Spring Break!!!!!

When Molly left, Spring Break had officially started. My spring break’s have been fairly dull my entire life. In High School, Spring Break translated to a baseball tournament that would soak up the whole time. Now, in college, Spring break translates to working 40 hours for a week. This year was set to be 100% awesome, with plans to go to Florence for the a few days and simply being in Italy in general, this was set to be the best Spring Break ever!

So on Monday, we finally got Molly off to Scotland. As I noted in the last blog, I had a good train ride back from Milan where the train was so packed, I had to stand for the entire two hours. When I first came over here, I imagined all of Italy with gently rolling hills, vineyards everywhere and villas everywhere. I had been fairly disappointed thus far because, in all honesty, a train ride through Italy or a car ride across Northern Italy looks an awful lot like driving through California. There are freeways (toll roads actually) with a field on the side and a bunch of stores on the other side with mountains in the far off, hazy distance. The only real big difference is that the buildings signs are in Italian and not English but beyond that, the two are remarkably similar. The train I was in had no air conditioning so the cars were fairly hot and people smelled fairly… ripe. That all being said, I was in as good of a place I could be. I had just gotten to see my wonderful Girlfriend for the first time in two months, show her where I have been living, introduce her to Signore Kebab Pizza, wander around Torino with her and, best of all, spend time with her so even though she had to leave, I knew that I would be seeing her again and that the longest time without seeing her was passed. There were a few sick little kids on the train but their constant coughing for two hours didn’t really bother me and I just stared out the windows at Italy passing by.

I got home and my roommate was in Paris with his family so I was going to have the apartment to myself for the first time in two months. I had some leftover food from when Molly was here so I made myself a little feast of good food and wandered through the park for a while before making it back to the apartment to enjoy a full night of rest.

The next morning, I cleaned up all the dishes from when Molly was there, did all the laundry and cleaned the apartment because Nate’s family was due in that day. I had intended on going and doing something but a day of heavy rain put a damper on those plans. I finished all the laundry, dishes and cleaned the apartment back up just in time for Nate to come in with his family. After the typical introductions, they were off to head downtown. With a headache and knowing he hadn’t seen his family in a couple months, I elected to stay at the apartment and relax and let Nate enjoy his family.

When I awoke the next morning, the pesky headache was still present but I didn’t let it get me down. I met Nate and his family at their Hotel and we went around Torino, showing them the major sights, school and everything in between. As dinner time drew nearer, we began to hunt for a couple of places recommended by Danelle, the housing coordinator for USAC. We decided to try to find a place between their Hotel and our apartment that was supposed to have a great selection of traditional Piedmontese food. We rode the metro down to the stop and walked down to the restaurant. This walk was a bit longer than we would have anticipated and his Nana wasn’t up for all the walking. We finally made it only to find that the restaurant was closed for a private banquet. With Nate’s Nana growing tired of the walking, we walked into the next restaurant we found. The restaurant is a nice little restaurant that had a good selection of fish and a ton of pizzas. Our waiter seemed to be a bit flustered and was a bit off the whole night but, overall he did a good job. As per usual at a restaurant in Italy, we had plenty of wine at the table and the food was awesome. I had a great calzone and eventually even had a great bit of chocolate gelato for dessert.

The following day, I went back down to the Nate’s family’s hotel and was treated to breakfast. After a couple months of not having breakfast, getting breakfast was great and it was nice to get to sit down and talk with Nate’s family. At the end of the meal, Nate’s Nana and a good friend were headed to a small church in search of some family records from the 1860s. Prior to the unification, each church kept their own records so after the unification, they were all gathered in one place. A few minutes later, we got a phone call. The duo needed help so I ventured out to help. All the records were obviously in Italian and, as most things written in the 19^th century, were faded, flowery and all over the place. We spent couple hours flipping through the pages, searching for a certain name, through six books that were over 150 years old. There was something incredibly cool about getting to hold a book and the pages that are 150 years old. It struck me that the paper in those books were older than the paper that the Gettysburg Address was scribbled on. It was amazing getting to touch the paper that old. After 6 books and with the church closing shop, we left with no answers. A couple months later, we found out that the document we were basing our search for was forged and that we were starting from square one.

The day drew to a close and the big plans for Spring break were now ahead of me. The plan as it stood was to go to Florence for a couple days before heading over to Siena. As I began to pack my bags however, the plans began to change. I had a bad feeling in my stomach and tried to wave if off as anticipation building up but as the sun rose the next morning, whatever it was grew into a monster. I was all sorts of sick and ended up not going to Florence for spring break. I was bed ridden for the remainder of spring break. There is something to be said about being home when sick. Being home, in the comfort of your own bed or on your own couch with either your parents or loved one taking care of you is nicer and more awesome than I ever would have given it credit. Having the experience of being in a foreign country, with few comforts of home and few friends while sick has definitely made me appreciate things I have back home a lot more. I don’t think that was something I would have anticipated learning while over here but It has been one of the amazing lessons I have learned while being abroad.