Day 14: Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sunday.  Today was interesting, to say the least.  We all woke up, about 4 hours after having gone to bed, and were exhausted and hung over.  We checked out, and then went downstairs and grabbed some breakfast…but then we ended up staying there for about an hour and a half, because it was POURING down rain, and FREEZING cold outside…so we weren’t in any huge hurry to leave.  And, our train didn’t leave till 7:30pm, so we were somewhat concerned about the amount of time we had to kill.  We decided that there was nothing we could really do with the weather being what it was, so we went to the train station to see if we could catch an earlier train. 

The remainder of the day seemed to be a domino effect of minor setbacks: 

Setback number 1) Sometime during the last two days in Florence, I lost my train ticket home.  I looked EVERYWHERE, and it was nowhere to be found.  It’s $40 for another one, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but definitely a bummer.  I tried really hard to keep a positive attitude though…after all, there’s no use crying over spilt milk!  It was gone, and there was nothing I could do!

Setback number 2) We were unaware that there were two different train stations in Florence.  We caught a cab outside our hostel and asked him to take us to “the train station,” assuming there was only one.  Well there’s two, and he took us to the wrong one.  However, we were unaware that this was the wrong train station until after we had gotten all of our luggage out of the cab, paid the driver, waited in a 30 minute line in hopes of getting an earlier ride home, and was then told we were at the wrong station. 

Setback number 3) After we caught another cab to the right train station, we were told that the next train for Milan wasn’t leaving for another 4 hours.  And because we opted for the cheaper train tickets, the slow train only comes in and out of a super ghetto station with nothing around it.  So we were stuck in a freezing cold, outdoor train station for 4 hours, with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Setback number 4) when we finally got on the train, there was a little mix-up, and we had no seats.  We literally spent a 4 hour train ride standing in a teeny tiny little hallway (it’s supposed to take 3 and a half, naturally it took longer), which we had to press our faces against the wall every time someone needed to walk by, which was amazingly frequent.



Also, there was a screaming baby next to me the whole time, who was having the worst day of his life, and was wailing for the first 2 hours.  So when we finally arrived in Milan, we caught the metro back to Romolo.  However, just to top off our unbelievably terrible luck, there were also no seats on the Metro.  So again, we had to stand for the 15 minute metro ride to our house.  And then walk in the snow from the metro to our house, because apparently it snowed when we were gone.

Setback number 5) We were home at last J  I quickly unpacked my stuff, then Caitlin and I went to the store, because we were STARVING!!  We got there at 8:40.  It closed at 8:30.  Moving on. 

Setback number 6) We reluctantly decided to get pizza, even though it was really the last thing we wanted.  And there’s a pizza place right across from our house, so we popped in there before going home.  He made our pizzas, then we ran home to eat them because we were so hungry.  However sometime during the 10 steps from the Pizzeria to our front door step, all of the cheese slid off my pizza, out of the box, and onto my winter coat.  So not only did I have a coat that looked like it was covered in throw up, I also had to eat a pizza for dinner which now consisted of saucy bread.  Bummer J

So while you might think that it was the worst day of my life, it actually wasn’t THAT bad.  There wasn’t any point in the day where I was miserable.  Even on the train ride, where the baby was screaming crying and we were inhaling constant smells of butt, it was almost funny, we were laughing about it.  We had back luck for a day.  It happens. 

So after this weekend, I have learned a few things: 1) Florence is a beautiful city, and everyone should visit if given the chance.  2) Florence is a beautiful city, that everyone should visit if given the change, that also nickel and dimes the crap out of you!  EVERYTHING cost money, from walking up to the bell tower, to going into the museums, etc.  Nothing in that city is free.  NOT EVEN THE BATHROOMS.  I had to pay 1E to pee!  3) Never travel without having an actual place to put important documents.  My train ticket didn’t fit in my wallet, so even on the way there, I was always just throwing it in my purse.  Bad idea.  Things happen, and it was lost!  All I could do is thank god it wasn’t my passport!  4) Traveling, well actually just living, with other people, definitely tests your patience.  Even after only being here for two weeks, I feel like I have learned to just take a step back and let everyone get a chance to do what they want to do.  At times, we all wanted to do and see different things, which is hard!  But I am learning that if you just please one person at a time, everyone ends up happy in the end!  I have tried really, really hard to not complain while being here in Italy.  After all, I am in Italy, studying abroad.  There shouldn’t be much to complain about.  While things are definitely frustrating at times because SO many things are done differently than at home, I’m learning to take everything with a grain of salt J

Day 13: Saturday, January 29, 2011

We woke up around 10 today, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast at the hostel, then headed out!  We decided to start at the farthest point from our hostel, and make our way back.  We started at the Galleria degli Uffizi.  It holds some of the worlds most important Renaissance art and sculptures, and stuff from Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.  Ummm, it was definitely cool.  Some of the artwork was unbelievable.  I almost just wish I was more into the whole biblical art scene.  Because after awhile, all the paintings started to look the same.  It was all something to the sound of Mary holding Baby Jesus.  But I don’t want to sound negative, IT WAS super awesome, and I would totally recommend to anyone that went.  If not for the awe of the paintings, then just for the history of the whole place.  So we stayed there for about two hours, then moved onward!

Next we waked to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge).  It’s the only surviving bridge from Florence’s medieval day, because all the others were destroyed during WWII, and is one of the top “must-see’s” of Florence!  And it was beautiful!  We took lots of pictures from afar and gazed out for awhile.  Then we walked over the bridge, and the entirety of it is jewelry stores!

Ponte Vecchio

We were thinking it would be awesome if there was a restaurant, but there’s not.  ALL really expensive jewelry shops.  Afterwards we grabbed lunch.  People were getting tired, so we hung out there for about an hour and a half.  I had lasagna, it was probably the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here, and it wasn’t even that good.  I would take my mom’s lasagna over the one I got any day.  I don’t know what it is about being here, I have so much energy!  I am usually ALWAYS so tired, and revolve my days around when I’m going to take my nap, but not here.  I always get bummed out when people want to go to sit down meals; I’d always just rather grab something and keep going! 

After lunch, we went to the Campanile – Bell Tower.  Its 414 stairs to the top, and great views of the entire city!  It was 6E to do it, but I think it was totally worth it.  If you’re afraid of heights though, you’d HATE it.  I am not afraid of heights AT ALL, and I felt a little twist in my stomach a couple times leaning over the side.  It was awesome though, probably the high light of the weekend J

Campanile

From there, we went to see the Statue of David…or so we thought!  The Statue of David is located in the Galleria dell’ Academia.  Which would have cost another 6E, so we opted out.  But then, walking passed the building, we noticed a statue in a court yard, behind fences, inside the building…with a huge statue of a naked man.  So we assumed it was the David!  So we leaned our heads in, snapped a few pix, and felt like we got away with murder.  However, we later found out that it was not the David, and we didn’t away with anything.  Classic mix-up. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel.  It was about 5pm, and we decided to just chill until about 7.  Then, we headed to a restaurant to catch Apertivo with all the Lugano people.  This one was so much better than the last Apertivo we had at the Mayflower!  There was a bunch of different kind of pastas, and chicken, and other dishes.  It was actually pretty good.  And I got a strawberry daiquiri, so I don’t have much to complain about when I have one of those in my hand!  Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel again to get ready for the night.  We all showered, and then everyone met downstairs in the common room at around midnight.  

We all took a taxi to a club called Space, and when we got there, there was about 23456789 people crowded around the entrance, trying to get in.  Somehow we managed to squish our way through and up to front relatively quickly, and with a little sweet talking to the bouncer, we were in the club in less than 10 J  And it was pretty awesome.  It was like the clubs we have been going to in Milan, except smaller.  But it was two levels, and there were smoke machines, and strobe lights, and mass amounts of people dancing everywhere!  We got one free drink with our entry, so we obviously went right up to the bar and took advantage of that.  Then, we went upstairs and danced…all night!  Somehow I managed to get into the VIP section, so I finished the night up dancing up there and spinning dub with the DJ!  

We got home from the club around 5ish, and we all passed out immediately.  And, we had to be OUT of the hostel by 10am the next day, so we knew that was going to suck!

Day 12: Friday, January 28, 2011

Today, we left for Florence!  We left our house about an hour before the train was supposed to leave, just to be safe.  However, now we know that it’s not really necessary to do that, because they don’t even put up the platform number that the train leaves from until about 5 minutes before it departs!

It was hilarious walking up to our train.  There are two options for train tickets to Florence.  One costs 55E each way, and is considered the “fast train.”  It gets you there in about an hour and a half, and the train is supposedly really nice.  Option two is a ticket that costs 29E each way, and is considered the “slow train,” and takes about three and a half hours to get there…on a good day.  Well, we obviously took option two.  And when we got to the train station, all the trains looked super nice and roomy.  Yea, those were the “fast trains.”  When we get our platform number, we walk up to this old, rickety, piece of shit train that looks like it was constructed in 1950.  And it smelled like a mix between Indian food and feet.  And, we also couldn’t even figure out which part of the train was first class, and which part was second class.  We thought we were in second class when we got on…we were wrong.  It was first class…which is never good.  So we wandered on back to second class upon figuring it out, and it sucked even worse.  And we were also unaware that we actually had specified seats, we thought it was just kind of a free for all (which was a dumb assumption).  So after getting all situated, people from the next stop got on, and it was a whole fiasco.  I ended up having to stand the last hour of the ride.  Which was fine; I was just ready to get there!

When we finally got there around 3pm, we hopped off the train and attempted to make ways to our hostel.  I had googled directions before we left, and it was supposed to only be a 12 minute walk!  Well, not the way we went.  We got incredibly lost (typical) and ended up having to just take a taxi.  Which totally sucks when you have luggage with you; because they charge you like an extra 2E for every bag you have!  And there was four of us, each with a bag, so it definitely was pricey to take cabs.  When the cab dropped us off, we literally just dropped our stuff off in our room, and then went to walk around!

Hostel: Plus Florence

We spent the afternoon exploring the city; just walking around!  We stumbled upon the Duomo, The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The outside was made of white marble with green and pink.  It looked like a gingerbread house!  It was so awesome.

Duomo, The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Outside of it was the Baptistery.  It was like a little octagon made of the same exterior as the Duomo.  And all of these buildings have the coolest looking doors too, which just adds to the mystique.

Door to the Baptistry 

After we were done gazing, we walked around a little more, looking at all the little shops!  We passed through the marketplace, a string of streets where all the vendors come out and sell goods!  However, they literally all sell the same things: wallets, scarves, and Italy apparel.  I bought a few scarves…and a wallet J  Then we grabbed some dinner, which sucked…naturally.  I am SO sick of this food already!  It seems like you either have to choose between yummy, really expensive food, or cheap, shitty food.  Obviously we always choose the latter. 

When we got back to the hostel, we showered and got ready, then went down to the common room of the hostel and started taking shots.  Shortly after we got there, three guys came up!  One was Australian, named James.  The other two were Canadian, named Tom and Dave.  James was awesome.  Super talkative and charming.  Tom was really sarcastic, and Dave didn’t talk much!  But we all sat and drank together, then attempted to catch up with all the Lugano people who were also in Florence for the weekend!  They were doing a pub crawl, where you just go from bar to bar and get drinks.  But apparently is was an organized one with really sick deals.  We never actually found them….we found a few girls who had lost the big crowd of people somehow?  So we ended up just doing our own thing.  We went to a bar that ended up being really American.  Which is cool, and not at the same time.

Clearly a very American bar. 

Our hostel friends :) 

Its nice to not have the language barrier, but when you’re in Florence, or Rome, or Milan, or anywhere for that matter, you WANT to be immersed in the culture.  Apparently there is about 4,000 students studying abroad in Florence from the states.  So I’m really glad I’m not there.  Florence isn’t THAT big of a city.  It felt like every corner we turned, there were more American speaking students.  I really like being in Milan where there aren’t Americans every other block.  So after the bar, we headed home!  By the time we got back it was probably about 3:30; and we were actually kind of glad to be in relatively early because we had so much planned for the next day!  

Day 11: Thursday, January 27, 2011

This morning…was rough.  Wow.  Getting home at 6am, then going to class at 9:30?  Not for me.  It was terrible.  And I looked like hell.  And any 3 hour class is also just not for me, holy boring. 

I have never heard a teacher ramble as much as this lady did.  She made everyone go around and introduce themselves and then say what the wanted to gain from this experience.  And first of all, there was only 15 of us.  Second of all, everyone said pretty much the same thing…they wanted to learn more about fashion, for a different cultural perspective, or something along those lines.  Yet somehow, after each person, she managed to go on a 15 minute shpeal about NONSENSE.  It was incredible, slash the most annoying thing ever.  It took us an hour and a half to introduce 15 people; that’s insane.  

So after that God forsaken class was over, we came home and passed out right away.  My head was absolutely pounding.  And my stomach was churning because I hadn’t eaten anything!  I AM SO SICK OF THE FOOD WE HAVE, AND OF ALL THE FOOD IN THIS COUNTRY.  Which is not good, seeing as its only day 11.  But ugh, nothing is as good as the food at home.  And I skyped with Kevin pretty much all day, and I watched him eat like every meal.  And I was incredibly jealous when he ate his Chipotle in front of me.

The rest of the night we all spend relaxing and being hung over.  We uploaded pictures and relived the night before.  And I skyped Kevin a bunch, like always J  AND, what totally made my day, is he just randomly made a list of the things he loves about me, which was the sweetest thing ever.  He totally makes my heart melt.  He wrote the most adorable things, and it made me want to squeeze him!

And we packed for Florence, because we're leaving in the morning!!!

Day 10: Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The day started off same old…Italian for 3 hours, I was bored. Nothing new.  After class however, I attempted to meet Letitiza at work.  She sent me an email telling me which metro to take, and then gave me the name of the street she worked on.  Which is nice, however, a random street means nothing to me.  And it was the most crowded metro I have ever seen.  Every single person was smashed against another person…it was miserable.  And when I was almost at the stop, I got an email from Letitiza that said “By the way, the metros go on strike at 6:30, so make sure you have another way home.”  Naturally I didn’t, so I kind of freaked out a little, seeing as it was passed 6 already.  So when I finally got to the stop, I got off and walked around the piazza for a little, trying to find the street she told me!  When I found it, I walked down it…however, it was dark, and the street was sketch, I was by myself, and I was nervous about not being able to get back, and I definitely didn’t love the situation I was in.  When I found the address number she had given me, it was just a huge wooden door that was locked?  And I banged, but nobody answered?  So I left, and it was an epic waste of time.  And I got kind of lost on the way home, but luckily Kevin texted me the entire time, which made me feel better.  

 

At night, we went to a club called Old Fashioned Café.  However, it was not a café in any way, shape, or form.  It was a dance club, and it was poppin’.  It was recommended by Jonathon on the first day, and Wednesday’s are international night!  So we went, and it was an absolute blast! 

We started off at our house…typical.  The boys came over, with two other girls, Laruen and Melissa, who are also from Philly.  We drank some wine, took some shots, then headed out around 1:30am.  We started walking towards the main street, however, taxi’s in our neck of the woods are always hard to come by!  There was 9 of us, so we decided to do 3/3/3.  It took like 15 mins to find the first one…and Emily, Caitlin, and I took it.  Because the three of us ALWAYS wait for the last one, and let other people go first.  So we decided to take the first one this time!  However, the other people got there right after us, so I guess 2 more taxis came quickly for them, which was great!  We were kind of drunk, and trying to speak Italian to our cab driver.  He was teaching us some words, we were attempting to repeat them; it didn’t go well. 

When we got there, the place had the same deal as Alcatrez had the other night…10E to get in, then 2 free drink tokens, which is AWESOME!  We all went in and got a drink right away, then started killin’ it on the dance floor.  After my first drink, this guy, with these crazy glasses came up to me and asked if he could buy me a drink.  Naturally I said yes.  So he bought me one.  Then he asked if I wanted to go to the VIP room with him; I said no because it sounded kind of sketchy initially.  However, he asked again, and this time he added…FREE DRINKS.  Now I was intrigued.  So I asked him if I could bring all my friends…haha like all 15 of us, and he said yes!  So we all headed to the other side of the bar, and went into VIP section.  And he got us all drinks, one after the other, and the night got fuzzy from there J I think he might have been famous, or maybe just really rich.  Because there was a camera guy following him around all night!  He was SO nice though to all of us; I’m pretty sure he was gay too!  We began to call him “glasses” because we couldn’t remember his name for the life of us.  So that spread like rapid fire and everyone started calling him that .  So we all danced all night long.  And while I do not remember leaving, or the cab ride home, or basically just the second half of the night, when we left, apparently some guy came up and gave me a bouquet of roses, which is AWESOME!  They look very pretty in our kitchen now!  There were also taxi’s lined up outside the club for once, which was so nice not having to hunt one down!

Day 9: Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Today was a very productive day!  We woke up around 10:30am (even though we had planned to wake up around 9:30!) and went to the train station to see WHAT THE DEAL IS about traveling around here!!  I have spent SO much time on these airline websites, and train websites, trying to find cheap ways to travel, and basically just striking out.  So we decided to go the train station, per the lady at the travel agency’s advice.  We took the green line all the way to Centrale, which was super easy and fast.  We wandered around for about 30 minutes, trying to follow the arrows to the information desk…but it was a lot harder than it sounds!  I felt like I was trying to put together a puzzle; we would go to one place, and it would tell us to go to another station, which would sent us to another window…I felt like I was in a maze.  Anyways, we finally found it, and we bought our TRIP TO FLORENCE for this weekend!  We have class till 5:30 this Thursday, which won’t happen again after this week, so we decided to leave Friday morning.  And we’re staying until Sunday evening at 7:35, so we’ll have half of Friday, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday to explore Florence!!  I am so excited J J And Casey will be there, so I’ll definitely have to meet up with her one night, and we can all just kill it on the town together!  We also booked our hostel, for 14E a night, which is awesome!  We’re staying at the same place that the Lugano students are staying at, because they are going to Florence this weekend too!

Once we found where to buy the tickets, the process was relatively easy.  Like I said, the train station is a straight show on the Metro from our house, and all you do is tell them where you want to go, and they give you the times! 

After that, we came home, ate a quick lunch, then headed to class.  Class was pretty boring, as any 3 hour Italian class would be.  Although our teacher is really nice, and he makes it really interactive, which keeps it interesting…as much as possible.  He goes really fast though!

Day 8: Monday, January 24, 2011

Today, classes started!  And 8:30am rolled around really quickly!  When we got to school, we listened to another orientation type thing; it was like an academic intro to everything.  They introduced our teachers and gave us an overview of what we will be learning in class.  The classes seemed really easy.  One of the fashion classes showed a PowerPoint presentation of a project we’d be working on throughout the semester, and it looked like something I could make in a few hours!  So that’s nice J  I think Italian is going to be my hardest class!

We had about a two hour break for lunch, so all the girls decided to go to a travel agency and see what the deal is for booking some trips!  I AM SO ANXIOUS to travel!  I want to go everywhere; and I feel like all I have been doing the past week is living on the airline websites trying to find cheap flights.  AND WE DID BOOK A TRIP TO PARIS NEXT WEEKEND! For like $80 round trip…so I am SUPER EXCITED!!!  However, we realized this morning that we have a field trip on Friday, and we booked a flight to leave on Thursday!  So we’re going to have to talk to our teachers, because we can’t cancel it!  Hopefully they’ll let us work something out!  But I really, really want to go somewhere this weekend. ANYWHERE! I just want to see the world J  But anyways, we went to the travel agency, and I almost felt like the lady didn’t really know what she was talking about, she was spitting out prices that were so much more expensive than I found myself online.  So we decided to go to the train station tomorrow morning, because…our class in the morning is cancelled! Haha first day…the professor couldn’t make it, I wasn’t complaining!

After the travel agency, we got lunch at a restaurant called “California Bakery,” and they sold almost all American food!  It was wonderful!  Everyone says you can’t find bagels…well that’s wrong!  I had a chicken salad on a bagel, and it was delicious!  However, they did charge each person 2E just to sit down and be served…which apparently is somewhat common.  Kind of a bummer; a cover charge to eat??? C’mon! AND…GREAT NEWS!!!  They sell PEANUT BUTTER!!!  Peanut butter is IMPOSSIBLE to find in Italy!  So when the jar I brought runs out, I WILL be making a run there!

After lunch, the girls took us to their apartment because we were anxious to see what their living conditions were like!  And they were right, ours are far superior to theirs.  They literally live in a dorm-like setting; lofted beds, one small room.  I would WAY rather live where we live.  And, they are also a lot farther from school.

When we got back to school, we had our first actual class.  Our teacher seems really nice, but he scared me in the beginning!  He started going off in Italian…and I of course, had no idea what he was saying!  But he gave us the syllabus, and we learned the very basics, like how to introduce yourself, etc.  The class is very interactive, which is nice…but it also leaves a lot of opportunity to make a dick out of yourself.  For instance, when the teacher went up to each person and introduced himself, then had you introduce yourself to the class…I was so preoccupied trying to pronounce everything right, I said I was Italian.  Really!?  Embarrassing.

After class, we stopped at the supermarket, and got some wine, cheese, bread, and olive oil.  And that was our dinner.  And it was amazing J  I spent the rest of the night Skyping Kevin, and just hanging out! 

Day 7: Sunday, January 23, 2011

Soooooo…..we slept till 4pm. DAMNIT!  Apparently it was a really nice day too!  Not that we would know! My room in the basement gets so dark, and with my fan set up, it’s pretty amazing.  I can sleep forever!

When we finally realized how late it was, we jumped out of bed and decided to stop sucking, and head to the center.  Caitlin wanted to go to church at the Duomo at 5:30, we hurried and got ready, then while Caitlin was at church, Emily and I met up with Kristen and walked around a bit.  By this time, it was REALLY COLD though! 

What was really surprising to me was how busy it was.  I’m talking packed, every inch of the sidewalk, every square foot of the stores, everything was SO CROWDED!  Isn’t Sunday supposed to be like a quiet day, and especially Sunday evening!  Well apparently not in Milano; it was bustling as ever!  So crowded that it almost made it difficult to shop.  All the stores were so chaotic and everything was so unorganized; none of the clothes were folded anymore, everything was off the rack; it was literally a mess!

But the city gets so pretty at night, it all lights up :)

After Caitlin was done, we all decided to grab some dinner.  Seeing as it was almost 7pm, and we hadn’t eaten yet!  We ate at this restaurant that had heated tents outside, but it was still really cold!  I had to keep my winter coat on the entire time, and by the end, my feet were numb!  I ordered a hamburger…ballsy, being in Italy.  And I don’t think I’ll do it again, unless I’m like dying for red meat.  It tasted like a turkey burger or something.  I don’t know, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.  But I was STARVING, so I ate every last bit!  Another interesting thing, foods around here don’t really come with anything.  Like in America, that burger would have come with either chips or fries and a pickle.  Not here!  It’s a la carte! 

After we got home, it was impossible for me to fall asleep, seeing as I woke up at 4pm!  So I ended up Skyping Kevin for hours, which is never something I’m going to complain about!  We have actually been able to talk so much more than I expected.  I have been staying up really late, and he has been amazing, and setting his alarm and waking up early, so there’s only a few hours that the time change makes it hard to talk!  So we BBM when I’m out during the day, and we Skype at night.  It’s not anything like being in Blacksburg, but we’re making do J  But I didn’t end up going to bed till almost 3:30, and with the first day of classes starting in the morning, it was not a good idea!

Day 6: Saturday, January 22, 2011

Seeing as we got home at 6am last night, we all slept till about 1pm!  When we woke up, we were being really, really lazy, and didn’t do anything.  However, shockingly, I wasn’t puking all day. So that was a pleasant surprise!  Emily, Caitlin, and I literally just hung around the house all day, and prepared ourselves for another night of awesomeness! J I skyped Kevin and my family, and we spend the day relaxing.  Some of the girls internet still isn’t working, and I seriously thank god everyday that mine is working and I can see Kevin!  He has been so great this entire time.  A couple of the other girls have boyfriends, and some of them say they have been constantly fighting; I’m just so happy that Kevin is always so supportive of me.  He’s the best, I am so lucky. 

Before we went out, we decided we should probably give buying liquor another go, seeing as we failed miserably last time!  We went to the store, and there were a bunch of bottles that looked like Vodka, but I couldn’t tell!  And I didn’t want to blow it AGAIN, so Emily and I ended up splitting a bottle of Absolut, which was 13E.  It is what it is. We’ll learn what the cheaper liquors are, but for now…we’re going with what we know!

We didn’t get everything started till really late!  We finished getting ready around 12, and the other girls came over around 12:30.  They had alcohol this time…well, kind of. They brought one bottle of wine, and many of them ended up taking shots of our vodka.  Why do I feel like I’m always the one supplying the alcohol?  Blows my mind.  Tonight, we were going to a club called Amnesia! 

It was about the same distance from our house as Alcatrez…which was kind of far, but when we got there, we realized it was 20E just to get in!!  HOWEVER, as I was walking in, this guy who was walking out offered me his wrist band that he took off his wrist for 5E.  I told him I wanted to try it on first, to see if it fit, before I gave him the money.  When I tried it on, he told me I could just have it!  So I ended up getting in for free, which is so awesome.  But this place had no free drink passes this time! And drinks, once you got in, were 10E EACH!  That’s insane.  And this was the FIRST PLACE, since I’ve been here, that didn’t make the drinks strong at all.  I watched them make the drinks, and there was like 1 shot in each…such a rip off.  So I WAS going to buy one, until I saw that, then I decided against it.  So we all just decided to dance for a little longer, then head back.  This club was a lot smaller, so it was  A LOT more packed.  Like every single person was pressed against another person…kind of nasty.  And these people were a lot more touchy then the people at the other club.  A lot of the girls felt very uncomfortable.  And just the fact that we weren’t really drinking because it was so expensive, was kind of a buzz kill.  So we ended up leaving around 4:30.

The night definitely wasn’t as epic as the first night, but you live and you learn!  It was still fun being with all the girls; I’m glad we went J

Day 5: Friday, January 21, 2011

Today, we woke up early and walked to school to catch a charter bus which took all the study abroad students to a town called Pavia.  It was only about a 30 minute bus ride (which I fell asleep on, BOTH WAYS! Classic), and apparently is a very historic little city.  I didn’t think the city itself was THAT small though.  I know when I visited with my family a couple years ago, we spent days going into teeny, tiny little walled cities, that you could circle in 20 minutes!  Pavia was definitely much bigger than that.  We had an adorable Italian tour guide (who spoke English, obviously) and was so smiley the entire time!  He kept getting mad at Jonathon though because Rocco kept barking…kind of funny.  First, we toured around another castle that was made in the 13^th century.  It was destroyed by the French in the 15^th century, so what we were looking at were the remains.  That castle was absolutely humongous, but not exactly very picturesque anymore.  From there, we just toured through the town, listening to our tour guide tell us about the city.  At times, it was a little boring, but most of the time I was enjoying myself.  It was very cold though!  When we first got there, there was snow on the ground, but by the afternoon, the sun had come out and it had all melted!

The guys we had hung out with a couple nights before were SUPER AWKWARD when we passed by their tour guide group.  They like didn’t say “hi.”  We were like…um…hello? And they were like “Oh, oh hi!”  We were like “ok, don’t act like you didn’t notice us.”

For lunch, we ate at a pizzeria…typical.  It was yummy, I mean you can’t go wrong with a Margarita pizza!  We had a 3 hour lunch break…which was way too long!  We ended up just hanging out there for like 2 hours, then walked around the town again for another hour before we left. 

After we got home, we decided to head to the actual supermarket (not an express one) for the first time.  It ended up being about a 12 minute walk, which isn’t THAT far, but it definitely limits how much you can buy, and what you can buy!  We wanted to buy like big jugs of water, so we could refill our individual ones, but we obviously couldn’t do that.  Emily and I decided we wanted to buy some liquor to pregame with before we went out that night.  We didn’t really know what to get, so for some unknown reason, we decided on some nasty lemon stuff, and some nasty coffee flavored stuff.  It was like super thick and gross when we opened it; it looked like milk.  Gross.  Which we would have dealt with, except for the fact that it turned out to be a NON-ALCOHOLIC drink.  It was like a pallet changer, what you’re supposed to sip on after dinner!  We blew it. 

So anyways, the other girls came over to pregame, however…they didn’t have an alcohol either.  They were going to buy some on the way over, except everything was closed.  So they boys showed up with a couple beers, so we made them just chug them, so we could leave and just head to the bars.  First, we went to this bar called Gecko.  It wasn’t very crowded, but when we walked in, the bartended gave all the girls a free shot, which was awesome!  Then, we all ordered another drink.  The drinks here are SO much stronger its crazy.  We were there till about 1:30am, and the bartender told us about this club called Alcatrez.  So we decided to go!

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!  We walked in, and there was just thousands of people (literally) everywhere!!  There was music blasting, both American and like Italian techno, and of those of us who went, like 5 girls, and 4 boys, we literally danced ALL NIGHT LONG.  While it was kind of far away, it was about a 15E cab ride, the deals they have are amazing!  It was 10E to get in, but with that, we all got 2 free drink passes!  So it was basically a free cover, but 10E is about what 2 drinks would have cost, if not more!  And once again, they make the drinks SO STRONG!  I ordered a pineapple vodka, and the bartender just poured an entire cup of Malibu, pineapple flavored.  Haha, Malibu isn’t even vodka.  Classic miscommunication.  But we got home around 6am, and went straight to bed.  It was so much fun.  I usually never make it that late!  But we all just had a blast singing and dancing all night long J

Day 4: Thursday, January 20, 2011

Today, we had to meet at 9am to do a “practical tour” of Milan with Jonathon.  Thank god my hangover was pretty much done, or god knows I would have been damn miserable.  SAI gave us 4 bus passes for us to use to get into the city, 2 of which were supposed to be used today.  So naturally, I didn’t even open the packet that they gave me, so I didn’t have mine.  But luckily Caitlin brought all 4 of hers, so she lent me two of hers.  When we got there, Jonathon was there with Rocco, his little dog that he dresses in Burberry sweaters…we’re pretty sure he’s gay.  He took us downstairs to the Metro office to register for our unlimited daily passes.  Which would have been a disaster if Jonathon wasn’t there to translate everything.  After we got that all situated, we were on our way!  First, we walked passed this club that he said it said it really poppin’ on Wednesday nights because it’s international night.  So we’ll definitely check that out net week!  Then we walked to this castle, which was really cool – but the weather was so foggy at this point, so it was hard to enjoy the sights when the weather was so sucky.  Luckily though, it started to clear up by the early afternoon!  We walked all around Milan, looking at the shopping malls, the Duomo, etc.  Then, we stopped for lunch at this cute, tiny little restaurant.  The woman was adorable, and kept bringing out different dishes for us to try and wine for us to drink!  Me, being a picky eater, definitely didn’t love everything.  There was like artichoke soufflé’s…which, does that sound like something I’d like, haha no.  But there was the most delicious Brea I had ever tasted though, and the main course, which was pasta, was very good!  Even though I was super full by that point.  The bill ended up being about 500E!  Jonathon paid for it though, on the SAI credit card, so we didn’t have to spend any money again!  After lunch, we walked around a little more, but then he sent us on our own.  Some of the girls stayed and shopped, but Emily, Caitlin, and I decided to go back.  I would way rather spend my money on traveling than clothes, especially when it’s only the first week, and I haven’t even worn half the things in my closet! 

The SAI girls :)

Milan Duomo

I love the skinny little streets in Europe!

By this time, I was SO ANXIOUS to go out, but once again, we had to wake up early in the morning the next morning!  We had a field trip to Pavia, and the bus left at 9am!  So, we drank some wine and hung out with each other, than called it a night!

Day 3: Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Today we had ANOTHER orientation that started at 9am.  However, this one included all the people who are studying abroad at NABA, not just those through SAI.  It was heavily female, but there were some boys too!  Who we befriended!  We figured it would be nice to have guy friends to walk around with, especially at night!  They were all from Philly, and really nice guys.  The actual orientation itself was SUPER REPETITIVE.  It was literally like the same slideshow we saw the day before.  So I was really bored.  Then we broke for lunch, and we have almost 2 hours.  So instead of going to the cafeteria again, Emily, Caitlin, Kristen, Dawn, Lorraine, and I decided to explore a bit!  Kristen, Amanda, Kennetha, Val, and Lexcia live in an apartment complex that is about a 20 min walk from our house.  Although I haven’t been inside their apartment, apparently ours is a lot nice than theirs.  Theirs is more like a dorm, with lofted beds, etc.  However, they are in a way better part of town.  Our house is in like a residential area.  We literally never see people!  But if we walk 10 minutes, we get to a busy street!  Their apartment is right on a crowded street, but apparently is kind of shitty.  So I guess it’s a trade-off.  I’m not sure which one I would prefer yet.  Because apparently their apartment really sucks, quality wise.

Anywaysss, we ate at this little Panini shop…once again, no complaints from me!

Afterwards, we went back to school, and listened to another couple hours of orientation.  This guy from the state department came and spoke to us about more safety nonsense, and completely bore me TO DEATH!  I fell asleep…typical.  Haha I opened my binder and put my head in my hands to make it look like I was reading something, then totally passed out.  But then I kept waking up and making awkward shakes, so I decided to put some gum in my mouth and tried to stay awake. 

Afterwards, we had about a 2 hour break before we met back up for dinner.  At first, we were kind of bummed they were making us eat dinner altogether, but it ended up being really fun!  It was such a great opportunity to meet the other people (because we couldn’t really talk during orientation).  We met for Apertivo…an Italian tradition in most all bars and restaurants, that takes place from 6pm-9pm.  You buy one drink, and you get a FREE all-you-can-eat buffet.  Pretty awesome.  And the program supplied us with drink passes, so we didn’t have to pay a thing!  The food kind of blew though haha.  I think they knew we were coming, so they tried to cook American food.  But it was all really random.  There was rice, mashed potatoes, French fries, and then like pasta and chips.  Haha!  And we talked and hung out with the other study abroaders for hours, so it was really fun.  

Afterwards like 15 of us came back to our place and we all drank wine and played some card games.  Kings to be specific.  Never-Have-I-Ever is always a good ice breaker.  People shock you sometimes!!  Then, naturally, I was up at 5am puking.  1E wine doesn’t settle well with me!