Hello, Italia

I arrived safely in Italy over a week ago, and now I'm finally getting around to updating this blog. So much has happened, I'm not sure that I can get around to talking about all of it. I suppose I've got to start somewhere, so I'll go from the beginning.

After all those months and months of preparation, I finally got to Italy last Friday. I was exhausted because I hadn't been able to sleep on the plane. I couldn't seem to get comfortable, despite the fact that the plane was quite nice. It had screens in the backs of the seats that played a vast variety of movies and music and also provided the plane's elevation above sea level and speed at all times, which I found interesting.

From the airport, the rest of the America-to-Italy AFS-ers and I took a bus to the orientation site. Orientation took place at a sprawling, maze-like hotel on a high hill overlooking Rome. In this place, different rooms were always sprouting up where I least expected them, like underground beneath the patio. All around were jungle-like gardens. Orientation was absolutely awesome. There were students from many, many countries who, just like me, had just gotten to Italy for the ten month exchange program. I loved hearing all the interesting dialects floating through the air. Luckily for me, we were all speaking English. I was worried that it would be in Italian, but all of us were new to Italian and it turns out that English is the most universal. Almost everyone there spoke or at least understood it, which I found impressive.

The Italian volunteers at the orientation said that the food we had there was not near as good as what we'd get when we got to our host families, because the hotel kitchens had to prepare food for so many people and suffered a bit of quality for quantity. At the time, I had some trouble believing that. I thought the pasta with creamy tomato sauce and mushrooms, and the flavorful sauteed vegetables, the sticks of sausage, and the potato-casserole-quiche-ish thing we had were all great. It turns out, though that they were right. The food I'm having now is far more delicious. I find myself doing my happy-food-dance ALL THE TIME.

One of the most incredible experiences at orientation was the sunset. As it began to get dark Saturday night, some friends and I saw a glimmer of pink and orange sky back behind the trees to the West. We took a few pictures from the patio, then went in search of a higher vantage point. We went up a staircase and found that it opened to the roof. From there we could see the brilliant sunset much better, as well as the vibrant lights of Rome down below. Overhead, the stars were just beginning to shine. It was truly magical.

With that memory, as well as that of the touching End-of-Orientation Ceremony Saturday night, I took a train to Verona with the other AFS-ers going to Brescia. There are something like ten others and they are all super nice, which is good because I'll be spending a lot of time with them this year. I had butterflies in my stomach for the whole train ride because I was finally about to actually meet my new family, which was exciting and intimidating and terrifying and awesome all at the same time. When at last we pulled into the Verona station, I could see my host sister and her boyfriend on a bench waiting. I almost died from the craziness of it. People I'd only ever seen pictures of were actually there, real people. I dragged my suitcase off the train, and from that point on, I was thrust into my astonishing new life, complete with astonishing surprises, beauty, and challenges around every corner.

I'll leave you there for tonight, since I'm quite tired, even though I've still left you a week behind. Something is better than nothing, though. As my first week in Brescia, I will tell you all about it as soon as I can. For now just know that my new life is very, very wonderful.

Airplanes, Goodbyes, and Free Advice

This is going to be a quick post because I am incredibly tired, but things are happening, so I must tell you all about them! This morning I said goodbye to my hometown and to my state for the next ten months. The already emotional situation was amplified by the fact that I've had only two and a half hours of sleep.

 I stayed up until 2 last night and had to wake up at 4:30 in order to leave for the airport at 5:30. My wonderful boyfriend Zac got up early too so that he could see me off. I rode with him to the airport. The whole ride, I was ricocheting madly back and forth between crying and laughing. As each place we passed receded into the distance, my brain thought "Goodbye, neighborhood! Goodbye, Earth Fare where I always get sandwiches! Goodbye this road and that road and everything that wasn't important but is!" in a way that uncannily resembled the monologue I performed earlier this year when I played Emily Webb in Our Town. And on that ride to the airport, everything looked different, because I'm not used to the eerie lighting that hangs in the sky just before sunrise. So, by saying goodbye, I quite literally was seeing it all in a "new light." I really think that leaving for an extended period of time has given me a new appreciation for where I'm from. I realized, but never fully appreciated the beauty of the Carolinas before I had to leave them.

Saying goodbye to my boyfriend was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. The whole ride to the airport, he was holding my hand and I hated not wanting to let go, but having to anyway. And when we finally got to security in the airport, and I had to go through, but he couldn't come with me, I cried and sniffled uncontrollably. Zac and I have been dating for six months and I'm completely, totally in love. Ten months of separate-ness, while made easier by Skype, is going to be tough, but we're going to try with everything we've got.

I finally calmed down a bit when I got my hands on a Starbucks, and I was able to remind myself that I AM GOING TO FREAKING ITALY WHICH IS FREAKING COOL. So that helped.  From that point on I focused on getting myself to New York. My family and I were once again flying space-available, and after failing to get on a couple of really full flights to Lagaurdia, we got on one to Washington DC, where the Laguardia flights had much more readily available seats. On the plane ride I napped, which was much-needed and much-enjoyed. During our interlude in DC, we ate at the Five Guys in the airport and it was by far the best not-grilled-by-my-daddy cheeseburger I have ever eaten. I had the realization that food tastes ten zillion times better when you have an emotional experience, cry your eyes out, nap it off, and THEN eat when you wake up. I napped again, but less soundly on our flight to New York, and then we came in a taxi to the Scotts' apartment where we're staying. It felt like 8 pm, but it was really only 3, which was bizarre.

The afternoon turned out to be incredibly fun. We walked all around the area where they live. I smelled fresh lavender, ate homemade pretzels and champagne grapes, discovered a new band, and received a free hug in Union Square Park. At Washington Square Park, I watched a man jump over a row of six people and I sat down for a chat with a few NYU students who had a sign offering "Free Advice." Usually, being the shy, reserved sort of person I am, I'd never sit down with strangers and chat about anything, let alone all my hopes and fears and crazy emotions regarding Italy, but I did. I think my exchange will be wasted if I don't open myself up to experiences like that, conversations with people. And I'm so glad I decided to go ahead and start approaching the world that way NOW, because it turned out to be really refreshing to talk about it all with some sincere, uninvolved strangers. Because the perspective of my mom and dad, family and friends, while extremely important to me, can become so stale. Hearing the same thoughts and perspective over and over starts to not help anymore. The advice and words of new people that I'll probably never see again managed to help a bunch with sorting through how I'm going to handle leaving my family, and maintaining this long-distance relationship, and adjusting to a new country and life and language.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and I can't remember what it was called. I'll edit this when I remember. I had Rigatoni in vodka sauce. Afterwards we went across the street for some gelato and I had a small cup of the tiramisu flavor which was absolutely, breathtakingly delicious. I'm trying to keep these flavors all alive in my mind as well as possible so I can do a good comparison later between Italian food in the United States and Italian food in Italy. So, be on the lookout for that post in the future. For now, I really must go to sleep, because I'm about to collapse from exhaustion. Good night!!!

(Me at the Italian restaurant. I still can't remember its name.)

(The view from the restaurant. On the left is Grom, where we had the amazing gelato.)

Musings of Italy Via New York City

It just occurred to me: Why didn't I go to Little Italy when I was in New York City?? That would've been perfect since I'm going to REAL Italy in less than three months. LESS THAN THREE MONTHS! Someone pinch me, please. It is just too amazing to be real. But it is! I leave from New York City on September 8th and I'll stop briefly in Zurich, Switzerland on the way before arriving in Rome. After that there's a three-day orientation in Rome before I go to my host family in Brescia!

I am so looking forward to it! I absolutely love traveling and airports. I love the sound of rolling suitcases and the interesting people-watching and the feeling you get in your head and belly the moment the plane lifts off the ground. I even love the smell of airports and airplanes, not because it smells good, necessarily, but because of the wonderful associations it has in my mind.

One thing I did discover on my trip to New York, though, was that traveling is slightly less relaxing without parents to depend on. In the past, I've always been able to let them take care of getting me where I need to go when I need to go there, coordinating everything. This time I had to do that all by myself, which wasn't quite as easy. A big part of that may have been the fact that I was flying space-available (I fly for free since my parents used to work for US Air) which is a great deal more complicated than normal flying. There's all the hassle of making sure you're on the standby list and waiting for everyone else to board and keeping your fingers crossed that there'll be a seat for you. But I won't have to deal with any of that on the way to Italy. It'll probably be super fun and exciting because I'll be traveling with a bunch of other AFS-ers.

Alright, so New York City. Wonderful, obviously. The last (and only other) time I went there was spring break of last year. That time I did more of the tourist-y things like the Empire State Building and riding the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty and visiting Times Square and all those sorts of things. This time I did more of the shopping-eating-exploring sort of thing. Which was totally fun. I was lucky to get to spend my weekend there with my old neighbors Jenna and Michaela Scott, staying at Jenna's apartment. They were super sweet and hospitable.

We ate so much good food while I was there. I'm about to talk about it in detail, because I'm crazy about food. If it bores you, go ahead and skip over this paragraph. I don't mind... The first night we met their dad (who's one of MY dad's best friends) at a Mexican restaurant. It was super delicious. Their salsa was the perfect balance of spicy-ness and cool limey-ness. We also had guacamole which I've always avoided because my dad hates it so I assumed it was gross, but it was awesome. For my main course I ordered Chiles Rellenos (that's a chile stuffed with melted cheese and covered with an egg batter) and it was really good. The Saturday morning that I was there, we went to the Waverly Diner and I had Eggs Benedict which was yummy and a cafe latte. For lunch Jenna and I went to The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English, where I ate Risotto "Tater Tots" and a Fig & Prosciutto flatbread pizza which also had a rosemary crust, fig jam, and gorgonzola. The figs were so plump and sweet and had the most incredible contrast with the prosciutto and gorgonzola. It was so good. My mouth is watering a little just thinking about it. That night we stopped by Cafe Angelique right down the street from the apartment for dessert. I had a Frozen Mint Lemonade. It was very refreshing and very minty. Unlike most "mint" things, it didn't taste like mint flavoring so much as actual mint sprigs. It reminded my of the mint leaves I used to pluck from my grandmother's garden when I was younger. So, yes. Lots of incredible food.

You can expect that I'll be telling you a ton about the food while I'm in Italy. Food is one of my biggest passions. To be totally honest, the food is a big part of why I chose Italy as my exchange destination. I've considered becoming a food critic one day and this blog will give me an opportunity for some practice in that area. The only problem is that I love just about everything I eat so it is a bit hard for me to be actually "critical." It'll probably be more like bubbly gushing about the deliciousness of everything!

So, I also did some shopping in New York. Whenever I shop now I alway try to think in the back of my head "what will be useful in Italy?" I don't know much about the styles there in comparison to here. Is it the same? I don't really know. All I really have to go by is what I see in the pictures on my host sister's facebook page and the school website. Lots of scarves, I think. It gets cold in the wintertime. The stuff I got in New York is more summery (specifically the most adorable pair of Free People shorts and a flowy white dress, a pretty embroidered tank top and a grey tshirt dress from H&M ) but I think I'll get good use out of it. I'll worry about packing when it gets a little closer to time.

The other biggest thing I did in New York was visiting the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. It was phenomenal! I could go on and on and on about it, but I won't since I can't rationally connect it to Italy without a big stretch (that's the hard thing about this blog - deciding what is and isn't relevant). But if you're going to New York any time soon I highly recommend that exhibit.

I suppose that's it for now. I'll be back with more about my Italy preparations soon. In the mean time, I want to know who's reading this. Click "follow" over to the right, and if you have anything to say (like maybe what is and isn't cool to wear in Italy if you know, or even just "hi") leave me a comment! Later!