Stockholm, Sweden

This weekend Gabe, Matt, and I went to Stockholm, Sweden. It was an absolutely awesome experience, and I really enjoyed myself. Stockholm was not only an amazing city, but the people of Sweden were really cool as well. These are some of the highlights of the trip (excluding one of the greatest nights of my life!! - it needs to be a post on its own, so be looking for that tomorrow as well!)

This is Gabe and Matt at the cafe we ate at the first night! The food was amazing (if you go to Sweden you MUST eat the meatballs with jam), but if you look closely you can see a lady in the background. She was super helpful in telling us where to go during the day, but also at night so that we could have an awesome experience, and an awesome experience is exactly what we had!

This is a picture during the changing of the guards that happens at The Royal Palace that happens in Stockholm. Right before these two men walked out the leader (who spoke the whole time so you knew what was going on) announce "The Swedish Army Band!". This was not the first wave... this was the whole band! On a side note though, the changing of the guards was actually a really cool thing to watch, and if you are in Stockholm you should go check it out!

     

This is a photo that I took at 13:14:10 (1:14 PM) in Stockholm. The fact that our shadows were so long because the sun was already starting to go down brought up a very interesting conversation between us. At one point Gabe made the statement of why do some of the best cities and civilizations call the worst parts of the world home (aka why can't Stockholm be by the Equator and have it nice and warm there!). Regardless I think I will enjoy the 18 hours of sunlight a day in the summer if I go back next semester!

The rest of the photos are just photos of buildings, parks, city squares, and then the three of us in our new scarves. Stockholm is an AMAZING city, and I would suggest to anyone in Europe, or ever traveling to Europe, to take the time and go visit it!

Central Station Stockholm.

Buildings and Train Yard.

Matt, Gabe, and I in our new scarves.

Building in downtown

A main square in downtown Stockholm.

Awesome park in downtown Stockholm.

Reflection of some buildings.

Getting To Know the People I Hang Out With

     So I haven't written on my blog for a while, because I recognized that I didn't even enjoy reading it that much and I was talking to my roommate Gabe (the one in purple. He is from Iowa) about it one day over a beer, and he just suggested continuing writting, but maybe switching it up to be something that I would want to read. 

So here goes nothing. This is my attempt to make this blog a little more interesting and enjoyable for you as my readers.

This is Gabe (my roomate from Iowa), myself, and Matt (one of my best friends from school).

 

      This is when we went hiking in the Gran Paradiso. I like this photo because it is a reflection of our relationship. We get along very well and have lots of fun together. This coming weekend we are finally all going to be able to go on a trip together for the weekend as just the three of us. We are going to Sweden together!

      Having lived with these guys for 3 months now, I am recognizing how fortunate I truly am to live with them. Sometimes I wonder who will cook me burgers when Matt leaves in December, and who will clean the apartment twice a week when Gabe leaves. This will be a problem that I have not solved yet!

     This is our kitchen, the guy in red in the front right is Cesare, our Italian roommate. He has been an amazing help to Matt, Gabe, and I. He always is patient with us trying to speak Italian (it always sucks) and enjoys hanging out with us all the time. All of these crazies is the normal group for an evening dinner at our apartment (don't tell anyone in USAC because apparently this is not supposed to happen). Matt, Gabe, Cesare, Enrico (Cesare's friend in Orange), and I are lucky to be able to hang out with some really cool girls (from left to right; Marina, Emily, Carson, Alexa, Cristina, and Samantha) that share the same ideas about this trip with us; yes going out and being 20-23ish is fun, but you can also enjoy yourself when surrounded by good company and a good plate of food in front of you.

     I am comfortable saying that I enjoy having what some would call a nontraditional study abroad experience; we don't go out and drink every night, but rather walk around a check out the city, have great conversation, and cook dinner together. Although everyone is different and some people enjoy different experiences, I like the one I am having here in Italy, and wouldn't trade it for any other experience.

Allora!!

So it has been a while since I have posted anything (ironically I feel this way every time I actually sit down and start to write), but I just wanted to let everyone in on some of the things that have been going on since last time.

First and for-most (and this is mostly for my mother!!) BUT I got an A in Italian 1!! Besides getting good grades at Italian, its been really cool to be able to walk around and stop wherever you are going and 85% of the time hold a conversation with someone in just Italian!! In the 6-7 weeks that I have been here, my Italian has grown tremendously and it has been awesome to see what I am studying actually pay off! This is probably the first time in all of my schooling career that something that something I am studying now is usable now as well. The things I learn every day in class helps me go out that day and hold a better conversation than I could the day before!

Another interesting thing that happened this week was Matt and I played soccer with Cesare (our Italian roommate) and his friends... Needless to say Matt and I somewhat got embarrassed, but we were invited back for next week! Matt and I both scored, and I think that might have been our saving grace!

Today I will be also updating my list of 25 things to do in Europe, as we have crossed a few more of those off the list, and along with that I am going to be making a second blog post that has my weekend schedule on it... This is going to allow you to know where I am going each weekend!!

Ciao,
Nate

Lake Como... Minus George

I spent this past weekend in Lake Como here in Italy, and I must say that it was a nice change of pace.  Rather than spending my weekends running around a city or hiking the Cinque Terre, I was able to spend time relaxing and enjoying some free time that was not planned from start to finish!

Lake Como was very nice. We spent the weekend relaxing, kayaking, swimming, taking ferry rides, and exploring a couple of the towns on the lake! We were so lucky because the owner of the hostel let us actually stay in a studio in his house for the first night because he didn't have any room in the hostel.  The place we stayed was amazing! It was clean, the staff was nice, and the location was perfect. On Saturday we went kayaking on the lake and we were able to explore a little bit more of the north part of the lake. Some of the houses on the lake just amaze me... the size is one thing, but the architecture, location, and view just bundle them together to make the perfect vacation homes.

Another interesting thing that has happened is that I will be visiting the European Union on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of next month! I am very excited about this because we will be meeting actual members of the EU and directors of all of Europe! I am more excited to go to Brussels to meet some members of the EU than I am to go to Amsterdam the following weekend, Florence in a couple weeks, or even the truffle festival next week. I think this just has to do with the fact that I am starting to understand the importance of things like the EU, and what that means to me and the way I am able to live my life!

This weekend I will be staying in Torino, next weekend we will be hiking Friday, truffle festival on Saturday, and wine tasting at a vineyard on Sunday, the following weekend we will be in Florence with Cesare, and the following weekend we are going to London for the Wilco concert!! STAY TUNED FOR MORE FUN!!!

Ciao,

Nate

School / Internship / Milan / Craziness!

So it has been a while since I have blogged about how everything is going here in Italy, and I have to apologize.  The problem is that, although I might have the same amount of hours (maybe more because sleep seems to be optional here), but I am finding that my time is more filled than it ever was in America. We don't watch any TV, but rather spend our evenings cooking and eating dinner as a group.

One of the cool things that happened since the last time I posted on here was that I spent last weekend in Milan.  Ironically it wasn't on purpose, but it just so happened that way, and ended up being and amazing weekend!... I went Friday, directly after class to Milan with another student from America with the intention of spending the day shopping and checking out the city. The problem was that since there was so much in Milan, and the conversation was good, that we didn't really do any shopping on Friday, so returned early on Saturday and spent a whole second day in Milan.  Milan was an amazing city with tons of beautiful architecture, awesome elephants (like the designed pigs you can see all around Cincinnati), and good shopping!

Today was also my second day at my new job here in Italy.  I am working with Tom Tjaarda (the man is responsible for the pantera!). In just the few short times I have worked with him, it has been an amazing experience for me, and I am really excited to spend the next four, and hopefully nine months working with Mr. Tjaarda.

Over all everything else is going really well. I am slowly adjusting to the differences of society here, the extended length of time that classes run, and taking care of all of the household chores I didn't have to worry about back in America (hanging clothes to dry, doing dishes by hang, etc.) I will be in touch with you all soon as I am hiking the Cinque Terre this Saturday, and will hopefully have plenty to tell you all about that experience!

Ciao,
Nate

The Flirt and Fail in Italian!!

Rose and my dialog today in Italian class... Translate using google!

Guido: Ciao Bella!!!
Rose: Buona sera. Come stai?
Guido: Molto bene perche parlo con te. E tu?
Rose: Cosi cosi perche parlo con te.
Guido: Come ti chiami?
Rose: Mi chiamo Rose. Vai via perfavore.
Guido: Mi chiamo Guido. Ti piacerebbe venire a cena con me?
Rose: No grazie. A mio marito non piacerebbe.
Guido: Telefonami!!
Rose: No grazie. Ciao!
Guido: Grazie mille!! Ciao bella!!
Guido: Telefonami!!

Italian class is much more fun when you are able to take something like a dialog project and make it something of your own! As long as we continue being able to learn and use our own imagination this will be a much more interesting learning experience.

Talk to you all soon!

Ciao,

Nate

Il Mio Italiano Non è Buono

So today I took my first Italian test and to be honest it was not very fun at all!! To be honest I have enjoyed just going to class and then spending all of my free time checking everything out around the city, AND NOT STUDYING!!! Truthfully though; coming into this experience I thought that I was going to really enjoy learning another language, but as of right now, the only thing about that class I like is my teacher (who is amazing) and the people in my class!  I actually enjoy going to my business classes here very much, and I find my teachers for the first time ACTUAL specialist in the field that they are teaching me about.

School itself has been a really cool experience.  Although the weekly layout of classes is a little bit different and more spread out, I am happy to say that for the first time since my freshman year of college, I actually look forward to going to class to explore the potential of the things I might be able to learn!

Because of how crazy our schedules are, I am actually done for the rest of the day now (and was since noon), so we are going to go out and check out the city, maybe throw some Frisbee at President Abe Lincoln park (not actually the name.. the statue just looks just like him), or go eat as much gelatos as possible!

Just a heads up to everyone on my upcoming events; this weekend (Friday) I will be going to Milan with someone to go shopping… It will definitely be very fun and potentially even a very interesting trip.  Next weekend I go on a 3 day long trip to the Italian Rivera and the Cinque Terra, and the week after I believe that we will be going to Oktoberfest in Germany.  So keep an eye out for information, blog posts, and pictures of those experiences!

Ciao,

Nate