Visiting Ele & Carnèal de Taü

3/1/15

Day 45

I knew going into March 1st that it was gonna be a rough day. After a week of midterms and a week of intensive travel, I wouldn't really get time to sleep before I headed off to visit my host family (from when I studied abroad in high school) in Bergamo. The plane landed in Pisa at 11:40 pm, we then took a bus from Pisa to Florence and were starving so we stopped for food at McDonald's. Apparently McDonald's is the place to be at 2am on a Saturday night because I swear all of Florence was there. It was hard to pay because I had to fish through the dirhams in my wallet to find a few last euros.

We finally made it home with just a few hours for me to pack and shower before I had to leave for the train station again to catch my train to Milan. I got up around 6 and made it to Santa Maria Novella, only to realize I couldn't find the train I was supposed to take and would have to take a slow train that left earlier. The longer ride was relaxing though and gave me time to sleep and work on homework, since I'd be skipping my Italian class on Monday and at least wanted to do my homework. 

At some point in my delirium, the train stopped and I got off and found my host sister, Ele, and her really really nice uncle who offered to come pick me up from Milano Centrale Station instead of me taking another train to Bergamo. I was really grateful because I'm not sure I had the mental energy to try to figure out yet another mode of public transportation and was relieved to be able to just get in a car and not have to worry if I knew when to get off. In less than 24 hours, I'd taken a plane, a bus, a train, and a car and was exhausted. 

We got home and her parents and grandparents and boyfriend were waiting at the table with lunch (hot, homemade lasagna) and I dove in. It was really nice to be surrounded by familiar faces and to be a (temporary) part of the family, which surprised me. I guess I actually can see why people say family is so important because after traveling to foreign countries where everything is new and no one speaks my language, it was definitely comforting to come back to such a different atmosphere- even if I still can't speak Italian. I have never been so appreciative of lasagna before. Usually I hate cheese, but I was starving and it was warm and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Next came the profiteroles, which I still dream about from the summer I spent with them. I died a little bit when I saw them come out and I even took a food selfie to commemorate the greatness of this meal. But the fun hadn't even started yet!

I came this weekend because it was the Carnevale of Tagliuno (her town) and apparently it has become pretty famous for the parade and the show that the whole town takes part in. There were three districts and each had a theme: Magic, Candyland, and Hippies.

Her sister was part of the blue district's magic theme so obviously we were hoping blue would win the competition this year. Each district had a float and marched through the town in a parade and at the end, everyone gathered to watch them perform.

It was similar to Halloween with the costumes but like 1000x better. The different age groups each had costumes and their own choreography and I was really impressed by how professional it was! Even dads got involved and danced as wizards from Harry Potter, and babies were pushed around in ice cream strollers.

Candyland ended up winning but the whole Carnevale celebration was so cool I'm not really sure if the yellow district actually "won" anything more than the other teams.

After the Carnevale, Ele went to work for a little bit so her sister Michi and I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire/Harry Potter e il Calice di Fuoco (in the spirit of the magic theme) in Italian with English subtitles. Italians LOVE Harry Potter, and a lot of the words for spells and names directly translate! Then, we went to the restaurant where she works and got pizza (for free!) before going out with some of her and her sisters friends for drinks by the lake. The conversation was a little slow through the language barrier but we covered everything from American drinking culture and parties to politics and I found myself laughing the entire time.