Winter In Torino

The last two days has been the first real time that it has snowed here in Torino since I have been here. We once thought that some "frost" we saw at the beginning of December was our first glance into snow here in Italy, but we later found out it was pollution in the air freezing overnight and falling onto the ground. However, what has come down in the last day and a half is unmistakable and beautiful. Dmitrij and I spent about 4 hours walking around the city yesterday just checking out the snow, the piazzas, and going anywhere the snowy trails took us!

I have to be honest in saying that it was the single most beautiful "picture" of Torino that I have seen yet. I have been living here for 5 months now, and the city has never looked as pretty! Although I had a long debate with myself about bringing out my nice camera because of the weather I am very happy that I did because I was able to get some really cool photos!

The Best Care Package Ever

Since I have been here for the past 5 months, I have had a very small amount of American food. In fact, I had not had some of my favorites in what felt like forever. However, yesterday Dmitrij arrived, and with him, he brought a whole suitcase full of American food. For some odd reason, when I was opening the suitcase I felt like a pirate opening up a chest of gold, and fortunately for me, what was inside was much better than gold!!!

THIS IS MY LOOT!!!;

The Loot

Fruity Peebles: The greatest cereal ever

Everything you need to make smores

Skyline Chili

The Vibrams have returned

Chicken Salad is now a possibility

The single greatest candy EVER!

A wonderful combination of everything amazing

 

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!!

This morning when I woke up I had a wonderful bowl of Fruity Pebbles! It was a magical moment.

Italian Style Soccer

Last night was the first time that we played soccer (calcio) this semester. It was nice to get back together with all of my friends and play calcio again. Although I have meet these guys through Cesare I have been able to form true friendships with these guys. I only see most of them for an hour once a week when we play, but this is one part of the Italian culture that I will always remember.

At the same time, last night it was fun to finally win!! Normally, the team with "il americano" (the american... ME) is at a disadvantage. In fact, before last night I had only won 3 times. However last night, not only did we win, but I scored 3 time! Il Americano scored more than all but one of the Italians last night!! Of course, every time after I scored, my team and I did the single greatest celebration dance ever;

Cesare and Lorenzo before we danced

Although I was never big into soccer before I came to Italy, I always enjoyed watching my sister play, but after being here and playing with the Italians, and actually being able to play, I actually look forward to this hour that I have each week with these guys. I will keep you all updated on my level of calcio as we continue to play each week, or if it declines maybe this will be the last post that talks about my soccer adventures here in Italy!

The Hard Decisions That Come With Studying Abroad

In the past couple of days everyone is getting situated here in Torino. This means that more people are going out consistently, everyone is starting to plan trips, and of course people are having to make VERY VERY tough decisions.

Having been here since September I can be sure that this isn't just a first week fascination, but rather consistently hard decisions that shape your study abroad experiences! These are what I would call "study abroad problems". Ironically I don't think my parents or anyone not studying abroad would think of any of these as problems, but here are a list of some of those really tough decisions that we have to face in the last couple of days;

     1. For that 4 day weekend in March should I go to London or Paris? Or maybe I will visit London and Dublin for spring break and Paris for Easter, so what about Rome?

     2. "Tonight for dinner I think I will have pasta, pizza, dessert, and then a kebab after! Or does that make me sound fat??" Thank you Joe!!!

     3. Tonight are we going to Lapsus or Rotonda? And where are you all going before for dinner?

     4. This weekend do you want to go to Milan and go to the Milan soccer game?

     5. We want to go watch The Bachelor tonight, but we have a test tomorrow morning... (we watched The Bachelor!)

     6. Do I get the OK with my parents before planning this trip to Prague for Marcus's birthday or book it now so it doesn't get more expensive?

The difficulty in these questions and other questions similar to these questions is that we only have a limited time here and we want to do as much as possible. I have recognized that sleep is optional here in Italy, and embraced it as much as I can (rather we sleep 4-5 hours a night and stay up socializing like Italians until 4am)! In fact I was talking with the girls that come over and watch The Bachelor with us today about this and they stated that having been here for 14 days and gone out (mostly with us) for 9 of the 14 evenings! We are going out again tonight to a club called Rotonda and we are going to dance to my single favorite song right now, leave the club around 3am, get a kebab, go to bed around 4, only to wake up at 8 to make it to class at 9 and do it again tomorrow!!;

AND YES!!!! I AM WEARING WHITE PANTS TONIGHT!

Vibrams, A Book, and Lunch In A Park In January?

Thursday it was suprisingly warm here in Torino; it actually hit 58°F. At 3am when we were coming home it was absolutely freezing, when I went to school at 8am it was still cold, but when I left class at noon it was warm. In fact I went home, made lunch, changed into my Vibrams, and went to the park for the afternoon.

Our local deli guy is an awesome man, and him and his wife are always very nice to us even thought our Italian isn't always the best. In fact, one of the things that he does that I really appreciate is that when you go in and order any sort of meat or cheese he will always help you match it with something else that would complement what you are already getting. Great marketing?: YES, but the way that he cares about taking care of you makes it special and worth the few extra euros you will spend.

Peanut Butter and Pretzels

It is always nice to have an American moment every once in a while. For instance Thursday when I went to the park I brought my peanut butter and pretzels to the park, and almost ate half of it! Although the food here is amazing, I sometimes miss certain types of food that we have in America that you cannot find here. Big League Chew Gum, Skyline, CHIPOTLE, peanut butter, cinnamon rolls, etc.

Another thing that I enjoyed was not just how warm it was outside, but also the book that I am currently reading; Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Although I don't normally like reading, I have been reading this book for just over a week and I am 294 pages into it! I really enjoyed spending time in the park just reading and relaxing. In fact, I am looking forward to when it gets warmer so that I can spend more time in the park relaxing and enjoying my time here in Italy.

"Good Things Don't End Unless They End Badly"

My favorite line of the Bachelor or Bachelorette ever was a line said by Ben (the current bachelor) to Ashley after she told him she didn't want to merry him, and when he was leaving like any normal person would have she asked him why he had to leave this way.

"Good things don't end unless they end badly" 

This is all that he replied as he got on the boat and left the island. It is right up there with "I might not be able to play the guitar, I might not be able to break dance, but daddy can suck a mean foot!" which Luke and I correctly identified unlike my sister Kelsey (Maybe one of the greatest Bachelor nights ever!)

It might sound weird and strange that I will openly admit, as a 21 year old guy, that I watch the Bachelor, but truth be told I find the show hilarious and enjoyable. Picture one guy dating 20 girls at once or vice versa. Naturally there is always a bunch of drama, funny drunk moments because they never stop drinking, and plenty of awesome places they go to (and A LOT of pretty women).

Now taking applications for next seasons The Bachelor (Italian Style) starring Nate Borowitz

I started watching the show back in the day with my mom and sisters on Monday nights, and then it evolved into the neighbor ladies coming over and joining us, and then Luke and Lucie, and now it is a legitimate event each week when I am back in the states. We start it at 8:30 as to skip all of the commercials, my mom either makes some brownies, cookies, ice cream, or popcorn, and we all gather around to watch 15 people think they are falling in love with someone they barely know. AND I LOVE IT!!

However since I have been here in Italy I have not had my regular Monday night rituals, but rather have just tried to stay on top of watching at some point each week. BUT!!! This week I was walking home with a few of the new girls from this semester and as we were talking about what we had planned that night I mentioned watching the Bachelor, and what do you know; NEW WEEKLY PLANS! We had the girls over that night, and we had our own little Italian style party while we watched it. We supplied the wi-fi and wine and they supplied the limoncello and cookies!! It was really fun for me because it was like being back home; we talked about what was going on and laughed at the funny stuff.

Watching The Bachelor in our apartment

PS - I totally called him not giving out the final rose this week!!

Kacie Boguskie (my favorite this season)

Emily Maynard

I am now looking forward to Tuesday evenings when the girls come over, we will have dinner and watch the Bachelor fall in love (the season is set in a full timeline of about 3-4 months)! As for my prediction this season because I didn't get to write down the top 5 on the paper like we always do, I will say this; If Ben doesn't select Kacie Boguskie (above) then he is an idiot. She is by far the best girl in the show this season, and in my opinion would make the best match with him. She reminds me a lot of my favorite person who was ever on the show; Emily Maynard (right).

I have always said that the day I turned 21 I was going to sign up and go on this show, and the truth is that although I already turned 21 and haven't filled out the application ITS NOT OVER!! I am totally going to sign up!! I already know the perfect entrance for anyone to make a good impression without showing up wearing a mask, playing an instrument, or the newest; riding in on a horse! I have just decided that I am going to wait until I am 25 and successful and then force them to let me be the next bachelor!


Below are some of my all-time favorite contestants on the Bachelor or Bachelorette!

Jeff the masked man

The man with the foot fetish

Wes: Final 4 with a girlfriend

Jillian from Canada

Ali if you are still out there call me!

Jake... Maybe if you didn't cry so much and opened your eyes you would have picked someone better than Vienna!

Chris Harrison "The final rose... whenever you are ready"

Shawntel: shout out to my Chico friends

My New Roommates and A Day At Superga

As this semester (my second here in Italy) is just getting started, I recently returned to Torino from traveling. I had the privilege to be invited to the welcome dinner with the new students as well as a few other of the year-long students the first night that everyone was here in Torino. I am excited to say that this group of students seems to be a great group; over the last few days (our first few days here) I have been able to hang out with a number of these students, and am looking forward to getting to know them better.

Also, my new roommates have moved in to our apartment. Although last semester I lived with one of my best friends, Matt, and also one of the coolest guy I have met here in Italy, Gabe, I am very pleased with my new roommates.

This is my roommate roommate Joe (and his gf)

This is Joe. He is from California, and is rooming with me in our apartment. Although I have only known him for a few days, he seems like a really cool guy who will make a great roommate. Ironically, Joe will be the first random guy that I have ever roomed with. Before coming here to Italy, I had always lived with my parents, and when I got here I lived with Matt (He went on vacation with me so he definitely doesn't count as a random person).

This is Marcus

This is Marcus. He is also from California. Sadly for him, this is the only photo I could find of him without a bunch of friends or a girl, so this is what he gets. From what I can know so far he has great taste in music and seems to be a down to earth guy.

After the guys moved in to the apartment I took them for a decent tour of the city. We saw all of the main locations in downtown, we went to a few open markets here, went to Parco Valentino, and even headed down midtown for a while. It was cool for me to recognize that my worst nightmare with new roommates was not true, but rather I had gotten lucky AGAIN with awesome roommates; I had always worried that because of my personality I would be set up with two Bros from somewhere who only wanted to get drunk and try and pick up girls 24/7, and I am relieved to now know that these guys are here, but not for that.

The next day (Sunday) we decided to take a trip up to Superga. Superga is a Basilica on the top of this hill and overlooks all of Torino. Ironically after living here for 4 months, I still had never been to Superga, so it was exciting for me as well. Unfortunately it was potentially the single foggiest day so far here in Torino, and by the time we got to the top is was almost impossible to see Torino, but we made it work and had some fun at the same time.

I am excited to see what this semester brings me. The other students here seem to be a good group of kids, the classes I am taking are good, my Italian is getting better by the day, and the one thing that helps tie it all together is living with 3 guys that are good, fun people.