Dutchess County Fair

This week is the Dutchess County Fair in New York and this goes on every year for one week in the summer. Vendors come and try selling their crafts, food, supplies, equipment, livestock and a lot of other things. I cannot remember the last time I went, but I was younger. This was also the first year going without my family. I did go with my brother and his girlfriend, but I was able to go on my own and look around at what I thought was interesting. The first thing we did when we got into the fair was go to the 4-H booth and buy milkshakes! When you go to the fair it is a tradition and a must to buy a milkshake form the 4-H club. After milkshakes we headed up to see the farm animals. There were piglets, huge pigs, dairy cows, another kind of cow and the cows that were destined to become hamburgers and steaks :( Goats, horses and sheep filled the other pens. In another set of pavilions were chickens, ducks and rabbits. I did not go into that pavilion this year, but I have in the past. After livestock hill we headed into the food area and walked among the rides. I do not typically go on fair or carnival rides, not my thing.

My brother and I split ways after the ride section and I was on my own! The first place I went were to the craft pavilions, and I stopped at the first vendor who was selling candles he made himself. We started talking about different things and he explained about the wax he used and the difference between his candles and soy and the health differences. Between them there are not that many differences. I bought four little candles :) From there I walked to the next pavilion where I then bought hot sauce!! The man also made his own hot sauce with peppers they grew themselves. I ran into my brother and his girlfriend and took them to see the hot sauce guy. A little while later I meet up with a friend and we talked about my upcoming trip and walked around a little. He had to eat and get back to work so I went off into a different direction and found more vendors. I found this one booth called Dancing Bear. In that booth I bought a Fair Trade bag and a Beatles poster :). Once I was done spending all my money I headed back up to livestock hill to waste some more time before 2:30. When I was walking past the cows I found my brother again and we stayed together and went to see Strawberry Fields "Tribute to The Beatles" who were playing at the event tent. The show was not that long and rather entertaining. The men dressed like The Beatles and even had wigs to look like them. They sang Beatles songs, of corse they were not as wonderful as The Beatles, but almost as close as I am going to get. As I sat there thinking the only way I could get closer to a Beatles concert would be to see Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, but that won't be soon, then I thought that some of these people might have seen The Beatles in concert when they were younger. Can you imagine!!! I would have been one of those girls crying in the stands of Shea Stadium who then became a hippie fighting for world peace! I will still fight for world peace, without the drugs and flower power lol.

All in all the day was great!! I had so much fun. This was one of the first days of the summer where I went some where all day and just got to do what I wanted to do. There were so many cute animals I just wanted to scoop them up and take them home with me :)

I received another email from ASSE and it was kind of confusing. It talks about asking for permission of stay from my host family and I need to pay them 80,00 Euro. I know host families are not paid and should not ask for money from the student for hosting them, but thats what this sounds like. I asked my friend who went to Italy last year with ASSE and he said that the permission of stay is like a student visa and the money goes to the government to allow me to stay. It is a little different than here, but Italy is its own country. Wednesday I am going down to the city with my mom to hand in my student visa application. I have only two things left I need for my visa; passport pictures, which I can do at home. The pictures need to be a certain size and have a white background, not that difficult. Lastly I need a letter from my parents notarized saying they are finically responsible for me in Italy and I will be all set to get my visa at last.

Sorry if this post is rather long. I like to keep them short because no one likes to read forever. The pictures are of Strawberry Fields "Tribute to The Beatles", part of the fair with rides in the background and piglets from one of the pavilions on livestock hill. Enjoy, Ciao a tutti!!

August Already?!?!?!

Hey everyone! Summer is half over if you like it or not, and for me, I am a little excited to go to school this year. I have 26 days before I depart for Italy and I cannot wait!! This weekend I am having another party/get together/shindig before I leave. Although my friends planed one for me already, I had talked with my mom about having one myself. I have been working and my last weekend that I will be working will be August 5th. I go down to apply for my visa on the 1st, and hopefully go to the U.S. Open on the 2nd with my best friend :D.

I have emailed my local rep. about my pre-departure orientation, no answer yet. I did receive a rough layout of my orientation in Milan. I will post it on here so you can see it. Very exciting stuff. I also received my very last informational letter from ASSE. This letter talked about "Your International Flight", "Arrival", "Are You The Same Person", "Documents", and "Bon Voyage!" (or in Italian, Buon Viaggio!). The letter also included my E-Ticket Confirmation and a sheet with a check list of things I should do before going to the airport, at the airport, in flight, arrival and listed some numbers to call if I had an "Emergency During Normal Business Hours (Mon-Fri 0900-17.30)" or if I had an "Emergency Outside of Normal Business Hours" lol. I have also solved the problem of my little ASSE "must use" carry one bag. I will be using the ASSE bag for my computer and some personal things like wallet and such and then using a small rolling bag for my extra pair of clothes, travel size shampoo and such, and some other carry-on things (I am not quite sure what those are yet). Anyway, back to my orientation in Milan:

14 Sep-Welcom students at the airport and then go to the Hostel- Ostello La Cordata
15 Sep- 9AM Breakfast, BEC Presentation, student presentation,
1pm Lunch than sightseeing tour of Milan
7 pm Dinner
16 Sep- 9AM Breakfast, Permission of stay, Doctor, Insurance
13.00 Lunch, Visit Duomo, Free time for shopping :)
19.00 Dinner and walk in Navigi area (nice picturesque area of Milan)
17 Sep- Breakfast, taxi to airport/railway station to catch plane/train to final destination

I will most likely be taking a train to Naples and meeting my host family there. I have also uploaded a picture of the bags I will be bringing with me to Italy. (Sorry its at the very top of the post and not at the bottom with the caption)

Electric Windows!!

I spent to weekend at my aunt's house for a little birthday dinner and some cake. I spent the night and had a lot of time just hanging out with her. In Beacon there was this event called Electric Windows where local artists painted canvases and the next day they put them in to windows of this old electric blanket factory. I thought it was going to be a little different, but it was still really cool watching them paint and looking at the art work.

Last weekend I received another letter from ASSE!!!! It was acually a package :) In the package was another informational letter about culture shock, ASSE flight package and luggage. After scimming the paper I looked into the package to find a backpack. It is blue with ASSE written on the front. In the letter is says, "The ASSE Flight Bag must be used as a carry-on bag for the trip. The ASSE bag is a draw string backpack and smaller than what I was going to use. Along with the backpack there were two luggage tags with my information and ASSE's information. There was also a name tag in the package which I must also wear "at the airport and while your are traveling with the group." I can understand the name tag so we know each other's names, but the bag, really? Oh well, at least you get to bring a carry on and a personal item/bag.

Today I started packing a box to mail to Italy before I get there. I packed host family gifts, the gifts I got to hand out to future friends and some other things so I can pack more in my suitcase. I still have to mail the box of things back to my old host sister Kristin. Right now her box of things is sitting under my bed, but when I go to get my box weighed I will bring hers and send it on its way.

I told myself I did not want to buy new cloths and if I did buy something I would not buy that many. I just started looking for new clothes to buy for Italy. I shopped the sales and found a few new things. Jeans were the only things I knew I wanted to buy here in the States because they are much more expensive in Europe. So far I have bought a few (4) new, plan shirts, a cardigan, 2 new pairs of jeans, sandals, a new pair of black flats, a new bathing suit, black skirt, a new belt, slippers and sleeping shorts. I would like to pick up a few more things before I leave so i have them and not have to worry about buying them right away in Italy. Shorts, skirts, and dress(s) are pretty much the only things left to buy, besides socks and all those things. The weather will be different then New York so I will just buy a jacket in Italy for their winter. Knowing myself, I will want to buy a million things in Italy, so the less I buy here, the more I can buy in Italy!!!

My summer is going pretty well. Not doing much, but I did go "camping" the other night. I slept in a tent in my friends backyard. I also went swimming for the first time this summer with my aunt. I got bored one day and cleaned my room as well as rearranged my room. And tomorrow I should be spending some time with my best friend. I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer too.

Ciao!!