We got into Merced in the late afternoon and met our host, Nicola, at his house. We also met his many roommates! They call his house the International House because they are all graduate students from other countries. There is a husband from Italy and his wife from Spain (and their two tiny children!), a guy from Ukraine, and a guy from Ghana. Nicola himself is from Italy, too! They are living in a gorgeous and new single family home, but Nicola said that since Merced is a newly developing city, the home prices are extremely cheap!
He took us on a drive around the town, and then just kept driving. I'm embarrassed to admit that I fell asleep in the backseat, but it seems like I didn't miss much since Nicola was just driving around the countryside. Later, I got to sort through all of the photos that Josh had taken, so I guess they saw a lot of hills and lonely trees on hills.
Nico is getting his PhD from a school in Italy but is also researching and TAing at UC Merced, the newest addition to the UC system. We got a tour of the campus and it was very tiny but very nice and new. What's crazy is that since UC Merced is trying to get their enrollment up, they offer a lot of full scholarships!! Nico said a lot of his students, maybe 70%, are attending school for free. Living expenses are obviously much cheaper here than in, say, Berkeley, as well. And to top it off, Nico (and his roommates) get the same TA stipend no matter where they live, and their stipend goes much farther in Merced than it would in LA or San Francisco!!
We stopped at a grocery store on the way home and picked up some food for dinner. Nico cooked pasta (of course!) with zucchini and shrimp, and I made a honey and lime roasted sweet potato dish. Nico's Ukrainian roommate came home and ate with us, and Josh and I had a great time talking to them about Italy and Ukraine for hours. I love that foreign English speakers understand English so much better than native English speakers... they have such a tight grasp on every English nuance that it amazes me!!
The Ukrainian roommate also explained that in Russian, you can say "you drive car," "drive you car," "car drive you," "drive car you," etc, since they all have the same meaning but changing the order changes the emphasis. The Ghanian roommate came home a bit later and definitely sold us on visiting Ghana... I think Josh and I might be doing an Italy, Ukraine, Ghana trip next!!!
Josh's high for the day was talking with the international students, and my high was related to that too: that Ukrainian guy was absolutely hilarious and it was really interesting hearing about growing up in Ukraine and his take on communism. Josh's low was leaving Lisa... he wanted to stay forever! My low was also Josh's "ho" ... the car ride to nowhere with Nico! It's my low because I couldn't hear what Nico and Josh were saying, plus there wasn't anything to see along the way! It's Josh's "ho" because he thought it was really hilarious. My "ho" was Nico's driving!!! We got honked at numerous times and I was very worried for our lives more than once!
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