Ciao from Torino!

---

What a wild whirlwind it has been the past couple of days between flying from Minneapolis to Torino, meeting the fellow travelers from my Greenheart Travel Group, and moving into my new host familia. I have been in Italy a wee bit over 24 hours and I can confidently say that the pizza here was love at first sight. My friend Jennie and I were rather tired from the 2 flights we had been on but I think jet lag has not got the best of me yet. I am waiting for that. So our flight went fairly fast with movies, sleeping, and eating. We flew Attalia airlines into Milan and I was happy to see that wine was a complimentary drink offered on the plane. Instead of pretzels/peanuts the Attalia airlines offer a small a bag of crackers that taste similar to oyster crackers. we arrived into the Milan airport around 11 am Thursday morning where we met up with the rest of the Greenheart Travel group which is the program we came on. After a couple hours of waiting at the airport for the rest of the group to arrive, we loaded a bus and headed to a hostel. There is a total of 26 volunteer teachers in the program we came on and the majority are from the USA, few from Australia and Canada and one from China. My first impression of the landscape I saw from the bus was not breathtaking.....I felt as if I had not left Minnesota. My breath soon dropped after we arrived in Torino. I had a skewed view from the highway. We settled into the hostel and took a walking tour around Torino. The city is beautiful, full of churches, gelato shops, cafes and cobblestone streets. It's true that gelato is on every corner in Italy! We enjoyed our first real meal in Itall on Thursday evening which consisted of two Italian staples, pizza and wine. I enjoyed the salsiccian(sausage) pizza. the majority of the group was tired, cold and starving by the tme we sat down. By the time we actually ordered and ate we were soooo happy to be eating. It was so much tastier than the plane meals given or the protein bars and buts I had been eating.

Friday morning we began with breakfast at the hostel. Breakfast was not what I am used to in my comfort zine of an American home where I make myself an omelette each morning. Typical breakfast in Italy is bread and coffee and maybe even some sweets. Yikes that will take some adjusting! We had an orientation to our teaching program in which we learned basic Italian culture, and one important aspect to know is that when you learn the Italian language you are learning not only the oral language but the body languste too--Itslians speak with their hands. I have learned the signs for 'fuck you' And for 'I don't understand.' Perhaps those will come in handy!

in the afternoon it was time to meet our host families! I have been emailing my host mother Francessca for over two months now so I had already formed a relationship with her through conversation and photos. She knew who I was right when I walked into the room where all the host families were waiting for us (it almost felt like we were being adopted or fostered into new families; which is reality it is.) Imagine 26 mostly American students walking into a room full of mostly Italian mothers. My host mother did the normal thing to do here in Italy when you greet--kiss of the checks starting on the left Side.

Here is what else I have learned so far from my first days in Italy: do not expect a meal to take less than one hour. Meals are an important part of the Italians culture as it is focused of two very important aspects of life here; familia and food. Dinner has more than one course and the first coure will be antipasto--appetizers. For appetizers this evening with my host family we went to the local cafe which is truly just a few steps out of the flat they live in. We were celebrating Susannas birthday, who is my host sister who turned 19 today. I also have a host brother, Davide. And of course pepe, dad. The familia is wonderful and mom cooks great Italian food! We had creamy pasta with peas and ham for dinner, and than a large meatball filled with more meat in it. I Told them this looked like meatloaf and Italians do not know what meatloaf is. It was a delicious first Italian home cooked meal!

I am truly am living in the center of Torino and there is a castle outside my apartment! I am going to love it here, amore.

In Italy it is 7 hours ahead of Minnesoa time so happy Friday to all of you friends and family 😊 Buonna note! (goodnight for me.)

Apologies on the lack of photos for this entry, technology problems to be fixed soon I anticipate! Some photos on Facebook for now.

---