A Typical Day In Good Ol' Colorno

A bunch of you guys have asked me about what life is like outside of school here so I thought I'd put together a fun a little post about it! Yes, we're busy 90% of the time with classes and the ambiguous schedule we keep (ohhh, Italians...), but we do get to do some fun stuff, too. I get so excited if we end a class 15 minutes early or anything of the like so I can possibly squeeze in an extra gelato before they close. Today marks one month of being in Italy and it's pretty insane how fast this month has gone by. I thought it was a good enough amount of time to 'report' on my daily shenanigans here!

I've explained that Colorno is small but let me tell you about it, in all seriousness. First off, there are two main restaurants - a pizzeria and a little, rustic joint that serves great pasta - and one pub. These are the three big going out spots and it really is hilarious the amount of times we've been to all of them already. There are a handful of cafes - 'bars' as they're called here, not to be confused with booze joints - and a nice supermarket (that's closed more than it's open so it's always a mad rush after school to get there) so, really, we have all that we need. It's a very sleepy little place to live and I totally love it. It's the complete opposite of NYC and I really needed the change. To go from frantic, chaotic life on the go all the time with any/everything at your disposal to the quiet, patient, calm nature of this town has been totally awesome for me. It's helped bring a lot of the old Valerie back in good ways and I've been relaxed and really laid back since settling into life here. There are so many days where I don't even look at a clock, I just sorta live. That's what I've been hoping to find in myself for years now, I just didn't realize how taxing NYC really can be. Here in Colorno, I even sleep better than I ever have, truly. It's a lovely, little town that I'm so happy being in!

Each morning, I get ready for school and go up to Trisha's apartment for coffee. Usually, Mo joins us and the three of us have a nice start to the day. Then, it's off on our bike ride to school. This is us pulling into school riding over the cobblestones:

I took video of our actual ride but it refuses to upload. I've tried ten billion times so booooooo.

As I've mentioned before, our days are very different from Monday to Friday. We're always in this stylish getup, though:

Don't everyone jump at once asking me where to get that outfit. We're at the low level toques (chef hat) though which is actually pretty exciting. As an FYI, the height level of your hat determines your seniority in the kitchen so we're like little kids running around in our short hats, heehee. We start at various times based on what classes we have that day and if we're in the kitchen. For example, most Tuesdays we have Italian from 8:00am - 9:30am, history from 9:30am - 11:30am, the start of the chef demo from 11:30am - 1:00pm, break for lunch from 1:00pm - 2:00pm and then the rest of the chef demo 2:00pm - 6:30pm. Those days are super long, albeit awesome, so we're all pretty tired when we get home. However, that hasn't stopped us from working out or trying to keep some semblance of our normal routine from back home. It's damn hilarious when we do our group P90X workouts, that's for sure:

It makes me giggle thinking about it.

After we work out or do whatever after class, we usually make dinner as a family. This is what we look like heading home from the grocery store pretty much all the time:

Those bags usually hold a lot of prosecco.

For dinner, it's always me, Trisha, John and Gavin but Mo usually gets in on the action last minute, too. I can tell you this much, having a bunch of aspiring chefs get together and cook dinner is pretty darn delicious. The most excitement we've had in Colorno recently was going in on a little charcoal grill! I'm not even kidding, we've been so happy getting it. We'll all do different sides and get wine or beer and enjoy having the most delicious Italian ingredients at our disposal. Giovanni (John) does the grilling most of the time but, no matter what, it's always awesome. Then, we feast:

So folks, this is pretty much what life in Colorno is like! I do love this sweet little town, though. It's cozy, quaint and feels like our home away from home which is nice when you're far away from the people you love. I'm blessed to be building the relationships that I am with a couple of awesome people so, for me, life is amazing on all fronts. You can't ask for anything more!