First Week of My Real Italian Adventures

It has now been a week since I moved out of the house and I couldn't be happier or be having a better time. I've gotten to experience grocery shopping for myself, which is so fun...exploring the different ways you buy things and the totally different variety of foods that are available. I get to cook for myself (& often with friends).


I live right in the center of the city now, so I can get almost anywhere it seems in about 5 minutes or less. I LOVE it. My room seems like it was probably meant to be the dining room of the apartment, so it is sectioned off with sheets, but I have plenty of room, privacy, furniture, etc. I live with two Italian girls who are students at the univeristy here, and two girls from California who are also students studying at the univeristy for a semester. All are very nice.
(My Room)




The last week has mostly consisted of grocery shopping (I bought mostly bread, risotto, pasta, nutella, many cheeses, instant cappuccino packets, and fruit). I also had to buy a few kitchen things, like a pot, silverware, a few plates and cups, etc. But most of it I was able to get for 1 euro each (except the pot which was still only 8). We also had a lot of dinner dates with friends which is always a blast :) And last night a bunch of us got a giant pizza (literally called "pizza gigante") for 8 euro total and stuffed ourselves. It was quite fun :)


Tonight my Dutch friend Dide is letting me use her student ID to go to a wine tasting class put on for the study abroad students at the University. A few others are going too. We pay about 12 Euro each and get to learn a lot about wine, which I've always wanted to know. Right now I cannot really tell the difference between any wines :( But I will learn!
The only problem lately is that I have no income. A friend has been trying to help me get in contact with someone who would want to do English conversation lessons, but I haven't heard from the person yet. Hopefully I can get something like that set up though.

For now I really miss my family and my friends, but I'm so happy to be here and be able to have this amazing experience :) <3

(Didn't I say Italy just seemed like such a happier place now?...)

A Whole New World

As many of you may have already heard the family that I was staying with in Bologna was somewhat...difficult. As far as I'm concerned there were too many issues within the family that it really wasn't a place to bring someone else into.
Long story short, I thought I was supposed to be a part of the family and be a friend and English teacher to the children. They thought I was supposed to be second live-in maid/nanny/cook/English teacher. Communication also didn't seem to exist. I won't inculde all the details, but it was quite bad.
SO... at the moment I am at my friend's apartment where I've been sleeping in her HUGE walk-in closet (more like a separate room) for 2 nights and today I'm moving into another apartment which I couldn't be more excited about. I'll live with 2 girls from UC Berkeley and 2 Italian girls. My room is basically part of the living room sectioned off by a wooden divider thing and sheets, but who cares?! I am staying there for sure for 2 1/2 weeks until Brett arrives for our 1 week vacation to Venice, Rome, and Cinque Terre.
At the moment I'm trying to figure out a way to make a little extra money while I'm here...babysitting or something.. so that I can either stay in this new place the full 6 weeks until I'm supposed to return, or find another place after the vacation for the remaining 3 weeks. I just don't want to leave Italy yet. I feel like only now am I really discovering it. Walking around yesterday the city seemed so beautiful, so much brighter and happier (despite the windy, rainy, freezing weather). I cannot wait to go to the supermarket and shop for myself, cook my own meals, get to know my roommates, etc.
I promise to keep everyone updated.

For now.. just look at how AMAZING my friends are:

(Everyone that rescued me the first night listening to my stories & making me risotto!)


(My Risotto!! mmm!)


Seriously... I couldn't have asked for kinder, more generous, fun, happy, just incredible friends to meet here in Italy. :)

Dancing, Venice, & My Birthday

Not too many interesting things to write about...just been having fun with friends... :)

Last Wednesday I went to a party that the University hosts a few nights a week at different bars. It was fun... lots of people my age from many different places. Our "bologna family" as I think Alex then named us had a nice dinner at her place before & I met two new people, Dide from The Netherlands and Gianna from UC Berkeley! Then we went dancing all night. Basically all the songs are pretty well-known American songs, so they're very fun to dance to :)

(the majority of us that went dancing)



Saturday 6 of us went to Venice just for the day (it's about a 1 1/2 hour train ride). We just walked around for a while... to Piazza San Marco & back to the train station, with a nice lunch in between (I had the most delicious gnocchi!).
((Some pics of Venice))










That night we went out for my birthday dinner. It kind of gets old when on every menu there is only tortellini with pomodoro or ragu, or tagliatelli with ragu, or tortellini in broth. But I at least found some tortellini that were stuffed with something and came with asparagus sauce (finally, something (sort of)different!) and they were delicious. I made a cake & brought it and then Dide who is Dutch made me a Dutch Apple pie!! It was absolutely amazing & we all ate the desserts at the restaurant.




Yesterday (Sunday) was my actually birthday (22!). It kind of didn't feel like it all day though, without my family & friends from home or enough pink clothes to wear and feel special. The family I live with kind of just stayed in their own rooms all day & when I came upstairs at 6pm the house was dark & everybody was gone. That could have been a very depressing/lonely birthday but luckily it was Susan & Lily to the rescue. They invited me to come have burritos with them. Susan cooked everything (and it was amazing)...and so nice to have Mexican food! We had fun just hanging out/talking for a while & then went and got the most incredible gelato. I got chocolate and coffee... the chocolate one was so thick that it was almost like cold frosting... it didn't melt unless you chewed it.



Today I'm hoping to do a tiny bit of shopping... maybe get a cheapish black coat with a little bithday money from my lovely parents so that I don't stick out like crazy when I walk around Italy (which is basically what happens if you wear anything besides black or just dark colors right now). I should be able to find a good sale because stores are starting to put out spring clothes (although it's mostly still in the 40s for highs). The rest of my money I'm trying to conserve for short weekend trips. This next weekend a bunch of us are going to Florence, and I think there are a few more weekend trips in the planning stages right now. It's so wonderful to have met people that I can have fun and experience Italy with. I'm very thankful.

Sadly there was no way (that I'd heard of) to watch the Super Bowl here. Most people that I talked to actually seemed to think the Super Bowl was for baseball. I'm happy especially for the King family that the Packers won (or more that the Steelers didn't :) )
I just can't believe Lea Michele was in Dallas and I wasn't there!

Baci a tutti

Art & my house

Saturday during the day I went for coffee with Valeria, a friend of Cristina who I worked with when I interned at Paciugo. She was so fun and nice... and she helped me find PEANUT BUTTER!! yesss! Skippy. Everytime I eat it, most people in the house make faces and say "mi fa schiiifffooo!!"..but whatever, I'm very happy.

Saturday night in Bologna was this thing called Notte Bianca, which kind of sounded more exciting than it was. Apparently it's just places that(mostly museums..also the library) stay open late and have different kinds of art, modern art, sciencey stuff, etc. on display. A few of us went to one art mixed with science display in piazza Maggiore. There was some pretty strange stuff there... including a robot! But actually it just followed a red ball with its hand, a little unimpressive. There was a display about outer space/the moon so there was an American flag, yay! The following picture is one of the creepier things that was displayed there as science/art:


some art that appeared in the library:


But at least I got some beautiful night views of piazza maggiore


There are so many buildings in Bologna that are SO old, but they're all blended in to the other newer buildings so you have to read the plaques on the side, or have awesome tour guides (ie Martina & Valeria). This particular one dated back to 14th-15th centuries!



other random news:
Saturday night I finally got another crepe :)
Sunday it snowed a LOT. But melted the next day.
I made it through January! yay! 2 months to go.
For lunch today I ate fresh mozzerella with prosciutto. I will never be able to eat a cheese stick again.

These are the aforementioned (in a previous blog) amaaaazing croissants that I eat almost every morning with a tiny bit of nutella in the middle.


Lastly, I snuck a few pictures of the house I'm living in in case any one is curious:



(can you believe this is the sink for the whole kitchen? It's hardly even IN the kitchen!)