New Years and January

It's been a good January here in Italy. I started off the year with my american AFS friend coming to visit me and her, my host sister, two friends, and I went to the disco. It was a lot of fun! Then on New Years day we had a big lunch with the grandma. Pasta asciuta.. yummmm!!
It was great to have my friend come to stay with us for a bit and have another American around. Unfortunately, she got the stomach flu on her last day here. Also, on the Epiphany there is still vacation and the "Befana" comes during the night and brings you sweets if you've been good and puts them in a stocking.
I've been back to school for about two weeks now and it's going pretty well. Things are really starting to fall into place now. I'm understanding a lot and I'm even reading a small chapter book in Italian. On the back it says "for ages 9 to 10" HAHA! I guess my language is as good as a 9 year old! I'm also making friends and yesterday I went over my own friends house. It was fun and she showed me around her town so I got to see another piece of Salento. I'm really happy with how far I've come and I'm excited for the coming months because I know it's only going to get better. Right now in Salento it's actually a bit cold (one day it hit 32°F) and we light a fire almost every day. The Italians are also really crazy about covering themselves from the cold when it really isn't that cold. Though at this point I've gotten used to it.
I've started my school's theater program and we're going to do Don Quijote. However, I'm not sure what it will be like because the first and only rehearsal I've been to about 2/3 of the kids were missing.
Other than that, next month we have a vacation for "Carnival" and my host family, their same friends from Rome, and I are going to Belgium!
Miss you all and have a great day!