Trieste (triste - ma dai, felice), Slovenia, Walter...

So last weekend I went to Trieste to meet Walter and his family. I left on Thursday (1st of November) because the last night took place a Halloween party at the Madrid Nights, near Fiera. The club was awful at the first place to the be if you weren't drunk and so I was not... ended up leaving very early which was very good for the next day. So the next day I woke up early and directed myself to the railwaystation walking at around 12:30. The train was suppose to leave at 13:30 for Mestre (Venice, like Pasila for the actual Venice Santa Lucia station) and from Mestre to Trieste. I'm very tired so I end up sleeping a whole lot of the trip.

At some point the train stops in the middle of nowhere and uniform men walk along the tracks so people start asking from the windows what is happening. A friend of Walter's is also a traindriver so when I talked about this he knew about it. Someone had intensionally put a big big rock on the track to break the train and so it did. So after an hour of waiting while they were trying everything to take the passagers 500 metres to the next station and then another hour or more in the bus. In the end I was 2,5 hours late and so tired.

There's a big minority of slovenes in the area, so the signs are bilingual.

That evening was about there then. I went to sleep in the huge room which they had prepared for me. I had my own bathroom, huge bed, computer which I could use for calling home. Being alone somewhere was just what I needed anyway. Somewhere else than in Padova.

The house itself was huge to begin with. Big yard where they grow their own lemons, tomatoes and a lot of herbs. 3 floors and in the basement huge dining room :) Really idyllic italian, though the parents are slovene and the children have been raised to be slovene too even though officially they are italian. You can tell that, I would say. Anyway, within the exchangies there's been a lot of discussion lately about the bad sides of italians and Italy. Also Walter's sister, Elisabettina, told me that being slovene is not so easy and fun in North Italy, but in the South they are really friendly and interested about it. But I'll talk more about that later.

My room.

In the evening, I missed someone. I missed many people.. just because I got a room for my thoughts only.



Walter had planned a lot for the weekend so we started on with a day in Trieste. First we drove to the University where I met one of his schoolmates and saw the depressing building.


Afterwards we went to walk around the city, Piazza della Borsa (bors square, pörssi-aukio) and Piazza dell'unita italia, which is probably the most beautiful piazza I've seen so far. It's really big and one side being the ocean. Wow! During this weekend I also realized how much I've missed the sea. It is so calming and so beautiful. Sure Padova is near to the coast and I've gone to Venezia twice now but that sea is not the kind of pure sea. It's a lagoon anyway. Someone had said that Trieste has it all: the sea, the sky, the mountains, the forests. I fell in love with that city and it's also completely different from what I've seen so far. A fresh breeze.





And mmm.. the ice cream. I ate two icecreams during the day also cioccolata con peperoncino (chocolate with chili). Yam!

For lunch we ate in a very famous place and people were actually lining outside it for bread and some meat inside. They have a speciality called Porcina, which is boiled pork inside a bread. Good!

We also went to this incredible castle called Miramare and afterwards walked along the coast back to the citycenter. The sun was setting on the background of all the fishermen. The never-ending sea. Mi piace troppo!







And another thing I really loved is the food. Walter's mom is a great cook and I also got to taste some Triestinian goods, a special soup, candies and dessert. To be honest I didn't so much fancy the Triestinian style which reminds a lot of russian food, but I loved everything else she made. Especially insalata caprese which she gave me to take home too when I was leaving!

In the evening Walter had his football practice so I went to a shop opening of Bettina's boyfriend's working place. It was nice and funny to see how italians do it. In Finland, as far as I know, there's no special things arranged if a new shop is opened. This was such a family event too and there was a kind of a party for it. Pizza, meatballs, nuggets, red wine, white wine, beer... chips. Everything! People were laughing and chatting. The shop was beautiful too... for sailing clothes and stuff for the sea side.

Later I still met Walter's family more. In the same yardway, there lives his cousin and her boyfriend, his uncle and ant. Nice people :) Their family friends came for dinner also and it was so heart-melting (is that only a translation straight from finnish?) to see how the old couple left holding hands and teasing each other like they've just met. That is rare and so lovely :)In the evening I also talked for a while with dad on skype. I ended up crying things to him and he kept telling me wise things, though my situation is not nearly as bad as his. But it helped. I don't talk so ofter with dad, but usually when I do.. it makes me feel really good afterwards.

The next day we went to Slovenia. This was a surprise to me when I arrived in the first place and Walter told me that he had planned to take me there. I got really excited and to be honest, it was more than only worth it. Slovenia is dead gorgeous in the colourful autumn time. I sat in the car with the camera in my hands trying to get the colours in the pictures. Didn't get into it so much until Ljubljana, but before that was the caves of Postojnske. There I also took more than 100 pictures of... umm... rocks, looking like the Empire State Buildings. The guys I was with are all slovene, so we took the tour in slovene and someone always translated for me :P

From left to right, Walter, Gabriel (Bettina's boyfriend), Andrei, Bettina and I.

Ljubljana again... I have no bad word to say about that place. It is just plain beautiful. It's like a small, sympathic city with a warm and calm character. I absolutely loved it. It's small so to see a lot you don't need a lot of time.

SO SO GOOD! Mushroom soup inside a bread, slovene spesiality.

In the evening after a refreshing shower and some food, Walter and I went to meet some of his friends. All of them were guys, which was good for me :P We went to a place which is very famous in the Trieste region to go out. There's old and young. The deal is that you go to countryside, where is a plain room with many tables. You take one, you get a glass for everyone, red wine, white wine and water. Bread and some slices of meat. Right from the very first moment they sing traditional songs which... a foreigner just can't learn in one night, but believe they sound like drinking songs we got in Finland too! The place was great, I had so much fun just sitting and watching people. Drinking. Which brings me to the subject of whiskey. I've taken a whiskey twice here now and the people... especially boys, look at me so strange. In the end they underline it with scandinavian strength :P








The guy who plays concertina, Cristian, studies in Venezia for architecture. I got his number from Walter and probably I'm meeting him later on too :) After everyone left home, Walter and I still went for a ride. He took me to a hill where there is no lights and you can see Trieste's lights. It's bea-u-tiful. I talked about things happening with me and he talked about a girl :) It was a really nice evening all together.

Walter's family with their dog, Top.

I got three invitation to go there again, Walter's birthday in two weeks, when my family comes here and for New Year's eve :) I absolutely loved the whole weekend.. and I'm so lucky to find people who are so open and let me come to their home like that.

Like I haven't sobbed enough,

Walter sent me a link to this:

Finding Walter,

There's many people to thank for getting me as far as this right now. One, over the others, is still Walter. I can honestly say that without your help, I wouldn't have manage to get this far. (My mom even said to me today that I should ask from him about how the prepaid works in Italy ;)

Thank you for always being there for me and trying to answer even my most stupid questions.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important things. Finding someone to help you understand even the most difficult law-like texts and helping you find accomodation. Someone who knows how the things work. It doesn't mean they would do the job for you, but they can give you very signifigant tips. It's good to have a contact in the target country, whether one is behalf of the university or someone found through a penpal page.

Walter I found through this penpal page (penpal party). You can search for e-mail pals by a language or country. Mostly people are searching for help in some languages and culture they want to learn better. It's absolutely free and you don't need to register to answer the ads. Remember to also try searching for people interested in your country.

Maybe I've been lucky to find someone this helpful, but you cannot find if you walk with your eyes closed and stop trying to find :) Maybe it's easier that you think.

-

On monia ihmisiä, joita on kiittämän, että olen päässyt edes näin pitkälle. Yksi muiden ylitse on kuitenkin Walter. Voin rehellisesti sanoa, että ilman apuasi, en olisi päässyt näin pitkälle. (Jopa äiti sanoi tänään, että minun pitäisi kysyä häneltä miten prepaid toimii Italiassa ;)

Kiitos, että olet aina ollut auttamassa minua ja yrittänyt vastata tyhmimpiin kysymyksiinikin.

Mielestäni on tärkeää löytää joku auttamaan ymmärtämään vaikeimpiakin lakitekstejä ja etsimään asuntoa. Joku, joka tietää miten homma toimii kohdemaassa. Ei se tarkoita, että he tekisivät työn puolestasi, mutta he voivat antaa elintärkeitä vinkkejä. On hyvä olla kontakti, oli se sitten ketä tahansa yliopiston puolesta tai kirjeystäväsivuston kautta löydetty tuttavuus.

Walterin löysin tämän kirjeystäväsivuston kautta (penpal party). Voit etsiä sivustolla sähköpostiystäviä kielen tai maan perusteella. Monet ihmiset hakevatkin apua jonkin kielen opetteluun ja oppiakseen maan kulttuuria itse maamieheltä. Se on täysin ilmaista ja sinun ei tarvitse edes rekisteröityä vastataksesi ilmoituksiin. Muista myös etsiä ihmisiä, jotka ovat kiinnostuneita sinun maastasi.

Ehkä olin onnekas löytäessäni jonkun näin avuliaan, mutta et voi löytää jos kävelet silmät suljettuina ja lopetat etsimästä :) Ehkä se on helpompaa kuin kuvitteletkaan.

Introduction to the past and me,

I created this journal for me to write in - about the adventures in the boot-country, Italy. Though, the idea of creating this journal started of four different things: 1) I didn't find all the practical and unpractical information I wanted easily (maybe someone will find this source useful someday), 2) offering my story to a finnish magazine or news paper, 3) letting my family and friends keep track of me and 4) remembering everything when I return back to Finland.

Just know that I appreciate and will write about everything. The good and the bad. I'm sure I will find both, though I of course hope everything will seem nothing but positive in the end.

My name is Milla. I'm 21-years-old (130586) and at the time of writing, I still live in Finland. If everything goes as planned, I will take off from Helsinki-Vantaa airport with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) 23rd of September 9:25 (GMT+2) and via Copenhagen find myself in Venice 13:30 (GMT+1).

I'm quite outgoing, but can be shy in certain situations. I have some really basic finnish habits, like sometimes becoming a hermit, but thanks to my karelian roots.. I usually get over those phases very quick. I love baking, writing, photographing and dancing. Family and friends are really important to me.

I study in Laurea University of Applied Sciences, for the third year (four year study plan) for a degree in media and culture. In Padova, I will study in Università degli Studi di Padova, Visual and Performing Arts faculty. I will not be an Erasmus student only because it was too late for the two universities to make an Erasmus contract. Instead, I will study single courses paying 110 euros for 30 credits of studying. As far as I know it's about 5 courses that I will attend in 10 months. (More info in italian, if you need a translator: this one is very useful, though it doesn't translate in the perfect way - but you get the idea.)

I've always loved to travel and thanks to my lovely family, I've got a great chance to it too. Before starting find out about exchange programs and possibilities, I had travelled around Europe a lot and had been in Italy for 2 weeks in the year 2002. We drove near Venice to Porto di Garibaldi across Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Austria.

I started finding out about exchange about a year ago, in the fall of 2006. My degree program has Erasmus contracts to Austria and Ireland. Those were my first choices at that time. I had hard time deciding whether to go for half a year or a whole one. In the end, the decision was quite easy. I had just broke-up with a long time boyfriend and didn't see much challenges in my homecountry. I needed something fresh and new. The main reason why I chose Italy in the end was because of my love for the country of rich culture and art history and because I had studied the language before. This was a great opportunity to learn the language well and for that I would need the whole year. In the future, it would be a great advantage for me in the working life.

The way wasn't easy. The country seems to love byrocrachcy and because I live far away, it takes a long time to get everything done. So far, I've fought to get to know when the courses begin and end, which courses I can attend to and what I have to do to get on them. Apparently, these things work very differently in Finland than in Italy. First of all, I was amazed to find out that I can apply for the courses just 2 days before they actually start and they don't really except me in, they just need a confirmation that I'm able to study there. Practically that means that they need to send them my school report from highschool translated into italian. (I needed to get official copies from the city administration and an apostille (together 13euros). Then I contacted the Embassy of Italy in Helsinki, where Satu Vaahtera told me to get them translated (translation and the stamps to confirm that it's been done by a confirmed translator, 45euros) and after that send them in, where they will write a confirmation telling about how the University of Applied Sciences work here. After that, I should have all the papers ready. At the moment, I'm waiting to know when all the courses are, so that I will have courses for both semesters, spring and autumn.

For all the information so far about the school, I have to thank Mara Nardin - and about general help, Walter Caharija. I really recommend to get an italian contact to help to figure out all the language twirls. Even if you know good italian, law kind of text is hard to read and understand.

That brings me to the next thing. What I'm most nervious about is that I have to study in italian. I have studied 6 courses of italian in highschool. Back then, I didn't really care for it. I wanted to learn it but I was lazy in the classes and doing the homework. I started again when I entered Laurea and attended to basic italian course. The problem is possibly, that in the courses they teach us grammar and vocabulary, which are very important. But often, they forget about the talking part. Starting to talk in a foreign language is very difficult, but the best way of learning it. I've learned that while spending a lot of time with exchange students here. Within the last two years my english has gone a lot better and I've also got a lot more cultural knowledge! Now I accomplished basic italian II in Open University of Helsinki, this spring. All my teachers, say that that's just enough to get started.. and even though I won't probably understand more than few words in the first lectures, it will get better quite soon. Let's see if they're right.

Along learning the language, I'm very excited to get into the culture. Someway, like a friend of mine said, I'm going there to see if I could find a better place for me to live.. or how much I will miss home.