Viva Italia!: 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!