Let's Play Catch Up

My, oh my have I been awful about writing or what! I’ve literally been sitting here for the last who-knows-how-many hours trying to remember everything that’s gone down over the past two weeks. Guess time flies when you’re busy! I haven’t been traveling much but have been spending more time just enjoying Milan and getting to know this city in a more personal way. Granted, I’m a little frustrated that I haven’t been taking advantage of my ideal traveling location but I guess it’s just as important to really “live” in a new city as it is to travel and explore and experience different cultures. I’m off to Morocco come next Friday so I can’t complain too much, right?

Sunday 04/25: It was a slow morning but the weather had finally turned to beautiful blue skies and warm rays of sunshine. Milan had been bipolar for a while with its various rain showers, cloudy skies, and gusts of wind. I was more or less getting over it. This particular morning, however, things were looking up and Isma and I decided it was time for a day trip. Unfortunately, I had a project due the next day and that meant nowhere too far.

After getting ourselves up, fed, and ready to go we hopped in the car to make our way towards Bergamo. Bergamo is Isma’s hometown and a beautiful classic Italian city located outside of Milan. Isma, not being the most responsible car owner, was driving on near to empty and had been in need of getting his breaks checked for the past month. Good one…not. As we’re making our way around a corner, the car starts to sputter and slowly begins to die down. Yup, that’s right folks, the car broke down in the middle of the road. The two of us pushed the heavy BMW wagon for a good 10 minutes until we found an area that it could sit safely while we walked to get gas.

Sweaty, hot, and irritated, we started marching along the side of the road until we found a gas station, which thank the Lord wasn’t too terribly far away. I kept telling Isma that he should probably check his oil level as well but God forbid that I know anything about cars. We bickered like brother and sister the whole way there and back.

With enough gas to get the car functioning, we were off but not before I insisted that we fill the ENTIRE tank up. This time he actually listened to me. At this point, I was grouchy, sweaty, irritated about the day being somewhat lost, even more irritated that I STILL didn’t have a camera to take pictures, and stressed about my project. This rather agitated mood of mine was only exaggerated as Isma decided to drive around and around and AROUND for a good 40 minutes trying to find a back way up to the old city of Bergamo. The normal entrance was closed to the public for the day and that meant no driving up. Isma was convinced, however, that we could make it work. We literally kept going in and out of old streets, turning this way and that way, going up this hill and back down it, until finally I absolutely insisted that we forget about driving up and just walk. I was ready to strangle him.

Having found parking, we started the trek upward. It was just the little kick in the butt I needed to get my heart pumping and my attitude back to a happy and enthusiastic one. Plus I couldn’t help from laughing at how hard Isma was panting the whole way up the stairs, the cobble stone streets, and the little hills. He told me my legs were too long and my speed too fast for my own good. Oops!

So Bergamo…amazing, amazing, AMAZING! I absolutely loved it. It’s exactly the type of place you think of when you imagine traditional Italy. Lined with cobblestone streets and cute little restaurants, Bergamo reminds you of a fairytale. Everywhere you looked, people were holding hands, eating gelato, and enjoying the warm touch of the sun. Even better, the old part of the city sits high on a hill and looks down onto beautiful countryside and the new city. It was absolutely spectacular.

Enamored, I couldn’t help but wander in and out of the little stores and cute restaurants. Oohing and aahing the whole way up through the city, Isma had a huge smile on his face knowing just how happy I was. He said I was far too easily pleased. What can I say, I like the simple things!

There were little arts and crafts markets and a beautiful square with a giant bell tower. With every step further, I fell a little more in love with this place. I begged Isma to come back sometime when I had a camera and could spend the day exploring. He comes out to Bergamo about twice a week to see his brothers and sisters and have lunch with his mom, who is 98!!! Ya girl, rock it. He suggested that one day, when I don’t have too much class, the two of us could drive out there, he would eat with his family, I would toodle around, and then we would meet up later and have dinner at one of his favorite restaurants. Sounds perfect to me!

From the old city, we took a little tram up to the very tip top of the old city, which was absolutely magnificent. Isma knew the owner of this amazing restaurant and had been planning on taking me there to grab a bite to eat, as I was famished and begging for food consumption. Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t there and the kitchen was closed. Luckily, I convinced the waiter to whip us up a little something. And let me tell you, that little something hit the spot. Everything was so fresh, the colors beautiful, the flavors to die for, and ugh, the view…just spectacular. I was in heaven!

We said our goodbyes to the beautiful restaurant and decided to walk our way down from the very top. I wanted to see the backside of the hill, which offered an absolutely breathtaking view of greenery, old houses, and brilliant colors of rustic red and mustard yellows.

As we made our way down, however, we had to stop for gelato. I mean really people, do you actually think I’d go a day without my gelato…hell no! Thank goodness we didn’t pass up either because Isma and I both agreed after ordering that this was the best damn gelato we had ever had. In addition to other flavors, we both got a yogurt flavor with real pieces of red raspberry in it. Holy. Crap. All I can say is died and went to gelato abyss. We couldn’t stop raving for a good 30 minutes and we officially now joke that whenever we want gelato, we ask, “Bergamo?!”

We made it down the hill in quick timing (thanks to me) and upon hopping in the car, la mommacita called! I love love love when my mom calls to chat…it’s always so wonderful to hear her voice and catch up on what’s going on back at home.

After we arrived back at the apartment, I had to get to work on my big project. I’m in a course called Intro to Management Consulting and I’m in a group of 8. In the beginning of the year, we were assigned a huge field project where we have to consult about a specific topic, do research, and create a proposal. My portion just happened to be a rather extensive part and I more or less took it to the extensive level. I was satisfied with the work I had accomplished but it still wasn’t done. Thank goodness our team was WAY ahead of schedule and I had enough time to keep working.

Dinner was eaten at home and we just whipped something up quickly. Then it was time for showers, catching up with friends, and going to bed early. 8:45 am class was lingering and that meant waking up at 7:15 am in order to get ready, make breakfast, take the metro, and then walk to school in time. Yuck.

Monday 04/26: Once again, it was an absolutely gorgeous day! We are talking 25 degrees Celsius people…the hottest day I’d experience in Milan thus far! I was sending kisses to the weather Gods, of course. That was until I realized that walking to class now meant being somewhat hot and sweaty by the time you actually get to your classroom. I’m not so big on sweatiness.

After class, Ava and Blakeney and I had agreed that we would all meet up for lunch to catch up on life. It had been forever since I had really seen them since all that fun eviction stuff had gone down. Blakeney didn’t wake up in time so it was just me and Avs. We ended up having an amazing time just talking and sharing stories about spring break, my epic plague, her fun in Barcelona, and all the other shenanigans that had gone down.

From lunch, I was back to the methodic schedule of class and more class. You all know how I feel about that subject so I’ll just leave it to your imagination to decide what I was thinking this fine Monday. I’m going to go ahead and say, it really shouldn’t be that difficult.

I went straight home from school to work, work, and do some more work. I had so much research to do and notes to write in order to make sure that the information I was providing in my portion of the project was accurate and well composed. That meant taking lots of time and effort putting together a lot of information.

Isma came home late from work and I was working away on my computer. We made dinner quickly only to follow it up with a surprise that Isma had brought home for me…BANANA GELATO! Okay so here’s the story…while I love gelato in general, my absolutely favorite flavor is banana. It tastes like you are eating a real banana because they actually make it with fresh bananas. I may or may not be super addicted and crave it every second of every day. No big deal. Anyway, every time that Isma takes me to get gelato we always go in search of banana and way too often end up without it…it’s not that common. We’ve gone so many places that the people actually know when I come in the door to say “Banana!” or “Non c’é banana” At this point, we usually hit up two places each time we go for gelato, which in reality isn’t so great because now we ALWAYS end up getting two gelatos every night. Don’t judge. You know the saying, “2 gelatos a day keeps the doctor away!”

So anyway, on this particular night, I guess Isma had stopped in one of our favorite gelato places and what do you know, they had banana!!! He picked up a big container of it plus yogurt flavor (my other favorite) and macadamia and white chocolate for him. We literally sat and ate the entire thing in about 10 minutes. Who are we?!

After getting some more of my paper done, I decided to make it an early evening and go to bed. My plague was still harassing me and I really didn’t feel very well. I figured sleep was the best remedy at this point.

Tuesday 04/27: Tuesday meant I had all morning to work on my portion of the project and that’s exactly what I did right up until the time I needed to get my butt out the door and to class on time. After class I met with my group to quickly discuss the details of our project and work out a few things. When the meeting ended, Luke, my partner for the project, and I spent a great deal of time just chatting it up, discussing out part, and getting to know each other better. It was amazing! He’s such a wonderful guy and he’s actually studying in Milan all the way until December!

As we made our way out of Bocconi, I ran into Amir. Amir is one of the students from Bocconi who spent last semester at USC. He and I started chatting and he offered to walk me to wherever I was going. We caught up along the way and just as we had parted, I ran into Gab. Talk about a day of seeing amazing people. Gab is Flaca’s new lover friend who works for Marc Jacobs and lives here in Milan. The guy is absolutely incredible, so sweet and couldn’t be a nicer person to have meet here in the city.

Thank goodness I ran into him because he was on his way to share an aperitivo and dinner with Flaca and her uncle, who was still in town visiting. They asked me to join and how do I say no to a group of 3 fabulously good-looking, lively, and amazing people? I think the answer to that one would be you can’t.

We ended up having a great time talking and sharing stories about the weekend. The three of them plus Vincent and Kammer had all gone to Amsterdam for Flaca’s 21st. Based on the recounts of the weekend, let’s just say they had a super unforgettable weekend.

After an hour and some time of sharing in perfect company, I left to get picked up by Isma, who was on his way home from work. He’s essentially my uncle now and has embodied family for me here in Milan. He takes care of me as if I were his own blood and has been exceptionally good to me. Being as sick as I have been these past few weeks, he’s really looked out for me and made sure I was aokay. I’ve been so blessed to come into my new living situation and to have two people who genuinely care so much about me and tell me so all the time. Isma has even adopted nicknames for me: principessa or bombolina. Almost three times my age, I really think that he looks to me as his own and someone he can care for and protect, just the way my one and only Poppabear would. I mean, no one compares to Peter B Wile, but still, it’s nice to have something similar here.

We decided on dinner at a restaurant called Amore. Best choice ever. As if the ambience didn’t already make the restaurant spectacular, the pasta I ordered was to die for. The pasta had been freshly made that day and the sauce was a rich, delicious pomodoro and mozzarella. Mmm, mmm, mmm!

I didn’t want dinner to end but I had work to do and that meant getting home. Too bad my cough was attacking me from all angles and I was hating life. Sleeping through the night was still a very rare occurrence. Enter the need for antibiotics.

Wednesday 04/28: I woke up a little late and had to bust my tail into high gear this morning. When I got on the subway, there was some weird-ass stuff going down. First of all, there was this violinist guy who was playing ever-so passionately. Only in Italy. Then, right as I was about to hop off at my stop, a woman’s cell phone went off. She was a rather frumpy, older woman, with a totally butch haircut. Her ringtone? Single Ladies by Beyonce. Yesssssss.

I had classes from 10:30 unil 2 pm, after which I met up with my Portuguese friend, Nuno. We had been trying to grab dinner for the longest time so we opted, instead, on getting some lunch. Seeing the day was as beautiful as ever, we chose the Navigli area for an outside lunch on the canals. Ready for a shock? I actually got too hot (me too hot? I know) and we had to move inside. Nuno, I could tell, was thrilled.

Lunch was delicious and we both ordered really amazing pastas. I was quite satisfied with my meal but not enough so to turn down a gelato. We finished paying and made our way up Porta Ticinese to a place called Frozen, where we both cheersed to large cones.

Nuno continued to keep me company as I made my way to the old apartment to drop off the keys and head towards the Duomo. Once we got there, we parted ways and I made my long walk back to the apartment. On my walk, though, I got hot again and stopped in this cute little gelato place only to find BANANA!!! I wasn’t that hungry but I sure as heck wasn’t passing it up. Isma and I had tried to check this particular gelateria about 4 times and every time we checked, they were closed. Thus, there was no turning it down now.

When I got home, I got to working on my project only to be hit with a giant slap of exhaustion. I passed out on the couch and found myself waking up at 9:15 pm. Umm oops…was definitely supposed to have been at Blakeney’s birthday aperitivo at 8 pm. Thank you sickness for your ruining of my body.

Isma and I ate dinner at home followed by project finalizing and a much needed good nights sleep. I was finally on antibiotics at this point, so I was hoping legit sleep would soon be on its way.

Thursday 04/29: I woke up a little earlier than expected and left the house with time to spare. I got to class early, which gave me the time to catch up on e-mails and do other social things on my computer.

During class, I was having a bit of a rough time with my cough. Granted, I had a water bottle and was doing my best to control the issue but I was pretty much in the midst of a bad coughing fit and there wasn’t too much for me to do about it. Had I been on the aisle I might have gotten up and left but seeing that I was smack dab in the middle of the room, I wasn’t going to cause the commotion. Yeah well, maybe I should’ve caused some commotion because every couple of minutes this group of girls kept turning around to give me dirty stares. Really? Come on now people, I’m not some leper. Apparently, I was though, because the dirty stares were followed by the teacher calling me out. “Are you alright?” I was asked. I spit back, “Yeah I’m fine. I’m sick and I’m doing my best to deal with it, don’t worry about it.” Sassy? Perhaps. Necessary on her part? Absolutely not. People get sick you kook.

After class, I met with Luke to go over the corrections I wanted to make on his contribution to our portion. After he and I finished talking, I spent the rest of the time just going over the paper and making sure that it was up to par. It was.

Class #2 was boring and I was having a hard time focusing. Hmm, not a new phenomena at Bocconi. When I finished class, I sent out some emails and did some work on my computer until Isma picked me up form school. He wanted to get a new camera and I was off to help him pick one out. We were successful.

From the camera shop, Isma wanted to get some wine at this beautiful little restaurant that was once a flower shop. They have all these gorgeous bouquets in the windows and all throughout the tiny little place are grandiose flower displays. It was gorgeous! He had been having a really rough day at work and just needed the unwinding. I was happy to join.

I made dinner at home and followed it up with two different gelato stops afterward. This is what happens when you try one for banana and then go somewhere else in search of it again. I don’t hate it, though.

Friday 04/30: I woke up and spent my precious time leisurely hanging out around the house and cleaning up. I tend to clean on Fridays when I’m not traveling. I’m a weirdo.

I decided that I’d had enough of doing nothing but cleaning and headed out to do some shopping. The weather of sun and warmth called for some shorts and little skirts so I was in search of both.

I made my way towards the Duomo and Via Torino only to find massive groups of people, which we all know I don’t like. In the big Zara, there were way too many people to handle and I kept running into the issue of not being able to find my size. This left me searching through the unwanted racks in the dressing room, only to be yelled at by a sales woman. Umm, hello? Why are you yelling at me? This is what you do when you want to find your size and the people on the floor are incompetent and can’t seem to help you.

I ended up having to resort to the other Zara on Via Torino to actually find the right size in one of my discovered items. While I was there, however, I spotted this AMAZING shirt on the manikin and knew it was mine. Too bad the shirt didn’t exist in the store nor in the back room nor in any of the other stores. Why advertise a product that can’t be purchased? I figured I could charm the people there by asking if I could just buy the shirt off the manikin. Nope. I spoke to two different managers and the best they could offer me was putting my name on a reservation list to wait 2 weeks before purchase. Annoying.

After shopping, I met up with Flaca and her uncle at the Marc by Marc Jacobs, where Gab works. Tio, or as I like to call Flaca’s uncle, was buying a few things and Flaca was visiting with Gab. Little lovebirds! I was supposed to have met them earlier for lunch but was dealing with the irritation factor at Zara. Flaca had a spa appointment so Tio and I decided to go grab an aperitivo at the top of La Rinascente, overlooking the Duomo. Fortunately, the day had turned to sunny skies and it was ideal weather for sitting on the patio.

The aperitivo was wonderful but we witnessed a few interesting ordeals. 1. When I asked if they were still serving food to order, the hostess asked me, “You eat?!” Umm, yes I eat your rude weirdo! 2. There were these three girls, completely over dressed, sitting across from us, smoking cigs, and blatantly staring as Tio and I ate. Unnecessary much? 3. One of the waitresses managed to explode, not one, but two bottles of Prosecco directly after the other. Oops! It was an eventful sunset on the patio to say the least.

Soon enough Flaca and Vincent met up with us but I had to leave short after because Isma had been dying to take me to some special restaurant/aperitivo place and tonight was the night he wanted to go. I hopped on the metro and headed to his office, where he met me outside and we proceeded to Invilla.

Holy moly! This place was unbelievable. Giant white cushions, incredible artwork, countless beds of flowers, and food stations everywhere. The place had a complete and utter ethereal feel to it and the outside ambiance was delightful. It was picturesque of some fancy hotel in South Beach Miami or somewhere in Greece. I was in love! My favorite part, however, was the food. Unlike a regular aperitivo, where there is a buffet of different plates and pickings, Invilla had stations for different types of foods. 1. There was a “to-order” grill whipping up kebabs of chicken, sausage, shrimp, or beef with grilled vegetables. 2. An omelets bar, or an Italian version at least. 3. A to-die-for fresh veggies and dip/fresh fruit station. 3. Cheeses, olives, mini sandwiches, and pickled artichokes, onions, and other aperitivo-type foods. 4. A variety of different salads, including a bean, tuna, and fennel salad (yummm!), a couscous salad, and plenty more. 5. A fusion taco bar! 6. Fresh cold cuts. And 7. A make them on the spot, French-fry booth. All I have to say is that I kept going back and back and back around the place re-filling up my plate with things that tasted too good to be true. The chicken on the grill was delicious, the pesto for dipping your veggies was some of the best I’ve ever had, and holy crap, that bean salad was bomb dot com.

By the time we left, I was stuffed to the brim and could hardly move. I was worried that Isma was going to have to roll me to the car. By the time we got home, I was totally wiped and while I was supposed to meet the crew for a night out on the town, I couldn’t bring myself to it. Instead, I opted for 3 movies on-demand and fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday 05/01: I woke up bright and early at 12 pm. Isma had gone to Bergamo for the day and I spent my “morning” eating breakfast, getting ready and going out to adventure. What I found, however, was anything but the means for an adventure. The skies were cloudy and every dang store in Milan was closed, including a mass majority of the restaurants. Apparently, today was the Italian equivalent of Labor Day or something along those lines. Thus, everyone had the day off to be free of work.

I decided my best option was to meet up with friends so my boyfriend Ken, I mean Vincent, and I went out to play. He was planning on going for a run but I convinced him that our rendezvous would be much more exciting. He ditched his Nikes and dressed himself right up. I ended up walking from my place to his apartment and from there we began our perfect day together.

We walked in the direction of the castle, only to stop first and get gelato to savor as we strolled through Parco Sempione. The clouds were slowly starting to dissipate so we made the executive decision to soak up the park’s incredible serene beauty. To savor the moment even more so, we sat and had a coffee and a tea at a little café set in the middle of the park. It was pure loveliness.

So funny thing happened when we were at the café. As we were getting ready to pay the bill, I obviously whipped out my wallet to pay for my tea. Granted, Vincent almost always insists on paying seeing that he is a complete and utter gentleman but I ordered the tea and so I deemed it my responsibility to pay for it. Too bad the waiter disagreed. As he saw me take out my money, he looked at me and said, “Women no pay in Italy. Never ever ever.” Haha He’s the 5th waiter to tell me that! Apparently these Italian men really like to take care of their women. I don’t hate it.

As we finished up our last sips of tea and coffee, we lovingly grabbed hands and walked around the park until we found our way over into Brera. At this point, we were hungry so we searched for somewhere to grab a little bite to eat. We ended up looking here, there, and everywhere until we found somewhere cute, quaint, and with a perfect menu. The menu had ideal first plates and included a drink and “coperto” (table charge). Ideal. The food was good but not great. Regardless, we had the best time laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Never a dull moment when Ken and Barbie (Vincent has adopted the nickname Barbie for me so I, in return, call him Ken) are together. The only icky part to our dining experience was the smoky Spanish woman sitting next to us who kept billowing her puffs into my face. Yuck! Oh, that, and the waiter had a serious issue dealing with our debit cards and took about 2983596108704 hours to take care of the bill and then added the total incorrectly. Blah.

We continued our stroll into the more boutique area of Brera, where we met up with Ayano. Ayano is the most amazing girl from USC and happens to be studying through the IES program at Catolica. In other words, she had met Vincent and the two of them had become friends. Until today, I had NO idea she was even in the city! Obviously, I was so excited!

We met Ayano right near the Marc by Marc Jacobs store only to be interrupted by some crazy parade. There were weird floats filled with hippies and loud, obnoxious youth. The music was so overbearing that we could barely hear each other talking let alone think. I had to run to the bank mid-parade and let’s just say I got a fine whiff of weed and some creepy views of people. I was more or less finito with the parade.

When I returned to the table, I suggested our departure. Everyone was in agreement so we took off towards the Duomo and walked around a bit until I insisted on taking the two of them to one of my favorite gelato spots. Bastianello is a beautiful, yet rather expensive, Pasticceria in San Babila. The ambiance of the café is so dainty and enjoyable and the gelato, aperitivo, and tea are all so delicious.

Obviously Ayano and Vincent agreed because we ended up getting two rounds of aperitivo, which the staff prepares and brings directly to you. We stayed a good 2+ hours just talk, talk, talking, sharing fun stories and engaging in the most interesting conversations. It had to have gone down as one of the most enjoyable outings I’d had in a while. So much to think about and share. It was perfect.

We spent a small amount of time walking around afterwards but realized it was 9:30 pm and we needed to part ways. I parted by giving hugs and kisses and then made the journey towards il apartamento. Upon arrival, I made a quick dinner, watched the Laker game and spent some much-needed relaxation time. I had pretty much walked a million miles and my legs were in need of calm. That, however, didn’t stop Isma and I from walking the couple blocks to our favorite gelato place. We’ve essentially become best friends with the guy who always works there. He even lets me lift up the gelato tops to see which flavors look good to me. I get to sample whatever flavor and he always loads my cone up as big as possible. Sometimes he even gives me an extra little cup on the side when I’ve finished my cone. Isma and I have been known to double round it so he knows to hook it up.

All in all it was an absolutely ideal day. I took a nice hot shower and slid under my covers to fall into lala land.

Sunday 05/02: The weather was shit again so instead of taking off to Portofino, as planned, Uncle Isma decided that he wanted to treat me, his little bambolina, to a delicious Sunday brunch. He knew how much I had been wanting to go so he surprised me with the news when I woke up. I could hardly wait! We ended up getting a table at a beautiful hotel somewhat close to the apartment. In the garden area was an eye-opening, mouth-watering, god-thanking buffet!!! There was steamed salmon, a roast, fresh pastas, amazingggggg rolls, fresh fruits, all sorts of veggies, carpaccio, tomatoes and mozzarella, yogurt, and the list just goes on. I know what you’re all thinking…Katie must have been the happiest girl alive! Damn right I was!!!

Isma and the waiters were baffled by the food consumption. 3 dinner-sized plates later and 4 rolls down the hatchet, I could hardly move. Maybe stuffing your face with deliciousness isn’t the best of ideas. Oh well, we only live once!!!

Feeling like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka, I decided that it would be best to walk into the center to go meet Vincent rather than take the metro. This way I could get my stomach pumping and get that bad boy digesting the massive amounts of yumm that were currently settled in my tummy.

Day 2 with Vincent was another perfect day, spent walking around, shopping, laughing, and visiting “our place”, Bastianello. There is never a dull moment together and I couldn’t be happier to have made such amazing friends with him. Love you Ken!

Once again, we managed to close Bastianello and come 09:30 pm, I was walking in the door of the apartment. Isma wanted to watch a movie on TV so I took a shower and joined him before hopping in bed. As I turned the lights off and cuddled into my brown furry blanket, a loud boom of thunder sounded. Next came the lightening and then the downpour. Oh Milan, you really do have climate PMS.

Monday 05/03: Thank you Milan for the rainstorm…NOT! Morning class meant a 7:15 am wakeup and a joyous treading through the nonstop rain. Ick.

Class was class but I spent a good time talking with one of the girls in my consulting team. We are working on a huge final project and like myself, she definitely takes on the leader role. It was great to share ideas and discuss how we wanted to finish editing the paper, set up a private meeting with the professor and so on.

I quickly headed back to the apartment to make some lunch, a fresh pot of tea, and recharge my computer before hading back to classes. While Monday classes are generally such a bore, I was pleased to find a new teacher for my least favorite class…you know that one where I always want to bash my head in thanks to the horrific English speaking abilities. The new professor is really passionate about the subject, incredibly smart, and rather interesting. I’m excited to see what happens.

Today was a happy day, despite the gross rain and ugly cold weather, because I was getting my hair cut!!! All those that know me well know just how much I love to have my hair cut. Unlike most girls who wait every 4-5 months to get their trestles trimmed, I prefer a good 8-week interval. I like to freshen up the ends, get that head massage, have someone wash and blow-dry my hair only to leave feeling sparkling and beautiful.
The cut looked great and my hair felt brand new, especially because Mirko, my Italian hairdresser, decided that I was need of a gratuitous protein treatment. The weather does a number on your hair and a protein treatment is always super beneficial to your locks. As you can imagine, my hair was silky smooth and shining like gold. Mmm, mmm, mmm!

The gross weather, however, wasn’t loving my hair as much as I was. Thank goodness for my devout love of hoodie-wearing. Isma was kind enough to pick me up in the city center near my salon and invited me to join he and his best friends/colleagues for dinner. I always enjoy his and his friend’s time because I get to enjoy warm company, practice my Italian, and eat delicious food. What more could you ask for?

We ended up going to this little random hole-in-the wall pizza place that made pizzas unlike any of the kinds I had eaten in Italy thus far. While they were good, I wouldn’t go back. These little guys were really small and had thicker crusts. I prefer the huge pizzas with thin, homemade crusts. Thank goodness I have a list of other places in Milan that I absolutely adore for exactly that.

After dinner, I insisted on gelato so the gang and I made our way to Chocolat for a perfectly delicious cone. It was gone in about a minute! Warning: If you come to Italy, be ready to eat more gelato than you ever possibly imagined humanly possible.

When we got home, I had an invitation to Skype and I was on top of that invite in a second! Too bad technology hates me and it lasted a good 10 minutes. Italy, why you always hating on me like that?! Too bad 20 minutes later it ended up working and I had the most amazing time chatting with a near and dear to my heart friend. Danielle, if you are reading this, I cannot begin to explain who much it meant to spend that time with you! I love you so much and I hope you kicked butt on your finals!!!

Tuesday 05/04: I was supposed to meet David and Max, my beloved boys from Austria and Germany respectively, for a group meeting. We’re all in the same group for our Fashion Field Project and have been working on putting together our final version. Too bad the weather was atrocious and I’m a lazy bum who didn’t wake up until a wonderful 2 pm. Something must be wrong with me.

I spent the rest of the time until classes finishing the final edits on the consulting group paper. I hate to sound like a total butt but I could hardly contain myself. The writing was atrocious. With the exception of Rachel’s contribution, I was editing and hacking away at the writing for hours. I know that I’m a picky editor when it comes to written pieces but I was so baffled. Oh well!

Class was same old class followed by another consulting group meeting. As soon as it finished, I treaded out into the rain and made my way to Isma’s office to print out class slides and other papers necessary for lecture. I had so much to take care of and it was starting to weigh heavy on my shoulders. The problem is this: the classes are boring and you lack the motivation to follow along with the reading assignments. You think I would have learned my lesson with the whole midterm issue but I guess I’m stupid. I’m just going to have to buckle down big time in the next few weeks before finals begin so that I can give myself a little confidence.

While I dealt with school drama, Isma was in the other room with a client. By the time the two of them finished, it was near to 8:30 pm and he suggested the three of us go to dinner. I was starving and his client was headed in the direction of the restaurant, so we all made our way outward. We revisited a place that I had been before but the dinner was just as delicious as I had remembered. In addition to a salad and fresh bread, I ordered the bass with baked apples and balsamic. It was absolutely wonderful. I obviously followed it up with fresh fruit and on our way home, a gelato at Bianco Latte.

Wednesday 05/05: I started the day off as I always do: alarm, washing of the face, a little makeup, preparing and consuming breakfast, getting dressed, throwing my backpack on, hopping on the metro, and heading towards Bocconi. Fortunately for me, my day was a little shorter than I thought it would be. My 12:30 class was canceled, which meant I was done at noon.

Thinking I had office hours with my Law professor at 2 pm, I headed home for a quick lunch before turning right back around to meet with her. As I made my way towards school, the rain busted a rather uncool move and started pouring down. Let’s just say my pants, shoes, and socks were soaked and I resembled something along the lines of a drowned rat. After discovering office hours had been canceled THAT morning, I spent the next 30 minutes in the bathroom under the hand dryer attempting to extract all moisture from my shoes and socks. It looked a little something like this: me, oversized backpack, standing on one leg, hands in socks shoved underneath the dryer. It worked to an extent but I wasn’t all that impressed. The toes were frozen and I still needed wads of toilet paper to absorb the rest of the moisture.

As I was leaving the building, I noticed my professor in a classroom. Standing outside the door was a girl a girl in my Business Law class so I struck up conversation only to found out that Professor Franciossi was holding a mock final. Hmm, no wonder office hours were canceled. I had NO clue about this whole review session because, well in normal Bocconi fashion, there had been no email nor class announcement. Thank goodness for the run-in.

After the exam prep, I made my way up to the Duomo to walk around. I decided to hit up Vincent to see what he was doing, and lucky me, the boy was in the Duomo piazza as well. I flipped through fashion magazines until he came and found me. We raved about who knows what and then decided it was a perfect day to have tea at “our place” (Bastianello, in case you’ve forgotten).

We sat and enjoyed the deliciousness warmth of tea and each other’s company. Clinking cups and sipping away, we spent a good 2 hours walking down the memory lanes of our past. Soon enough, though, we both realized that home was calling. When it came time to pay, we looked at the bill and realized that “our place” was no longer going to be “our place.” 5.50 Euro for a tea, thank you very much…I don’t think so mister! We laughed and brushed off the absolute insanity of charging an arm and a leg for tea. I mean, yes, it’s great tea but not worth that much. I’d only pay that much for delicious, take-your-breath away gelato.

I made my way home and took a little nap on the couch until I was abruptly awoken by my cell phone. Isma called and told me he was waiting outside to go to the grocery store. I ran down and hopped in only to find myself on a 30-minute search for groceries. As I had warned on the phone, it was too late to make it to the stores before they closed. Italy isn’t like the US, where Albertson’s stays open until 12 am. Here, you’re lucky if they let you in at 8:55 pm. Given that buying food was no longer an option, I convinced him that we could make due with the last bit of food in the fridge. As I expected, we ended up creating something pretty darn delicious together. We grilled a steak on the stove and invented a fresh arrabiatta tomato sauce with veggies and fresh bread. You know we didn’t stop there, though. Of course we followed it up with gelato at our favorite place down the street. No favorite banana but the coffee, mixed berry yogurt, and pineapple flavors hit the spot just right.

With happy tummies, we made it home for lots of movies, tea, and resting. Oh how I love you Milan.

Thursday 05/06: Today was just one of those days. It was still raining, I woke up late, class sucked, then I had to bust my butt back to the salon because I realized that Mirko needed to cut a little more off the length, had to eat my packed lunch while walking as fast as possible to get to the tram, which then got stuck in traffic, so I had to hop out and really bust my butt to get to class on time.

Things turned up for the much better when Ava and I got to talking and she invited me to join her for a quick aperitivo at Taxi Blues. We ended up having the best time and she had the most wonderful and kind things to say. It was wonderful to finally catch up and get all dialed in on what had been going on in her life and with the new apartment. No longer roommates, I hardly see her anymore!

Ava had to run because she was off to Paris in the morning so I decided to make a surprise stop at Carolina’s apartment, which was right around the corner. The quick visit was the perfect addition to my day. I just love love love those girls so much. Perhaps I’ll stuff them into my suitcases rather than sending them back to Portugal and Greece. That, or looks like I’ll have to come back to Europe asap! ;)

While at the girls’, Isma called to see if I needed a ride home out of the rain. What a savior! Soon enough he was waiting outside and insisted on taking a detour before heading home. We stopped into a rustic little wine shop, filled with Italians. That’s how you know it’s a good place. I’m for sure going back to pick something special up for Poppa Wile. That man would have been in hog-heaven.

From the wine shop, we finally made our way to the grocery store. The fridge was baren and begging for food and we certainly weren’t about to deal with another situation like last night. We picked up all the necessary goodies for the house and had the pleasure of getting a call from Olha, who is currently in Ukraine visiting her family. She comes home Monday!!!

Famished and too hungry to go back to the apartment before eating, Isma suggested we just grab dinner. He opted for one of his favorite places in Brera called Trattoria Pisa. Nestled in a small little side street, it was exactly what you think of when you picture a classic Italian restaurant. The pleasure of the restaurant was quickly dampened when Isma decided to turn from a 60-something year-old man to a 7 year-old. Story goes like this: when the waiter came to take our order, I wanted to pose a few questions about the menu and practice my Italian. Isma, on the other hand, decided he was going to order for me and interrupted my question-asking. As he and the waiter conversed back and forth, I politely interrupted to ask why he had said I wanted tuna, when I didn’t. This is where he threw a giant fit and slammed the menu closed and said, “Fine, you order. Sto finito! The waiter awkwardly walked away and Isma went into a fit. Apparently I always assume he is trying to do something bad and don’t trust his judgment and that I should just let him take care of things and blah blah blah. I was trying to be calm and rational and explain that I was just trying to understand what was being exchanged between he and the waiter as I am attempting to learn the language and embrace the culture whole heartedly. He sat pouting, crossing his arms, and turning his eyes away from me. For those of you laughing, you have no idea how pissed I was. I mean, come on, act your age and grow a pair buddy.

The best part of this little bickering battle was the British couple sitting to my right. You could tell they weren’t trying to eavesdrop but, who are we kidding, they were. Attentive to their listening ears, I struck up conversation with them when the time was right. They turned out to be just the nicest people and we enjoyed their company the remainder of the evening. James and Bridgette are from Essix and were in Milan for the first time on a romantic weekend away from the UK. As we chatted about my time in Milan, my studies here, etc, etc., I was giving recommendations left and right and suggesting fun places to eat, where to find the best gelato, and what would satisfy her shopping needs. Bridgette admitted that she had never eaten gelato and I just about died. NEVER eaten gelato? That’s a downright sin.

Oh funny little fact about our conversation. While Bridgette and I were talking, she casually asked me if Isma was my boyfriend. My heart stopped for a quick second in shock. “No, absolutely not! Gross!!! I view this man as my adopted family and let’s not forget that he is more than 3x my age. I’m NOT one of those girls.” Bridgette laughed and said that she had hoped that was the case. Oh man, people and their silly assumptions. Let’s be real world, why would a 21 year-old date a 60-something year-old man? 1) I’m not a hooker. 2) I don’t dig old men. And 3) Really, that just isn’t me; never will be.

We parted ways with our new friendly couple and headed for gelato, the apartment, and more specifically the couch and movies on demand. I decided to transfer from the couch t bed but too bad I didn’t go to sleep until 5 am due to the oh-so-convenient time difference between Italy and the states. It’s worth it when talking to friends, though.

Friday 05/07: Ugh what a boring day. At 1 pm, I woke up to an ugly, disgusting, rainy day. Milan why are you so moody with your climate?

I spent an hour cuddled in the big comforter on the couch watching Sex and the City and eating breakfast. I followed that up with a nice hot shower before quickly getting dressed and packing all my laundry up to take to the dorms. That meant heading on the Metro then getting on the 15 Tram for 25 minutes and waiting at the dorms until my laundry was finished. But hey, clothes must be washed from time to time so I had no other option.

I spent the mass majority of the day at the dorms blog writing and reminiscing on what had gone down the past 2+ weeks. You’d think I would just be smart and write at the end of each day but God forbid I do anything logically.

As I headed back on the Tram, Uncle Isma called to see what I was doing. He posed the idea of going to our favorite fish restaurant for dinner (think back to the day when we went to that amazing fish place that just kept brining us all those different things to try and what not). I was obviously in, so I told him I would take the Tram to the center and he could pick me up there. Bad idea. I waited in the rain with a giant bag of clean laundry, tired, cranky, and cold until he showed up 15 minutes late.

When he finally arrived, I threw my stuff in the car and was overwhelmed with joy for warmth. Rather than go straight to the restaurant, which would have been ideal in my book, Isma wanted to aperitivo first. He was convinced that while I wasn’t keen on going that I would love where we were going. Despite not always agreeing with everything he says or wants to do, I can’t deny how truly sweet and attentive he is to making sure he knows just what I like and ensures that I get it. As I said before, it’s a real blessing to have a “family” here in Milan. Isma treats me as if I was his own.

As promised, I liked the place. With a full buffet featuring some of all time favorite veggies, broccoli and brussel sprouts, I was a very happy girl. Not to mention it was the perfect stomach prepping for dinner. Speaking of dinner, let’s just dive right into it. I arrived to a huge line of people waiting to be seated. This particular restaurant is insanely popular and both visits, I witnessed large groups waiting to be seated. I walked right in, though, told them that Isma and I were hoping to get a table and boom, I was seated in 3 minutes. Royal treatment? I don’t mind it one bit.

The food was just as delicious as I remembered. This round, however, I decided to expands my horizons and try any and everything that was offered to me. Last time I tried prawns, scallops, and oysters so now we were going to dabble with a few other options. The waiter started by bringing us a giant dish of tuna carpaccio followed by marinated sardines with onions and spinach. I had never eaten sardines nor considered it. Interestingly, I had just read an article on Yahoo! about how amazingly good they are for the body. I couldn’t be a wimp and not give them a shot. . And ya know what? They’re pretty darn good. Granted I had the amazing bread to accompany the fish but I still found them to be rather delicious. Next up? We were served the same baked scallops with pistachio crumble. Then the lobster arrived. I had never eaten lobster before and this particular restaurant is known for its lobster dish. I’m not kidding when I say that EVERYONE in the restaurant orders it. They serve the lobster in these big white dishes with fresh tomatoes, onion, and olive oil. Plain, simple, and delicious. To my surprise, I really liked the lobster. It was a bit squishy in texture but the flavor was nice. I might prefer to try it when it’s hot but one step at a time.

We were going to order some grilled sea bass but I kept eyeing a pasta dish with clams that kept coming to every table around us, including the couple sitting directly next to us. As I was eyeing their plate, the woman realized we had sat next to each other the last time. This obviously struck up a conversation, which transitioned into how their pasta dish was and blah blah blah. Before I knew it, Isma was ordering two small plates so I could try it. When our dishes arrived, it was a simple plate of pasta, with fresh clams, and what looked like grated cheese on top but what was in fact grated fish eggs specific to Sicily. A very popular item here in Italy. Again to my surprise, it was delicious and I can now admit that I like clams.

Pleased with myself for trying a bunch of new things and enjoying them all, I was stuffed to the brim and ready to go home. But there was something missing…GELATO! Of course, we stopped on the way home and with that, it was the perfect end to another day in the life of my Milan adventure.

Saturday 05/08: Sick and tired of having not traveled anywhere recently, I decided to make it a day for adventure. My other Milano family (Vincent and Flaca) were going to Torino for the day with Gab to meet up with his best friend Salvatore and his girlfriend, Francesca. Invited to join, I was excited for an incredible day with the loves of my life.

Originally we were supposed to leave at 11 am but that most definitely didn’t happen. I set my alarm, woke up on time, got ready, ate breakfast, and headed towards centrale. Vincent told me to come straight to them, however, because they weren’t ready and we were now taking the 11:58 train. I made my way to the apartment only to find my babies in underwear and nowhere near to day-ready. Oops! By the time we got our butts out the door, we had 15 minutes to make the train on time. We thought we’d make it until Vincent realized that something was missing: his wallet. That resulted in a treasure hunt to find the missing wallet and a major scramble to make the train. Running up stairs, through corridors, down escalators, and waiting in a long line to get our tickets, we missed the train and had to wait an hour+. Flaca was not happy but there was nothing we could do but enjoy the waiting time and grab a bite to eat. We had to switch train stations anyway so we probably wouldn’t have made it anyway.

We spent the time waiting by getting snacks before what would be an ever-so-fun 2-hour train ride. With 15 minutes until departure, I made a run for the store to grab some requested fresh fruit and cheese. What can I say, I live on the edge. Oh and I have long legs, so I can move.

Ugh the train ride. For someone who doesn’t get hot, I was dying. There was no AC in our car and we couldn’t find any 4-seaters free to move to. We sat roasting until the ticket-checker-guy came to stamp our train tickets. He was this funny, large man who just chatted and chatted away as if he’d known us for years. Talking about basketball, he started bragging about how he met Lebron James years ago when Lebron had come to do some European basketball tournament. At the time, Lebron was still really young and had to stay with a family and apparently that family was this guy’s house. Excited was an understatement as he told us all about it. Oh yeah, and he kept flattering the boys for being with such “bellisima” girls. What a character.

After his 20-minute visit, I was desperate to go to the bathroom. As much as I wanted to avoid the usage of a train bathroom, I couldn’t stand to wait. I had to go through 7 cars until I found an open bathroom and just my luck, it reeked and I mean reeked of urine. It was as if 198749860983 men peed on the walls and then no one ever bothered to clean it. Disgusting. I sucked it up, held my breath, and dealt with it. Things only got worse, though, when I realized toilet paper was lacking. Again, I had to deal. Final surprise? No soap and nothing to dry my hands with. Awesomeness.

I went back to the crew and warned Flaca, who was also in need. But hey, when you gotta pee, you gotta pee. While she left, Vincent, Gab, and I realized that the heat was escalating and that seat reassignment was necessary. As soon as Flaca came back, we grabbed our stuff and marched a few cars upward. Although our tickets didn’t say first class, we decided that we were worthy and that’s exactly where we sat the rest of the way.

When we showed up to Torino, it was as gloomy as it had been in Milan. While the weather may not have been ideal, the city was beautiful. Flaca, Vincent, and I all agreed that we would have loved to spend more time exploring seeing that our trip was more for the company of friends than tourism. Speaking of friends, Salva and Fra came to meet us at the train station and drive us further into the city. Despite insisting on walking, the 4 of us were convinced to cram into the back of their tiny car. Salva, by the way, is the most insane driver you have EVER seen in your life. The four of us couldn’t help from laughing because he’d speed by traffic, drive on the other side of the road, zip in front of people, and totally disregard regulation. Sure we got there quickly but not without wondering whether or not we’d be alive upon arrival.

We parked the car and stepped out into the most fabulous Piazza. Apparently Torino hosts the largest Piazza in all of Europe. See my album for pictures if you want to check it out. Anyway, the four of us were starving and slowly withering away from hunger. All the restaurants were closed because it was around 4 pm and that meant the time between lunch and dinner. It also meant the time before aperitivo, which usually starts at 5 pm. This left us with little option other than to just sit somewhere and see what we could get. We chose a café, grabbed a table outside, and waited to order. The crew was all about boozing it up but I was, as usual, just interested in food. I headed straight inside to see what my prospects were. Four sandwiches and a small snacking buffet. I asked if I could have a tuna sandwich and whether or not the buffet ood was open for serving. Thumbs up on both, hallelujah. For the next 30 minutes, we all just kept going back and forth and back and forth from the buffet trying to satiate our stomachs. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t substantial and there hadn’t mean much to eat anyway. While I was irritated by their lack of food, I noticed a bajillion paltes of fresh food wrapped in cellophane. I asked the waitress and the bartender if the food could be eaten. The answer? Not until 5 pm. For the next 35 minutes, I kept going back inside to check on the status. Consistent no’s. Miserable and pure cruelty. Sitting on the tables were 30 plates of food and we weren’t allowed to eat it. Once 5 pm hit, Vincent and I bolted for the food and filled plates and plates until we couldn’t move from fullness.

Our giant group finished up food and drinks and headed down the main street to a store called Frav. It’s a really eclectic boutique that originated in Torino and hosts one store in Milan. Vincent had taken me to the one in Milan but none of us had been to the one in Torino, other than Salva that is. As we made our way, we stopped and browsed all the cool tables filled with jewelry, crafts, art, and other fun trinkets. I struck up conversation with Fra and Salva, both of who don’t speak much English, and was soon in deep Italian convo with the two of them. Before you know it, we’re onto the subject of gelato and they are pulling us toward the “best place” in Torino. Sure I was full but you never turn down gelato. And oh am I so glad I didn’t. The coffee was the best thing I’d ever had, with little bits of ground coffee bean in it. Yummmm.

Right across from the gelateria was Frav and this is where our shopping began. Gab ended up finding an amazing trench coast, Flaca bought a sassy little shirt, and I found a couple great finds. Two of the people working there kept throwing stuff at me to try on and by the end I had everyone voting on what looked good and what color was best. Let’s just say, I was having fun.

After shopping, we marched back to the car and onto another adventure. This other adventure was a second aperitivo for another round of drinks apparently. Must love my crazy, beautiful (and drink loving) friends! I wasn’t complaining, though, because the company, the food, and everything about the day with them had been perfect. Oh and let’s not forget that Vincent and I had been pretending to be madly in love all day, holding hands, and longingly staring into each other’s eyes. The goal was to convince the world that Ken and Barbie were meant for one another. It worked.

Aperitivo round 2 was just as delicious as round 1 but I definitely didn’t eat as much…might have popped otherwise. The 6 of us sat around until we got kicked off our table because the actual people who had reserved it just arrived. That left us standing around, no place to sit and eat. Gab and Flaca improvised and grabbed a bench next to one of the tables outside. Best part? Gab just plopped his drink down on the people’s table, no thought whatsoever. Ballsy yet impressive.

Come 9:20 pm, we realized we needed to head towards the train station in order to make our journey homeward. We made it with time to spare, found our seats, and all found ourselves mellow and quiet heading home. I was exhausted and had another headache. I swear I’ve been prone to getting them lately. Every other day another one appears. What’s a girl gotta do to be left in peace?!

We pulled into the station around 11:45 pm, kissed and hugged goodbye, and reminisced in what an absolutely perfect day it had been. Ken and Barbie (Vincent and I) plus Kate and Pete (Flaca and Gab) had fallen in Love with Torino and each other. Couldn’t have asked for a more amazing day.

I walked home to the apartment, took a nice hot shower, and slid right into bed. These baby blues were too heavy to keep open a minute longer.

Sunday 05/09: Katie Wile epitomized a complete and utter bum today. I woke up around 2 pm to Isma, lightly stirring me from my slumber. Apparently he had already been to Bergamo and back and had been calling me nonstop. Uh oh!

The rain was pouring down outside and that gave me little motivation to do much of anything. I rolled out of bed, still groggy and exhausted, and made some breakfast before getting on my computer to take care of some work.

A little while later, Isma wanted to go out and get “our lazy butts out of the house.” I needed to run an errand anyway so I was up for heading out. We hopped in the car and made our way towards the center. As we started walking, Isma was acting weird and walking at a snail’s pace. I asked what the deal was and he responded by saying, “I just want to be calm, go do what you want.” Irritated because I had told him before that I could’ve taken the metro to run my errands if he didn’t want to come with, I said to him, “Isma, if you didn’t want to come with me, why didn’t you just tell me at home?” Acting like a child, he responded, “Just go do what you want. I don’t care.” He crossed his arms and continued to pout so I said, “Fine”, and took off to take care of things. I told him exactly where I was going and expected to meet him there. Wrong. 15 minutes later and still no response to the text message I sent him, I tried calling. That ass-bite had turned his phone off!!! Furious for the immaturity of his behavior, I walked back to the apartment…in the rain!

I walked in and he completely ignored me. Silent treatment doesn’t work well for me so I brought up the situation, which spiraled into an argument and his whining and screaming about how rude I had been and yah-di-yah-di-yah-dah. Apparently his leg had been bothering him and that’s why he had been walking more slowly. Okay well tell me then, geeze!!! I explained that had he needed me to walk slower, he should have told me rather than just huff off and tell me to go do my own thing. I kept calm and explained that I absolutely hate petty fighting and that everything is avoidable as long as communication is clear and well delivered. After rationalizing with him for 15 minutes, he finally understood and apologized. The skies were no longer cloudy, thank goodness! (Too bad Milan’s skies weren’t!)

Once things were peachy and back to normal, we made a delicious steak dinner, watched a little TV, made some tea, took a shower, did some homework, and hopped into bed. Monday morning class was around the corner. Blah.

Monday 05/10: I was up and ready as usual and made it to class for a rather boring lecture about a case I didn’t know I had to read. Bad student Wile. After class, I needed to print out another case for my Entrepreneurship class that afternoon. What a joke. First I went to the computer lab in attempt to print the document. First trouble posed was the issue of needing to put money on my Bocconi card, which I never even use. Luckily I convinced some girl to let me use her card and I would just pay her in coins. Problem #2: the computer wouldn’t let me download the dang thing, nonetheless print it. New friend and I went to the library in order to try on their computers seeing my document was from the library course reserves. Problem #3: major irritation factor. You have to swipe your card to get in and out of the library and it takes a blasted forever to do so. Why in the world do you need to use your card to get out if you HAD to have a card to get in? Seems stupid to me. Problem #4: printing the blasted thing. So we go to one of the help desks and talk to a really sweet woman about what we need to do. She tells me that I need to go down the stairs to another lab, charge my card, then download, then print. Too much time for the little time I actually had to read and prepare for the case. Thank goodness I convinced her to let me use her computer and attempt the issue there. Problem #5: Bocconi has the stupidest system known to man. First I needed my id and password to get into the first area of the website. Then I needed the same id, new password to sign into the library, and last I needed a Bocconi email address and new password to download the document. Despite knowing my passwords and ids by heart, the system would NOT cooperate. I ended up having to reboot my password and create a new one. 30 minutes after I started the process, I finally had the documents in hand. Took long enough, ya think?

I went straight to my next class’ building and got down and dirty with my reading. In the midst of trying to focus, some guy to the right of me asked me a question, which started a 25-minute conversation. Must love making new friends at school, right?

After Andrea (name of friend to right) distracted me from my work, I finally got my shit together and started reading farther than page 7. Halfway through the case, I found my self drifting off and before I knew it, I was passed out on my backpack, hands over head, and missing my 1 pm class. I’m an embarrassment. No really, I am.

I did, however, wake up in time for my 2:30 class, which just happened to be a double today. We worked on the case and did an in-class assignment, which was prep for the final exam. While the new teacher might be strict and demanding, at least the class is far more interesting and engaging than before. 3 hours, though, was too long and by 6 pm, I was begging to get home.

Before going to the apartment, though, I stopped into this amazing antique store and looked around for a little something special for a very special sister of mine. I left victorious and CANNOT wait to give her my present! Get ready Sloany!

I made my way back, the rain sprinkling lightly, and plopped straight onto the couch. I needed to relax for a second. I was wiped and starving on top of it. Isma came home pretty soon after and we made leftovers and whipped up a few other things. Then it was the usual routine of shower, computer, and sleep.

Tuesday 05/11: I woke up nice and late to find a crazy rainstorm outside. I didn’t have class until 4:30 pm and it was 2 pm so I vegged on the couch watching Revolutionary Road. Whoa, what a depressing movie. I hope I never end up like either of those people. Agreed? Yeah, I thought so.

Class turned out, to my surprise, to be really great. For the first time, Bocconi had an amazing speaker. Round of applause for Bocconi everyone. This guy was from Porsche Consulting Group and was so full of life, very entertaining, and quite interesting. He had my attention through and through the entire presentation. Best part of his speech? Ending on the fact that when you work for the company, you immediately get a Porsche. If that isn’t reason to join, then I don’t know what is.

After class, my Consulting Group was meeting for an aperitivo and to discuss the final necessary additions to our project. The restaurant was amazing and I ate my life away, only to be laughed at by all the boys. According to Francesco, it’s “so nice and refreshing to see a girl who can eat more than I can.” Apparently he thought I didn’t eat much seeing that I’m a bit of a lanky one. All I have to say is never judge a book by its cover people. These scrawny arms are no indication of the size of my stomach, thank you very much.

The aperitivo was such a success and I had an amazing time better getting to know the members of my group. I had always liked them from the beginning but spending a little social time with them outside the classroom was just the thing to take our relationship to the next level. I couldn’t be happier to be working with all of them.

I walked back home in the rain, once again, but totally distracted by my FIRST PHONE CALL with my boojitos, Sarah Dime. I could go on and on about how happy I was but I’ll just sum up the phone call in one word: Amazing.

Isma came home pretty late and I sat with him while he ate dinner. An hour or so later, he looked at me and threw out our code word, “banana?” Two seconds later, we were outside the apartment and walking towards the gelato shop. With giant cones in our hands and fatty smiles on our face, we waltzed home.

Not feeling too hot and with a killer headache again, I hit the sack a little earlier than usual. Goodnight world.

Wednesday 05/12: Class was class and I went straight from 10:30 until 02:00 pm. I spent a little bit of time around campus before making my way over to Carolina’s for some catching up. When I got there, no one was answering the doorbell. Uh oh, I thought I was supposed to come over. Did I miss the memo on the change of plans? Nope, the girls were still sleeping, those lazy bums. Luckily, Carolina finally heard me knocking and came to open the door. I insisted on coming back later but she said she really wanted me to stay. Okay fine, she convinced me.

While she ate breakfast, I ended up eating lunch. With more of their delicious Portuguese soup and other goodies, I could hardly contain myself. After we finished, though, I suggested gelato. Carolina loves her Italian ice cream the same way I do…well, probably not as much but still she loves it. She showered and I hung out with Mercedes until she was ready to go. Then we were off on an excursion for amazingness.

Cones in hand and with the weather finally clearing up a little, we started walking up Porta Ticinese to Via Torino. Carol had been telling me all about her most recent discoveries so I decided to embark on a search of my own. I needed both a bathing suit and a presents for my loved ones. I was triumphant in both categories.

After our shopping rendezvous, Carol had to head home and I needed to do some research for my fashion project. My Management of Fashion and Design class assigned a giant field project on a brand of your choice that you and a group are supposed to fully analyze and create a giant PowerPoint. I’m in a group with Max, David, Phillip, and Brit and we chose Dsquared2. I decided to hit up the flagship store to see what I could find out and to take pictures for our slideshow. Without a problem, I struck up conversation with someone in the store, who turned out to be the Visual Director. I asked for permission to take pictures and bam, I was around shooting this, that, and the other. Before I left, I asked if he might be willing to set up a personal meeting to discuss the company, their image, their message, and all that good stuff. To my luck, he agreed happily and told me that anything I needed he would be happy to help with. I was ecstatic because apparently Brittany had been denied taking pictures 3 times and had been more or less pushed out of the store. I must have had some magic working for me.

I left the store feeing rather proud and headed home to get to work, do some packing, and figure out my life. I was feeling a little overwhelmed because as the semester moves closer to an end, I realize more and more how much I need to start preparing for my exams. Why is it so dman hard to study here? I feel like the world is outside my window waiting and sitting inside reading some Harvard case about management consulting seems pointless. I need to focus. Help me?

Isma and I quickly ran to the store, grabbed some food, and headed home to whip up some fresh filets and homemade spicy tomato sauce. Deliciousness once again. As soon as we finished up dinner, in walked Olha!!! She’s home! The rest of the night was spent catching up, enjoying her homecoming, and doing some homework. By 2 am, my bed was calling me and my eyes were begging me to sleep.

Thursday 05/13: I woke up to find it thundering…AGAIN! Ahhhh Milan I hate your stupid weather! I blame the volcano. Science easily verifies that something of that extent could easily throw off the weather. Thanks a lot volcano too-long-of-name-to-pronounce!

Fashion class was pretty interesting and we had a speaker from Ray-Ban. A lover of Ray-Ban, I was the only kid in the class who had the guts to speak up. The speaker appreciated the interaction because otherwise it would have been downright awkward. No one likes to stand in front of a big group of silent kids, blank stares and all.

I needed to do some work and was hungry so I had to cancel plans with Ayano (tear!) and go back to the apartment before my second class of the day. Already annoyed, I showed up to find that the maid had decided to bail no his duties. The kitchen was a disaster zone and you know me, I hate a dirty kitchen. Thus, I was left cleaning and scrubbing dishes until I could no longer ignore the hunger pains. I scarffed up lunch, threw my stuff in my backpack, and headed back to school for my last class of the week.

When I showed up to Room 212, not a single recognizable face was sitting in lecture. Well, there was no one sitting in lecture. Did I miss something? Yes, yes I did. Class was changed to 12:30 pm and I had completely forgotten. I have a class conflict at that time anyway but still, I could’ve avoided the 30-minute trip to campus.

I chose to spend my time at Bocconi on my computer taking care of emails, getting important documents taken care of, organizing my life, and just tying up loose ends here and there. You know, the necessary. At the time my class would have finished, I walked to the metro and made my way to Isma’s office. I needed to print my boarding pass and some school documents before heading off to Morocco tomorrow morning!!! That’s right, yours truly, is off to Casablanca and Marrakech for the weekend. Culture shock, I’m ready for you.

We stayed at the office until about 07:15 pm before heading back the apartment. I was ready to eat dinner, take a shower, and go to bed immediately seeing that I needed to wake up at a beautiful 4 am in the morning. Isma had other plans and wanted to go for aperitivo. I agreed only as long as we could go to the yummy place near the apartment. I figured it would save time and I knew I loved what they served. Unfortunately, there was no parking in front of the apartment or anywhere else close by and we spent 15 minutes driving and driving and driving. I was done with the idea of going but Isma had his heart set so we went.

Aperitivo was short and we quickly walked home to cook dinner. Isma’s sister had sent him home with leftovers. She’s a professional cook and a really really good one at that. So yeah, dinner was amazing.

Stomach full, bags packed, and exhausted, I took a nice hot shower before saying my goodbyes and I love yous to Olha and Isma. At 11 pm, I slid under the covers and drifted off, a 4 am alarm waiting for me.

Get ready for all the Morocco fun and other adventures come next post! Love and miss you all so much…can’t wait to see you in 7 weeks!!!

Xoxo
Me

Think It's Been Long Enough?

Hey, hey, hey! I’ve been enjoying my spring break and FINALLY had the chance to do some traveling. With the whole apartment mess, I had to cancel a ton of my traveling plans. Oh well, life happens! Anyway, let’s catch up from where I last left off. It was Easter, I was homesick but Isma treated me to a day in the mountains. Then it was study time and examinations. Kill me. But hey, there was fun to follow the not so fun so I hope you enjoy!!!

Tuesday 04/06: most boring day ever. Breakfast. Study. Lunch. Study. Study. Study. Attempt to kill myself. Study. Grocery store. Dinner. Study. Sleep.

Wednesday 04/07: I woke up at the crack of dawn to finish preparing for my exam at 10:30 am. I was counting down the minutes until examination period was donezo. See this is the thing…I sort of forgot that I was abroad to do work so that may or may not mean I wasn’t exactly up to date on my reading.. In other words, I had a shit ton to cover. Guess I learned my lesson and now know not to procrastinate. Then again, though, it’s pretty difficult when you’re in Europe and have the world to explore. Wouldn’t you agree?

Anyway, the exam went pretty well but it was trickier than I thought, which was a disappointment. Fingers crossed that I did all right, though.

I bumped into Ava as I was leaving Bocconi and found out that they found a different apartment. Originally I had contacted this guy who needed someone to fill his room. Unfortunately the space was a little expensive for just myself but he was willing to make it a double. Since the girls had wanted to stay together, I figured that it might be an option for them and passed along the information. I had found a place and they were still in need, so why not? I sent this guy a message, told him about the girls, and put them all in contact. And what do you know? All turned out to perfection and Ava and B are moving in. No more “dungeon” for any of us. Thank the lord for that.

After leaving Bocconi, I felt like wandering. I had been cooped up for the past couple of days and needed sun on my face and was gasping for fresh air. I walked for what seemed like forever, going in and out of stores, attempting to discover new treasures. I’ve been searching for a bracelet to add to my wrist of “never take me offs.” Each bracelet I currently keep on my left wrist has significant meaning and therefore, never comes off I want to find something in Milano that reminds me of my experience and the love I’ve developed for this city. I discovered a pretty sick little silver shop and spent my sweet time looking through the cases until I came across a fatty piece of turquoise on a silver beaded bracelet. The bracelet itself was so-so but the piece of turquoise was flawless. Fortunately, the woman who owned the shop said we could change the beads to accommodate my wants. Too bad she was impossible and kept trying to convince me of something I didn’t want. Oh and don’t forget her ‘tude. She kept talking on the phone every time I tried to finalize what we were trying to establish. I ended up giving up on that little endeavor and peaced. Another bracelet is bound to present itself in good time.

Isma wanted to have lunch in one of his favorite outdoor restaurants because the weather had finally decided to embody this thing called beautiful. Sun was shining from every direction, there was a perfect whisper of breeze, and smiles grazed the faces of every street-walking Italian. Gelatos in hand of course.

I met Isma near Porta Genova and he picked me up in route to the lunch. When we arrived, we managed to get the best seat in the house. I swear this man knows everyone. We were smack dab in front of the garden, sun glittering on my face. Blissful? Hmm, let me think about that one...

Lunch was pretty good but nothing special. We were both a little disappointed by the quality of the food but I was decently satiated so I couldn’t complain. Isma promised they were usually better and I believed it. If there is one thing that man knows, it’s good food in this city. Goes without saying we were meant to be friends.

After lunch, you know I was down for gelato and Isma has a hard time turning one down so we stopped by a place on my list of “must-haves.” It didn’t live up to its reputation and I wasn’t impressed. Due to my dissatisfaction, after I left Isma to spend the day on my own, I stopped by Chocolat. Two gelatos a day is always better than one. For all of those shaking their heads, come to Italy and then you’ll agree.

The rest of the day was spent walking around, soaking up each breath of fresh air. That’s somewhat of an ironic statement seeing that Milan doesn’t exactly scream clean but whatever, outside is outside. By the time my day ended, I was absolutely exhausted. I had walked the streets for hours and finally made my way home only to plop straight down on the couch and pass the heck out to an episode of Sex and the City.

Isma came home and startled me from my rest. We had plans to go to one of his beloved little restaurants. Blitz is a small, family-owned place that’s been around since the 70’s. The restaurant is covered with pictures and all the tables are tightly nestled next to one another. It’s a funny little spot.

Dinner was amazing, per usual. I devoured my huge salad that was so lovely adorned with avocado. Damn do I miss that stuff. Next was a pasta that had me debating licking the plate clean. It featured eggplant, one of my most coveted vegetables. Let’s just say there was nothing left when the waiter came to clear the table. I got another one of those “really?” looks. Too funny these Italians questioning my stomach size.

When dessert came around, the waiters brought us a bunch of piggy jars filled with cookies and candies. Talk about a cute and unique idea. I wanted fresh fruit so that’s exactly what I ordered. I was stuffed to the brim by the time I made it home and landed onto the couch for a movie and relaxation time with Isma and Olha. The exam was over and that whole school thing wouldn’t harass me until finals time.

Thursday 04/08: Olha and I were lazy bums and slept in all morning. I don’t even remember when we actually woke up but I’m going to guess it was some ridiculous hour in the afternoon. We’re growing girls, so no judgment.

While Olha showered, I made myself a nice little breakfast before getting dressed and ready to go. Olha had dropped the bomb that she had planned on taking me to her agency, NEXT, to meet with her booker and the rest of the staff. Today was the day apparently. Could the girl be anymore amazing?

Walter picked us up at the apartment and before I knew it, we were in the office and I was shaking hands with someone named Alberto. Walter, Olha, and Alberto talked back and forth in Italian before Alberto turned to me and asked me to follow him into a private office. I was introduced to the “team” and he looked at me and said, “We really like you and would love to get started. It’s a yes! Come in on Monday to meet with the owner and get final approval to sign.” Woah, did that all just happen in 10 minutes? Apparently the whole process was a lot simpler than I thought. Beside myself, I was living on cloud 9. I might actually have the potential to work in Milan for one of the best agencies in the world. God must be looking out for me. Olha was super excited and bragged, “I told you so!” No words to express my feelings. Simply lucky. Oh and this little thing called, blessed.

Since Olha hadn’t eaten anything, we found a cute restaurant and sat to order something. Two seconds later, up walks a platinum blonde Russian in black boots and a leather jacket. Svetla is Olha’s best friend in Milano and, of course, a model. She’s a few years older than Olha and has been working in the business for quite some time. Oh and just for the record, she gives Angelina Jolie a run for her money with the whole pouty lip territory. 10-15 minutes after Svetla showed up, Mario arrived with the birthday girl from last week. We all sat and mingled until Walter decided it was time for a change of scenery.

We walked back to the car and 5 of us piled into the car. Walter wanted to stop by his buddy’s bar near Corso Como for some aperitivo. On the way, we swung by a casting and picked up another model friend of theirs, Elena. The four of us snuggled tightly in the backseat until we showed up at the bar. Nothing special but free aperitivo so no complaining.

For an hour or so, the group of us just kicked it at Walter’s buddy’s before heading home. We were meeting up again later on at that lounge Bambu to be followed by 11 and The Club. Olha and I made dinner, got cleaned up, and threw something on. Can’t forget the 5-inch black boots I threw on. Don’t hate.

Bambu was really fun. I ended up meeting these two hilarious guys that were, for some reason, totally infatuated with the fact that I live in SD. Giuliano had studied at UCSD years ago and wants to move back to sunny, San Diego one day. I don’t doubt him; best place in the world. Nello, the other guy, couldn’t get over how tall I was and they decided to nickname me “la grande.” Thanks guys, I really love being called the big one.

We left Bambu after an hour/two hours to head over to 11. 11 is super swanky and has a total chiller vive. You walk up this spiraled staircase with a giant crystal chandelier that dangles down the middle. Our private table had a giant velour couch that hugged up against the wall. It was heavenly. The music is amazing and Olha and I couldn’t help but dance. The rest of the table was popping bottles of Moet and lighting sparklers. I swear, these people never rest. One hell of a life.

Marco Fendi was there and we were having so much fun chit-chatting on the couch. He was telling me all about this huge art project that he was working on and the dinner he was throwing in celebration of it. Marco wanted me to show in it and wear the designs but the date of the event coincides with my trip to Budapest and Vienna. While walking in a private Fendi showing would have been unreal, I knew that there was no way to just break off the trip with Brittany. We booked the whole things more than a month ago and I wasn’t about to just bail out on her. Everything happens for a reason so I have faith that something great will come along next. When I broke the bad news to Marco, he said he’d just have to plan something else special to make it happen. Love you Marco!

From 11 we made our way to The Club. I legitimately despise this place but Olha insisted I join. Our table was great and I had fun dancing but it’s impossible to breathe inside. To every direction is smoke floating upwards and poisoning your nose and lungs. Just my cup of tea…NOT. I stayed for a pretty decent amount of time before my eyes were watering too hard and I couldn’t stand another second. I stepped outside and a friend of the group’s, GG, followed me. I had met him earlier on that night in the club and had talked to him for a minute. Anyway, he followed me out and asked if I wanted company. Sure, why not. We talked for a while until I was just ready to get out of there and get home. The driver, Alessandro, whipped me home and made sure I didn’t have to take a cab back by myself. Door to door service? I most certainly don’t mind.

I came in, took a quick shower and hopped into bed. All in all, it had been a great day.

Friday 04/09: Go figure, I woke up super late and had the whole day to do whatever my little heart desired. I decided to pamper myself that morning with a long hot shower, scrub down, and hair washing. Perfection. I followed it up with blow drying the locks and dolling my face up. Then I hit the town.

I walked from the apartment into the center, which is a pretty decent walk. The weather outside was beautiful and I love walking so the combination wasn’t one I was turning down.

I spent my day running errands and doing a little shopping. I picked up my favorite perfume from La Rinascente and moseyed into a few stores to try on a couple things. No finds but I had fun exploring.

I was tired and headed up only to meet Isma at the apartment. He had been in a funky mood all week and I couldn’t tell what was up with him so I did my best to cheer him up and spend a little quality time with him before Olha got home.

Isma and I were making plans to go grab some dinner when Olha called me to tell me about an event that she was taking me to tonight. Apparently Walter and Mario had invites to a Playboy Party and we were all supposed to come along. One of the women who was joining was a shoe designer and had wanted to show off some of her designs so home with Olha came a pair of shoes I was supposed to wear. It was a whirlwind of plans in about two minutes but I was up for the adventure.

Olha and I tried to convince Isma to come with but he wasn’t having it. He insisted on going back to the office for a while. I felt so badly for skipping out on dinner with him, especially with the mood he had been in all week, but I didn’t want to disrespect the woman by refusing her shoes for the evening. I promised Isma a raincheck.

The event was supposed to be somewhat nice so Olha and I dressed up. I threw on a satin dress and strapped on those heels. I was ready to go.

The Playboy Party was, not to be rude, super lame. The event was supposed to be a dinner and that it was not. I had to use my fingers to stuff my face full of appetizers and we were served some sushi but nothing substantial. I was dying. I hadn’t eaten dinner purposely because Olha told me it wad a dinner event. Oh well. We did meet, however, this hilarious old guy who is apparently the biggest Playboy man in Italy. He dated Bridgette Bardoux and a couple other big name stars. Walter was stoked on meeting him. It was adorable.

The group decided to leave the event early and head towards Corso Como for another round of 11 and The Club. Before we made our way, though, we stopped by the bar from the other day so that Walter’s buddy could whip us up something to eat. Thank the Lord.

Once stomachs were full, the giant group of us made our way over to 11 for some dancing. I was having an amazing time and enjoying ever second of the night until I found out that we off to The Club. I told Olha I was going to grab a cab home because I had absolutely no desire to go in. The place sucks. Every time I go, I end up feeling like crap and just want to go home. Unfortunately, Olha told me that I needed to go in order to show off the shoes for a little while. Damnit.

I sucked it up and stayed for a little while until I was hacking up a lung and needed to break outside. Once again, GG (remember the guy from the other night) followed me outside. He’s a rather interesting person but pretty intense. GG is super into the spirit and mind, taking the mind to new levels, and all this stuff about energy and what not. He believes in different mental dimensions and was telling me all about this stuff. That he kept discussing happiness in life and how money doesn’t provide any of that, etc, etc, etc. Well anyway, the conversation was an interesting one but I was ready to get home so I told him I was getting ready to leave. He insisted on driving me home. I talked to Olha and she assured me that there was no danger there whatsoever. I trust her so I accepted his offer.

GG thought it’d be nice to get some tea or coffee and I was very in the mood for a tea so I said yes. As we made our way to his car, I realized that I was about to hop into a fatty black Porsche Cayenne. Hmm, was this not the guy who just said that flashy things and money meant nothing?

Well anyway, he drove us around trying to find a place to get something nice. First he took me to the Bvlgari Hotel. Closed. He followed that up with the Four Seasons. Also, closed. I said that I didn’t need anything that I could make my own tea at home. Apparently that was not an option because he proceeded to drive around until we came across one little place that was still open. Granted it was something like 3 am so it wasn’t too much of a shocker that the city was dead.

We sat and talked for a little while about who knows what. Unfortunately, GG speaks crappy English and when he tries to explain things he just rambles on and on and on, hardly making any sense. It’s kind of frustrating. I always do my best to speak in Italian with him but he’s always so into these conversations about energy and the mind, blah blah blah.

About a half an hour in, I was dying. I could hardly keep my eyes open and couldn’t comprehend any of what he kept babbling on about. I apologized for needing him to stop and asked him to please take me home. An hour later, seeing that he talked to me outside for way too long, I was home. Lights out and I was done for.

Saturday 04/10: Today was a boring day spent doing laundry. It was a pain-in-the-ass process this time, though. Isma had told me he would take my things to the laundry mat earlier in the week but that never happened. I had asked him numerous times to show me where to go but because of that weird mood he had been in, that never happened. I was in desperate need of washing so I just sacked up and made the trip to Arco. That meant loading up two huge bags full of clothes and strapping my backpack on with my computer only to take the metro to the Duomo and then trek across three blocks to the tram to make my way to the dorms. Yuck.

When I finally made it there, my back was a goner. Just my luck, only one of the machines was open so that meant the process was going to be a lengthy one. What ya gonna do?

I spent way too much time there throwing in load after the other from washer to dryer. Annoying process but a mandatory one. I did bump into Simone, one of the other students from USC, and she and I chatted it up a bit. I hadn’t really had the opportunity to get to know her properly and she was so incredibly sweet. Other than conversing with Simone, I just did stuff on my computer and ate lunch at a little café across the street.

Finally Olha called me and asked me where I was. I had her keys because we hadn’t made an extra set for me yet. She and Walter were on their way back from Como and were going to pick me up on their way back to the apartment. Phew, thank goodness no more metro/tram lugging.

Right around 7 pm the two came and picked me up. We went from the dorms to Walter’s friend’s house to view their new puppy before finally getting home. Originally I was just going to kick it at the apartment with Olha and Isma but GG got my number had insisted on taking me to one of his favorite restaurants. He was picking me up at 09:30 pm and we’d be grabbing dinner. He seems to love and appreciate food the way I did so I trusted that if I went to dinner we’d be in for a truly delicious dining experience.

He picked me up and this is where the whole night starts. First off, I get in and he is longingly looking into my eyes. He says, “Hi baby.” Who are you calling baby dude? I hope not me. Oh yeah that reminds me, I forgot to tell you that he had called me earlier to make the plans for dinner and with his crap English was trying to talk to me about plans and all about me and some nonsense. He said that I was an angel and the one of his dreams and that he had told his secretary all about “the girl from San Diego who stole his heart in one second.” Oh Lord. Well this shit continued as soon as I got into the car. I thought I had made it pretty clear the other night that I was just interested in friends but apparently when he asked me, “So are you interested in spending time with me? Do you want to get to know me? Find out more about me?” and I responded with, “Yes, I love making new FRIENDS and getting to know people better”, he thought otherwise.

So yes, I get into the car and he takes me hand in his and he is weirdly caressing it and stroking it, telling me all about my energy and the type of person I am just through the message written in my hands. Hmm, okay. We start driving off and he continues to discuss all the things he told his secretary about me and how he is moving to San Diego and how I am the girl he has been searching for. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I’m not pretentious like a lot of the girls he knows. I don’t care about the rich, flashy things. I am blonde and blue eyed. Apparently all these things are what make me the perfect future wife for him. The conversation just continued on and kept getting weirder, of which I no longer even remember probably because I just dismissed it from my mind.

When we finally got to the restaurant he wanted me to decide between the Bistro and the Restaurant. I didn’t care and I think I told him that about 49872398 times but he still insisted on taking me back and forth to make a decision. I was on the verge of screaming when I finally just said, “GG please just pick a restaurant. I have never been to either and while I realize they are both Giangacamo, you know the difference between them better.” He chose the Bistro.

As we walked in, we bumped into Giangacamo himself who popped a bottle of champagne in the honor of GG and my presence. The two of them laughed back and forth in Italian, while I chimed in when I could. All the while, GG is looking into my eyes and telling me random things. So damn weird.

When it came time to be seated, we were given a lovely little table. The restaurant was really cool, resembling an old library stacked with old bookcases. The menu looked good but was pricey, let me tell you. GG demanded I order anything I wanted.

So dinner was pretty yummy but I know that you all want to hear more about the ridiculousness that was coming my way from GG. Well how about this one: I told him that my Dad was going to England to go golfing and he says, “This is perfect. Now I can meet your father and convince him that I will move to San Diego to be with you.” Okay wait woah. I did NOT invite you to England and I don’t even dig you. You are 33 years old and bald, smell like organic spice lotion all the time, and talk about telepathy as our potential means of communication. Yeah that’s right, we had a conversation about telepathy and how all humans are apparently totally capable of it but that they must find the inner energy to emit this power. The guy was making absolutely no sense especially in his broken English and I was just getting frustrated. I kept arguing that telepathy is only capable by one who believes in it. If you don’t have any faith in the power of telepathy then there is no way in hell it’s going to work. He kept nodding along with everything I said but then would tell me, “Me sorry, I no understand.” Oh my effing God. That meant me having to re-explain things a good 2-4 times. This happened numerous times throughout the night until I would usually just say, “let’s end this conversation and move onto something that you will understand.” I didn’t mean to sound bitchy but come on, why are you going to talk about something like the government or economic policy when you can barely explain yourself clearly. He would ramble on and on in circles and repeat the same things over and over and over again. I was ready to rip my damn hair out. I had absolutely no focus on what he was saying and would make my best attempt to contribute something important.

There was one conversation we did have where the issue of language was brought up. He completmented me on how well I spoke Italian and how quickly I had learned it. I asked him if he ever planned on learning English, to which he responded, “I no care about learning English. For me its stupid and useless.” You tard, you are speaking to someone whose Native tongue is English. I was so irritated and explained that the English language is actually the most commonly used language in the business world and allows for the most communication amongst different speaking countries. To his, he just kept poking at the fact I was “defending” my country and how cute that was. That just ticked me off and I was getting more and more irritated with every word he uttered.

Let’s not forget that when he asked me if I was a virgin and I responded yes, he clasped his hands and then took mine to continue doing that weird stroking and caressing of the fingers. He followed that up with some sort of energy routine where he tried to make my hand levitate. Weirdo. Oh and then he starts talking about how I am a virgin for him and that I am no perfect. He then started to rub my head and play with my hair at the dinner table. OH MY LORD. Oh it gets better though. When I went to the bathroom, he watched me all the way there and all the way back. When I sat down, he says to me, “Your legs are the most beautiful, perfect legs that God has ever made.” Then he proceeds to take them in his hands and rub them. Not okay. I kindly removed his grasp and scooted away.

The night was full of utter nonsense and irritating conversation and rambling and whatever else the hell he wanted to add to the night. When it came time to get the bill and leave, he accidentally stepped on my foot. God forbid he do that because he then took my leg and foot and kissed them all over, apologizing for the mistake. Dude, relax it’s just a foot and I’m wearing converse, I will survive.

GG insisted that he take me to the best gelato in the entire city, which I had heard about and had wanted to visit. I was ready to go home but he was not so he proceeded to drive around trying to find it. It was closed by the time we got there. Oops, oh well, let’s go home. Nope he just keep talking and driving around the city. I focused more on the crazy snowing of flowers from the trees than I did his conversation. It was a super windy night and all the little white flowers on the many trees were showering this weird pollin into the air. The wind had it circulating around us and it looked like it was snowing. Way cooler than listening to GG try to explain the transition from delta state of mind to theta, none of which made sense in his Italianized English.

When he finally dropped me off, I was more than ready to be home. He was a really sweet person but just so out there and said way too many creepy things and kept trying to make me think that I was someone special when in reality, I’m sure the guy just wanted to take me home. You picked the wrong girl, sucker.

I thanked him for dinner and for all of his hospitality and said goodnight. He was not happy that I didn’t lean in for either a hug or a kiss but I didn’t want any more weirdness to go down. I’d hit my limit for sure.

I zipped up the stairs, got into the apartment, showered, and got ready for bed. I had been coughing a ton in the car and hadn’t been feeling to well. When I was finally back at the apartment I really didn’t feel too great and tried to just rest. I fell asleep in no time and hoped that the morning would bring a better feeling.

Sunday 04/11: I woke up only to find that what I thought might be a small cold had turned into a full-blown plague. When I finally opened my eyes it was 01:30 pm and all I wanted to do was turn back over and sleep off whatever illness was poisoning my body.

I walked out to find Isma getting ready to go the pharmacy because he, too, was experiencing the sore throat, mucus-clogged throat (yeah tmi, get over it), achy body, and heinous cough. He hacked his way around the apartment until he made it out. I made myself a giant cup of tea and climbed under the comforter on the couch.

A little while later, Isma showed back up at the house with gelato for the both of us. Apparently, Italians like to cure sore throats with ice cream. Brilliant medicinal concept if you ask me. We oohed and aahed at the cool sensation over our burning throats before I passed out and didn’t wake up for a good 4 hours.

The rest of the day was spent on the couch and watching movies with Isma. He had to head back out again later on to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy so I made a little something to eat. Too bad Isma brought back another gelato for another “soothing” therapy. I wasn’t complaining.

We made some more tea and vegged until we decided that sleep was much needed. Fingers were crossed that tomorrow would be a day with clear breathing and the ability to speak for more than 5 minutes without coughing up a lung.

Monday 04/12: Isma had to take off early in the morning to get to Bergamo and Olha was still in Como with Walter so it was just me in the apartment. Still not feeling too hot, I took a nice long shower and washed my hair. I spent the morning more or less just primping. I dried my hair, shaved my legs, moisturized the bod, made myself a nice breakfast, watched a little Will and Grace, dolled myself up, and got dressed and ready to go.

I decided that it was a pretty day and that I wanted to walk rather than take the metro to the city center. Stupid idea seeing that I was sick but I’m stupid sometimes. It was a long ass walk but hey these legs were made for walking, so that’s just what they’ll do. (No pun intended.) I ended up doing a little shopping and found a couple cute finds before making my way to Isma’s office. He had called me earlier and asked me if I wanted to grab lunch. I was starving so I was all in. I know I spend a lot of time with him but I genuinely think he just yearns the companionship. He’s such a sweet man and at times I feel perhaps he’s lonely, which is exactly why he likes to spend quality time talking or enjoying great food and conversation. He’s always looking out for me, making sure I’m okay, and feeing all right. Since I got sick, he’s been so sweet, constantly checking up to assure that I’m a-okay. He’s definitely adopted that fatherly role and it’s really comforting being so far away from my own family.

Anyway, I met Isma and had a delicious chicken salad and fresh bread at a great little café around the corner from his office. When we finished, I parted ways and continued running errands and shopping around. I wanted to meet with Flaca and Vincent for gelato seeing I haven’t seen them in 22986461097 days but they were both busy in class. Blah.

I figured it was time to head home when it started raining. That and I wasn’t feeling too great. I needed to get some tea and medicine in me and bundle up in my giant comforter. When I unlocked the door and got situated in the apartment, I got everything ready to go and wiggled my way into the perfect little spot on the couch only to drift off into dreamland.

Isma came home and wanted to go out for dinner. I wasn’t about to turn that option down so I hopped in the car and we were getting ready to take off when Olha called and said she was coming home from Walter’s and wanted to come too. Isma and I made a couple laps around the block and waited for her to come home before all making our way out for Mexican. Unfortunately the place Isma and Olha wanted to take me was closed. This started the wild goose hunt for a legit Mexican place, which in the end resulted in a big fight between Olha and Isma. Olha kept arguing with Isma about where she wanted to go and that Isma didn’t know anything, etc, etc. Isma had it up to here and insisted that we go where she wanted but that he wouldn’t eat. I sat awkwardly in the front seat trying to calm everyone down and remind them that it wasn’t worth fighting over. The response? Pure silence.

When we finally found a place to eat, the air had cleared and we enjoyed a lovely dinner. Nothing too special but the food was nice and I cleared my plates, as did the rest of the crew.

Home sweet home, I showered and slipped into pajamas. I was feeling worse and needed to get to sleep. I was supposed to meet the ex-roomies in the morning and much earlier than I would have liked. Thus, sleep was obligatory.

Tuesday 04/13: I woke up with the intent of going to meet Ava and Blakeney to finalize everything with Anna, our old landlord, in order to get back our security deposit. Unfortunately when my alarm went off, I had a fever and was hacking up a storm so I opted out of the meeting in an attempt to get better for my upcoming trip. I slept another 3 hours until my phone rang and my bbm was buzzing off the hook. When I managed to lift myself out of bed to grab my phone, I was startled to hear Ava on the other line rather upset. Apparently the meeting had not gone as planned and there was a lot of frustration and yelling back and forth between the girls and Anna. Based on the information being shared, Anna wasn’t giving back our security deposit and the girls had to pay a full months rent for the half month they stayed in the apartment. Ava said that things got so heated that at one point Anna threatened to call the police. Uh oh. I told the girls not to worry one bit and that all would get squared away. I was going to call Anna, set up a time to meet with her personally and would also talk to Isma just for backup’s sake. No stress. We’d figure it out.

I got myself dressed and ready to go meet Isma at his office. Despite my feeling super faint and disgusting, he insisted on taking me to lunch. I also needed to print all the necessary documents for my travels and he suggested I do so at his office. Sounded like a plan to me.

He met me at the metro stop near his office and I hopped in the car. On the way to the restaurant I explained the apartment mess. He assured me that there would be no police involvement. There was no denying that we never had a formally drafted contract therefore legality didn’t have any legitimate place in regards to the situation. Exactly what I predicted. I got a hold of Ava and told her not to sweat the situation. I was going to make my way over to Anna’s after lunch to see what I could figure out.

After Isma and I went back to the office and printed off what I needed, I walked off towards Anna’s and perhaps a little gelato? Yeah, who am I kidding, of course I got gelato. But anyway, I showed up to the apartment and chit chatted with Fernando, the doorman, for a little. He asked me why I hadn’t come in the morning and explained that the ladies had been screaming at one another. Oh god. It doesn’t help that the three of them never got along too well so I can only imagine the chaos that erupted when dealing with something as serious as the situation at hand.

Fernando sent me up to Anna’s and I was prepared for the worst. When she opened the door, though, she greeted me with a big hug and offered me both something to eat and drink. She and I sat down to discuss the whole misunderstanding and try to come to some sort of final agreement about the apartment, rent, and deposit. The whole thing had been blown totally out of proportion. Anna never threatened them nor did she tell them that we wouldn’t get the money back or that we’d have to pay some ungodly amount for the rent. The language barrier between Anna and the girls had created way too much confusion about what was being laid out. Thank the dang Lord I speak Italian. Just wish I had been there that morning…who knows, maybe we could have avoided this whole situation! The poor girls were really upset and Anna was frustrated. It was no good all the way around.

By the time I left, everything was 100% under control. Anna would give us back the security deposit as soon as the girls paid the rent. Completely rational. The issue with the rent, however, was that the girls hadn’t given her enough time to show and rent the apartment to another tenant. For the month of April, unless she found someone to rent the apartment, the girls would have to pay the full month’s rent. It’s a sucky situation seeing that they were only there for less than half a month and I feel really bad that they have to pay the rent but at this point, it is what it is. I promised Ava and Blakeney that I would take care of the whole thing and handle giving their money to Anna. Ava and B were not fans of Anna and I didn’t mind figuring it all out.

Anna gave me a big hug goodbye and invited me to dinner at her house in the next few weeks. She really can be so incredibly sweet! The two of us walked down the street and ran a quick errand together (both needed to photocopy a few things) before parting ways. I’d be in touch with her sooner than later to give her the girls’ rent and retrieve our down payment.

I headed back towards the apartment and managed to turn the wrong way, leaving me with what turned into a 45-minute walk. Seeing that I love to be outside and walking in the fresh air, I had no complaints.

By the time I got home, however, I was so exhausted and ready for some downtime. Too bad I still needed to pack and get a few things done before my early ass flight. Translation: Downtime was out of the question.

Isma made dinner and I continued to pack and do far too many things on my computer. I was registering for classes the next day and that meant stressing about what to take, when, and what filled my requirements. Annoying.

It was 2:00 am when I crawled into bed and my alarm was set for 04:30. Best night’s sleep ever here I come!

Wednesday 04/14: The sleep I was hoping to get turned into no sleep. I tossed and turned the whole 2+ hours, coughing and trying to get comfortable. Success? None.

When my alarm did go off, I hopped out of bed and got myself ready quickly. I threw the last of the last in my bag, threw my backpack over my shoulder, popped an apple in my mouth, and started walking the few blocks towards the train station. Brittany and I were meeting there to take a bus to the Bergamo airport, from which our plane was departing.

The bus ride was easy and spent catching up with Brittany. I hadn’t seen her for the last 2+ weeks of spring break because her mom had been visiting and I had been dealing with crappy apartment issues. As you can imagine, we had tons to catch up on, which made for the perfect time killer.

The airport, for being so small, was actually really nice. 1. It was clean. 2. They had cute little cafes to sit and relax. And 3. There weren’t crowds of annoying, weird people. Speaking of people, I did, however, bump into Brian. If you don’t remember, Brian is one of the guy’s from SC also studying at Bocconi. He is such a nice guy. He, too, was off to Budapest for the weekend so we found seats together on our open-seating flight. I was actually quite impressed with the flight: smooth take off and a perfect landing. Thatta boy pilot.

Once we landed, we quickly found the bus we had booked ahead of time and made our way towards the city center. We weren’t going straight to the boys’ apartment but to a more general area of the city that we would then have to catch a cab from. No biggie…or so I thought. Before we could grab a cab, I needed to get some money from the ATM. Hungary uses a currency known as the forint, which let me tell you, is WAY different than any euro or dollar. Enter ridiculous bank story. So I go into the bank to take out money for both Brittany and I seeing that my account doesn’t get charged any stupid fees. I found a bank and walked in. Interesting fact about Budapest: NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. So yeah, it took a good 10 minutes before someone finally understood that I was asking what the Hungarian currency actually was (didn’t know at this point). Simple enough question I thought but god forbid they respond with “forint.” Then I asked how much one forint was to a dollar or to a euro. Nope, couldn’t help with that one either. Fed up and getting frustrated, I headed to the ATM outside to withdraw money. I’ve used an ATM plenty of times before so I figured it wouldn’t be all too difficult. Wrong. They had 6 different options, just like they do at any ATM. I picked the largest amount, which was 100, and assumed that it would equate to something around 250 Euro or so. In Italy, the highest option, unless you press “other”, is generally 250 so I put two and two together and hoped for the best. Big mistake. The ATM spit out 100 THOUSAND forint. Yeah those fu*&# didn’t tell me that everything was done in thousands. Apparently Hungarians like to deal with ridiculous numbers when it comes to currency.

Having just taken out the equivalent of more than $515 American dollars, I was hating on Budapest. Things only got better when we were scooted into the nastiest cab I’ve ever been in, toothless old man included. Oh and once again, no English was spoken. He starts rambling off in Hungarian and I’m looking at him with a blank stare, shaking my head, and saying, “Dude, I don’t understand.” That didn’t stop him from babbling on in one of the world’s most difficult languages to understand. It’s #2 in the most challenging languages to learn too.
When we finally reached our stop, I was beyond relieved. Get me out of this dang cab. Oh but I was hopeful all too soon. I handed him one of the five, 20,000 forint bills that I had been given by the ATM machine. Old Toothless just looked at me and waved his hands, shouting bogus words aloud. Mister, why do you keep talking? I don’t get a damn word that’s coming out of your mouth. I finally understood that his shaking of the head and waving his hands at me meant that 20,000 forint was way too much and that I needed change. Start my wild goose hunt for change. It took 11 stores and 6 people who told me they spoke English but were obviously lying to finally find one person who DID speak English and was able to actually change the money. Everyone else looked at me like I was crazy when I showed them the 20,000 forint bill. Really Budapest? Why do you make 20,000 bills if NO ONE takes them?

Once I found change, I handed it to the guy, who then demanded a tip. I was over dealing with him for a second more so I let him keep the change and peaced. I threw my bag over my shoulder and treaded into the rain in attempt to find the boys apartment. We had to wait outside for a little until Max came down. Upon seeing him, I was feeling much better. Max and Max are two of my beloved boys from SC, both of whom are studying abroad in Budapest for the semester. I absolutely adore the two of them and lucked out big time when they agreed to host Brittany and me for the night. What better way to spend my only night in Buda than with two of my favorite AEPi boys?

Their apartment was huge and really nice…but very much boy inhabited. The place reeked of beer, there were red cups everywhere, the dishes were piled high, trash was abundant, and the best part? They had a proud shelf of over 70 handles of alcohol. Oh boys, gotta love ‘em!

Brittany and I spent some time hanging out with the two of them so I could catch up and get hugs and loves from familiar faces. Then it was off to lunch and exploring for us girls and school for the two boys.

I had been dying to get Subway because well, I miss it and they don’t exist in Italy. Eastern Europe, however, seems to dig their Subway. The boys told us that it was kind of a let down and that we’d probably want to try out a place called La Arriba, which they claimed was just like Chipotle. So yeah, upon hearing the word Chipotle, Brittany and I were sold. We found it pretty easily, ordered our food, and dug into heaven. Oh how I missed Mexican.

After lunch, Brittany and I took off on an adventure to find cheap bathing suits. Budapest is known for their thermal bathes and neither of us remembered to bring suits. Whoops. So yes, we needed something to wear in water and we were determined to come up with a solution. I figured that bathing suits would be stupid expensive this time of year so we might have to think outside the box. We took off for the mall and started looking. We checked every store that might have bathing suits but no luck. Finally, I opted on a lingerie store. Score. While all the women’s stuff deemed a little costly for what we needed, the kids’ stuff wasn’t. So what did I walk away with? Oh that’s right, a 9-11 year old sized pair of boy undies and a 12-year-old girls’ tank bra. Sooooo stylish and sexy.
With our fancy new garments in bags, Brittany and I headed off to take in some history We decided on a place called the Terror House, which featured information and memorabilia from the Nazi and Soviet presence in Hungary over the past century or so. We rented headsets so we could actually make sense of what we were seeing. Good and bad idea. It was really interesting but the recording was WAY TOO LONG. I am talking a history book here. You had to wait in each room for the recording to wait otherwise you’d miss things. Annoying. Overall, I watched some really captivating videos and learned some interesting facts about the terror in Hungary over the years. Talk about one suppressed country. It’s only been a decade or so since they’ve actually been independent.

When we finished our history lesson, we walked the excessive distance to the main statue of the Pest side of the city. See Budapest is actually divided into Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube River. Buda is older and more classic, while Pest is an urban region. Anyway, we walked down famous Andrassy Street until we reached the monument and found a beautiful park/pond. There was a restaurant situated right along the water’s edge and seeing we were both tired and parched, the two of us quickly got a table. Still sick as ever, I needed some tea to calm my throat and haggard cough. Brittany opted for a beer and some traditional goulash stew. She couldn’t stop raving. Had I felt better, I probably would’ve gotten some too but hey, when you’re sick you’re sick.

From the restaurant, we made our way to the Bathes. The process of purchasing tickets was a total pain in my ass because once again no one could explain anything in English and all the prices and what not were written in Hungarian. It only took 15 minutes to get a pass to get in and find a dressing room. Oh but then we had to find towels and rent those, which had a deposit on them that you’d only get back once you returned them. Hungary, you are way too complicated for me.

The bathes ended up being really nice but there were so many weirdos there. Let’s just say I saw WAY too many old men in speedos. Their secrets were most certainly out. The medicinal bathes were nice but everywhere we went there were tons and tons of people. The saunas were great too but again too many people. OMG one of the saunas was heated at 100 degrees Celsius. Umm, so yeah I passed on that one.

When Brittany and I had reached our bathing limit, we headed to the dressing rooms to change and head back to the boys’ apartment. When we showed up to our lockers, Brittany’s was empty. In complete and utter panic and wearing nothing but a towel, she was having a mini heart attack. I tried to keep her calm and remind her that the woman overlooking the dressing rooms had probably seen that her locker was unlocked and took her things to a safe place. But in a whirlwind of crazed emotions, she went running off. I mean I don’t blame her. She had her new leather jacket, passport, all her money, train tickets, and everything you could possibly think of in that locker. I probably would have freaked too.

As I predicted, the woman guarding the dressing room had taken all of her things and put them in a security area. Brittany was relieved beyond belief but still a little shaken up. But hey, all was going to be a-okay.

Heading back, I suggested taking the metro. Budapest is the first city in Europe that created an underground railway. The particular line we needed to take just happened to be that specific railway. It was much more shallow to the surface than most metros and had the funniest little chime that played every time we arrived at a stop.

Straight off the metro, we met the boys to grab a set of keys and then parted ways again for dinner. The two of them had to go to dinner with one of the girls also studying abroad, whose parents were visiting. Fortunately the apartment was surrounded by great places to eat. After checking a number of menus, we opted on a place with both delicious food offerings and reasonable pricing. To start, we both ordered pita and aborigine cream with fresh vegetables, which was to die for. We followed that up with a “cook your own meal” of chicken, vegetables, and sauces for dipping. Essentially, they brought us raw chicken breasts marinated in oil and spices, which we then cooked on a hot stone. Both delicious and fun.

Having finished dinner, I was exhausted and in need of a shower. Thank goodness the boys had left me a clean towel to use. Once I dried off, I slipped into pjs, took some cough medicine, and snuggld up into their big chair to register for classes. Lucky me, I had registration at 10 pm European time to finalize my class schedule for next year. Talk about annoying and stressful. Luckiyl I managed to lock in a sick schedule and couldn’t be more excited for next year.

Anyway, so I’m in pjs, face washed and all that good stuff. You think I’m getting ready for bed right? Yeah, not so easy. Unbeknownst to me, the apartment turned into one giant rage-fest with 15 people all downing alcohol and playing beer pong. I think by the time everyone left to go drink at a bar and dance at a club, these people had consumed 4 handles of Vodka and an ungodly amount of beer. I told Brittany to go out with them and have a good time because I wasn’t about to go with. A) That just isn’t my scene and I could care less about smoky, drunken clubs. And B) I was sick as sick could be. With both laryngitis and bronchitis, I could barely speak and coughed every five-minutes. I was having so much fun!

I said goodbye to everyone and attempted to make a cocoon on the couch. As much as I love the smell of beer in my hair, I was thinking “how about not.” I wrapped myself up in blankets, which smelled clean enough, put my hood up, popped a cough drop in my mouth, and drifted off to sleep. I wanted to get up early to see the city and make the most of my last day in Budapest.

Thursday 04/15: I woke up and slipped into the bathroom to get ready quietly. Brittany and the boys didn’t get back until 6 am. It was 9 am now and the last thing I wanted to do was wake them. Before I knew it, though, Brittany slipped in 10 minutes after me. She didn’t want to miss out on the fun of the day. That’s my girl!

We took off from the apartment and made our way towards Buda, searching for a place to call our Vienna hostel along the walk. We needed to call to see what time our check-in was. Depending on what time we needed to be in Vienna, we’d either have little or a decent amount of time in Budapest before hopping on a train to Austria. Our search wasn’t going very well until I finally waltzed into the Four Seasons and kindly requested the use of their phone. The receptionist was a doll, dialed the number, and handed the phone to Brittany. In 5 minutes, we were all taken care of and wouldn’t have to check in until 11 pm. Perfect.

From the Four Seasons, Brittany and I searched for breakfast. We were both hungry and in need of food consumption pronto. Unfortunately, breakfast wasn’t all that simple to find. Really? How hard is to get some eggs, toast, and fruit? Apparently pretty hard. 10 places later, we found a cute little hole-in-the-wall café. The woman working was really sweet but, again, couldn’t speak much English. It took probably 15 minutes to explain that I wanted a fried egg over easy, some bread and jam, a tea, and a bowl of fruit. Her confusion of what I was asking for was so great that even after I showed her in an English/Hungarian dictionary, she had me come back to the kitchen to show her how to make the egg. On top of that, the poor thing ended up forgetting my fruit, which I then had to remind her of later. I think she may or may not have hated me…a lot.

Stomach full, Brittany and I made our way out into the rain to cross the Chain Bridge and climb the hill to the Buda Castle. The scenery was absolutely beautiful but the rain, not so much. At this point, a downpour had graced us with its presence. My vans were soaked and I was getting more and more over Budapest.

My adoration for this city was only confirmed when we had to walk from the castle to the train station (a LONG LONG walk in the rain) in order to buy our tickets to Vienna. We arrived, waited in a line, and then were told to go to another line. We find the other line and are told that the wait is an hour and a half. I then needed to use the restroom, which was going to cost me money. I pretended like I didn’t understand, ignored the guy, walked in, used the bathroom, and walked out. I’d had enough of the bs.

Fortunately, we bumped into two guys who were trying to travel to Slovakia. They weren’t about to wait in this stupid line so they headed off to figure out a solution. 10 minutes later, they come back with good news. Pointing us in the right direction, they sent us to a little office right next to the first line we’d waited in. According to the two of them, there we could easily get tickets, get special deals, and most importantly, could speak in English. Hallelujah! The process of getting our tickets was a breeze and took 5 minutes total. Why didn’t the people in the line next door tell us that? Stupid Budapest.

At this point, Brittany and I were starving. Everyone had been telling us about this place called the Hummus Bar or something like that. Seeing that I hadn’t had hummus in ages and was craving it more and more each day of its absence, I was so in. It was a tiny little place that you had to walk up these tiny little stairs to sit down. The food was amazing, fresh, plentiful, and cheap. I ended up cleaning my plates, yes plates plural, along with all the fresh veggies I had purchased at the market next door. Oh lord, bad idea. I was so excessively full that I couldn’t eat until the next day. (If you want to see just how much I ate, go to my “From Buda to Vienna” Album on Facebook. If it looks big, it was infinitely bigger in real life. Sometimes I think I was born a fat kid in a lanky body. Thoughts?)

Feeling like an oopma loopma, I just wanted to walk around for a bit before heading to the apartment, packing up all our stuff, and making our way to the train station. We said our goodbyes and huge thank yous to the boys before shlepping our bags onto a metro. The metro we took this time was MUCH different than the first. The escalators were so steep that you honestly got nauseated just looking down. Gross, especially with my epic stomachache on board.

We made our train in time, got on, and immediately fell asleep. We’d been walking around all day and my batteries were donezo. That and my plague was having a field day on my bod. I wasn’t feeling too hot.

Pulling into Vienna, I wasn’t all that happy to see it raining. Ugh, no more rain. I was pretty indifferent to everything at this point, though, so I didn’t care about the rain, the heavy bag I was carrying, the disgusting sound of my cough, or the walk we had to make to the hostel.

Once we checked in, I dropped my bag and plopped myself onto the bed. Our room was a tiny little dorm with one bed, an armoire, and a dinky little desk. All the bathrooms were outside and there were shower rooms downstairs. I felt awful for having to share a bed with Brittany given that I never failed to wake up at least twice in the night to a coughing fit. I was praying she didn’t get sick.

We showered, slipped into sweats, and climbed into bed. The bed was incredibly comfortable and I was out in minutes. Unfortunately, I woke up later and couldn’t stop coughing for a good 30. I felt so bad that I just left the room for a little while so I could try to cease the attack. As I said, the last thing I wanted to do was to get Brittany sick or wake the sweet thing up. The least I could do was leave to wake up the hallway instead.

Friday 04/16: I woke up feeling a little better but not significantly so. I was out of cough medicine and would have to wait until getting back to Milan to get another prescription. I’d be relying on wimpy cough drops for the next two days.

From the hotel, we made the lengthy walk to the city center of Vienna. Along the way we kept our eyes out for breakfast. Once again, absolutely no luck. Europeans just don’t dig breakfast the way I do. Every place we walked into only had ham and cheese and other things that most certainly didn’t tickle my fancy. Oh and you’re allowed to smoke in the restaurants in Eastern Europe and that most certainly wasn’t appealing to weasy Wile.

After passing copious restaurants and cafes, we finally found a place that could accommodate. Our food hit the spot and our waiter was an absolute sweetie. He showed us all the places to visit on our map, told us what to see and do, and even asked ME how much I wanted to pay for my meal. Best service ever.

One of the places our waiter suggested seeing was an aquarium/zoo right around the corner. While Brittany wasn’t as excited, I was totally stoked on it. The only way I managed to convince her to pay the admission was via the 9th floor rooftop that gave us a beautiful view of the city.

The aquarium/zoo was so random but so much fun. They had tons of fish and not as many cool animals but they did manage to pull through with alligators and monkeys. Unlike the San Diego Zoo, where monkeys are enclosed in cages, these monkeys were free to roam where they pleased. One little guy seemed to take a liking to me and kept following me around the platform. At one point, I was convinced he was going to try to climb up my leg. Too bad his butt was covered in little poop droppings and I wasn’t about to let him climb up on my nice pants. I prefer my clothing poopless, thank you.

The overall experience of the place was fun and the view from the top was beautiful. I had fun taking pictures with all the animals and enjoyed seeing the grandparents with little ones.

After our walk down childhood lane, Brittany and I followed the waiter’s advice again and found the famous market called Naschmarkt. The second I saw dried fruit, I was in heaven. The first little stand we came up to had a really funny guy that kept making me try every type of thing he had. Thank goodness he did because I would have never tried dried figs before and oh my lord, they are the world’s most amazing things on the planet. If you have never had them, I DEMAND that you go right now to your nearest Trader Joe’s buy a pack (better get two) and dig into deliciousness. I’m not kidding.

The market continued to amaze me as I traipsed onward, ogling every brilliantly colored fruit and vegetable. There was everything you could possible imagine. Fresh bread, dried fruits, hummus (oh hummus!), cheeses, meats, sweets, etc. It was Vienna’s gift to me. I couldn’t get enough of this place. I really really wanted to have lunch there and make a picnic out of all the delicious things but Brittany wanted to hold on until tomorrow. She was a little hummused out and I was too…kind of. We made plans to have our market picnic the next day. I could hardly wait.

I shed a tear as we walked away from the market and towards the center. Soon enough, we found ourselves in the museum district, surrounded by impressive buildings and history galore. Brittany and I weren’t all that into seeing any of the museums other than the Terror Museum, which Brittany was convinced was really far south from the center. We decided to just tour around the main attraction area, go see the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and then look into a walking tour.

Vienna is filled with shopping. I am talking tons and tons and tons of shopping. Everywhere you looked there were stores. I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I’m pooped on shopping. I like finding interesting, special things rather than always having to parade in and out of these big stores. It’s exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, though, a girl has to shop every once in a while, though.

Anyway, as we strolled around, Brittany and I spotted what looked like a tourism office. We asked about walking tours and were disappointed to find out that they were pretty expensive. Fortunately, though, there were one-hour bus tours that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Plus they had special offers where you could do two different bus tours or three tours for better rates. Brittany and I both really like learning about the history of the cities we visit so we figured it was a perfect option. The weather wasn’t gorgeous either so being in a bus deemed a nice change of pace.

The bus tours tourned out to be a huge success. The second followed right after the first and we didn’t even have to move buses. We head headsets that explained tons of interesting facts about Vienna, the architecture, the palace, the museums, the history, etc. It was definitely worth the money. I would suggest to anyone that visits, do it!

Hopping off the bus, we were both hungry for lunch. I spotted a Subway earlier and was ready to finally get my 12-incher. I had been waiting for way too long and fingers were crossed that Vienna Subway was better than Budapest Subway. And it was. I ate that 12-inch turkey with a smile and finished every last bite. Yummmmm. My brother would have been proud.

After lunch we walked around a little, did a little hopping, and Brittany found a great gift to buy her dad. I went into some random hat shop and amused myself by trying on a number of absurd looking hats. Yes, I’m really that easily amused.

About an hour in, Brittany started feeling not too hot. We booked it home by foot (a good 35-minute walk) so she could rest a little. She was complaining of serious nausea and we all know how shitty that can be. I just wanted her to feel better.

We spent about an hour or so at the hostel until Brittany decided it was time to head back out. We had been told to try out a place called Sky Bar. It was located on the top floor of a department store and we’d been suggested to go by a couple of people. When we showed up, the crowd was whack and the room smelled of smoke. Granted they have “non-smoking” sections but when those sections are located in the same exact vicinity as the smoking sections, they sort of become smoking sections too. Not that hard to figure out that hot air rises and fills a room. Come on people. Anyway, we were over this place and decided to search for a restaurant that apparently served the best schnitzel in all of Vienna. Too bad we couldn’t find it. Instead, we spotted a Greek restaurant that looked both open and delicious. Perfect combo.

The restaurant turned out to be a total success and Brittany and I had a great time. Better yet, our waiter was Italian and I could finally speak in a language that someone understood. He was pretty impressed with my speaking skills and asked me how long I’d been learning. Only 2 ½ months mister! Italian is such a fun language and I cannot wait to take a class next year and maybe, just maybe, be fluent. That would make living in Italy some time down the road that much better.

After dinner, Brittany and I walked around and went down to check out an area called the BARmuda Triangle. It’s an area in Vienna that is scattered with bars. My interest wasn’t the bars, however. Vienna is known for having the best gelato north of the Alps so you better believe that’s where I was headed. While it was no Italian gelato, it was some dang good gelato. I was happy.

30 minutes after our gelato consumption and random picture taking, Brittany and I made the epic walk home to the hostel. We made record time, too. We were walking at an ultimately impressive speed. Potential speed walkers for the Olympics? Maybe so.

With a shower and a comfy bed to crawl into, the day had been the best of the trip.

Saturday 04/17: Brittany and I didn’t have to check out until 11 am and seeing that we’d covered the mass majority of the city yesterday, we treated ourselves to sleeping in and oh was it wonderful.

We quickly got ready, packed our bags, checked out, and shoved our stuff in the storage room before taking off to grab a quick bite to eat and see the Torture Museum. Turns out that the whole concern for it being so far away was totally bogus. Interestingly enough, it was right next to the aquarium/zoo we’d gone to the day before.

The museum was kind of lame. The figures were so ridiculous and the size of the musem was puny. The only interesting component was the book of a pamphlet they gave us to follow along with the signs written German. It was definitely interesting to learn about all the torture devices but I had been hoping for something a little more gruesome. What can I say; I’m intrigued by that stuff.

As planned yesterday, we were off to the Saturday Flea Market and the delicious food market we’d walked through. Since we had passed on buying stuff to make a picnic lunch yesterday, we figured today was the perfect time to do so. I could hardly wait to stock up my bags with fresh veggies, fruit, bread, and hummus! If you thought I’d gotten enough after my epic and rather sickening consumption on Thursday, you underestimate my hummus eating abilities. Too much hummus just doesn’t exist in my world.

The Flea Market was more or less filled with tons of junk. There were tons and tons and tons of people and we all know how much I absolutely love that…NOT. Digging through piles of other people’s crap, I did come across a little silver bracelet with three charms on it: a K, an angel, and a Scorpio sign (for my Nanikins, of course!). Made for me, right? Seeing it’s been my tradition to buy a bracelet in every city I visit, I knew this was the perfect choice. When I asked for the price, the woman quoted me at 48 Euro. Absolutely not. I bargained my way down to 12.50 and left with my one-of-a-kind antique bracelet. Exciting!

We wandered through the market for a little while longer and I snagged two other little charms to add to the bracelet. I was quite content with my finds but felt bad that Brittany hadn’t found anything. She had really wanted to find a cameo for her mom but everything we came across was cheap and crappy so I refused to let her buy any of them.

As the Flea Market transitioned into the market, my enthusiasm for lunch grew. With choices galore of fresh goodness, I picked up some spinach, carrots, tomatoes, red bell peppers, some apples (for later), a peach, a roll, and an array of hummus choices (tomato, spicy, and original) plus tzatziki. Unfortunately the guy giving me my container of hummus filled it way too much. Round 2 of crazy hummus eating was looming. Oh well!

Don’t think we left that market without grabbing some more dried fruit. I was officially and utterly obsessed with dried figs and every other fruit I’d gotten the day before. By the time I stocked up on all the necessaries, I had spent a good 25 Euro on my dried fruit refill.

Brittany and I couldn’t get out of that market fast enough. There were way too many people to handle and we were both dying to eat our food. We found a little grassy area, parked ourselves, and enjoyed a perfect little picnic on a perfectly gorgeous day. We couldn’t have asked for better weather on our last day in Vienna.

We followed lunch with a walk around the city, enjoying the sun. We ventured through parts of the city we’d seen on our bus tour and strolled along the Danube. If you have plans of traveling, Vienna is a really special place and a pleasure to visit. 50% of the city is covered in greenery and it makes for a wonderful mix between old architecture and the beauty of nature.

Brittany and I decided that we had plenty of time to do something cultural again. Everyone had told us how amazing the Natural History Museum was and one of ten of the best of its kind. We agreed that if it was anything more than 5 euros, we were over it. Well, lucky for us, it was exactly 5 euros at a student rate. Hey, hey, hey.

The museum was in a magnificent building and featured the most impressive collection of animals you’ve ever seen. We are talking about rooms of bird species, insects, reptiles, bears, cats, monkeys, fish, etc. I couldn’t believe how many different types of each category they had collected over the years. It was really cool to experience. That and it made for some great picture taking. Check out the silly pics in my album.

From the museum, we made the long walk back to the hotel to get our things, hop on the metro, and make our way to one of the many other train stations in Vienna. Rather than take a flight from Vienna to Milan, we had booked an overnight train. And lucky for us, too, seeing that all the airports had just been closed down in result of the volcano chaos. Looks like we’d made a really good choice in booking a train rather than a flight, regardless of knowing that the eruption would occur.

Originally, Brittany and I were all excited for our overnighter on the train. That was until we saw our room. Oh. My. God. Smallest, hottest, room of our lives. Our room was a 3-man and we both had assigned beds that bunked along the wall. There was a little ladder to get to each bed and I managed to luck out big time with the assignment of the very bottom bunk. God loves me. Unfortunately for Brittany, she was stuck at the very top and it was about 5, maybe 10, degrees hotter up there. While I was right next to the air conditioner, she was in the tropics of there. I felt so badly for her but I wasn’t about to give up the bottom bunk. I love you Brit but as sick as I was, I needed to comfort. I had a vice-like headache and was coughing like mad.

The train ride was an expected 12 hours 35 minutes. Some 2 hours in, I noticed that we weren’t moving. This continued for about 30 minutes until I finally got out of my “cell” of a bed and found someone working for the train. Apparently all the chaos with the airports had left people relying on the train systems and thus there was a bunch of traffic and backup on the tracks. We’d be standing still for 2 hours. Lord, no.

It felt like Christmas morning when we started moving again. Journey to Milan was in motion. We made another stop a little while later, at which our bunkmate hopped on. She was a sweet little old lady, who I’m still confused as to whether she was German or Italian. She spoke Italian but sometimes it sounded like she had a German accent. I really have no idea. Well anyway, she changed and climbed straight into her middle bunk. Soon enough she was snoring away and I was hating life. I just tried to pretend like I couldn’t hear here. Note: That doesn’t work. But I guess my excessive coughing equated to her snoring. I considered us even.

Sunday 04/18: I hardly slept on that bumpy, crazy train ride. The snoring of my bunkmate didn’t help either. So as you can imagine, when I pulled into central station, I was beyond thrilled to be home.

I walked straight to the apartment, made myself some breakfast, took a shower, and rested on the couch. I managed to get unpacked and clean up my room a little but was generally pretty lazy. Isma wanted to go to lunch a little later so I summoned the energy and got ready to go.

Lunch was delicious and we followed it up with a movie and some napping back at the apartment. Come 5:30 pm or so we looked at each other and realized just how lazy we’d been all day. I had gotten home at 9 am and hadn’t done crap since …well other than eat. So we put our shoes and jackets on and decided to take a nice long walk. It was exactly what we needed. We walked through the gorgeous park near the apartment, which spans quite a good distance and is an absolute pleasure to stroll through. Then we made our way towards the center to shop around. When it started getting pretty late, we turned around. Isma picked up some tulips for my bedroom and then it was time for dinner making.

The rest of the night was spent dealing with the shit of the shit but hey life’s full of shit sometimes. For those familiar, tears are exhausting and so falling asleep was no issue. Unfortunately, school started at 8:45 am the next morning. Can anyone say yuck?

Monday 04/19: As expected, I woke up to my alarm and was too sick to get myself up
and ready for school. I had a fever and was coughing up a storm. I turned back over and fell asleep. My second class wouldn’t start until 1 pm so I had time to rest.

When I finally woke up, had some breakfast, and opened the windows, I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful day calling my name. The sun was shining and the sky was a magnificent blue. Despite my plague, I was excited to get outside.

The beautiful day was darkened by a little thing called class. School was death. Boring doesn’t even begin to explain. I hate my classes more than I could begin to put into words. They’re miserable. In one of my classes, the teacher for part one, who was horrific (no exaggeration), was just replaced by a French woman. And guess what? She sucks just as badly. Her damn French accent is so heavy that it’s impossible to understand a word she says. Its just blah blah blah blah and blah. For example, she pronounces valley as valet and everything else just sounds all nasal and retarded. I may go bald by the end of the semester from ripping my hair our in frustration.

When class ended, I decided to go home for lunch and to drop off my computer. After that I walked towards the center in order to run some errands and get my new bracelet fixed. It felt so wonderful to be outside in the sun. I spent a pretty decent amount of time running around, trying to take care of a few different things before Isma offered to pick me up on his way home from the office. It was starting to get a little chilly out so that sounded way better than any metro taking.

Before heading home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up the necessities for dinner. We whipped up some delicious homemade tomato sauce, cooked a steak, and made some vegetables. Mmm, mmm, mmm. No dinner is sufficient without a gelato afterwards so that’s exactly what we did. Isma told me had discovered a new place on his way to work so we decided to walk there. I’d actually seen this place a number of times but hadn’t tried it yet. Good reason, too. The place wasn’t anything special and the gelato was way too hard and lacked legit flavor. Disappointed, we decided to go for round two. Originally we just wanted to see if our favorite place near tto he apartment had banana (my favorite flavor). It’s a rarity to find so we assumed we wouldn’t get any. Well, what do you know? They had it. Round 2 of gelato it was.

With cones in hand, the two of us walked back to the apartment. I was in utter bliss. Best banana gelato I’d ever had. Could’ve died happy in that moment.

Back at the apartment, I showered, did some work on my computer, made some tea, and watched a little TV before climbing under the covers and drifting off into dreamland.

Tuesday 04/20: I slept in nice and late because as you all know, Tuesday is my perfect day. No class until 4 pm. I made a nice breakfast, huddled under the comforter on the couch, and watched a movie on demand. Then I spent my sweet time getting ready, taking a shower, listening to music, and just doing whatever I well-pleased. Today was my day and I had nothing to do.

With time to spare, I decided to take the long way to class. You all know me and how much I love to adventure and discover the new. Along my way, I found two new amazing gelato places, both of which I sampled a cone, as well as new restaurants, an amazing shoe store, and a really sick silver and ethnic jewelry shop.

After my trek across the city, I made it to class. Boredomville once again. I learned nothing. I mean literally, nothing. When 5:45 pm came around, I was begging to get out of there. I took off to get the last part of my bracelet fixed and then continued onward toward home. Once again I took the long way home and discovered little gems about my city.

I walked in the door and was totally pooped. My legs were hurting and I was ready to just crash. It was past 8 pm and Isma still wasn’t home. When he finally did get back, we decided on making dinner and then crashing. Long day for both of us.

Wednesday 04/21: I woke up later than expected and had to bust my ass into gear in order to get to class on time. To my complete and utter surprise and satisfaction, class was enjoyable. Get ready for it…our new teacher is AMERICAN. In other words, speaks comprehensible English. Thank the Lord.

In between class one and class two, Blakeney and I caught up. I hadn’t seen her in forever. It’s so weird not living together anymore and only seeing she and Ava every once in a while. Thank goodness they are really happy in the apartment I had given them the info about. The guy they live with is really nice, the girls have separate beds, and the apartment is both clean and new. I’m really happy it all worked out.

Blakeney and I headed to the French lady class. Ahhhhhhhhh, help! I don’t know how to explain just how horribly awful this class is. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to survive the exams.

I went home, made lunch, and relaxed for a little. The day was beautiful, though, and Blakeney had invited me to meet her in the park to soak up the sun and enjoy some gelato. I started walking back towards Porta Romana and found myself shopping along the way. I went the way I had the day before so I could go into that amazing jewelry store. Thank goodness I did because I came out with two new finds. That and I made friends with the owner. He was so impressed with my Italian speaking abilities that he gave me a special price on my Tibetan turquoise and one-of-a-kind silver bracelet from Toureg in the Sahara Dessert. Not too bad.

Thanks to bbm’s lameness and Italy’s awful network, B and I were having serious issues communicating with each other. I would have called her from my Italian phone but it had so conveniently just run out of credit that morning. Just my luck. Our messages were taking 45 minutes to an hour to go through and this left us having no idea of what the other was doing. In the end we missed each other and had to rain check it.

I decided to make my way up to the WIND store to recharge my phone before going over to Carolina and Mercedes’s apartment. I hadn’t seen those girlies in ages! It was so good to see them and spend some time catching up, snacking (on the most incredible homemade Portuguese soups I’d ever had!!!), and planning future trips before we both head back home. I don’t even want to think about leaving them.

Isma called me with plans to get dinner in Brera. He wanted to take me to a delicious Italian place in the heart of Brera, which as we all know I absolutely love. When we arrived, I laughed because this was the restaurant I had taken my sister to when she was visiting! I guess I really know how to pick ‘em.

Dinner was delicious and I devoured my entire pizza. Oh Italy, how I’ll miss you and your scrumptious food. What am I going to do without you? Guess I’ll just be moving back as soon as graduation comes.

Dinner was obviously followed by gelato and a walk around Brera. Then it was off to the apartment for a quick shower and the drying of my hair. Princess Flaca was celebrating her big 21st birthday before heading off to Amsterdam the next evening for the real day of birth. I hadn’t seen neither she nor Vincent in what felt like 139874509732 years and I couldn’t wait to see them. Going that long without seeing your best friends in the city is a little depressing.

The night was amazing. Flaca looked beautiful, Vincent was just as fabulous as always, and the group we were with was an incredible one. While I had been sick and traveling the previous week, Flaca and Vincent had been living it up in Milan during Design Week. Making appearances at both Vivienne Westwood and Marc Jacobs parties, they had made friends with some fabulous new people. On top of these new faces, Flaca’s uncle had flown in from Seattle to celebrate her special day and visit for 10 days. Best uncle ever!!! Oh and how can I forget that Ces and Joe came too. What a plethora of fabulous faces to share the night with!

I met Flaca and Vincent at their attic of an apartment. We met Gabrielle (crazy cool guy who works for Marc Jacobs), Tio (what we called Flaca’s uncle all night), Joe, and Ces before walking to the club Old Fashion. In 5-inchers, I wasn’t loving the walk too much. Speaking of the heels, everyone and their mother that night seemed to make a point to notice my height. I think the count of comments was lingering around 27 by the time I left. One guy followed me into the bathroom to ask me how tall I was. Another guy crouched down on the floor and scooted along side me, looking up and saying, “Grandissima! Che alta sei!” Or how about the guy who came up and said, “So you’re the tallest girl I’ve ever met, plus you’re blonde and blue-eyed. You must be Swedish.” The comments just kept on coming and the looks I got, oh god. The one major plus to being 6’5” was the parting of the Red Sea effect I managed to create when walking through the massive crowds. It made for getting through giant sweaty groups of people a lot easier, let me tell you.

All in all the night was so much fun. Flaca was having the time of her life, I had met some amazing new people, practiced my Italian a ton, and spent time with some of my most favorite peops in Milan. I left early because I had lost my voice and had class in the morning but it was 4 am and I figured that I’d served my time pretty well. I hopped in a cab, scurried up the stairs to the apartment, chatted with Olha a bit, and then got ready for bed. What an incredible day.

Thursday 04/22: For having gone to bed so later, I didn’t have too much trouble getting myself up. To add to my impressive getting ready, class was actually pretty interesting. One of the major managers at Valentino came to speak for my Management of Fashion and Design class. He had a lot of really interesting things to share about the business and the extreme luxury that is Valentino. Alongside Chanel, it is the most expensive brand in the couture industry.

I was supposed to meet Olha for lunch between my classes but she had been at a job all morning and was totally pooped. I decided to just come home and eat lunch with her at the house. We watched the Sex and the City Movie for a little until I needed to head back to school. I took the subway and had the pleasure of watching a crazy meth drug deal take place in the corner of the car. This one girl was tripping out and was concocting something secretive out of view. So weird.

Class was class and I ended up spending a great deal of time at Bocconi trying to do some computer work, catch up on emails, and cross things off my to-do list. My work was pleasantly interrupted by a call from my girlfriend. Audrey is officially coming to visit me in June and we’re going island hopping in Greece!!! Living the dream much? Umm, how about heck yes. I can hardly wait!

I didn’t get home until super late and even then Isma wasn’t home. He, Olha, and I were supposed to go out for Mexican. We’d tried last week but the restaurant was closed. Olha loves Mexican just as much as I do so we’d been anticipating this outing for a while. Unfortunately, Olha decided to go out with Walter and his crew for her last night in Milan. Olha is heading home to Ukraine for 2 weeks for the first time in a year!!! I was really bummed she wasn’t coming to dinner with us but I totally understood the want to spend her last night with her boyfriend.

The Mexican restaurant we were going to was, according to Isma, one of the most delicious in Milan. I trust his restaurant judgment and was excited for my guacamole. When we showed up to the restaurant, Isma and I were greeted by Isma’s long-time friend, Fabio, and his random friend. Funny group: a 21-year-old girl and a bunch of 50-60 year old men. It made for great conversation and funny stories.

While the food was good, the service wasn’t. It took more than an hour and twenty minutes to get our food. At one point, Isma looked at the waiter and told him that we’d leave if we didn’t get our food in the next five minutes. He wasn’t kidding. We were starving. The food was dusted in minutes after it finally made the table.

Come 11 pm, everyone parted ways and Isma and I took off for gelato x2. I took him to one of those new places I’d sampled earlier on in the week and we went to our favorite neighborhood gelateria for a second cone. I think that by the time I get home, I may be a full-blown addict.

Friday 04/23: I woke up, made some breakfast, and decided to clean. Sometimes I just get in these moods where I feel the need to organize and clean up any and everything dirty/cluttered. Olha and Isma aren’t the most organized so you can imagine I had a lot to work with.

Soon enough Olha appeared from under the covers and asked me if I wanted to come with her to the agency. With rubber gloves on, my hair in a pony, and sweaty, I decided that I’d prefer to go when I was clean, showered, and looking a little nicer. I had been planning on going in on Monday anyway and while it would have been nice to go with her, I didn’t have a problem going by myself.

Once she left, I continued my cleaning. I should have showered and gotten ready because 30 minutes later, Olha called me and asked if I wanted to go grab lunch. I wasn’t hungry nor did I look appropriate but I really wanted to spend some time with her before she left for home. So I threw a pair of jeans, a USC sweatshirt, and my Ray-Bans on and headed out to meet her. She took me to a super cute place near the house called Bianco Latte. Due to my lack of hunger, I didn’t order anything but the menu was impressive so I will be going back, no questions asked.

From lunch, we went to Olha’s bank so she could cash her check from the agency and get money for her trip. While we were waiting, we bumped into her Russian model friend, Lulia, who flattered the heck out of me by asking if I, too, was flying to Dubai for this big Armani shoot. Apparently I “scream” Armani. Talk about one heck of a complement.

Olha and I walked back to the apartment and made it just before it started to rain heavily again. Milan has about the weirdest weather you’ve ever seen. One day sunny and amazing, the next day grey, rainy, and cold.

Olha got all of her things packed up and ready to go before Walter would pick her up. Unfortunately, Olha’s ipod had gone missing and Isma, Olha, and I spent a good 25 minutes searching for it. No luck. I gave Olha big hugs and kisses and said goodbye to them both, as Isma was off to the office for a meeting. I was finally going to get my shower and make an attempt to catch up on my blog. I haven’t been keeping up at all and so I had a good 10 days to remember and write about. My bad.

By the time Isma got back, it was a good time for dinner. Rather than eat in, he insisted on taking me to his absolute favorite fish restaurant in Milan. I was excited.

The restaurant was amazing. First of all, there is no menu. All the fish is freshly caught that day and on display in an ice case when you walk in the door. The waiters just continue to bring you different fish dishes, both raw and cooked. Oh and you get this giant loaf of fresh bread that’s sitting on the table, no basket or anything. Loving it!

The first dish they brought us was a plate of oysters. I’d never tried them and let’s just say that after having tried them, I wont be doing so again. Next, they brought us a tuna tartar and then some sort of baby shrimps dish. Both were really good. This was followed up by a baked scallop crusted with pistachio and garlic garnish. I then ordered a fresh salad to eat before our main dish, sea bass baked in the oven with fresh tomatoes. It was to die for. The whole dining experience was so much fun and I can’t wait to go back. Isma said he loves the place so much that he could go every week. Umm, I wont oppose. Too bad the place was super packed and had a line out the door. Thank goodness Isma has connections.

I had thought about meeting some friends to go out but both the weather and my cough weren’t making it that desirable of an option. I chose to stay home and catch up on the blog, make some tea, get in my pjs, and watch a movie. A much better choice, if you ask me.

Saturday 04/24: I woke up to a bad sore throat and a headache. When oh when will I be rid of this sickness? Tea helped to make me feel a little better but I would love to just shake this thing already.

Isma was going to Bergamo for the day to have lunch with his family and I was left in yucky weather Milan. Ideally I had really wanted to take a trip somewhere. Everyone I know has been traveling up a storm and sometimes I feel like I should be trying to visit more places. But at the same time, I also feel that I should really be taking advantage of living in Milan. How often do you get to LIVE in another country? Sure I could take off every chance I get but that sort of defeats the purpose of living here. I guess I’ll just have to take a trip next week or something. Any ideas?

I decided to make the best of my day by heading out to Corso Buenos Aires, one of the major shopping streets in Milan. I’d never been and figured what better day. It wasn’t anything special by any means but I did discover a pair of incredible heels that I loved. 5 maybe 6 inches, black leather, and super sassy. I would have bought them but I needed to decide whether they were worth 120 Euro (about $160). Maybe I’ll go back next week if I cant live without them.

I came home and have been catching up with all of you ever since. Who knows what I’ll do tonight or tomorrow but let’s hope for something fun and exciting, right? I miss and love you all SOOOO much and can’t believe that I’ll be home so soon. Get ready for me!

Xoxo
Me