I have so much to tell you guys! The past couple of days have been so hectic and trying to find internet is proving to be quite difficult. How about I start at the beginning of the beginning? Sounds good to me.
Saturday morning, I woke up at 4 AM to get ready to fly out of the Portland, OR airport. My boyfriend had to do the awful duty of dropping me off at the airport and saying goodbye, as he had class up in Portland for the weekend.
Saying goodbye was the hardest thing ever. ☹
My flight from Portland to L.A. took off at 6:55am. I landed there around 9:35 and picked up my baggage from the claim and walked my way to the international terminal only to find out that the airline that I was supposed to be traveling with didn’t even open for another hour. There was nowhere to sit in the International terminal, so I sat myself on the tile floor and people watched. It was amazing to simply listen to the many different languages and see all the different outfits. When it was time to check in, I met two other girls going on the group flight. As we waited, we met another girl right before we were to board.
The flight was strenuous and oh so long! I had a window seat and the foot space was definitely quite limited. I only got up twice the entire flight! They served us two meals, which was definitely a shocker as all national airlines only serve peanuts even if you are flying during a mealtime.
We met up with the rest of the group in Frankfurt for a super quick layover, since our first flight had been delayed due to snow in Europe. The second plane we were on was going to be small, so they told us that we had to check our carry ons. Little did we know, we’d regret that forcible move later on.
Getting to know the other people in my group was awesome! There are some from the East Coast, and some from the West. It’s an eclectic mix of people for sure. The plane ride was short and sweet. In Turin, we went to grab our baggage and get through customs. As we watched the turnstile go by, and people dwindled away after getting theirs, we realized that all the carry ons that had been checked weren’t coming around. It ends up that the airline lost 40 carry on bags from the gate at the Frankfurt airport to the plane in Frankfurt. We ended up waiting in line just to report the missing bags for over 2 hours. One of the USAC employees ended up having to come backwards through customs in order to save us and speak to the airline in Italian, as none of them spoke English. It was definitely an eye opener for what was to come. Unfortunately for me, my missing bag contained 2 of my 3 pairs of jeans, my only textbook, and my makeup, as well as my camera cord. So I apologize for the apparent lack of photos. I swear to you, I’ve already taken over 200. Oh, and my battery charger was also a victim to the baggage. UPDATE: The luggage was procured today (Tuesday) but won’t be delivered to our school until tomorrow.
It ends up that customs was simply walking through a door. They didn’t even check our passports! We drove through the city to stay in a hotel for the night near the center of the city. Once we arrived, we got rid of our bags and bee lined it for the pizzaria that we were going to eat at. The pizza is spectacular! Of course ☺ how could it not be? Fizzy (or carbonated) water is very popular here, and ice is never used. At all. Drinks that you would normally expect to be icy or like a smoothie are instead like juice, but are somehow magically always cold. Oh, and breadsticks, Amerians have it all wrong in this department. The doughy, bread-y parmed sticks you think of are actually quite the opposite of what Italians view as breadsticks. We were served skinny, long, pretzel-like bread.
The next day we were told our housing arrangements and a few of us had the chance to explore the city for a bit, as we live near the school, so we were the last that had to leave to be dropped off at our housing. That day, we ate at a caffeteria, which is a crazy mix of food that you choose from, just like our cafeteria and then you pay for the items individually.
Then, we moved into where we will be living for the next four months. I live on Via Genova in the outskirts of Torino. Our apartment is in the attic on the 4th floor, or the gables of the building. We have 5 skylights. I’m truly bummed that our apartment is one of the two of the 20 apartments that didn’t get a balcony. Most of them have more than one balcony. Apartment living in Italy is drastically different than what is expected in America. Our sloping ceiling is getting in the way of my designer chi with all the wasted space! But hopefully I’ll slowly get used to it. I’ll upload pictures as soon as I get my cord tomorrow and have internet. I’m going to try to do a video of the apartment and upload it for you to watch. Our water heater broke when our landlord came to turn it on. The USAC lady that had helped move us in had already left, so we had no one to translate what he was trying to tell us, and he couldn’t speak English. So the afternoon passed with him calling the USAC office, telling them the info, handing his phone to me, and me then listening to the translation and going back and forth like so. We were unable to get it fixed yesterday, so we had no hot water until later today. Also, our toilet seat is unattached and falls off when you sit! The tub/shower is a sit down one, so you sit and hold the showerhead above yourself. A skylight is right above, and construction is going on next door, and the scaffolding looks right into our bathroom…there isn’t a shade on the window…we’re trying to get that fixed. Oh and the metro rail car goes right below our window. Needless to say, it’s been very interesting. My favorite part of the apartment is probably the heater in the bathroom that looks like a grid of pipes and duals as a towel warmer!
Phew! Now onto today. We met at our school, which is only two blocks from our apartment and had breakfast in the café at the school. Espresso here is delicious! You order what you think would be a regular coffee, and they serve it in very tiny glasses, not the American idea of a coffee portion for sure. But, it has the kick that you need and the flavor that makes your mouth go wild. The school is small; because I guess in Italy they separate the university because there isn’t enough space for the school to be in one place. The school is strictly business and architecture and design. There are about 200 students including us I believe and other international students as well. After the orientation, my friends and I went out to lunch at a ristorante. I ordered, faltering, in Italian adding many gratzis and ums. When my food came, I was stunned. There was so much pasta! It was filled with fresh oregano, whole baby tomatoes, and a sweet garlic butter sauce. It could have fed at least 3 people. All this for only 10 €, which is about $14. It was a pricey place, but now I have leftovers for at least three meals, which is a plus since we haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping or found a great open air market to frequent.
On a better note, we bought cell phones today! I found out that I can receive calls and texts for free, and that it doesn’t charge me, but the person who calls or texts has to pay. I’ll have unlimited service in Italy so that I can get in touch with people in my program easily which is nice. I can also send free texts all day after the first one, including emails. So I’ll try to figure that out ASAP for all my friends and family back home.
Tomorrow, I start my Italian class. This weekend, I’m headed to Milan (Mee-lahn) with some friends to explore on our own a little bit.
Feel free to ask any questions. I feel I haven’t covered even half of the past couple of days and I’d love to answer anything that you wonder about. I just don’t know what to talk about and what to omit, there’s so much! My roommate bought a little internet hub for one computer and we’ll be sharing it in our room and I’ll just use the internet at the school as much as I can.
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