"Oh, this has gotta be the good life"

What a fun and exciting five day weekend I’ve had!  Just a warning- this one's a long one...

Friday - We didn’t have classes on Friday so it was nice to sleep in.  We went shopping by the Duomo later in the evening which was so much fun.  I love the area around the Duomo, especially at night… the people, the clothes, the lights… everything about it is still so exciting even after living here for a month.  I can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and people are around outside at night all the time; whenever I think about Europe, I think about people hanging around outside in piazzas.  I love being around people and the idea of hanging out with your friends in a piazza in Italy in beautiful weather just sounds perfect.

After shopping, I came home and went out to dinner with Franca, a Milanese woman who used to work with my dad when he we lived in Geneva.  She was so eccentric and Italian, I loved it!!  She took me out to dinner at a cute place that was actually within walking distance of Garibaldi station, the station I use every day.  It’s funny how I pass it every day but I never really noticed it until she took me there.  We had a wonderful dinner, she was so nice and fun!  When she first picked me up we spoke in English but a little while after we got to the restaurant, she said “now we only speak in Italian!”  So for a good portion of dinner we spoke in Italian which was interesting and cool.  It wasn’t like a typical conversation I’d have at dinner in the U.S., it was more like question and answer or I would occasionally think of something in Italian that I could say or ask her.  I know some Italian but it’s not at the point where I could carry on a conversation in it with another person.  It was nice to practice the language though, I need all the help I can get.  Communication has been such an interesting thing here… sitting in silence isn’t awkward like it is in the U.S.  If there are periods of silence here it’s not because your company is boring or something awkward just came up in conversation; it’s because you’re limited by your knowledge of the other person’s language, not stopped by the substance of the other person or the conversation itself.  I learn something new every day with this language and I’ve never wanted to learn a language more than I want to learn it now.  It’s scary and intimidating most of the time, especially since Italians are very emotional so there’s a flow and a rhythm to the language that’s hard to pick up unless you’re very comfortable with the language.  I’ve learned so much already though and I still have a lot of time left here :)

I met with my Italian teacher Thursday, actually, and she asked me to “tutor” her niece, who’s 15 and whose dad (my teacher’s brother) wants her to learn English better.  She said I could hang out with her for an hour or two a week and speak English to her.  One of her students did it last semester and she said they had a really fun time together so I’m looking forward to it!  She also mentioned her brother’s catering business (not sure if it’s the same brother) that needs waiters for their big events.  I’m definitely interested in helping but I have to see when the events would be and if they’re on the weekends I’ll be traveling.  She said last semester they did an event for Ralph Lauren so if it works out with my schedule, I’d love to do it. 

After I met with her, I decided to walk home instead of taking the metro because I’ve always wanted to walk home from school and it was SUCH a beautiful day outside.  I started walking towards the metro and then thought to myself “what am I doing?!”  I recognized this as an important part of studying abroad- it’s so easy to get into a routine and do what you always do but if you’re like me and don’t want to waste a minute of your time here, you have to make the effort to make every day interesting.  So I didn’t know the exact way home but I had a pretty good idea (the last time I didn’t take the metro home from school was when Linds and I ran home from school and I got lost- this time I had my blackberry and Google maps so I felt a little better haha).  I’m so glad I decided to walk home- I loved walking around and getting exercise and also seeing more of Milan, what I wouldn’t see underground in the metro.  I took a long way home, just kind of wandered and zigzagged and went down streets that looked interesting.  I eventually came to the castle and the park behind it and walked around the park for a while.  It was a beautiful day so people of all ages were everywhere, usual with their dogs in tow.  I eventually reached the other side of the park and found my way home, figuring out how I got lost when I went running in the process, which was nice.  It was good to have some time to myself; I love being around people and I love the amount of talking I do here (I’m either attempting Italian to everyone around me or talking a mile a minute to my roommates) but it’s hard to find the time to give my mind a rest. 

There are a million things to think about and I feel bad about how much I’m focusing on myself while living here.  Your whole mindset, including your priorities, change when you study abroad and things you’d normally think about every day in the U.S. rarely cross your mind here and if they do they seem insignificant.  I’m late replying to emails that aren’t urgent, I’m not sending as many postcards as I had wanted to, I’m not updating my friends as much as I’d hoped, I’ve only skyped a few times with people from home I loved but at the end of the day, I wake up to fresh (bug-less) air, a beautiful view and I’ve never been happier.  I watch the fog clear from over the buildings and studios below my apartment, I watch parents walk their bambinis to school, I stop for a caffe at Caffe Carducci on my way to class, and nothing else really seems to matter.

Anyway, on my walk I realized how much I enjoy observing Milan daily life and just being outside on such a beautiful day.  I also noticed how many dads were with their kids...  I think it’s rare to see a dad walking with his kids in a park in the middle of the day in the U.S. but I noticed here that it’s totally normal.  Moms, dads, grandparents are out and about in the city at all times of the day.  Even at a pizzeria near our apartment that I pass on my way home from class, I’ve noticed the staff and their patrons playing around and joking outside of the restaurant midday, the waiters chasing after the kids and the parents and grandparents shouting things in Italian to each other.  It’s so interesting how homegrown and non-commercial the life is here; rather than trying to get a job at the biggest and best firm, people take pride in their family-run restaurants, in the foccacia breads they make or the caffes they brew.  The Italian lifestyle is definitely something to behold- everything is at least 5 minutes late, every dinner is at least a two hour ordeal, and the four main food groups are bread, cheese, pasta, and wine.  I love how much Italians enjoy the moment, how eating is an event not a nuisance, how you’re greeted with a double kiss no matter how well you know someone, and how food and wine are essential parts of culture.  Although there are many things that I miss about the U.S., like peanut butter, I don’t miss the competitive, fast-paced, and commercial nature of the U.S., I could get used to this relatively laid back lifestyle.

Saturday- My roommates and I took a day trip to Verona on Saturday, which is where Romeo and Juliet took place.  Of course we picked Valentine’s Day weekend to go there, whoops- the city was soo crowded with people but we were still able to enjoy it.  It was about a 2 hour train ride from Milan and we got in around 1:30.  If I left it there, I would be forgetting to tell you about the stressful 15 minutes we found ourselves in before we got on the train. Okay so we got to Centrale (the main train station in Milan) and we don’t have Kasia with us (our main navigator, who took a later train and was going to meet us there) so initially there was more stress.  We made our way to the “fast ticket” kiosk and had to pick between two stations in Verona- we picked the one that says “new”.  We met a Canadian woman who was having some difficulty buying her ticket and we talked to her on our way up the flat escalator (more like a moving sidewalk).  Ann and Linds were talking to her and had their backs to the end of the escalator.  Both didn’t see the end coming up and Ann ended up tripping over it while Linds took a tumble.  It was actually kind of scary because Linds couldn’t get up because the ground below her was still moving.  The rest of us were right behind her so there was almost a pile up at the end of the escalator but thankfully, the Canadian woman was able to help Lindsey up.  So, after our hearts skipped a few beats, we went to find out what platform our train was on.  With 5 minutes until our train leaves, we realized that our train isn’t listed on the screen… perfect.  Linds had the presence of mind to check the fast ticket kiosk and we realized that we have to look for Venezia instead of Verona on the screen because Venice is the end point of the train.  We finally made it on the train and were on our way to Verona :)

We had lunch once we got there and then did some sight-seeing.  First we went to the Arena which was similar to the Colosseum in Rome but on a much much smaller scale; definitely a cool place to go inside and climb!  Then we walked the streets filled with stores and people and it felt a bit like Florence with all the shopping.  We went to Casa di Giulietta next, supposedly Juliet’s house.  They were putting on a reenactment of the play which was fun but also meant the place was packed.  We walk around for a bit, signed our valentines on the wall (our apartment, obviously haha) then headed out to one of the main piazzas.  From there we walked along the river to the castle.  We took some pictures on the bridge to the castle which turned out to be pretty cool!  Inside the castle was a museum with an interesting collection of artwork, ranging from sculptures to paintings to jewelry to original wall décor.   We started to get pretty tired- actually by this point we were dead… traveling takes a lot out of you especially after our first week of classes and the stress that comes with that.  We walked into a place for dinner that our travel book recommended to us and it didn’t open to 7:30 so we went back to the main piazza where we had lunch and where the Arena was.  We walked into a restaurant and were a) confused about where we should ask for seats and b) completely exhausted to the point where asking for a table in Italian felt like an impossible feat.  We must have looked as pathetic as we felt because the main waiter came up to us and said “how many for a table, girls?”  Huge waves of relief swept over us and we were so grateful for the English he spoke to us.  We caught the 9 euro, 7:40 train back to Milan and witnessed a fight between a girl and a guy on the metro which was pretty entertaining. This was a first for us and the entire time we were making up a story as to how things deteriorated to where they currently stood.  We heard a quiet slap as we entered the metro car and looked over to find a girl with her hood up and crying and a guy trying to talk to her.  She eventually got out of her seat and stood a few feet away from him, visibly upset and not wanting to talk to him.  At the next stop, she ran off the metro and we heard a loudddd slap as he followed her, followed by a nice kick at the girl from the guy!  It was pretty intense and we spent the entire way home trying to figure out what happened.  Once we got home, we relaxed and starting packing for our ski trip!

Kasia, Anna, Linds, and me in the Arena

Streets of Verona!

The main piazza where we had lunch and dinner

Jen, me, Anna, and Ann at Casa di Giulietta with the Juliet's wall behind us

Linds and me at Casa di Giulietta

Piazza

Heading towards the river/castle

View from a bridge

Kasia and me!

Sunday/Monday – We arrived at the coach bus at 8am on Sunday morning bright and early, brioche in hand.  I slept for about an hour of the bus ride and watched the world go by for the other half.  I remember waking up to mountains and I was stunned.  There are some moments where you just don’t believe it’s real and this was one of them.  Climbing the mountain in a coach bus to La Thuile was an interesting experience to say the least; think German shepherd walking a tightrope, it just wasn’t meant to be.  Haha our bus driver was fearless, I give him credit for attempting the near impossible.  We made a wrong turn when we were almost there and had to turn around which was very fun.  Eventually we got to our resort and began the process of getting our ski passes and ski gear.  Our rooms weren’t ready of course so we had to leave all of our belongings in a random unsecured room until we got back from skiing. 

Day 1 of skiing- We changed into our ski gear in the bathrooms and hit the slopes.  We looked at the map and realized there are no green trails (the easiest), the blues are halfway up the mountain, and the only way to get down the mountain is to take reds.  All good signs.  I hadn’t skied in 2 years and before that it had been 5 years since the last time I skied so although I learned to ski in the Alps, I was still nervous.  Since there weren’t any easy slopes near the bottom, I knew I had to jump right in.  On the chairlifts up, we had great views of the mountain range and it was absolutely breath taking.  I wish I had brought my camera with me because this first day was the best weather we had while we were at the resort.  It was truly unbelievable… beautiful, clear, and sunny and something you’d be hard-pressed to see anywhere else in the world. 

We took two chairlifts up and began skiing.  Kasia is an incredible skier and Linds is a very good snowboarder, so it took a lot out of me to keep up but after a few runs, I got my ski legs back.  After a few hours, around 4, we decided to head back down the mountain and call it a day.  From where we were at this point, the only way down was via black slopes.  When this realization hit us, I had an internal freak out… I’d never done blacks before and the blacks here were about equivalent to double blacks back at home… perfect.  I couldn’t even tell you the fear that gripped me when we stood at the top of the first black slope and I had no choice but to go down.  I just remember looking over the edge of the slope in disbelief, it was so so steep!  I made it down the blacks as slow as could be, I was literally making the biggest and slowest zig zags possible and was scared out of my mind!!  I was ecstatic when I saw that I finally had a choice between a black and a red.  Once the resort was in view I was in heaven.  Getting down the blacks, especially without wiping out, was such an accomplishment for me… skiing is fun for me but it stresses me out, especially when it’s steep and I start going fast and there are patches of ice, all of which occurred.  I realized how important it was to stay calm and relaxed and tell yourself that you can do it.  The moment you start freaking out, you tense up and forget everything you know.  It was definitely a thrilling day to say the least and I felt like such a champ after doing what I did :)

When we got back, we went to the sauna at our hotel and relaxed for an hour or so.  The hotel provided us with dinner so we devoured every course and after we went to a bar in the ski town.  It was a cute, local place and they were watching Inter (one of the Milan soccer teams) play another team so it was a fun atmosphere to be around.  We went to bed early and got up early the next morning for a full day of skiing. 

Day 2 of skiing – We were on the first chairlift by 9:30 the next morning and it was pretty cold and definitely not as sunny as the first day.  We started off on the same run we started off on the first day but it was much icier this day because the sun hadn’t really come out yet.  We did another run in the same area and then decided to go to the top of the mountain and try to find our way to the French side of the mountain (La Thuile is right on the border of Italy and France and you can ski into France from the Italian side and vice versa).  We looked at our map several times and thought we were heading in the right direction and actually thought we were in France multiple times, only to realize we were still in Italy.  We figured we’d have lunch in France, pretty cool right?  Well, the French side was harder to find than we had thought so we ended up being in Italy all morning and having to ski to the bottom of the mountain to where we started.  We found a way down to the bottom on red slopes though, unlike the first day!  Except, at one point on the red slope, we had two choices: a black or a black. Ha, we stopped and said okay, black it is!  Luckily, it was only a black for one hill and not the rest of the way down (it connected to the red we were taking before).  We made it down okay and decided to take the chair lift up to a restaurant on the mountain for lunch.  And thus begins the first fall of our trip-- as Linds and I made our way through the gate to get to the chairlift, something happened to Kasia as she was going through the gate.  All of a sudden, we hear metal on metal and we turn around and see Kasia struggling and eventually taking a tumble at the chair lift gate (before the chairs pick you up).  It was actually the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, I can’t get the image out of my head.  To see such an experienced skier, who hadn’t come close to falling on the reds and blacks we’d been taking, being taken down by the little gate between her and the chairlift was hysterical… poles, skiis, and body flailing around and moving in all directions.  The guy at the chairlift slowed down the chairlift then kept it going and told Linds and I to get on, naturally.  We get on and Kasia catches the next one, clearly embarrassed by the situation but laughing at herself. 

We grab lunch on the mountain and decide we’re going to make it to the French side whether it kills us or not.  The signs and maps were completely confusing but we did end up making it to France and we know for sure that we did because I got a nice little “Welcome to France!” text from Verizon, detailing roaming rates, etc.  Woo hoo, finally on the French side… now what?  In front of us is a chairlift to the top of another mountain and to our right is a sign for Italy accompanied by a lift name with a mark next to it indicating it was a “platter lift” (a disk that pulls you up the mountain instead of the traditional chairlift).  We didn’t want to go to the top, as much as we wanted to make it down to the bottom of the French side, because we didn’t know exactly what trails to take from there and it was already almost 3 and we still had to make it down to the bottom of the Italian side.  Linds was very hesitant about our other option because she’s had trouble in the past going up platter lifts on a snowboard (I also have had semi-traumatic memories of them from when I was younger).  We figured that there would be other trail or lift options if we went that way, though, so we decide to do that.  Wrong.  We went that way and where did it lead?  To the platter lift and the platter lift ONLY. 

Okay, Kasia made a successful first attempt and was on her way up the mountain.  Linds was up next.  She didn’t even get situated before she fell over.  My turn; I got situated for about 2 seconds before the pull of the disk threw me off and I tumbled down (yes, my first fall of the entire ski trip occurred when I tried to get on the stupid platter lift…. I can make it down double black diamonds but put me on a platter lift and I’m done).  I was now in the snow a few feet from the lift and couldn’t get up; the attendant came over and helped me up (embarrassing!!).  Linds and I stepped aside and let the LINE of people behind us go in front of us.  The line cleared and I attempted the stupid platter lift again; the attendant slowed down the disk and told me to keep my skis straight… I could feel him laughing inside and to be honest, I was laughing right there with him.  I must have looked pathetic but oh well.  I held on for dear life the entire way up, I’d never concentrated so hard on keeping my skis straight.  The platter lift might as well have taken us to the top of the mountain it was so long!  I kept thinking oh it will end over this hill but that wasn’t the case.  Finally I saw what looked to be the end and I say “looks to be the end” because there were no indications, markings, building structures, or attendants there.  I took the steep hill and nothing visible after it to mean the end of the platter lift.  Indeed it was the end, finally!   Linds came up 5 or 10 minutes after me- we started to get a little worried but when we saw the 8 year old snow boarder come up from the lift we figured it was a good sign for Linds.  We skied back to where we had skied earlier in the day and from here we knew where to go. 

We came to a steep hill that we’d skied down earlier in the day and it was on this hill that I had my first legitimate fall of the day.  I was doing okay going down the hill at first but it was later in the day at this point so the snow wasn’t as powdery plus it was pretty narrow and I was getting tired.  I started to lose control a little bit and towards the bottom, I took a tumble and star-fished against the slope of the mountain.  This fall was also hilarious and it thankfully didn’t hurt at all and it was near Kasia and Linds.  One of my poles ended up next to Linds and I was sitting on the other.  Getting up was an ordeal, it usually is for me on skis but I managed.  It felt good to get a fall in and I was happy it went as well as it did.  I took a red the rest of the way home and was excited to finally make it home- reds are still challenging and it took so much out of me to stay in control.  We all took naps afterwards and had dinner again.  We were so so tired though, we skied from 9:30-4 with only a small break for lunch.  It felt absolutely great and it really challenged me mentally.  I don’t really take risks in general and I don’t like being out of my comfort zone.  Since I won’t go out of my comfort zone on my own, I need someone or something to force me to do so… like Kasia saying hey let’s go to France today or me facing the choice between 2 blacks to get down the mountain at the end of the day.  At the end of it all, I was really proud of myself for doing everything that I did and I was so glad that we got in as much skiing time as we did.


(These are all the pictures I have, most are from my phone :(  I wish I had brought my camera out because I could have taken some amazing pictures but I didn't want anything to happen to it)

Leaving our hotel and heading for the slopes on the second day (Monday).  The chair lift to the right is the first of three you take to the top of the mountain.

Thinking we're on the French side but actually still on the Italian side... paused for a picture break!

View from our hotel balcony... Day 3

Day 3 of skiing- I woke up Tuesday morning, looked outside, and said no to skiing.  It was snowing and very cloudy.  I barely slept the night before, not sure why I just kept tossing and turning unfortunately because I really needed the sleep.  I was glad I decided not to hit the slopes though because Kasia, Linds, and Ann went out and said the visibility and conditions were awful.  They only stayed out for an hour and a half and then decided to call it quits.  They said it was so hard to see anything up there and that it was stressful.  If Kasia said it was stressful, then I knew I made the right decision to stay in.  We all returned our skis, they changed, and we walked down to the town area.  We had a nice lunch at the place where we had drinks our first night there and then came back to hotel and hung out until the bus came.  Overall we had a great time and everything went really well.  Our hotel was so nice and it was literally at the bottom of the slopes… we walked out of our hotel and the ski lifts were right there.  Couldn’t have asked for a better location and it was definitely a step up from the hostels we’re used to. 

The bus came around 4:30 and we made our way home.  Normally this is the easy part of the trip but the last hour of the ride was so uncomfortable… we got caught in traffic, the heat was on full blast inside the bus, I couldn’t fall asleep, and Kasia and I had to go to the bathroom. When our bus finally reached the drop off point, we all bolted off the bus and ran to the metro station in the rain.  Let me set the situation as we are entering the metro station: we are soaked, feeling completely gross, dragging our luggage down the stairs to the metro, and ferociously searching for a bathroom (we REALLY had to go at this point).  We finally find one and when Kasia goes to open it, it’s locked.  We break out into hysterics at this point, which we have a habit of doing in metro stations, and can’t stop laughing at the situation.  There are no other bathrooms around so we decide to just take the metro home and go to the bathroom there.  Since we’ve never looked better, we see people we know while waiting for the metro, perfect.  Kasia won the award for best outfit in Milan yet… sunglasses, a Columbia sweatshirt, Juicy velour pants, and sneakers… fabulous ensemble if you ask me.  The rest of us didn’t look much better, we were essentially drowned rats with luggage.  Finalllly we make it outside of our metro station and it’s pouring and we just spent 2 minutes dragging our suitcases up the endless staircases of the metro station.  Linds asked “is this hell? Because I think it is.”  We make the 7 minute walk to our apartment and desperately have our roommates who didn’t come buzz us in.  Kasia and I take the first elevator up (only 2 people with luggage can fit) since we had to use the bathroom the most; we burst into the apartment, drop everything and can finally use a bathroom.  It was a pretty miserable experience all in all, considering how tired and worn out we already were, but we laughed so much through it all so I can’t say it was all that bad.

Back to classes for the next three days, aye. Classes?  What are those?!  I have work to keep me busy but I really hope to catch up on some sleep in the next few days.  It’s supposed to rain here all week which is unfortunate but it could mean quality nap time so we’ll see. 

That’s all for now, ciao ciao!