After that I took the train to Pavia and then a taxi to my residence hall. Its name is Residenza Golgi 1. My room is big compared to the dorm rooms in the U.S. I live by myself in the room. And I have my own bathroom which I am very thankful for! Although the shower is pretty much right on top of the toilet. It is very strange! My favorite thing about the room is the blinds. They are completely black. So when you shut them and go to sleep it is pitch black. They are the best shades I have ever seen! Although then you can sleep for hours and have no clue what time it is. So, when I got here I went straight to sleep.
Then I woke up around 3:00 in the afternoon and decided I might as well go outside and try to get an Italian phone since they wouldn't give me the internet password without and Italian number. So annoying! But they didn't even tell me where I could get a phone. All they told me was bus number 6 goes to the city center and I could probably find a phone there. Luckily I met Sofia. Sofia lives on the 2nd floor of my building. She was going down the stairs and I asked her if it was the right bus and where I could a phone and then she offered just to take me. So she took me to the cell phone store and then spoke for me and got me a phone. After the phone she was going to the grocery store so I went with her and bought a few groceries. They have plain pear juice here. It is really good if you like pears. One thing about the grocery stores that are different here is that you have to buy the plastic bags for 10 Euro cents each. So I bought just one bag because I though it would be fine. But it turns out they are also very cheaply made and when I was walking the bottom fell out. It was really embarrassing. One of my new glasses broke also. But thank god for Sofia! She was so helpful. She is from Sicily and pretty much only speaks Italian. So I definitely was glad I had taken a few Italian classes. Although Sofia's mom is from England and Sofia called her mom and told her about the phone and then her mom explained everything to me. She told me I can call her anytime to ask her for help. It was very nice of her!
After my excursion with Sofia I returned home and met some more people on my floor. Earlier in the day I had met Abdel from Morocco. He let me use his computer to email home which was very nice. Then in the evening I met Ali from Lebanon and Samuele from Sicily. They are both very nice. Ali is here on scholarship and works at the International Relations Office. Apparently I have a meeting on February 14 with him at the office but no one even told me! I am lucky that I live on the same floor as him in the same residence hall. Or else I wouldn't have known anything. That is kind of how I feel about everything. They are not very good at explaining things here. Thankfully the other students have been helpful! He also took me to one of the cafeterias so I could figure out my meal plan but they told me I have to wait for the director because they had never heard of my program. Everything is I have to wait until Monday. I ended up only eating a kiwi the whole first day that I was here. It was awful!
My second day here I didn't wake up until 1 in the afternoon because I was still getting used to the time. Then I got ready for the day and I went with Samuele and Ali to the mall. I bought a rug, blow dryer, straightener, curling iron, and a reusable bag for groceries. Then I just came back and I skyped with Heather, Brian, Mama, Papa & Bear. In between the skyping I was asked to join my residence hall's soccer team. While I am not good at soccer I decided to join. We will start practicing soon and then have games in May. Also last night, I hung out with some different people on my floor. Roberta, Nicolo and Giacomo. Roberta was nice enough to give me some snacks. Roberta will play on the soccer team with me.
Today I went on a walk. I woke up around 9 and then I got ready and walked to the university. I could have taken the bus but I prefer to walk so I can learn my surroundings a little better. It is about a 10 minute walk to the train station and then a 15 minute walk to the university. So 25 minutes all together. But I stopped along the way. There is almost nothing open on Sunday's here! Not restaurants, stores, niente except for the church. There was one store open called Coin that I stopped in. I bought some pjs there because I only have on pair. They are cute. I chose them because they say "As your bright and tiny spark Lights the traveller in the dark- Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, Twinkle LITTLE STAR." I chose them because I feel like a traveller in the dark since I do not know anything! They also had some decals that I wanted to buy but they were rather large so I thought I would buy them back on the way. I want to decorate my room more since I will be here for 51/2 months! But then when I went back the store was closed. So maybe another day I will buy them. After I went to that store I had my first Italian pizza. It was delicious! It had zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, mozzarella and oregano. The crust here is very very thin and crispy. Papa would love it! After that I went to the main building of the university. It is gorgeous!!! Then I returned home and visited with Roberta and Nicolo. I also met Francesca and two other girls from Portugal on my floor. The two girls from Portugal are leaving tuesday though. They invited me to go with them to the Welcome Office tomorrow. They said they are part of the group that I want to join. They told me that there is nothing going on right now because everyone is studying but it will get better soon. Right now it is snowing outside. I have never seen so much snow in my life! So I am inside. I am going to read and then maybe hang out with Sofia this afternoon. :)
haha welcome in Europe:-)
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard about your plastic bag story :-) Daniel was so confused about it too:-)