Le Settimane Perse

Oh, heavens. I have been so caught up in this traveling business that I have forgotten (not really, I think about it a lot and then decide to play on Skype instead) to do my regular blogging of my incredibly exciting life in Torino. What in God's name have I been doing since approximately March 21st? You will be gratified to know that the answer is, not a great many things. I can't think of a more logical way to do this than to simply try and chronicle everything day-by-day, supplemented (detrimented? ohh, that's not a word maybe) by sprightly little gaps of time where I will have forgotten everything. Let us begin.

The Weekend, March 20-21
Well, I got back from Morocco late on the 20th and basically came home and piddled around on the computer and caught up on necessary things, like....I don't know, but I certainly didn't check my bank account. It took me a few days until after I got back from the trip to work up the nerve to log on to my bank statement and uncover the horror of how much money I spent. Then on Sunday I woke up incredibly late and did....more nothing? I definitely starved because the GS is closed on Sundays and I had deliberately left my apartment void of food so that nothing would go off while I was gone. So when 6 or 7 p.m. rolled around and I was deep in the throes of malnutrition, I nutted up and went off to the kebab shop to buy a kebab pizza. This is literally a kebab (shaved lamb, lettuce, tomatoes, special sauce) but tossed onto a pizza instead of being rolled up into a bit of pita bread; quite good. Maybe I did some laundry....maybe. That's all I remember.

Monday, March 22
Ah, Monday, back to school already. I made this the subject of my latest Sagebrush article (you can read that and all my other articles here) since I have never experienced the anguish quite to this degree before, but it was BRUTAL going back to school. I defiantly brought my new Morocco bag with me even though my books clearly didn't fit in it, and I also wore my new Morocco ring and Morocco scarf. Everyone was going to know I'd gone to Morocco, damn it. So yeah, I just had that one class, but it felt like the longest, most boring class ever and made me realize just how much school sucked in comparison to holidaying. But I did get a letter in the mail that day from my good friend Kristina Bell (shame on those of you who still haven't sent me letters) and then I also realized that I was studying in Italy, so I figured I didn't have it too badly after all. There was a chance that I went grocery shopping around this time, too. Hooraaaaay! Also, my roommates possibly got back from their spring breaks. Who knows.

Tuesday, March 23
Back to my 10 a.m. class (my earliest and therefore most unbearable), as well as Culture. Most kids decided to extend their spring breaks and stay a little longer, so Culture, which usually has about 40 kids instead had about half as many. This was advantageous insofar as we had a panel of people coming in to answer questions for a project we had (more on this later), so we had more time to ask questions........about making out. You'll see. I also had my final advising that basically finalized the classes I'm taking next semester! Sooooo exciting, even though I'm taking about 700 credits.

Wednesday, March 24
More class. Nothing of note, I would say. Unless there was and I've just completely forgotten! What if there was a blizzard on this day and my subconscious has repressed this memory?! We would never know.

Thursday, March 25
I can see already that my efforts to go this far back are going to be basically futile. Um, my calendar says I had Conversation and Composition that day. So I guess I was in class for five hours before taking the bus home and..there you have it. And then I came home and maybe went out. Who knows! No one ever knows with me, I am just that unpredictable. Actually, HA, I do know what I did! I made the wise choice of Facebook-stalking MYSELF (who knew this particular set of skills would be so helpful?) and figured out that on this particular Thursday, we went to visit Fabrizio at the restaurant where he works near the Murazzi. We had many delicious things to eat as well as a fair amount of wine, and our plan was to eat first and then motor on over to Chalet and dance... only I guess wine makes you sleepy, and by the time dinner was over (give me a break, we finished dinner at like midnight), half our party was basically over it and wanted to go home instead of Chalet. So that's what we did! And that is how I saved myself 2 euros on coat check and thus ensured myself seven more vending machine coffees.

Friday, March 26
On Friday, I was STILL suffering from the effects of post-spring break disorder (PSBD). I tried so hard. I woke up, went in to my internship, sat down at my desk, "ready" to research. And then I spent four hours going through old emails and organizing them all. I also GChatted basically the whole time (thanks a lot, Sheila), which if nothing else, can attest to my multitasking abilities. So I gave up and went home. Sometimes you just have to accept defeat gracefully. And then maybe it was a quiet Friday night? Facebook doesn't show any evidence of Friday activities, which means we either stayed home and ate or else we were doing something HIGHLY ILLEGAL (these are frankly equally likely). I don't know. At some point, I obviously went to sleep because I woke up and it was....

Saturday, March 27
A whole week already! Time flies, amirite? I guess this isn't as bad as I thought; blogging doesn't take so long when you understand all too well the concept of the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (get it? that's me. my mind is blank.) I do actually remember this, though. I mean, sure I don't remember the daytime at all. If I'm being kind to myself, I could suggest that I went to the gym. Hey, maybe that really did happen. After that, we all (really just I) learned a fun lesson about tolerance, and I don't mean the people type. It was someone's 21st birthday, so we went to the downtown apartments to help him celebrate. We got to take the metro (fun!) which was the perfect length of time for us to all get DJ names. No, but really. I'm never going to DJ anything in my life, but man, if I ever do, I am totally prepared for it. So we hung out downtown for a while, and then instead of heading to whatever bar or club they were going to, we decided to split off and swing by SciaSciú to say hi to Fabrizio again. Anyway, so we were there for some indeterminate length of time, after which we once again decided to give up on the clubbing and just head home, which was probably for the best anyway.

Sunday, March 28
Had a bit of a rough morning, unfortunately did not go to the gym. but basically rallied and by afternoon was back in top form.
Probably did nothing until midnight rolled around, at which time I probably decided it was appropriate to start my homework. These things just can't be helped sometimes (ever). Oh, actually I now remember that I went to dinner with Kate and Sarah so that we could work on our Culture project....COOL.

Monday, March 29
This is probably the day I started freaking out about going to Sicily (which you won't get the pleasure of hearing me explain just yet because Sicily gets its own WHOLE BLOG! try and contain your joy, please). But of course, I had to ignore these sorts of internal struggles and focus on the delight that is my school work! Just had Italian that day, maybe I got back my first test for the second half of the course (grade NOT worth mentioning, balls) and I guess that's about it. I know for a fact that I did not do anything productive like shopping because I made a pact with myself not to go shopping before Sicily (as you will learn, I had better (more expensive) things to spend my money on) so that for sure didn't happen. What I did instead was finish my Culture paper earlier in the day, and then after class, everyone went to my apartment and we worked on the godforsaken project. Okay, so the point of the project was to pick an aspect of Italian culture, make a series of observations, and then write a 15-page paper summarizing our findings or whatever. We, being the intrepid observers (creepers) that we are, picked the topic of PDA. This meant that we basically had to creep on Italians making out in public as often as we could (since I am almost professionally creepy, this was perfect for me). We came to some very interesting and surprising conclusions, which basically sum up to: Italians are very affectionate, EVEN IN PUBLIC. I'll give you a moment to recover from that shock. Anyway, I was the official editor (everyone wrote their own 3ish page section, and I had to compile them and make it sound like one person wrote it) and it took for.e.ver to read through the paper, like it maybe took me 45 minutes to read about 20 pages. I guess we just do really dense, intellectual research about hickeys and whatnot. So that was my Culture project, mostly. There was a presentation, but I'll get to that.

Tuesday, March 30
Presentation day! Or was it? Presentations were supposed to be spread out over two classes, but no one wanted to present the day after Easter break, so we all signed a blood oath to Alyssa that we were willing to stay in class as long as necessary (ie, like four hours) for everyone to be able to present on the 30th. So that's what happened for the most part. We listened to a million hours of incredibly revelatory things, such as "Italians like to dress nicely." And then we realized that our entire group was going to be in town the Tuesday after Easter; suddenly, we get bumped to the next week, even though I went to all the effort of putting on a professional dress and my fancy tights. But this is just what happens when you are committed to regularly attending class, I suppose. So we didn't present. But that is so whatever because I am so laidback and go-with-the-flow anyway. And I also went to dinner this night! Stephanie heard about a really good Indian restaurant from her roommate, so she, Micki, Katherine and I went for some ethnic (non-pasta) food. So we took the bus downtown and walked into this amaaazing looking place. The lobby-type thing was the ground floor, and you went down this set of steps to the actual restaurant part, which was half awesome cushion seating/drinks area, half actual restaurant. We got a fixed menu, which had tandoori chicken, some other types of chicken, some potato thing, and lots of garlic naan! It was really really good, and I think basically worth the price. We stayed and talked and we were of course the loudest ones there, since Italians are surprisingly quiet eaters (at least the northerners are). And then on our way out, they had one of those cut out things where you stick your head in the hole and it looks like you and your mate are an Indian bride and groom! Oh, what good fun. Also, since the weather has finally been warming up here, we've been making the fun decision not to wear coats anymore, which makes perfect sense when you leave for dinner since the sun is only just setting, but it feels a little more foolish when it is much later and it is suddenly freezing. But I guess that is just spring for you in Torino. But it was a good night and a fun departure from regular old Italian cuisine.

Wednesday, March 31
Look. I had more class, learned some more things, I can't necessarily say what. I showed my IAff professor the progress I've made with my internship research so far, and he seemed pleased, which is a relief. Also, for anybody that didn't know, March 31 was César Chavez Day. This means little to those raised in Nevada, but in California, you get a day off of school (I guess it's their Nevada Day). At Chico State, it is also a day to specifically get incredibly drunk in honor of Mexican migrant workers or something. All the Chico people (including all my roommates) here were sad about missing out on this holiday that most of us have never heard of, so they decided to have their own celebrations by going to Pam and buying tequila and avocados to make guacamole. The official name of the event, it was later decided, was "Guac & Shots." I didn't drink since I had to write my Sagebrush article that night (responsible, I know), so I handily participated in the guac half of the night. Every time people took shots, I raised a guac-laden chip in the spirit of César Chavez and it was a fun night when I was the only sober one. Everyone else had fun too, I guess. And then I went home at like 12:30 and stayed up another few hours doing my homework and writing my article. Super fun end to the evening.

Thursday, April 1
The day of the mad dash! I had been worrying all week about what to bring my family for gifts, but since it was the day before I was leaving, it was time to finally suck it up and just buy something. I went to the mall after class, obviously without any option but to make decisions (which I frankly hate more than anything). Anyway, I came away with treats and accessories for the babies, ties for the men and scarves for the women. I also bought lots of chocolates to wrap in my Morocco table napkins to give to people whose houses I visited. It was a very frazzling, sweaty experience, but I did it! And then I bought myself gelato to make myself feel better (but I'm not an emotional eater........so that's good). Then I came home, packed, met Becky's mother who was coming to visit for the Easter week and had dinner with them, and then sat down to spend the remaining three hours I had between dinner and leaving for Sicily to write my godforsaken spring break blog.

[Interlude where my Sicily blog will one day belong, April 2-5]

Tuesday, April 6
After the fakeout of the previous Tuesday, we were this time ready to present. I looked significantly less cute than I had the last time, but I figured it would be weird to repeat the same bangin outfit, so I had to settle for a slightly more rumpled look. But that's okay, because my dazzling speaking ability was totally the star of the show (I mean...of my section of the presentation, and it dazzled insofar as it wasn't embarrassing like my outfit, so it wasn't that difficult to have the upper hand in that particular faceoff....between outfit and presentation). Then after class, it was an impressively sunny day, so Sarah/Drew/Megan and I bought some wine and put on our summer clothes and went to the park to soak in the sunshine. It was a lot of fun, and also quite relevant to our project because about five feet in front of us was a pair of 14-year-old couples who had come to the park specifically to make out. Each girlfriend was straddling her respective boyfriend, but instead of spacing themselves a good distance to create even a brief illusion of privacy, the couples were RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER....like, the boyfriends' elbows were touching. It was super weird, so we took photos of them. And they noticed. But I mean, I guess it was just in the interests of science, so that's okay. And then we went back to Megan's apartment to get ready (ha) before going to the train station to pick up these two guys she had made friends with on her trip to Nice the previous weekend. We picked them up and headed straight to an aperitivo place which was quite good. Lots of actual meal items like pasta and potatoes, and they also had lots of vegetables and a dessert that was vaguely reminiscent of Nutella. So that was good. And then everyone went on to Murphy's for some midweek debauchery, while I went home....to write my two essays that were due the next day for Composition. Only got one done. But that was okay, because the next day...

Wednesday, April 7
We showed up to class and only one of the papers was due! So I had the time to watch a movie (Io non ho paura, very good, nominated for best foreign film a few years ago, I recommend it) and then write about it. I probably did some other schooly stuff, then came home for the evening. Hung out with Becky's mum briefly before she left the next day. Had another panic attack about the state of my finances, that was fun. I guess that was basically all I did. OH, actually USAC hosted an Easter dinner for us! This was nice of them. We all met in the cafeteria and there was ham and turkey and quiche and rice and who knows what else. And then for dessert was cookies and apple crisp and stroop waffles!!! I will not explain what these are yet, but you will hear about them after next week, I guarantee. So that was the Easter dinner.

Thursday, April 8
Honestly, do I do anything? We had a test review in Composition since we have another test on Monday...that was cool. Got my grade back for the Conversation test I took on Tuesday, which I guess I forgot to mention I took. What else.....was still freaking out about money, so I didn't join everyone for hookah in the evening, but that was for the best since I went to bed sort of early (...sort of) and was well-rested for...

Friday, April 9
Went in and worked at my internship some more! Actually did some work this time, so it was surprisingly productive. Yaaay, me! Then came home and was surprised by Micki and her mother! They'd been gone all week traveling (France, Cinque Terre, etc) and were supposed to come home Saturday, but were instead there when I got home. Which was awesome! Except that my room was disgusting and messy, since I had planned on cleaning it that night for their return the next day, but instead encountered them before I had a chance to tidy up. Oops. Anyway, Micki's mum is really very nice and a lot of good fun. She was also there with one of her girlfriends from home, and a whole gang of us went out to aperitivo that night (actually the same place as Tuesday night, still JUST as good, perhaps better this time) and then we swung by Fabrizio's restaurant onceee again, before hoofing it (in a taxi really) back to Katherine's, where we hung out for the rest of the night.

Saturday, April 10
And suddenly I have arrived to today! This wasn't so bad I guess. I did nothing today except sleep in and then wrote this blog....on the balcony, while sunbathing, in my bikini and ludicrous sunburn-preventative turban. So here we are. I'm listening to the Beach Boys. It is a month exactly until my birthday, which means even less than a month until I am back in the States. That's about it, I guess. Stay tuned for my chronic(what!)les of the next few weeks, in which I will do things such as pay rent and write papers. AND I'M GOING TO AMSTERDAM. The fun never ends, guys! Love, Kathleen xx