Orientation is over!

martedeì, 29 gennaio

21:29

Three days and some 10ish hours later, we're done with orientation!

This morning I took the number 7 to Piazza Barbieri and met up with our program director and the other students. Most of us bought our 2 month bus pass (28,50 euro for a month) with unlimited trips. For the next month I won't need the bus pass as I'll be walking to my classes, but the bus will be useful to travel into the center of the city, which will happen often.

After getting our passes we went to the post office to make our appointments to get our permesso di soggiorno, a document that informs the Italian government of our extended stay and allows us to travel to other countries in the EU, preferably during our Easter break. It was a lot of sitting and waiting in the post office, but it gave all of us a chance to sit around and chat.

(Taken by Elena)

We finished at the post office and made our way back towards Piazza Garibaldi to register for classes at the Università degli studi di Parma. We got to cross a street by going beneath it and seeing the only 'true' ruins in Parma - a bridge.

The outside of the registration offices, like everything else I've seen in Parma, is beautiful and old.

This has been around since the 13th century - crazy, right?

The group and our program director before registration

And, of course, the inside was pretty too. Apparently, those little seats by the windows were used by students before much indoor lighting was available. The University is the second oldest in Italy, so I'm not surprised.

Inside l'università

We were given a great packet from the Erasmus company (a study abroad company within the EU) about Parma and about possible community service for us in teaching English in the local schools. I'm pretty interested in doing that, especially with tutoring for Grinnell's ALSO program and considering a Fulbright after graduation.

I ended up taking the 7 home with a friend of mine and managing to miss my stop and had to walk about three blocks to my house - no biggie, just annoying.

We finished up our orientation around 4:30, and some of us decided to kill some time. We returned to Piazza Garibaldi, and I made my first official purchase in Italy: a cioccolato caldo! It was basically thick, melted chocolate and perfect after a long, cold day.

Chocolate always makes me happy :)

I stopped by a local cartoleira on my way home to buy some journals for class. I saw some Moleskins and wanted to buy them (I know, I know), but it was 14 euro! Ultimately, I bought 3 journals for classes for 1 euro each, which was pretty reasonable, I think? 

I got home around 6, watched some TV, fell asleep upstairs (which greatly confused my host mom -mi dispiace!), had dinner with her, and now we're watching Ramona & Beezus in Italian. 

For the record, I've taken none of these pictures — I haven't even pulled out my camera yet! We're going on a walking tour of Parma on Monday so expect some then. 

I have class tomorrow from 9:30-12:30, and that's it! Grinnell, I love you always, but I could get used to this.

Ciao!

Arrival & Orientation

Ciao from Parma!

I wasn't going to be blogging, but after my friend Emma, who has her own study abroad blog  I changed my mind. I tried journaling...that worked for about two days.

I'm going to be spending the semester in/around Parma with Pitzer College's program here, which is affiliated with the Universitá degli studi di Parma. Anyway, here's a map of Italy (another idea I'm blatantly stealing from Emma) to show you where I am:

Parma is located in the north of Italy in the region of Emilia-Romagna and is especially well-known for its food and music history. I've already had some parmigiano reggiano and prosciutto — it's amazing. I'll post a recap of the last few days below. Thanks for reading!