This past weekend was amazing. Not only did I meet people from all around Europe (and more), I practiced my Italian, finished one of my books, and found a few bars and cafes here in Urbino that I feel at least one will become my "spot”—take that as you will. I feel as if my time here is going by slowly, but also quickly, as I do so much in one day. Sunday was my first “do nothing” day, which seems counterintuitive to anyone studying abroad, but those types of days are crucial to avoiding burnout. Yes, I want to experience all that I can, but self-care is one thing that I am prioritizing this year, so I am making sure that I have downtime. I’m an introverted extrovert, so I rely on recharge days to get back the steam that I burned out by socializing.
Anywho, let’s talk about what I’ve been getting into.
Thursday
Thursday was a great day—er, let’s actually say Thursday night. In the daytime, I had my Italian and Mobile Photojournalism class. Cool—it’s class. We’re in college, so this is normal and nothing major came out of it. But when the evening hit (around 10 pm), three of the girls here with me and our Italian “advisor” (we don’t really have a title for her) had a girls night out. The first place we went to was called The Underground. It was a really nice place with great music (Audrey and I were ready to get up and dance, but that’d’ve been to American, lol), awesome drinks, and interesting people. My intention was to get a beer, but I ended up splitting both a Sex on the Beach and a Jamaica Julep with McKenna; both drinks tasted fruity and dangerous (because you really can’t taste the alcohol, especially in the last one).
We stayed at The Underground for a long time. It was really loud with the music, but it was a great time. A guy from Naples kept coming over and saying “Cheers” to us, which was hilarious. Alessia (our Italian advisor) called that he was from Naples before he told us. It was his dialect, which I can’t wait to be able to distinguish between. Anyways, the guy eventually sat down and started talking to us. He was fun to talk to, but he was definitely sly. (This is when we learned the Italian word “furbo.”)
After we left to The Underground, we went to a caffè called Caffè Del Sole. It is a really artsy place where artists and poets normally go. Alessia asked us if we wanted to take a shot, and that’s where I learned that Keglevich’s Strawberry Vodka doesn’t taste like vodka at all, and I can learn to like the stuff again. After four of us took our shots, we noticed that Alessia still had hers, and as she slowly sipped it, she said, “I don’t do shots.” Well, that’s fun. At this caffe, we met this older man whose name is either Yadel or Marchegiano—he wasn’t really sure. He really enjoyed speaking with us in English, but only if we talked slower.
Friday
I woke up on Friday knowing that the day was going to be bad. I was irritated, a migraine was coming on, and it seemed like everything that could go wrong was, indeed, going wrong. Friday was also our first esame italiano (Italian exam). Despite my irritation for the day, I felt confident about the exam because I’d been studying so much. By this point, I had ordered food in Italian, gotten lost in Italy, and made a decent schedule for myself in this Italian town, so yeah, my confidence was high. But I was also really nervous because taking an exam with a new professor is always anxiety inducing. I like knowing what kind of questions to expect and what to study for the exam. Luckily, I can say that I passed my exam with a 48/50.
Later Friday night, I just stayed in. It was a rainy night (and oh my gosh, the roads are slippery here when it’s rainy), so I slept some, read, and did laundry. The laundry part was pretty funny considering that I did it in a bidet (a toilet/sink in European bathrooms where you wash up in). Since we do not use ours, we dedicated ours for laundry since we still have no idea where the laundry room is. It was a very interesting experience, indeed.
Saturday
Saturday morning through afternoon was pretty relaxed. It was a really snowy day, so I wasn’t that motivated to go out. I slept most of the day and finished up my book (13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi). The same three girls and I went to go get pizza for lunch, and it. was. heavenly. I enjoyed it so much. That evening (around 7 pm), our group of 12 went to the Erasmus event, which is basically a bunch of European students that exchange at other European universities. We were invited because our professor (Dennis Chamberlin) knew the daughter of the woman over the event. So that was a really awesome way for us to meet more international students! It was also pretty cool that this event was held at the same caffe some of us visited a couple of days before: Caffè Del Sole.
At the event, we were able to aperitivo, which is a really cool way to say free food with drinks. There were students mostly from Italy, but also various Asian countries, Ireland, and Spanish-speaking countries. We were the only Americans invited, so of course we felt special (lol). During our time there, I learned that Italians think that country music is the favorite genre of most Americans (of course I love it, which is all that matters really); I also learned that I suck at foosball. (Sorry, Katlyn!)
During this event, the Erasmus team planned a couple of games with randomly created teams. I had two other Americans on my team (Ryan and Kennedy), on Italian, two guys from Vietnam, and on Irishman. The organizers stressed how important it was to have at least one person who could speak Italian on our team; I later realized why. Literally every clue was in Italian. This made a lot of sense when we later figured out all of our clues were in Italian. Our first job was to find the Erasmus flag. Unfortunately for our team, ours was hidden under the snow, by a bench. There was no way we would have found that. Next, we had to create the ESN sign with our bodies. Our final task was to find a pub, called Bosom. They ordered everyone shots there (I honestly was not expecting that). We spent the rest of our night there, dancing, talking, and having a good time.
