che cosa!??

I arrived in Bologna on Monday, Jan 07 after three fast-paced days of flying from Cali to Boston to move things into storage, pack, and fly to Italy—all of that on less than 10 hours of sleep within the span of three days. Four days have passed and much progress has been made. I’ve managed to break my month-old iPhone5, settle into and somehow make the power go off in the entire apartment, and get yelled at by an Italian shopkeeper.

Bologna e' bella! I miei coinquilini are wonderful and our apartment location is perfect. We’re a quick ten minute walk from the due torri (two towers—yes, Lord of the Rings style), aka the city centre. All of the buildings within the walls are amazingly preserved, something that you don’t really see throughout Italy. To top it off, all of the university buildings are swaggity old medieval-aged buildings decorated with lovely and huge portici. I will say what most wont: I absolutely cannot wait to start classes. yes.Yes.YES.

Like I said before (and will say forevermore), i miei coinquilini sono meravigliosi! Matilde and Anna are from Prato, a town near Florence, and they have been amazingly helpful in explaining Italian shenanigans, parolacce (no-no words), and of course all things related to living a safe existence in an Italian apartment. It isn’t as easy as one would think, as I’m sure my two American roommates (Gregorio and Kaitlin) can attest to. I may or may not have somehow made the power in the apartment go out…and with no idea how to fix it, we waited for the wonderful Monica to come and fix it for us. Yes, Italians are nice. :)

Food. It goes without being said that it’s scrumptious, enticing, beautiful, savory, mouthwatering, delectable, luscious—basically any positive adjective that exists. PANNA COTTA. Prior to delighting in this dish, I thought I had lived a decent existence, but boy was I wrong. Words cannot describe it’s essence, and so I won’t even try. What I will say is this: if you make your way to Italy, you have a free place to stay with me on the condition that we go out (and you buy me) this orgasmic dish. It’s that good.

We’ve been doing a lot of walking and sightseeing as a group, and I’m praying to all of the gods that this somehow offsets all of the food that I will be eating. It has to, right? After all, all these Italian ragazze are skinny….. On a serious note, there are nice trails outside of the city to run on so all should be fine…too optimistic?

I don’t have much more to say at this point. Only four days have passed in this beautiful city and I am all too content to be here. My body is finally adjusted to the time change and my Italian is coming along quickly! Tomorrow we’re heading to Ravenna and I couldn’t be happier. The last time I was there a bird let it rip (poopoo) all over my pants and shirt. Can’t wait for what awaits me this time!!

Oh. Mom, I’m writing all of this for you. Robert, you too. Papa, you too. I’m alive and well. Will post photos soon. Love you, miss you mucho! Send me money. Ciao!!