Lost in Milano

So yesterday was an interesting day!   After Italian class, Meredith, Lindsey, Kasia, and I got lunch and went shopping on Via Torino, not too far from our school and right near the Duomo.  Lindsey and Kasia went back home a little later and Mere and I desperately continued our search for black boots.  We’ve been looking for black boots for about a week now and I think we’ve visited every shoe store in this city…well maybe not, shoes stores seem to be endless in number here, but we were literally zig-zagging across Via Torino, stopping in every place that looked like they maybe might have black boots.  Our efforts were in vain and we decided to head back home.

Heading home had been pretty easy and painless for us up until yesterday, as we’d picked up the public transportation system pretty well the last week.  However, we started walking in an unfamiliar area and couldn’t seem to find a metro stop.   So we see a tram stop and decide to get on a tram, thinking that it HAS to run by a metro stop at some point and that it MUST go past the Duomo at some point (we would know how to get home from there) because aren’t metro stops everywhere and doesn’t everything pass by the Duomo??  Our reasoning could not have been more wrong, as we picked the tram that apparently runs along the outskirts of the city.  So Mere and I are sitting on the tram and not seeing A) a metro stop or B) anything that looks familiar whatsoever.  We can tell we are getting further and further away from the city as our surroundings seemed to become more and more residential and rustic.  Eventually we realize that we should probably get off so we do and luckily see a sign with an arrow that says “Garibaldi” which is the metro stop near our apartment.  We follow the sign and keep following the sign but after a while, we stop seeing the signs and decide to call Kasia at home and have her direct us home.  She google-mapped where we were and said, as we had figured, that we had wandered pretty far away but she was actually familiar with the area somewhat because it’s where her music class is.  She tells to follow the cemetery around (there’s a GIANT cemetery there which was actually very helpful as a location marker) and gives us some more directions about what streets to take, etc.   (FYI: we get out of class at 11:30am… it is now 5pm… we are hot/sweaty, tired, shoulders are hurting, and our hair might as well have been standing straight up in a huge ball because of all the humidity and fog)

We get to the part of the cemetery sidewalk where they are doing construction and end up having to wander into the construction site… so the sidewalk has now ceased and we are walking along grass along the road/mini highway.  We aren’t sure whether we can continue anymore because of some roadblocks they had set up ahead so we decide to turn around and try a different route.  We are now officially the laughing stock of the construction workers and I can only imagine how ridiculous we must have looked…2 girls who have clearly been shopping and are dressed up in boots, peacoats, scarves, and tights, balancing their way along a 2-foot wide pathway along a highway, who have just turned around because we think that we can’t get out if we continue, when there actually was a way to get out.  Somehow the construction workers communicated this to us and we went on our way through the site.

We FINALLY start seeing the streets Kasia told us we would see and realize that we are on the right way home.  There is a bar near our apartment, Wasabi, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see it than I was yesterday.  Relief at last!  We are no longer lost, wandering in the industrial outskirts of Milan with shopping bags and large purses J  It was an experience to say the least, and we kept our cool and sense of humor but it was still pretty unnerving to not know where we were, especially since we had been doing such a good job of getting around! 

Saw something pretty funny as we were making our way home, too… we were about to cross a little side street and saw that cones and a sign had been put up at the entrance of the street to block cars from entering.   Apparently they were just there for show, since right before we were about to cross the street, and car blew right through them with no disregard for them whatsoever.  It was so funny and so typical of an Italian driver!  Mere and I were like did that just happen?!

So, after our afternoon expedition, we did some homework and booked our hostel and shuttle from the Prague airport.  The hostel looks nice, we used a website called hostelworld.com which we’ve heard from multiple sources is a good place to check out hostels.  Many comments about the hostel we booked said it’s more like a hotel than a hostel so that’s a good sign.  I’m excited and I can’t believe we leave for Prague tomorrow!  It’s a weird concept to grasp, that we can just casually hop on a plane to Prague for the weekend.  I love it J  Can’t wait to start booking our other trips, too.  Right now, we are planning to go to Geneva to visit my friends the weekend of Feb 25-27 because we have a 3-day weekend then and one of my friends has a week off from school that week for skiing (naturally).  The following weekend we are probably going to go to Venice for Carnivale!  We have a lot of places we want to go but we all agree that we want to spend a lot of time exploring Italy as well! 

Now for the juicy stuff… our date!  This was such an interesting experience, wow.  Haha, Mauro (sp?) and Alessandro picked us up at our apartment which was nice and took us to a restaurant they said was partly owned or managed by their best friend’s brother (I forget the name of the place but it was really cute).  Our dinner was fabulous!  There were 2 choices for everything (2 appetizers, first dishes and second dishes) so we decided to get one of everything for Mere and me and the same for the guys so that we could try everything.  We had risotto (not the Milanese one) and lasagna (the sauce was green instead of red, I think the menu mentioned something about zucchini in it?) for our “first dish” as they call it here.  For the second dish, we had chicken with rosemary potatoes and fish with polenta.  We also enjoyed some nice wine, although I forget the name of it.  All of the food was out of this world!  The actual date was okay, we don’t really like them all that much but it was a funny night because of all the words and concepts that got lost in translation.  Plus, my “date” didn’t speak English too well so the rest of us would talk and his friend would have to translate, which made for an interesting and kind of awkward situation but it was funny nonetheless.  They played a very interesting assortment of English music on the car rides to and from the restaurant including Bob Marley, MGMT, random British techno, and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, among others.  That last one got us, Mere and I were cracking up in the back seat!  Overall it was a very funny night and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner!!

Here are a few more pictures, too!  Mere and I have been discovering the city every day after class which has been a lot of fun.  Lots of window shopping, especially as this month there are tons and tons of sales.  Every store has SALDI SALDI written across it because this entire month is when they have all of their sales.  All the more reason to shop shop shop right?!

Cute little street we wandered down in Milan

Our balcony this afternoon, the sun finally came out!

View from outside of my room

Today we had class as usual but instead of doing our usual after school shopping, we all went back home and took naps, we were exhausted!  I took a 3 and a half hour nap and it was amazing!  In an hour or so we’re going to head to Noon Bar for aperitivo (we can’t get enough of these happy hours)!  This was where IES took us for our first aperitivo last Wednesday and we’re going today because Kasia and Anna’s (two of my roommates) friend from the U.S. is visiting Milan for a few days and they want to take her there.  We absolutely loved this place when we went so naturally we’ve been looking forward to it all day!  We all have our first Italian exam tomorrow so tonight we’ll be studying and getting ready for our trip.

When we were all talking about our trip tomorrow and airports, etc it reminded us of our individual journeys to Milan and we couldn’t believe it had only been a week and a half since we boarded our flights here!  Everyone says that time goes by so fast when you’re abroad but honestly it’s been going by ever so slowly and I love it!!  I feel like I’ve  been here for 2 months and it’s so exciting that it’s only been a week and a half J  I spend a lot of time here being curious, like what will our first Italian date be like or which cities we will end up visiting and it’s fun… I’m not used to not having everything under control but I never realized how interesting life becomes when the possibilities are endless.  This place and this experience have been so much more than I expected and I can only imagine what the next five months will bring.  I’ve met so many interesting, exciting people and it’s refreshing to meet people who value new experiences and learning about other cultures in the same way I do.  As nerve-racking as it was to go through this experience without a best friend or even a really good friend, I couldn’t be happier that I did so.  It really forces you to branch out and step out of your comfort zone, which I think is never a bad thing.  This experience and the people I’ve met have made me a better person already and they have opened up my eyes more than I could have ever thought and I can’t get enough of it.

 I miss everyone at home a lot but I luckily haven’t felt major homesickness yet, probably because everything is still so new.  I do wish I could just transport everyone from home here so they could experience what I’m experiencing L  but I guess Skype will have to do for now.   My family is coming to visit at the end of my program in May and I honestly can’t wait.  I know we’ll have so much fun and I’m sure my roommates and I will be running this city by then ;) And now for my favorite part of Milan...aperitivo time!  Ciao a tutti!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”