Lightning!

Today was soooo hot in Torino! And nearing the end of the evening, my roommate and I spotted some lightning in the distance and were wondering if it was just an advertisement light. Then, we realized that there aren't any big stores to put on a light at 9PM. Let alone any stores other than PAM, the grocery store, are open.

This weekend I played soccer (football) in the park. It was such a lovely day and hearing the combination of accents of some the Erasmus people cracks me up. I had a yummy panino that had spicy salami on it and we topped the day off with a Popsicle.

I had plans to try to hike Cinque Terre, but I came down with the 24 hour flu that night and was stuck in bed all the next day. I managed to get out of bed at about 5 and go to the grocery store in search of chicken noodle soup. Just my luck, they don't have chicken noodle soup in Italy, so I grabbed one with some cool looking noodles. Ends up when I got home and pulled out my handy dandy Italian/English dictionary and found out that I bought chickpea soup (aka garbanzo beans). It was garbanzo beans and nothing else! I've never eaten them, but have always disliked their smell. Well, I manned up and ate the can today with my roommate, and it was good! I've been experimenting with some ingredients while I'm here and have become so enthralled with the art of cooking. I've started making creations and taking pictures of them and uploading them to facebook!

I'm just beginning to realize that my time here is coming to an end. I'm going to miss being here, although I'm very excited to go home. I just don't know how to process it all quite yet. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I know I'm going to have difficulties adjusting to the American rush, as I've been so relaxed here. I'm not going to get to travel as much, which will be different, but hopefully work will distract me this summer. Can't say I'm going to miss showering sitting down...lol. But I will miss the meals here, how the people treat you, as though you're family and I'll miss the sense of community with the students that I've met here. The people I've been surrounded by have taught me so much about myself, who I want to be and who I don't want to be. They've made me realize that Point Loma is really a bubble sometimes, although a good bubble to be in in your college years. Overall, my experience here has me on a high, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready to come down from that quite yet, but I miss my family. So, conflict it is for right now.

On a better note, this Friday we're taking a trip to wine country as a big group. We're going to a winery of a family and having lunch there with the USAC kids. I'm glad they planned a trip for this last weekend that we all can go out with a bang and get in a few last words.