My First Cappuccino Came From a Vending Machine

In these past three days I've accomplished a few things. One was finding the Mercato Albinelli on Via Albinelli right by the university.

This is seriously the greatest place ever. It is like heaven in my eyes.

Every kind of produce, bread, cheese, pastry, literally ANYTHING you could possibly want, all in one place.

The traditional bread of Modena always comes in funny shapes. There's a hard crust but the inside is soft and fluffy.

I will probably come back here every day, at the least.

I bought this focaccia-style bread with roasted tomatoes and it was incredible.

I also returned to my favorite cafe as of right now: Mammolo.

I got a croissant with nutella and one with orange marmalade.

Today my italian immersion teacher took me to a little cafeteria run by the church for lunch. I got grapes, roasted zucchini, traditional Modena bread, and minestrone with grated parmigiano on top. Oh my god, the difference in the cheese alone was crazy. I never knew I could enjoy a garnish so much.

BUT, my greatest discovery was definitely the coffee vending machines. Of course, this sounds really stupid, but I'm serious. These things are great. On the walk back to my residence, I saw one and decided to try it (they're all over the place).

There are a thousand options and it makes you a coffee/hot chocolate/steamed milk/anything you want in a tiny plastic cup.

I just got a latte the first time. It was awesome.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this, but I am.

And so today I took a video of this vending machine making me my first ever cappuccino! I know, I'm a horrible italian. You can see it dispense the sugar, then the little stirring, then some steamed milk, and finally a shot of espresso. You should definitely watch this video because it took me FOREVER to load.

And here are so extra pictures I took while doing some sight-seeing on my own.

-Meri

Why Is There a Rooster?

So today I didn't have any real errands to run so I decided to do some exploring. I went to the bus stop I usually do to go to the university, but just walked in a different direction.

I wonder if this place is ever open. All the windows were boarded.

I was heading towards a public garden type place that I had seen on the map.

It was pretty, but I think it might be more exciting in the Spring time when there are actually plants that are alive.

The most exciting thing was the pigeons. They're not any different than American ones. Or maybe they have a more refined palate. Anyways, I like them.

Scratch that. The most exciting thing was definitely the roosters. Why were they there? Not a clue. They kept cock-a-doodle-dooing though.

And then I saw this stature of Nicola Fabrizi.

I looked him up and he was one of the big leaders of the Risorgimento, the movement to unify Italy.

Still not sure what the carvings on the side of the statue mean though.

Then I started heading back to the university area in search of food.

Along the way I found the train station that will get me to Bologna so that I can visit my friends! Yay!

And I'm pretty sure I found the one and only McDonalds of Modena. The picture is bad because I felt really sketchy holding my phone up and obviously taking a picture of an area where a bunch of people were standing.

I saw this little snack/gelato place with giant containers of Nutella lined up on the shelf. Now that's my kind of place. Side note: I ate an entire jar of nutella in three days. Is that bad?

And finally I settled on pizza once again. Just a plain slice with tomato sauce. And once again, so good.

Hopefully more adventures tomorrow, despite the rain.

-Meri

Green Cards, Hot Chocolate, and Harry Potter

Today I went to ACLI to start the process for getting my "permesso di soggiorno" (a green card sort of thing). I successfully got to the building (which I was proud of) only to find out that I then had to go to il Poste (post office).

You know how waiting at the post office is kind of horrible when there are a lot of people? Well, Italy might just be worse. It's one of those take-a-number systems--I was 223 and they were on 200. They started with four people taking customers. Slowly but surely three of them got up to leave. Great.

Street in the University area

Anyways, I was eventually successful and must get my fingerprints taken on April 15th. I feel like they might have wanted those prints a little earlier since there was such a rush to get the ACLI and post office stuff done today...

Part of my success was buying Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Italian. I inherited this buying trait from my mom. She will buy anything Phillies-related at the drop of a hat. For me, it's Harry Potter stuff.

And I mustered up the courage to go into a food establishment by myself! I got a piece of Margherita pizza. It was soooooo good. The crust was amazing, as were the toppings.

And then I had a HUGE craving for hot chocolate. So I went and found some.

This is the best hot chocolate I ever had. It was like drinking melted chocolate.

And guess what! It came with little cookies (they called them biscuits). When I dipped a cookie in the chocolate, it was completely coated as if I had dipped it in melting chocolate.

Random note: you pay AFTER you eat/drink in Italy.

I find this odd.

-Meri

I'm In Italy Right Now. How Did That Happen?

Yup. Here I am. In Modena, Italy.

I'm by myself. There are no other students from my university here. In fact, there are no other students here. I'm in a massive residence style building, with the staff that works at the desk. And they're barely ever around.

My building is the taller one on the right. It's huge, right? Well, I have the place to myself.

So yeah. I'm alone. Getting kinda lonely over here. But I have been making some progress each day I guess.

I took an overnight flight here on Monday with a layover in London. As I sat there, I thought, "wow, everything is in English here. Everyone has a cool accent. Everything makes sense. What the hell am I doing going to a city where no one speaks English?" I'm currently still in that mindset but I'm trying to work myself out of it.

I asked for red wine on the plane for the heck of it, and they gave it to me! It tasted bad, but I still found it exciting.

This is what the water looks like in London. I accidentally bought six 2-liter bottles of "frizzante" water at the supermarket in Italy thinking it was still water. It's like drinking seltzer every time I want water. Blech.

One of my first adventures (after trying to navigate the public transit system and then giving up and getting a taxi the first day) was to go to the supermarket, realizing that I did in fact need to eat.

Look how cute the little carts are!

My second day here I went to the market above the supermarket to buy boots after soaking two pairs of shoes. It's been snowing like crazy here! And they apparently don't shovel any walkways either...

The best I could find were mens shoes that are too big for me, but they do the job.

Today was a little more exciting. After visiting the campus a second time (still snowing), I discovered a really cool market that I guess comes on Thursdays? My favorite was the vendor guy selling vacuum cleaners. Who would think to buy that at a farmer's market-type thing?

I got a vegetable and cheese panino. Yummy! They were confused by the fact that I didn't want meat (They have hamburgers and hotdogs as options to put on the panini--I guess to please us Americans). I wonder how many vegetarians there are in Italy...

And I went to the supermarket again only to find pineapple, orange, carrot, and lemon juice. It was exciting. I'm mixing it with all my god-dammed fizzy water.

More tales to come. Hopefully I'll find a friend at some point...

-Meri

The Story Of How My Cat Would Not Get Off My Shoulder

So it's 1:30 in the morning and I really want to go to sleep.

BUT, this is happening:

Yup. My cat, Toby, seems to have fallen asleep on my shoulder. (I really can't figure out how this is comfortable for him.)

Here's how it started:

He came up onto my bed for a snuggle around 12:30 as I went to check my mail quickly before getting some well-needed shut-eye.

Now we started nearing 1 o'clock and he still hadn't moved. As you can see, my face became more skeptical.

Then we were making progress.

He turned around! Even though his butt was in my face, I was looking forward to sleep.

And then he laid down again.

Here he is now (that's my arm he's laying on).

I want to go to sleep.

-Meri