Two Sides of a Quarter

Hello, my name is Rebecca Regoli
- No, that introduction is too banal and used too much.
- Ciao, my name is Rebecca Regoli -
Well, it's slightly more original, but still boring and stiff.
Ok, how about I just skip the beginning and get straight to the point: my name is Rebecca Regoli and I'm a "Two Sider". No, no. Not a two-sided-lying-bitch. I'm a "Two Sider", as in a am one of many that are two sides of a quarter and not just one, but lets rewind and go back to the beginning first.
"What's up with the title of the blog?", one of you may ask.
Well, at the beginning I created this blog with the goal of having people reading what I had to say, but especially to have you readers post pics, and poems, and short stories, and personal experiences or what ever. I wanted to hear other peoples voices, but then I realized that if people wanted to share their stories they would simply create their own blog and write. The thought stopped me from posting anything new, until a couple of days ago I came up with the idea that I could use this blog as a sort of summer journal. Not the kind that begins with, "Dear Diary". I'm talking about something more on the lines of me telling my friends what's up with me and what I am doing during the summer, without us using ten thousand emails. I'm not sure if I explained myself very clearly... Ok, lets put it this way... Blog = all the emails I would send my friends during the summer put together. I think you got it now :)
Before I start to tell my friends and you readers about where I am and what I'm doing, I think I should briefly tell you who I am.
My name is Rebecca - you may have gotten that at the beginning of the post - and I'm 17 years and six months today. As I've written and explained numerous times in my life before today, my mom is american and my dad is italian. I was born in Turin, Italy, and I've lived there my whole life. My mom, being american and all, spoke to me in english since a was a little kid, and thanks to both my parents I can consider myself two sides of a quarter. I'm a two sider for many reasons, the most obvious ones are that I'm bilingual and that I've known two different cultures and life styles my whole life. I guess that a two sider could be describes as anyone who knows differently and has deeply experienced the world outside their country.
My friends are epitomes of the different cases of two siders. I shall change their names for privacy, but all that I'll talk about is true because I'm a two sider, not a two sided lying bitch (ok, ok, I'll admit that it wasn't funny, but I got my point across).
Macie is one of my best friends. She's 1.60 meters tall (5 feet, 6 inches), she has short, slightly red hair, green eyes and a beautiful smile. She has a very sweet and usually calm character - I say usually because if you dare try to bite her she might smack you in the face, hard - and loves to shop :) From my very short and bad description of her she may sound very two dimensional , but you couldn't be more wrong. She's 100% italian, but since last summer she perfectly understands where I'm coming from when the U.S. topic pops up in conversations. Last summer, she went to Cantonment, Florida as an exchange student until February. I really missed her, but at the same time I realized how big of an opportunity it was for both of us. On one side of the word, Macie was improving her english, going to school there, getting to know a new reality, included into a new family and made new friends in warm Florida; on the other side of the world I was living where a second Ice Age, but at the same time I got two know new people and created tighter bonds with people I already knew.
One of these people is Savannah. She's very similar to me in some ways, but also very different from me in other ways. Savannah is tall, skinny and blonde with huge brown eyes and a big smile always plastered on her face. She's also bilingual and is half german and half italian. This often allows us to understand each other well, because both of us has family living far away, both of us speak two languages fluently and both of us understand how tuff it can be to live in one italy and, at times, want to live in closer to our family. Unlike Macie and me, Savannah is almost 19 years old. We often go out on the weekend and go to pubs in the centre of town with friends, have fun and laugh a lot, especially when Savannah starts to laugh and closes one eye that makes us laugh even more.
Effie is another good friend of mine. She's another kind of two sider because although she's italian, she speaks english really well and has been going to school in New Castle, England, for the past three years. When she speaks english she has a real cute english accent that always makes me smile. She's about as tall as Macie, blonde with brown-gold eyes and she too has a very cute smile and a funny laugh. She pays the guitar and she loves to sing Artic Monkeys songs, a english group she loves and she's rubbed them off on me making me really enjoy listening to them.
Effie, Savannah and Macie are all in my class and on fridays we usually go to a coffee shop next to my house on fridays before school to get a coffee and eat a roll, play UNO or study together before walking to school.
We're all very different from each other bur in one way or another we're all two siders and we call each other the Bezzies, which is how they say best friends in New Castle.
We have another good friend whose name is Cindy. She doesn't go to school with us but has been good friends with Effie for several years and her mom used to be my preschool teacher. She's shorter then Savannah and me and is a brunette with curly hair and brown eyes. She's very friendly and speaks good english. In my opinion she's a very different kind of two sider, but still is one thanks to her exposure to the english culture because her mom has been exposed to it due to her job and has shared her knowledge with her daughter.
One last good friend of mine is Emma. She's very tall, a brunette with a short hair, brown eyes and a big cheeks when she smiles. She's extremely friendly and social and we've been good friends for about four years and we often think alike and say very similar things. She too is a too is a two sider and speaks fluent english and italian like I do. Her parents are both italian, but she's had english speaking babysitters her whole life and has learned to speak it extremely well.

(from the left: savannah, me, george, maria and macie)


(on the left is Emma and on the right is me)


(from the left: Savannah, Cindy, Effie).


(from the left: Me, Savannah, Cindy).

Like I've told you before I will be writing my friends to tell them about my summer and hopefully they will be telling me about theirs, but you're warmly welcome to share your opinions and personal summer experiences.
Have a good summer!

xoxo,
- Becky.