So I think two words to sum up my experience over the past couple days would be 1) crazy, 2) beautiful. Not that I'm saying my life is perfect...it's just been incredibly enjoyable and ridiculous the past few days. The end of last week was the start and the first presentation of a project - one created entirely by studying animal physiology and behavior in response to the environment and transferring it to building skin technology. It's actually REALLY COOL and I really enjoy it.
My group is amazing. It consists of two American students: Me and Sarah M., and two Italian students: Marina and Matteo. They are so great. They came up to us the first day when we were choosing partners and asked us if we would like to be a group. Because the partner choices were completely blind - we have no knowledge or history with the Italian students - it was such a nice surprise to have two smart, funny, generous and generally awesome Italians as partners. We have been hanging out with Marina especially - she has quickly become one of our favorite people. ((Marina if you read this, thank you SO MUCH for how inviting and friendly you have been towards us!!)) She has included us in so much and taught us a lot about the city and surrounding area.
On Friday we presented our project, which was a module based on the circulatory system of dolphin fins (actually really fascinating) which went well! And then we had no homework for the weekend!! AMAZING! Being archies and having no work over a weekend?! that never happens! So, on Friday night I went crazy with baking. Actually it was really nice. I made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, a summer vegetable tian, and eggplant bruschette. I had an incredible amount of eggplant from that giant eggplant I bought the previous Sunday, and it took forever to figure out what to do with it all. Kateri and I then watched 'Penelope' which was really good. Though....Kateri didn't really watch it. She fell asleep on the floor about 15 minutes into it. I enjoyed it though. It was very entertaining.. and cute.
Saturday morning we went shopping with Marina in the market - I can't figure out the name. But it was primarily clothing. I didn't really buy anything, but maybe the next time. On the way to our touring meeting point, we stopped by a shoe store Marina recommended, where I may buy boots. We'll see. It's a lot of money to spend, but for good Italian leather boots, it may be worth it. Plus, I'm getting really bored of having two different pairs of shoes. ...It gets old.
After we shopped, we had a tour (boring....long...tiring...) and I went quickly to the market and bought large quantities of pomodori (tomatoes) and prugne (Italian plums). 2 kilos of pomodori for 2 euro and 3 kilos of prugne for 1 euro. So... I'm going to bake a lot of plum cake. But I'm excited. The market was INSANE. I'm so excited to go there every Saturday. Definitely looking forward to that. Especially since everything looks delicious and everything is pretty cheap! I'm such a foodie. ...and a nerd. I'm totally fine with that :)
Saturday night we went to the wine festival in Asti. "La Festival delle Sagre" Hmm.. how do I explain it...... well, craziness. There were so many people there. It was not a wine tasting - it was definitely focused on wine drinking. Lots and lots of drinking. Asti was about a 45 minute train ride from Torino, and only cost around 4 euro with a free trip back. Unlike American fairs, the food was cheap! and amazing! we had risotto con Barolo - rice cooked with wine. That sounds strange but risotto is so tasty and this version was really good! and a big bowl was only 3 euro!
There were 'houses' set up all around the area with dishes from the region - ravioli, pasta, risotto, desserts...and of course wine. The festival celebrates the fall harvest, so all the new wine has just come out and people get together to celebrate and drink it! For 50 euro cents you can get a really "classy" pouch with a wine glass in it, so you can eat hands free and still have access to wine. I had a small glass of a red with from Asti, which was really good. But that was it for me. I'm not a heavy drinker .....at all. I just like to taste :) But everyone else drank enough to make up for me. People were drinking ..... a lot. Sooooo many drunk people everywhere. Very happy, loud, hungry drunk people. Everyone was chanting and singing at the top of their lungs.
We tried to leave on the 12:30 train back, but it was too full. So we waited for the 1:00 train. ...which was also full. The train platform was basically a giant moshpit of chanting drunk happy Italians. They would sing one song over and over and over and over and over again. "Bevo bevo bevo bevo / Mi ubriaco / e son felice / anche se poi vomito!" At the top of their lungs. Jumping up and down. Basically it means, "I drink I drink I drink I drink/ I'm drunk / and I'm happy/ even though I am vomiting" We totally didn't realize that last line there. Oh well, it was hilarious.
The train was packed all the way back. As in, 'you-have-absolutely-no-personal-space' kind of packed. And it was full of, again, happy drunk Italians. We were pretty ready to get off at the end. But we had a really good night. It was so so much fun to hang out with Marina and her friends at the festival. I'm really glad they put up with having a bunch of non-Italian-speaking newbie Americans hanging out with them. But we really enjoyed it. It was definitely a highlight of the trip so far.
((So this was the train platform - and all of the singing..and craziness.. Sorry it's sideways, but I can't seem to rotate it in the Blogger video function! )
After we got back, we hung out on the floor of our apartment, ate my cheesecake, and chatted until around 3:00. The other apartment had been drinking heavily (seems it was the thing to do that night!) so everyone was having a lot of fun...even though we were literally just sitting on the floor of the apartment. I like our group. We all get along well.
Sunday was amazing. I'm going to just write a new post tomorrow about how great today was. So great! Basically, God has been so amazing and so evident these past few days - with getting me involved and connected with Italians here, finding a church here, meeting people at the church here, finding amazing markets, etc. Seeing beauty in the people and places of Torino. He truly is evident in the little things, the simple and the heart-warming. Grazie Dio.
No comments:
Post a Comment