Day Four - Saturday Antics

So...today was ridiculously awesome. I don't know how much I should share but I think I'll go for full disclosure since nothing TOO graphic happened. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today started with the market. The Saturday market here is a big thing and it lines most of the main streets. We walked around (apparently missed half of it!) and looked at a lot of stalls. Most of the girls bought scarves and I bought a winter hat and a sweater. Along our way down the streets we met up with the boys and helped them pick out man scarves because they wanted to buy some to fit in with the locals (EVERYONE wears scarves here).

At 12 we met Dan at Akash for lunch. It was a small place but there's a nice upstairs lounge area. I had pasta and the others had paninis. The service was really slow, though, and lunch took FOREVER. After lunch we headed back to our apartment for siesta time and took naps. Some of the girls went running. Then I took a shower and we headed to the travel agency! We had been talking about going on our first trip this next weekend (4th-7th) and decided Rome was a good place to start! We went to the travel agency (they speak English!) and they booked our train tickets FOR NO CHARGE. It was amazingly easy. We had already done research on which trains we wanted to take. We'll take a train from Alba to Asti (about an hour away) Thursday night around 8:30 and we'll get into Rome (after changing in Asti) around 6 the next morning. We'll stay Friday and Saturday night in a hostel in Rome and then we catch another overnight train Sunday night, getting back to Alba right before classes start on Monday. It's going to be amazing! It also was only about $120 round trip.

After booking our tickets we headed to the gelato place for celebration gelato! Very important. I got strawberry and Fio de Leche (Milk flower?) and it was good but not as good as the hazelnut! Kiki had the hazelnut and let me try it. It was delicious. Then we headed back to our apartment to hang and get ready for dinner.

We left for dinner around 7 and went to the boys to hang and drink before dinner (drinks are expensive so the group buys wine at the grocery store and drinks it in their rooms). I discovered I like vodka and pineapple juice well enough. Still didn't drink much, though. I don't really feel the need to.

Dan told us that there was a mix-up with our restaurant (the last one in our meal plan) and they couldn't take us tonight so we went to La Duchessa again. I had a different pizza this time and everyone else tried another one, too. It's ok pizza but not amazing. The place was PACKED, though. Everyone goes out to dinner on Saturday night and the place was full of people, mostly high school kids. Alba is a high school town, making it hard for us to meet people our age. Dinner was good, though, and we headed to a local bar afterwards.

We walked from La Duchessa to the bar (I forget it's name) and it was also PACKED since everyone goes out on Saturday nights and high school kids can drink here so, again, it was full of high school kids. They are ridiculously mature-looking and made us feel bad about ourselves. Oh well. People ordered beers and drinks and we hung out but it was packed and there wasn't much space to stand and it was FREEZING outside. Some people eventually ordered absinthe and apparently enjoyed it a lot. Just a shot--nothing hallucination-envoking.

After the bar we headed back towards our apartment. As we passed an alley, a group of guys walked into us and we sort of yelled "Caio bellos" at them and they started yelling back at us. We slowed down to let them catch up with us (because some people thought that would be fun) and eventually started talking to them (they spoke English). They offered to take us to the discoteque we had been hearing about all night so we followed them back towards the bar. They introduced themselves like 8 times and so did we but I don't think anyone remembers anyone's name.

Anyway, we walked past the bar we had just left and ended up at this Bingo place with a huge group of people outside. We skirted the people and were let inside the Bingo place, followed the guys up a sketchy staircase and came into a pool room. The guys talked to some other guys and money was exchanged for the tickets to the discoteque. The tickets were 12 euro each but the men paid for us. It was awesome. Then we left the creepy Bingo house and went next door, passing by all the people in line and going straight into the disco (apparently the guys we were with were big shit! We all got treated awesomely the whole time we were with them). We got inside, waited a bit for a table so we could put our coats down, and then hit the dance floor. The place was packed and we were a little under-dressed but now we know for next time.

The guys we came with stayed near the table (which was near the DJ) and ended up behind the rope near the DJ so apparently they WERE really important people. Lucky us! Anyway, we headed down onto the dance floor, pushing through the crowd of high school kids and people our age. We found a spot and danced for a while. Then some guys came over and started grinding on us and we were like "Ok, we're in Italy. Italian guys are like this so whatever." Then things started to get a bit handsier and we moved away. The guy on me tried to steal my cellphone (but I caught him) so that was pretty scary. We went back to our coats and hung with the guys we came with and then the St. Mary's guys found us! It was really fun to see them. They had to wait in the line that we got to completely bypass. We headed back on the dance floor with them and the guy who had tried to steal my cellphone came back. I told Greg, one of the St. Mary's guys, about the creeper and he eventually communicated to the guy that he better leave us alone. It was a good moment. Then we danced together (all 9 of us) for a little longer and, eventually, me and three of the other girls headed back to the apartment. Kiki and I were wearing heels so our feet were DEAD.

Anyway, all in all it was a ridiculous night. I realize we weren't really all that safe but it was fun, it was risky, and it all worked out. We looked out for each other the whole time and made sure everyone was together. We also knew that we didn't want to do anything other than go to the discoteque and we didn't want to pay so we didn't get scammed. We put all our important stuff in our pockets when we left our coats (I put my wallet in my shoes) and then watched our pockets to make sure no one stole anything. No one reading this is allowed to worry. By reading this you are at least partially acknowledging that you're living vicariously through me. Well, here is what I'm doing. I won't hide it. I have to make stories!

Tomorrow we're obviously laying low. It's almost 4 am right now so we won't be getting up very early. Might make a late lunch (at a restaurant since the Mensa is still closed) but won't do much else since stores and stuff will be closed. I feel like there was something I had planned to do but I can't remember now. Perhaps it was planning out some more trips. Or doing internship stuff. Or a combination of the two. We're going to the last restaurant for dinner, though. That I know.

Anyway, it was an exciting and full day and I'm pleasantly happy. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had experiencing it but I doubt you did! =P

Love you all. Goodnight!