My first 48 hours outside the US

(This part was written Sunday, January 13)

Well, I made it. Let me start by saying that I am absolutely exhausted. It’s 11 PM here and my roommates just left to go out to a bar in downtown. That’s right, I’m sitting in my apartment and not going out to have fun with my new friends. I’m unbelievably jet-lagged. I’ve gotten about 9 hours of sleep in my last 72. But, for anyone worrying about me over in The States, I’m fine, I’ve moved in to my apartment, and I’m preparing for tomorrow. 

My flight left San Francisco International Airport at 2:40 on Wednesday. The day started out quite sad, I had to say goodbye to everything I’ve ever known. Then the excitement took over as I got to the airport. I met up with a group of people waiting in at my gate that were also in my program. There were about 18 of us on the flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt. The night before my flight, I tried to stay up all night so that I could be tired and sleep on the plane. Good idea Marcus right? Wrong. I have never once been able to sleep on a plane, I don’t know why I expected myself to be able to do it now. I have some non-prescription sleeping pills I got at costco that I hoped would knock me out. I was dead wrong. After we were served our in-flight meal I took my first pill. I waited about an hour for it to kick in. Nothing. By the end of the ten and a half hour flight I had taken three of the pills and gotten about 30 minutes of sleep. I got into Frankfurt 10:40 AM local time, or 1:40 AM California time. I found the gate with the rest of my group, then a few of us went to have a drink. Then I got onto my second flight from Frankfurt to Torino.

Flying over the Alps was possibly the most amazing thing I have seen in my entire life.

Our flight got in to Torino about 30 minutes late, not a big problem for me yet. I’m tired, but fighting to make it through the day. I met with our whole program and we took a bus into the city to stay at a hotel for our first night in Italy.

My first night in Italy I went out with some of my new friends to an Irish pub called Murphy’s. It was fun. I had a pint of delicious German beer called Erdinger. Ok, I had a few pints. The pub atmosphere was cool. The crowd wasn’t Irish at all, or English speaking, which was cool. A few of the people I was with spoke some Italian, but I was at a loss for trying to talk to the locals.

(This part was written Saturday, January 14)

I barely slept that first night. I got to bed around 1 AM but I woke up at 6 and couldn’t fall back asleep. We had a meeting to move in to our apartments at 10 AM. I met my roommates and we headed over to our apartment a few blocks away from the hotel. I’m living with two Americans and an Italian. One of the guys, Joe, was new to the program, like me, and Nate has been living here since the beginning of last semester. Nate speaks Italian very well. Cesare, my Italian roommate, speaks English quite well. I’m going to be surrounded by the language, even at home. They’re going to be able to help me learn so much better than if I were living with 3 other Americans that were learning Italian for the first time.

It was Nate’s birthday about a week ago so we went out to dinner at a pizzeria across the street with my roommates and a few of their, and now my, Italian friends. Delizioso! That night I finally managed to get to sleep. About 12 hours. Woke up at 1 in the afternoon. I went out and went grocery shopping with my roommates. The food here is amazing. Especially the desserts. I’ll post more next week once I’ve spent more time here. I’m trying to use my computer as little as possible.

Being here is going to be an amazing experience. I’m loving it already. It’s scary being in a place where I can hardly communicate with anyone, but it’s only going to get better in time. Ciao! I’m going to watch the 49ers vs Saints game at a bar about a block away from my apartment later. Americano

Send me emails or post comments on my blog if you want to hear about anything specific!

Oh and this is the view from my apartment window. NBD.