Full Speed Ahead

Sorry, This might be a short one, because I'm tired and I don't want to write this in more than one sitting. I feel like I lose my flow if I do.

I titled my last post, "Let's pump the brakes." What an inaccurate approach/expectation to my experience over here! I understand now that any attempt to slow down to smell the roses is completely futile. I've been here 39 days now. That's about 22% of my total time here. These past 39 days have gone by faster than any period of 39 days I've ever experienced before. And I know that there's no slowing down. All I can do is thrust my head out the window of this screaming, accelerating train and try to notice a few important cities, sites, and moments as I pass them by.

I've traveled the last four weekends. So far I've been to Milan twice, Cinque Terre, Verona, and Venice. Venice was amazing. It was very very cold though. It was unlike any city I've ever been to. The city is built on over a hundred islands. There is a confusing network of bridges, pathways, canals, alleyways, and piazzas that are devoid of any organization system known to man, that is guaranteed to get you lost.  I definitely got lost a few times. It's easy to turn down an alley you think you recognize and all the sudden you have absolutely no idea where you are, or which direction you came from. I pride myself on my directional abilities, but for the first 24 hours I was there, I had no idea where I was going. It was exciting trying to navigate a city without any discernible pattern or organization. However, somehow I always managed to make it back to my hotel.

Carnevale was going on during the time I was there, so the city was flooded with tourists. Most of the tourists flock to Piazza San Marco. It's the center of the festival, but right on the sea. I'm sure you've seen it before. The opening scene of The Italian Job was shot there. Because of Carnevale, I was expecting the city to be exploding with life at night. My expectation didn't exactly align with reality. I went out to dinner with about thirteen or fourteen of my friends at a restaurant near...the river. I couldn't take you back to where it was because I really have no idea. Venice is an expensive city. The Venetians know how to make money off of tourists. If I recall correctly, I believe our group rang up a bill of about 350 Euro. Such a crime. After dinner we left the restaurant and searched for a sign of nightlife. We found a piazza with a DJ playing, but without any dancing to be found. So we invaded the piazza and claimed it for USAC**. Over the next few hours people started to follow our lead and we turned the sleepy Queen of the Adriatic into a bumping hotspot. Unfortunately, the night was cut short. Anything too noisy for the locals gets shut down around midnight. So we set out to explore the city and make our way back towards the hotel, which was on the other side of the city. We got lost a few times, but made it back eventually.

**USAC is the name of my study abroad program

On my second day in Venice, I ventured over with some friends to the glass blowing sector of the city. Venice is famous for it's glass. It was so cool. I saw a guy blow this amazing glass horse. It took him maybe a minute to make. I've never seen glassblowing in person, so it was a really cool experience for me.

On our way back to Torino from Venice we stopped off in Verona. Verona is probably most famous because it is where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes place. The town was actually really cool. If you were to imagine what a classic little Italian town would look like, it would be Verona. I was only there for about two and a half hours, and I was eating lunch for over half of that time. From what I saw, it seemed like it would have been a really cool place to explore. I wish I'd had more time there.

Juliet's Balcony

This Monday marks the beginning of my sixth week of class. WHAT?!? How did that happen? I have a final this week in my Intensive Elementary Italian course. And I have a midterm in my Modern Design class. I forgot that I was over here for class, I thought I was just on vacation. Non importante. Quando parlo italiano, tutto i ragazzi e le ragazze capisco. Non è vero, ma molto divertente per me. Ciao Americani, Google tradurre queste frasi. Il mio italiano non è perfetto, ma non c'è malle. Dieci minuti per scrivere questo in italiano.

Ok, I think I'm finished with this post. I'll throw in some cool pictures and call it a night. I'll have more insightful stories next time around, I promise.

Let's pump the brakes

I've almost been here a month. This is going by way too fast already! 27 out of my 180 days are already behind me. That's 15%

In my last post, my debit card had just been cancelled. I just got my new debit card yesterday. The week and a half in between was a little stressful. It was a challenge to figure out how to stretch the few Euros I had in cash to last until the unknown arrival of my new debit card. But, that segment of my trip is over, and hopefully never to be repeated. Knock on wood. Now that the dust has settled, I think it's safe to say that Bank of America sucks. They suck at allowing me to access my money. Which is the sole reason that I'm trusting them with it in the first place, right? Now I've got a new card. I'll be content with them until the next time something goes wrong, which will probably be in about two months. Did you know that B of A will only let you put a 90 day notification on your account saying that you're out of the country? Hey guys! I'm living over here! After that 90 days is up, I need to call to remind them that I'm still over here. In the case that someone else truly gets my card, I really hope they'll be as swift to shut down my account when someone else is using it as they are for me.

Two weekends ago I went over to Milan for the day to see a few sights and to watch Ac Milan play Cagliari. Milan had a few sights worth seeing, and it was definitely an amazing experience to see a Serie A Italian soccer game. The stadium they play in holds about 80,000 people. The stadium was surprisingly dirty and plain though. We sat on newspaper because our seats were crusted with dirt. It was very different from going to sports games in America. You go to watch the game. Nearly all the vending and decorations that I'm used to seeing at Giants games was absent. The stadium was truly gigantic and the game was very exciting, I'll definitely give it credit for that. Oh, and it was absolutely freezing! We were on the top row of the second deck and the wind was howling in from the Northern side of the stadium. During the day I went to see Il Duomo di Milano, which is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in the world. It took about six centuries to build. From front to back, it is the length of about 1 and 2/3 football fields. It was absolutely enormous and pictures really cannot capture it.

In front of Il Duomo

Inside il Duomo

AC Milan vs Cagliari

3 - 0

In the last week, the Earth's axis has tilted in a way that has placed Europe at the top of the world. Europe is the new North Pole. Santa has packed up his workshop and called U-haul (the reindeer are on their 364-day holiday, Christmas was over a month ago!) to move on over to somewhere in Central Europe. Now that Europe is on top of the world, it has launched from a mild winter to a harsh one. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. Only a little. Earth's axis may not have shifted (Yet! It's 2012!), but it is definitely very cold in Europe. Right now Europe is in the middle of one of the harshest cold snaps it has had in a long while. It snowed in Torino all last week, which was something new for me. I've never lived someplace where it snowed. It was fun...for about a day. Then I realized how much it sucked. It's way too cold all the time. I have a bunch of widgets on my Mac dashboard that show me temperatures of different locations. I have one for the location of each of my roommates back in chico. I'm in Italy. Brett is in Spain. Trevor is in Costa Rica. Nate is in Chico. Today's high temperature in Torino: 36°. Alicante, Spain: 50°. Chico, California: 66°. Heredia, Costa Rica: 77°. Who made the right decision? I can't wait for it to be summer. It's very cold over here right now. I just did a quick google search and now the death toll is around 400 over the past couple of weeks. Most of the reported deaths are homeless people, which is very sad. I feel very lucky to have a place to stay.

 - - On a side note, I was walking down Via Roma yesterday and there was a man walking in front of me. Let's call him Salvador. There was a homeless man sitting with his dog (which was wrapped in a blanket) about half a block ahead of us. Salvador started to slow and reach into his pocket as we approached the homeless man. I kept walking ahead, but I turned around and watched Salvador as he walked towards the homeless man and his dog. The dog started barking viciously as Salvador got closer. Salvador put a coin or two in the homeless man's hat. The dog kept barking as he walked away. Made me think.

This blog has been taking me a while to write. I've written it over the course of three days, I just can't seem to finish it! Last weekend, Bryan Steele and his buddy Reid came and stayed with me for two nights in Torino. We had a blast. It even stopped snowing when they got here. On Saturday, I traveled down with them and my friend Cory to the Cinque Terre. We stayed in Riomaggiore and it was absolutely deserted. There were only locals there. The Cinque Terre is not really a wintery place to visit. Most of it closes down in the winter. But it was still amazing to see, and we got to stay there for much cheaper than we would have if we had gone in the summer. I hope that I'll be able to go back when its warmer. I think the best way to describe the weekend was, "I feel like we got dealt a really good hand with nothing in the pot." Which was fine with me. I had a blast, and the photos are phenomenal. The first night we got there, we picked up a few Birra Morettis and climbed out onto the rocks to watch the sunset.

We were only able to walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. From Manarola we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. There was a lot of damage from the flooding that happened a few months ago. If you haven't heard of it you should go check out videos on YouTube. It's really scary. We went out to dinner our first night there at a little restaurant on the water called La Lanterna. It was delicious. I had Pesto Gnocchi and a plate of pasta. I thought that was a good meal, but the meal we had our second night somehow managed to eclipse it. We went shopping on Saturday so that we could make dinner Sunday, and we went all out. We found these delicious sausages at a shop in town and we picked up 3 bags of pasta. Cory, Reid, and Bryan cooked up an amazing feast, and we did just that. We feasted and talked and told stories for about 3 and a half hours on Sunday.

THIS is Riomaggiore. When I did a google search for my last blog, I accidentally posted a picture of Manarola. What an amateur.

View from my apartment in Riomaggiore

Lunch in Monterosso

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and I was absoulutely exhausted after I got back on Monday. My train back to Torino was delayed for about an hour and a half due to electrical problems. We were stuck in the middle of no where. The Italian train system is notorious for their tardiness. But we made it back to Torino eventually. And that's what matters.

Ok, well I've got class in a few minutes now, and I think I've dragged this blog out long enough. Until next time, Ciao.

Shout out to Mom! Thanks for all the help, I know you were stressing about me starving or getting stranded somewhere in Europe.