Torino!!!!! The first few days =)

Here it is!! My long-awaited first post from the wonderful city of Turin in Italy. It has been a mixed bag already, so let's get down to business

I arrived on Wednesday, after travelling pretty much all day. I had a flight from Manchester early in the morning to Gatwick in London and the on to Turin. That part went very smoothly and I landed in Turin early. Unfortunately, that's when the problems started. As soon as I landed, I only had v.vague directions to my hostel, and since it was my first time in Turin, I got lost very easily. It took a train, a metro and 2 buses to get there, plus a lot of walking around in between trying to find the right bus/metro/train stop and asking many people for directions. I have generally found the buses a little confusing these past couple of days, but I'm sure I will get used to them. Anyways, in the end, I managed to find the right hostel (phew). 

When I finished unpacking what I needed, it hit me that I was going to be living in this city for the next 4 months. Anyone who is/has been on their year abroad will understand what I am talking about - and (get ready people) for the first time EVER in my life, I felt REALLY homesick. (All that travelling, and the fact that I am a lot more nervous about this placement than I was for Lyon (weaker language and all) probably didn't help.) Let's put it this way, I was glad I managed to skype my parents that night. I thought it was never going to happen to me as it had never happened before.... But don't worry, I'm fine now, and I can now say, that it is ok to be homesick once in a while.

Now that I was here, the race was on to find an apartment. I have been finding it really difficult, as you can imagine. You try looking for somewhere from hundreds of miles away! Luckily though, I've found one! It is in the centre and I am living with an Italian girl, so hopefully, my language will improve a lot more than if I was living with other Erasmus students. 

I have also managed to find a church here too. My ex-staff worker in Bangor sent me a link to the International Church of Torino, and today, I decided to try it out. It is in English, but it has been a while since I have been encouraged like that (apart from going back to Bangor and crashing the CU AGM); and as I unfortunately didn't get into my church in Lyon, I was determined to try and not let that happen a second time. I was immediately welcomed and met people from Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil to name just a few. I was even asked to pizza with some of them after the service!! I had a sausage pizza - it was delicious! om nom nom =D

Also, I got the message pretty quick that the Italians CANNOT drive - and I thought the French and people living on Tongue Moor Rd were bad!! After only an hour of landing, I was nearly run over, and now I have already lost count.......

I STILL haven't heard anything from the university, so I don't know when classes are starting etc etc etc...... And I have been warned by many people that the Italians are VERY dis-organised..... I think I'm in for a LOT of fun... Is it wrong to know when the holiday dates are etc etc so I know when are best times for my parents to come to see me and I can go places - Bologna and Pisa are on the top of my list =P

That's all for now I think. Next week, my fellow Bangor friend Alyssa is coming from Granada in Spain, which I can't wait for - can't wait to see you =D

Thanks for reading

A presto =)

Charlotte