To be frank, so much of what has happened to me is a mystery, and we may as well just agree now that whatever happened the week after Easter has been forever lost in the mists of time. Hmmmm. Actually, the Tuesday after Easter, my Culture group presented that godforsaken PDA project to the class. Alyssa was surprisingly interested and the presentation ran pretty long, so I was glad to get an A, yeeeeah! [side note: the seats at the gate where I'm waiting to board are sooo uncomfortable; I'm DYING.] Anywayski, it was soo sunny that day, it felt like the first sun I'd ever seen ever, after such a cold and gloomy winter. So Drew/Megan/Sarah/I put on our most inappropriately summery clothes (seriously, maybe I haven't mentioned this, but Italians always overdress weather-wise; on this day, we wore shorts/flip flops/sandals, but we saw a chick in a winter coat and an extra thick scarf walking her dog...explain that to me) and went to the park, armed with wine, bread, and Cosmo. We laid down a blanket and sunned ourselves for a while, until who should show up but five 14-year-olds (two couples and one lonely young soul). In the spirit of our recently completed project, they sat down about 6 feet from us and laid down in such a way that the two boyfriends were lying next to each other, elbows practically touching, while each of their girlfriends straddled them so they could make out at length; the lonely soul spent this period of time wandering around the park on his own. It was fully ridiculous, so of course we took it upon ourselves to very obviously notice them and discuss their barely pubescent behaviors at length...very unItalian of us. However, it funny enough that we didn't care and instead took photos of them. We also ran into Fabrizio and Kelly because apparently everyone just goes to parks on the remarkably infrequent sunny days in Torino. Then we moseyed on downtown to have aperitivo at a place that was really good- lots of food, strong drinks (seriously, vodka lemon in Italy is usually vodka with lemonade, but here it was a glass of vodka with a lemon slice in it), and an unfortunately bitchy waitress (if I try to talk to you in Italian, HUMOR ME). Then everyone went to Murphy's while I went home to do homework like a loser.
The next day (April 7) was the USAC Easter dinner. I starved myself all day to prepare for a meal that turned out to be mostly appetizers, but it was whatev because the food still tasted good. Also, some kind soul brought stroops for dessert, which we all bumrushed (obviously due to my killer instinct, I emerged victorious). April 8 (Thurs), I....went to school! Chances are I went to Chalet that night, too. On Friday, I will give myself the benefit of the doubt and assume I worked at my internship all day. I bet it rained, too. The weekend, meanwhile, is totally gone from my mind. If I had Internet/a laptop charger here, I could Facebook stalk myself and tell you what I did. Unfortunately, not an option. Oh well, the weekend happened and at least that's for certain. Monday (12th) was spent in class, Tuesday in class, Wednesday and Thursday too. I basically did nothing (that I can remember...) in an attempt to save money for Amsterdam (HA). Friday the 16th you've heard about, of course. I came home that weekend to an empty apartment since my roommates were all at Lake Como (and yes, I had Como FOMO) and stayed up almost all night being sad and eating trail mix. Saturday was the same- self-pity and minimal eating (hunger strike against the volcano?); God also got the memo and shed massive tears over my misfortune, as it poured all weekend. I'd refused to go grocery shopping since the week before spring break, methodically planning my eating so that I would run out of food exactly by Amsterdam; NOT such a hot plan when you run out on Friday, refuse to go in the rain Saturday, and stores are closed Sunday. I basically starved the entire weekend, adding to the tragedy.
By Monday, I was functioning like a human again and went into my internship. I'd been dragging my feet (heels?) a bit, but my professor had told me the previous Wednesday that it was due the 28th, so I sort of had to haul ass and work hard all Monday. Tuesday...happened, nobody knows what I did though. On Wednesday, the volcano had calmed slightly and I rescheduled my flight for Saturday, although I literally wouldn't let myself get excited until the plane was taking off (jk, I passed out as soon as I got on the plane- thanks, all nighter). I also had my Int'l Affairs presentation, which basically went quite well. Thursday...also happened. Friday was spent at the Centre, practically FINISHING my paper, so yay for me. Obviously, you already know what I did Saturday through Tuesday, so we'll skip that. When I got back from Amsterdam that Tuesday, I had PACKAGES waiting for me from dear Genevieve and also from a mystery benefactor. A girl who studied abroad in Torino has been reading my articles that I've been writing for the Sagebrush, so she sent me some peanut butter since it's practically nonexistent in Italy, holllaaaa! The previous week, I''d been suckered into typing up my IAff professor's notes for the entire semester, with the goal of correcting the English and making them coherent- not hard, but it took just about a million hours (no it didn't, I never even had a million hours in Italy :( ). Then I had to FINALLY finish my internship paper before being able to pass out for the first time since getting home.
The next day (28th) was back to school for me; gave my prof back his notes/turned in the paper, wrote my last compositions for Italian (!!!), and then went to Murphy's to watch the Barca-Inter game with some friends; there were tons of school people there, which made me regret a bit not doing Erasmus Wednesday every week, but I swear I was only ever antisocial when I had homework (as in, practically always)- damn you, school. I also met some Italians (Floriana and Francesco) who one of my friends knew from an Italian who works at SAA, and they were really super nice. After, had to walk home like a chump, that was fun. Next day, had to wake up early to take my Conversation final, it went well; also had the oral portion of my Italian final, also went well- golden! (although I probably shouldn't say that for sure until I get my grades back, hmm). That night, had drinks with the gang at their place (not a real gang, though, obv; they were mostly Asians) which was fun. Tried a cigar for the first time (it was gross, never again), got made up because I guess people think it's fun to put makeup on me (because my face is dead white, literally like a blank canvas), then went out to Chalet for the lat time. Got a bucket (of course), danced my bum off (of course), met an Italian (of course), had said Italian call me TWELVE times in the next 24 hours (of cou--wait, WTF? creepy, sir). Walked back from the club, didn't feel safe walking to my place alone, so crashed with Kate at around 4:30, setting my alarm for 7:30 in order to wake up in time for Alba. Alarm went off at 7:30 and I thought to myself, 'eh, I have plenty of time, don't have to be at school until 10,' and went back to sleep...woke up again at 9:30. BALLS. Raced back to my place, where my roommates were luckily also running late, and we made it to school by like 10:30, around the same time everyone else showed up, of course (thanks, Italian sense of punctuality). Then we got on the bus for Alba!
Last trip of the semester: half-bummer, half-funski. Slept on the way there of course, because God forbid I ever stay awake and see a country in motion for more than ten minutes at a time. Arrived in Alba at Cavour's castle, who passed it down through his family until around 1932, when his spinster niece died and left it to the town- yay, cat ladies. We took a tour of the castle that felt less like a fun history lesson and more like a sadistic test to see how long we could make it without them feeding us. When everyone became listless/unresponsive and started literally dragging their feet, they figured it was time for nourishment. We went to a winery/restaurant that was totally family-run. Father/uncle (two people, not some incesty uncle-dad) served the wine, son served food, and the mamma cooked everything in their kitchen. [side note: my plane is on the runway right now about to take off; I'm writing this instead of looking out the window and saying bye to Torino because it's embarrassing to cry on planes.] So anyway, we had a wine-tasting lunch at this cute little place and everything was SO GOOD. Then Alyssa gave a really nice toast before announcing student(s) of the year- Mick and Kat! yaaayy. After that, we got to buy some of the wines (aka got gouged after our free lunch) and then we hopped back on the bus and slept through the ride home. Got back and didn't do anything that night as far as I can remember? Hard to say, really...
Next day (May 1) we possibly maybe almost for sure did nothing during the day until it was time to go to Katherine's for a Giovanni-cooked dinner. Salad, homemade lasagna and cake for dessert = heaven. After, everyone was sucking and wanted to go home, but I was having none of that (like I'll let some drowsiness-inducing wine keep me down), so I said bye to them and walked to Murphy's on my own (daring, I know) and met up with everyone else who was there celebrating Ian's 21st. The bar played a string of classics ("Hey Ya," always a crowd-pleaser), so there was much drunken singing along. Then we left for some clubs, except that Ian may have accidentally knocked over Sarah and Teja while trying to hug them, and they may have both fallen and maybe gotten black eyes/egg-shaped head lumps. Sooo instead of heading for the Murazzi, some of us had to take Sarah home, so we flagged down a French Erasmus who was driving past, and bailed. Next day, Sunday! The pope came to town, but I missed it...don't wanna talk about it. That's all I really did on Sunday, was miss the pope, so I guess I have nothing else to report from that day, except the internet broke. Monday, Sarah's practically-birthday! Don't think I did much during the day (okay, I know I seem like a layabout, especially in this posts, but I swear I do stuff...I just don't remember it!), then at night it was to Sarah's to start celebrating. Started off rough when the bus driver wouldn't stop the bus and I had to walk two stops BACKWARDS in the pouring rain with straight hair- thank God for my Amsterdam beanie. Started the fun with flip cup- not to brag, but I'm a freaking champ at that game; I suppose I'm just a natural, really. Not such a natural at celebrating victory though, since I fist-pumped right into the ceiling, although I maintain that it was hardly my fault, because I can't be expected to remember 100% of the time that she lives (lived :/) in an attic. Following this, we took the bus to Murph's (of course) for Sarah to ring in midnight with a birthday shot. She also got birthday lei'd at midnight, and other fun things. Night ended with nothing of note but was fun overall.
Tuesday was spent studying for my two Wednesday finals, which was all kinds of fun. Also had our final Culture class, a lecture on reverse culture shock that was incredibly depressing. I honestly think that's all I did...super cool. Oh, FALSE. Went to the open market and bought some souvenirs as well as four of the biggest apples I've ever seen. Said bye to Porta Palazzo and came home to study. Wednesday was hectic. Had to wake up butt early once again to study, took my long ass IAff final (missed a question about the road map policy...still don't know the answer?), wrote tooooo many pages about the collapse of the Soviet empire, which better pay off. Then there was a short breakski to watch the USAC video Micki and Katherine made- it was really good and I definitely have to try and get a copy somehow. Basically all of USAC watched it in the big room, and the whole thing was fun. Then had my Italian final, which was weird; I finished way faster than usual and had a certain sense of calm while doing it, instead of the usual creeping dread. Maybe it was premature relief because it was my last final, or maybe it was because it was the last Italian test until next spring. After that, I was DONE! We went to Mexican for dinner because it was Cinco de Mayo, and the barmen gave us free shots to celebrate, which was cool. Then we went to Murphy's; both places were overpriced that night. Live and learn.
Spent all day Thursday packing, that was awesome. Then we got ready and went to Katherine's to hang out a little before going to this restaurant for Gio's birthday [oh gosh, it's now about 14,000 hours later and I'm waiting for my last plane to take off after passing out in the Rome terminal and literally falling asleep on top of these blog notes. But I'm back! So onward we press.] Since I literally ran out of money while abroad, I didn't eat at this dinner but instead sat and watched everyone else eat, which was more fun than I can describe. Lots of Italians, lots of awkward conversations, lots of cake. Cool. After the restaurant, we all rallied and headed outside to go to a club. Apparently there was a famous comedian outside the restaurant (Massimo Lopez) and some of the girls took photos with him, but by the time I figured out what was going on, he was gone. However, since I'd never heard of him before that night, I wasn't too devastated. Then we went to a club called XO, chose specifically because it was small enough that we could take the place over and do whatever we wanted. When we got there, they were playing slow music not conducive to frenetic dancing, so Kelly and I had to bribe the DJ with beer to play good music. By the time everyone else arrived, he was playing the music we wanted and we danced like madmen for the next three hours. Lots of dancing on tables, falling over, smashed glasses for some reason, drunken embraces and tearful goodbyes. It was one of the first times we'd (almost) all been in in the same place at one time since the start of the semester, and it was definitely the way I wished it had been all four months. By the end of the night, I was crazy sweaty and they had turned all the lights on trying to get us to leave. Another of their tactics was to play slower music (like "My Girl") but that just resulted in people slow dancing with each other. In the end, though, they closed the bar and we got the hint, straggling home (on foot, many miles) at 4 am. Tried to Skype, but basically passed out on the computer, so it was time for bed.
Woke up the next day and did some final tidying/packing before heading into school to turn in some books and say bye to Eliana. We also bought from the vending machine one last time, settling on Cipsters and aranciata. After that, we walked to Eataly to see if they had truffles for Micki's mum (they didn't, apparently October is truffle season) and we also got some bangin gelato. Then we came home to clean, but I only had time to clean like two things before I got invited to one last dinner, so I changed quick as lightning and popped back into school to meet Cris/Nick/Max (who works in the language lab at school, a place where I frankly should have spent more time), so we could grab the bus to go downtown to Floriana's apartment to eat dinner with her, Francesco and her sister Antea, which made seven of us total. Got kebab pizza and beers and ate them at their apartment, chatting and hanging out until it was time to meet everyone at Murphy's one last time. We stayed there for a few hours, buying our last legal drinks, writing on the walls to leave our legacies, singing people's t-shirts and flags (some of us twice when some flag owners found our first messages unsatisfactory...), and saying our goodbyes. I was basically fine until I saw the first person crying (thanks a lot, Ola) and then I couldn't handle it anymore, because as we all know, I am a sympathetic crier. From then on, it was on and off crying everytime someone had to leave, a little piece of my study abroad experience leaving with them (dramatic enough?). Then, it was my turn to leave, which turned the crying from sporadic to steady. Said goodbye to Italians, Americans, British, Polish, etc. and said especially goodbye to Daniele, one of the USAC staff, who had made Torino particularly special. Then we walked home for the last time, played the store game (every store in Torino has a little sign hanging from it that says the kind of store it is in four different languages, so we would read the signs with ridiculous accents every time we passed one) with Caitlin one last time, passed the kebab shop one last time. Got home and packed my carryon, and then it was time to leave. Said bye to Micki, beloved roomie and the last USACer I would get to see in Torino, took a taxi to Porta Nuova, got gouged by the driver (2 Euros extra for having luggage...really, sir?), got on a bus, got on three planes, and now here I am.
And so, this is the end. I don't have any more stories for you, nothing else to complain about or make snarky comments about or inform about. When I need to in the future, I can look back on this blog and remember this sophomore spring as one of the best times of my life. For now, though, it's over. In a few days, I'll write a wrap-up blog, when I have a little more perspective on things. In a few hours, I'll be back in Vegas for the summer and I can hardly imagine it. I don't know how to end this blog, except to say that I'll never forget the experience (no really, unless this blog gets deleted in some way, I can never forget now). Yeah, this is a really awkward ending. Well, thank you, Italy, and arrivederci. xoxo
p.s. I am OVER blogging, so I refused to edit/proofread this...if I sound even more incoherent than usual, that is why...sorry. <3
