Il Principio e Las Aventuras

Ciao!

I wanted to use a blog as means of reporting to all my friends and family just what shenanigans I'm getting into miles away. I figured what better way than to post it for everyone to see. That being said, I'm definitely a little late to starting this whole recount of my travels abroad. I blame the sickness that plagued me after arriving in Milan Wednesday morning. Time to rewind...

Day 1-3 (Tues 01/19 - Thurs 01/21): At a time too early for my own functioning, I left amazing and warm (key point for future referencing) San Diego to head eastward to NYC and then straight to Milan. Everything went smoothly first flight and then second. On my second flight, however, I had the pleasure of meeting my first Italian. Vincenzo Bruno, a 54 year old man from Sicily who currently lives outside of Milan with his family, decided to take on my father figure and treat me like his one and only "bambino". He talked to me for a good hour before the flight and was hands down one of the kindest, most generous people I've met traveling thus far. He told me all about his life and we conversed about everything from what makes you happy in life to the love affairs he had as a young married man (shame shame). He explained the ups and downs of his life and found me to be very wise when I said, "success comes from hard work and passion." He kissed me on both cheeks and told me I was his darling little princess. We reminisced about his past until it was time to board at which point I learned there would only be 55 people flying on the 767 aircraft. Can anyone say lie down?! Being the largest dork I know, however, I stayed in my 2-seat aisle instead of moving to lie down in a 3-seat aisle. Dumb? Yeah, totally.

The flight was nice and I slept the entire time, which was great. I think the quiet, the ability to somewhat stretch out, and the fact that I had only slept 4 hours the night before, all contributed to me actually being able to sleep on a plane. When I woke up, I found Vincenzo coming to find me. Seeing that I had just woken up and, of course, probably looked crazy with whack hair, he swept the hair out of my face and said "buon giorno!" Then he talked to me until the flight attendant told him that he needed to sit down and instead of going back to his own spot, chose to sit with me. We ate breakfast together and talked more about life and his family and his children and his job, etc, etc. Then he took my hands in his hands and gave me that father-daughter speech about being safe and looking out for the boys and making sure that I kept my good head on my shoulders. Absolutely adorable. We exchanged information and he told me that I had to come visit Sicily and stay in his house with him and his wife. I'm thinking I'll visit sometime when it gets warmer...Sicily is known for its amazing clear water and incredible beaches.

Once we landed, Vincenzo took me to baggage claim and without me even asking, loaded all of my luggage onto a cart and had me follow him through the airport, teaching me what different signs meant. He even helped me get a bus and wait until it was ready to go. He told the bus driver to take extra good care of me and then kissed me on both cheeks goodbye and parted with a huge hug and "buona fortuna bella!" Someone was looking out for me!

The bus ride into the city was about 45 minutes and holy crap was it cold outside! Snow covered all the trees and it was something like -2 degrees Celsius. Lord knows my bod was not ready for that kind of weather! Once I got to the city, I grabbed myself a cab and found my way to the hotel. After I got settled, I bundled up as best I could and walked my way over to the supermarket. I was dying for something fresh and the antithesis of plane food. I went to get apples, bananas, yogurt, and cereal but it was a bit more difficult than I thought. First of all, I went to the wrong line apparently and was shooed out of it. Then i went to another line where this old man literally took 20 minutes to unload all of his food. Then I was yelled at in Italian and of course had NO idea what they were saying. Finally the old man behind me tried his best to gesticulate what needed to happen. Weigh the fruit, bag it, and sticker it with the price. Dude its fruit! Why the heck is getting fruit so damn difficult? So I had to run back and weigh all my fruit then sticker it and then come back. Thank god my apple and banana and yogurt were amazing otherwise I would have been bummin. I scarfed everything down and went back to the hotel.

And then the plague hit. I slept thinking that rest would rejuvinate me from all the traveling. Wrong. Slept for 5 hours. Woke up. Felt like crap. Went back to sleep. Woke up another 5 hours later. Took a shower. Got out of the shower and got sick. Fell asleep on the bathroom floor. Dragged my ass into bed. Slept for another bajillion hours and was still sick when I woke up. Epic.

The next morning started off better but I still wasn't feeling too hot. I met Renato, one of the Italian exchange students from SC last semester, to go looking for apartments. Apartment hunting in Italy is quite different than in the states. You walk up and down the streets looking for signs that say "Affitasi." But then you have to check the details to make sure it has what you are looking for. For instance, if it says "monolocale" its a single and if it says "box" its a parking spot. Not so fun. A) It's exhausting, B) The air outside is freezing!!! C) You can't meet with anyone, and D) I felt so helpless because I couldn't speak Italian and Renato had to do all the calling. When we had finished our hours of apartment hunting, I went to get a cell phone. The phones here are hilarious...well at least the cheapo one that I bought. After all of that fun, I went back to the apartment because I really wasnt feeling well again. Insert plague part 2. Thank the lord my roommates had arrived and were hanging out in the hotel room. We ended up going to get food somewhere and then coming back to pass out due to pure exhaustion!

Day 4: 01/22/10: Come the next morning, I still had a bit of whoozy, icky feeling going on. I dealt with it and we all headed to breakfast, which is included in our hotel fees. Let's just say breakfast is without question our FAVORITE part of the day. It's amazing. The yogurt is the greatest thing I have ever had...we steal extras and bring them back to the room to eat later on. They're nothing like the yogurt in America...I'm literally ruined for life now. The fruit is delicious, the tea amazing, the toast and jam bomb, and I end up looking like a total fat kid by the end of the meal. Shame? None.

After breakfast, it was part two of apartment hunting. The three of us walked to Porta Romana to meet up with another one of the exchange students from last semester, Anna. We all walked around looking for apartments until she left and we met with Renato, Stefano, and Daniele. The walking up and down (aimlessly) continued. I was pretty much a frozen blonde zombie traipsing with them. The temperature outside was something like -2 and I couldn't feel my toes or fingers despite three pairs of socks and uggs and leather gloves with cashmere lining.

Are you getting depressed yet? Yeah I was too...but then! Luck came our way. Renato called a woman who had listed a posting for a loft. They talked on the phone for a bit and we had no idea what was going on. When he hung up, he explained that this woman couldn't rent the apartment until the end of February but was willing to open up the left wing of her flat to us. First of all, there was NO way in hell we were about to be homeless in freezing cold Milan for another month. Secondly, finding an apartment for 6 months here is impossible. Everyone wants a one year lease. Plus we needed a full furnished apartment that was somewhat close to campus and in a safe neighborhood. According to Renato, the woman's place had it all. She wanted us to go see it that day and we only had 15 minutes to get over there. So all 6 of us bolted up the streets (all of which were fantastic and epitomized exactly where we would want to stay) in order to find the place.

7 story building. Door man. 7th floor. Wrap-around terrace. Roof-top patio and terrace. Priceless view. Everything was incredible but the apartment itself for living was a bit tiny. One bathroom for all three of us to share, one bedroom for Ava and Blakeney to share and a couch bed for me to sleep on. I said "lets do it!" This is an adventure and we needed a place and it was beautiful and fully furnished and warm and had all the things we needed...with the exception of truly sufficient space. I'm going to make it work, though, and I'm so excited. Plus the best part? We are smack dab in the heart of the city, 3 blocks from Il Duomo, and located directly next to the world's best shopping area. So sick.

After that pressure was off our shoulders, we just toodled around and the boys showed us where all the cool things were and explained stories about the buildings and what not. They showed us the major shopping streets and an old theatre house. We saw the statue of Leonardo Da Vinci and then the boys took us to the most beautiful little café. Apparently it makes the best hot chocolate on the planet...according to the three of them. It was literally molten chocolate in a cup. Sooo rich. I'm a weirdo and didn't like it. Way too strong for me. The boys were obsessed though. And being the extreme (and by extreme I mean EXTREME) gentleman that they are, they treated us and insisted that we not even think twice.

It was starting to get a little late and ultra cold so we headed back to the hotel for some rest and to get real food. Day 3 = success. Day 3 also = soooo long and exhausting. We all went to bed dreaming of the morning's breakfast.

Day 5: 01/23/10: Saturday started off with an amazing breakfast once again. Afterward, I came up to take care of things on the computer and figure out what to do while the other two went to take care of their cell phones. When they came back, we all got ready to head back over the neighborhood of our apartment and the shopping near the Duomo. I thought we should try to learn the Metro and tram system plus it would be good to better aquaint ourselves with the area we were going to be living in. This way getting to Bocconi every morning wouldn't be so difficult.

We had so much fun just touring around and going in and out of stores. There were SO many stores! Nothing really struck me as amazing, though, so no purchases on my behalf. After walking and shopping, we were famished and went to get lunch at a cute little café. The waiter loved us and called us his California princesses. haha Too funny. When we finished, we decided we were too tired to keep going so we headed back for naps at the hotel.

Plague 3? No way, right? Wrong. I had to skip dinner because I couldn't walk straight, couldn't see straight, and couldn't hold my head up straight. Not such a great combo. The girls went out to dinner and a bar with the boys while I so awesomely rested in a black room in attempt to feel better.

Day 6: 01/24/10: I woke up feeling somewhat better but not great. We went down to breakfast kind of late and I stuffed my face full. I came back up and napped again because my head was still feeling super messed up. I'm starting to think someone spiked my water. Not cool man, not cool.

We were super lazy today and just kicked it in the hotel room for the majority of the day. When we finally pulled ourselves up and out of pajamas and into warm clothes, we were so excited to find that EVERYTHING was closed. Sundays apparently are not days for anything other than sleep, church, and nothingness.

We ended up just walking around and getting to know the area better. We found some cool places (all closed) but it was still great to walk around and use our legs. By the time we were finsihed walking around, we were all starving but oh hey, nothing was open so where did we go? The ONLY place we could get any sufficient food...McDonalds. Epic fail. But we all got salads and what not and it worked out great. Then we came back and chilled in the hotel room again.

Once dinner time rolled around, Ava wasn't feeling so great herself so she stayed in bed while B and I went to see if a recommended restaurant was open. It wasn't. So we went to another place that had caught our eye while walking around. The waiter was Romanian and super nice. He understood English, which was key for us because the menu was pretty hard to understand. I ended up ordering fish...huge mistake. When I ordered fish, I literally ordered a fish. A grilled silver thing with head, eyes, tail, and fins were all staring back at me. The waiter was super nice about it and cleaned and de-boned the fish. The rest of the parts to the meal failed too...especially the price. Luckily B ordered a really good pasta and shared some with me.

Best part of today was the walking home from dinner. Some weirdo, who for sure looked like the male version of the witch from Snow White, popped out from behind a shadow and yelled "Piccolo!" at me in a super eerie voice. Apparently, I said something earlier that had made B laugh and she was laughing when she caught eyes with the guy who then smiled at her and me being on the inside of the two of us, was lucky enough to deal with him face to face. B grabbed my arm due to his definite startling of our conversation and then I bolted because he started cackling and walking after us. I can only imagine what bystanders were thinking when a 6 ft tall blonde in a huge parka and fur hat went sprinting down Corso Romana.

Now I'm in bed and writing to all of you. I'm about to hop in the shower and climb in bed to get ready for what? Tomorrow's breakfast.

Abbracci e baci,
Katie