European Tour: First Days in Riva

When we finally got to the Casa (what we all called the house), we were given an orientation and a tour. We picked roommates and whether we wanted to live in the Casa or an apartment in town. The downside of living in an apartment: no internet, have to walk to the Casa for class and meals (rain or shine). The downside of living in the Casa: our "RA" lived there (he got fired later however) and you were more supervised. After Kathryn and I decided we should live together, we chose the house.

Our room, and Kathryn

The Classroom

Which I'm glad we did, considering there were many a day we were woken up by our professor announcing that class was starting in 2 minutes. I would fly out of the bed, put on some slippers, grab my stuff and get into a seat. Taking the bathroom break time to brush my teeth and get something for breakfast later...so good planning on our part, Kathryn.

Anyways, I did the obligatory pictures for Mom and Dad and oohhed and ahhed over the cool things in the house.

The classroom was a big room that had a balcony at the back (straight across from where you walked in), it had 4 bedrooms coming off of it. One to the left, bottom of the picture, which was mine and Kathryn's. One to the top left was a 3 bedroom where Steph, Meg and Courtney were. 3 bedroom to the top right where Eric, Rob and Ben... lived. And then a 2 bedroom @ the bottom right where Rex and Todd were.

Road leading into town

Looking towards the town

 From the balcony that was off the back of the classroom you could look side to side and see the main road that went in and out of Riva. You can also see the mountains that were on either side of Riva San Vitale, which were part of the Swiss Alps. That's right, I said Alps...

After getting settled down a little bit, we decided we should christen the town and go out. Now, Riva is not a hotbed for Saturday night activity. There are 3 in the town, you can sit in the front of one and see the other 2. The population is 2,489...and they definitely notice when 30 some odd college kids roll into town. I'm pretty sure the bars are open for us (being the VT students) and of course the local drunks who became our friends.

 

 As you can see from the pictures, we literally would take over the bar when we entered. I would say that at least 5-10 people went to a bar every night (minus the nights before midterms or finals). The locals would dance with us, and Karoke night was definitely a favorite...even when the local lady took over to belt out Italian Opera. While the rest of us were singing Britney Spears...

Some pictures from our tour de Riva, where Jeffrey (the aforementioned fired RA) that took us through the town and gave us some history.

Oldest church in Switzerland

Center of Town

To be continued...Next up: European Tour: Lugano