Ciao Da Italia: Learning the ropes and the first day of school

Let's just take a moment to talk about how crazy a 9 hour difference is between Arizona and Italy. Before I left 9 hours didn't seem quite as dramatic as it does now. For most of my day everyone in Arizona is sleeping, and then everyone is awake while I am sleeping, but there is that bit of time when I wake up in the morning that people in AZ have yet to fall asleep.

Sunday May 24, 2015

Sunday was a free day, so me and the roomies spent the day exploring Orvieto a little more. Sunday was also the festival of Palombella, so EVERYONE was out on the streets and everything was open (most places usually are not open on Sundays).

The first thing we did was go to the official beginning of the festival at the Cathedral with the flying of a female dove (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) in a plastic tube across a wire while smoke is flaring and fire crackers and other loud noises go off. It was very strange. Prior to the bird being a plastic tube starting in 2005 it was tied to a coat of arms and flown down the wire, but animal rights activists weren't into that, so they changed it to the tube... which still seems a little torturous to me.

After the festival we went and ate lunch. I got the most delicious salami panini, it's my new favorite food here. The bread was super hard to bite into, but very delicious once you were able to. It's really hit or miss with the cafe waiters here in Orvieto when it comes to English. Some are really good with english and some are not at all. The good thing is that lot's of gestures are used from both sides to help understand each other.

At smaller restaurants or cafes when you ask for a natural water large, you get a humungous water bottle.

After lunch we did some shopping since everything was open. All the stores smell super delicious because almost everything is made of Italian leather. I want to buy it all, but that would just throw away my entire budget. The three of us did end up buying Italy soccer jerseys of Andrea Pirlo, who is a pretty big deal for Italians. We also found a little open market with all sorts of cool trinkets being sold.


We also went to the butcher to buy some SALAMI!!! Because I love it so much, I think I like it more than chicken. They have a lot of different kinds of salami so it was rather difficult trying to choose one that we would like (even though I am sure I would end up liking them all). Then we stopped by a bakery and Brandi got a HUGE loaf of bread, but it is so delicious, I can't even begin to describe to you all my love for Italians and their love for carbs. And they love it so much probably because it's so cheap, it was only 1.30.



We did a lot more exploring of Orvieto. We have one path that we take to get to the Cathedral and then from there we can pretty much navigate anywhere. But we wanted to branch out a little bit to find some more pretty places that aren't in our everyday path. We ended up at one edge of the city (Orvieto sits on a cliff btw) and found the most gorgeous view, and gorgeous views=pictures.

I really need to dye my hair, this color is ratchet

We also went to a new cafe (it's my goal to go to as many restaurants/cafes as possible before repeating any) and it had free wifi, no super long password required, so that was definitely a plus. Except when we went to the cafe it was probably 4 or 5 in the morning in Arizona so I really didn't have anyone to chat with. Whenever we go to a cafe most people get a glass of wine... then there's little mormon me who orders hot chocolate. But I'm not even ashamed because that hot chocolate is toooo dang good. The one I got at this cafe was 5x thicker than the hot chocolate I had the day before, it was like syrup almost, but it was ahhhhh so good.

After the lovely siesta that happens here we went to dinner. I had already tried pizza and paninis, but there was still one more "p" i needed to try.... PASTA! I got gnocchi with pesto at this cute little restaurant. It was really delicious, even though it's green from all that pesto haha.

We got more gelato in the evening and ran into some more study abroad students at a bar. They took us to one of the apartments where apparently all the cool cats hang out. The apartment is housing 5 of the guys in the program and is like 10x bigger than my little place. There's is very modern and hip, mine is much more cute and Italian. Everyone was drinking there and the music was poppin' but my roomies and I weren't feeling it so we went back to our apartment and slept gloriously.

Monday May 25, 2015
In the morning I woke up and discovered that my roommate Danielle was super sick and had been throwing up during the night, which is so sad.... sick is the last thing you want to be while in Italy. She was smart and stayed in bed for the first half of the day to rest and to get better.
So Brandi and I left without her to go to an orientation for the program. It was nice because I got a folder with lots of helpful information, and I love folders with lots of helpful information. Everyone in the program was also in one room so it was nice to see some new faces. It's pretty funny, whenever we are walking around the city and we think we see someone from the program we just say "friiiennnddsss" because we don't know anyone's names, but at least know there's the program connection.

After the orientation, Brandi and I set off to eat some lunch, and our journalism friend Alex came along with us. I got a to-go magherita pizza and it was scrumptious.

While we were eating Alex showed us another cool edge of the city and I was able to get some pictures there. It's kind of funny how different views can be on different ends of the city. Some views may just be fields and maybe a building or two, and another could be lots of houses and even a freeway.

We explored Orvieto some more, introduced Alex to our apartment, did a little window shopping and ended up back at a cafe for some free wifi. Along the way we switched to a different group of girls for a little bit. We went and saw their beautiful apartment (also much larger than mine) but oh well, Zach reminded me that comparison is the thief of joy, so I should probably stop comparing... it's not like I spend a lot of time in my apartment anyway.

After hanging with the girls for a little bit, Brandi and I went back to our place to check up on Danielle and did something very exciting..... (drum roll).... we booked our free weekend this week to Milan!!! We got a cute airbnb right in the middle of the city, and we bought our train tickets too, it's going to be an amazing adventure.

Then we had to go to the school for another little tour of Orvieto. We found a gym, a place to buy stamps and mail letters, a nail salon (I even located a hair salon so maybe if I am brave I can fix my hair). Alba also said that my homegirl Caroline (who is coming to visit me the second week of June) can come with us on the day trip to Tivolo, so that's super exciting!

After the tour we went and bought the train tickets, and then we went to dinner at a restaurant called Il Malandrino Bistro. Apparently I am a super ignorant American because I thought pepperoni is an Italian thing, like it sounds pretty Italian to me, but its definitely not. The closest thing I have been able to find to pepperoni pizza was at this restaurant and it was a spicy salami pizza... tastes nothing like pepperoni, but it's the closest I am gonna get to pepperoni I suppose. This restaurant is the bomb.com because they serve mocktails... that is you can order a cocktail without alcohol. When Brandi went to order her cocktail, the bartender/waiter asked if she wanted alcohol or not, so that gives me hope, I love mocktails! I didn't get any that night, but I will definitely get one when we go back.

After dinner Brandi stopped to get gelato and then we had to walk home in the POURING rain.

Dogs are the shiz in Orvieto, they make cats look like peasants

As you can see we wore our Italy jerseys on Monday. The president of the school loved us, and said we are living in Italy right. A bunch of the other students were inspired by us and asked us where we bought them, so we are pretty much trend setters no biggie.


Tuesday May 26, 2015
I have been having awful luck with my sleeping. I wake up between 3-6 everyday because I have to pee but then I am wide awake and can't fall back asleep. Luckily, I can chat with some AZ people because it's not too late there. But then when I eventually fall back asleep for a few hours, I wake up and I am DEAD TIRED. Hopefully I will be able to sleep through the night soon, because it is getting annoying. The good news is at the school red bull is in the vending machines and it's pretty cheap, so that will definitely help me. When I woke up this morning, Zach called me on WhatsApp so that was a great start to my morning, even though he was telling me all about how he is trying to catch a sketchy guy in the Bahama Bucks parking lot.

So Tuesday was the first day of classes. I only have one class today (advanced photojournalism) from 2pm-4pm, and then I have one class on Thursday (digital photography) FOR THREE HOURS from 3-6, that class is definitely going to be a struggle.

Danielle had a class at 9 am, so Brandi and I walked her to school and then got breakfast at a cafe in the same square. We saw they had a sign for nutella crepes yesterday, so we decided that's what we wanted for breakfast today. It was kind of odd because they only had one crepe left (like could they not make more? idk) there was also the communication struggle even though the nutella crepes are called nutella crepes in Italian, luckily there was a sign that we could point to so they understood. So since there was only one Brandi and I split it, it was very delicious. I love nutella so much, so it was hard for it to not be good.

After breakfast Brandi and I went to a few stores to try and find an umbrella for her. We found a cute shop with the cutest little owner. The umbrellas were cheap and Brandi scored some rockin' Italian boots.

Because of my lack of sleep, I have learned the art of napping. It's a necessity practically everyday. So once I got home I took a nap up until Brandi and I had to leave for our advanced photojournalism class.

Kim Newton is my professor and he is the same professor I had for photojournalism, so we are already great pals. This class is going to be very fun mostly because I get to turn in the pictures I am taking on a day to day basis of all my adventures already. There are only 6 of us in the class, so it's very relaxed and personable.

After photojournalism, Brandi had a comm class so I went to go eat lunch (I got another salami panini, from a different place), and then waited at the school until Brandi was done with her class.


I am adjusting a lot better, not feeling nearly as homesick as I was the first couple of days. The days have been reeaaaalllyyyy long, so I am excited for everything to start picking up pace now that classes have started. I will probably want everything to slow down like how it's been lately when time starts to go by a lot faster, but oh well.
The only Italian I know is: Ciao, prego, amico, fragola, limone, and duomo. SO really I know nothing haha. But hand gestures are very handy!

Oh and if you want to keep track of my photojournalism projects you can go to my other blog dedicated to that: sydneyrichardson.wordpress.com
There isn't anything posted yet because my assignments aren't due for another week, but at least you all have a link if you want to check up on it!