Traveling = exhausting!

Where to begin? It's been over a week since my last post, and let's just say this week was definitely one for the books. I've got 3 major trips to talk about... And you all better be excited. Milano, Italian Riviera, and Barcelona- Allora, I am one lucky girl.

Last Friday I took my first solo trip. As I said in my last post, the solo trip wasn't that big of a deal- Just a short train ride to Milan and a day full of shopping. However, as most traveling goes, I ran into a couple tiny issues as my day went on. Arriving at the train station was no problem, seeing that I go to Porta Nuova every day to get to school. Getting on the train, well that was a different story. Before boarding the train, you have to validate your ticket- the process to validate tickets is extremely simple: find a yellow box, stick your ticket in the box, and wait for the box to stamp your ticket. For some reason, I couldn't get this method to work for me, so I opted to board the train without validating my ticket... Long story short, I was approached by the train conductor, yelled at (probably spoken to harshly, but still felt like I was being yelled at) in Italian, and then was written a ticket for 5 euro. 5 euro is NOT big deal, most would say I was lucky that it was only 5, but because I was so overwhelmed, scared, and confused I started to cry. Unfortunately, the crying didn't stop for over an hour. I felt like I had been hit by a train. The homesickness I had been holding in for the past month bombarded me with a strength of a WWE wrestler. Ya, nice metaphor, I know it ;) Luckily, an extremely nice Italian woman, who couldn't speak any english, was sitting beside me and somehow figured out I was homesick and held my hand for the entire train ride. This act of kindness made me cry even more because most people, in Torino/Northern Italy, stick to their own business and are not interested in helping foreigners. This woman was the best thing that happened to me that day. I couldn't thank her enough for the kindness and respect she showed me on the train. I will forever remember her, and plan to keep in touch with her- Her daughter speaks fluent English and after a short phone call I was able to figure out where the woman came from and I learned all about her family. 

After this minor mishap, my day only continued to get better- minus the BoA problems I experienced, and am still continuing to experience regularly. I won't spend much time on this issue because there's nothing I can do about it and it only makes me even more frustrated the more I talk about it, but if any of you are planning on traveling/studying abroad in the near future: be prepared to deal with your bank every week. Sometimes I think they are complete idiots and just don't listen to me or the e-mail/notes I send, but then I have to remember that they're doing their job and if a "mysterious" charge is made, my card will be temporarily shut off. Annoying? Yes, VERY. Okay, back to the positives...The shopping in Milano is unbelievable! I wish I had millions upon millions of euros to spend- that way I could buy everything. Haha, I'm sure we all wish for that at times. I hit the stores for about 3 hours, got some necessities (clothes for the cold weather- my CA upbringing is not helping me in this cold region), and jumped back on a train with a hot bag of roasted chestnuts. It was an exhausting day, but a great one nonetheless.

Following my solo day trip, I was able to have a relaxing night to get ready for my trip to the Italian Riviera with the USAC crew. Our trip began with a bumpy start, but we were able to "keep on keepin' on" and the mishap was soon forgotten. Somehow, transportation always seems to give me the most grief here in Italy. It is not a surprise if the metro or bus just decides to not show up or for the workers to go on spontaneous strikes. Such instances really aren't too bad during the week, but when you're planning a trip and relying on transportation to get you somewhere you need to be, and on time, it is extremely frustrating when it poops out. Sunday morning, as we were in a rush to leave the apartment to meet the USAC crew at school, we were notified the metro wasn't running due to a strike. Great! Thinking that the busses may still be working, we walked to Porta Nuova- to our dismay, we got lost on the way (stress does weird things to you) and had to take a taxi to school. Luckily, we made it just in time (literally, we got on the bus at 8:30 on the dot and the bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30). We headed towards Genova to have a tour of the town and to get on a train to Santa Margarita. Genova was fairly nice, but not too exciting. We were able to enjoy the panoramic view of Genova while riding a gondola-type of ride and saw many beautiful/ancient buildings and churches. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to try the pesto, what Genova is known for, but we were still able to have the best tasting foccacia bread in Santa Margarita! After bussing it to Santa Margarita we arrived at our hotel and checked it. The rest of the day was ours! Due to the gorgeous weather, well, it wasn't that great but it was definitely better than what we had expected, a group of us decided to go to the beach and swim in the Mediterranean! Great idea at first. After deciding to run in the water and enjoy the beach, I soon realized I was swimming in a sea of jellies. The Pisces in me told me to just keep swimming, just keep swimming and so I did.. Which resulted in 2 jelly fish stings! My first ever. They were not so bad, and only hurt for the day. I must say, peeing on jelly fish stings = immediate relief. Yes, it's a bit gross, but it stops the burning and at that point that's all I wanted. I have no scars to remember my jelly stings, but I've got some photos of the swollen lacerations the jelly let me have. Overall, our time in Santa Margarita was mainly spent relaxing at the beach or terrorizing the town. Santa Margarita is extremely small and not highly populated. Seeing that it was the off season, the USAC kids basically ruled the town and it's night life. I think the locals may have been excited for us to leave come Tuesday... Oh well! We created some great memories, were as respectful as possible, and pumped some money into the local bars. 

As Santa Margarita was our "home base" for the weekend, we had to take the train to go to Cinque Terre and the bus to go to Portofino. Traveling to the Cinque Terre only took a couple of hours, and it was probably the best decision of my life to go. The Cinque Terre is phenomenal. If you haven't been, you need to make time in your life to go. The individual cities are filled with so much character and the views are unbelievable. If you're a hiker/outdoorsy type of person, I highly, HIGHLY suggest hiking between the 5 cities. The first hike is about 20 minutes, and is along a paved road- extremely easy, the next 3 hikes are a different story. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, the 2nd hike was closed and we were forced to take the train to the next city. Luckily, we made it in good enough time to hike the last 2 hikes without being turned down by the bad weather. While it was raining, oftentimes pouring, it was still the most beautiful site I have ever seen. Hiking along the Mediterranean and the cliffs of the Italian Riviera is an absolutely indescribable event. The hiking path is not for the faint hearted, though, let me tell you. I would say over 1,000 stairs were climbed, both up and down the mountainside. Because of the rain the stairs, more like rocks formed into stairs, were sleek and covered in slippery mud. It was imperative that we took our time and chose our steps wisely, or else we ran the risk of falling off the mountain. When we reached the 4th city, we, a group of 10 of us, decided to grab some lunch and enjoy the atmosphere of the city. After resting for about an hour, four of us decided to forge on and climb the last length of the hike. This leg was the hardest part of the hike, and the most rewarding. Hiking through the mountains and seeing all of the tiny cottages spread out in random villages was too picture perfect that even my photos don't do them justice. By the time we reached the 5th city we, the four of us, were so tired, cold, and wet we jumped on the next train and headed back to Santa Margarita to warm showers and comfortable beds. Overall, the hiking part took us about 3.5 hours and including time spent in each city we were probably in the Cinque Terre for 5-6 hours. Including traveling our day was probably around 10 hours long- I definitely slept well that night.

Portofino was our next stop while in the Italian Riviera. Such a cute town! Very small, very posh, and very picturesque. Boats everywhere, yachts everywhere, designer clothes stores everywhere, and the most gorgeous castle with a view of the entire (not that it was big or anything) town. We spent a couple hours doing some sight seeing, grabbed lunch at a local pizzeria, and headed back to Santa Margarita for some amazing gelato (dark chocolate, vegan style!!!!) and some relaxation on the beach. While the weather wasn't good enough for swimming, and the jellies had scared everyone away, we spent our remaining hours sitting on the beach and taking in the view (and the fresh air!). Checkout went smoothly, minus a lecture about a broken vase and 6 stolen beers- I guess that's just what happens when you put 35+ American students in a small hotel- and we were on our way back to Torino. The next two days were filled with catching up on homework, going to class, the weekly visit to Murphy's, and preparations for our trip to Barcelona.

Barcelona... I don't even know where to begin. Let me just start by saying I love Barcelona. It's a different love than the love I have for Italy and that's because Barcelona is not like anywhere else I have ever been. The atmosphere, culture, and pace of the city is so addicting. I think it's the perfect place for someone in their 20s to spend at least a year. The night life is UNREAL. The day time is filled with artsy, funky, and super down to earth vibes. You can be anyone you want to be in Barcelona. I feel like there are endless opportunities there to just express yourself and do whatever you want to do without anyone judging you. The momentum in Barcelona is just to live and love what you're living. I cannot wait to go back. In fact, I'm trying to figure out a way to make a second trip to Barcelona while I'm studying abroad- I don't know if I'll be able to work it out, but I'm definitely going to try!

We arrived in Barcelona late Friday night and we had one mission: meet up with friends and go out. After checking into the hostel, we got ready and set out for one of the most fun nights of my life to date. Shannon, one of the girls in my group of 5, has a friend who's living and teaching english in Barcelona for a year and we were able to meet up with him so he could show us around- lucky for us! The bars in Barcelona are the essence of me. At least the ones we went to! They played some of the best music I've heard in MONTHS. Exactly my style, and the men.. Well, the Spaniards are just beautiful. After bar hopping until around 3 am, we headed to the club. Ot-To, I believe is the name of the club, and holy shit, what a great place. Four floors of dancing, and only dancing. Each floor had 2 different sections. Each section played a different genre of music: electro, house, hip hop, and whatever is playing on the radio these days were my stops. We danced ALL NIGHT. We left the club at 5 and headed to the beach. After a photo shoot on the beach we somehow made it back to our hostel and crashed for a couple of hours. Making ourselves get up was a chore and a half, but somehow we did it and proceeded to have an amazing day in Barcelona. For some reason the weather gods decided to smile on us this weekend because we only ran into some serious rain the last night of our stay. We spent about 3 hours on the beach, got henna tattoos from a Pakistani tattoo artist, headed to the Gothic Center, took some photos, ate salads and crepes for lunch, continued to walk around the heart of Barcelona, visited a funky outdoor market and bought some great jewelry (3 bracelets and a ring for myself!), saw some AMAZING art galleries, had Chinese food (with tofu-- it was SO good), and headed back to our hostel for an hour nap. Following our day was night #2. Barcelona must never sleep, I swear, it is a party all night every night. After getting ready, meeting up with Michael, seeing his Spanish apartment (very similar to our Italian apartment, minus some walls-- haha, yes, they're using sheets for walls!) we made our way to a bar called Chippito. As we had to leave Barcelona at 4 in the morning to catch our 7:30am flight back to Torino, we had all decided that the best bet would be to pull an all nighter and to suffer through the traveling so we could really take advantage of our time in Spain. Greatest decision ever. Actually, in hindsight it was a great decision; however, at the time, not so much- none of us were very happy campers. The Chippito bar is so freaking cool! The bar is ONLY for shots. Over 200 shots on the menu, most of them consisting of being lit on fire or being some random color- green, pink, red, black, blue, aqua, you name it they've got it. The Monica Lewinsky shot was probably the shot of the night.. If you know anything about Clinton, I'm sure you can guess what the shot consisted of. If not, check out my facebook album- there are some great photos! ;)

Going directly to our hostel from the bar was an adventure in itself. We had to run 6 blocks in the POURING rain, seriously POURING, and then figure out how to even make it back to Barceloneta-- where we were staying. The metro in Barcelona is similar to the one in Milano; 4 different lines: red, blue, green, yellow. Each line goes a different way and most times you have to transfer lines to get to exactly where you want to be. Miraculously we made it back to the hostel by 4am and were able to check out and be at the bus/train station by 4:45am. The bus picked us up at 5:15am and we headed to the airport. We traveled for over 7 hours today. I felt like I was in cartoon land- completely exhausted and with one goal in mind: home. We arrived at the airport on time, it's amazing how our traveling today worked out so well, and boarded the flight at 7:55 am. We were back in Torino by 9:20 am and on another bus going to Porta Nuova by 10. We made it back home by 10:45 and the girls were asleep by 10:50. I made it back to bed by 12 and slept the day away. With a 6:00pm wake up time, I'm feeling a bit discombobulated, but it is all so worth it. 

Tomorrow is a full day of class and homework, hopefully my brain and body can make it through- I'm sure I'll be fine. These adventures are so much fun, but they are draining. I've got a final on Thursday and then I'll be down to only 2 days of class per week. After the final on Thursday, I have to start getting prepared for my next trip-- Berlin. 3 nights this time, and I can only imagine how crazy it will be. Unground raves on the boarder of Poland? I just might have to dabble.

Hope you all are thoroughly enjoying my blog updates. I'm a little frustrated with myself because I abandoned the blog last week and had to create such a long one this week. Hopefully I'll be able to get on a more regular blog schedule in the next couple weeks. Traveling every weekend means writing at least one update per week! 

Until next time.. Keep it classy, I know I am ;)

One Month?!

2nd of October... The official mark of having lived in Torino, Italia for one month. It doesn't even seem as if it's been a month! However, when I look back on all that I've done, it seems as if more than a month has gone by. Since moving abroad I've had the constant mentality of "go, go, go, and don't stop until you can't go anymore." While it's been fun, it's also been exhausting. This weekend I'm taking a little break and getting in some much needed alone time- tomorrow is my solo trip to Milano! Even though Milano is not too far, only two hours by train, it will be interesting to see how I'll make it around the city. I've prepared myself as much as possible and now I'm relying on intuition, and maybe some luck. 

Seeing that it's been about a week since my last update, I'm sure you all are interested to know where this past week has taken me. Last weekend I took my first weekend trip outside of Torino and it definitely proved to be all I had hoped it would be. Friday I jumped on a train from Torino to Piacenza and met up with my uncle and his girlfriend, Daniele and Zuzana. From Piacenza we drove to Fidenza, and then to Toscana. We stayed in a beautiful beach down called Forte dei Marmi, close to Viareggio for those who know where that is, and had a wonderful time. The trip was filled with amazing food, even better wine, and a day trip to Pisa! The leaning tower was not all I had imagined it to be, however due to the gorgeous weather, there was no way I could've been disappointed with the day. Not only was I lucky enough to day trip it to Pisa, but we also were able to stop for lunch in Parma. The most amazing clock tower stands in the main square-- I wish I could upload a picture of the sundials, they are truly a sight to see. So intricate and precise, absolutely mind blowing!

Unfortunately, towards the end of the trip I developed a bit of a sore throat and had to return earlier in the evening than I had originally planned. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though. I had my second Italian exam on Monday and those extra hours definitely helped me in getting the results I wanted on the exam. That Wednesday I was faced with a paper for my Slow Foods class, which I painfully finished. By Wednesday night I was ready to party. So, where do I decide to go for this night of celebration? Our new favorite Irish pub.. Murphy's. Wonder why it's our new favorite? An amazing marketing strategy called: student discount cards. ;) 

After an entertaining night at the pub, we stumbled home and somehow made it to class on Thursday. Thursday night, round 2. This time we opted out of the pub scene for a more sophisticated night-- Millionaire Discoteca. Do I even need to explain? Great night. The disco was full of Italians getting down to some great 80s/90s jams. Just my scene. After hopping around for hours, I had satisfied my discoteca craving and headed home for a little skype sesh with the brother. Unfortunately, that didn't last long due to the fact that my roommates could not fall asleep while I was chatting away. Don't worry, Justin, we're definitely rescheduling for next week!

What's next on my list of things to do while in Europe? Well.. Here's the list so far: Cinque Terre, Barcelona, Berlin, International Slow Foods Conference, Truffle Fair in Alba, Stockholm, Prague, London, and Copenhagen. Those are just the major trips so far! Do not fret, I have made sure to have enough free days while in Torino so I can continue to explore the city and take day trips throughout Italy. Hopefully to come/in the works: Brussels/Amsterdam, Zurich, Lisbon, and/or Capri. Wish me luck, I've only got a couple more weekends to work with!

Well, that's all for now. I've got a big day ahead of me: shopping in Milano, as well as preparing for my trip to Cinque Terre (Sunday-Tuesday). The weather forecast says rain/clouds, but I'm still looking forward to seeing the Italian Riviera- I know it will be beautiful regardless of the weather!

Hope you're all smiling,

Peace and love.

Michelle


PS- I'm updating my facebook albums regularly.. Check them out to see some gorgeous pictures!

Wine Festivals Galore!

I love Italy. I know, I know, I've already said it ten times, but I just have to keep repeating it. I'm still in complete shock that I actually live here and will be living here until mid-December. I don't think I ever want to leave-- this could be a big problem come December. Potential Christmas present: 2nd Semester in Italy?? ;) 

So, on with the weekend. You may have noticed that I've been attending many wine festivals here in Northern Italy. September is the best month for wine. There is a festival every weekend, and as the month progresses so does the craziness of these events. This past Saturday a small group of us girls ventured to Caluso for the white wine festival. Traveling there was a journey in itself. We got on a train at Porta Nuova and headed towards Milano. We then had to get off that train and go onto another train that headed towards Aora. We didn't have a clue what we were doing. Luckily there were hundreds of young people going in the direction of the wine festival, so we just followed the masses-- the best way to travel, in my opinion! Upon arriving at the festival, we were greeted by a very nice old man with a shopping cart full of recycled milk cartons filled with white wine. 5 Euro a bottle... If you think we skipped out on that amazing deal, you are so wrong. That shopping cart made our night. 

Rampaging around the village of Caluso may be one of the most prominent highlights of my stay in Torino thus far. For those who have been to St. Helena: Caluso is probably half the size of St. Helena... aka TINY. This past Saturday night there must have been at least 10,000 people taking over the town. It was a zoo. Literally. Not only was the village packed with Italians ready to party, but there was also a carnival in the center of the festival which provided copious amounts of entertainment. My favorite memory of the night: full on sprinting into a glass wall in a fun house. If any of you have been in a fun house, I hope you know what I'm talking about. I was in a maze of mirrors and for some reason thought I knew exactly what I was doing.. My confidence lead me straight into a wall, and left me with a slight bruise on my forehead. Classy. Lucky for me, the Italians thought it was hilarious and we all got a good laugh out of it.

This weekend we, my roommates and I, also spent some time going out in Torino. Piazza Vittorio is probably one of the coolest places I have ever been. Every 20-30 year old in Torino must have been there Friday night. After meeting the owner of a pretty hip/modern bar, we proceeded to end the night with a series of cippitos (tiny shots of vodka). The people, the atmosphere, and just the overall excitement was more than I could handle.

This upcoming weekend I plan to go to Milano to meet up with my Uncle. I am so excited to begin exploring Italy outside of Torino! Don't get me wrong, I love being in Torino, but I need to see other cities. Following my weekend in Milano, I will be taking a trip to the Cinque Terre with the USAC crew. Also in the near future, a trip to Barcelona! In the works: London for the Harry Potter Premier. 

I'll keep you all posted! Peace and love,

Michelle

PS- Look who finally got a picture to upload!!!! 

Brawls and Pub Crawls

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post.. Time really does go by so fast when you're having fun. These past two weeks have been unbelievable. First, I have officially started classes and have already had my first exam. The intensive Italian class is no joke. However, I am still thoroughly enjoying it and am getting the results I had hoped to get. Even though I can't speak perfect Italian, I know enough of the essentials to get by. Directions are not so complicated anymore, and meeting people has become much easier. Business classes just started this past week... Let's just say they're no where near as cool as my Italian classes. Operations Management is a bore, but it has to be done so I have to keep reminding myself to "keep on keepin' on."


Enough about the boring stuff. Class is the same everywhere in the world. Well, actually, not really. In most of my classes we have people from: Britain, France, Sweden, Germany, America (duh), Turkey, and Taiwan. Awesome? Hell yes. The cultural experience is 100xs more than I had bargained for, and I like to think that I bargained for a lot. All of my teachers, except for one, are from Italy. Lucky for me I've been surrounded by accents my whole life and have adjusted well to their broken english. My cinema teacher is originally from New York, but has been living in Torino for 10+ years. He's hilarious. We have plans to visit the Mole Antonelliana and see the Film museum-- I am so excited, I can't even begin to describe. The Mole is Torino's most famous building and is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, in my opinion! Other field trips include: Fiat factory with the Operations Management teacher and the SLOW Foods Conference with the Politics of SLOW Food teacher. Yes, be jealous. 


Besides school I've been doing a lot of other super cool things. For instance, last weekend we went to the Red Wine Festival in Asti. We hopped on a way too crowded train and rode for 45 minutes to a very, very small town packed with young Italians. Two words: shit show. Best wine experience of my life. We bought multiple (won't comment on how many ;) ) bottles of red wine for 5 euro each, deal and a half if you ask me, and just had a grand old time. The ride home was a different story... Imagine thousands of Italians crammed into a train chanting a song about being drunk and smoking massive amounts of hash. I wish I had my video camera.


The discotecas are still a top priority on our list of things to do. In fact, this is great news you're about to hear, there's a new discoteca opening 3 DOORS AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE!!!! I know where I'll be every Friday night! 70s, 80s, and 90s music. Spice Girls anyone? The grand opening is this Friday. You better believe I'll be there. 


As far as traveling goes, I have yet to make any major plans to travel outside of Italy. For now I'm staying local and getting a grip on the culture of Italia. This weekend we may make it out to Lake Maggiore or go to Pisa, don't worry I'll keep everyone posted! 


I've made a promise to myself, and I am determined to keep it. I will update my blog at least once a week. Please stay tuned! As for pictures, the internet sucks and I have no patience. If I ever find myself with bountiful amounts of time I will be sure to spend it on trying to upload some awesome photos. For now, please check out my facebook- I've got an album up with all of the photos I've been taking! For some reason uploading pictures to facebook is a much easier process than uploading to my blog- don't ask me why.


Peace and love


Michelle


PS- Curious about my blog title? As you might have noticed, I did not describe every night in the past 2 weeks. This would be an impossible mission and I am sure no one wants to read pages and pages about the many PUB CRAWLS we Americans take part in. Note: I have developed a nasty cold, I do not advise anyone to stay out until 4:30am multiple nights in a row. Health is my first priority, no matter how much fun going out is. As far as the BRAWLS... A Mafia fight happened right outside of my window last night. I do not kid. I might be wrong about the Mafia, but the men sure as hell looked as if they were Mafia members.

Sunday Funday

Where to begin? The past 24 hours have been EXACTLY what I expected my Europe trip to be. Bars, pubs, clubs, and sightseeing galore!! Last night we (about 15 of us) went to Torino's most popular club- CaCao. Filled with thousands of people, this club was awesome. The music was so loud, my chest was vibrating to the beat. We spent over 3 hours hopping (that's how they dance in Europe, in case you didn't know!) around to the insanely loud music. Luckily, we had stopped at a our regular pub before heading to the club-- the drinks were SO expensive. After realizing it was past 3:30 am, we made the trek home. Hailing a taxi is impossible. Every time you try to grab one, someone else cuts in front of you and steals it. After a small argument with a couple Italians, we finally made our way home. Bed time? 5:00 am.

Today was a different story! After a wake-up time of 2:00 pm (a combination of a late bedtime and jet lag results in sleeping the day away- apparently) we headed out to explore the city. I love Torino. It's so beautiful and filled with so much culture. After venturing to Via Garibaldi, the longest pedestrian street in Europe, we headed towards the Po River. Along the way we ran into a large festival in the middle of a park- some sort of Democratic convention, with a circus in the middle! After catching the afternoon circus show- which happened to be absolutely hilarious even though we couldn't understand a word- we meandered around the city. We saw so many statues, historic buildings, and beautiful cobble stone streets/ally ways; I wish I could remember all of the names, but unfortunately Italian has proven to be harder to pick up than I had expected. After realizing it was close to 8:00 pm we decided to find a "hole-in-the-wall" trattoria for a home cooked Italian meal. St. Martin's was the closest we got, and the food was phenomenal. Spaghetti pomodora e basilico = the best pasta I have ever eaten in my life. Magnifico! 

We start school tomorrow, bright and early! We leave at 8:15 am to ride the bus for an hour. Living downtown definitely has it's perks... The hour bus/metro ride is NOT one of them. Italian classes start tomorrow, and business classes start on Tuesday. I'm tired of not being able to communicate with the locals, so I'm really looking forward to starting the language classes.

Pictures WILL be coming soon, just need to get some decent internet first. 

Ciao!

Torino!

I have finally arrived! After many, many hours of traveling we made it to Torino last night. What an amazing city. Here's the play-by-play:

After settling in to our hotel we ventured out for some pizza- which was great, minus the minor mishap. After ordering a no meat, no cheese, veggie pizza, I received a no meat, no cheese, no veggie piece of pizza dough smothered in marinara sauce. Great. About 20 minutes later, my second pizza arrived (which I did NOT order). Luckily, this pizza was what I had originally wanted. Next was our walking tour-- where all the fun began! After walking through the downtown area of Torino (which was absolutely gorgeous, pictures will be coming soon!) we ventured out to one of the local pubs. A bunch of underaged Americas in a new, European city... I'll just leave it at that. Over-all it was a great first night!

Today we moved into our apartments! I'm living in the heart of downtown Torino with four other girls and so far it's pretty damn amazing. Complete with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 washing machine, a large balcony, and WIFI, our apartment pretty much blew all of my expectations out the window. We are within a couple blocks of great shopping (yes!!), daily markets (even better!!), the Po River, and the subway/train station. School is about an hour away, yes an hour. We have to take the subway and then the bus to get to campus- but it is all so worth it.

For now, I'm still feeling jet-lagged, hungry, tired, excited, confused, and, let's be honest, a bit nervous. I miss everyone from home and am still in shock that I actually LIVE in Italy. But, I know that it's only temporary, and my happiness completely overrides any anxiety that I have. Okay, that's all for now. My first trip to the market begins in a few... Stay tuned!

PS- tried to attach some photos, unfortunately I'm having some technical difficulties. Will post photos when I can!

Arrivederci!

Today's the day... Italia, here I come!!!

In just a couple of hours I'll be boarding my flight to Frankfurt, Germany- Next stop? Italia!

 

A HUGE thank you goes out to all who helped me get ready for this trip. An even bigger thank you to my parents- I would have never been able to do this without you. Mom, you're a trooper, I love you! Dad, don't worry, I will not speed in random lamborghinis (at least I'll try not to!), I love you!

 

So long America, see you in 4 months!

 

Stay lifted, and keep those positive thoughts flowin'.