ONE MONTH IN!!!

ONE MONTH!!!

It can't be!!! I thought I just arrived a couple days ago!!! Time is going lightspeed on me!!! Maybe tomorrow I will be on a plane heading back to the U.S. already, and I haven't even gone to a disco yet!!! My life is flashing before my eyes and pretty soon we will all be dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't stand mile markers.

One month... that means I am one 5th of the way through this life changing experience, and I only have 4 5ths left! (I had to show off my math skills somewhere...) Why didn't I choose the year long program? I now realize that even if you are worried about getting homesick, the year long is the way to go.

Oh well! I'm over it. I am in Italy right now, and I am not going to waste all of my time moping about how little time I have left in Italy.

The big news for this post is that I WENT TO TORINO YESTERDAY!!!

I went with Doriana my host aunt and Silvia, my host cousin who is my age! (Doriana has another daughter who is on a foreign exchange trip in Germany right now, her name is Claudia)(and aren't Silvia and Claudia astoundingly classy names??!!).

We basically just walked around and saw all of the big piazza's and the castle, and the palace, and the river Po! IT was wonderful! It was rainy all day, so my toes got soggy, but I would say that all of the beauty that got soaked into my memory was worth some soaked up socks! I got many beautiful pictures, but when we went into the Palace (Palazzo Madame) I wasn't allowed to take any pictures! :( We took a tour, and I couldn't understand the tourguide, but It was magnificent! There were tons of rooms and a banquet hall, and a dancing hall (camera di ballo) and every room was so incredibly ornate and gorgeous that I turned into my 6 year old self and all I wanted to do was play dress up and run around from room to room with Opera music blasting from the cherub covered ceilings untill I collapse on the luscious rose patterned carpets and fall asleep to Andrea Boccelli.

It was like I was transported into the past and everything was waiting for me, but I couldn't fully step into that reality because the tour guide would just yell at me if I stepped off of the designated tourist rug...

Oh well... Did you know that Torino was the first capital of Italy when it first united? In fact, Italy has only been the Italian Republic and one united country since 1861 (yes, the same year as the beginning of the civil war), so technically the U.S. is an older country... Anyways, From 1861 to 1865 Torino was the capital of Italy, then I believe that it switched to Florence (Firenze) and then to Rome...

That was your history lesson for today!

I will try to post some pictures of Turin and my friends at school soon...
Ok! That all folks! Ciao ciao!