Roman hangover and Veggie Burritos

It’s been awhile folks! How have you been?? Good? Good. Glad to hear it. Me too for the most part. Sorry I haven’t been in touch in almost 2 weeks, but I swear it’s me not you….

I think the last we spoke I had just regaled you with the beauty and history and wonder that was Rome.

I returned home from Rome on June 3rd. Pretty much all I did in the days following was write my post about Rome because truly it took that long to get all of the information and pictures in there that I wanted! I caught up on laundry, got groceries, ate food, slept, so on and so forth.

That Friday though, in a strange and wonderful and somewhat random turn of events, I was able to spend time with one of my very best friends from MIDDLE SCHOOL. Most of you probably do not know Jenny (we spelled it Jenee when we thought we were cool). In middle school I had a pretty core friend group which, for me, revolved around my 3 best girls- Jenny, Brittany, and Aimee (side shout out to Tyson, Joey, Justin, Danny, Katie, Ben, Amber etc. etc.though :-) <3 ). They were the group that when the weekend rolled around it wasn’t “Do you want to hang out?” but rather “Are we sleeping at your house or mine tonight?” All of us went ice skating and to Fun 4 All and Kennywood and the Dollar Store and the football games together. We did each other’s hair, played makeup monster, choreographed dances in the basement, and grew up together. I was extraordinarily lucky to have all of these people in my life, but within that group, I still may not have made it through without Jenny’s friendship. She and I rode the bus together for 3 years, spent countless nights having sleepovers watching sad movies for an excuse to cry together, and she was the first person that I knew that was proudly herself in every way before we all realized that we should all be doing that. She taught me a lot about true friendship, and I have always looked back fondly on that time.

Long story short, we went to a really big high school and to be honest, I drifted away from that friend group. I tend to compartmentalize my life, and for some reason high school needed to be separate from middle school for me. We all kept in touch, hung out on occasion, and held strong to our end of year sleepover tradition, but I was no longer part of the standard Friday night crew. Then college came and obviously that did not help anything. I think Jenny I have spoken...3 times?... maybe 4?.. In the last 10 years. Not by anything malicious or any falling out, just… life. BUT. Social media comes through for the win, because I saw she had moved to Ireland to complete a Master’s Degree, so when I found out I was coming to Italy, I reached out. Basically a “Heyyy, I know we haven’t talked in ages, but I’m gonna be in Europe, you’re in Europe… I need friends… soooo.. Let’s hang out sometime!” And THEN, she texted one day to say she would actually be in Milan for a month or two as she writes her thesis! Life sure has a way, huh?

SO. She flew in late on Friday the 8th! Her host family was unable to pick her up so she came and crashed on my couch. She got in around midnight, we opened a bottle of wine and spent maybe an hour on the general chit chat and pleasantries, just catching up on the facts of life from the last 10 years, and then opened the second bottle. I think about halfway through the second bottle we found our groove just like we were 13. We were laughing and crying and apologizing for things that happened 10 years ago and asking deep questions without feeling like it was pressing boundaries. We talked about the values in and difficulties of travel and friendships and love and work and goals. We commiserated over how expectations of travel and certain experiences (whether our own or others’) can negatively affect the actual experience. So on and so forth. About 5am and halfway through the 3rd bottle of wine, we decided it was time go to bed ha.

(no pictures were taken that night hah)

Saturday morning we slept in a bit and took our time, but we made our way to a little cafe called Bar Bianco in a big park nearby. It was freaking lovely, but unfortunately after lunch when she left to go meet her host family, my hangover kicked in full strength. I ended up climbing back into bad and laying in the fetal position on the couch the rest of the day watching Netflix ha. I am definitely not 22 anymore…

So Sunday my plan had been to do a day trip to the beach, but I hadn’t planned it out properly and the place I was going to go would have cost like 60 euros by train. I was just not that motivated, so instead I went to the park right near my apartment, Park Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli, and laid out in the sunshine listening to a musician play nearby for a couple of hours. It was super relaxing. That evening a coworker invited me to the Piazza Duomo where a free concert was being put on by the local Symphony! It was great! I met him and his friends for gelato and then stood for an hour or two listening to beautiful music before heading home. The best part was honestly being invited out.

Monday I went into work, but left with 3 others before noon for the train station! We were headed for Switzerland for a day long meeting Tuesday. I was excited to both have something interesting to do for work AND to go to Switzerland for the first time AND to ride a train though the mountains. Honestly, none of it disappointed either. The train ride was GORGEOUS, my coworkers were fun, and I was so glad to be out of the office.

We got into Lausanne Switzerland RIGHT ON LAKE GENEVA,

took the metro a couple stops out of town to our hotel (which was attached to an Aquarium…???), checked in (view from my window),

and then went back to Lausanne for dinner. We wandered a bit, walked up to the cathedral, and took in a decent view of the town….

As we were coming back down from the cathedral, we saw a bar down some steps and under a bridge! At this moment I learned the word ‘Figata’ which apparently means that something is really cool, but also must be used carefully because part of the word is… inappropriate when used alone. Makes no sense.

So we sat and had a (sizeable) beer while we talked about European universities (a frequent topic of mine) and of course language and learning and adapting etc. The one coworker that was there is actually Serbian but has lived in Milan for about 4 years now, so he had a new perspective for me to pick his brain.

After that we left and walked through town to a restaurant that they had been to once before on a previous trip. We were in the French part of Switzerland, so our waitress spoke French, and of course my coworkers speak some french so they switched for her, but then she switched to Italian for them when she found out where we were from and then they all switched to English for me. Yea. Apparently the Swiss as a STANDARD speak French, German, Italian, and English, and some pick up another language in school on top of that. Whaaaattttt.

The food was awesome, as was the company. I actually had a great time. We left, went back to the hotel, stood outside watching the fountain display for a bit and then went to bed.

The next day we were in an all day discussion with the client, but it was actually really productive and the client was easy to work with so even working I had a great day! And the biggest bonus of all, the clients were German working for a Swiss site talking to my Italian coworkers, so EVERYTHING was in English :-) It was awesome.

But then… as soon as we left, I could tell my 3 Italian coworkers were in the same place I get when I have been surrounded by my non-native language all day… mentally exhausted and just wanting to go to what was easiest. So. They switched to Italian. And spoke in almost solely Italian. For the whole 5 hours home. Luckily Matt had some time and could chat with me in between meetings and such to keep me occupied because I was soooooo bored ha. It was a very long, rainy train ride, but I got home around 10pm and was able to head to bed about normal time.

Wednesday and Thursday at work were back to standard, but a few young people actually had lunch in the break room so I was able to TALK to someone! So that was lovely.

Made it to Friday the 15th where IIIIII stayed in again ha. I know, sometimes I am super boring, but you know what? Don’t much care.

Saturday I got myself moving again though because I woke up and went to the Castello Sforzesca museum! I wandered there for a good few hours.

Creepy as shit...

They also had a non-castle related art exhibit on the top floor of one section that was really beautiful. A photographer took photos of dozens of women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and were somewhere in their recovery process. There was also a video with some interviews of them, and I think all of them in the end felt thankful for their diagnosis because it has allowed them to start over or see life in a new way or be more brave to live their life the way they want etc. It was really quite moving.

After I left the castle, I obviously stopped and got some gelato, and I obviously did it wrong. Again. I thought I saw other people just go up to the counter and order and pay and receive in one swoop so I thought, “Great! I can do that!” But as we should ALL know by now, that is not how Italy does things. You go to the cash register, tell them what you want, pay, and then take the RECEIPT over to the counter to actually receive it. But this time instead of correcting me, the lady just gave me a piercing glare and served me anyway. Not sure which is worse…

After that I wandered a bit more downtown and went to get a haircut!

Jenny and I had talked about hanging out on Sunday, so she ended up coming over Saturday night for dinner, we popped on a movie, and she crashed on the couch again.

Then Sunday, we took a train back to Lake Como :-) If you read my post from April when I went to Varenna on Lake Como with my mom and Bob, you know how freaking beautiful it is. I was pretty excited. A coworker had told me about a beach area a short train ride away from the town of Lecco, so that’s where we went.

When we got there, it was essentially a thin strip of rocky beach (which was already full) and a decent sized grassy area that everyone else treated like a beach. So we set up camp, laid out for a few hours, watched folks play volleyball and naked babies running around with floaties. It was fantastic. And of course, beautiful.

We went for a little walk down the beach and sat in a shady spot for a stint, then ran to try and catch the 530 train back to Lecco. The train was cancelled so instead we found a bar called Baba Du Lac to get a drink and aperitivo. The bar was up on a terrace with a good view of the lake and the mountains and a classy dinner party happening behind us. So while there I obviously knocked my glass of prosecco over, breaking it, and the waiter had to bring me a new one (at no charge and without request, though). Leslie Struggles.

We then caught the 630 train to Lecco and got off in search of dinner and drinks. We ended up having a second aperitivo at a bar called Sunflower. It was a cute place near the water. We sat and talked and drank there for while, then decided we needed to go on the ferris wheel!

I tried to take a selfie of us and then started to fall backwards...

So Jenny tried instead and was much more successful.

Totally worth it.

We ended our evening in Lecco with gelato on a bench overlooking that part of the lake. Unfortunately, at the same time I found out that my step-uncle Bill had passed away from his long fight with cancer. I cried and sat silent for awhile while Jenny just sat with me. It was an incredibly sad moment. Earlier, though, I had told Jenny about his poor condition, and we cheersed to him with our glasses of wine, which I know he would have liked. It made me feel like I had sent my love through the soundwaves to him as best I could right when he needed it. The man with the biggest laugh and a heart to match will be missed so dearly. (Love you always, Bill.)

We finally ventured back to Milan on the relatively short train ride, where another group of Americans kept yelling, “Veggie burritos! I need a miracle! Grilled Cheese!” I could only wonder how long they had been out of the states hahah...

We got back to my apartment where I called my own dad for Father’s Day (9 hour time difference means a nighttime call for me to reach him at a reasonable time for him). After the emotions of the day, I so wanted to hug him…

And that pretty much brings us to today! This week is dedicated to normal life stuff and preparing to leave for vacation with Matt this weekend!!!!!!! In general the last couple of weeks I have been in a bit of a funk with my workouts and my eating which has been frustrating, and work has been on and off depending on the day and how busy I am. I am loving the personal experiences and travel opportunities I have, but I am definitely still adjusting to the “reality vs. expectation” factor. Like, have you ever seen 500 days of Summer? And there is one part where they do split screen and on one side was Joseph Gordon Levitt’s expectation of how the evening with Zooey Deschanel would go and the other was reality, and reality was waayyy lonelier and sadder? It’s not that bad, but that’s a decent representation haha. I had these romantic views of what living in Italy would be like, and it is very different on a daily basis. My weekend vacations are more in line- overwhelming with beauty and culture and history, almost magical- but Monday through Friday when I am just going to work, getting groceries, doing laundry, and trying to be a good human… it’s just like normal life except everything is a little bit harder and I’m alone.

Anyway, I promise I AM really truly loving my time here, and I am learning SO much (about the history of Italy and Italian culture and Swedish culture and myself and my habits and how I process the world around me), but I told you all that I would be honest with you and it is not all wine and gelato over here (though there HAS been A LOT of gelato :-) ).

Also, as I mentioned, Matt lands THIS Saturday morning in Milan, so I will essentially be MIA until he has left :-) I’ll likely post some pictures to the Gram and/or the Book (yes, I hate myself a little for saying that) and when we are back I will post about our badass vacation.

See you soon-ish!!!!!!