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

All I Have To Say Is Brace Yourself

My, oh my, it has certainly been a while since I last updated…over 2 weeks. Things have been…well, chaotic to say the least. Shit sort of hit the fan here in Milan so it’s been an interesting couple weeks that’s for sure. But before I explain the gloriousness that has been my life lately, let’s recap on Rome.

Thursday 03/18: My train for Roma left at 07:30 AM in the morning so I was up bright and early to finish getting packed, dressed and ready to go, and fed before needing to meet the girls at Central Station around 07:10. I was a little worried that Carolina and Maria would sleep through their alarms seeing they had previously warned me that they sleep a ton…a little something I would definitely find to be true during our trip. Thank goodness we all showed up at the exact same time, bumping into each other in the metro on our way to the platform.

The train ride was easy and fast…not the 8+-hour train ride that we were originally going to have. Thank goodness for the stupid amount of time I had put into finding the tickets on special. The girls slept the majority of the way while I did work on the computer and finished writing my entry for my last post. See I have this tendency to get super busy and forget to write about my days leaving me to remember everything I did over the course of 4-8 days only to write it down later.

Anyway, around 10:30, we pull into the Rome train station. The weather was incredible. Blue skies overhead, a small breeze whispering, and sun, beautiful fricken sun. We had been warned that the weather in Rome hadn’t been so great lately so we were all a little worried that rain and cloudy skies would be haunting us for the duration of our stay. We were wrong.

The three of us made moved from the platform to the metro and headed towards Matteo’s apartment. If I didn’t tell you already, we were staying “gratis” in Roma thanks to an amazing guy named Matteo. Maria, Carolina’s best friend from Portugal, used to date Matteo and despite not having seen each other in almost 2 years, when she told him that we were heading to Rome for a weekend, he insisted that we come stay in his apartment. What a doll, right?

So yes, we headed towards Matteo’s apartment and got off on the instructed stop. From there we had about a 15-20 minutes of lugging our suitcases down the streets. Rome is so beautiful that it was of no concern and we reveled at the Ancient Ruins to our right as we bumped our bags over cobblestone.

After a semi-exhausting adventure trying to find Matteo’s apartment, we found it. His place was amazing. Settled in a beautiful, color splashed, little side street on Via Lungaretta, the apartment was eclectic, cool, and comfortable. He had amazing art on the walls (some of which he painted and others which his mom paints), extreme sports gear everywhere you looked, an impressive collection of DVDs, and surfboards nestled up against the window. I was thoroughly impressed. It didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes, and incredibly gentlemanly and kind. European men have a lot to teach some American boys I know.

We three girls were starving so we got to preparing lunch. Being the angel he was, Matteo had picked up some groceries for arrival and with them, Maria whipped up a mozzarella and tomato pasta that was absolutely perfect. Once we satisfied our stomachs, we were all desperate to go explore. Matteo was more than happy to take us a round and we were off.

Matteo was about the best tour guide I’ve ever had. He took us to the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Twin Churches, the Area Sacra di Torre Arengtina, Circo Massimo, Isola Tiberina, Vittoriano, the Borghese Park, the Piazza del Popolo, and the list went on. We walked everywhere! Rome is so incredibly beautiful and I forgot what an extraordinary place it was. The one thing I have noticed so strongly since I have been in Europe this semester is the difference in my appreciation and enjoyment for the culture, history, and overall experience. When I was younger I certainly loved Europe but now that I have a greater knowledge of the world, the past, and the importance of history, it’s really a remarkable thing to be here and to revel in such breathtaking buildings, museums, artwork, and culture.

As we walked around, I, of course, insisted on finding the best gelato in Roma. Thankfully, Matteo was confidant that he could deliver. After seeing the Political office building, he took us to a place called Gelati. There were tons and tons of people lining the walls and practically every seat was snagged inside. While most tourists would be irritated beyond belief, I found this as a perfectly good sign. Before we could evenhop in line to pay, Matteo had already purchased our ice cream. All four of us made our way to the flavor windows to put in our orders. Okay whoa, it was serious flavor overload! I had no idea which direction to go in. There was every dang flavor you could possible imagine…Bailey’s Irish Cream, Biscotti, Honeydew Melon, White Chocolate Macadamia, Nutella, Wild Black Cherry, and they just kept coming. It was amazing. You could only try two flavors, which you know killed. I finally settled on Banana, Fresh Raspberry, and some other flavor that I can’t remember now. Oh. My. Gosh. So incredibly good. Gelato may or may not have captured my heart upon arrival to Italy. Let’s just say we definitely share a love relationship.

After gelato and copious amounts of walking, we all decided to head back to the apartment. The sun was starting to fall and we were all a bit tired. As soon as we got home, I immediately crashed and ended up falling asleep for a good hour and a half. When I woke up, the girls were in the living room chatting with Matteo, trying to figure out what we were going to do. We all decided that pizza sounded really good and Matteo said he knew of some amazing places really close by. His track record only proved him trustworthy so I was all in. Around 9:30 pm, we all hopped to and headed out for dinner.

The pizzeria was hidden on a little side street, thus indicating it would deliver good food. The secret to restaurants in Europe is to find those tiny, hole-in-the-walls. They make for such better food, service, and overall ambiance. You’re getting the traditional stuff not the touristy crap that everyone thinks is good. And this place was no exception. The pizzas came fresh and hot out of the oven, the buffalo mozzarella bubbling and the smell of homemade tomato sauce resonating upwards. All I have to say is Mmmmm.

After dinner, we decided to hike our way up towards Matteo’s favorite local bar. It was a really cool spot but after about a half an hour of being there, I was dead tired and opted for home. Enter grandma status. The three of them dropped me off back at the apartment and I showered, climbed into bed, and dozed off. Day 1 of Rome had been everything I had wanted and more.

Friday 03/19: I woke up and got ready before anyone else was up. The apartment was now out of breakfast food so I ventured out to pick up some things for the girls and myself. Matteo was at physical therapy for his shoulder, which he had just had surgery on, thus it was just the three of us dining at home this morning. The girls I knew wanted Coco Puffs and I wanted my usual. I easily found a little market and grabbed some fresh fruit but then found myself on a long, irritating search for the other things on my list. After walking around for quite some time, I hit gold and was finally able to head home triumphant.

After breakfast, the three of us were off to see the Vatican. While I had been excited to see it for my own pleasure, I was on a particular mission to see the incredible city as a birthday present for someone. Noted person has never been to Europe before and requested upon my departure that I see only one thing in his/her honor. A promise is a promise and there was nothing that could stop me from following through. I was really excited to take pictures for unnamed person…it’s the only legit way to vicariously live through someone else, right?

This is where we are gifted with a giant technology fail. As the girls and I were walking towards the Vatican, getting majorly lost along the way mind you (think hiking up a random hill, then finding ourselves in some random place upon which we had to get on the shakiest bus of my life to finally get close to the Vatican), my camera starts to pull some funky tricks on me. Here’s a little side note for you…I am a tech nerd and it took me ages to pick out a camera that I really liked. I would go to different stores, fiddling with each model, trying to assess which one was the best for me. I had to take into account the size of the LCD screen, the shutter speed, the optimal zoom, the special functions, and the overall setup of the internal functioning. Yeah, I’m really that big of a dork, so sue me. After a lot of time and research, I picked one and we have been happily married ever since. Well, that is until he decided to be a total jerk and no longer work. All of a sudden a little message started popping up every time I tried to take a picture, saying “Memory card is write protected.” Hmmm, well usually if a memory card is write protected it means the lock switch is in the lock position on the memory card. I checked and it was in the unlock position. Weird. So I switched it back and forth a couple of times before popping it back into the camera. It worked! Relief had been restored. Not. A few minutes later, I’m trying to take a picture of the Vatican and the message pops up again. Seriously camera, of all times to not work, you pick now? I played around it again before finally getting it to work again. We fought back and forth about working and not working happened for quite some time and it wasn’t until we finally made it through the line and into St. Peter’s Basilica that he stopped working for good. That was it, divorce time.

On top of my camera being a total asshole, the Vatican Museum was closed! Apparently it was some Roman holiday and they had closed the Museum for this reason. Why oh why did everything about the Vatican seem to be failing so hard? It was the one place that was a serious MUST and I was so crushed. Let’s just say I was in a foul mood.

We all gave up on the Vatican because the girls were starving and I was over it. We wandered through the streets until we found a cute little place to grab something to eat. While the food wasn’t amazing, we got a good deal and the company was perfect. Once we all finished lunch, we resumed our walking around until Maria and Carolina found themselves freezing to death. The weather had changed from perfect to cloudy, as predicted, and the two of them hadn’t prepared accordingly. They felt bad leaving me, but I was totally comfortable exploring by myself. Plus I was on a mission to get my camera fixed and that certainly didn’t entail them having to wait around during the process.

I sent them on their way and commenced my mission for camera repair. I found the Galleria, a giant shopping center near La Piazza Spagna and I asked a man for a camera shop to which he pointed me in one direction. I went into the store he pointed to and they told me that they don’t deal with cameras but only cell phones and so they point me in another direction. The third guy also tells me he can’t deal with my camera and points me in one last direction. Finally, I find a camera shop, which oddly enough was also selling eyewear. Weird combo if you ask me.

I immediately explained my situation to the woman at the counter and she attempted to help me. Before she started to play around with my camera, I explained all the different ways that I had tried correct the problem. Yeah well, that didn’t stop her from doing all the exact same things. When she realized that none of what I had JUST told her didn’t work she looked at me dumbfounded. Then she insisted that we put another memory card in. Lady, I have done this already. She didn’t care. The camera still didn’t work, as I predicted for her. The language barrier during all of this was infuriating. She would start to talk in English and then spring into rapid-fire Italian. I can understand Italian just fine but not at an incomprehensible pace. We were both getting frustrated and I was starting to get discouraged. Even worse, there was a man next to me who kept laughing at my situation. Okay no, this is not funny mister. One more peep out of that guy and I was about ready to pop him in the face. Luckily, there was a really nice woman who tried to help. She spoke with the sales woman but this lady was just downright incompetent. Even when she called the Nikon repair shop in Rome, she didn’t bother to ask how long it would take or how late they were open, etc. The woman trying to help was so sweet that she even offered to have given me her camera for the day had she been close to home. Talk about a good person.

Well I left the camera shop frustrated and with a broken camera in hand. I made my way through the streets before finally finding Matteo’s apartment. When I climbed up the stairs, both Carolina and Maria were fast asleep. There’s that love of sleeping thing I told you about. I wasn’t about to waste my time in Rome so I grabbed Carolina’s camera, which she had given me permission to use earlier, and made my way out and into the streets. I adventured for hours, just taking pictures of the buildings, admiring monuments, meandering through stores, and picking up some delicious frozen yogurt on my way home.

The two best parts of my adventure out were two interesting characters that made an appearance during it all. The first one was some random guy at the Trevi Fountain who approached me and started explaining that I was the girl from his dreams and that he couldn’t believe he had finally met me. He insisted on taking a picture together with my camera and proceeded to talk to me for a good 30-40 minutes before I finally wiggled my way out of there and apologized for having to leave. Nice guy but I’m going to go ahead and pass on that one.

The next character was a guy named Matthias, who worked in an optical shop. I found myself inside because a pair of sunglasses took me weak at the knees. Form there on, we chatted and he convinced me that a particular pair of Ray Bans was a necessary purchase. They were sort of really super hot and I kind of wanted them. Best part? He offered me 50 Euro off! A brand new pair of sunglasses that had just come out last month and he was going to offer me 50 Euro off???…pretty good deal. After about an hour of debating there with him and trying on different styles and just making general small talk in Italian, I promised him that I would come back the next day with my friends to make a decision. He said perfect.

I finally made my way home after hours of walking around and city exploring to find Matteo, Carolina, and Maria up and chit chatting in the kitchen. The angels that they are had gone to the grocery store to pick up chicken to make for dinner. They had remembered me saying how much I missed having chicken at home and so they wanted to buy something special for me. I was so excited! Dinner was amazing thanks to Matteo’s cooking skills and I stuffed my face full until I was thoroughly content and exhausted. I stayed awake and socialized with the three of them and Matteo’s friend until almost passing out on the couch and finally excusing myself to the bedroom for a shower, some computer, and sleep. They were off to go clubbing and drinking. While dancing sounded so much fun, the walking had worn me out and all I needed was a bed.

I also had to get up pretty early in the morning because I had a private touring of the Vatican! My mom’s best friend from college has a nephew named Steve who lives and works in Rome, giving private tours of the Vatican. He and I had been in communication ever since I arrived to Milan so I called him earlier on in the day to see what sort of suggestions he could give me about Rome. He insisted that I join one of his tours and I immediately said yes. He warned me that it would be a rather crazy day because of the Friday closing and the fact that Sunday would also be closed. In other words, everyone and their mother would be trying to see the Vatican on Saturday, myself included. I was up for the mess of people…I had to keep that promise.

Saturday 03/20: I woke up bright and early, made myself breakfast, and headed out by myself. It was a pretty day but a bit cloudier than it had been the previous two mornings. I made my way to Campo del Fiore because Matteo had told me all about a morning market that sold fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, cheeses, dried fruits (yes!) and everything else you could think of. I wasn’t about to miss it.

When I finally found it, I was in heaven. I slowly wound in and out of each cart, buying lots of delicious dried fruits. I even made friends with one particular vendor who tested me on my dried fruit knowledge, asking me if I could name everything in the bins. I succeeded.

After I left the market, I continued to explore until it was time to meet Steve and his group for the tour. I walked my way towards the Vatican and pushed my way through the giant crowds until I finally found the little side café that Steve and his tour members were huddled in. It was another 30 minutes before we headed out but it had started to get a little chilly, so the refuge was nice.

From the café, we had to wait in a long, long line to get into the Museum. Fortunately, Steve kept us very entertained and intrigued with his immense knowledge of the Vatican City and the city of Rome, itself. Listening to him rattle off bits and pieces of history was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent waiting. I mean, no, lines aren’t fun, but he made it worth our while.

Once we made it into the museum, Steve started the official tour. He was absolutely fantastic and I felt so lucky that he had allowed me to hop on for free and on such short notice. My favorite part, without a doubt, was the Sistine Chapel. I remembered seeing it when I was young when my family had gone to Rome but this time was so much better. To think that someone could paint 14-20 hours every day for 4 years is amazing. The precision, detail and exquisite color really take your breath away. I suggest to any that haven’t been to Rome, please go see it. It’s truly an remarkable thing to witness.

By the time the tour ended it was already 3 pm! Eek! Carolina and I had a train ride back to Milan at 07:30 pm and I still wanted to see the Coliseum and the Ruins. When I called her, she and Maria were just on their way out to get lunch and were walking towards the Coliseum. I was absolutely starving too but I figured I could get to the Coliseum, and then eat. I started to make my walk, which took about 50-minutes, towards the girls. Along the way, I decided I really needed food and ran inside to a café selling sandwiches. I asked if they could add tuna to the panino with tomatoes and mozzarella. The answer I received was a big fat no. I tried to convince him to do it but he wasn’t having it. I was over him so I left.

The rest of the walk was exhausting and frustrating because I was a) very very hungry, b) tired, and c) freezing. The weather had changed and rain was starting to trickle down. Not okay with me. By the time I finally found the Coliseum, the girls were still eating and I was famished. I walked around desperately trying to find something but everything was ridiculously priced due to tourists. Screw that. I live in Italy right now and I know very well that you don’t have to pay 6 Euro for a sandwich. I made my way up a huge flight of stairs and ended up getting lost in the side streets until I found a little restaurant with a man inside. Almost dead, I asked him if there was anyway he could make me a sandwich. He said that their kitchen was closed but then he realized the stress written across my face and said, “of course! It’s on me.” He said they didn’t have much but I said I didn’t care and that he could put together whatever he wanted. This angel of a man disappeared into the kitchen and out popped a rather round, older gentleman who introduced himself as the “patron” of the restaurant. I laughed and chatted with him a bit until he yanked me into him, grabbed my butt with both hands, and made a rather awkward attempt to kiss me, which I quickly dodged for a side kiss on the cheek. Umm, gross? When did it become okay for 70-year old men to perversely make a move on young girls? Despite my desperate yearning to get out of there, I couldn’t get up and leave because the other guy had just made me a free sandwich and that would have just been plain rude. I scarfed down my food, gave hugs to each of them (unwillingly to the perve), and thanked them profusely for their incredible hospitality and kindness. I was out of there as fast as possible.

After another 15 minutes, I finally found the girls. Such relief. We admired the amazing structure of the Coliseum before heading out and making our way to the sunglass store and gelato. The girls decided that they didn’t like the first pair I had picked out but loved another pair instead. I contemplated for a while and ended up passing because in all honesty, I don’t need a pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses are my downfall and are my weakness like shoes are to most women. I did the right thing and said no. Carolina, however, was thinking otherwise and ended up buying a pair. She was beyond excited.

Before making our way back to the apartment to pack and make sure that we were ready to go, we stopped for ice cream one last time at Gelati. Just as delicious as round one.

Carolina and I said our goodbyes to Maria and Matteo and headed out into the dusk to make our way to the train station. We were sad to go but 3 full days had been just the perfect amount of time and Milan was calling us home now. We made it to the train station safely but not before seeing some nasty guy in the park jerking it. Seriously, what is up with these weirdo Roman perverts that decided to make an appearance during our stay?

The train ride was a little longer on the way home and we didn’t get back into Milan until about 12:15 am. We had 15 minutes to use the metro system before it shut down so you can bet we were in high gear. We busted our butts to Porta Romana and made it just in time. From there we waited for a tram, only to find out that the next one wasn’t coming for another 25 minutes. Carolina and I were over it so we grabbed our bags, headed out into the rain, and made the 15-minute walk back to her apartment. We had decided it would be easier for me to spend the night at her place than to try to make it back to mine.

By the time we got inside, it was late and we were starving. I cooked us up something to eat and we both showered before hopping into bed and onto our computers for a bit. Come 3 am, we could hardly keep our eyes open. The weekend had been perfect and now it was time for some pure R&R.

Sunday 03/21: The R&R must have been really needed because we didn’t end up waking up until a good 3 pm. Yup, 3 pm. We immediately ate breakfast and then showered before splitting ways. Carolina and Mercedes, her roommate, were off to go shopping and I needed to head home to do some grocery shopping, unpacking, and make an attempt at starting some homework. As I have mentioned before, getting down to homework and reading assignments is such an impossibility here. You’re just always going, going, going and to take the time to sit and read a boring case study seems so pointless. Guess I need to pick back up my diligent studying habits and get to.

I didn’t end up getting home until around 5:45 pm and that point I decided I needed to unpack and start a bit of reading. By the time I finished doing that, I realized that I needed to get some food otherwise I’d be having nothing for dinner. On my way out, I bumped into Blakeney on the street. She had been home alone for the weekend because Ava’s boyfriend, Nima, was visiting and the two of them had also taken off to Rome. She was just on her way back from the store as well so when I got home we both sat down to some dinner and Spring Break planning. Bocconi’s spring break starts on Friday and lasts a whopping 3 weeks. Well, technically there are three weeks of no classes but we have midterms so if anyone has an exam, you sort of have that whole thing smack dab in the middle of your break.

I spent hours trying to figure out what I was going to do, looking at flights, talking back and forth to Flaca about where we wanted to go and how we wanted to get there. By the time 2 am hit, I was so over trying to plan anything more. I graduated from the computer and moved onto phone calls, in specific one birthday call. It ended up being a perfect night and while I didn’t get an ounce of work done, it was all well worth it.

Monday 03/22: Despite my late night, I still had early morning class. I had to wake up and get my butt in gear in order to make it to class on time.

After my first class, I ran back home for lunch and a little more planning for trips. I swear people made it sound a whole heck of a lot easier than it really is to get tickets for planes and what not. Everything is so much more expensive than what I had been told and the timing sucks horrifically. It gets super exhausting looking at flight times and prices when the website doesn’t even have the appropriate price ratings. Argh!!!

I had to bust back to Bocconi for the rest of my school day, which was long and boring as usual. I stayed around afterward and talked with a few different people and then took a little detour walking home. It was such a beautiful day and I was in a wonderful mood. Milan decided that it was finally time to welcome lots of sun. I was beyond excited!

The rest of my night was totally blah for a number of different reasons. Plus, I was tired and grouchy so at an ungodly hour, I finally gave up on what I was doing and went to bed.

Tuesday 03/23: So I’m going to have to warn you…this is where things turn for the serious worse. Drum roll please…EVICTION!!!

I woke up and started getting ready for a lunch date I had with my friend, Simone. He was taking me to get sushi at the best Japanese restaurant in Milan and I could hardly wait. As I was just about to leave to meet him, Anna, our landlord, walks in and says to me in Italian that we had to be out. Wait, excuse me, what?! What in the world do you mean by out? All of a sudden she starts tripping out and saying that we need to pack up all of our things and be gone by Sunday night. I was so confused so I did everything I could in hopes of trying to get to the bottom of the hissy she was throwing. She explained that she was having the apartment polished and painted and that all of our things needed to be gone so that the people could work. She didn’t want to be liable for any of our things if they were to be damaged thus the things needed to be out. This I understood. But then I asked when we’d be moving things back in and she starts saying “Impossible, impossible, impossible” all the while pointing at the girls’ room. See a while back, the maid had raged on the fact that the girls’ room was too messy to clean. She called our landlord and had her come back to the apartment just to help move all of their stuff off the floor. Talk about ridiculous. Well anyway, Anna was pretty upset about how “disorganized” their room was and insisted that it be cleaner. Unfortunately, the next time she came to see the room it was a total mess again because it was the girls’ laundry day. She, of course, flipped and warned them about cleaning up.

At this point in our conversation, Blakeney has jumped in and promised that it went without saying that she and Ava would make sure the room was clean. Anna just continued to say “No! It’s impossible. I give too many chances, etc, etc, etc.” She said it was costing her more than she was making and she couldn’t live like this. She then brought up the issue of the key situation and how she couldn’t have people losing her keys and what not. Background: When Ava and B went to Madrid, Ava made the honest mistake of accidentally leaving her keys at the hostel. She was having them sent back to the apartment ASAP but Anna was really unhappy. I guess the building manager made her change the lock and she had to give new sets to all the residents. The weird thing is that the door hadn’t been changed yet because our key still worked, but that’s beside the point. Point is that she wasn’t letting us back in and we had about 6 days to be out. Can anyone say stressful?

Unfortunately, I had to leave this sticky situation to meet Simone for lunch. All I have to say is thank goodness for that. It was so nice to have him take the whole mess off my mind over delicious food and good conversation. Too bad Fingers, the restaurant we were supposed to go to, was closed for lunch. We ends up going to Nami, which was still delicious but nothing compared to the rave reviews I’ve been given about Fingers. He promised that we’d try it out another time before I head back to Cali.

We enjoyed our food and followed it with Bastianello, my favorite place for gelato. Ughhhhh it’s amazing. I die every time I go. My stomach was satiated with sushi and gelato (2 of my favorite things) and I was feeling better. I needed to run back to the apartment before heading to class to pick up my backpack and Simone dropped me off and I ran upstairs only to find Anna. She talked to me about the situation and explained that she might ask me to move back later on. I thanked her for the option. It would be wonderful to come back to my home of the last almost 3 months but I wasn’t sure on how likely it was that she would open up the apartment again. During our conversation she had mentioned that she might want the unit back for her studio. My gut tells me that at the end of the day, that’s exactly what she’ll want to do. Either way, I was grateful for the offer.

I headed straight to class and was supposed to have a group meeting straight afterwards. I ended up missing out on my group meeting because Anna wanted to show us the apartment that she actually rents out. In genuine honesty, Anna had been doing us one giant huge favor by letting us stay in her personal apartment. Technically she had the right to kick us out at any time that she wanted but we had agreed on a 2-week notice that she didn’t keep. She claims that she did by writing something on a piece of paper and slipping it under the door. If it’s the one I recall, I wrote very specifically on the paper tha nonte of us understood what it was saying and that she needed to speak with us in person. Let’s just say we were really frustrated by the whole thing. The least she could have done was given us a proper amount of time to figure out our living situation. She handled the situation in what I’d like to call a pretty poor manner.

Despite the shittyness of our situation, thank goodness she had shelter for us. At 6 pm, Blakeney met me outside Bocconi and the two of us walked to meet Anna, but certainly not before getting gelato to make us feel a little better. Duh!

On our way there, B and I had been making a list of all the good things that could potentially come from moving. When we showed up to the location of the apartment, I was pleasantly surprised by the area. It’s closer to campus and near the Navigli, a really great place for aperitivo. Well all the optimism, sort of went down the drain when we went inside. It was a single apartment that three of us were about to share. The place was a legit attic. You walked in and there was a dinky sized room with a kitchen and bathroom attached. Then you have to walk up the shadiest little stairs I had EVER seen in my life. We are talking potential death stairs here. Once you get to the top of the stairs there is a matrimonial-sized bed that could easily be meant for two. Behind the bed is an area where the roof is totally slanted that served no purpose to me. With my height, that’s about all I could do in that little area. On top of being way too small for three people, the apartment was filthy. Poor B is allergic to dust and could hardly breathe in there. Dust was everywhere and the floor was pretty dang dirty. B and I just sort of nodded our head along with Anna as she talked about the place. Then she stopped it all off by telling us that it would cost us the same as we had been paying. Hmm, but for what? An apartment half the size of the old one that was total ghetto status and had creepo stairs. Yeah, not worth the money. But hey, it was a roof and we would make it work.

Anna had to get going so Blakeney and I said goodbye and headed back to our soon-to-be ex-apartment. We stopped for round 2 of gelato because we really needed the pick me up. I parted ways with her and headed to get credit for my Italian cell because lucky me, it had ran out of minutes right as my mom had called me. As soon as my phone was booted up, my mom called and we chatted about my mess. I was optimistic that everything would work itself out, though. Shit happens and we have to deal. No, it wasn’t an ideal situation. No, I didn’t want to have to pack up everything that was so nicely organized back at the apartment. No, I wasn’t excited to sleep on a wooden cot with a 3-inch think cushion that I swear had black pubes all over it. (I’m serious dude, coveredddd in black pubes! Someone was getting down and dirty on that thing.) But the reality was that was the situation and so I needed to just keep cool and remind myself that it could be a lot worse. If there is one thing that the hell of a year I had last year taught me, it is that sometimes things happen in life that we least expect nor that we deserve but we must handle them with grace. Life is unfair but we just deal with the curveballs and learn from the experience.

Anyway, I was walking around while on the phone and stumbled into an electronic store to look at cameras. Seeing that my stupid camera was now a total dud to me, I needed a new one. I looked around for a little before I headed home to the apartment to make dinner, shower, and climb into bed. Tomorrow was going to be full of trying to repair this mess of a situation.

Wednesday 03/23: I woke up and headed to class. I forgot to tell you that on top of all this crap apartment stuff I had to deal with, I had my very first Comparative Business Law project due and hadn’t been able to meet with my group yet. Thank goodness I had sent them emails and messaged them on Facebook trying to organize something since our group leader never bothered to contact me. Thanks bud. I planned to meet them in the morning before class to finalize a few last things before having to turn it in. The project required two different parties (a buyer and a seller) because we were drafting our own contract. Long story short but our counterparty hadn’t ever contacted us to do his part so my group had only been able to put together the Buyer’s portion. I, however, had finally gotten a hold of him to see if he could figure out a time to meet and finish his component. Despite the fact that the contract was due on Wednesday morning, I organized a meeting for both parties to meet together after class and add to the contract that we had drafted already. I contacted the professor and worked out everything. We were golden.

Classes ended at 2 pm and I had an apartment viewing. The second I realized that I was “homeless” in Milan, I contacted just about every single person I could think who might be able to help. I bbm’ed every friend in Milan, emailed the people I know in the city, the Italians I know from home, the Bocconi International desk, people I have met here that I thought might have connections, asked strangers, and looked all over the web to see what I could find. Luckily, my friend Yigit had a best friend who had an empty single room that she would rent to me for 400 Euro. I called her last night and arranged to meet at 02:30 pm to see the room. Fingers were crossed.

I left Bocconi right at 2 and expected the walk to be something like 20 to 25 minutes based on the directions and description of the location. Oh was I wrong. Let’s just say it was a very fun 50-minute walk in a ghetto area of Milan, carrying a super heavy backpack. By the time I finally got there, I was exhausted and starving. Luckily, Flerida, the girl, was an absolute doll and offered me an apple. Despite her easy to get along personality, I was worried that it wasn’t going to work out 1) It was really far from Bocconi and I could either walk 50 minutes, take a bus for 20 minutes, or a 15-minute tram ride to Duomo plus a 15-minute walk from there to school. 2) While the thing was cute, she had a tiny little dog that I could have sworn was on speed. 3). She thought she might be moving to Paris in the beginning of May and her ex-boyfriend would move into her room, which meant he would be my new roommate. And 4). I didn’t feel safe in the neighborhood.

I left a little discouraged about my apartment situation but knew that if I needed this place it was mine. I headed back towards Bocconi in order to get something to eat and meet with my group for finalizing the contract. We all met at 4 pm and managed to get a lot done. By the time we finished, I felt confident that we had come up with a pretty decent draft of a sales contract. Thank goodness.

I was exhausted and pretty worn out from everything. More than anything, I was just emotionally exhausted from trying to figure out what I was going to do about my living. Yes I had a roof to stay under but it wasn’t livable for the three people that would be occupying it. I couldn’t sleep on a wooden cot in the kitchen for 3 more months. It just wasn’t rational. I mean, of course, I would if I needed to but I opted to put my best foot forward and see what I could work out.

When I got home, I sent out another giant round of emails and messages to see what I could make happen. Claudio told me that he would help and invited me to dinner to discuss. I met him at the Duomo and we grabbed a cab to Brera to eat at one of his favorite neighborhood restaurants. All the waiters knew exactly who he was and the food was to die for. Our particular waiter was such a sweetheart and treated me like a little princess, bringing me whatever I wanted and even making a special pasta to meet my likings.

When we finished dinner, Claudio took me to see his apartment and further discuss my options. He said he had a friend that might be able to rent me an apartment but that if all else failed, he would move me into a model apartment. At this point, I didn’t care where I went as long as it didn’t involve wooden cots 2 inches from the ground. Claudio said he would find a solution and not to worry.

Claudio walked me back towards the Duomo so I could make it home safely. He really is the sweetest older gentleman and I truly enjoy his company. He’s too funny sometimes, though, throwing out comments like “I would love for it to work between us but I know that I am too old for you.” Hmm, I’m going to go ahead and say DEFINITELY. I adore him and he treats me wonderfully but it’s pretty well understood that 21-year old girls and white-haired men aren’t anything more than companions. Granted Hugh Hefner hasn’t gotten the memo, but I most certainly don’t dig the grandpas.

I made it home safe and sound and did some more of that Spring Break planning I’d been attempting the past couple of days. Flaca and I were trying to work on something but trying to book flights was becoming such a hassle. Flaca was going to the Canary Islands and while I had originally been trying to go with, I couldn’t get my act together in time. Due to her excursion in the islands, she would have to meet me somewhere from Madrid rather than flying out together from Milan. This made booking stuff super messy. I was stressed with housing on top of it so trying to get it taken care of was driving me bonkers. Neither one of us could find something that was doable or reasonable in price. We opted for resuming our search the next day.

Thursday 03/24: I woke up and got straight to apartment hunting. I contacted a bunch of students from Bocconi to see if they had friends who might be able to help. Luckily one of them told me about a friend of his who needed someone or two to take his extra room. Unfortunately, it would only accommodate at most 2 people. Blakeney and Ava didn’t want to split from each other so it either meant the two of them took it or I would take it alone. The place was 600 Euro alone or 300 Euro a person if shared. Sharing a room was no issue to me but I needed to find someone to share it with, which posed a bit of difficulty. I kept the apartment an option, though, because the guy was incredibly nice, the apartment had just been remodeled in 2009, it was 15 minutes from school, and it would serve as a comfortable place to live.

I had also contacted Monica in San Diego and she had put me in contact with her best friend in Milan, Ismaele. She said that if anyone could help me out, he could. I called him immediately and he said that he would do what he could to make something work for me.

I was feeling pretty good about my apartment hunt but knew that I still needed to keep working at it. I got to class a little early and contacted a few more people. I got a response from this guy named Mehmet who I had met during Fashion Week. He gave me the name of someone named Mossimo, who I called and explained my situation to. Mossimo said he would find a solution for me and get back to me as soon as he knew what he could do to help. Alright, so some options were in the works.

I finished classes at 6 pm and Blakeney and I started our trek home. We obviously stopped for gelato before making our way to the apartment to do a little packing, dinner making, and what not. After we had done some computer work and continued our attempt to figure out housing, she and I needed to make a quick run to the grocery store. We got sidetracked on our way out and stopped into H&M for some retail therapy. I found nothing but B got 2 really cute shirts. I call it the perfect pick-me-up.

We headed home, ate dinner, laughed over how much we currently hated our lives, showered, and went to sleep.

Friday 03/25: I was up and out the door earlier than I would have liked but I needed to meet a woman from the Bocconi International Student Desk to discuss the issue of housing. Unfortunately she was of no help by any means. She gave me a website to search for apartment solutions and told me that I could live in the dorms for 600 Euro a month. Sure I could do my laundry at home if I stayed there but the dorms are a bitch and a half to get to and I would prefer an apartment to dorm living. But then again I will take what I can get. I thanked her for her “help” and left to run errands. I had a ton of stuff to take care of, including find a new camera, deliver some postcards, go to WIND to deal with that stupid text message issue from weeks ago, and then there was that tiny little issue of finding an apartment. Al most forgot about that one.

I managed to go to the post office and run home for lunch but I forgot that I needed to meet this guy named Francisco to see his apartment. So funny story….my really good friend, Carolina, called all of her friends when I told her about the eviction. She spoke to two Portuguese guys who said that they had no problem opening up their place to me. She had given them my number and before I knew it, Francisco was calling me to see if I wanted to view the apartment. I had never even met these guys yet they were inviting me into their home, for free mind you, to stay with them for as long as I needed. What incredible human people!!! I met Francisco near his place and the two of us walked back to the apartment, getting to know one another along the way. Francisco is such a sweetheart and so easy to get along with. New friend accomplished.

When we got to the apartment, I met his roommate, Nuno, who was just as sweet and adorable as Francisco. Looks like the Portuguese are the best people ever…Carolina, Mercedes, Maria, Nuno, and Francisco. They just keep racking up brownie points with me. So the apartment…perfect for the two of them but I would be sleeping in the kitchen on a couch just about the width of my body. I was so honored that they wanted me to stay with them but I knew that I would be a total invasion of their space. The insisted that they would move their clothes into different drawers and make room for me but I just couldn’t put them out like that, especially since they were insisting I didn’t pay rent. Although I was still in search of a home, I had made two really great new friends. We chatted for an hour or so before I needed to go and they arranged a belated birthday dinner for me, which I thought was so cute of them to offer.

I had to leave quickly in order to run to a housing agency that I’d made an appointment with. I found my way there but didn’t have too much luck. Agencies charge a service fee of 100 Euro a month and while that isn’t horrible, they didn’t even have legit options for my needs. All the single rooms were taken and unavailable immediately and everything else was a two person, which I did ask about for the girls. Everything for three was just plain ridiculous. The prices were absurd and they wanted 1-year leases. Not happening.

I left the housing agency feeling a little let down again but I wasn’t about to give up. Instead of just heading home, I ran into a few shops seeing what I could find in the way of cameras. Nothing was catching my attention but then again, I’m really damn picky when it comes to my technological devices. For all those that know me REALLY well, prime example is my old phone. Yes, the one I was obsessed with.

The rest of the day was spent just searching for apartments, beginning to pack, taking it pretty easy, and trying to figure out my traveling arrangements for spring break. Everything just kept becoming more chaotic. I had found a train ticket to Paris for 10 Euro so B and I thought it might be fun to go but with all of this apartment blahness it made the whole trip a little impossible. Then we thought we might try to go to Verona but even that seemed too hard to plan because we had so much to worry about here in Milan. Ava was still gone with her boyfriend so it was just the two of us resolving things.

The night made a turn for the infinitely better when my loverface AUDREYYYYY EICHLERRRRRRR called me and we talked for a good 2+ hours! It was like heaven on Earth finally being able to talk to her about everything. When you go without a best friend for months at a time, that first real phone conversation is the best you’ll ever have. We had so much to catch up on, stories to share, information to find out about, and chit chat to make. It was the perfect night! I love you A!

Saturday 03/26: Blakeney and I woke up pretty late and more or less just kicked it until we finally forced ourselves out of the apartment to go check out the our unfortunate new residence again. We wanted to bring a few things down and turn on the fridge so that when we got there on Sunday we’d actually be able to store food in it.

The process of getting there was such a pain in the butt. B and I were too stubborn to get a cab because they cost a fortune and were over paying for the moving process. Thus, we opted for the tram that runs right in front of the new apartment. We looked pretty retarded with giant bags on the tram but I didn’t give one heck of a care about what people thought. I just shot back looks of, “Yes, I’m really doing this right now so please get over yourself.”

When we got there, we were welcomed with the sick reminder of where’d we be dwelling for a while. That place was filthy. Sticky oil was all over the stove and the shelves surrounding it. The shower needed major scrubbing. My sad existence of a cushion was covered in nastyness and the walls were pretty gross. We turned the fridge on and then bounced out of there ASAP.

I needed to run home and grab the suitcase Francesco had so kindly let me borrow a while back. I had to meet him at Bocconi so that he could use it for his own vacations over Spring Break. The two of us met and chit chatted for quite some time. I really love that boy! He is such a little angel! Soon enough, Blakeney met us and we parted ways.

B and I sort of looked at each other with aspirations of getting gelato. Are you surprised? I had heard about this place that served the most insane flavors of gelato you have ever heard…Prosciutto e Melone, Porcini Mushroom, Gorgonzola Cheese, Violet, Chocolate and Red Wine, Double Ultimate Chocolate Brownie, Crème Brule, and the list goes on. I met a girl in the MAC store who said this place was absolutely ridiculous and that the gelato was incredible. And despite the weirdness of the flavors, she said they were worth sampling. Apparently the description tastes exactly like the real thing. She was dead on. The man who owned the place was a funny older guy with a white beard who kept making me try all the crazy flavors because, of course, I was totally intrigued and kept asking him a million questions. He finally just showed me the list of all the flavors they had ever made. He said the major flop had been the Sushi…hmm wonder why. I was baffled by how spot on his flavors were to the real thing. While I would NEVER order Porcini Mushroom gelato, he made me try it and holy crap, it tasted EXACTLY like sautéed porcini mushrooms! Insanity! My order ended up being Cookie, Peanut Butter, Yogurt, and Strawberry in an XL cup. He looked at me with surprise and asked where it all went…I told him I have hollow legs. He couldn’t stop laughing.

My gelato was incredible, freaking incredible. The cookie stole my heart from the first bite. And I think it goes without saying that peanut butter and I have always had a serious relationship so there was no question about that one.

After treating ourselves to the best thing ever, B and I headed home but not before doing a little shopping on the way. We figured that if life was going to piss on us we were going to cheer ourselves up with some retail therapy. I more or less just looked because nothing was grabbing my attention. We stopped at the grocery store really quickly to pick up a few last minute things and then it was back to the apartment for the rest of our packing. Tomorrow was the big moving day. Kill me.

Sunday 03/27: Our official last day in the apartment that I had lovingly been calling home for the past 2½ months. It was a sad day.

I finished doing my packing and then started me journey to the apartment with suitcases and boxes. Yes, this was all via the tram again. Big mistake. The box was so dang heavy and so impossible to carry. I mean, yes, I do have some really impressive guns but the box was just outdoing itself in weight. By the time I was finished with my first trip, my arms were like jello. But stubborn me, I convinced myself that I could do another big load. When I finished my last trip of tram to apartment, walking home, then tram to apartment, and walking home again, I said, “screw it” I need gelato now. I may or may not have gotten it twice. But hey, I deserved it, right? Answer: Right.

I walked around and headed towards the Duomo to go look at cameras again. Blakeney was up in that area meeting with two guys from Bocconi to finalize her and Ava’s arrangements to Sicily later on next month. When she was finished, we both decided it was time to hit up Zara for some browsing.

While in the store, I got an amazing phone call from my second mommy, Aunt Mel! The two of us talked forever until we were both rolling laughing and in need of finally getting back to real life. It was so good to talk to her. Aunt Mel, I know you are reading this because you always do, and I just have to say thank you thank you thank you for always being there through the good, bad, and all the in between! You are incredible!!!

B and I walked home for the last time and made our way into the apartment for the “last supper.” After dinner, we would be taking a cab to the “nest” to move in all of Blakeney’s stuff. She wasn’t about to try my stupid tram option. After moving everything up and down two flights of stairs (our new place lacks an elevator), we were hot, sweaty, and tired.

We moped back for one last hot shower and a goodnight’s sleep in the old apartment. It was a sort of depressing night but then again, tomorrow meant that a whole new adventure was starting. We’d have to be up bright and early because Anna wanted us gone by 9 am.

Monday 03/28: The morning was an efficient one of cleaning, organizing last minute things, finishing off the food in our fridge, and making our last trek to the new apartment to drop off our things.

Once we got there, we knew it was time to start some serious apartment searching. B and I went our separate ways looking for numbers and calling different people to see what we could come up with. We met back up at the apartment and did tons of calling to see if anyone could accommodate us. Out of the 10-15 that we found, only one had a place that would rent for 3 months.

We decided to make our way up to Catolica, the other big university in the city. We have friends studying abroad there, including Flaca and Vincent, and word on the street was they had a great housing system. It was an adventure getting there and we were exhausted from the extensive walking but we finally found it. They had us sign our names up on their housing website and from there it was jut waiting. Fingers are crossed we hear something soon.

We were both famished after all the housing efforts and needed lunch. After looking around for quite a bit of time, we decided on a place called the California Bakery. It serves classic American food like bagels, omelets, burgers, pancakes, pies, etc, etc, etc. We had heard really great things about it and figured what better time than the present. We both ordered grilled chicken sandwiches but I ordered the plate, which came with extra food, of course. It was SO good to have grilled chicken again…it’s more or less a rarity here.

From lunch, B and I went back to the apartment for a little downtime and some cleaning. We stopped into the Euro Store to get some gloves and scrubbers so we could get to work on transforming the apartment to a livable stage. Unfortunately, cleaning sort of ended up being my job. Blakeney was writing e-mails while I scrubbed violently away at the sticky mess in the kitchen. She was trying to take care of arranging an apartment viewing on Tuesday for a place that could rent to us for 3 months. Thank goodness we had a hopeful space.

I, too, however had a hopeful place I was going to visit. As I mentioned before, I had contacted Monica as soon as I found out about my little predicament. She gave me the number to her best friend and brother-like figure in Milan. She and Ismaele have been dear friends for ages and visit one another in Milan and San Diego every year. Ismaele is a very well-to-do architect here in Milan and has tons of connections throughout the city. Monica was adamant that Ismaele would have the tools to help me so I called him immediately. As she predicted, Ismaele was adamant on finding a solution to my problem. He contacted a contractor friend of his who agreed to do him a favor and speak with a private client of his that had an empty apartment. Ismaele and I had been trying for days to meet and view the apartment but Max, the contractor, had been out of town and couldn’t make any of the times we had set up. Finally today we were all meeting at 06:30 pm to view it.

I had the pleasure of finally meeting Ismaele before seeing the apartment and he was just as kind and helpful as Monica had told me. He originally told me the wrong location to meet but finally we found each other and walked to the right street to meet with Max. The apartment was wonderful! Brand new place overlooking one of my favorite streets in Milan with all new appliances, tons of storage space, and a nice bathroom. I was overjoyed! There were two beds, which, of course, meant a problem so I asked if they could add another to the room. The answer was yes but only the mattress no frame. Whatever, cool by me!

The only problem was that of the timing for which we needed the apartment. We only want to rent for a total of 3 months and that’s been the biggest obstacle we’ve come across since this whole housing mess arose. Most people want to rent for a minimum of 6 months and we certainly don’t need that much time. Anyway, Max said he needed to check with his client about the timing for which he could rent because this was all being done out of favor. I was really lucky that Ismaele and Max had even been willing to show me the place, nonetheless rent it to me for a 3-month period of time and at a seriously discounted rate. Let’s just say my toes and fingers were crossed.

It was 21st Ava’s birthday today and she had organized an aperitivo with everyone to celebrate. I was supposed to be there at 8 pm but it was 5 ‘til and both Max and Ismaele insisted I join them over drinks in order to further discuss the circumstances of renting the apartment. I felt awful for missing the birthday celebrations but the girls assured me that securing an apartment was much more important. Thanks guys!

Max ended up choosing California Bakery for drinks, which I laughed over because I had literally JUST been there. By the time Max had to leave, it was about 8:45 pm. The aperitivo was over and Ava was enjoying her very last night with Nima. The lucky duck had her boyfriend visiting for the past 10 days or so and he was heading back to California in the morning.

Ismaele insisted that we get a proper dinner and that he take me to one of his most favorite, secret “hole in the wall” restaurants. This place was totally hidden in some side street and holy crap was it delicious. Despite having called ahead and speaking with the owner, whom Ismaele is very good friends with, the entire place was packed and we had to wait for our table. Everything on the menu looked amazing and Ismaele told me that their pastas, pizzas, and fish were all delicious. I was more or less in the mood for pizza so that’s exactly what I ordered plus a salad, of course. Isma, which is the name he goes by with friends and family, decided on a pizza as well. When they brought them out, I about died! The pizza was enormous…hands down the biggest individual pizza I have ever seen! But nope, that didn’t stop me from eating the entire thing. Yours truly finished every last bite plus her salad, while Isma only ate about ¾. Even the waiters applauded me for eating the whole thing and I was asked once again, “Where does it all go?” The legs people, the legs!

After dinner, Isma dropped me off at home and assured me that everything would turn out just fine. He would find a solution no matter what. If I needed, he said I was more than welcome to the extra bed in his house. I felt relief.

When I made it back to the apartment, I was eager to take a shower. Oh but wait, our hot water nor our heaters in the apartment work. That’s right, no hot water once again. But this wasn’t temporary; this was a permanent thing. I decided to get help and I went knocking on the neighbors’ door. Out pops a boy and he looks at me with a puzzled face. I said, “Parli in Inglese?” The second I asked the question, two other male heads peek out from around the corner. The boy did in fact speak English and before I know it, I’m inside his apartment meeting a giant group of 6 boys. I explained that my hot water tank wasn’t working and despite having tried earlier that day and this evening, we couldn’t get anything but frigid ice water. The first boy I had spoken with was going to come to help but the rest of the gang decided that I would need more than one guy’s help and so one after the other they followed me towards my place.

When I showed back up, Blakeney couldn’t believe the mob I’d brought with me. 6 Italian boys huddling into our nest of an apartment just to help with a silly hot water problem. We were honored.

Despite their efforts, none of them could figure out what was up with our piece-of-crap heating system. Oh well, the company was enjoyed! They were all either Bocconi students or recent graduates and were fun, lively, and some were pretty cute, not gonna lie. One of them even gave us t-shirts that he personally prints. Our new friends were pretty damn cool and it definitely made our dungeon look a little bit brighter.

With no hot water for a shower, I decided just to hit the sack and get to sleep. Tomorrow was another day of apartment hunting. I laid my sheets and blanket over my wooden cot and attempted to fall asleep.

Tuesday 03/29: B and I woke up around 2 pm. Though my bed was like sleeping on a bed of rocks, I was so tired that I wasn’t fazed by it until I woke up. My entire spine and hips were covered in bruises! Not all that attractive.

After shoving a Cliff bar in my mouth, seeing that was all I had in the apartment, I made my way to the ex-apartment to pick up a package. My sister’s birthday present had finally come!!! I ripped opened the box and found a little jar of joy…almond butter! I had been without nut butter for a good 2+ weeks and I was slowly dying inside because of it. I didn’t even know she was planning on sending me some but that girl delivered! Alongside my beautifully wrapped jar of almond butter, I received a perfectly wonderful organizer and pouch for putting pens/makeup/whatever in. Best part was the card, though. I love messages from people I love…they are always so much better than the gifts themselves! Thanks Sissy! I love you so much.

The interesting part about getting my package was that I had to pick it up directly from Anna. Hmm, if I do remember correctly Anna told us that we ALL, including herself, had to be out of the apartment for 2 weeks. When I asked her why the plans had changed, she explained that she wasn’t leaving until tonight but that she wouldn’t be back to the apartment until the 12th of April. Seems a little fishy missy. I took her word but I wouldn’t be surprised if I showed up to the apartment again and she was there.

With my gifts in hand, I headed to the grocery store to grab something else to eat. I used the bag from the grocery store to keep my little treasures safe from the rain. Milan had so kindly decided to welcome lots of rain on this fine day and I didn’t want my new things getting ruined. I had to run an errand around the Duomo before finally finding shelter from the rainfall and hopping on the tram to meet the girls we could all head together to an apartment viewing.

When I finally spotted B and Ava, the rain had really started to come down. The wind was blowing and water was dumping all over the city. Thank goodness we were on the tram. We got off at our stop only to discover that we had a fun little distance to walk. Ava had brought an umbrella and the three of us were hovering under it for shelter. Pretty funny image with my 6 ft self in the middle surrounded by the two of them.

We traipsed through the streets until we found the apartment. The building was really pretty and we noticed a number of families, which gave me the idea that it would be a rather safe building. Before we knew it, the owner was puling up in his car to meet us. He was a funny redheaded guy who didn’t look Italian by any means. The guy was really nice but for some reason he had a serious issue with my height. When he asked where we were staying right now, we told him that we were cooped up in a single person apartment. He responds, “Oh no! That’s impossible for three with this girl who is so tall!” Okay yes, we get that I am tall but how in the world does being tall have anything to do with being able to share a room? I take up VERTICAL space dude, NOT horizontal. The comments didn’t stop there, though. We went up to view the unit and it was really nice. There was a really pretty kitchen/living room, pretty decent closet space, a master bedroom that would have two beds and a bathroom inside that room. I would be sleeping on the couch once again but I take what I can. When we were all standing around in the master bedroom, the guy says, “We could put three beds in here but I think that might be too tight with the tall one.” Seriously bud, height and rooming have nothing to do with each other. I’d be sleeping in the same damn sized bed the others would be. The whole thing was pretty funny and all three of us girls couldn’t help from laughing.

After our meeting, we were all feeling really good about housing. He could start renting to us by the 18th of April and the 3-month thing was no issue because he only rented for short periods anyway. Phew! None of us had really eaten much that day so we decided on an apertivo. Ava had something at the hotel before she had to check out, B had some cereal for breakfast, and I had that Cliff bar and some fruit. In other words, we were starving.

As we were making our way to find somewhere to eat, I noticed that my bag was feeling a little lighter than it should. I look down and my jar of almond butter was gone! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! I was grief stricken. I retraced my immediate steps but nothing. I was totally bummed but at this point it was absolutely pouring and a major rainstorm was starting. The three of us found immediate shelter and lucky us, they had an aperitivo and it looked pretty good, too. We loaded up plates and enjoyed the warmth and dryness of inside. Outside the wind was thrashing, thunder was sounding, and lightening streaked across the sky. First thunderstorm of the season and we were stranded inside a bar. All three of us agreed to just get the most for our money and loaded up plate after plate of food. I tapped out with 8. Full was an understatement.

We sat for a little until I had to part ways and meet that guy Mossimo, the friend of Mehmet’s. He had found a couple of places for me to view and was meeting me somewhere closer to the center to take me for viewing. It was still raining so I jetted for the metro and made my way towards our meet-up location. When I got there, I expected to meet someone on foot. To my pleasant surprise, Mossimo rolls up in a fatty Range and tells me to hop in. He is a 23-year-old Milano native who works for his family trading business and does some real estate on the side. I’m going to guess, he’s doing okay for himself.

We rode around until we finally found the apartment. I didn’t recognize the area at all but he assured me he would explain the surrounding area after I saw it. A model currently occupied the apartment and there was a vacant room available for 300 euro a month. The girl who lived there was so sweet but the set up wasn’t idea. There was the smallest kitchen you’ve ever seen in your life right inside the room I would be staying. Essentially, anytime that someone needed to get something from the fridge, they would be directly next to my bed. The price was amazing but not worth it so I told Mossimo (aka Max), that I was going to pass. He assured me he had other options.

We got back into the car and he told me about a couple of places. Two were way too far from school but the third option was a three-room apartment that had just been restructured. It was really close to campus and directly across from a club that the Ava and Blakeney liked to go. Each room had a full sized bed and all the appliances were brand new. There was one bathroom, two balconies, and a living area. All I could think was GOLD MINE! How perfect to find a place that had three private rooms! Finally we would have privacy. Yessssss! I was so beyond excited I could hardly stand it. He said that I could view it after Easter but that he wasn’t sure we could have it immediately. The rent period was of no issue because the owner wanted to rent it to models and they only come to the city for short periods of time to work, so our 3-month requirement was not a problem. I pounded it into Max that I was really interested in the apartment and would want to view it as soon as possible. He said he would talk to the owner and see what he could do about the viewing and when was the soonest move in date. Perfection.

Max dropped me off near the Duomo and from there I started to retrace all my steps from earlier on that day. I went into every store I could remember walking into and checked all the streets. Still nothing. That brand new jar of almond butter was a goner. Someone in Milan would be enjoying gourmet American deliciousness.

While I was sadly checking the streets in the rain, Isma called me to see how I was doing and to tell me that Max was still checking on the status of the apartment. I was just heading home and so he invited me to dinner with him. I wasn’t hungry in the least but company is always enjoyed. I ran home, threw something on nicer than an SC sweatshirt and ran back outside to jump in his car.

Isma knows the city all too well and apparently eats only the finest foods at the best restaurants. He was taking me along for the ride. We went to a really nice sushi restaurant called Misu that had incredible ambience and a beautiful menu. Isma ordered but I was still stuffed from my not-so-attractive pig out earlier. He insisted that I get something so I waited for quite some time before finally ordering a spicy tuna roll and some Edamame. It was just as delicious as he promised. We then followed it all up with dessert.

After dinner, we went back to meet his roommate, Olha. Olha is a 24-year old model from Ukraine who has been living with Isma for 3+ years now. The two of them met and became good friends and have been living together ever since. And for those thinking something dirty, NO it’s nothing like that! They have always and I mean always been just friends. From what Monica told me and from what Olha later explained to me, Isma just loves spending his time with women…a typical Italian man for you.

In addition to the apartment being so cool (think giant colored walls, cool pieces of art, and two cozy black leather couches, Olha was amazing! She’s beautiful and what’s even better is that she has a heart of gold. We instantly clicked upon meeting and it was like we’d been friends forever. I asked her all about her life and let me tell you, it’s a crazy one. The girl was scouted when she was 12 and packed her things and moved to Paris to be with an agency. She worked there doing big things like Armani, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbanna for a few years until the industry took advantage of her and the agency stole all the money she had made. At 16 years old, though, there was nothing she could really do. Shows how shady the modeling industry can be at times. Anyway, she continued the story and told me how she worked in Japan, Thailand, London, New York, Milan, and Paris. I mean, hell, this girl worked side by side with Natasha Poly! She ended up getting sick of it all and took some time off, only to come back more recently and live in Milan. As I mentioned before, she’s been here for over 3 years working with Next Agency.

Isma and Olha insisted that I stay in the apartment for the night so that I could have a warm bed, hot shower, and a safe place to sleep. No more wooden cot. We all stayed up drinking tea, watching Sex and The City, and talking until I could hardly keep my eyes open any longer and headed to bed.

Olha had a Dolce & Gabbanna shoot in the morning and Isma was off to work so I would be waking up to my own apartment. Not too shabby.

Wednesday 03/31: I slept in, made myself a nice breakfast, watched some TV, took a nice hot shower, and then headed home to the “dungeon”. I needed to pack up all my stuff because Olha and Isma insisted I move into the guest room until I found other arrangements or permanently if I wished. They said that I was the equivalent of family now and that any friend of Monica’s was a dear friend of theirs. I was incredibly shocked and beyond thankful. In the last two days, these two people had made me feel more loved and appreciated than I have in the last 2, almost 3, months. It felt so nice to finally have a family environment to be in where I knew that everyone was always looking out for the other’s best interest. They made me feel really special and that in itself was an amazing gift.

So I made my way home and spent the mass majority of the day cleaning and organizing my bags and the apartment. Later that evening, Isma and Olha would come to pick me up to move my things into my new room, full sized bed and all!

When Isma picked me up, it was starting to rain, go figure! We shoved all my stuff in the car and headed home. Originally the three of us were going to head out for dinner but opted on making dinner at home. Isma wanted to make a classic spaghetti pomodoro and you know I wasn’t about to turn that down. He ran to the grocery store while Olha and I just hung around and chatted about the shoot. God, I love that girl!

Isma whipped up pasta, while I made us a big salad and sliced up some fresh bread. All I have to say is yummmm. My plate was spotless. I made sure to watch Isma as he made the sauce so I could replicate it later on. So yes, to all those drooling for fresh Italian pasta, I’m your girl when I get home. Invite me over and we’ll dine! ;)

After dinner, Olha’s boyfriend, Walter, wanted us to come meet him and all of his and Olha’s friends for a dinner. Despite having just eaten, I said sure! We all got dressed to go and the three of us took off. When we got there, I was introduced to a table of serious fashionistas. There were three Russian models, one model from Holland, two models from Prague, the director of Fendi, Olha’s boyfriendWalter who works all the PR for Armani, Versace, Gucci, and the big name clubs in Milan, and Mario, Olha’s really good friend and a model for Dolce & Gabbanna. The group was a lively one, with the exception of the majority of the models. They just sort of sat there. I sparked up conversation with two girls that were sitting across from me though, and we ended up totally loving each other. Anouk is from Holland and Bára is from Prague and we decided we were meant “best friends” when we discovered that a) we all LOVE gelato, b) really really love food, and c) all need to find an apartment. We spent the majority of my night sharing stories and finding out more about each other. I was having the best time!

From dinner, we went to a lounge called Frank Bar. The atmosphere was perfect. It was beautifully decorated, the lighting done really nicely, great service, and an amazing private DJ. We stayed for a while talking with everyone around the table until things dwindled and Olha was heading home to Walter’s. I was pretty tired, too, so Isma and I made our way back to the apartment to crash. Olha and I had plans to go shopping and for lunch the next day and I didn’t want to wake up at some crazy ridiculous hour.

Thursday 04/01: That whole plan of not waking up too late was a giant fail…on Olha’s part, that is. She didn’t get back from Walter’s until 3:30 pm. I had already eaten breakfast and had a small lunch by the time she walked in the door. I was still in my pjs so we both changed quickly and got ourselves ready to go towards Duomo. Olha really wanted to see Alice in Wonderland and I was totally along for the ride. She hadn’t been to the movies in something like 3 years and begged me to go with. Duh, I was com,ing.

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that Olha was throwing on heels. For a girl that’s really tall (maybe an inch or an inch and a half shorter than I am), she always straps on fatty heels. So why wasn’t I rocking the heels more often? Well, let’s see…there’s that whole constant nagging from EVERY dang person I walk by to find out just how tall I really am, or there are the awkward stares, or there’s always that one person who likes to throw out some nasty comment (exhibit A: the douche in LA who told me that I was pretty but way too damn tall in heels and would never get a guy). Well ya know what world? I don’t give a damn that you think I’m too tall. I LOVE being a tall girl and I’m going to wear heels every day if I want to! Olha threw me a pair of 5-inch boots and I strapped those bad boys on. Let’s just say we were quite the couple. Picture one very tall, blonde American and a badass Russian brunette walking through Milano in heeled boots, skinny jeans and leather jackets.

We headed to the move theatre in the center of the city only to find out that all the movies were in Italian. Olha was so bummed out but I insisted that we still see the movie in Italian. She was dying to see the film in 3D and they were showing it at 8 pm. Granted we were supposed to meet Isma at 7 pm for a really nice aperitivo at his favorite place on Montenapoleone but we knew that if we asked nicely, he’d join us and we’d take a rain check on aperitivo. We called and he gave the thumbs up.

Olha and I spent the time waiting for Isma and the movie walking around La Rinascente, which for those of you who don’t remember is Milano’s largest and nicest department store. It has 8 floors, a salon, a café, a juice bar, a panini bar, a mozzarella bar, an aperitivo restaurant, and a sushi bar. Talk about seriously amazing!

Olha and I went to the juice bar and ordered bomb smoothies. I’d never tasted anything so fresh! Jamba who? After we downed our drinks, we shopped around the contemporary floors and shoe department, trying on ridiculous pairs of heels. And hey, while walking around, I was only asked twice how tall I was. Of course they didn’t say a word to Olha but to me, “Ahhh che alta regazza!!!”

While we shopped, the two of us spotted a counter with special jewelry and watches. Within a matter of minutes, I had found a perfect bracelet to add to my left wrist of “never take offs” and Olha had found a sick-ass silver watch with a skull. The thing was made for that girl. Ironically we had been looking to find matching bracelets to get each other but instead we found things for ourselves. We decided to hold off and wait until tomorrow to come back and make a decision about both items.

After browsing around, we went upstairs to meet Isma for some food. Olha wanted me to try the best paninis in all of Milan and apparently La Rinascente was the place. We met Isma, ordered, and when the plates came to the table, there was silence. We were all in bliss land. The bread was fresh and perfectly grilled, my tuna was unbelievable flavored with a hint of lemon, the goat cheese was soft and mixed with chive for a little extra something, and the tomatoes tasted like they just came off the vine. Yum.

We finished eating just in time to get into the theatre. Italian theatres are hilarious by the way. First off, you are assigned a seat in the theatre. No, I’m not kidding. We had three seats next to each other in row P. The weirdness of the seating assignments is eradicated, however, by the beauty of the theatre itself. Unlike in America where you walk into a dark room with seats that rise back towards the top of the room, this theatre looked like the kind of theatre you would go to see a play. There were decorated columns circling the room, crown molding on the walls and ceilings, and the seats were giant, cozy, and red.

The movie in 3D was fun and I understood the majority of it, with the exception of a few times where I had to lean over to Olha to ask what had just been said. Overall, though, none of us really liked the movie that well. I’ve seen the original Disney movie and Olha has read the book and we hated how far it strayed from the story. They should have called it Alice in Wonderful Part 2. Oh well, the experience made it worth it!

After the movie, Olha and I were hungry for dinner. I had been dying to try this place called Fingers, which is apparently the best sushi restaurant in all of Milan. (Recall that Simone and I were going to go together but it was closed for lunch) Well anyway, Fingers is Olha’s favorite restaurant of all time and Isma said that he wanted me to try it so Fingers it was!

So this is where the night turns from amazing to indescribable. We got to the restaurant and somehow Isma managed to get us a table in the VIP room. Baller. From there, it just kept getting better and better. We all ordered Edamame, I had white fish carpaccio in a gazpacho sauce and a spicy tuna roll, Olha had tuna tartar and miso glazed black cod, and Isma ordered seared ahi in an orange sesame sauce. I just about died from every last bite of each dish. Every single thing we ordered was without question some of the best food I have ever had in my life. The fish melted in your mouth, the flavors were spot on, and the quality of the food was superb.

The best part of the night was that they pretended like it was my birthday! Isma and Olha hadn’t known me at that time of my actual special day so Olha insisted that we relive the occasion tonight. So when we ordered desserts, mine came out with a little candle and they sang to me. It was perfect!

We retired from dinner and made our way home. Isma was tired and headed to bed early but Olha and I stayed up ‘til all hours of the night watching movies, laughing, and spending time together. By the time 4 am rolled around, I needed to go to bed. Everything about today had been perfect and while I didn’t want it to end, sleep was calling my name.

Friday 04/02: Olha and I were supposed to go shopping but the sleepy girl didn’t wake up until almost 4 pm!!! I thought I was bad. When she finally woke up, we threw on clothes quickly and planned on heading back towards La Rinascente. Right before we were getting ready to leave, Mario called and wanted to stop by to say hello.

When he got there, Olha was still getting ready so the two of us chit chatted in the living room. Mario told me that he couldn’t get over how much Olha loved me because she usually doesn’t like people in such a strong way so quickly. He said it was a rarity for her to find someone she trusted or wanted to spend so much of her quality time with. It was one of the nicest things he could have shared with me.

Olha came out in the midst of the conversation and agreed with Mario. She said that she either likes someone or she doesn’t, none of that in between grey area. Being in the business for so long, she said it gets hard to really trust people or to find pure intentions and with me, she felt that she had finally found both qualities. I could say it a million times but the girl is amazing! I couldn’t be happier that we stumbled across one another.

Mario, Olha, and I made our way from the apartment, stopped for a coffee and a tea, and then found ourselves at La Rinascente in front of the same jewelry counter. Olha decided that she needed the watch and while I adored my bracelet, both Mario and Olha were a little worried that it was pretty delicate and might brake. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to take the chance so I passed.

Mario ended up leaving us to go meet a friend for a drink so Olha and I took her brand new watch to a special shop to have it fitted. While we waited for the watch to be fixed, we ran back to La Rinascente to buy a birthday present for a model friend of her and Walter’s. Tonight was her birthday dinner and she wanted to get her a little something special.

We still had some time to wait for the watch and for Isma to come meet us, so we sat down to grab a bite to eat. Olha set down her two shopping bags to the side of us and we sat for a while until it was time to pick up the watch. As we were walking to the store, Olha realized that she was missing the two little Rinascente bags. Uh oh! We ran back to the table and they were gone. I asked as many people as I could but everyone delivered bad news. The box for her watch, the receipt and warranty, and the birthday present had all been stolen. Thank goodness her watch had been in the shop otherwise that would have been one hefty loss! The poor thing was in the worst mood after that and I can understand why. Nobody likes losing something, especially when it could have easily been turned into someone. Some people have a lot of learning to do when it comes to ethics!

Olha insisted on buying the same gift again so we ran to buy a new one before meeting Isma at the aperitivo place we were supposed to have gone the night before. He was pretty pissed off that we were late and seeing that Olha was upset about the afternoon, there was tension at the table. I tried to remedy the situation as best as I could and finally by the time we were wrapping up, things were better. Phew!

As we got closer to the car, Isma threw me the keys and told me it was time I learned how to drive in Milano. I hadn’t driven in almost 3 months so I was totally pumped to be behind the wheel of a beamer. They drive just as I remember. Olha and Isma decided I was going to be the official driver from now on because a) I was a better driver than Isma and b) I served as the perfect dd. I wasn’t complaining.

When we got home, Isma threw some artichoke ravioli on the stove and I made some veggies for all of us. We ate a quick dinner and then needed to bust into fast gear in order to be ready to go for the birthday party by 10:30 pm. I needed to shower and dry my hair so that meant I needed to function in turbo speed. Luckily, I’ve had experience and was ready to go in no time.

The three of us jumped in the car and pulled up to a place called Bambu. Inside was a table decked with models galore and the same fun people from the other night. The lounge was amazing. Hands down some of the best music I’ve heard since being in Milan. I couldn’t help but dance to myself. No big deal.

From dinner we walked to Corso Como to a lounge called Eleven. Talk about a swanky place. You walk in and up a spiraled velvet staircase with a giant crystal chandelier in the center. Upstairs is the bar and a bunch of private tables. At our table, the bartenders brought huge bottles of Moet with sparklers burning from the top of them in celebration of the girl’s birthday. These people are high rollers.

I stayed and danced with everyone, mingling with new people, and having a great time. Unfortunately, Isma wanted to leave earlier than I would have liked and seeing he was my ride and I wasn’t keen on going to The CLUB (a place I really don’t like), I figured it would be safer to go home now than to catch my own cab late at night. Olha was going back home with Walter later and that meant getting home solo. I’m a big girl but I also stand out like a sore thumb and there are some weirdos in this city. I didn’t want to risk it.

The night ended up turning out to be the best one I could have asked for, though, because I finally skyped for the first time! Yes, I’ve been here for almost 3 months and haven’t skyped yet. Giant fail K. Wile. The night was perfect and I went to bed at a good 7 am Milan time but as happy as could be.

Saturday 04/03: Saturday was a totally boring day spent in the apartment doing work on my computer and studying for my exam on Wednesday. That’s right, I have a midterm on Wednesday in Comparative Business Law. Yuck. So yeah, today was spent doing nothing too fun. The only highlight of the day was going to Bastianelllo to get gelato and then driving around because Isma wanted me to better acquaint myself with the city so that I could use the car whenever I wanted.

Sunday 04/04: Happy Easter!!! My first holiday away from home and I was definitely missing my family. I woke up late and found Olha in the apartment packing a bag. She and Walter and her friends were heading to Mont Blanc for the weekends to go the mountains. Fun!!! She had invited me and Isma but he was at a family brunch in Bergamo. I helped her pack until Walter was waiting outside. Can’t wait until she comes home on Tuesday morning!

Isma came home from his family’s house around 4 pm and said he had a surprise for me. I had been pretty bummed out the night before because I knew I’d be missing out on my family. Anyway, he felt so badly about me not having an Easter with family that he had booked us rooms at a really gorgeous spa in the Swiss mountains! Excuse me, what?!!! Did I just hear you correctly?! Apparently I did, because within an hour we were in the car and on the road to Vals, a tiny little town hidden in the mountains that is known for its very high-end spa and resort.

The car ride was long and we went from rain in Milan to snow in Switzerland but the scenery was breathtaking. Tall mountains with snow-covered caps and green pine trees everywhere covered with a blanket of snow.

When we got to the hotel, I was in awe. The place was stunning. Everything was so beautifully put together and the rooms were classy and extremely comfortable. We had patios that came out from the rooms overlooking the mountains and looking straight down to the thermals pools. Okay see the hotel is called Hotel Therme and is specifically known for its thermal pools. They have this giant area that has multiple pools of all different temperatures. There was a pool that was 42°C (super hot), 14°C (super cold for right after the hot), 32°C, 35°C with a room that played really relaxing music, 33°C with special herbs in the water, and then there was a pool that led from inside to outside. We went night swimming and it was so amazing to be in the water outside with the snow all around you and the cold air nipping your face. There were steam rooms and saunas and in between each room were these incredible showers to rinse before going to the next place. I was in de-stress land.

Backtrack a little to dinner, though. When we got to the hotel, we were both so hungry but the hotel receptionist insisted that their kitchen was closed and that all the hot kitchens in the town were also closed. Okay well it’s only 09:20 pm and that seems a little ridiculous. Our only choices, according to her, were to have paninis at the bar or to go have cold food in town. Isma wasn’t about to sit and have paninis so we headed to the car.

We ended up finding a really nice restaurant right next to the hotel, which I ironically discovered was a part of the hotel and was listed in their brochure. And guess what? Yup, they were still serving hot food and even worse, the brochure said so. The receptionist was retarded.

Thank goodness we ventured out on our own and found this delicious restaurant. They had a set menu for Easter and everything was perfection. I had a house salad and a filet of salmon on a bed of fennel, potatoes, and asparagus in a green peppercorn and orange sauce. Flawlessly prepared.

After dinner was when we headed to the pools to experience their amazingness. We’d had enough an hour or more in and we headed back for showers and sleep in heavenly beds.

Isma kissed me on my forehead and wished me a, “Buona Pasqua Principesa!” He treats me like his niece or even his daughter and it really makes me feel looked out for. I’m pretty lucky that I came into such a warm new environment.

Monday 04/05: We slept in and then headed down for the hotel’s giant breakfast buffet. I know I talk about food way too much but this breakfast was incredible. They had so many different tables filled with everything you could imagine. Fresh breads of every kind, jams, to die for Swiss yogurt, fruit, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, cut meats, cheeses, an egg bar, a special tea table, and hot breakfast foods such as bacon, sausage, and Swiss waffles. Everything was really really good and my stomach was thanking me profusely afterward.

Funny thing happened during breakfast. I was in my SC sweats and a woman approached me to ask if I went there. When I told her yes, she was overcome with excitement and explained that she had studied there too in Marshall back in 1979! She was so happy about meeting and gave me her business card and personal email. She has been living in Germany for a while working and wants to move back to Los Angeles in the next 6 months. I told her to get a hold of me anytime she was town and that we’d have dinner! I swear this world is so small.

We were supposed to have spa services but when we went to check-in they explained that everything was absolutely booked. No! Today was the last day the spa would be open to the public until the middle of June. As you can imagine, a lot of people had come to celebrate Easter and get as many services as they could before the hotel closed down for the next 3 months. It was bummerville for us but I had been happy with everything so far so I wasn’t upset.

Isma spent the rest of the morning in the pools while I had to study for my exam. Not the most fun way to spend my day but it had to be done. The ride home was long but I managed to work on this beast of a post so I was productive the entire ride.

On our way back to Milano, we stopped at Foxtown for a little while to check out the outlet stores. Unfortunately there were gazillions of people and neither one of us were down for the crowds so we bounced out of there.

Isma decided that the only way to end the Easter weekend was to get gelato at one of his favorite places in the city. I had heard rave reviews and had been dying to go but hadn’t been yet. The place is called Chocolat and when we drove up there was a giant crowd huddled outside the door. Isma insisted that we don’t wait in the line because he knew the owner. Right he was. We waltzed in, ordered tea and coffee and before I knew it there was a gelato-filled cone in my hand. And boy oh boy was this gelato good. So creamy and soft, you could hardly eat it fast enough.

We jumped back into the car to head towards the apartment when Isma told me that we were going to take another gelato. Umm, okay! To my total excitement, we went to another place that had been on my list of gelaterias to try. Our second stop was to a gelateria called Choco Cult and they had a couple interesting flavors, including a lemon mint sorbet which I ended up getting along with mixed passion fruit and coconut. Every last bite was eaten in pure bliss.

At this point in time, I was desperate to get home to start some studying. Not that I wanted to or anything but more or less the fact that I really needed to. So now I’m here studying and I probably won’t move from this fun little seat at the dining room table for a good 5-6 hours. Tomorrow marks round three of studying and then Wednesday I’m done. Come the minute I turn that test in, I can finally relax until finals.

For some reason, I’m missing home a lot right now. Not sure if its because I’m hitting the half way mark or because the holidays just passed, but I definitely wouldn’t mind a trip home to Cali right about now. So to all those people I love and care about so much, know that you are missed dearly and I haven’t stopped thinking about you once. The hugs that are waiting for me when I get home couldn’t be more anticipated.

Love love love you!
Xoxo
Me