Friday, February 5, 2010

5 febbraio

Ciao America! Life has been beautiful here in Italy so here's what has being going on...

On Friday morning I left Torino to meet Davide in Milan. I went to Piazza Duomo and walked around and shopped a little bit (sadly only window shopping). In the afternoon Davide and I took the train to Saronno. We met up with Paula, loaded the car and headed on our way to Madesimo. We drove past Lake Como so I gave George Clooney a quick shout out.On the way we stopped at Senor Angelo's house in Menaggio to have dinner with my dad's friend Diego and his mom. It was so fun seeing them since the last time had been almost 7 years ago. We arrived in Madesimo around and 11 and then went to sleep.

I woke up around 8am on Saturday morning to fresh mountain air in the Alps. The mountains were incredibly majestic and beautiful. The sky was gray but on Sunday it was sunny and the view was breathtaking. Paola and I headed out to rent skis and head up the baby hill. This was only my second time skiing and with my lack of grace I was a little apprehensive. Davide helped to teach me how to ski which was fun and very kind of him. He said I was a fast learner and that I had a natural sense of equilibrium. Hmm I wonder how much my dad paid him to say that.

When I gained enough confidence we headed up a bigger slope. It was scary stepping away from the bunny hill but exciting at the same time. The best part was the pub partially down the hill where there were lots and lots of people relaxing and drinking wine. I met some people who spoke English and they were asking me lots of questions about my travels and studying here in Italy. They told me they learned English by traveling to the UK and Australia. After relaxing with a beer, we went back down the mountain.

On Saturday night I met up with some people my age from the town. They were really nice and hospitable. One of the girls lived in California for a year so she spoke fluent English. Sunday morning when I woke up we went for a hike up the mountain. It was really hard but the weather was sunny and the beauty of the Alps was worth the effort. This mountains are so amazing and grand. People come to Madesimo every weekend and it blew my mind that skiing in the Alps is just a normal occurrence for them, how cool! We left Madesimo around 5pm and went back to Saronno for dinner. Paola and Davide we amazing hosts and I had a wonderful weekend with them.

Monday I went back to Torino for class. This week my friends and I have been cooking dinner together a lot which is fun. We are starting to become a little family and it is nice having a sense of normality finally here.

And this week I got to experience Italian style bureaucracy at its finest. Yesterday our group went to the Questura which is a police station that processes immigration requests. We got there at 9am and luckily I got pushed up in line because of my 12pm class but some people were there until 5pm. Yikes. It wasn't that bad for me but the people do not work fast at all. There is no sense of urgency and the people in the fingerprinting office are very nice and funny. i didn't mind so much but I was a lucky one.

Today Kelsey, Katie, Elena, Drew and I went mask shopping for Carnival. We are very excited to go to Venice this weekend and experience this crazy festival. On Monday we're going to Verona to visit Romeo and Juliet too, how fab! I'll take lots of carnival pics and skiing picture are already up from the past week. Have a fun weekend everyone! xox

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