She was an Italian Foreign Exchange Student, and before she arrived, I was the only girl who wore a calf length winter coat. Then she showed up in her European splendor, and I knew it was a kinship.

She is from Modena, the land of balsamic vinegar and where porsches are test driven. She listened to a lot of Death Metal, and 60's singer songwriters. She wore very real granny type underpants, because she believed that they lifted her rear end, like a bra. She definitely didn't shave, and she rarely showered, opting rather for little cat baths in the sink.

She is why I have called this diary "Rachaelina". That is what she called me almost always, insisting that it is Italian for Rachael, which is a lie, as it is 'Raquel', right? She lied a lot, but I didn't really mind. She was very bad at it, so I knew what to throw away. She smoked tons of pot, and was very irresponsible with her allotted monies. She flirted with every man, including my boyfriend.

And while these are almost all negative qualities, I don't think that I have ever loved a girl more. She was the fiercest.

She detested her host family, who had invited her into their home with intentions of using her as a obligatory child care provider, so she spent most of her days and nights with me. My family loved her.

The first time that she came with me to my Grandparent's house for our weekly Sunday visit, she taunted my Grandfather for wearing a bib to eat a dessert in his easy chair. Called him a baby, I believe! He is quite deaf, and couldn't hear her, but the rest of my family was fairly startled, so much that then and there they had to decide whose side they were on. And we were all on hers, as the gall was inspiring.

Her breasts were an issue: largest breasts I have ever seen on a girl of her stature! She was very proud of them.

Lodo: "Rachael, the boys at the lunch table were talking of how you have nicest ass of school!"

Rachael blushing: "That is awful."

Lodo: "It is good! What do you think the boys like about me!" chest splayed out.

Lodo and Rachael shopping~

Rachael: "No, this shirt is way too low."

Lodo: "Rachael, there is nothing there to show! It is good!"

Rachael: "No, it's gross. And Jaman would hate it."

Lodo: "I was thinking about how fucking weird it is that Jaman likes your little girl breasts. It's like he is liking a little girl."

All of these things sound wretched. But she was so very loving with all of it. Like an affectionate bully. Entertaining, anyways.

To cover up spending my gas money on 'irresponsible things', and as a result, running out of gas halfway back home from a party, Lodo tried to tell my parents that I had accidentally left the gas cap off, and that the gas had seeped out. They call it petrol where she's from, I believe, and her impression of American gas, was that it was an actual gaseous substance that could float out of one's cap. My parent's bought none of it, and I, I laughed until I fell down, on account of snorting, and stomping, and twisting my ankle.

And she was just awful at math. Wow. I am blown away at how awful our friendship looks written down, when actually it was dreadfully miraculous. She came to school at a point in time where I was contemplating just dropping out, or maybe killing myself, and she made me happier than anybody could.

She was a fiercely loyal woman. She really was. And she could eat more fruit than anybody I've ever known.

Her parents and younger brother Jaquimo flew here for her graduation, and stayed at my Grandparent's house. Her father, a dead ringer for Lyle Lovett, told her that she had become fat, upon greeting her at the airport. Her mother was an apologetic type of woman, and her brother spoke not one, single, solitary word of English, as he was not old enough to have taken courses in school. Little Jaquimo!

When she left, she gave me a t-shirt that I had oft admired of hers. Grey with the word KOOKAI spelled out 4 times across the chest. It has a very sentimental stain, on it. It looks like maybe wine, or something like that. But Lodo told me it was a stain from an apple! What? No apples stain, like that. But those are the kind of lies that I am talking about, the ones that grew to be endearing. Just ridiculous.

Lodovica is now a bar maiden attending law school, which is what both of her parents do,and she says that she is bulimic.