Settling in...

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week! It's pretty crazy to think that I have now officially been in Italy for 7 days. This time last Sunday, I was on a bus into Rome... and now I'm hanging out in my apartment (a freaking permanent residence!) in Arezzo. It still blows my mind that I live in Italy now.

I live only a 3 hour drive from this. Like, what??

Anyway, to catch up on what I've been doing the past couple of days... A LOT! Probably the most important thing that I've had to do was submit my permit of stay, or my "permesso" that legally allows me to stay in Italy for a long period of time as a student. Even though that sounds unbelievably boring, it was actually a pretty funny experience! We had to fill out a bunch of paperwork (not so funny) and then take it to the post office in Arezzo to go through the submission process. Now, we had been warned by our director of student affairs, Charlotte, and Lucio, an Italian man who helps out around OUA and basically connects us to the Arezzo community, that there was a certain woman who works at the post office who is a major stickler and is basically just super uptight. Apparently she would have no qualms about refusing an application if there is even a smudge out of place. Compared to the usual relaxed and go-with-the-flow nature of most Italians, she is definitely an oddity. Anyway, we went to the post office in kind of reverse alphabetical order, so I was one of the last people to go submit my permesso kit. When I got there, Lucio and Kaydee (our graduate student assistant at OUA) told us that we had lucked out and Patrizia (the crazy one) hadn't been working the entire time they had been there (about 3 and a half hours). How would I know her name then, you might ask? Well, literally right as my number was about to be called, Patrizia took over one of the windows. There were about 6 different windows that were open, but guess which one I got?? Yep. So Lucio had to help translate and walk me through the process since Patrizia did not speak any English (something that Lucio told me she was muttering about to herself the entire time that she was looking over my application, which was a decent amount of time since she checked everything about 5 times). While we were dealing with this, we heard an Italian woman start to yell at Kaydee who was helping out two of my friends, Katie and Brynne, at a different window. I, obviously, had no clue what she was yelling about (and they didn't either), but Lucio had to run over there and talk to the woman. Apparently she was upset that there were so many of us Americans taking up windows for so long, even though we had taken numbers and waited our turn just like everyone else. I'm not going to lie, from what Lucio told us, she was kind of a b that rhymes with itch. After that got sorted out and we finally finished, we went home. I didn't really do that story justice, but trust me when I tell you that it was pretty much hilarious. Witnessing people yelling at you in a foreign language for a ridiculous reason and listening to a crazy lady talk to herself about you in front of you is kind of a singular experience, well, for me at least.

So that was one of the more eventful orientation tasks that we completed.

Other than that, one of the coolest things I've done so far was walking around with our Getting to Know Arezzo class to different places to buy food to cook and prepare at home instead of going out for every meal. Now, those of you who know my eating habits know that I'm definitely no chef and am definitely hurting for some Canes or Braums right now. But I'm going to try to cook from home a pretty good amount this semester. Not only is it much cheaper, but it's also kind of awesome to go shopping here... it's just so different, and yet somewhat the same, you know? Going to the supermarket was an awesome experience. I couldn't read ANYTHING on the labels, but I mostly figured it out. I made my best purchase to date...

Goat cheese!! No clue what the rest says, but I know exactly what this guy is

I also got some other healthy stuff...

And some not-so-healthy stuff...

What can I say? I'm not perfect.

But just because I can make some stuff from home now, that doesn't mean that we don't still go out on occasion! Here are some pictures from a dinner that I had with a few of my friends, including some red wine that I enjoyed!

From the left: Brynne, Katie, and Karin (one of my roommates)

The vino! I thought the bottle was cool.

Lindsey is in the front, then Kelsey is on her left (another one of my roommates!)

We've had some great times so far... I love all the people here! I can definitely tell that there are adventures to come.

Yesterday morning we woke up and went to the Saturday market here in Arezzo where they sell a huge variety of things (clothes, household items, shoes, etc.) for cheaper prices. I didn't buy anything, but there were some pretty cute sweaters for only a few euro! There were also food trucks there, and I got the best chicken wing with french fries that I've ever had, and it was just 2 euro... Let's just say that every time I'm in town for a Saturday market I will be stopping by that rosticceria truck.

Then me, Lindsey, Katie, and Karin went into a few stores to go shopping a little bit, and I bought a sweater there. First, though, we had to warm up from walking around in the SNOW through the market! (Yeah it was only flurries, but still.) We stopped by Coffee O'Clock, a kind of Americanized cafe where I got an ah-mah-zing caffe mocha. All the other coffees I had tried so far in the Italian cafes just weren't to my taste, but this mocha was soooo good. Apparently Coffee O'Clock will also let you take coffees to go! That's a rare thing in Italy, so I have a feeling I'll be back.

Yum... and so pretty!

 Well, that's just about all I've got for now. We have also gone to a discoteca and some of the bars around town, but I don't want to bore you with those details. Suffice it to say, it's been a fun week! I need to go get some food before our movie night we are having at OUA tonight, but please comment with any questions! I miss all of you and would love to hear from ya! Have a wonderful week!

Arezzo: The Beginning

Ciao amici! (Hi friends!)

If the past few days are any indication, I have a feeling I won't have the chance to blog super often... there is so much to do here! I will definitely try to write at least once or twice a week though so that you guys know that I'm alive.

The thing is, I don't know if you guys have heard, but Italy is freaking awesome! I've had the opportunity to walk around and explore Arezzo a lot more in the past few days, and it is such a cute town! There are definitely modernized areas, but the historic center is quaint and very old school. The other day we went on a walking tour and one of the coolest views I've ever seen was up at the highest point in town, looking over the city walls to the surrounding parts of Arezzo that are outside the "main city". Since I'm terrible at descriptions, I'll give you a few pictures.

They really don't even do it justice, to be honest. Anyway, so it was very cool to go on our little walking tour and see just a taste of what Arezzo has to offer.

One of the many hilarious things that have already happened in our first few days was the creation of our new catchphrase. At the risk of failing in humility, I have to say that I was the one who came up with it. We were talking during our welcome dinner last night (side note, it was amazing... a free 3 course meal in which my favorite dish we had was a black truffle tortolini pasta that was AH-MAZING) about how the whole "yolo" (a.k.a. "you only live once" for those not aware) thing is soooo 2012... but we needed a reason to order some more wine other than just that we were thirsty. So since yolo wasn't cutting it, I had the thought that we should just say "yoliio" --- an Italianized version of yolo, complete with the Italian hand gesture below, to stand for "you only live in Italy once". Because, let's face it, most of us probably won't have the chance to live in Italy for 4 months again. But yeah, everyone thought that was pretty funny and we've been throwing it out and hashtagging it ever since.

Thoroughly Italian kids over here

Speaking of #yoliio -- I actually had red wine with dinner last night and I even enjoyed it! I'm sure no one will be as surprised by this as my parents because, even though they are what some people may call wine connoisseurs, I have never really had much of a taste for it until now. But, I figured that while in Italy... You just gotta do it. Yoliio. And it was good! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

That's about all I've got for today... I don't have too much time, and I'm a pretty boring writer anyway, so I'll just leave you with some pictures.

 My room

 My room

 View from my room

 Next couple are of our apartment

 the Grand Piazza

 Building off of the Grand Piazza

 More Grand Piazza...

 Cool view of the sunset from the top of the Grand Piazza

 Random tree in the middle of it?

 Next few are of the Duomo, one of the churches in town that is at the top of the city

Park next to the Duomo

I made it!

I am officially an (albeit temporary) Italian resident! The last few days have been somewhat of a whirlwind, so this is pretty much the first chance I've had to sit down and reflect on them. I'll try to give a little recap of what happened because, let me tell ya, the first few days in a foreign country are CRAZY and also AWESOME but even more so, somewhat TERRIFYING!

So, I finally boarded my flight to Rome on Saturday night after quite a long time in the Philadelphia airport due to a delay. No biggie though... I was Italia-bound! About 9 hours and zero movies (yeah my inflight audio didn't work... I wasn't thrilled) later, I made it to Rome. It took me a little while to figure out that there wasn't a shuttle to my hotel since it was so close to the airport, so I eventually managed to somehow drag my highly-overpacked self across the walkway for the 7ish minute walk to the hotel. I checked in, blah blah showered, blah blah texted my parents, blah blah whatever... by about 4 pm I was ready to head into the city! For those of you that might not know, the Rome airport isn't technically in Rome. It's in Fiumicino which is about a half hour drive from the center of Rome. Anyyyyways, I took the shuttle from my hotel to Rome with plans to meet some friends from my program at the Trevi fountain at 5 o'clock (how cool is that??).

Unfortunately, my friends got the door to their bus literally shut in front of them and they couldn't make it into the city from their hotel. I lucked out, though, and met a really cool girl on the hotel shuttle from New York who was on her way back home from Amsterdam who wanted to check out the Trevi fountain and walk around for a few hours. So, we walked to the Trevi, took some pictures and looked for the two girls I was meeting, but after we couldn't find them for about a half hour we assumed they couldn't make it and took off to walk around and see other Roman sights.

I threw a wish in the well. Don't ask me, I'll never tell.

We saw the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, some Piazzas, and lots of cobblestones. Since we were only there for a few hours and it was raining for a lot of the time, we didn't get to see all the places that we would have liked. But that's okay... I have a feeling I'll have a chance to go back at some point in the next 4 months! 

We got dinner at a nice little restaurant called Ristorante XII Apostoli in Rome where I had the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. Then we walked some more and eventually went to a cafe where I got the thickest hot chocolate EVER. It was basically like drinkable fondue, which sounds gross but was actually pretty good. It was delicious to dip the cookies they gave us in.

I made it back to the hotel around 9:30 or 10 and just relaxed until Elizabeth, one of my current roommates, arrived to stay the night before we had to meet up with all of the people from our program the next day to make the journey to Arezzo. I somehow managed to stay up all day on Sunday to fight the jet lag until we finally went to bed around midnight. Victory!

After an amazing night's sleep, we headed back to the airport to meet with everyone and then take a charter bus to Arezzo. It was a 3 hour drive, but it was gorgeous. Like, never seen anything even close to it. You know in The Godfather when you see the rolling hills of green with sheep grazing? Yeah I saw those. We also saw a herd of sheep being shepherded by a car. Welcome to the 21st century?

Arezzo itself is very cool. It's more modernized than I thought it would be, but the historical center is still very much what I would think of as older Italy: narrow streets with stone, tall old buildings, piazzas everywhere. After we dropped our stuff off at our apartments, we all went to dinner together (I had very good ravioli) and then some of us who weren't quite ready to sleep yet walked around for a little bit and found a cool bar to hang out for awhile. Overall, it was an amazing first day, and I can't wait to see what else Arezzo has in store!

Airport adventures!

Okay, I like to think of myself as a relatively experienced flier. Traveling between Florida and Oklahoma all the time includes quite a few plane rides, and I have also flown quite a bit with my family for vacations and whatnot. I've even flown as an unaccompanied minor multiple times, including the trip to camp where my brother and I (ages about 14 and 13) missed our flight in Memphis and had to sit in the kids room for 6 hours while we waited for our next chance to make it to Missouri.

Kevin McCallister ain't got nothing on us. Okay maybe he does, but still...

Anyway... let's just say that I am no stranger to airports. I even somewhat enjoy just sitting around for a couple of hours, listening to music and watching strange people walk past (you can definitely see some weirdos in airports, am I right??).

The point of this tirade is that I am already sick of all of these planes and airports and lugging around my satchel along with my insanely heavy backpack that includes about 10 pounds of stuff that couldn't go in my checked bags because they were already overweight. Heck, even typing about it makes me tired. My shoulders hurt, my feet are aching to get out of these boots, and my head hurts maybe as much as yours does if you've lasted this long of reading my complaints. And I haven't even boarded my last and longest flight from Philadelphia to Rome. Ugh. Isn't my life so difficult??

Alrightttt I know that my life isn't actually hard at all... I'm doing all of this to get to ITALY! Where I get to live for about 4 months. Yeah, roughing it, I know. I think that's actually why I'm so sick of traveling after such a short time --- I just want to be there already! Luckily, in about 12 hours (give or take a few, I'm still rusty on the time change stuff) I will have arrived in the land of Romulus and Remus!

Until then, I'm going to keep listening to the awesome playlist that I have, composed of the eclectic mix of Mumford & Sons, some Brad Paisley and other country stuff, Ed Sheeran, the Pitch Perfect soundtrack, Imagine Dragons, and other epicness. Yeah I like a lot of kinds of music... Deal with it.

I may also try some horizontal running. If you don't know what this

 is from (AKA you haven't seen Pitch Perfect) all I have to say is, think

about your life, think about your choices. Aca-awkward.

These are my thoughts, recommendations, and rants for today. Enjoy. Love you all!

And so it begins...

Hello everyone! I am just trying to get this thing rolling before I head over to Rome on Saturday... crazy right?! I told people that I would attempt to blog about my adventures abroad to keep you all posted, so here goes...

I am mostly packed... those of you that know my knack for procrastination and tendency toward disorganization (especially when it comes to clothes) probably already know by now that "mostly packed" means that I have everything somewhat laid out in piles and my mom has started to help me somehow make it all fit into the bags that I'm bringing. Whoops?

Even though I am obviously SUPER excited to be able to go spend a few months in Europe, I think I'm still kind of numb right now. Like, am I really going to be straight up living in a small town in Tuscany in just a few days?? Is this real life?? I've never been to Europe, so I don't really know what to expect... but from what I've heard, it's going to be A-MAH-ZING.

Side note, I've become newly obsessed with the show Happy Endings.

This is Penny. She says a-mah-zing. She's awesome.

So I'm just working on wrapping my head around the idea that I will soon be living "la vita bella" in Italia and what that will entail. The fact that the next time I write a new blog post it will likely be from my apartment on the Corso Italia in the center of Arezzo... dude. Crazy.

For now, I'm going to get back to watching the new episode of Grey's Anatomy (insert joke about my unhealthy addiction to TV shows) ... but I love you all, and I hope that you can deal with my rambling on here for the next couple of months! I can't promise that I will always be eloquent or witty, but I will try!

Arrivederci!

P.S. I speak ZERO Italian, so don't expect much of that from me haha. But I will be taking a class and trying to learn it!