Day Three tuesday 12th

Well today we started out early, well earlier (around nine). Our hotel offers an American style breakfast which is actually really nasty. The bacon is extremely thick and super super salty, we barely choked it down.
But it didn't matter at all as we were certain that the next few meals would make up by far for the poor one we just had. By the time that we had finished our breakfast it was already about noon, so the entire city except the resturants and the hospitals were shut down until 2:30 (for their lunch).

After a nap we set out to the second school (Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design). My very first impression wasn't so great, they only occupied the second floor of a building that was a little run down on the inside, but to be fair the building was under restoration. The size was really the only putoff as I was thourghly impressed the rest of the time I was there. (I'll have to provide a somewhat detailed account of what the school looks like because I didn't take any pictures of it at all). The entire interior of the
school was painted white, floor to cealing and every bit of trim and piece of furniture was bright red, which I liked a lot. Next the receptionist spoke english and welcomed us warmly unlike the one at IED who spoke none at all although her school welcomed international students and

acted as if we were very rudely interupting her day with our presence. She (I can't remember her name) apologized that she was the only one there that day, as the school was still in the process of moving to a larger location just down the street. None the less she said that she could look at my portfolio if I like as she had herself just graduated from the school herself and had a sense of what the school was looking for in a student. I don't like to brag much but she was impressed, at one point she actually said, "mama mia!" She told me that she was sure that I would be accepted as soon as she had the chance to show my portfolio to the school director.

-=more to come=-

Day Two Monday the 11th

Well today dwarfed the last, there was no trekking around airports and train stations burdened with luggage, just amazing sights and smells but mostly the best food I've ever eaten. We had a late morning which meant that we missed breakfast, which doesn't matter much because Italians don't really "do" breakfast. We walked down the street a bit to a restaurant serving lunch.

We tried really hard to read the menu but failed, I just took a wild guess and picked something at random whereas my Dad just chose the one thing he recognized (spaghetti). The spaghetti was good but what I got I think was much better, a plate of this spiced lunch type meat served with Parmesan and tomatoes. The meat was very thick and probably chicken or turkey and incredibly delicious just for being well what we thought looked like "lunch meat."


After lunch we decided to try and find the first design school I was to apply to (IED). We found after a bit of searching some directions online and headed out. Navigating the streets of Torino is difficult because many of the streets don't run in straight lines but also because we had no clue how to read addresses in Italy. It took about twice as long as it should have but we found it, they were happy to talk to me that day so I ran back to the hotel and grabbed my laptop so that I could show them my portfolio. Issabella the school corordinator said that I could if I liked get into their photo or drawing courses instead of car design but that I couldn't do two at the same time (unfortunately), but everything sounded very positive and I'm hoping that I'll get a email or call saying that I'm in.
But there is another school, one that we're checking out today actually I hope its just as good as the first one we visited maybe better.



But as for the evening, we wandered the streets for a few hours looking at statues and monuments and all the while looking for the second school. We found it, it took us until about 10pm but we did. We then realized that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so the search for a restaurant that was open after ten was on. We had to search far and wide for one, as most of them started closing at around 9. Everywhere we went we found them clearing tables and packing it in, that is until we came across "Le Petit Hotel" which still at about 11:30pm was full of people and showed no signs of closing.

We sat down and had an amazing meal, Linguini with seafood. There was prawns, shrimp, clams, squid, and octopus all heaped on the best tasting pasta Iv'e ever had, along with some extremely cheap and really good white wine. After the pasta we got two slices of tiramisu like Iv'e never had before with cappacinos that were also amazing. We finished up there at about 1:30am and made it back to the hotel to be in bed by about 2am.

Day one Sunday the 10th

Well not much to tell just a frantic day of traveling, carrying everything we have on our back from gate to gate trying to get off the continent. We were lucky though because we managed to get to Paris instead of Frankfurt which would have taken an extra day.





From Paris (which I didn't see anything but the subway, train station and airport)
we got on to the TGV bullet train and blasted to Torino. On that train everything is silent you cant really hear the train at all and the landscape is just one HUGE blur because your moving at about 250MPH! We got off the train at around 10pm and checked into the first decent hotel with internet we could find, but not before having dinner (calzone, antipasti, and wine) which was amazing. I'll put some pictures up of our hotel tomorrow seeing as I havent taken any of it yet. Cya

-=:joseph:=-