange students having lots of money is false. I also believe I am going to Aosta soon, which is city wich is in the middle of the alps that is supposedly very beautiful. Now 3 more things.

1. I CANNOT WAIT TO GO SNOWBOARDING AT ALANGA!!!!

2. Winter is over a month away, and I am already complaining about the cold, infact I bought gloves for wearing to school the other day.

3. I know the big question you all have at home is "You miss me right?" And the answer is "Like a dog misses fleas"

Thank you all, and until next time.

Arrivederchi,

Logan 

P.S. Stay classy America

Now enjoy these pictures

Host parents

Mountain town view

9/11 memorial in Stresa

Part of Varallo in the morning time