Sono in Italia!

After 26 hours of travel (32 if you count the drive to San Francisco), I finally arrived in Trieste. My journey was largely uneventful...though I did not meet any other RYE students along the way, I got to watch the unexpectedly entertaining Delta in-flight safety video, became best friends with a five year old whose mother was an exchange student in Italy, and bonded with my seat mate on my Detroit to Rome flight over the five times in a row that I got offered bottled water without him being offered even once(and of course, once he got his water, he was kind enough to offer it to me...hahaha).

I was more than ready to be done traveling by the time I reached Trieste, however, and it was to my great joy when I was greeted at the airport by a fantastic welcome party consisting of my first and second host families and two rotarians from my Italian club...my counselor and a youth exchange coordinator.

Part of my welcome committee!

Ever since my arrival I have been thoroughly enjoying Trieste! 

Yesterday my wonderful host mom and I ventured into the city center of Trieste in an attempt to get my Permesso di Soggiorno--my residence permit. It has been a bit of a headache, and we spent two hours working on it yesterday, as well as an hour or two today to send off the application packet in the mail. Apparently in October we have an appointment that has something to do with the Permesso di Soggiorno? Who knows.

Trieste is an absolutely beautiful city and I think that pictures say this better than words, so here are a few that I have taken so far:

Please ignore the fact that this is really sketchy and a truck is mysteriously vaporizing (it's a panorama). This is the view from my host mom's office window! 

Roman ruins? I think?

The town center.

Mail flaps for sale in a hardware store!

In the town center.

This is my host dad's scooter shop!

The language is definitely a struggle...I had underestimated how difficult it is to stay awake when you are seated at a table for several hours with people talking nonstop Italian...that you can't understand any of. It also is a little bit terrible to just give anyone who talks to you a blank and slightly apologetic stare...especially when it is your host parents who have to deal with you 24/7! But even in the 2.5 days that I have been here, I can feel myself picking up words. Of course they are no help when trying to understand people, but still...every word counts :). However I have realized that studying Italian while in Italy is SO much more effective because right after I study a word I suddenly hear it everywhere and it is immensely reinforced. So I am doing my best to continue studying so that some day I might hopefully understand a few words at the table.

Ciao for now! (no matter how terrible, cliche, and tacky that is, I just can't help myself).