tok, tok, tok

Last night Pino received a call from one of his students asking if we wanted to go to a concert with him and some friends from school. Obviously we accepted and had a too much fun. First we were picked up by a beautiful italian man named Daniello, and taken to his beautiful village, S. Stefano Roreo. We went to his amazing house to meet up woth the others. The streets were all cobblestone and his house was up a long winding driveway. He and his family have their own vineyard. We met the rest of the italians including his brother, who is also very beautiful, Davide. After we went to a birthday party to pick up more friends. Then we were off to a club in Torino. On the way we casually chugged wine in the back of Daniello's car. We had so much fun in the car, singing American songs and of course they taught us all the bad words and would laughed when we said them. The 'concert' was elvis impersonators and cross dressers with pasties on their nips. To say the least we had a blast. We didn't get home till 5:30am and slept all day. Daniello just called and were going out with them tonight :)
Andiamo!

Maybe yes, maybe no!

We have started working on the vineyard. We trim the branches of the grape trees, which when it isn't too cold out is somewhat therapeutic. The farm seems a little dysfunctional, or I guess just a usual Italian family. Life is easy, and time moves slow. We have visited the village of Chieri, Torino and Alba over the past few days. They're mostly very small and old, except Torino. Torino is a large city with a beautiful town square, and 7 castles! We got amazing pizza and got a tour of the town from Pino and his kids.
Today we visited the school Pino teaches at- chemistry, plant and soil science, and tree cultivation. We got a tour of the school from a student who speaks english. We saw the school's vineyard and wine production facility. We joined a class and did wine tasting at 9am! The students were very riled up and excited for visitors! All the classes focus on agriculture and the environment, including french, which is pretty cool. After we went to the open air market and walked around the shops of Alba. We went to a cafe and the woman worker gave us free cream puffs, which were amazing! We also went to a bakery and got really good nutella cookie sandwiches. Alba just so happens to be the home of the nutella factory.
We have eaten so many delicious meals. Today Pino made us pasta with gorgonzola and riddichio and for dinner pasta figgoli ( I don't know how to spell any of this).
I haven't picked up any italian so far, everything sounds the same! I'm starting to talk like a foreigner, my sentences are simple and the structure is poor :)

Casine Ca'rossA

We got to Pino's last night after arriving in Torino and trying to figure out where to find the nearest bus stop into the small town of Canale. Pino gave as directions in broken english from the center of town, though it seemed we'd be stranded till the morning. We took a chance, waited for the last bus of the night at a random bus stop and were helped by a crazy woman who was looking for an invitation to Canale. The big, blue bus we were instructed to find brought us down curving roads through the Alps way too fast for a city bus, but we made it alive. We were relieved when Pino was waiting for us at the bus stop at almost 1am. He took us to his house where we have 4 beds in our room, one for each of us. We stayed up taking about the environment and life.
Today we got to sleep in because Pino picked up his kids from school and was teaching the high school he works at. His kids were great, Elsa 14 snd Barardo 12. Later in the day we took a tour of the vineyard, tried all the wines it produces, and played archery with Barardo. We ate dinner with Pino and his kids who made us dinner! Tomorrow we will be working on the farm!

The adventure in the making

Last semester feels like a blur as my travel plans for this semester come more and more into view. I thought the day would never come when I would arrive in Europe and see all the wonders I've dreamed of. Myself and my travel buddies (Becky, Casey, and Kirsten) have begun our journey, starting in Paris and now embark upon our adventures on farms in Italy, Greece and France.
I got into London on the 15th with Becky and we took the Chunnel straight to Paris. Kirsten and Casey met us at the flat we rented and our plans finally started to come together. Paris was incredible, and I am sad to leave. We were lucky to meet with an old friend of Becky's father who is Parisian and gave us a more intimate view of the city. By the end of the trip we were able to master the subway, see most of the tourist locations and eat probably have our body weight in cheese and baked goods! We left Paris to today and are now on the train to Italy. We are going to Torino, from there we will take a local bus to a small village in Cuneo called Canale. The first farm owner, Pino will meet us at the bus and our farming will begin in the morning! Our first farm is a vineyard.. And the rest is to come :)