Il Mio Compleanno!

So, one more post before spring break starts tomorrow! I may or may not be able to post during the next ten days, but I'll at least do it when I return to Siena.
Alright, so the only thing I really want to write about this week is my birthday.
It was good, but weird. Might I begin by saying, Monday birthdays are always odd, especially since we had a test on Tuesday. But what was really weird about it was celebrating with a borrowed family. Honestly, I never really thought about family as a big part of my birthday, because they just were around always. And yeah, last year I was off at college by my birthday coincided with parent's weekend, so I was still with mom for that (or the day before, but still). My host family is great and all, but they're not really mine the same way my family at home is. Alessandra made me tiramisu, which was delicious, but too soft for the candles to stand up in for very long, so instead of singing to me they all yelled "VELOCE VELOCE VELOCE" at me to blow out the candles before the fire hit the food. I found this to be rather funny, but still odd. And like I said, we had an Italian test, so I didn't do anything at all that night. We went out the next  night though, for my both my birthday and my friend Rachel's (who's birthday is march 8th), which was a lot of fun.  And the good news is, I got 103% on the Italian test!
Anyways, that's the birthday news. Next adventure, il sud! We're heading to Sorrento tomorrow , and we'll make our way around Napoli, Herculanium, Ischia, Capri, and at the end, Sicilia. We're all just super excited to relax and hopefully it'll be nice and caldo (hot). It's a bit funny to be taking a vaction from what already feels like a vaction, but believe me, we all need it. Although the course work is not in the least bit challenging, living with a random Italian family is. No matter how great and wonderful they are, the fact is, we're still guests. And it's hard to try to take on a whole new life style and set of cultural norms in addition to the whole language thing. So as much as it'll lovely to return to our Italian mommies and daddies, we are quite looking forward to just living with each other for a bit and getting a chance to relax and recharge. I'll do my best to keep you posted!