One more week

I just came back from my trip to Paris and Amsterdam. Paris was beautiful, and majestic. We spent Christmas there, but it didn't feel very Christmasy.. less so than Milan. The Eiffel Tower at night was amazing and every hour the light would flash in blue symbolizing the color of the European Union flag. We didn't do much sightsee this time around, instead, we shopped a lot. Amsterdam was also amazingly beautiful with its northern european architectures and rivers/canals all over the city. It was freezing in Amsterdam though, the coldest weather I've ever felt, the weather channel said it was -6 degree celcius. We stayed right in the middle of the red light district, interesting experience for sure. Came back to Torino this morning, it feels nice to be back to a city where I can somewhat understand the language as opposed to France where I don't even know the phrase "I can't speak French". I'm looking forward to new year's eve, some friends from school is organizing a potluck that night, I really hope it'll be fun.

Merry belated Christmas to everyone, and Happy Early New Years!

snowy Torino

Today was the second snowy day in Torino and unfortunately I had to get up early, go to school, and make a presentation on my paper. It was snowing relatively hard, and the streets, cars, and roofs were all covered in the snow. Even though it's only the second time it snowed, I'm already tired of it. It's beautiful and christmasy, but it makes the road really difficult to walk on. I have yet to find a good pair of snow boots with good tractions. It took me 30 minutes to go to school today because I was being very careful at every step i took so I don't slip. The presentation went okay, I never liked public speaking but it was much easier to give a speech to a group of people whose english comprehension is questionable... especially the professor. I tried my best to talk very slow to drag out the time as well as to be more comprehensible. I was supposed to go to Carmagnola to study for FInancial instrument with a couple of students at Lauren's house, but it was just too snowy and cold for me to make a 30 minute train ride.

On a different note, my housemate Ennio left to go back to Sicily today. We were supposed to go out to dinner with him last night but he had something to do in school and had to pack so we just ate at home. Then the whole night we spent trying to watch the Inter-Bremen champions league game on his computer but the connection failed us. I was very excited that he's going home at first because now I have the bathroom all to myself. But this morning after saying goodbye I felt a little sad. He was my italian teacher due to the fact he spoke almost zero English. We had a lot of fun times together watching and talking about soccer and relationship. He said my speaking and comprehension improved a lot since the first day we met. now that he's gone, I really have no opportunity to practice my italian anymore.

Next week is final, and then Lulu is coming on wednesday. We still haven't really made any plans for our 3 weeks vacation.

uneventful weekend

Today I didn't do much in the morning, but I made plan to go shopping with a Chinese girl from my class Cuiying. We went around Porta Nuova(the main train station) and walked around Via Roma and Via Po (the two streets with lots of shops). I bought a turtle neck from United Color of Benetton. The weather in Torino lately has been around -3 to 6 degree C. Next Wednesday is going to snow again. I don't enjoy the snow anymore because they make it hard to walk. We started around 5pm, and by 7pm all the stores were closing. Everything in Europe closes early and they also take random lunch breaks so it's really a hit or miss with the stores. My favorite store is Zara, a Spanish chain but also very popular in Italy. We have Zara in AMerica, but I have never actually bought anything from there before, this will change when I go home.

some random pictures:

Porta Nuova train station

Via Roma (a lot of high end stores)
Via Po all lid up for the holiday.
Random picture of me at the Potluck a while ago with Peruvian friends Alvaro and Claudia

coming to an end

School is almost over, just 2 more weeks left!! I've done 2 exams so far, one was an oral exam on contract and property law, pass no pass, and I passed it. The other one was written economic exam, and I got a perfect score and the TA even told me my answer was the best. IUC makes me want to learn, whereas Hastings just makes me want to swear at everything I see.

Lulu is coming again in 11 days, I can't believe times went by so fast. I really like it here in Torino and I will be very sad to leave. I really just hope the last month will be the best month ever.