So this is the most I have procrastinated on a blog post ever… sorry mom. But I have been here for almost three months, which means I’m almost one third done with exchange and that’s absolutely crazy to think about. It also means I have a ton of stuff to update y’all on so get ready for a lot of reading, at least until you get too much fomo because Italy is the best.
Unfortunately, I have to start off with some sad news. My gelato count has gone WAY down because the gelateria’s in Como are all closed seasonally, as it is officially cold now. That’s actually two pieces of sad news – I truly do not know how I will handle the cold for another three months, much less four years at Notre Dame. Please send prayers. And maybe money for another coat.
That’s basically the only bad news though. I began this month by cooking pizzocheri with my host mom. I’m guessing you don’t know what pizzocheri is, and for that I feel bad for you. It’s a pasta dish with potatoes, spinach, cheese, and this gray pasta which I realize now doesn’t sound that amazing but trust me it is. I actually got to have it twice in one week, because after we made it at home we went on a beautiful hike and they also served us pizzocheri at the refugio (all the hikes I’ve been on here have a restaurant at some point in the hike called a refugio that’s always amazing).
In the following week, I officially started doing dance with my friends Ina and Marta – which is fun, but at the same time a little difficult given the fact that I joined when they already knew half the choreography and also can only go to one of two lessons a week. Still like it though! I also discovered the store Tiger, which we absolutely need in the US because it has everything you could ever think of. Then again, maybe it’s better that we don’t have it because every time I go in I actually feel physically compelled to buy at least 10 euros worth of something. So far, I’ve started a really great pen collection featuring this finger pen and also bought a bottle of glitter for literally no reason. None at all.
About two weeks ago, I had the totally surreal experience to go on what everyone else considered a regular school field trip, except for the fact that it was in Milan, which is just super cool. We went to a conference called Science for Peace, and it was actually really interesting – there was even a speaker from America, so I understood all of at least one speech! Just kidding, I understood others too. But let me say that you have never been tired like an exchange student gets tired. It is so much dang work to live in another language. Literally a constant workout for your brain. Also, I feel like I need to include this side note: I am so bad at spelling now. Like, I used to be pretty good at spelling in English. But literally last paragraph I first spelled ‘bought’ like ‘bot’. I’m not kidding. It’s kind of embarrassing.
But who cares about spelling when you’re living in Italy am I right? Other fun things I have done that make up for whatever is happening in my brain right now: I went to a university ‘open day’ in Milan with Marta and it was literally the exact same as any open house for a college I ever went to in the US. Like the exact same. It was kinda weird. Also kinda weird that it was the exact same yet… college costs 8 times more in the US! How fun. Also fun: I think my teachers all had a meeting one day and said ‘Let’s see how many presentations we can give Trinity! And also let’s give her a whole bunch of textbooks! This’ll be so fun’ because I have 14 textbooks and have given 5 presentations in the past week. Some are harder than others – like the one where I had to analyze (in Italian) an (Italian) poem. Others, however, are kind of embarrassingly simple, as in when I told my history teacher I could write my powerpoint in Italian and speak in English, upon which she slightly glanced at my homework I had done in Italian and said “Umm… no… English is just fine”.
Because I have all this new homework for once, I obviously have to do something while procrastinating it. I went to a Christmas market, and saw the most beautiful nativities I could imagine. Straight up almost dropped $110 on a nativity. They’re amazing. However, that 80 euros a month from Rotary only lasts me about the first week of the month. Next time! That day, I also called my friends in Houston while they were having Friendsgiving. That’s also a testament to how tired I am – I was supposed to call at midnight my time, so I set a timer for 11:50 and then didn’t wake up until 3, even though the alarm was ringing every eight minutes. Thankfully I still got to talk with them for almost three hours, and it was so much fun. The next day was Thanksgiving and, because my host parents are the best, I didn’t have to go to school. Instead, I went grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner I cooked (the day after Thanksgiving).
Thankfully, my cooking was somehow actually really good. Almost everything I made turned out right, and even though the pie was totally the wrong texture, it still tasted good! Props to Tia Becky and also my mom, who I called about 12 times while cooking everything. Also, I pray that y’all never have to convert five recipes to from the American system to the metric system because it was just way harder than I thought it would be for some reason. It was definitely worth it in the end though – and so insanely weird to smell the exact same smells in Italy as I did in the US. Kind of bittersweet, especially considering the fact that I didn’t get to have any of my uncle Gregory’s pumpkin pie milkshakes.
That weekend was the Rotary trip to Cremona, which was one of the most fun days I’ve had in Italy. We met up with three other districts, so there was probably a hundred of us – I even met three other people from Texas, which was super exciting. It’s literally an immediate click. Like hey you’re from Texas? I am too! and then bam friends just like that. Anyways, we were in Cremona for a torrone festival, which was both delicious and also bad for my wallet. Torrone is this type of candy that I honestly cannot explain, but you’ll probably find it in the US as turron, which is what they call it in Spanish. Actually, we apparently have it every year at Christmas Eve dinner, but I was always too obsessed with meringues to realize it.
The week after Cremona was also exciting, because the market in Como officially opened, and the city turned on the lights. Basically, Como lights up the whole center with a different pattern each year, and even projects a rather creepy face on the tower that tells the history of the Duomo. I don’t know how great it looks in pictures, but when you’re actually there seeing the lights it’s kind of mind blowing – and they add a new detail every day, until Christmas. The other amazing thing that happened there is that Heather, Dani, and I had Lola convinced for a straight hour that we believed in Santa Clause. She was on the verge of losing her absolute mind. She legitimately called her friends in Belgium to make sure she wasn’t going crazy. It was hilarious. We were straight up crying from laughter but played it off as sadness that she didn’t believe. That’s maybe one of the things I’m more proud of doing here in Italy.
What I spent most of the rest of the week doing is obsessing over our trip to Pisa, Rome, and Florence this week (t-3 days!!!!!). I am super impressed with how much I worked on it. If you need some information about Rome or Florence, I'm pretty sure I could be a tour guide with my current knowledge. I even made a map of the Uffizi, marked with literally every painting I want to see (yeah I borrowed and read an entire textbook on this museum. I’m serious about this trip). Saturday was Avery’s birthday, so it was sad to be without her for that – but I went to Como with some of my friends, and it was fun. Still can’t believe my youngest sister is already eleven years old though.
In all, it was another great month. But I seriously do not know how it went by this fast. I specifically remember saying I’d write this blog the second week of November, because I didn’t have much to write about during the first. And then all of a sudden I was busy and it was already December. Honestly, I should have written this yesterday, as I literally slept for 14 hours and therefore should have done at least one productive thing, but oh well. Did it now! And I promise to post another one in a week about Rome, because I will probably be able to write twice as much as this about just those four days. Can’t wait to tell you guys all about it. Actually, I can wait, because I already don’t want to leave Rome or Florence.
See y’all soon.