the lowdown.

got internet functioning in the apartment!

so, what have i been up to so far?

trieste is amazing. it's a semi-big city on the adriatic sea. it's pretty hot right now but there's usually a nice breeze that is quite pleasant. generally, walking in the shade is great and walking in the sun is scalding.  so i love the nice weather but lack of air conditioning is making me a little excited for things to cool off. however, i hear that it stays warm through september, making it beach/sea-appropriate weather for quite some time still (!).

traveling was long -- flew from dc --> munich --> trieste.  on my flight from dc to munich was veronica, one of my roommates, as well as two other new teachers headed to our same school. then, in munich, we met up with all the other new teachers except for a few that were taking a different route. so meeting everyone was fun and having a big group travel together was also nice for entering unfamiliar territory.

future roommates in the airport ready to go!

once we got to trieste, we were greeted by some current teachers at the school and whisked away to our apartments in the city -- the ride into town was incredible, we drove around a corner and were headed down a mountain and you could see the entire coastline of treiste - most magnificent welcome view ever.

view of the sunset from our rooftop (sticking our heads through the skylight)

our apartment is pretty great. there are three of us (previously mentioned fabulous roommate #1: veronica, fabulous roommate #2: lizzy - yes i live with another liz, again, and myself) so we have a three bedroom apartment.  we've got lots of common space (including a nice balcony) which is super nice.  we're on the top floor and have 2 floors - the upstairs (where veronica and lizzy's rooms are) has skylights in each room which we discovered host incredible views of the sunset over the building next to ours. high on our list of goals is to figure out how to climb out the skylights onto the roof. i'll keep you posted.

after settling in a bit and welcoming lizzy (she arrived on a later flight), the school hosted a dinner for all the new teacher arrivals at a restaurant down by the canal in the center of the city. dinner was super delish - pizza and wine, what more could you want after a long 2 days of traveling?!

view of trieste and the sea from our strip on the barcola

the next few days were filled with activities planned by returning teachers.  they helped us get cell phones (call me!), we watched un partito di calcio (soccer game), went to a few bars in the city and a club outside of the city and then sunday we had a group outing alla barcola, a strip of boardwalk just outside the city where everyone goes to swim in the sea.

lizzy, liz, veronica in piazza dell'unita d'italia (beautiful lit up at night)

today we had the beginning of our "orientation" and getting into the school groove of things.  we begin the process of getting our permesso di soggiorno (permission to stay) and got a tour of the school. we also began to learn about the daily commute we'll have.  while the school isn't super close to my apartment (or the center of trieste), there are two easy ways to get to school and neither takes more than 45 minutes.  also, the ride up to the town of opicina (where school is located) is absolutely breathtaking (pictures to come).  also, opicina is a cute little town with lots of restaurants - i'm looking forward to having an excuse to get to know it much better.

during the rest of this week we have more orientation meetings and paperwork as well as (hopfully) meeting our teachers and beginning to work in our classrooms! school doesn't start until september 6th but i know that these next two weeks are going to fly by.

it still feels like i'm on vacation (see pictures of piazza dell'unita and the barcola) but i've made a pact with myself to stop eating pizza for every meal, to walk up the 7 flights of stairs to my apartment instead of taking the elevator, and to finish unpacking. i want to be totally settled when school starts!

oh! as far as getting settled, our neighborhood is super nice.  there are two grocery stores only blocks away and lots of restaurants and tabacchi in the main san giovanni piazza which is very closeby.  one thing i have encountered, is that it's going to be a bit difficult to eat vegetarian here.  however! i have already found a mostly vegetarian restaurant and have been told of a very organic/vegetarian store that carries lots of foods that aren't found in traditional italian supermarkets. so yay! i'm hoping that not being able to find things i'm used to eating will force me to learn to cook and get super innovative, just wait - i'm going to come home and blow your mind with my culinary expertise.

one more thing - i haven't found postcards to buy! this is a good sign because it means that trieste isn't a huge tourist town (of which i was only slightly aware before moving here)! i have some ideas, though.

i just fell asleep writing this post so i must go to sleep. another early day of hurry-up-and-wait tomorrow! yay, paperwork! (oh but then tomorrow we're going to a local brewery!)

ciao! buona notte!

xo liz