Buona fortuna!!!

Ciao a tutti!

GOOD NEWS!  I found peanut butter! Sono contenta!

Oggi

So today I had an interesting experience on my tram on the way home.  I got on, looked around, and found myself a nice empty seat calling my name.  I walked across the tram, sat down, and no sooner had my ass touched the wood I was being pulled, yes pulled by some old woman with a scarf rapped around her head.  She quickly nuzzled her little butt into my seat and left me standing.  Even though she followed this act with "Mi Scusi, Grazie."  I was rather perturbed.  She had the nerve to pull my coat and steal my seat.  Yea she was old, but damn that bitch moved fast.  None the less, I followed her "Grazie" with a "E' niete, prego."  Oh the little old Italian ladies... cute... but very rude.

La Cita di Turin

Ciao-

This weekend I went to Turin (Torino) for a day trip.   If this city sounds familiar, it's because it's where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held.  Don't go to Turin... ever.  Not that the city isn't beautiful- it's surrounded by mountains, which are gorgeous, snowcapped and glistening in the sun.  But there really isn't a whole lot to do in Turin unless you love museums.  There were about a million and one stores... but they had the same things Milan did and who the hell wants to carry back a million bags on the train.  Not I.

We did an art history museum, which was great and fabulous... but I'm only a one museum a day kind of girl.  Other than that, the city is very structurally similar to Milan, and there isn't much to do besides walking around.  The food was definitely amazing however... great doughy pizza, seasoned to perfection along with Cioccolata di Turin Gelato.... YUMMY!  

Other than that, no one came to check our tickets the ride there or back to Turin (2 hours).  Not that I'd ever just jump a train without a ticket, but on the way home I'm assuming many people did.  We didn't get a seat for 20 minutes because there were about 10 times capacity on the train... oh Italy... gotta love it.

Ciao for now... and remember... don't go to Turin unless you want to shop.

VIEW FROM MY APARTMENT!!

This is a view from my apartment window... gotta love the magnificent Italian alps!!

Milano thus far...

Ciao tutti!!

This is my personal blog di Milano!!  Hope all is well with you.  Everything over here is fantastico!  You're going to have to get used to the Italish...  mi dispiace.

Well first of all, I arrived in Milan 2 weeks ago.  I can't believe it's been that long!  I live in a 2 bedroom (if you can call it that) apartment north of the city center with a girl from UT (Ella) and a boy that goes to Bocconi from Naples (Antonio).  Both are very nice and our living conditions have worked out fantastic!  Hopefully Antonio will help me learn more Italian, although I think I've just been helping him with his English.  This city of Milan is very NYC.  There are little stores, bars, restaurants, cleaners, etc. on every block.  There is no grass, and every building touches each other.  Besides hearing Italian, and seeing the beautiful Italian architecture, you'd swear I was in NYC!  I take the tram and subways everywhere, which is really nice except for when they go on strike.  Speaking of... the first strike was yesterday.  If someone could please tell me what the point of these strikes are, I'd much appreciate it.  They announce the strikes a day ahead of time, they only last for a certain amount of time, and they only involve certain lines as opposed to the entire metro itself.  So yesterday they went on strike from 8:45 am to 3pm.  So everyone just went to work earlier.  And at night the trams 7 and 13 went on strike, so I just took the 11.  Really not inconvenient, and to me rather pointless. But it's Italy, so apparently there have been strikes, there are strikes, and there always will be strikes!  

I live right about a bakery... bad idea.  The pastries are amazing!  The woman and I are becoming best friends.  Unfortunately I can't say more than "Vorrei un brioce con cioccolata" and then when she still doesn't understand me, I'm forced to simply point.  But at least I get the message across and at least she's found her new best customer!  Besides the AMAZING pastries, the pasta and pizza are to die for.  Seriously.  I may die when I come back to the states. Even the bread of the pizza is seasoned to perfection, and the delivery is NOT Dominos.  We ordered cheese pizza the other night.  It was the freshest, thickest, most amazing mozzarella I've ever had in my life.  And it was the same if not cheaper than Pizza Hut.  Che fantastico!!  Besides eating, drinking is definitely different here.  I bought a ridiculously large bottle of wine from the super market for 3 euros.  That's $5 for a great bottle of wine.  A large bottle of water cost me 4 euros.  Oy.  Can you imagine if it were like that in the US.  Never.  Also, lots of girls have had their fare share of problems ordering coffee.  Cafe= espresso.  Cafe con latte= espresso with a splash of milk.  Cafe macchiato= our normal lattes.  Cappuccino= more or less a latte with a little more foam.  And if you get a mocha... the chocolate is not sweetened... ew.  And besides all these wonderful fattening foods, if these weren't enough, we have gelato.  How amazing.  I won't even go into detail because I'll end up talking myself into going downstairs and getting one. MMMMMMM.

I don't start classes until February 18th, but we've been having a crash course in Italian since i got here.  It's 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, and is pretty intensive.  But I'm learning a lot, and it definitely keeps me busy until school actually starts.  Hopefully I'll learn enough to become a little more fluent as the semester goes on.

The weather here as been pretty nice.  It's overcast a lot, but most it's been party cloudy around 45 degrees.  Can't really complain, most of you are in the snow!  The only thing that sucks is that we want to go travel but most of the places aren't as beautiful yet.  We were going to go to Cinque Terra this weekend, because i've heard it's the most magnificent place in Italy, but it won't even be green yet, since it's still winter.  Unfortunately I'll just have to wait.

Other than that, everyone I've met is really nice.  I hang out with mostly Canadians, Minnesotans (I know how funny), and Norwegians.  Although there really are people here from all over.  Should be interesting when classes actually start and the rest of the exchange students who didn't want to do the crash course get here.  A little overwhelming I think.  I'm glad that I came and got to know Milan before school started.  Phew.

Besides Italy, I did get my summer internship with Target Sourcing Services in Manhattan so NYC here I come!  But I can't even think of how amazing that will be, since I have all of Europe to discover before hand!

Ciao e vi vigglio bene!!

Alli