48 Hours of Awesomeness...And Oktoberfest

48 Hours of Awesomeness

My last blog ended and I was on my way to the Italian Riviera, this was about a week ago. About 60 of us took a bus downtown Geneva. We then took a guided tour, in English, of Geneva. My buddy Adam and I separated from the group for lunch in an attempt to find a traditional Italian meal. We walked down random allies, passing a prostitute and hundreds of pigeons whose cruising altitude was about five feet; Which ended in us getting wacked by a few of them. We then came upon this nice little hole in the wall restaurant. The food was amazing and moderately priced. We had our pasta, water, and wine for under 10 Euros each. We then met back up with the group and boarded the bus for Santa Margarita.

We checked into the hotel and were free for the rest of the evening. About 10 of us got some great pizza along with wine and ate on a rock jetty. Afterwards we went to an Irish pub and had some drinks before heading to club Miami. They had some music playing and tables around a large walkway. It was cool, but kind of boring. I then asked the bartenders if they had Y.M.C.A. available, and sure enough three songs later it came on. I don’t know if it’s all Europeans or just Italians, but they go crazy for it. As soon as it came on myself and 4 friends jumped into the walkway and turned it into a dance floor. Three gay Italian guys then joined us before the girls in our group came out to rescue us. The rest of the night was a ton of fun. Weird side note: before I knew the guys were gay, two of them walked into the single bathroom together. One of them saw me staring at them and winked at me. That was almost the end of club Miami for me, but I’m glad I hung around.

After breakfast the next day we went out to Porta Fina to check out a castle and a church on top of this hill, overlooking the port. The view was amazing, as you will see in the pictures. We went back to Santa Margarita and were fed the most amazing pesto feccacia I have ever had. We were then released from the group and we were free to do what we wanted. A large group of people were headed down to Cinque Terre and had booked hostels for the night. We decided to tag along and take a late train back to Torino that night. What many people don’t know is that you are required to validate your ticket before getting on the train. Adam ran ahead to go pee and didn’t hear us reminding everyone to validate their ticket. After we got on the train this Rocky Balboa lookalike came by to make sure we had all bought tickets, which we had. Unfortunately for Adam is that Rocky is a complete ass and demanded fifty Euros from Adam for not validating his ticket. He paid it, but it seemed steep to be fined that much for not validating a three Euro ticket. People on another train were fined only 5 Euro for the same offense. It looks like Rocky will be able to keep his steroid fund alive.

My roommates Brad and Kyle got off at the northernmost city of Cinque Terre with Adam and me. We did the hike and it was amazing. Unfortunately we were fighting daylight and couldn’t admire as many of the views as we wanted to. We made the hike to the southernmost city in just over 3 hours. We stopped in a couple of towns, but at most for five minutes. When we got to the final city we headed directly to the train station. Adam talked to a guy at a window and found out the last train to Torino left in 3 hours. We then met up with our friends before heading out to dinner. Dinner consisted of mostly seafood. We got a seafood mixture sampler that was very strange. Interestingly the item I most feared eating was everyone’s favorite…the anchovies. They were fresh and hardly salty at all. They tasted almost like tuna. We left the restaurant to go buy our tickets home, Brad decided to stay the night and hike Cinque Terre again the next day with everyone else.

Mind you, it’s about 10 at night and we are all exhausted from the long day. We get to the station to find the ticket window is closed, no biggie so we went to the automated ticket box. Unfortunately someone must have not gotten their change and it looked as if Rocky had smashed his foot through it. We were getting kind of nervous so we asked the conductor of a southbound train if it is possible to buy a ticket onboard the train, he said yes, but it is a 5 Euro fee. We were in the clear. We waited for our train to come, but it never showed up. Unfortunately the guy at the ticket office told us the wrong time. We waited around for almost an hour before our train finally made it.

We got onboard and asked the conductor if we can buy a ticket all the way to Torino, or if we should get it when we get to Geneva (because we knew we had to switch trains there). Well, turns out that there were no more trains to Torino that night and we would have a seven hour layover. The guy took pity on us and let us off at the first stop without charge(about 10 minutes away). We would much rather hang out in Cinque Terre for seven hours, than a sketchy train station in Geneva. We got off the train, saw the southbound train was already approaching the station, sprinted through the tunnel under the station and hopped on just in time(finally something that went our way). This conductor didn’t speak very much English though. He was very kind though and only charged us a combined 5 Euro for the ride.

We made it back, bought some wine and went out on the jetty. Randomly we met up with other Americans who were studying in Rome. They had nothing to do so we all just hung out on the rocks and played cards. Interestingly they know many of my friends at Cal Poly. When it got too cold we went back to their hostel/apartment and talked until we had to leave at 4am. We made it home. Tired, yet still on a rush from the two days we had just experience. Personally I think it was one of the best times I have ever had.

Oktoberfest

The next few days were pretty much uneventful. Someone had organized a group bus to Oktoberfest and there were a few available seats. Kyle and I decided at the last minute that we wanted to go. We left Friday at 11pm. When we got there(9 hours later) a group of 12 of us waited in line for one of the houses. Crammed like sardines we stood there for over 2 hours. When the doors finally opened there was literal stampede forward. Germans will trample someone in an attempt to get the first beer. We sat at a table that had a reservation beginning at one. That gave us about 3 hours to stay there. The entire wait staff was incredibly friendly. We had some beers and were getting ready to leave, it was about half past noon. I was standing next to our table talking with friends when all of the sudden I got a strong shove from behind that almost knocked me to the ground.

I turned around just in time to get shoved on the chest. Before I knew what had happened a door shut and I was locked outside. Then the same thing happened to my buddy standing next to me. It turned out to be a short German security guard with a stupid haircut, that for one reason or another was pissed and decided to take it out on us. It’s probably better for me and the security guard that the door locked automatically. I was pissed and wanted to go after the guy, but in hindsight I know he would have had back up instantly. The rest of the group quickly got up and met us outside.

We went to another place to drink. I went to the bathroom and came back to find my group had left. I then walked around Oktoberfest for the next 6 hours exploring everything that makes it the greatest drinking festival in the world. There was this one game for 2 Euros, that if you won(about a one in 10 shot) you would win a pair of thong panties. I watched for a while and tried to figure out the fascination of a new pair of thong panties to these German men. I also went to this one place, I will post a video of later, that had this giant spinning disc and the goal was to stay on for as long as possible. Most people spectated, like me, but some went out and gave it a shot. Most failed miserably, but still gained the cheers and laughter from the audience. After that I left and went to a slope I named pass out hill. Basically all the Germans that drink too much go there to pass out. I watched for a few minutes and one guy really gathered my attention. EMTs came by to put him on their coffin looking stretcher. He refused to go with them, but in order for them to leave him alone they made him sign a release of liability form. He began to sign it, fell over, and then got back up to sign the rest of his name. I made my way back over to the bus and we headed home shortly thereafter.

Sorry again about the long break between blogs. I appreciate any comments you guys have. I will post all pictures very soon. My internet at home is no longer working so I can only update at school. Ciao

No Blog Today

Hey guys, my schedule turned out to be busier than I thought. I will update my blog when I get back on Sunday.

Ciao Mi despierce

Week 2

Wow, two weeks have flown by. Sorry about the last few days and the lack of blogging. I have had an extremely busy week.

Saturday
So Ryan, a friend that is backpacking Europe, made it in just fine. Saturday night we wanted to go to a club called Hennessey for their grand opening. After walking to the Po we were informed by a friend that we needed a cab to get to Hennessey. Everyone we were with said screw that and decided to head to pub. After about an hour Ryan and I left and visited some small clubs along the Po. We grabbed a bite to eat then walked the hour or so home at around 3:30.

Sunday
After about 4 or so hours of sleep we were awoken by my roommate yelling for no apparent reason. We got up and kind of chilled all day; Saturday night took a bit of a toll on us. Later that night we were picked up by a French friend, Clemont(sp), and headed out to the Olympic Stadium. We hung out around the stadium for a couple of hours, grabbed a beer at the pub, and headed across the street to watch Juventus play. Juventus is a very popular soccer team in Europe, in fact they are the largest team in all of Italy. They played so-so and won 1-0. Although many Americans don’t understand it, soccer is a very exciting sport. No wonder so many people considered it a religion. We then headed home and went straight to bed.

Monday
After a full night’s sleep(finally) Ryan left and I headed off to school. Three hellish hours of Italian later I made it back home. I decided to relax and take a night off. The internet wasn’t working so I headed to bed early, around Midnight.

Tuesday
More Italian Class then decided to go to the gym. I was given one free workout to decide if I wanted to join or not. It was easily the nicest gym I have ever been in. Unfortunately it is smaller than gyms at home and all of the free weight benches are way too close to each other. One thing I enjoyed is that Italian women wear very revealing clothing, likewise so do the men. Confined spaces and revealing clothing made for some awkward situations. It felt amazing to finally lift again. That night we went to Cacao. We danced for a few hours before walking home.

Wednesday
Italian again then headed home to change and eat. I went to a bar nearby to watch Juventus play. I then met up with a bunch of kids that live near school. We headed to an Irish pub that has a special for us every Wednesday night. A few hours later my roommate Kyle and I headed to another bar before heading home.

Thursday
After struggling through my last “Intensive” Italian class I came home to hang out with my roommates. I think I’m going to stay in tonight. I’m off to the Italian Riviera tomorrow for two nights. I will definitely take tons of pictures while I’m there.

Thank you to everyone who has left a note. I will try and post more pictures from now on for everyone to enjoy.


Ciao

The now extinguished Olympic Flame


Juventus Fans. VIVE JUVE!


A cool looking building

Discos, police, and sleepless nights

Chalet was so much fun. Not as big as cacao, but much more exclusive. It was indoors with a large dance floor in the middle and tables all around the outside. When we arrived there was about a 500 person line to get in. We thought we were screwed. Our program director had an ace up his sleeve though. He called someone working at Chalet and we were all briskly rushed through the side door. He then led us to our private table. After drinks and dancing we grabbed a couple of Taxis home. I finally made it to bed around 5.
The next day I had to wake up at 9 to sign papers with the police for my permit of stay. I then passed out in the USAC lounge for a couple of hours before heading over to the lingotto mall. It is huge, in fact it is the former Fiat factory that is slowly being converted into a very large mall. We cruised around grabbed some grub then went back to school for class. Afterwards we went home got ready and headed out to Rumbar(sp) with our neighbors.
It is a small bar, but a fun atmosphere. I learned some Italian from them, then headed over to Murphy’s with some friends. As you can probably tell by the name it is an Irish pub. I met some random Italians that were extremely nice. They took me down to the Po where we checked out some different places then said Ciao. I did the hour walk home by myself. After checking some things on the internet I made it to bed around 6.
I then awoke around noon to the neighbors’ sawz-all. After he stopped I fell back asleep til 2:30. I made some pasta for lunch and plan on relaxing for a while. Ryan Nichols is coming in about an hour. I’m supposed to meet him at a train station, but he doesn’t know which one he’s going to. Hopefully it’s the main one or it may make for an interesting evening. Thanks again for everyone that has been reading my blog. I’m sorry the blog did live up to the title.
Ciao

Ciao

More classes have started since I last wrote. I am beginning to pick up Italian, as it is very similar to Spanish. Days are starting to fall into routines now. USAC organized our classes so that everyone in my Italian Class is also in my building. It has been nice to ride on the bus and metro with people I now call my friends.
Anyways, for the fun part: Tuesday night we met up with one of the program directors at an outdoor club named Cacao. Approximately 3,000 people were there with us. It was a sight like I have never seen in the U.S. Cover was free, but drinks were 10 Euro, so we decided on one each. We danced for a couple hours. The songs were much different than those we dance to at home. They had many European artists, along with some from the 60s. We were all even doing the twist at one point. Interestingly, Americans dance much differently than Europeans (they are much less provocative). A few of us decided to walk home while the rest took cabs. Again it took about 1.5 hours to get back. After hanging out we all made it to bed around 6ish.
I was awoken the next day at 11 by a neighbor and for some reason couldn’t fall back asleep. Needless to say the 6 hours I spent in class were not fun. We went out for a traditional 2+ hour Italian dinner after class. There were three courses and all for only 10 Euro because we are students.
Today I had 5 more hours of class. I’m making some spaghetti for dinner then we plan to go to another club named Chalet. Sorry for the rushed message, but I just got off class and am leaving soon for the Disco. If you wrote me an e-mail I hope to find some time to respond soon. Thank you to everyone who posted a comment.

Arriverdirci

p.s. i just got back from Chalet. This is the first time I have had an internet connection. I will try and write a new blog tomorrow. Ciao.

Day Three?

We woke up today at 6 am, unfortunately not by choice after going to bed at one. I am allergic to down and my comforter is made from it. At 5:00 I woke up wheezing from an allergy attack due to the down. I tried to go back to bed, but my roommate woke up at 6 and decided to take a shower; waking the rest of us up. Full of energy, and on five hour of sleep, I decided to go on a run still short of breath from the night. My lungs gave out after a mile or so and I walked the rest of the way home short of breath. I took a short shower and then all the roommates and I headed out for the open-air market, the largest one in all of Europe. I bought tons of produce along with some household items we needed for ridiculously cheap.

After heading home I made breakfast then the entire apartment of USAC students made our way to school. The subway(metro) is about ten minutes away. We got on for a five minute ride to the bus station and a 30 minute ride to school. We sat through a two hour orientation then a 2.5 hour teacher introduction before lunch. Needless to say I zoned out about 15 mins in. Honestly it felt like USAC gathered the worst public speakers they could find for this. The entire room of 60+ students was able to pay attention to 2 of the professors. We went to the cafeteria then had our first elementary Italian class, which was basically pointless. I learned more Italian speaking to the vendors at the open-air market then the Italian professor. We took the metro and train back home and relaxed for the majority of the night.

After downloading entourage a group of 6 of us watched it and enjoyed a little American entrainment. Myself and 3 guys went down to an Irish pub, had a pint each, and exchanged stories from our college experiences. We walked back home and everyone went to bed, except for me. I stayed up to write the daily blog. Tomorrow I have four hours of class beginning at noon.

I enjoy writing this blog and would love it if everyone who reads it would leave a short message. I hope that everyone back in the states enjoys reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.
Ciao
Coop

Amazing

No other words describe it. I’m sitting outside of my apartment on my balcony looking off into the city of Torino. There is a beautiful lightening storm off in the distance. Although I have been here for three full days I still can’t comprehend that I am living here for four months.

Last message I left you when I went to bed at our hotel. The program directors set a room call for us so we wouldn’t be worried about waking up in time or our 10 am meeting. Strangely our phone call came at 8 in the morning. I said screw getting up 2 hours before I need to (even though I had already had a good 10 hours of sleep) and went back to bed. The phone rang again at 10:15 asking if I was on my way, my roommate lied and told her I had already left. After running around the streets for 5 minutes I found our meeting spot. I came in at the end of introductions, said my name then listened to the 5 minute speech about housing. Afterwards everyone had grabbed their bags and got on the bus for our apartment on via san domato. Unfortunately I didn’t know we were supposed to bring our bags with us. I ran up the three flights of stairs, packed my bags, and ran back down catching the bus just before it left. We arrived at the apartment and I met all my roommates. We helped the girls carry there bags upstairs, then carried ours up to the 5th floor where we live. We unpacked then went across the street to GS, our grocery store. Its location is super convenient, and very cheap. Finding things was difficult, but fun. We grabbed groceries, cleaning supplies, and a bunch of liters of wine, in boxes, for only 99 cents.

For dinner/Lunch I made some pasta then began our pre-party. After about an hour we walked down to our neighbors, hung out for a little, then headed out. We walked for 35 minutes and met some friends at hotel roma. We then all went down to the Po river, had some drinks and decided to walk back to our hotel around 3 (which is early by Italian standards. After about 30 minutes a lot of the girls complained about how sore their feet were and myself and a friend decided to head it on our own. We walked for another half hour trying to figure out how to get home. We talked to a couple of different groups of very friendly Italians that tried to help, but in retrospect were no real help. Apparently we walked near our apartment, within a couple of blocks, but missed it. A random car pulled up to us asking if we wanted a ride. He didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Italian, but we both speak Spanish. We talked on the ride home and he was very nice. Desperate, we took the ride and he brought us back to our place. He demanded 15 Euros, being exhausted I paid it without arguing and we headed for bed.

We woke up today around 2. Today was a lazy day hanging out, walking around the area near our place, and “enjoying” some boxed wine. Tomorrow we find out how to get to school and have our orientation and first day of Italian class. I hope everyone back home is well. I love to read your comments by the way. I will update everyone tomorrow.

Ciao

Torino at last

After being awake for over 32 consecutive hours it is time for bed. I am exhausted. It’s starting to hit me now that this is where I will live for the next 4 months! I have already met some awesome people and enjoyed wonderful food. The flight was long but manageable, especially because all alcohol was free :). On the plane I sat with 5 other Torino students and got to know them all very well. After landing in Frankfurt we walked to terminal B where we found about 20 Torino students staring at us. At first it was a bit akward, but we soon began to chat. It looks like it is going to be a very solid group that I am going to have a ton of fun with. All in all there are about 50 of us.

We had a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt before boarding a short flight to Torino. We met up with the program directors and they seem awesome! We toured the city by foot then had an amazing dinner. After dinner we took a walk and stopped by a Scottish pub. We grabbed a beer, watched some soccer then headed back for the night to our hotel, Hotel Roma. Ironically enough I am rooming with a fellow Theta Chi, Jared, from Chico. On the way back we saw some photographers taking pictures of this one car, looks to be a concept mustang (see below for pictures). I have also uploaded some photos of the more beautiful places I’ve seen so far. Whoops, we just blew out the electricity in our room, apparently too many appliances running at once. Okay Management came up and fixed it, no biggie. I have also uploaded some pictures of some beautiful sights around Torino. I think I’m going to create a photobucket to make it easier for everyone to see all my photos.

I will be moving into my room tomorrow and have met all but one of my roommates. It is a 2 bedroom apartment, shared between 4 guys located in downtown Torino! It takes about 40 minutes to get to school via subway and bus. Apparently a supermarket is located across the street, which will make shopping super convenient and hopefully keep me on budget. I am very quickly learning how expensive Europe is for everything! People are already planning about trips they are looking to make and we will hopefully start booking hostels and travel arrangements this week. Places I know I want to go are: England/Dublin, Paris, Prague, and Amsterdam…just to name a few.

Love you all,

Coop

Beautiful Architecture: Rich peoples church on left, poor people on right



Statue



Beautiful Car


Another Angle


From Frankfurt airport...

47 Hours and Counting

That’s how long it is until I board my plane and head to Italy. It’s still surreal to me. I’m leaving all my friends and family to embark on an adventure that is going to be nothing short of life changing. I have no idea of what to expect when I get there; in fact other than Pizza and Vino I speak no Italian.

When I am in Italy there are a couple of ways to contact me:

E-mail: Bricoop@aol.com

Skype: Bricoop1

Mail Address:

Brian Cooper
USAC-SAA
Via Ventimiglia 115
10126 Torino, ITALIA

For those of you who don’t know what Skype is, It is a free program you can download from skype.com that allows me to IM and chat on a webcam with you (no you don’t need a webcam, but it is more fun if you have one).

Thank you all for reading my blog. I am going to try and update it on at least a weekly basis, if not more often. Please feel free to leave comments here and I will try and answer any questions you have.

Ciao,

Coop