So today I was checking into my next few weeks and what my schedule was going to look like, and I had an absolutely terrible realization that we only have 6 weeks left!!!!!!!! That might seem like a lot, but when you think that spring break just ended, and Easter break is next weekend, and after that we only have a month left... well I am starting to worry!!
My Outlook calendar has literally everything I HAVE to do each day as well as my traveling plans, so I thought that I would update you all on some of the travels that I will be doing in the next couple of weeks before I come back to the states. Don't worry mom and dad... all that blue that you see on Monday through Thursday is class that is mandatory... well unless we went out too late the night before, or it is nice outside and we want to go to the park!!
It is sad to think that my time here is over, but I must say that I have really enjoyed my time here. I have had the greatest 7 months of my life so far and am looking forward to these 6 weeks left. I had a great trip to Aosta this weekend at Silvia's (an Italian friend of ours) house with my roommate Marcus, then in a few weeks I am going to go to Cyprus or Saluzzo. The weekend after that we are going to travel to Crete, Greece and rent a villa and Vespas for the weekend, followed by a crazy weekend in Prague for Marcus's birthday celebration! After all of this traveling my family will arrive and we will have 2 weeks to travel Italy before I have to go back to the states!
Still working on a blog post for the opera, the beach, and the usual week in Torino, so check back tomorrow!!
This video has nothing to do with my blog post, but just a bit of musical flavor that I have been into lately! Enjoy listening to it while you read this blog post about my spring break plans.
You may or may not know that my college experience was about as nontraditional as possible (in my opinion). My freshman year of college I was still a senior in high school. My sophomore and junior years I was going to school two days a week, working full time four days a week, and living at home. And this year, being my senior year, I am studying abroad in Italy.
This also means that I never took part in most of those "traditional" college experiences. One of those experiences is the crazy thing called "spring break" where all college students get the idea that you need to go to Panama or another beach and drink all day and all night and be drunk for the entire week. I am not saying that is isn't fun, in fact I can't say it because I have never done it, but I am saying that it was never appealing to me! So rather I did other things; visit friends at college, relax at home, pick up more hours at work, or even SLEEP... a lot.
Ironically I had planned to spend my last spring break, as a college student, in Greece this year, but with the political and economic unrest that Greece is going through right now I decided not to go. Rather, I will be spending spring break in the same great place that I spent Christmas; at my professors house in Saluzzo. It is about as nontraditional as my college experience, but I am actually looking forward to it.
I never had a brother (although sometimes my younger sister does a great job at being a replacement, its just not the same) and so when I go to their house I have a chance to hang out with 3 boys! We tend to play a lot of soccer outside, shoot fake guns inside, and its always an intensive fight on who will be sitting where at dinner (I was informed last time that there are only two seats next to Nate and 3 boys!). The funny thing is that although this is supposed to be a "break", I am almost guaranteed to come back more exhausted than when I leave today, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I find it interesting sometimes that people can be so similar, but at the same time be attracted to completely different things. I have never had any true desire to spend my spring break like that, but a lot of my friends here and in the states do it every single year. This is also similar to the fact that everyone is surprised that I have turned down the chance to go to Amsterdam twice, and I skipped out on Oktoberfest.
I am not saying that I don't go out here, don't have fun, don't drink, because that would be a lie. However what I am trying to say is that for me the idea of spending time with "family" (or as close as it gets here in Italy) is far more appealing than other options.
Here are some funny "spring break" photos that if you have a student in college and they are at a beach this weekend... well lets just say it probably looks something like this!! It is not that I am better than any of these people, or that what
they are doing is wrong, but rather that I have never had the desire to
do this, and so for me a week with the boys sounds more appealing to me.
SIDE NOTE: I think I will be working here in Italy this summer in either a vineyard or the fruit fields. Yes, I will have graduated college at 21 with a really solid GPA, and yes I should go out and find a "real" job, but that is just the thing. At 21 I feel like I have a year or two to do the things that I want to do, and experience the things that I want to experience, and working in a vineyard in Italy for a summer is one of those things!!!
Hope you have a great spring break, whatever that may look like for you, and I will write you all about my adventures on Friday.
I apologize that this is the first time that I have written in the past week, however I have been in Saluzzo, Italy with my professor and his family, and did not have Wifi to write.
Christmas this year was very nontraditional for me; I was not with my family for the first time, but rather I was in Italy, and with 3 boys (I am always with girls during the holidays as I am the only boy on either side). However, I learned a lot about myself, Italian culture, and what the true meaning of family is in the past week.
As I said, I was in Saluzzo, which is a small city south of Torino close to Mount Viso (The Paramount Pictures mountain). I spent 6 days there with my professors family, and it was a great time.
While I was there we did a couple things for Christmas that allowed me to see into the Italian way of doing Christmas:
Christmas eve we went to Julianna's parents house to eat dinner with her side of the family. Her parents live in the old town in Saluzzo and had a great view of not only the rest of Saluzzo, but of 2/3rds of northern Italy. I could see from Milan to Torino and farther all at once!
The hill on the right is actually Torino (hard to see, but it is)
For dinner we had at least 12 different courses of food, three of which were dessert, and plenty of good wine. Ironically, none of the courses had anything to do with pasta, tomato sauce, lasagna, meatballs, or any of the other American stereotypes that we have of Italy and Italians. The dinner was wonderful, but it was the conversation after that intrigued me the most. Everyone talked at the same time, and the moment the children left the room, so did the gloves!
Notice how everyone's mouth is open at the same time!! It is normally hard to understand someone when they are speaking Italian, but if you have 8 people doing it, and then you add in the fact that they are talking fast, interrupting one another, and you have never heard any of the words they are using, then you become a bystander who takes a video like this one to capture the moment;
On Christmas day we spent time at the house with the boys and grandma and grandpa Dastru. I must say although it was sad not being with my family, it was nice to feel welcomed into someone else's and not be alone. It was also fun to go back to my childhood a little bit and help the boys construct their Legos because I used to play with them for hours as a kid.
Francesco working on his Star Wars Space Craft
Carlo and I working on his Space shuttle
Playing with their completed Legos
We also spent a day and went up to a valley right before Mount Viso, where I was able to take some really cool photos. We spent the afternoon just conversating about life, Christmas, and Italy. It was a good time for me, because not only was my view absolutely magnificent, but I was also able to talk about my family, my Christmas traditions, and how Italy was treating me! To be honest at that moment I recognized that my time here in Italy, and life in general, has been greatly enriched by the people that have surrounded my life. For instance, I would have been alone for Christmas if It hadn't been for such nice people here in Italy welcoming me into their family and home.
I also had the privilege of a free day to explore Saluzzo on my own, and walk around the old town for almost 5 hours. It was a really good time to just get away from things and step back into an older and historical part of Italy. While I was walking around I ran into some interesting people, awesome places, and ate some delicious food. It was a unique experience to be able to talk to a few elderly men hanging out at this local cafe. Although I was only able to understand half of what they were saying, they held a conversation with me for 30 or so minutes over a cafe, asking me about life in America, what brought me to Italy, and lots of other funny things.
In fact at one point I had said that everything in one way or another is better here in Italy and the one guy stood up called me a liar, and proceeded to say that the only things that are better here than in America are the "'e donne e i cibo" or in English "the women and the food" (I must admit that this is a true statement, however I would add in many other things such as fashion). I also came across a house with a great view of Mount Viso, and being the American that I am, I of course rang the buzzer. This kind older lady came out and after explaining to her that I wanted to take this one photo, and how I was an American studying here in Italy, and how I am traveling to Rome, Naples, and Florence the next two weeks,we had a lovely conversation about where it is that I should go when I go to Florence!
As I continue to travel, experience different cultures here in Europe, and dive into the culture of Italy, I am finding that I couldn't have been luckier to have a family that is caring enough to be without me for Christmas, but never forget me. Furthermore, I can't talk about my Christmas here in Italy if I don't also talk about what Christmas was like back home. Although I have no idea what Christmas was actually like, I do know that my mom took the time to make special Christmas cards this year so that I was included and also took a few photos on Christmas eve and Christmas with our family that I wanted to share!
Christmas Card #1 - featuring Mom, Dad, Kortney (my older sister on the motorcycle), Kelsey (my younger sister and the soccer player), and yours truly all the way here in Italy!
Christmas Card #2 featuring all of us again
Christmas Photo of the family
Cousins on my dad's side
Cousins on my mom's side
My sisters and I
Christmas to me has always been more about spending time with the people that you love, rather than the presents that are under the tree, and being away from those people this year gave me reassurance in this. I recognized that regardless of in the same room, or on opposite sides of the world, your family is your family, and they will always be there for you! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great new years!
This year instead of sipping on sparkling grape juice or something stupid, I will be in Rome with two of my closest friends having an absolute blast here in Italy, and regardless of where you are I hope you do as well!
This weekend I had the privilege of staying at one of my professors house outside of Torino in the city of Saluzzo. There family was very welcoming and nice to me, and I had a really awesome experience spending the weekend there. In fact, I am excited to go back for Christmas.
It was really cool to stay in a place that was built in the 16th / 17th century.
One of the cool things about there house was that it is one of the only farm houses left in the countryside of Saluzzo that hasn't been compromised with a modern approach on the outside. I liked the fact that it still looked traditional. Another awesome thing about there house, was that because it was built so long ago, at that time and because of its size, it was a place that people from surrounding homes came to cook, socialize, and also go to church.
This is the former stables, chapel, and outdoor over. Below you can see the oven, and the chapel as well
The Paramount Pictures Mountain
During the weekend, we spent some time in the city of Saluzzo, visited an 11th century abbey outside of Saluzzo, Cuneo for an afternoon, ate great food, and also spent some time playing around the house. It was fun being able to play soccer with the boys, as well as what we would call the "Wild West" with toy guns (FUCCILI!!).
The biggest shock for me was actually realizing how weak my Italian truly is. When you spend all of your time with others that are also learning Italian it is easy to think that your Italian is getting better because you are all growing at the same pace. However, when you spend 4 days with kids 2-8 years old, and they are talking circles around you, then you recognize how much work your Italian actually needs.
And just for humor, here is Carlo and Antonio singing the Italian national anthem in the car;
After this weekend I am excited to spend Christmas with what is really an awesome family:
