11-Jan-06

I enjoyed today more than yesterday. I broke away from the group and explored Torino on my own a little bit. I could hardly be alone with the other 500,000 people of Torino all over.

As far as my goals went, I didn’t make it to the map store in time, but it’s on the top of my list for tomorrow. Jeff Simpson aka Jefferino, one of my roommates, and I made it to school by taking two different buses instead of one, and it saved time. Tomorrow I will be getting up at 7am or 7:10am, either of which will be wonderful. Tonight I will be going to sleep early since I am still not adjusted from the jet lag. I had never believed that it would have this much of an effect on me. Wireless was another trick entirely. I’m starting to believe that they don’t have wireless here in Italy, or at least in this city. I think this search will take a lot of effort, but I’m up for the challenge. So I guess I went one for three today, but I feel like a lot was accomplished.

Seth and I went to look for a cell phone for me. I was nervous about the whole ordeal, but it worked out ok. We pieced our Italian together and it helped that the woman selling me the phone spoke a little bit of English. After that we grabbed some frechetta pizza and had real gelato. It was very exciting.


seth eating pasta with sugar cuz we don't have any spices...

My language class is going very well, however, I am a little bit nervous to start speaking to Italians. I tried a little bit today when I was walking around on my own. I saw a pet store and walked in, when a sales associate came up and spoke to me, I tried to tell her I was just looking, but that backfired. We tried to understand each other for a while, but after that we gave up and I just looked around quick and left.

It’s been really strange not to have a pet around. There are dogs all over the place and they are allowed everywhere. I’ve seen them on the bus, in restaurants, and laying outside stores (off leash even) waiting for their masters. These dogs seem to act like Italians; they keep to themselves and don’t make a lot of attempts to be friendly. I still need to figure out how to ask if I can “pet the dog” but I have a feeling I could mess that one up badly.

I hope tomorrow is as good as today was, I felt a little less homesick when Seth and I went out and tried to communicate. Once I get my map, I plan to do a lot of research so I can start traveling. There is talk of going to Switzerland next weekend to do some snowboarding, which would be awesome. I hope we manage to squeeze a lot of riding in and I hope I don’t run out of money!! Ciao!