A Busy Week!

It has been a crazy week! And it's the good kind of crazy where I'm meeting tons of new people, making new friends, starting my Intensive Language Program (ILP) classes, and just generally settling in to my new life. It still feels like I'm dreaming and this isn't MY life...it feels like I've replaced someone else's life, yet it feels natural. This past weekend, it finally wasn't strange anymore to hear Italian all around me. I can understand a lot of it and I'm now used to either A) zoning out and letting it flow in and out of my brain, or B) really focusing and understanding most everything that someone says. I try to stick with B, but it's exhausting to constantly focus with intensity and have to continuously translate in my head!

So here's the quick rundown of my week since a lot has happened, but I've been too tired to write about it:

Thursday--my cousin, Matteo, took Allison and I to a Bologna FC training (the soccer team here had a public practice), and then we went to play Risk (the boardgame) with his friends in a park!

Friday/Saturday--orientation to meet all my fellow University of Californians and it was nice to share stories, get to know each other, and get to know the wonderful people in the UC office here. They speak to us only in Italian, but they slow it down and explain things really well.

Sunday--went to the Acquapark Termale (thermal spring water put into pools and water slides) with Matteo and his girlfriend, Lisa. We spent the day in the sun and in the pools, and then went to a hillside restaurant for dinner to meet up with my Dad's other cousins Elio and Anna. The "restaurant" was an outdoor, family-style set-up and Elio and his band were the musical entertainment of the night. We had a beautiful view over the hills. Also, the highlight of the week is I squished grapes with my feet to make wine!! (Not really sure I'd want to drink it afterward...and it felt weird to step on grapes, but it was really fun to play with my food!)

Squishing grapes into wine!!! Mmm yumm...

The tables at the family-owned restaurant. Che bella!

Monday-Wednesday--my ILP classes started (3 hours a day, from 1:30-4:30pm...which kind of interferes with my naptime, but allows me to think about going for a run in the mornings), and they split the 28 of us in the program into 2 groups (morning and afternoon). It's great to get to know a smaller group of people, but we make plans to hang out altogether and we've been meeting up in the evenings for aperitivi (alcoholic beverages with food) and to go out to bars at night. Our teachers for the ILP class are Italian, and speak to us only in Italian (this IS an immersion program), but are very good about speaking slowly enough and clarifying things when our faces convey confusion. We've been learning about Bologna's history and we've gone to a couple museums and a church so far.

The wonderful woman, Peggy (who's in charge of our program here), giving us a tour of the church in Piazza Santo Stefano.

This weekend, we're planning to go to Rimini--a coastal town about an hour and a half train-ride away--to have fun on the beach and experience its famous nightlife! Stories to come after.  :)

A presto! Ciao!