Day 8

Today was less adventurous than others. At school we were "researching" Milano life and style, so we stalked people until lunch. I felt like paparazzi. For lunch we got something OTHER than pasta FINALLY. Which we have discovered the Italian women trick. Eat the pasta at lunch and it fills you up so you don't eat dinner. We booked our flight to Paris for next weekend!! There are no words. Milan and then Paris? Two awesome fashion capitals. Can't wait! This weekend we are trying to plan a trip to Venice, then Verona, then Cinque Terra. We'll see how that goes. We tried to buy tickets at the travel agency and it started raining. So we cooked a pizza and made a salad. After 2 hours of the computer and being bored we decided to trek in the rain to get gelato across town :) Yes, it was worth it. No real challenges today other than trying to get the washer to start so maybe that means we are catching up to Milan... chalk another one up for us?

Day 7

Second day of school.. and we were on time! We listened to the design instructor talk about the history of italian fashion for like 3 plus hours, on hard wooden stools. Not my idea of fun. After we took a tour of different locations we could use for our photoshoot. After walking around aimlessly for 2 hours and sweating, our professor let us go at the Duomo. Allison, Erin, Megan and I attempted to go home. Fail. We walked in what we thought was the right direction, couldn't read the map so we asked for help. This is where the language barrier get us. We got on a bus going the opposite direction for like 30 minutes. After the bus was done with its route. We were kicked off. I think I realized we weren't going in the right direction when we passed their China Town. Tried to find it on the map... doesn't exist. Tried calling a taxi and got hung up on about three times. Eventually found a taxi stand and sprinted towards the taxi. Took the highway home (thats how far we were) and eventually ended up at school 16 euros later. Finally got our modems! Our connection to the world probably saved our day. Otherwise, I would be in shambles after a day like this. Allison and I have been on the computer for like 4 hours now. (But of course we stop for a gelato break) Maybe tomorrow Milan will like us. Until then... I'm a sleepy girl.

Day 6

First day of school was today. I guess we didn't plan our time accordingly because we ended up sprinting to school. Our professors are really talented, but their English is hard to understand. I think my styling class will be really interesting. This week we are creating a mood board for our inspiration for a photo shoot we are doing next week. Yes, I am going to be doing a photo shoot, picking the location, make up, clothing etc. Pretty excited! Our professors are basically amazing, one worked with Karl Lagerfeld and designed collections for him, and worked with some of the most famous photographers, and styling and supervising the graphic presentation. She also monitors the press for D'Management Group, the company that handles the world's most famous supermodels (like Naomi Cambell, Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, etc. The other has her own Trend Forecasting Studio in Milan, that focuses on trend spotting, style design, brand buyer and fashion curation. (Which is all mind blowing to me). After class we walked around and ate gelato, researched for our next few weekends at the travel agency and went home. Every Monday Milan has a party for all the art summer school students with free food and drinks and metro tickets, so of course we went. After eating, we walked around the fashion district and window shopped. The window displays are amazing. We eventually ended up at the Piazza Duomo and came across by far the BEST gelato in town. The strawberry and cookie flavors are by far my favorite. Allison and I decided to do a load of laundry. Figuring out the buttons was difficult. It was very loud and sounded like a plane was trying to land in our apartment.. 2 hours later it was done. But wouldn't open. I ended up opening it with a spatula. Very resourceful. But our clothes are okay so I guess that was a success? Chalk one up for us.

Day 5

Finally got to sleep! A whole 14 hours! Definitely just what I needed. We woke up and decided to get some gelato and go exploring. We ended up taking the metro  couple stops and found Sant' Ambrogio which is a basilica built by Bishop Ambrogio in AD 379-86. It was an early Christian burial ground. The columns have animals on them representing the struggle between good and evil which I thought was pretty cool. There were a lot of nuns visiting too. After we walked around to the Piazza Codorna and found the Parco Sempione which houses a castle (Castelo Storzesco)an arena, theatre and an arc (Arco Della Pace) around all of these were grassy hills surrounded with people laying out, drinking, soccer games and dogs! We came across a group of people playing bongo drums and dancing. Also, when we were leaving, there was a concert and she was singing the song from 10 Things I Hate About You, pretty funny. Surrounding the park are cafes and bars and discos, so we will be back for sure. Allison and I made our first Italian pizza, read the Italian directions and cooked in celsius, I would say today has been pretty successful.

Day 4

So its day 4 and I have yet to actually sleep as long as anyone else. I probably get 3 less hours of sleep a night because of my stomach or just not being about to fall asleep. Woke up at 5:45am and walked to the metro to the train station. Ran through the train station to catch our train at 6:55 and missed it. Figuring out the system is pretty hard but we did it and caught the 7:20 train for Rimini. In the train station we found this toilet, never have seen this in my life, wasn't sure what to do. (see picture) We walked to the beach and ate a restaurant called Bar Kiwi, had (what they call a cheeseburger) which doesn't really have a taste. Walked around looking for hotels half the day and eventually stopped and went to the train station to get a ticket home. The machines said there were no tickets available, so we asked a worker and he said none were available for today or tomorrow. Total panic mode.  So we waited in line to ask another worker, and said the machines were down and we could just pay on the train. The beach was sand (not common) and very crowded but so relaxing and the water was perfect. So many Italians are just tiny skinny! Everyone wears a bikini no matter what, I saw maybe one one-piece. No one cares about cellulite or their stomachs, everything is just out there. Of course men of all ages were in speedos. Definitely getting used to that. We boarded our train to go home, no one was on it. Italians kept walking by and giving mean stares or looking at us and then laughing as they walked by (all 6 of us). Not sure why. But contrary to that they have been helpful. Most understand English and are willing to help. Hand gestures have been our main form of communication. i am starting to pick up on Italian, basically just short conversation and directions. This week I am working on ordering. It's so hard when you don't know what it is or what is or what it means. So that is my next challenge!

Day 3

Today we met at school for Jonathan (our coordinator) to show us around the neighborhood and show us where all the supermarkets, post offices, and any other important places were. Now I know Milan like the back of my hand! He treated all of us to a very nice Italian lunch. First white wine, pasta, THEN salad (salad is JUST cut up iceberg lettuce, nothing else) and you can put vinaigrette on for taste, then we had Tiramisu...this lasted a couple hours which is typical for an Italian lunch. After, we all went to the park where all the college students hang out and walked around, and ate gelato. We decided to plan a trip for the weekend (so last minute) went to the travel agency (after it opened back up from their siesta) stayed for about 2 hours figuring it all out and decided on taking a train to Rimini, Italy (for the beach). After we picked up some pizza and wine and went to a friends apartment.

Day 2

Orientation was today, we woke up and walked to school for the first time, with no problems! So surprised. It's only a 10 minute walk. We had lunch at school and our walking tour got canceled because it started to down pour. Eventually it stopped and we decided to go to this vintage shop we had run across (see picture) and just wandered around the neighborhood. Everyone in our program (about 10 people) met for dinner at Violla. Ordering is probably the most challenging this considering you can't ready the language, so we just pick words we recognize. It's worked out pretty well so far. Italians here are very nice and helpful, definitely more so than I thought. If you try and speak their language they are more than happy to try and speak yours. After dinner we decided to find a disco (that we were told) was popular. After taking 2 different metros and walking around the duomo for two hours and asking for directions once, we still couldn't find it and took a taxi home. The ride was a great time, he spoke little English and knew some Spanish and was Italian, there were so many languages flying around. Epic fail. I am glad we didn't get the Italian memo on wearing heels everywhere, luckily we were all in flats.

Day 1

Traveling was probably the worst ever. When we boarded our 767 to Madrid (9 hours) we were in what we like to call Statin Island at Immigration. Children, Nuns, Foreigners, you name it. I couldn't eat, I was sick and never could get to sleep. So after getting off the plane in Madrid, we got lost, asked for directions twice and failed both times. Eventually we found all the terminals and apparently don't select your gate until 20 minutes before. By the time we got to Milan we had been traveling for 29 hours straight with no food and zero sleep. Our apartment is really nice. We have a balcony, the shower is tiny (see picture) but it is all very modern. And right below us is the best gellato in town (good and bad thing) The only negative thing is our building is under construction (nothing new to me) so I didn't escape the noise or dust!

7 days...

One week, and I will be boarding an airplane to fly across the world to live for a month! So excited, but I'm not sure it has hit me yet. I should probably start packing, right?