Che Opportunità

So I went Rugby training last night for the first time (after boxing as well so I was understandably pretty beat but still scored 2 tries).

The organiser was telling me that in November Italy are playing South Africa in Udine as part of the autumn internationals. Without going into details he said that they wanted a translator for English into Italian for the South African's and would I be interested.

Of course I'm interested. How often is it you get asked to translate for the Rugby World Champions. Hopefully I'll get the job.

Over and out.

Stay classy San Diego.

x

A eventful day in short sentences...

Today I walked 3 miles to find the emergency Saturday doctor for Udine. He was so far away I actually left the city. If I was walking in the other direction I would probably have reached Slovenia. When I found him he felt my throat and made a funny yelping sound. I took this as bad news. I then had to walk 3 miles back. Then I went to find a pharmacy. In Udine everyone takes 3 hour lunch breaks. I had to wait 2 hours. Then I had to pay for my prescription. After I went to the 3 shop to buy mobile broadband. They can’t do direct debits in Italy with English debit cards. I wanted a contract broadband. I got a pay as you go one. Now I will only have Internet on this computer for important Skype cures. Maybe it will cure my facebook addiction. Then we found a supermarket and did some shopping. I had no change for a trolley. I had to carry 2 baskets. I forgot the Salami I brought. Tonight I walked into town. There is a festival of local culture happening. I saw a stand for Rugby Udine. I said I was a foreign student who played Rugby. I asked if they wanted any players. They invited me to training. I later realised Rugby Udine play in the National 1. Nice. All this was done in 30 degrees heat. Yay.

updated:

The mobile broadband wont work. They dont believe me in the shop and wont give me a refund. I have to take my laptop in tomorrow and show them and they still might not give me a refund. So I still have no internet.

I'm not ill anymore.

I have an italian mobile which ill start using more soon. The number is 00393291787468. Text me.

I've found a boxing club who told me I need hundreds of medical examinations. Ive managed to book too but can't find a doctor who will order a brain scan or whatever it is for me so ill continue that search tomorrow.

I also decided to join the uni rugby team and as soon as I buy some boots I will train with them on thursday.

x

The first few days...

Well I’m here, and 3 days later I’m writing this blog. Indirectly anyway; for the moment I’m without Internet so I’m writing it in a word document to copy and paste later. It’s been a tiring start to life here. Not least because I had to get up at the rather ridiculous hour of 4am for a 6am flight from Birmingham. To compound matters I realised that I felt rather ill and my throat had swollen up like a balloon, something which no amount of ibuprofen and other drugs will get rid of. I really need to see a doctor but haven’t had time at the moment. I’ll try and find one tomorrow even though it’s Saturday and get the fat throat sorted. The flight was uneventful, I unsurprisingly fell asleep and was only awoken by the Air steward tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to turn Damien Rice off because the plane was about to land.

After a bit of a wait for a bus we finally arrived in Udine and had to drag our suitcases from the bus station at the bottom of town to the International office at the top but it gave us a chance to have a quick look at the town and it created a good first impression. After our welcome meeting with Alessia who was reasonably helpful and very organised for an Italian we went to meet our landlady at our address on Via Superiore. When I first saw the room I was happy, until she said that since it was a room for 2 people I would have to pay €400 instead of €220. Now that’s obviously a lot of money and adds up to a total of €4000 for the time I would be there, far far far too much for me to contemplate paying, especially for a what was basically a Formule 1 hotel room with a desk, 2 electric hobs, a mini fridge and one of those futuristic bathrooms where everything gets soaked and then mysteriously dries (although judging by the smell of damp every time I got back, this one didn’t!) Oh and there was no internet too.

So with that I went for a walk on my own and generally felt really depressed about the situation. People who went to Lille and are reading this will understand that this was the down point in my graph (for the rest of you, don’t worry about it). I was faced with the prospect of paying a ridiculous amount which I couldn’t afford for a property or trying to find a new one in a day and a half, an absolutely daunting task given that I was unsure just how good my Italian could be. To compound matters I was ill and it was raining, and I mean raining. I got absolutely drenched and wondered where the hell Id turned up because Italy wasn’t meant to be like this. With no Internet I couldn’t even talk to people to cheer me up so I went to the university, found a notice board with dozens of housing notices on, picked off the numbers that I liked and put them in my pocket to call the next day. Seeing that most were advertising single rooms at around €250 – 300 confirmed my instinct that she was trying to rip us off. That night we ate pizza, as we had for lunch.

So there the next day, after briefly going to the International Office to try and sort the problem and being told that it was a justified price I returned to the flat and sat down with a big map of Udine and dialled some numbers. Rather amazingly I coped and secured 3 properties to look at with relative ease. One thing I will say is people here are incredibly friendly and really try and help you (the woman in the library even ran out after me to give me some information in English). The first apartment I saw was really nice, very modern and shared between me and 2 other guys, neither of whom were students but were both young. The second property was older but bigger, had a massive balcony and room for another 5 people (students certainly according to the landlady) to fill. The third, the less said the better.

Me and Emma both looked at the second property and together decided to take 2 of the rooms. I’m glad we did, although it’s older it’s a great size. The living room is huge and my rooms a good size. The kitchen’s fully equipped and the landlady is a legend. She picked us up from our old accommodation and gave us a lift. She then whipped out some new towels and sheets, made our beds and told us there’s someone coming tomorrow to clean around and sort a few bits and pieces out (hopefully my wardrobe because judging by the smell in it, whoever was last in my room had a serious BO problem!) The balcony is incredible, it goes all the way around the apartment and has great views of the bustling streets below, and you can smell the pizzeria which is under the flat…amazing! All I could think when I was stood on it was how amazing it would be for a party. I’m glad to have found this flat. I’m certainly a lot happier here and am looking forward to when the other rooms are full with students to get to know people because we’ve not met anyone yet, Erasmus or Italian. Still no internet in the flat but I’m going to buy myself that mobile broadband jazz tomorrow so hopefully it will be sorted out!

I suppose I should write about Udine too. Well so far I really really like it. It’s a very pretty city and a lot more Italian looking than I was expecting (I’d heard it was very Austrian.) All the shops seem to be designer and I haven’t yet found a phone shop to buy a sim card but there are lots of cafés and it’s obviously a thriving, safe and friendly city. I think I’m going to really enjoy it here as long as I meet some students soon.

Alright, I’m very tired and this has gone on far too long. My next one will be shorter but there was so much to tell.

Bye everyone, get in touch. Ask me for my address if you want it.

X

And so it begins all over again...

Hi to all,

I've decided that seeing as I'm going to Italy for a year to live, I might as well restart this blog. It is after all, another Italian adventure, all be it one which is going to last for considerably longer!

It's now 8 days before I go (actually its after midnight so make that 7). The city I will be living and studying in is called Udine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udine). As you can see it has it's own wikipedia page so it's not like a farm commune somewhere in the mountains, it's a real thriving bustling place.

Some things Udine is famous for...
Football - Udinese are the local team, anyone who follows Italian football will know them.
Languages - The city has 4 official languages, Italian, German, Slovenian and Fruili. Seeing as I speak 1 it should be a laugh.
Wine - waheyyyyy
Grappa - really drunken hungover waheyyyy
Also some cheese and food I've never heard of.

Ok so why Udine, well I'm going to be studying at the University there. When I was choosing I had a lot of options and admittedly Udine is a town I know nothing about, but fom past students feedback everyone who went seems to have had a brilliant time. I think the fact that it's not a very touristy place will be great for my Italian (or maybe not if most people can't speak it) but it's a small city so seems perfect to really get a feel for local life and not just be caught up in everyone else speaking English and all the attractions.

Geographically it's a brilliant place to be. 40 minutes to the north are the Dolomite mountains which head into Austria and are perfect for skiing. 40 minutes to the south is the sea and beaches for me to top up that brilliant reddish earthy colour tan I seem to have after I've stopped burning. I'm an hour from Venice and it's canal-y, sewage-y delights and not much further from the rest of Northern Italy including places like Verona and Milan. Perhaps the most exciting thing for me is how close I am to Slovenia and the Balkans (13 kilometres). It's an area of the world I've always wanted to explore (except when they were massacring each other) and now I have the opportunity to head around Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia and the rest. There a plans afoot to do it on a bike with my main man JJ so we'll see how that pans out. He would be a lot better than me at cycling seeing as he's a triathlete. I could use my boxing skills to fight us out of any trouble!

Well aside from cycling the Balkans, what else am I going to do for the year? Study? Potentially I guess. Italian universities seem very relaxed on the whole studying thing and Ive been told not to expect more than about 6 hours a week which will suit me fine. When I do have to work I intend to carry on with the old French, throw in a bit of Cinema and my old love for Modern History. Hell I might even learn Slovenian or something daft and useless.

I also want to do lots of sport. I've set myself an ambitious target of winning the Italian University Championships at Boxing. It might not come off but hey, I'll have the talent and the application and if I want to achieve something I'll try damn hard to do it so we'll see how that goes. I know theres a club in Udine, seems pretty good so thats one aim. I also want to start playing more Rugby again, it's the one thing that disappoints me about Leeds that I never get to play anymore. Theres 2/3 potential teams I can play for so thats a bonus.

Ermm, well I obviously want to meet people and experience different cultures. Thats the main aim of ERASMUS and there will be people at Udine from all over Europe and the wider world so I hope to make some great friends and have a fantastic time doing it.

There will be other stuff I'm sure but it'a ridiculous hour in the morning while I'm awake to see if Kim phones me (she'd better now :P) so I'm going to close it off a bit. Basically, I'll be leaving at 6 in the morning from Birmingham International Airport on the 16th September to fly to Trieste. There I will be catching a bus to Udine where I have to make my way to an Italian sounding road to meet an Italian person who will "give me all the help that I need" and take me to my appartment (A shared studio with my own bathroom and kitchen I'm told - probably a cellar with a cupboard for a toilet and a microwave in the corner.

So that's it. I;m excited to go, completely unprepared though and I will hopefully see as many people as I possible can in 8 days. I want people to know that they can come and stay anytime they want, as long as I'm there obviously and it would be great to have you (though if you're a complete stranger whose stumbled on this blog then piss off you can't come).

Bye for now, my next update will be from Italia. How strange.

Ciao xxx