I cannot believe that I am finally here in Italy doing my first blogpost. It is so surreal.
The past few days here have been so crazy and non-stop moving. I do not know how I am still awake. On Thursday I arrived in Milan at 12:15pm (italy time) then took a two hour bus into Torino to our hostel, changed and went to explore the beautiful city of Torino. We were all extremely jet lagged that my friend and I ended up just getting gelato and sittiing in the Piazza, which is a center that they have all over the city. Then we had pizza and wine, and headed back to our hostile. When we got back to the hostile we ended up hearing another guest talk about the bed bugs she had experienced. That made going to sleep so much easier (not). I survived and did not have any bed bugs! Thank God!

The next day we woke up at 8 and went downstairs for breakfast, which basically consisted of nothing but cereals and stale bread…YUM. We then had orientation and got to finally meet our host families!! As soon as I walked in the room my host mom ran and gave me a huge hug and two kisses (which is a thing here that I did not know). So I looked so confused and did not know to go left or right, quite awkward. I then realized my host mother did not speak much english at all and neither did my second host dad who was also there with her. My host moms friend Marilena spoke a little bit. They were all so extremely welcoming and friendly. They took me by the school I will be teaching at and I got to meet the teacher I will be working with Rosanna. She was also very welcoming and friendly. I started to panic a little because I was realizing no one spoke english and if they did it was very broken english.

When I got to my host families home in Chieri I was amazed at how beautiful it was! So many beautiful hills, nothing like I am used to in Florida. And the weather here right now is unbelievably perfect! My host family is so sweet and welcoming. It is my host mother Milena, host dad Antonio, then two host brothers Simone and Andrea. The two boys speak a little english, which makes it a little easier to all communicate.

The food here is incredible! For breakfast we eat cookies and there is always nutella on the table and breads, as well as cereals. The lunch is usually served around 1pm and we all sit down and have an abundance of food, nothing compared to America. So far I have had pasta for lunch everyday. The first day with mussells and the second with mushrooms. And of course always bread on the table. Carbs, carbs, and more carbs. They also always have wine out for lunch all the time. Today with our pasta we had melon and prosucitto then a spinach frittata.

Last night I explored the Torino night life with Marilena’s son Frederico. Marilena works in the school I will be in and is also friends with my host mom. I met all of his friends, some spoke good english and he spoke broken. It was so much fun. We went to a part of the city where you can just walk around with your drinks in hand, which is very uncommon in the states. The bars there also stay open till 4am!

So far this has been quite the adventure with a rollercoaster of emotions. I know that the first few weeks will be difficult to try and communicate with my family. And it is definitely a culture shock when you are constantly listening to italian and having no clue what is going on around you, but it is getting easier. Tomorrow I start my first day of teaching! Cannot wait to meet all the kids I will be teaching!

Questo e tutto per ora, ciao! (thats it for now bye!)