Home for the Holidays and Past Adventures

Well, I am officially back in America for the holidays and it sure has been a journey getting here. After rushing out of the apartment on Tuesday morning at 4:30am, 27 long hours later, I made it home safely. Aside from the airline losing my luggage, as well as almost missing both of my flights, the trip wasn't all that bad.

The last couple of nights before leaving Torino, the four of us roommates decided to spend our last days together going to aperitivo, roaming the city streets, and just enjoying each others company. We really did get close with each other, which made it so much harder to say goodbye. I cannot believe how fast this semester flew by; I remember the very morning all of us met for the first time as we were moving into our new apartment- it truly seems like only yesterday. I have made long lasting friendships as we all were able to experience this wonderful journey together. Unfortunately, none of these girls will be there for the following semester, but I know we will be in touch. Now, I have a whole new group to look forward to meeting as the spring semester rolls around. 

It's been a busy last couple of weeks and I've been lacking a very important post that I'm sure you all have been looking forward to. In case you were wondering, I actually did make it to Paris, as well as Disneyland a couple weekends ago! Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Aside from the freezing temperatures, Virginia and I had a blast! The Eiffel Tower is beautiful and exceptionally huge. You don't really realize it until the very moment you are standing directing under this massive monument. The mix of a purple and pink backdrop of a sunset amplifies its beauty. Barely after the sun disappears, the tower begins to light up. These moments, without a doubt, must have been a photographers dream. We thought so at least, having taken a thousand pictures of the same thing. ;) 

Earlier that day, we found ourselves roaming around the city. Everything was decked out in Christmas decorations since it was the first weekend of December and we were loving this! We made our way to the Seine River  where we found ourselves on the Pont des Arts. This was the famous bridge where couples go to lock their love forever. It was so cool to see because every inch of this bridge was covered in locks of all different colors, shapes, and sizes. It was quite the romantic moment Virginia and I shared together reading through these eternal locks of love. ;) 

 Later in the evening, we stumbled upon a Christmas market, which was so exciting! The whole street was covered in lights and little venders were set up one after another. The added touch of Christmas music playing loudly though the speakers of the street made it that much more magical.

 

The following morning we started our day early to go to Disneyland Paris! We had so much fun and the only thing I would recommend is to go during the summer or dress A LOT warmer than we decided to. The park was a lot of fun and it was just as busy as you'd expect any Disneyland to be during the holidays. It wasn't all that different than the California Disney, with the exception of a few rides. Here are some photos to share the magic!

Despite inevitable travel problems that everyone runs into at least once, we had a great time! Yes, I did have to pay 30€ for getting stopped in the metro for not having a validated ticket on me, and yes we did miss our bus to the airport and had to take a 150€ taxi so we wouldn't miss our flight. Either way, there were great memories made and we got to come home with many exciting stories to tell! 

Random Adventures

Buongiorno Tutti!

A couple weeks ago, a group of us went on a little field trip by private bus with our USAC advisors to a city just outside of Torino. We found ourselves in the country side of Alba to visit a castle, as well as stop by the famous Truffle fair that comes to the city every year. One of the things I truly love about this beautiful country is simply the scenery of it's country-side itself. You are constantly surrounded by green hills that go on for miles, and the addition of the historic architecture makes it seem as if it were just taken out of a movie.

A secret passageway in the Castle!

Here are the truffles! I am not sure if you are able to tell the prices on here, but they are pretty expensive. Part of the reason for this is because they are not easy to find. They grow deep in the ground and you need highly trained dogs or pigs to sniff them out. We got to sample some of it with bread dipped in truffle oil, which was very tasty. We were told this distinct taste is something that you either love or hate.

I am loving these fall leaves everywhere! This is basically our school campus, or the park just outside of it, so I get to walk by this everyday. I am always so tempted to make a huge pile and jump into them! I guess this is something I miss out on growing up in Arizona! ;) 

There are many, many pizzerias in Italy- just about one on every corner. I have been to plenty and have many favorites, but above all, I have to say that this one has topped them off. Not just for the reason of having wonderful pizzas, but the scenery all around is beautiful.Who wouldn't enjoy having a delicious meal sitting outside with a view like this??

We have a friend over here in Italy who's from Australia and one night she was over for dinner and insisted upon us all trying this interesting, very well known snack in her country... Vegemite! She found it quite humorous as we all prepared ourselves for this, not knowing at all what to except. I can't say that I actually enjoyed this, nor would I ever crave this distinct flavor. One of my roommates even actually spit hers out! It was a funny experience and now we can all say we've had Vegemite! 

Happy Thanksgiving! This was my second out of three Thanksgiving dinners I've had over here! The Sunday before Thanksgiving, my roommates and I cooked up a feast to enjoy together here at home, because they all wouldn't be in town on the actual day. This photo was from our USAC Thanksgiving dinner they put on for us on Wednesday at the school. My third one was celebrated with my Italian friends, because they are so interested in the American culture. I contributed to this with a homemade dish of stuffing, which they loved! First time making it and it turned out great! We finished the evening going around the table saying the things we are thankful for, and I was able to speak it all in Italian! :) The funny thing is not one of these three dinners were on the actual day of Thanksgiving. Instead, I got to Skype my family, that day while everyone was all together. I loved it because it was as if I was right there with them! 

It's beginning to look like Christmas...

These next two photos were taken in a tiny shop next to the famous 'Bicerin Cafè'. Torino is known for it's chocolate, so the shop was filled with many varieties! From the moment you walk into this place, you are able to smell each and every one of these delightful treats! 

Every year starting the beginning of November until second week of January, these lights go up all around some of the streets and Piazzas of Torino! This event is called "Luci d'Aritista", which means, Artist Lights! This first picture is along the street just near our apartment, Via Garibaldi. The next photo is a very cool one called "Planetario"! For someone who loves Christmas and lights, it's very exciting getting to walks through these streets looking up to see it all!  

Now, my roommate, Virginia and I get to look forward to seeing Paris, France this weekend! We leave in two days and have plans to visit the main highlights of this city along with the added necessity of Disneyland Paris! We are both pretty big Disney fans, so this is something we couldn't pass up! Well, I will make sure to come back with plenty of pictures to post! Ciao ciao! Or shall I say, "Au revoir!";)

Disappearance Requires a Quick Update

Wow! So I am either really terrible at this whole blogging thing, or I have just been so busy in these past few weeks that it's caused me to go a-wall (awol?) on here! I'll go with the latter. ;) I really have been so busy though. First of all, can you believe I have only 4 weeks left of this semester! Literally, 4 weeks from today I will be getting on a plane on my way home to spend Christmas with me family! I have so much to look forward to and I am very excited for it all!
Life over here in Italy has been pretty nice. School is going well, although Italian seems to be getting a little difficult at the moment. We are getting into serious, very particular rules, and at some points- it get's quite confusing and somewhat frustrating. I am not giving up though; this was one of my main reasons for coming to study in Italy! I continue to hang out with my Italian friends every week, and even though they speak very good English, we try to incorporate at least a little Italian into the conversations here and there. Of course I find my self responding with the simpler phrases, but at least I am understanding, right? That's one thing I am really noticing about myself right now. My understanding/listening abilities have gone way up, while my speaking hasn't been the greatest. I also seem to doubt myself a little more (when speaking), so that's also something that tends to hold me back. Speaking of the language and practice and such, aside from this, I had some more opportunities to work on my speaking abilities this week to be able to work around the whole language barrier issue. Well, recently I was faced with making a big decision regarding my housing situation for next semester. For those of you who know me pretty well, or even actually just know me at all, I like to be the "go with the flow", avoid making simple decisions type of person. I have definitely been getting a lot better at this and it's funny because one of my Italian friends even noticed it! Lucky for me, I now know a phrase to use in Italian for these usual occurrences for me. Remember this one, "Va bene comunque", which I would say translates, not literally, but basically to- 'I'm good with whatever'. I would say it's a nice, useful phrase to store into your memory. Anyways, wow that took me off onto a little tangent! So this decision- I am staying with an Italian family next semester! I am really excited about it and feel like it will be a great opportunity for me. Not only to help me with the language, but also to get a whole new experience for a new semester! The mom actually came to me wanting to know if I know of anyone that would be interested in staying with her and her family to help them learn English. Prior to this, I was completely set on living in this apartment once again for the following semester, but then this was brought up. Literally by the time I was getting the complete details about it, I had only two days to make my final decision. Here I am today, with the decision accomplished and Daniela, (the mom) is happy as ever. She is so sweet and they seem like such a loving family! I am really looking forward to this new experience. Don't worry, I will surely go into more detail about it later.
Aside from this, I have also been busy doing other exciting things. For one, I went ice skating! I wish I could say on a real pond, but it wasn't. Plus, it's not even close to being that cold for me to actually feel safe ice skating on an outside pond. One day, I will do this. So, this ice skating rink is like a huge Polar Ice and it is walking distance from our school! By huge I mean, it's like a stadium. Well, it basically is- the Disney on Ice show is put on at this very place! :)
Well, I have been getting completely sidetracked and it is now almost 12:30AM over here! Unfortunately, I have unfinished Italian homework and class at 9AM, so with that being said, I should really get going! On the plus side, it's a long weekend because of Thanksgiving, and tomorrow is the last day of classes this week! Well, I apologize for this post being pretty rushed and somewhat boring (no photos), but I'll come back once again very soon to upload documentations of my latest adventures! Because of my long disappearance, I had to leave you with at least a little something, right? ;) Ciao Ciao!

Happy Halloween and All Saints' Day!

Well, it was a holiday here in Italy yesterday, as well as today and we all know what that means! No classes and a nice long weekend until Monday.  The holiday is called "Ognissanti", which translates to all saint's. Here are a few pearls of wisdom for ya: This holiday is celebrated to remember the saints and martyrs who died for the church. Then, the following day, which is today, "Il Giorno dei Morti" (the day of the dead) is also celebrated, changing the focus to reflecting upon all other family members who have passed. We have noticed that almost all business were closed yesterday, even our convenient super market just across the street. Had we have thought about this before, we would have bought toilet paper.. uh oh! Thanks to our next door neighbor friends, we made it through the day. ;) Anyways, Halloween in Italy wasn't always celebrated. It has been becoming bigger over the past few years and it's definitely a lot less popular when I compare it to how it is back home. I still made it a necessity for me to participate in the fun festivities, like carving pumpkins and baking pumpkin seeds! It was a lot of fun and I was actually teaching my Italian friends step by step how to do it! They don't have the handy pumpkin carving kits here, so we were left to work with basic knives and free hand designs. They still turned out great, I think! They've also never heard of roasting pumpkin seeds, which was surprising! The difference in costumes over here, is the majority of people dress up as something scary- even the girls!

Here are a couple pictures from the carving pumpkins night! 

A couple of my roommates have discovered a little soup and salad restaurant pretty close to our apartment called Soup and Go, where they had pumpkin soup! I don't know about you guys, but I have never tried this before. We deciding to go there for dinner on Halloween and, 'tis the season, all got the pumpkin soup! It was interesting, but I liked it! Look how cute the bowls were in these jars! 

Later that evening, I went to a Halloween party that was put on by some of my Italian friends! There were yummy snacks, music, dancing, and games all night! I think it was about 2:30am by the time it was over and we started cleaning up! Something else I have noticed while being here is that the Italians are serious night owls! They stay up so late all the time, it's pretty funny. Oh! And something else my friend told me: we (Italians) don't think when we dance, we just go. I believe that, because they are seriously all over the place and so spastic, it's hilarious to watch! Here is a picture of part of the decorated room for the party before everyone got there and then a very short glimpse of one of my friends, Stefano dancing! Ha! 

Yesterday was a relaxing day at home with the roommates. It was really nice to have one of these days, plus, we couldn't really do anything else since a lot of the town was closed anyways. We hung out, made dinner, and then decided to push our beds together in our room to have a movie night! We don't have a TV, so we used one of our laptops and put it at the end of our beds on a little table. It worked out just fine and was definitely worth it! Movie nights are the best, and the only thing we were missing was a bowl of popcorn! ;) 

Le Fatine "The Fairies"

Ciao Tutti!

Wow, time flies! It's already midterms week. I cannot believe I am half way done with the semester. Today, I took my reading, speaking, and listening exam for my Italian class and it went very well! I was even able to have a nice conversation with my professor only in Italian! Tomorrow is the actual final exam, and then Monday, I already start a new class for the next level Italian. So there has been some changes with the weather lately. When the semester started, we were warned that it really starts to get cold after October 15th, well guess what?? Literally, the day of the 15th it was such a difference in temperature. I am now waking up and going to bed chilly, I need to wear socks all the time in the apartment, and I think I will probably need to invest in some heavier clothing (especially for December and January when it starts to snow). I like this cold weather though; it's definitely a change from Arizona- plus dressing in warm clothing is the cutest! ;) 

Something I have really noticed: when Italians want to honk their horn at someone, they are seriously so dramatic and obnoxious with it! Is that even necessary? I think not. Anyways, I had my Italian cuisine class this Monday. It was wonderful once again! One of the dishes we prepared was bruschetta, with an assortment of different toppings. First the usual: fresh garlic, tomato, basil, and olive oil. Then, I got to try something quite unique, I would say. Are you ready for this? Chicken liver and hearts! Yuck, right? It definitely sounds better in Italian "Fegatini di Pollo". Well, it actually wasn't as bad as you'd expect, surprisingly good (when you don't think into what you are actually eating). Trust me, I was so nervous to try it. Imagine raw liver and chicken hearts being brought out on the table for you to prepare to cook. Hmm?? It was all sautéed in a pan of fresh onions, garlic, olive oil, butter, and sage leaves. Then, with a splash of brandy, we lit it on fire and cooked it until the flame burnt out!

Yes, this is what you think... the heart. 

Something else we got to enjoy was the dessert! "Semifreddo al Torrone". This was something similar to ice-cream, only of a tougher consistency. Torrone translates to "Nougat", which is a candy made from sugar or honey, roasted almonds or hazelnuts, and egg whites. We crumbled this nougat into the mix layer by layer and it was set into the freezer to become more like ice-cream. The name of this dessert "semifreddo" means partially cold, so to make this complete, we drizzled our homemade hot chocolate sauce over the top. The final outcome was amazing and seconds were something we all couldn't resist. Here is a picture of it so you all understand what I am talking about! :) Looks wonderful, right?!

Caprese was another important dish we prepared for the evening. It turned out beautiful and so delicious! I never liked tomatoes back home, but really, they are different here. So fresh and just much more tasty in Italy! ;) As you can see this is mixed with an assortment of tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, and oil, salt and pepper to top it off. Molto delizioso! 

So I am sure all of you are probably curious about the title of this blog post, "The Fairies". Well, as of last week, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at an elementary school to help the children learn English! There are a few of us girls from the program who volunteered to do this and it's been such an awesome opportunity! The Italian teachers have loved having us there as well, especially because they barely speak any English. Well our first day, we meet the director of the school and hear that she told the kids we were all special, magical fairies from a fairytale coming to help them learn English! Because of this all the children were so excited to meet us! Cutest thing ever! The little girls would just stand there and stare up at you with such wide eyes. Kids are so smart though; they noticed that our wings were missing. They were told that we hide them under our clothes when we come into the school, and then use them to fly away once we are back outside. ;) They love us, it's so cute! So, the first day we spent time singing and teaching them simple songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Then today, I went to help out in the morning rather than the afternoon, and we worked on a craft making suns, they are learning about colors- like a blue sky, yellow sun, etc. It's so much fun and this is a great opportunity for me since I am going to school to become an elementary school teacher! 

Something else I have been doing over these past couple of weeks is exploring more of Torino. I visited Palazza Madama (a royal palace now filled with it's history and art) and went inside the main castle of Piazza Castello! The garden of this place had to be my favorite! It was beautiful and peaceful and green everywhere. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself! 

I LOVE strawberries, so I was really excited to find these fragolini growing in the garden! 

Finally, I can't forget about the gelato! This week my roommate and I were really craving homemade cookies and cookie dough! We were going to bake some, but it was a little more difficult than we expected to find every ingredient in the recipe at our local supermarket. Instead, we discovered a gelato flavor from one of the most popular gelaterias in Torino, "Grom". It was the Italian version of cookie dough ice-cream! :) This time, I got a mix of that along with stracciatella! It wasn't exactly the cookie dough we had in mind (more like a cookie crumble), but it sure did satisfy our tastebuds!