My Italian Way of Living

We've had connection issues with our internet in the apartment, so I've been loitering around a few wifi hotspots around town to get online! I've been in Assisi for about two and a half weeks now, and although I haven't spent too much time at home (between class and errands and such), I'm getting more and more comfortable with the italian way of living! Everything is ancient and Assisi is something out of a storybook or video game (guess it depends how you look at it).

We make our way up this street before making it to class at 9.



We pass this fountain every morning!



Here is the entrance to our school. Piccolo, eh?





After class, we head home to have lunch. I like to have lunch on the terrace because it is gorgeous.



Okay, so the terrace doesn't ALWAYS look like that simply because we almost always now put our clothes outside! Yeah, I haven't seen anyone with a dryer around here, so many people hang their clothes out to dry.

One can imagine how tricky this can be, because your wardrobe is at the mercy of mother nature.
In fact, my roommate is missing a sock, and I am missing a bra. If anyone in Assisi is reading this, we live in apartment no. 2 of 10 Via San Gregorio.

Please and thank you.

Here is our little kitchen!



And right around the time we get out of school, everything pretty much shuts down.



Many stores close for what is often called a "siesta," essentially a time to have a nice lunch and take a nap if you'd like. I have only actually napped maybe once or twice during this time, but I am looking forward into getting into that habit. It also gives people a chance to pick up their kids from school and just spend some time with family. I thought it was a brilliant idea, although it does make after school errands a little difficult. Sometimes a store won't open back up until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, which can be a small inconvenience for a fast paced gal from the US.

If you've ever been to Italy long enough, you'll know that their way of working with food is a bit different from ours in a couple other ways. Take for example:


1. Grocery shopping--there are no wal-marts here. When you go to the store in the US, you are more than likely going to go to Trader Joe's or Safeway--places where you can get a number of things in one place. We don't exactly have those here in Italy! See, there are a number of stores that sell a number of different types of a few products:

Exhibit A: Fruit & Veggie Store



Exhibit B: Olive Oil & Wine Store



Exhibit C: Meat & Cheese Store



Exhibit D: Gelateria/Sweets Store




See what I mean? It is pretty cool because it gives you more of an option of the different types of thing you want.

Also, everything is pretty fresh too, which brings us to number two:

2. Food is pretty fresh (not as many preservatives/pesticides on the food as in the US) It CAN perish, and if it is an apricot in Chelsea's apartment, it will. A few days ago, Jonathan washed me an apricot, and I totally forgot about it (even after he had reminded me like a bagillion times). Yesterday morning I was running late for school, so I grabbed it on my way out for breakfast. As I looked down to start to eat it, I realized someone had beat me to it. And when I say someone, I mean a chubby brown worm.



Exactly.

And it was only a matter of days old! You think I'd learn my lesson after I accidentally ate spoiled buffalo mozzarella the day before that. Now, depending on whether or not you consider yourself a food pioneer of the cheese terrain, you may be asking yourself one of two questions:

Chelsea, why were you eating buffalo mozzarella that was spoiled? Or:

Chelsea, why were you eating buffalo mozzarella?

My answer to both is buffalo mozzarella is just too toooo goooooooood. Seriously. Ciao!

Keep Your Eyes Open, Bambina!

Buongiorno, Amici! I have been in Italy a little less than a week now, but we just recently got internet in our apartment so I'm going to have to rewind a little bit!

I'll start with saying the trip to Assisi was nothing less than a disaster. I can't talk about the trip here without commenting on how bad it was, however I PROMISE everything from here on out has slowly gotten much much better.

We left LAX last Saturday after a long train + bus ride from Stockton. Soon after the picture above was taken, I called my family to apologize for not being able to attend my little sister's graduation as well as say my last goodbyes. We took the absolute last flight from the US to Italy we possibly could without missing class on Monday (which we realized would nip us in the butt later), but I still wasn't able to see her watch the stage. Luckily for me, I know I will have many more ceremonies and celebrations involving the successes of my bright little sister in the future!

Our first flight would take us to Dusseldorf, Germany. I did what any other person would do on a 10+ hour flight. I slept a little, listened to entire pop albums, tried to make the best of the view, and enjoyed all the free beverages offered to me. By the way, when you ask for root beer in Europe, chances are they'll give you actual beer.

I've heard that root beer is the flavor of cough syrup around here, which makes Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke as popular as garlic smoothies.

Exactly.


While the passenger next to me had little problem falling asleep on the plane (Ana Laura), I did a lot of thinking. Here I was, thousands of miles away from the country I've lived in my entire life, about to leave it for a place of pizza, pasta, and gelato (or so I thought). We were enrolled in an Immersion Program offered through our school in Assisi, and we weren't the least bit prepared. Would it be hard to get around? Would we get to class on time? Would my straightener work?

And after our first night in Italy, we were able to answer no to most of these questions (and it wasn't the first one). Ana Laura was kind enough to let me study her lingua mappa, which gave me the boost I needed before getting a little lost in Rome.

If you really want to know how we got lost in Rome, ask me in like 67 years (when I am old enough to laugh at my foolishness), because this is going to take at least 30 years before it is even something to be talked about. I will tell you that it was quite an adventure, if not our greatest one thus far! I learned a few things that night.

1. When in Rome...don't go to the terminal past 9 pm. It's where the italian male species go to feed/find potential mates/whistle at you/pet you/try to steal your stuff.
2. There is a small population of females in Rome (not including the bag ladies or ladyman prostitute).
3. Filet-O-Fish is universal.
I'll go as far as saying that we saw parts of Italy we never ever thought we would see.

Exhibit A: Italian McDonalds, the only thing aperto 24 ora!

Exhibit B: Roma Termini at three in the morning, the place to go when the McDonalds security guard gives you 20 seconds to leave the restaurant.

Exhibit C: Foligno at 7 in the morning, our last stop before finally getting to Assisi.

(My hair is up--you know it's serious).

And after traveling for over 24 hours, we were finally in Assisi.

Keep your eyes open bambina, there are things to see and creepy men lurking around! Ciao!