La Routine

Well. A week and a half. This is a good thing, because I am giving you all a nice break between posts so you don't get overwhelmed with the brilliance of my writing. This makes me caring and concerned, rather than negligent and a layabout. If you needed a more legitimate excuse for my relative absence, we could talk about my previously mild illness, which has now turned into an all-out assault on my body and presence of mind. I went to the official USAC doctor here, which was a bit interesting (and your first indication that this is no ordinary cold--I generally scoff at pansies who show up at the doctor for any little affliction, but I figured that once my inability to breathe kept me from attending class on Wednesday, it was time to pay Dr. Lo Presti a visit). For one thing, he is only open two hours a day, so it takes some serious strategery to make it to his office in the appropriate window of time. Further, there is no receptionist at an Italian doctor's office; instead, you take a number when you walk in, and you're expected to take note of who was there when you arrived, so that you can remember when it's your turn. It's all based on a very nice system of trust which I very much approve of. But, you may be asking, if there is no receptionist, to whom do you pay the co-pay for your visit? OH, THAT'S RIGHT. You don't! Because THERE IS NO CO-PAY! Visiting a doctor in Italy is absolutely free, regardless of whether or not you are even a citizen of the place. You show up with an ailment, the doctor tells you what's up, and that's it. You aren't confined to visiting a certain doctor in a certain place just because of the constraints of your insurance plan (if you're lucky enough to even have one, that is). The idea is that your socioeconomic status shouldn't ever prevent you from receiving adequate medical attention. So there you go. No co-pay: just one of the many many many benefits of socialized medicine. I'm sure I could elaborate further on this and take the opportunity to state even more clearly my opinion on the absolute tomfoolery that is the American system of health care, but it's not in my nature to digress in such a way, so I'll get back to the matter at hand. Curiously enough, the doctor didn't actually ever tell me what was wrong with me, and it didn't occur to me at the time to even ask him. He just listened to me, did some of his checkup-y stuff, prescribed me a variety of medication, and I was on my way, released back into the concrete jungle that is Torino. The next day, I went into a pharmacy to pick up two of my medications, the names of which escape me at this moment. For my two perfectly legitimate prescription drugs, I paid a grand total of 12 euros!! TWELVE. To put this into perspective, my potentially life-saving medication cost less than the pair of leggings I bought at the mall the other day. Say what you will about Italian bureaucracy, at least some of it's working in my favor. I guess that's all I have to say about my adventures in health care so far.

Don't worry, though, I've been doing other stuff aside from dying in the past week or so. I finally had my other two classes meet for the first time, and although I already knew the professors, it was fun to find out who was actually in the classes with me and what we'd be doing. I already have assignments for both of them: for Conversation, I have to read an essay about Facebook and then be able to summarize it for my class....doesn't seem too difficult; and then for Culture, I have to observe Italian people in an everyday setting, so I'm thinking the bus ride to school will suffice for that. I also found out about a slightly longer-term assignment; we have to research a region of Italy and give a short presentation on it--I get to do Sicily! Yaaayyy, land of my ancestors, shouldn't be too tough of a job. I already had another test in Composition. Since the class runs for just about a month, I'm fairly certain we'll be having tests every week....but on the bright side, the class does end by Feb. 18, just in time for Composition II to start! I've heard rumors, however, that the second course will in fact be held in the evening rather than at the almost-literal crack of dawn, which is more of a blessing than I can fully explain. I've been counting down how many more mornings I have to wake up at around 7ish (or 8ish, whatever) and the number is currently hovering somewhere between three and six....our schedules aren't always perfectly clear, but I'll figure it out.

Other things that have been going on...hmmm. It was my friend Allison's birthday the other night, so she, her roommates, my roommates and I all went out for, brace yourselves, SUSHI! It was actually my first experience with conveyer-belt sushi, which excited me very much. It wasn't too bad of a deal, about 18 euros for a main dish + unlimited conveyer belt items, and the best part of course was that it was my first meal since getting here that did not feature either pizza or pasta. NO JOKE. I am always up for a tasty Italian meal, but it's only been three weeks and I am already absolutely dying for something non-Italian. In n Out, Taco Bell, even (okay, especially) McDonald's, I WOULD KILL FOR ANY OF IT. I think this makes me ethnocentric, but I just can't help it--the monotony is getting a bit much for me. Consequently, I've been looking for ways to diversify my meals. I started with buying genuine (Mexican-) American salsa, cereal, and cottolette. So far, I am impressed with myself. Other impressive things....my hair has mysteriously lost the will to part itself in ANY DIRECTION, a curiosity which I am going to attribute to Italian water, but which I fear has something to do with a series of missteps on my part, hmmm. In any event, I consistently look like a crazy person, which is perhaps good practice for my future as a bag lady, a fate which will certainly befall me if I continue spending money in this negligent fashion. Ah, money. I genuinely cannot even sneeze without it costing me money, but that's all a part of the study abroad lifestyle, I suppose. Another money-suck is, of course, traveling. I haven't been on any trips yet, although my first is next weekend, when USAC heads to Venice/Verona for Carnevale (!!!!!). I actually haven't even really done much sightseeing in Torino. As in, if it's not on my bus route or in the general vicinity of a nightclub, I haven't seen it. I really must work on that, given that Torino is a huge city with tons of history and sightseeing opportunities. People here are already planning spring break, and various other trips, but I have so far refrained, owing to the fact that I don't yet have a solid group of people with whom I can travel, so I feel as if I need to make better friends/travel buddies first rather than going off on my own and booking random trips, maverick-style. Hopefully, I figure that situation out soon before prices skyrocket for spring break; I'm not even sure where I want to go yet, but as always, I am confident that things will work out!

I can't really think of anything else worth reporting, so I guess that's all for now, although speaking of reporting, I feel it would behoove me to mention that I recently had my first article as the Sagebrush's official spring 2010 study abroad correspondent published. Click here to read said article. Also feel free to ignore the heinous mugshot provided by the Sagebrush archives, and instead enjoy this preview of the mugshot that will be used for all future (biweekly) articles. It's a bit like a passport photo, but in the world of journalism, we focus on the story, not the reporter....I guess. All right, done for today. Arrivederci! xo

I Corsi

Ciaoooooo! It's taken me four days to write another post because just about zero has been happening since I last wrote. This was partly a conscious effort on my part and partly a result of the school week being in progress. Being in Italy and having the freedom to do absolutely anything I want is soooo tempting, but then I remember that when I go back home in May, I will have both my GPA and my mother to deal with....thanks for keeping me in line, guys. The daily journal thing was a giant failure, literally from day one. I wrote about four lines in it and haven't written since. Perhaps this is a result of my deathly (read: mild) illness/cold/hacking cough, which has put me in bed before midnight two nights in a row, which hasn't happened since I was probably 14. Also could be due to the basic monotony of classes, which I still rather like (I'm a Taurus, we're creatures of habit).

Sunday....this may have been the night of the delicious dinner. Or that could have been Monday. This weekend, Micki's friend and then also Micki's bf's roommate came to visit. Their visits have effectually blurred in my mind as one long stay. One night (now that I think about it, maybe both nights), dinner was cooked in our apartment. I'll describe the one I more clearly remember, that of Monday night. After class that day, we all went to the supermarket and bought supplies. I was in charge of chicken, Micki of salad, Daniel of pasta sauce?, Carvin if that is in fact how you spell it of dessert, and the other girls of pasta. Turns out we bought the wrong lettuce, by which I mean it was not at all lettuce and was instead actually sour cabbage that got even worse-tasting when you cooked it. The remedy for this was to chop up my chicken and mix it in with the cucumber/onion/tomato/seasoning salad ingredients, and it basically made for the most delicious mistaken "salad" ever. No joke, it was SO GOOD. [P.S. I have just now realized the reason my timeline was so messed up was because I forgot to describe Saturday night. Basically, we went to a club called Lagare and did lots of dancing and there were stage contests and one of the girls got second place, missing out on free tickets to LONDON but instead receiving many free drinks, which all told, was probably an equally good prize. The Italians we met at Chalet were here as well, which was awkward in some ways (one way in particular) but comfortingly familiar in others. We walked home again, but this time without getting lost, mostly because we were led by Giovanni/Stefano/other Italian. On a related note, I find crossing the street at five in the morning to be far less terrifying than, say, five in the afternoon. Can't think of much else relevant to say about Saturday, except that one of the bouncers, Pier, was quite nice and the lady I was supposed to pay for my drinks tried to rip me off, but she did not succeed, because I am FAR too savvy for that...someone please tell my nonna, who thinks I am going to get raped and killed in Italy because I have "no street smarts."] I have also realized that I must have done absolutely nothing on Sunday, because I have genuinely formed no memory of it. So back to Monday's dinner. So we had the chickensalad, pasta with Italian sausage, and glorious homemade garlic bread. If it didn't take so damn long to cook, I would have it for dinner every night.

No other meals of note in the past four days, although I am gradually familiarizing myself with every kebab vendor in Torino. Once I've made my decision of which one is best, I'll let you know. In school-related news, I decided to stay in the unholy 9 am Composition class. The wake-up schedule is already wreaking havoc on my social life (as in, I have gone to bed at 10 the past two nights, thus causing me to miss out on OLYMPIC ice skating, thanks a lot, morning class) AND I have already had a test three days into the class. It was definitely harder than I anticipated, but thank god I'm only taking the class pass/fail, so I am slowly persuading myself not to stress out too hard about it. I also completed what is apparently only the first step in getting my permit of stay, which makes me a more legitimate visa-holder in the eyes of the Italian government. I did this by meeting with some lady who stamped something, made me sign something else, then gave me some bit of paper to keep. Awesome. And finally, I had my first non-Italian class today, International Affairs since 1945. I absolutely LOVEEEE my professor, Prof. Ferrari. He's obviously Italian but speaks English with a charming British accent, went to Stanford for post-grad on a freaking FULLBRIGHT fellowship and then worked at the UN for a million years before retiring and coming back to Italy to teach. It's like he lived my life for me already...........I have to make him love me somehow, so he can tell me all of his secrets. The class essentially consists of him rambling for two hours once a week, but I find him incredibly amusing and not all that difficult to pay attention to. I think it's because he has spunk, and I like spunk (V.V., if you're reading this, I mean spunk as in [spuhngk], –noun 1. pluck; spirit; mettle). Still haven't started my other two classes yet, but I'll get there.

Final thought, I met my landlord last night to pay rent for the first time (annoying) and she seemed incredibly relieved that we were able to communicate via my pidgin Italian (racist?), since she speaks ZERO English, which I actually kind of like about her. She came and looked at our death mold and said she'd call someone or something. I nodded a lot as if I understood her, but I didn't really. In fact, she may well have been telling me to lick the mold off the wall and eat it for dinner, for all I know. But I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here. Well, that's about all for now. I'll try and keep writing. And I'm no longer going to promise photos with every post, because it seems very clear by now that photos are simply not going to happen with any semblance of regularity. Let's all pretend that endless pages of text are exactly what we all hope to find when visiting this page. I KNOW I DO. Okay, buona sera! xo

Le Disco

Ciao! Sooo much stuff has been going on that I'm not even sure where to start! We've been out exploring Torino nightlife for the past three nights, each more of an adventure than the last. It's hard to really remember everything that has happened since Wednesday, which is exactly why I need to start keeping a journal, which I promise to try to do at least every day or so, starting tonight. In an attempt to remember everything as fully as possible, I'll break this entry down into the past three or four days.

Wednesday the 13th
Wednesday marked the final day of orientation, which essentially consisted of two hours of the USAC staff fielding inquiries about where to get the cheapest train tickets, tickets of matches di calcio, plane tickets, gym memberships, etc. We then had a short (by Italian standards) lunch break before getting introduced to all (or, in some of our cases, just one) of our professors. The presentations dragged a little, since about 15 professors spoke and only one of them turned out to be mine. However, they have very very impressive resumes, which I found pretty interesting, and also probably appropriate since they were mostly business professors. Three of them are executives for FIAT, one of them has about eight degress (in areas ranging from metallurgy to engineering to business to law, no joke) and is now a CEO for an Italian company, and another was the president for Kimberly-Clark (the company that makes Kleenex, Huggies, etc.) None of them teaches any of my classes, since I have firmly resolved to stay away from anything related to business, but it was still fascinating. I then came home for a little while, met my roommate's boyfriend, who is visiting on his way home from studying abroad in Holland last semester, and I ate my first Italian gelato (seriously delicious). I then braved the supermarket for the first time--on my own. I am convinced that this was no small feat, since I had to find the place on my own (based purely on uneducated guessing), figure out what I should buy and how I could buy it cheaply, and then get everything home by a combination of walking and bus-riding. In the dark. How I haven't won an award for successful-against-all-odds fool of the year is beyond me. After a quick dinner in our apartment, my roommates and I headed downtown for the first time since arriving, to an Irish pub called Murphy's, which was conveniently having a special on cocktails. I thought the most interesting thing about it was how essentially Americanized (or at least not-Italianized) it was--the bartenders all spoke English, wore kilts that quite startlingly abandoned their naked bums and flew above their heads every time someone ordered, and even showed an American football game the first time I was there. The place was mostly filled with USAC students, but we managed to meet a few Italians, which was fun. We also met our first Erasmus students, which is perhaps my favorite part about the USAC experience so far. Erasmus is a program that is essentially the European version of study abroad, so there are tons of foreign students (British, French, Polish, Canadian, etc.) and they actually take our classes with us. I really like all the Americans I've met so far, but my hope is to get to know the Erasmus kids a lot better and, I suppose, diversify my friend base. The end of the night is of little import, except to note that we had to walk the entire way home because buses in Torino stop running at midnight, which was slightly frustrating/depressing.

Thursday the 14th
I can see that this is easily turning into the longest post in the history of ever, but I persist. Thursday was our first day of real class! They are easing us into classes, so that only Italian started this week, with International Affairs starting next week, and Conversation and Culture each beginning in about two weeks. My Italian class was very good and I really like its format. I'm taking Intermediate Italian I, which I already took in Reno, but have to take again before I can start Intermediate II later in the semester. However, my professor suggested that I take Composition instead of Intermediate, which alarms me for a number of reasons: 1) it will be significantly harder, not that I'm afraid of a challenge, but that I will be skipping two levels of Italian to jump into it; 2) I like the people in my current Italian class a lot, as well as my professor; and 3) it is at 9 in the morning five days a week, rather than at 2:30 in the afternoon three days a week. Let me take this opportunity to explain that I am not lazy, but that I have a markedly difficult time waking up before noon, let alone at 7 a.m. The reason this concerns me is that points are deducted from our grade for even being late to class, let alone missing class, and I don't want to negatively affect my GPA just because of my disappointing sleep habits. The positives to taking the harder class are that I will learn a lot more Italian and get another minor requirement out of the way this semester, rather than waiting until I get back to Reno to take it (I also fear that the Composition class in Reno will also be in the early morning, which would rather defeat the purpose of putting the class off). I am going to sit in on both classes and then decide, but as we all well know, I hate making decisions, so this sucks a little for me. But I'm sure I'll figure it out! After that minor trauma, we came back home and Micki made a DELICIOUS salad and leftover pasta for us; I'll have to pay her back my making cottolette one night, as soon as I learn how to use our stove, I'm sure. Then my friend Drew came over and we all talked and got to know one another more before heading out to a disco (ha) called Chalet. I thought the walk wasn't too bad (although I most definitely changed my mind on the walk back, at which time I briefly considered just lying down in the street and calling it a night). I had a lot of fun at Chalet, where we met up with a bunch of USAC kids and basically discoed (which is apparently a word, since spell check has not flagged it as being incorrect) for a few hours. The music was really good and we danced to basically every song, singing along with all the words, even the ones in Italian, accuracy be damned. Americans seem to be a bit of curiosity in Torino, since the city is much less frequented by tourists than other cities like Rome or Venice, and we met a lot Italians, who wanted to take pictures with us, practice their English, and find us on Facebook the next day. Generally speaking, I think we all considered the night a rousing success.

Friday the 15th
Friday was aperitivo night!!! Definitely my favorite thing about Torino so far, aside from, you know, freaking everything. We started the day with some Italian homework, which took longer than I anticipated but definitely got me back into the habit of schoolwork, and then a few hours of class. We relaxed after class, reenergizing for the night. The yearlong students took us to an aperitivo place called La Drogheria, which I can safely say is the best deal of the CENTURY. The deal is, you buy a drink (say, a mojito) for 7 euros, and you are then welcome to UNLIMITED APPETIZERS. For example: pasta, lasagna, cous cous, polenta, patatini, fried rice, chicken wings, potato soup, and MANY other tasty Italian antipasti. I am tempted to allocate my entire food budget to La Drogheria, but I'll have to restrain myself. The location is also absolutely invaluable. It's downtown in what I believe is Piazza Vittorio, the center of Torino, with tons of shops and superexpensive apartments lining the streets and the whole thing is gorgeous. After that, we went to a club, which has a name of which we are all unsure but for now designate the XO club. Apparently the last time everyone went, it was a brilliant experience, with tons of dancing and good times. However, we clearly picked the wrong night to go, as we seemed to have stumbled into heavy metal DJ night--I tried to get into the dancing spirit anyway, as there was some sort of...techno backbeat, but it was a quick failure and we instead headed to the Murazzi. The Murazzi is a series of clubs lining the River Po, with some of the best views in all of Torino. In the summer when it's warmer, the street is swamped with people and the clubs mostly move outside, but it was relatively quiet and all clubbing remained indoors, owing to the subzero temperatures. We picked a place called Madrid, since it was small and our group of people effectively took the place over. It was absolutely empty when we walked in, but we stuck around and by midnight, the place was packed with study abroad students mostly, and the odd Italian. The dancing was epic. I'm an absolutely terrible dancer, but I feel like I make up for it with my enthusiasm and general panache. I'd go so far as to say that I am zero talent and all panache, which is exactly how I like it. We left relatively early, which turned out to be a good decision since we got really really really lost on the way home. We tried to catch a bus, but accidentally took the wrong one and ended up wandering picturesque but unfortunately useless streets. Attempts were made to get directions from Italians, but they seemed more interested in picking up on the girls rather than actually helping, even the one from Catania! (which was personally disappointing to me.) In the end, we gave up and called a taxi, since we figured the 4 euros we each had to spend were preferable to certain death in a foreign country. And so, we got home, yaayyyy us.

Saturday the 16th
Slept in very late, skyped with my mother, UNPACKED FINALLY, took a shower that thankfully did not run out of hot water, and cleaned my room! All that remains is learning how to operate the washing machine. Overall, a rather productive day.

I am positive that I have written entirely too much, but even so, I feel that I am leaving out important things, like maybe I am writing about all the wrong stuff! Time shall tell. If you made it this far, I offer you both my thanks and my congratulations. I haven't really taken any pictures since the last post, but I figured I should put up at least one photo, since I have basically written Infinite Jest II. This is of us leaving Madrid last night! Ciao for now, will ramble again soon. Arrivederci!

Fa Freddo!

It's absolutely freezing in Torino right now. The climate is about the same as that of Reno, but I got so used to Vegas over break that it feels deathly to me now! It's snowing, which is cool, and it's about 12:30 at night here, so hopefully it sticks and is around when I wake up tomorrow. I feel like there are so many things to say but it seems trivial to try and condense everything here. As promised, I've taken pictures of my apartment, so those are now available for viewing. It's pretty cool, although I'm terrified of the mold that is growing on our shower....that definitely has to go. However, the charmingly free internet access we get and the completely adorable elementary school next door to us more than make up for it. Just to briefly recount some stuff, yesterday we had a brief orientation and moved into our apartments. One of my roommates, Micki, has been here since fall, so she and her brother told us tons about the city and cooked dinner for us. Then we just sort of settled in for the night, figuring everything out. This morning we woke up to get ready for more orientation, this time at school, and I was the lucky recipient of the only shower the hot water heater allowed for. Apparently hot water is extremely minimal, allowing only two showers per day (one in the morning and one later on), so my roommates and I have to switch off with showering every other day. I'm basically fine with it, since that's only half as much exposure to the possibly fatal mold that hangs out right near my head level in the shower. After that, we caught the bus to school, where we had about a million hours of orientation. The school is really nice, pretty small, which is good because I can't get lost that way. They have a cafeteria that we went to that serves real meals at lunch (pasta, chicken, potatoes, etc.) and they have free bread, like it's a legitimate restaurant or something; it's really cute/I like it a lot. They also have machines that vend really good cappuccinos, which I understand exist in Reno, but probably not for 30 cents and probably not quality Italian stuff, sooooo suck it, Reno. After orientation, we went to the mall to buy cell phones, which was even more trying, if you can imagine. Probably spent two or three hours there, with 40 kids trying to buy phones. I ended up with a cheap little Samsung, but I don't need anything fancier than that, so I'm fine. After that, I bought my pillow and comforter from some other shops in the mall. My transactions took place entirely in Italian, and I survived. Very impressive. I then caught the bus home ALONE and didn't get lost and didn't look too much like a tourist, so I considered it a rousing success. Then we just had a quiet evening in, which is exactly what I like. The only two worries that I have so far are as follows: 1) Studying abroad is so damn expensive....I've seriously spent so much money, it's like I'm hemorrhaging euros, and there seems to be no end in sight; 2) Italians do not believe in to-go bags in restaurants, for when you're full but want to take the rest of your meal home. Apparently it means you're poor or low-class or something, but it is SO ROUGH, probably the most different thing I've experienced so far. Tomorrow we endure yet more orientation and we'll probably go grocery shopping for the first time. But for now, I must sleep. Pictures below are self-explanatory, I imagine. Buona notte!


the italian flag outside my authentic italian hotel room window


super cool smoking porthole


my super cool middle finger demonstrating the super cool smoking porthole in action


our kitchen!


our moldy bathroom, slightly improved by the fact that it has a bidet!


to the right of our apartment, a park!


to the left, other stuff!


what could charitably be described as our dining room!


and finallyyy, my bedroom! (which now has actual bedding woo)

I Primi Giorni

Ciao a tutti! I arrived in Torino yesterday and am comfortably settled in at my second of two hotels, despite suffering a few minor indignities along the way. I've traveled a fair amount in the last few years, but I've never experienced my luggage being lost by an airline until yesterday, which was a bit disconcerting. In hindsight, it actually worked to my advantage since it rained all day yesterday and I had a hell of a time finding my hotel, so it made the process a lot easier not having to drag my 80 pounds of luggage with me on buses and trains. The airline even dropped the luggage off for me at my hotel once they found it; a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me. I also got in a spot of trouble with the receptionist at the first hotel. Apparently the custom in Italy is to leave your key at the front desk every time you go out, so they know whether or not you're in your room. She told me that my mother called about a million times yesterday and she couldn't explain to her why I wasn't picking up, since I had the key, which was supposed to mean I was in the room. My bad, Italy. I think I rectified the situation, though, by being able to understand her when she spoke to me in Italian, which is apparently unusual. Score one for the foreigner. We've officially checked in with USAC, so I've already found out where I'm living (midtown) and with whom (three other girls- Becky/Caitlin/Michaela). I'm writing this from my hotel room before we leave for our orientation dinner, where we'll get to meet everyone finally! Not too much else to report so far. I've started to settle into a slightly more European schedule already, which mostly means that I am firmly committed to a four-hour mid-afternoon nap/break time every day. I think the Italians really know what they're doing in regards to il pisolino; the space between lunch and dinner has always seemed fairly useless to me, so this more than adequately resolves that issue. I haven't actually taken any pictures yet, so nothing to add to this post image-wise, but we're moving into our apartments tomorrow, so I'm sure that will be painstakingly documented. I'll also be sure to take a photo of the window in my hotel room--it seriously has a miniature porthole cut into it so a person can stick his hand out and flick the ash off his cigarette without opening the window all the way. How brilliant is that! That's all for now, but I'll update soon. Arrivederci!