Saturday, September 22, 2012

Surreal

Wednesday night was a lot fun. I went on my first date with an Italian boy :) He's very sweet.
Thursday night, Christina and I and the boys went to downtown to try out this place we heard of that had a drink called the "tamango". Let's just say we're never going to go there again, but it was still a fun night... we think.
Yesterday, we went on a tour of a vineyard in or near Alba. I'm not really sure. It was a hard day for Christina and I , but we made it through. It was a beautiful place and the grapes were so good and the people were so nice! We got a 4 course lunch that was delicious as well as some wine. It was a fun trip (and I know you're jealous, dad).
Today, Christina and I went to the open market for groceries. We got so much food for cheap! We got a whole bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables, some brie e parmiggiano e pollo. Then we stopped by the supermarket below our house for bread and wine. We made a very good dinner with linguini. After dinner, we stopped by this pastry shop. It was delicious! I'm so happy I chose Italy for my study abroad location. I love food so much! Haha. I just have to make sure that I keep up with my running. Which I have been.
Today when Christina and I were on our way to the market we ran into a mime.... his face was painted white and he tried to get money from us by escorting us down the street... he was ridiculously creepy, but it was funny. We also stopped by a book store where we got some fridge magnets (one says "carpe diem" and the other "in vino veritas" haha) and I got Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Italian :) which made my day. I will be reading that over and over again, or trying to...
Tomorrow, we're finally going to go clothing shopping, for the first time since we've been here. Ridiculous, I know. I can't believe it hasn't even been 3 weeks since I've been here. It feels like I've been here for at least a few months. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Just Another Monday

On Mondays the only class I have is Italian, so I'm finished for today. On my test last week I made a 98, so I guess I'm not doing too shabby. Yesterday, Christina and I explored a little around Torino, and we still have a lot more to find! We're also going to start planning some excursions to other countries. We're going to Brussels and Amsterdam in November for sure, but nothing else is written in stone just yet. 

There are so many things that I notice here that are different from back home. Most I like, but others not so much:

- Italians either hate or love Americans (luckily for me I've only experience the latter)
- Men dress much better here as do people in general.
- Cars will stop to let you pass more than in America
- People are much more outdoorsy :) On Sunday, the park was PACKED with families and couples and friends. 
- The weather(at least at this time) is great! I know it's going to get much colder, but I'm enjoying it for the moment.
- The only free water can be found sporadically about the city constantly pouring from a spout onto the ground.
- The architecture is beautiful!
- The way people park here, will never cease to amaze me. They park almost anywhere! It's funny; we would be ticketed in America for what they do.
- Pizza, pasta,coffee and wine are ubiquitous, delicious and generally cheap.
- The coffee..... 0_0
- Traveling is relatively easy and cheap when confirmed at the right moments
- So far, people have been extremely kind when I've needed help with directions or anything having to do with the Italian language.
- Nice bathrooms are not easy to find when it comes to clubs or bars
- It is rare to see an overweight person
- I've only seen 3 trucks since I've been here. Lots of Fiat, Audi and Volkswagen.
- I love the language. It's wonderful, and I'm trying very hard to learn it!

So there's some of my opinions :)


I like my other classes. I have an American professor for my Legal Environment for Business class. He's a lawyer, obviously intellegent, and I know he already likes me because I'm practically the only person who responds to him in class. E-Commerce is alright. Nothing all that interesting, but the professor is nice, owns his own business and is rather attractive... haha. And my EU professor is also pretty chill, and is very excited about the subject, so I should learn a lot from him, as well. My Italian teacher is good at her job, but she's sometimes confusing with how she tries to explain it, and she wears some.... interesting outfits. Yes, let's leave in at that. Haha. Tomorrow, I have no class, but Wednesday I have class from 9-5:30. Sucks. Then I have 2 classes on Thursday from 9-2:15 and Friday I don't have anything :) This should be an interesting semester.. I plan to learn a lot! Hopefully, by the end of this semester I will be almost fluent in Italian. I feel like I've already learned so much just from being around it all the time!


I've got to look up some trip information, and the eat some lunch and go on a run before the USAC 25th anniversary gathering at 4:30.

Ciao!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Buena Note!

Christina found out that we can get free wifi in our apartment if we're in the kitchen, by the window, and only using one computer at a time. Haha. But hey, it's free! So I'm about to go to bed, so I can get a decent nights sleep before my first test tomorrow in Italiano! I think that I'm prepared enough. I should do well. Today we went to the Lingotto Museum on top of the mall. It was pretty cool. On the top of it was a track that was made for test driving FIAT, so that was interesting plus it was an amazing view! We've decided to go hiking in the Alps to see the village that's there and Lago Verde, a green lake, I guess. Haha. I'll have some pictures of today uploaded in a bit
Christina and I haven't had ANY gelato in TWO whole days. We're getting a lot tomorrow to compensate.
I'm off to bed. Ciao!

Monday, September 10, 2012

One Week Gone....

So this weekend was incredible. This entire week has been incredible! Tuesday night Christina and I had mexican food... Haha. It was actually pretty good. We were surprised. My enchiladas were even a little spicy, a little. It was funny because we went to eat at around 9:30 or 10 and families were still bringing their kids (very well behaved) out to dinner. Whenever we were finished eating, they asked us if we wanted dessert, we said no, and we expected them to bring us our check, but they didn't. We didn't even know how to ask for it yet. So we sat there for about 30 minutes until we finally got their attention to pay for it. The next day we found out at Orientation that we will never be rushed at dinner. We're expected to sit for hours to finish talking and having some wine. Haha. We've gotten better at dining out now. Wednesday night we had pizza at our favorite pizzeria, Fratelli Pommero. They were so nice to us, and just seemed so excited that we were trying to speak Italian. Haha. Not to mention that the pizza was phenomenal! I keep forgetting to take pictures of my food :( I'll start soon! We each had a Lemoncello with our food, and it was SO strong! We were not expecting it! I swear one of those Lemocello was equivalent to 3-4 glasses of wine. Haha. 

Thursday night, we ate dinner wtih our neighbors (also from USAC: Brody, Joey, Joe and Sam) at a pizzeria called Il Barone near our school in Lingotto. We met some American business men who asked us where we were from when they heard our English, and we told them we're studying abroad and they laughed saying that they knew what that meant. Haha. After dinner we all went to a bar near our apartments on Il Beratti and had some ciupittos (shots-I'm not even sure if that's the right way of spelling it) and vino. We just chilled at that bar, just talking. It was fun. Christina and I are so glad that we have fun people living right across the street from us. We're going to be sad when they leave us since they're only here for a semester.

Friday night, Christina, the boys and I all went to eat at Fratelli Pummero at midnight, then we went to meet up with some people at Valentino Park, where there was a wine party. There was literally a party in a public park where tons of people were drinking and dancing; it would have never been allowed in the states. Haha. Then we moved down to the Po River clubs and hung out around there for a while. We didn't get home until pretttyyyyy late. 


Saturday night we made our first Italian dinner at home. It was so good! 

The ingredients at the market here are so fresh, and we have one literally right around the corner from our apartment. Christina and I are obsessed with cheese and bread. I introduced her to Brie... she loves it. Of course. Haha. I'm just so happy that I was placed with someone with whom I get along so well. We just flow. Haha. Once dinner was over. We hopped on a train to Asti, about an hour southeast of Torino, because there was a wine festival. It was huge!! Everybody was wearing a bag around their necks to hold their wine glass for when they weren't drinking, so of course we got one. There was so much food and wine and music and games. I won a bottle of wine in one of them. Christina and I met some Italians, Marco, Edoardo and Leandro. They were nice, and we hung out for a little bit after the festival. We probably wouldn't have been able to get home if they hadn't helped us get on the train. Haha. The train on the way back was PACKED. I had to stand the entire time and it took us a full 20-30 minutes before we even left while we were crammed in there. We got home incredibly late again and the guys came over for a little bit, before we passed out.

And Sunday, we made dinner again, and went over to the boys apartment to hang out and have some more vino. Christina and I planned to not go out last night so we could finally get a night of proper sleep, so we didn't think we'd be up late just hanging out with them, but we didn't get to sleep until about 3. Haha. We just have too much fun. Sleep isn't going to happen much. Plus, whenever we say we're tired, the guys respond with "Carpe Diem!"

So as you can tell, I have been extremely busy, and I don't get on the internet on the weekends because I usually can't, so... patience. 
I'm glad that everything is going so well and that I'm meeting so many cool people, including Italians, like this guy Alberto. He's so nice and always helps me with my Italian and I his English which is actually really good. Hopefully I get the hang of Italian sooner rather than later!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

I Can't Believe I Live Here

Oh my goodness. So so much has happened within the past few days! I guess I will begin after my last post from the airport in Toronto....
My layover in Toronto was not supposed to be very long. I was just sitting and waiting for them to call my flight up to the gate, but they never did, so I went up to look, and it wasn't there! My flight had changed gates and I never heard them say it. I missed the largest leg of my flight.... I had gone up to the service desk and they said there would not be another flight until 5:00 in the morning! They were asking me if I needed help finding a hotel for the night. I was incredibly upset! It was like a movie --- "And then, when all hope was lost..." Haha --- but really. I thought I had no chance of making it to my orientation. Then they said to hold on a second because my flight was coming back!!! I thought surely not just because I missed it... nope. A man had a seizure right as they were about to take off and they had to come back to get him off!
The airport employees were beyond helpful. They told me to follow them, took me to the hallway to get on the airplane, and told me to stand there until the paramedics got the man off the plane (who looked perfectly fine!). A manager, made sure that someone brought my luggage up from where it was being held and put it on the plane when the other man's luggage was being taken off. I cannot believe how lucky I got! And neither could anyone else. Everyone kept saying how this has never happened before, and after I got on the plane everyone knew me as "the girl who missed her flight, but go incredibly lucky". Haha. It was a tad embarrassing, but I made it!
Once I got to Frankfurt, I had already missed my connecting flight because the flight from Toronto was delayed for so long, so I had to wait 4 hours for another flight to Torino. I didn't care because I was just happy I made it to Europe, even though this delay would mean I would miss the group transportation to the hotel. I went to buy a bus ticket and I saw a guy holding a USAC folder. He was a student from California going to the same place I was! My credit card wouldn't work on the ticket machine, so he (his name is Joey) bought me one and we headed to the hotel together to find everyone else. We got there when everyone was at the group dinner, and we got to the restaurant when they were leaving, and we were starving, so it sucked! They took us on a short tour around downtown Torino which was very helpful, but afterwards Joey  and I were still hungry so we went to go eat some pizza and have some wine. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. I don't know how eating pizza in America is going to compare anymore, and of course the wine was unbelievable. We moved into our apartments the next day and I met my two roommates, Christina (from Ohio) and Nicolina from Naples. We haven't seen Nicolina much, but Christina and I get along so well! It's awesome. We also made really good friends with other USAC students that live across the street from us, Sam, Joe and Joey.
I love where we live! I love all the people here. I love the food and just everything is so amazing!
I went into a caffe this morning and ordered a cappuccino and pastry in Italian and I conversed with the owners. They were so nice, and could tell I'm from America, but that I'm trying hard to speak Italian. I have already learned so much just from being around people speaking Italian and hearing it all the time.
Christina and I went to a pizza place last night and we each had a lemoncello. It was so strong. We didn't see it coming.
Well, I gots to go. I'll upload pictures later!!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Not Long Now!

One leg down, two to go! It was only a 2 hour ride from DFW to here, and there was no need for me to use any of the entertainment devices I brought because I sat next to a very amiable fellow from Toronto named Eric. He's about 30, works in finance and was visiting Dallas... conversation got intense. Haha. I like it when I sit next to someone to talk to because it sucks having to go such a long time without talking, which you all probably know is increasingly difficult for me.

I am currently sitting in Toronto's airport waiting for the longest leg of my journey to Frankfurt. It is only one hour later here than it is back home, so I'm not tired yet. I hope I'll be able to sleep at least a little bit on the plane, otherwise I'm going to be sooooooooooo tired when I arrive tomorrow in Torino at 2:00 p.m. I am debating if I should get some snacks.... my plane boards in about 15 minutes, but I have no idea how edible the airplane food will be. Yep. I'm starving. I'm getting food. 
I'll keep you posted!!