When in Rome... or Venice, or Lomazzo, or Cantu...

Changing families is hard.

Changing families/houses/villages three times in one month is REALLY hard.

Let me explain.

Spent most of December shuffling around different houses..moved out of my first family and into my second family for three days (Cantu), host counselor's for a week (Lomazzo), and spent Christmas in Venice before returning to my host counselor's, and finally back to my host family. whew. So basically I had been living out of the same small suitcase for the better half of December (you learn quickly how to wash clothes in the sink), trying to adjust to the varying climates of each of the respective houses and villages.
Each family has its own rhythm that you have to adapt to. Some go to bed earlier than usual, some are night owls, some go to bed depending on how good the soccer is that night. I'm good either way. At my host family, I study at the table along with the other kids. At my host counselor's, I read when everyone else is plopped on the same couch. In Venice, we stay up late every single night to watch Inspector Barnaby on TV. My first host family drank tea, so I drank tea. My second family goes for coffee, and now so do I. At my first house I was a early bird, but now I'm a night owl.

Every family has a slightly different language - the first a very clean Italian punctuated by Portuguese (Brazilian host mom), the second family a slightly earthier Italian with some Comasco dialect, but nothing I can't handle. In Venice, (heaven help me) the speak Veneto dialect, of which I can hardly understand a word.

You get used to waking up and having next to no idea where you are, having to find all the new lightswitches and where they keep the glasses in the kitchen. Everyone has a new set of rules; no shoes in the house, not allowed in the house without shoes, keep your shoes in their box in the basement, etc. (hint: most italians are HUGE on the no shoes thing - I suggest a nice pair of slippers). I think that after this many changes in so little a time I have become the ultimate adaptable human being- able to make herself at home and plop down on the couch and read in any situation. But not a chameleon. I do not change to fit the situation...I adjust. Its a fine line between fitting in, and losing yourself. I may do as the Romans do, but I will never be a Roman.