Adventures of the Bus System

Ciao!

It's been quite awhile since I've written and I finally have a chance to sit down and write and to actually have internet! I can only get internet at school, which is why my blogs have been few and far between.

This past week, I've been getting into the swing of things, moving into my apartment, getting used to the public transit system (a nightmare), and starting difficult Italian classes. We finally have heat and warm water! It was touch and go at first, but having a warm shower was amazing! Probably the most interesting thing I've had to do so far is learn how to shower sitting down while keeping the shower head between my knees to keep warm water running actually over me. Probably not a pretty picture, but definitely an experience.

As for the public transit transit system....I have sworn to myself to never take Bus 101 anywhere! On the sign, it says it stops at our crossroads, but TWICE it hasn't and we've ended up way out of the Torino city limits. At first, we were with a group of 5 and we ended up having some Italian guys on the bus use my phone to all us a taxi, which only fit 4. It was after 1 in the morning and nobody else was driving for the night, so I had to duck down and sit at everyone's feet so that we wouldn't be pulled over by the police. It cost us 36 euro to get home. Good thing we split it 5 ways! The next time I got lost was actually just 2 days ago. I was downtown with a few of my friends, and Will, one of them wanted to go home. It was a school night, so I asked if I could go with him. Once again, we got on bus 101....mistake. Again, it didn't stop where we thought it would and we ended up over 15kilometeres out of the city. We walked for awhile, hoping that a bus would pass us and that we could flag it down, but to no avail. Will joked that we should hitch hike our way home and I said, "ok". As soon as he said he was joking, I stuck out my thumb, and immediately a car pulled over. We'd been walking for about 20 minutes in 0*C weather. I was in boots, tights, a dress, and a polyester jacket. Needless to say, I was FREEZING! The guy that pulled over drove us for about 5 minutes then dropped us off at the metro, which was also closed. We began to walk again, looking once more for a bus. By this time, we had already been traveling for an hour. A second car picked us up. When I stated where we were trying to go (home via Genova i Millefonti) they didn't understand us. So, when we got in the car, we said the Lingotto (which is a huge mall two blocks from our house). They understood this and we headed off. Knowing that many Europeans speak several languages, I asked the couple if either of them spoke Spanish, since they didn't understand English. The man spoke Spanish! My friend Will doesn't speak another language, so as I was talking to the man, I had to interpret for Will at the same time. I explained to the driver that we were in Torino studying Italian and exploring. I also explained why we were out so late on the road. I was SO blessed! He drove us all the way home (15K) which was at least 13K from his own home. When we got out, Will and I had decided to give him 5 euro for gas, and while I was putting the money in the driver's hand, he said "NO NO NO" and kissed each of my cheeks. He then turned to Will, kissed his cheeks, then mine again and wished us a good night. :D Best experience ever. We arrived home at 2AM with no feeling in our freezing bodies at all!

This weekend, we went to Milan and visited one of the biggest churches in the world! The Duomo. If you haven't heard of it, I recommend that you look it up on the internet and google photo it. We stayed in a very very interesting hostel. Apparently, you even have to have your passport to stay in ANY hotel within Italy or outside of it. We hadn't thought to bring ours. The room didn't have any towels. There wasn't any heat, and it was COLD at night. There were only sheets on the bed, no even a blanket. There was dry rot in the bathroom and the ceiling leaked. Needless to say, we're definitely not staying in a 2 star hostel again!

Well I have to get back to class! Have a good day everyone!