Two of my favorite memories from my study abroad trip to Torino, Italy happened on the first evening I was there and one of the last evenings.

I arrived alone on a Saturday, one day early to the program start date, and decided to enjoy pizza for dinner and some much needed gelato after. I took my Canon camera to capture some memories and when I was handed the most perfect looking cone of gelato- I HAD to get a picture of me with it. There was a younger, Italian man sitting in the gelato shop who I asked to take a picture of me. He did and then proceeded to ask me if I would be willing to help him practice his English. I weighed out my options- it was still light out at 8:27 PM and sunset was not until 9:18 PM, he was about my size so if I needed to defend myself then I absolutely could, and finally we were in a pretty populated area- and I was able to deduce that if I stood around speaking with the guy it would be a harmless and memorable experience. Our conversation ranged from what kind of pet he had to what his hobbies were. The funniest part of the whole thing was that when I brought up the word “laundry” he mistakenly took it as “lingerie” and I quickly corrected that by whipping out the Google Translate app!!! Whew- what a close call, right?!

Flash forward to the last Aperitivo (if you are going to study abroad in Italy and do not know what this is yet… look it up… you are welcome) of the trip. We walked down to Piazza Vittorio Veneto and found a table at Blanco. Our waiter spoke fairly decent English and when one of the individuals at our table asked about where he learned to speak English, his answer made me almost spit out my drink! He admitted he learned English from watching MTV! A direct quote from this man, “Tupac was my teacher”. This story gets funnier and funnier every time I tell it!

In essence, studying abroad provides unique experiences and gives you the most memorable stories!

Gromm Gelato- Torino, Italy