Buon Giorno Dominica! I’m taking it easy today in my flat, and trying to recover after a crazy week! I finally started my Italian class, which meets Wednesday and Friday from 4 to 6. I’m the only American in the class, but most everyone still knows English, so if we can’t figure out the word in Italian, we have a fall back. And our teacher is crazy. She is a real Bolognese, and is very proud of the fact. (Apparently, Bologna is filled with “other Italians” and the real Bolognese live outside of the city.)

Wednesday morning I decided to have people over for dinner, and it very quickly grew from a small affair of 3 or so people to a crowd of 10. And I actually bought too much food! I made Pasta Fagoli, the way my Grandparents taught me, and it was a hit. Afterwards, about half of us headed to Giardini Margherita for a party, where we danced the night away. Both getting there and getting back was quite an adventure in itself. Ben (my fellow UNC-er) had his bike, but the rest of us wanted to take the bus. So, he decides to follow the bus downtown, which turned into quite a comical event. The disco was just that, a disco. I’ve become quite found of the music over here, where the DJ’s tend to take a popular song and add a techno beat to it. No rap or r+b, just pop music with techno flair. And it’s not all recent music either; I’ve found that they tend to like a lot of the songs that were big in the states ten years ago. Except for the Italian dance songs they play, which are recent. Our feet finally gave out on us around 3am or so, and we wandered over to the night bus stop, where we waited for ages for the bus to come. And after that ride I can say that all the stereotypes about Italian drivers are true. The bus ride was like a rollercoaster, with sharp turns, quick accelerations, and sudden stops, all along the very narrow and windy ancient roads that make up the center of Bologna.


I hope I started a tradition with big group meals, because the following night Ben had us over to his flat for Lasagna. I had a wonderful time chatting with his Italian flat mates, and even picked up some of the southern dialect that they spoke. Such as, in Italian, you say mi piacce for when you like something, which is pronounced something like mi pee-ac-che, where as the southern Italians say mi pee-ach. Interesting, to say the least.
Friday I had to get my registration documents, and I finally got a packet on what student life is like in Bologna! I still don’t know anything about what classes I will take, or how to go about taking them. Beh! Hopefully I will find out more Monday, when I meet with my advisor.

For dinner Friday evening, I got to go outside of the city with a friend of a friend of Tammy’s. Tammy, Maria (german) and myself went to dinner with Francesco, a local Bolognese who knows the land well. He drove us about 40 minutes outside of Bologna, to a tiny restaurant where the cook was also the waitress. Francesco ordered for us, and the first thing that came out was a big, fragile, crepe like thing, filled with cheese and meat. It was a mess to eat, but very tasty. Then came the spread. And what a spread it was. We had three types of cured ham, a soft cheese, olives, two types of onions, mushrooms, garlic, artichoke hearts, and pesto di carne, all of which we put into little rolls. After, we had a wonderful dessert, a white mousse with berries. What a meal!

And there was Rimini. Yesterday we embarked on a journey to Rimini, a seaside resort down about an hour away from Bologna. I went with Tammy, Maarten, Chris and Hanna, and it was a blast! We took a 10:20 train and got into Rimini just in time to find a grocery store for a picnic lunch. After eating, we wandered the town and found the old roman victory arch that welcomes you to the ancient walled part of the city. We tried to find our way to the museo di citta (museum of the city) but it was closed until 4, and in the process we found an amazing gelatoria! I must say that might have been the best gelato I’ve had in Italy yet! It was absolutely amazing. After our fill of the gelato, we headed to the beach, where we baked in the sun, napped and swam in the Adriatic Sea.


When we were done with the beach, we walked back into town to see the museum. We weren’t expecting much from it, we thought it was only going to be one floor, but no! It was a three story museum filled with mosaics, statues, pottery, and religious paintings. My favorite had to have been the mosaics and other artifacts from the city’s Roman glory. Unfortunately, we were rushed, and didn’t get to see everything in the museum because we wanted to see the excavation site, where many of the mosaics were still in the ground. During the 1980’s, when attempting to build a park, the Italians stumbled across these wonderful mosaics, and after excavation, they discovered that this was a large house that belonged to the surgeon of the day. Due to a fire that hit the home 60 or so years after it was built, the ruins remain in perfect condition because they went forgotten for many years.
After a short dinner (short in the sense of Italian time) we ran to the station to catch the 8:50 train back to Bologna. What a day.


Today has been a very chill day, as I think I’ve come down with a bit of a cold (hopefully not the SWINE!) and I’m just trying to rest and get better before my Mom comes on Friday. I did manage to do a load of wash, but I used the wrong setting so it took 2 hours for my clothes to get washed. And who knows how long it will take them to dry, since the only method of drying things around here is to hang your wash out of you balcony. But that one of the many things I am learning to love about this country. The pace of life is so different from the states, and wash really does take all day to do!

(And as promised, Craig and Mark are the best!)

Did someone really try to hand me a flier on communism?

The group for dinner, left to right: Chris, Me, Tammy, Maria, Sam

Today marks one week of being in Italy, and life is just starting to calm down. My feet are throbbing, and I think I walk on average 5 miles a day. No joke. This past week has been super crazy, with many ups and downs. I found an apartment after being here for 3 days, but am yet to cook a dinner in it. The apartment, at the moment, consists of a German girl, a Spanish boy and an Italian boy. My room is a double, and we are currently looking for another girl to live with me. It’s a nice place, with a bathroom, a large kitchen, and a large living room. My room is fairly large too. I over look the one of the main streets leaving the center of town, Via Matteotti, and I'm 2 blocks from the train station. Luckly the windows are double paned, so once they are shut, you can’t hear the hussle and bussle of the city below. There is also a small balcony that is through the kitchen and overlooks the courtyard.

Fountain of Neptune

To make my room homier, I embarked on an adventure to IKEA with several girls that I’ve meet over the past few days. My friend Tammy (a girl from Scotland) and I headed over to Piazza Malpighi to catch the bus to IKEA, and meet up with the others. In a way, this week has been like the first week at Carolina, with learning a million people’s names. The biggest difference is most of the names I can’t pronounce on the first try. The easy one is Hanna, a girl from Sweden, then there is Stephanie (but not pronounced like we would say it) from Austria, and Silke, Teresa, Luccia, all from Germany. We ended up missing the stop for IKEA, and had to get off at the next stop and wait for the returning bus. Then, when we made it to the correct stop, we had to walk for about 30 to 40 minutes to get to IKEA. Our adventure in IKEA was wonderful, and I ended up dropping about $120 (80 Euros) ouch! Oh well, I need the blankets, sheets and pillows anyways.

Walking back from the park, Hanna (left) and Tammy (right)

In the morning yesterday, Tammy and I also went grocery shopping, which was actually a lot of fun. Italian grocery stores are amazing! Absolutely amazing! I got two quart or so sized containers of olives for less than 2 Euros, sliced prosciutto and salami for about 2 Euros each, good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, 3 types of cheeses, bread, stuff for salads, pasta and breakfast food. All of that plue shampoo and conditoner was under 35 euro!

For dinner the past two nights, we cooked at Tammy’s, which has been piu economico! (Very cheap!) It will be my turn to cook Wednesday, before we head out to a garden party.

Dinner at Tammy's, Maarten cooking!

Sunday was also a fun day full of adventure. During the afternoon, I meet Maarten, a english and spanish student from Germany, and several other Germans for un gelato and a late lunch. I think I might be learning for German this year than I expected, because most of the people I’ve meet have been German! Later, Chris (the London bloke) met up with us and we headed to Giardini Margherita, a large garden in the south of the city, where we chilled for most of the evening.

Saturday was the Erasmas Student Network (ESN) beach trip, which was a blast. (Erasmas is the program for all E.U. students to have the chance to spend a year in another E.U. country studying, but other exchange students like me join the group too!) We arrived in Ravenna via bus around 1:30, and spent the day in the sand. It was a bit too windy and cloudy for me to go swimming, but I put my feet in the water just to say I’ve been in the Adriatic Sea. The trip cost included 2 beers, but we found out that that really meant we got two 3 Euro coupons and if you wanted something else, you could get it too. Around 9 or so the disco started up, and we danced the night away on the beach to techno. After a long day, we got back in Bologna around 3am, and I’ve never slept better.

The other days this past week have been a blur, filled with appointments, lots and lots of walking, and trying to understand the city and the language.

Basilica di San Petronio

Today I’m taking it easy, study some Italian, send lots of emails, and let my feet recover a bit. Tomorrow will be another crazy day, with my language class starting, so I’m going to take another deep breath and continue trying to adapt the Italian lifestyle.

Le Due Torri

Bologna, Day 2

I’m setting in my very tiny single hotel room watching The Notebook in Italian. I can understand a bit, which is probably because I know the story. The past two days have been interesting, to say the least. I arrived in Bologna around 10am on September 1^st, but my entire luggage didn’t. The biggest piece decided to take its time getting here, and didn’t arrive until yesterday evening. I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel, and had my first experience speaking Italian in Italy. With the taxi drivers little English, and my attempt at Italian, we were able to make a decent conversation. I checked into the hotel and hit the shower, before heading out to try and register at the univerita’. After wandering the streets, I stumbled across the office of international relations, but they were closed, and would only be open from 14:30-15:30. So, I grabbed lunch and went back to the hotel for a nap. Later in the afternoon I went back to the office of international relations and stood in line with other exchange students for over an hour. I meet two kids from Turkey, two from England, and one from Belgium. Most all of them didn’t speak much Italian, so the common language was English.

Last night, I meet up with Ben, the other kid from UNC, for dinner, and together we drank a liter of wine. I had trouble sleeping later, because of the traffic (which consisted of a noisy moped every 10 or so minutes until 2am) and the people walking to and from the center, but mainly because I was missing home.

Today was a bit better. I had my oral placement test for my Italian class, which was a group thing. Chris, one of the kids from England, and Ben were both in my group. The rest were in a program from Denver. I finally stumbled across the landmarks that Bologna is famous for, the huge basilica di San Petronio, and le due torri (the 2 towers). I also stumbled across the departmento di scienza di terra, otherwise known as the geology department, and hopefully my daytime home.

My apartment hunt began as well, one which was a double room in a flat with 4 other people, all but one from other European countries. The other place was a single room in a flat with one other guy, who is studying brain surgery for his specialization, it was very nice, but might be a bit out of my price range.

I got two more appointments for tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll be able to decide on a place by tomorrow night, and move in Saturday, when my stay at the hotel is up.

That’s it for now…

Buona notte.

Leaving Home

Just got through security at RDU, and said goodbye to my parents. It turned out to be a lot harder to say goodbye than I thought. Now I'm sitting at gate C3 waiting for my plane to Washington Dulles to board. I've flown by myself before, so that part isn't a big deal, but here I am getting ready to get on a plane to fly over the Atlantic by myself. That's scary. It wasn't until I got through security that it became such a daunting task. But now, I really am doing this. I'm moving over to Italy for ayear. I've said goodbye to all of my friends and family, and have packed my entire life into two suitcases. Thinking about it tat way, my life weights 77 pounds.

All my stuff!

Before I left today, I had one last southern meal, filled with bbq, slaw, brunswick stew and of course, sweet tea. I'll be missing the sweet tea, but I'm sure all the wine will make up for it. And I'm not looking forward to the airplane food. Yuck. Well, their making the preboarding announcements, so good luck to me and buon viaggio.