One Month Anniversary!

I am back and loaded with a ton of stuff to tell you about. It seem like forever since I have blogged but thats a good thing! That means I have been keeping busy and not letting myself get homesick. The person I am homesick the most for is Petey (sorry family).  But I can talk to all of you and you know how to read. Petey can't read, I tried to teach him when he went to college but all he wanted to do was hang out with his friends. Plus, he gets super confused when I skype him and tries to run behind the computer to see me. So sad! I bet you are all like "Enough about the stupid dog! Lets hear about Italy!" Here goes:

Warning: I do not know how to rotate videos so you will have to turn your computer or head sideways. Sorry!

Pasta Making
The other night, the director of our program took us to a cute little restaurant to make handmade pasta with what had to be the oldest pasta maker in the world. There were 3 generations of women there making pasta.  It was actually pretty neat getting to see how things were made start to finish. We made tagliatelle, tortellini, farfalle (bow-ties, but translates as butterflies) and another type of tube pasta that I forget the name. Everyone got a chance to make some if they wanted to. Anyways, we were at the restaurant for 4 hours making pasta and in the end we didn't even get to try the types that we made. It was a little bit of an upset, and we basically felt like slave labor, but the pasta they did serve us was good, and free!

Urbino

This past Saturday, we went on a day trip to Urbino, a small Renaissance city built up in the rolling hills of le Marche, a central region of Italy.  It was amazing. We toured an enormous palace and got time to just wander the streets and check out the city.  Oh, we also checked out Rafael's house.  Not the ninja turtle but the actual artist.  It was pretty cool. He had a pretty sweet set up, tons of different levels, courtyards, the whole shebang.  Anyways, one of my friends Alex and I wandered away from most of the group and were traveling through side streets looking for a place to see an amazing view of the city and we found this. 

Amazing right? I just sometimes cannot believe that I am in Italy. It's almost not real sometimes. I just keep trying to take a step back and think about the fact that I am in a place that most people only dream of going. That is humbling. 


My Everyday Life

This is the view from my balcony of Bologna's famous Two Towers. I stand outside almost everyday ad just stare at it. My roommates probably think I am weird, but I am just ot used to seeing things like this outside my window!  On another note, my pre-session course has just ended and went by really fast. I have just had my one month Bologna anniversary. It's so weird to think that I have been gone from home for a month. I am keeping in touch with a lot of people from home through emails, facebook and skype so I don't feel so far away. As far as classes go over here, there aren't any.  That's not because I am not going, its because my teachers are on strike. Strikes are pretty common here in Italy. The bus drivers go on strike all the time, now the teachers, and I think that my roommates are on a permanent strike against doing the dishes.   So one of my classes don't start until this coming Tuesday, then the other two don't start until October 19th.  Jealous anyone?  So right now I have just been spending time getting to know my roommates and have been bonding with them.  We recently painted one of our living rooms red.  When I say red, I mean BLOOD RED.  It's actually pretty cool.  My roommates and I have all had diner the past two nights together and its been great. Romina and I cooked gnocchi con Gorgonzola and bruschetta last night and it was gone in seconds. So either they were really hungry, we didn't make enough or they actually liked it! Another pretty cool thing happened to me the other day! I was walking to the International Language School, where I am interning, and I got stopped twice by Italians who were looking for directions. I was so excited that I was being asked because that means that I am blending!!!! But the only downside of both situations was that I had no idea what street they were looking for!!  Hopefully I will the next time!  Anyways, I have been having a ton of fun here studying my Italian and making new friends but I seriously am not sure how I will survive with only 1/4 of a jar of peanut butter left. Any donations will be gladly accepted. 

These are some of the girls in my program with me. We all went out for drinks the other night at a pub. Going out with 9 cute girls in Italy is always entertaining ;)


Now off to Verona!
Baci xxx