I actually know enough Italian to have conversations with people who don't speak English well or at all. Before I would never have been able to do that. And the best part is that I'll only continue to get beter!
My latest adventure was skiing in the Alps with most of the people from my program! Luckily Giai, my Italian 1 teacher, taught us a lot of phrases that may come in handy while on the slopes. And I acutally used them! For example I couldn't get on my ski boots and so I asked one of our instructors: Puoi aiutare? Which roughly means Can you help me? But I had more conversations that that too!
So we set off for the Alps at 8am on Saturday morning. I don't think anyone minding getting up so early because we went skiing in the ALPS. Not many people can say that.
As we made our way further up the mountains some people starting getting really nervous but I was nothing but extremely excited! I've only been skiing once in High School and I spent most of the time falling & getting laughed at but at least I knew what to expect. However, I don't think our instructors knew what to expect from us. We had 4 or 5 men and one woman that took us on the trip. My landlord Roberto, aka Babo, organized the trip! And our handyman Giovani and his girlfriend Monica came too. So anyways these hilarious 50 year old Italian men had no idea what they were getting with 30 Americans. They divided us into 2 groups based on your past skiing experience. We think they thought we either skiied yearly or rarely and that we would need little instruction. They were wrong. Their first shock was how many people had never skiied before. Their second came in a much funnier form. They sent us out on the bunny hill and all of the beginners started freaking out and three of them just tumbled all the way down. I was laughing so hard until we had one scary moment. One of my roommates tumbled down the hill and hurt her head/face and almost had to be taken to the hospital. But she ended up being okay and got to ski more later that afternoon. Anyways they finally realized that many of us literally knew absolutely nothing.I went with the beginngers group because of my extreme lack of athelticism and because I only skiied once 5 years ago. It actually came back to me much easier than I thought it would and I navigated the bunny hill easily, never falling! The funny thing about the 15 of us on the bunny hill is that we were clearly marked. As being American with pathetic excuses for ski gear wasn't enough, the way were divided into groups was by BRIGHT orange or yellow bibs. Perfect. Everyone was talking about the Americans throughout the day, most times coupled with laughter. The other funny part is that there were literally 50 some little kids there that day too. And most of them were much better than we were. They laughed at us too.
Once we mastered the bunny hill and the beginners area it was time for lunch. So we headed in to eat: they were prepared for the Americans because along with our pasta we got french fries, coke, and ketchup called mato mato squiz. We also got dessert and sang to our friend Leah whose 21st birthday was that day!
That afternoon me, Mia and Stephanie decided to take a more advanced slope becuse we had all gone before at least once in our lives. Our friend Maura was our guide since all of the instructors were sill busy with other people. We left our safe bunny hill and headed to the ski lift to hit the Panoramic slope. I will warn you that while it is very beautiful the name is slightly deceiving. We ride the ski lift higher than imaginable to see one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. It is definitely worth experiencing and I think everyone should go! Life on top of a mountain is such a different perspective from life on the ground. So after taking picture and enjoying the endless landscapes of mountain tops, we had to actually ski all the way back down this mountain.
Maura warned us that the first part was the scariest...but we had no idea how steep it would be! She went first and then I followed but me, Mia & Steph stopped after a little because we didn't want to go too fast. Maura waited for us at the flat part after the first drop. So I decided to go for it and attempted to slowly descend the mountain. Of course I failed misterably at going slow. I took off like a bat out of hell and flew to the bottom. In this short time of intense adrenaline/excitement/terror I realized I was going WAY too fast to stop myself. So I started screaming for Maura. I yelled: "MAURA, MAURA HOW DO I STOPPPPP??" But by the time the words were out and Maura was looking at me I was off my feet and on the ground. The best part about my wipeout was that I somehow managed to fall on my back & on my face in just one fall. I think my feet flew out from me first and then I flipped over and landed face first in the snow. I have to say wiping out in the Alps is actually pretty awesome. After that we enjoyed a mostly flat, scenic route for a few minutes. Then we came to the second drop off. Here we let our minds get the best of us. I went down about half way and I could have gone the rest but instead Steph and I decided it would actually be a better idea to butt slide down the mountain. Turns out it was a GREAT IDEA. I'm glad I did it because it was so much fun since the slope was so steep we just held our stuff and slid all the way down without having to push ourselves. The rest of the way was really pretty and the perfect incline to be able to go fast but stay in control.
The very best part however was the end because it was a final drop off--steep but shorter than the first two. And since I was oh SO experienced by this point I wsn't scared to go for it. I shot down the last part increasing speed but I managed to stay on my feet and finished with my poles in the air for victory!! I was an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Finally our day ended with hot tea and cake/bread and story telling from everyone's adventures on the slopes. Everyone was in great spirits because while our friends sat at home on Facebook, we dominated the Alps! :) Lauren and I had matching hats and both happened to be wearing KD gear. So once we were out of our painfully tight snow boots and wet clothes, we posed in front of the mountains throwing up the KD sign. Apparently, this is very interesting to the Italians. They asked us to show them how to do it and we all got a picture together. So not only are we bringing the sisterhood to Italy but we are inducting 50 year old men.
So that is the story of my most recent adventure. Next weekend after class a group of us are off to Florence for the weekend. I'm SO excited because I finally get to see Katie agan and because I've heard how beautiful Florence is!
Other new aspects of my lifestyle include getting used to the European ways. I had my first and only moment of frustration this week. Isn't that incredible, I've literally only had one brief moment of irritation? It's crazy how happy I am living here, nothing bothers me! Except for my fight with the shower. I already learned the hard way that showering early in the morning isn't the best idea because the water takes longer to warm up. So as much as that cold shower sucked, it was my own fault. So last night I get in the shower after one of my other roommates, excited that she has probably warmed it up for me. My shower starts off warm (because our shower does not get hot, only lukewarm). And then all of the sudden its FREEZING. But after only a minute of that it gets worse. The water heater starts making weird noises and what do you know but there is only one tiny stream of water coming out of the entire shower heard. I'm mid-shampoo at this point and not pleased. But luckily after a few minutes of that ridiculous excuse of a shower the water picked back up again and even decided to be nice and get semi-lukewarm for me. After that shower I resolved to take the longest, hottest shower when I get back to the States just depsite these Europeans and their attempts to conserve water, and to make up for 4 months of cold showers. But needless to say I think I'm doing pretty well for only having one moment of frustration and that being at my shower.
The only other annoyance here has been the fault of American banks. GM keeps locking me out of my credit card as fraud protection. What idiots...kidding. But seriously you would think they would take a hint that I moved here after the 50th time!
This week I start my first cinema class! I'm soo excited! But I'm banking on subtitles...keep your fingers crossed for me.
That's all I got for now! Look for new pictures on the website soon.
<3 Kalyn
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